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Love A Happy Ending

A photo journal two-fer: part two

August 29, 2015 by Patricia Sands 11 Comments

Welcome back for the second part of this two-fer post. This time I’m taking you to Venice.

As I explained in the last post, I have two different photo journals/essays posted this week on two of my favourite sites: The Good Life France and the LAHE Lifestyle Magazine.  I love sharing my photos with you and hope you enjoy them!

When you have a minute, spend a few minutes in Venice with me. The last photo is one of a perfectly-served espresso, be sure to scroll to the end. Here’s the link!

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Click right here to lose yourself in La Serenissima.

Bon weekend, everyone! Buon fine settimana!

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Filed Under: Blog, General Travel, Photo blogs, Uncategorized Tagged With: Love A Happy Ending, Patricia Sands, photo journal, postaday, Venice

Ready, set, go!

December 31, 2012 by Patricia Sands 37 Comments

Get out the fireworks, noisemakers, and pots and pans or just snuggle up on the couch with the tv tuned to the Rockin’ NYE show in Times Square … *a toast to Dick Clark’s memory* … . whatever works for you!

Celebrate all the good memories of 2012, move on from the not so good if you can, and welcome 2013 with hope and optimism.images-2

I’m excited! I love to welcome in each new year and am forever grateful I have much to celebrate, like good health/a thriving family/wonderful friends/exciting plans. I hope you do too.

We also have a dear friend who is dying and will not see much more time here, let alone another year. We have spent many good hours with him and his wife through the holidays appreciating our moments together. His spirits and attitude are inspiring.

My husband’s brother and his family live in war-torn Aleppo, Syria where life is unimaginable to us right now. Amazingly, we can still talk to them on the phone most of the time but can do nothing more to help them at the moment. Nothing can get through. Each day brings fear and hardship. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Other extended family and friends are dealing with illness or difficulties. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Everyone reading this can tell similar stories and of course we all share in the pain of Newtown, Hurricane Sandy and other disasters. We marvel at the response of those whose spirits and attitudes are inspiring through it all.

Life.

This post is not meant to be a downer. I hope it is a reminder to celebrate the human spirit and to support each other and proceed together to make life better in whatever way we are able.

No matter what is being handed to us, the human spirit has a way of staying strong, seeing the positive, and working in whatever way, big or small, to remove the negative. So let’s grab on to this new year and vow to do whatever we can to make the world a better place.

Merci mille fois – thank you a thousand times, for the thoughts, the photos, the wisdom, the humour and most of all the friendship that we share in this amazing blogosphere community. I can’t wait to see what 2013 brings to us all. Onward!

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Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: 2013, Aleppo, blogging, Happy New Year, Independent Author Network, indies, Love A Happy Ending, postaday, Syria, WANAs, World Literary Café, writing

A slightly different slant today …

May 25, 2012 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Lucky me! Author and well-known choc-o-holic, work-o-holic, mom-o-holic, Stephanie Keyes invited me to be part of her fabulous Spring Author Series and I’m over there talking about … yes, what else … France! Well, she asked me about vacations and travel so what was I to do?

Please pop over and visit with us there and while you are at it you might want to read the posts of the terrific group of writers that have participated. They are an interesting and most entertaining party bunch  collection!

Stephanie is going to fly to England to be a featured speaker at the amazing literary day, A SUMMER AUDIENCE, planned and being hosted by the LoveAHappyEnding.com crew in Tetbury on June 16th. If you are in the UK, try your best to attend. I’ll be there in spirit!

I know this may be starting to sound repetitive and boring but I am making headway to the final page of my WIP. I can see the outline of the words “T H E  E N D” in the glow of the light at the end of the tunnel … yoohooo … I’m coming …

I don’t remember the ending of The Bridge Club taking me this long but with good ol’ selective memory I’ve no doubt banished those thoughts, if that was the case.

For your viewing pleasure …

Rue Obscure, Villefranche-Sur-Met

The bar in La Colombe D’Or, St. Paul de Vence
Hmmm – wonder if our budget could handle this!

Bon Weekend tout le monde!

