50th party blog guest - Louisa George

Louise George is my twin on the Medical authors’ blog (i.e. we blog alternately on the first Monday of the month), and we have tons in common even though she lives in New Zealand and I live in England. We both like good food and cooking. And… well, she was one of the people who talked me into doing a Zumba class, but that was when I’d first started going to the gym and I overreached myself a bit that week. (She’s trying to persuade me that I’d find it much easier now – hmm, maybe!) Our children are similar ages, we like similar music and books and films, we both have huge TBR piles and love gadgets, and when we get to meet in person there’s going to be an awful lot of talking :o) (But one thing I don’t understand about her – no ice cream? Whaaa? I’m with her on chocolate, though!)

Over to Louisa:

Thanks so much for inviting me to your 50th blog party, Kate! 50 books. Wow. I’m in awe. As I’m reaching the half-way mark of writing my 5th book I can’t imagine what it must be like to have written another 45 on top! You are amazing. Huge congratulations! Thank you so much for so many wonderful stories- I look forward to enjoying the next 50!

We’re celebrating milestones, so I thought I’d share a personal one with you. As I write this blog post it is exactly ten years to the day that I emigrated, with my family, to New Zealand. We thought we’d come for two years. Still here after ten, and not looking to move any time soon. Go figure!

We decided to make such a huge life change for many reasons; both myself and my husband had dreamt of traveling extensively but had never quite managed to do enough of it (can you ever have enough of meeting new people in new places?); we wanted to try a more ‘outdoorsy’ lifestyle; we wanted more sunshine; most of all we wanted an adventure! Life had got a bit tame for us in England and we felt like jazzing things up a bit! And boy, did we.

I’m not saying it was easy, or that we didn’t get homesick for family and friends (still do, in fact), but it was life-affirming to our little family unit of four- and we became stronger and tighter because of it. I’ll never forget sitting on that airplane runway about to take off, leaving our old life in Manchester behind. The feeling of elation, empowerment and excitement was almost overwhelming. Oh, and I was scared as hell.

Hahei

South Island

The experience gave me more opportunities to challenge myself. If I can move to the other side of the world and create a new life for my family- what else am I capable of? Change my career? In a bid to make more friends I joined an evening class in creative writing. Here, the stories I’d always had in my head were given shape. I found people like me who wanted to express themselves with words. I fell in love not just with a country, but with writing.

So, what milestones are you looking forward to celebrating? What personal challenges have you set yourself recently? It’s always good to have something to work towards- what did Eleanor Roosevelt say? Do one thing every day that scares you…

I have a giveaway of my second book, Waking Up With His Runaway Bride, to one commenter.


You can find out more about Louisa at her website www.louisageorge.com
Or talk to her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/LouisaGeorgeAuthor
Or follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/Louisa_George