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog Tagged With: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, A Summer Audience, Cote D'Azur, follow your dreams, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, living in the south of France, Love A Happy Ending, Patricia Sands, Spring Author Series, Stephanie Keyes, Tetbury, The Bridge Club, Women, writing

Let’s talk home exchange …

August 10, 2011 by Patricia Sands 6 Comments

Author Catch up with Patricia Sands – in my next life…

Category: Author Catch up by Linn B Halton
My name is Linn B Halton, I am one of the featured new Authors onloveahappyending.com and I’m also the Editor of:-

**Author Catch Up**

I will be talking to our new authors, finding out more about them and following the progress of their careers.  We are a wide ranging group by genre, age of author and geographical location.  That’s what makes this project so interesting and we hope you think so too!  From the soon-to-be published, to those authors with a couple of books already out there – each one is a different story and I hope to keep you up to date with every single one.   So don’t forget to pop back again!  If you would like to get to know our new authors and become an Associate Reader please get in touch!

 

Patricia Sands has boundless energy and just as well as she leads a very busy life!  We were having a little chat and I was quite surprised to learn about a side of Patricia of which I was totally unaware.  I’m sure she won’t mind if I share our conversation with you ……

I think in my next life I want to be a travel advisor … or a travel photographer … or a travel writer … or perhaps all of those. Ever since I first visited Europe at the age of 21 in 1967, I’ve had a love affair with that part of the world.

Some people  feel a bucket list is something you put together as your life is drawing to a close. Isn’t it more fun to keep these lists all our life and have them shift and change as we do? When one item is removed, another is added. Think of it as a wish list – a much more positive term – and there’s always something to plan, big or small!

In the process of preparing to leave for this trip, over coffee with friends I commented  how such an experience could be available to most people if they so desired. The simple answer is two words – home exchange.

The reactions ranged from horrified, “You’d let perfect strangers stay in your home?” to excited, “I’ve always wanted to do that!”.

During the last twelve years my husband and I have successfully enjoyed seven home exchange trips. In fact, they have all been quite wonderful and the truth of the matter is we have become friends with every one of our exchange families. Often we simply keep in touch from time to time but a connection certainly gets made and sometimes it goes beyond that. While we are here this summer, we will have a visit with a wonderful French  family with whom we exchanged ten years ago. We’ve had some great times together on three other trips to France as well.

One of our best exchanges was two months (September, October) in the middle of a private vineyard in the Var region of France. We were in the hills but just a half-hour from the coast and even got to help with the grape harvest (at our request). The others, all memorable,  were in Portugal, Italy, London, Vienna, a second in the south of France, and California.

Without getting into all the details, there are excellent home exchange websites that have been established companies since long before the internet. In those days they produced catalogues of their listed properties. With e-mail the ability to connect is simple and before you ever commit to an exchange you can get to know each other. Interior and exterior photos are exchanged as well so you can determine if the property is acceptable to you.

Obviously the cost of your trip becomes significantly lower when accommodation is free. We have never experienced one problem and have always returned to find our home just as we left it. What I love best about this is that it reaffirms my belief that most people are good and honest and just like you. You will hear these words from the many people on exchange sites who write about their experiences. Give it a try!

I’m happy to answer questions about home exchanges if anyone has them. I’m going to be writing a bit about that whole experience in my next novel. Part of the story is set in the south of France and I’m thankful to be able to gather my research information firsthand while we are here.

The most difficult part of this trip is missing our six grandchildren – especially the youngest who, at ages 2 and 3, still love having their grandparents come to spend time with them. Thank goodness for Skype!

Have you ever tried a home exchange? As you can see, I enjoy talking about it and am happy to share my information with you. I would love to hear your experiences or answer your questions.
We have always used Homelink which is a long-established international organization. Click here to enter the Visitor’s Welcome page for the Canadian website and read about other members’ experiences.
This post is part of an interview I had a short while ago. Love A Happy Ending is a great author/reader website whose members are from many parts of the world and it’s a pleasure to be a part of this positive, upbeat global group.

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog Tagged With: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, Homelink International, house exchange, lifelong friendship, Love A Happy Ending, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club, the power of friendship

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