It’s a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon here in London and hard to believe that just over a month ago, I was in the sweltering heat of Malaysia, sipping a cool drink on a sunlounger, and planning a dip in the sea.  In January I spent two weeks catching up with family in the tropical paradise of Langkawi and the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.  

The difference between the two places is stark.  Langkawi is an island full of resorts built into the rainforest.  We saw monkeys, bats and flying lemurs in the forest surrounding our chalet and a big lizard inside our chalet!  In the evening the sound of the cicadas was quite deafening.  Our days on the island were long and lazy,  mostly spent swimming, reading and eating.  I was even brave enough to go for a ride on a banana boat – twice! - and got dumped in the sea the second time round.

Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it’s called by the locals, is very much a 21st Century city – it boasts the Twin Towers and is full of new high rises many of which were built in the last 10 years or so.  Much of old KL has now been demolished and replaced with skyscrapers and shopping malls. The city is a confusing maze of freeways and spaghetti junctions, definitely not for the fainthearted.  Still, there are a few old buildings remaining, mostly in a state of disrepair, and the occasional temple, and various evening outdoor markets, which are a world away from the air-conditioned shopping malls.  

When not shopping, Malaysians love to eat and Malaysian food is amazing.  A lot of it is a blend of Chinese and Malay culture, and spicey, but always very tasty.  What I enjoyed the most was being able to eat tropical fruits every day in January.  Mangos and paw-paw, watermelon, jackfruit, starfruit, pomelo and pineapple. All absolutely delicious.  

Meanwhile, back in London, I think it’s going to take a while to work off some of my over-indulgences.  

Facebook is an excellent way to keep in touch with friends both locally and abroad and I find it’s the social networking tool that I use most often.  I’m hoping that the ZenAngie Web Design Facebook Page will help me connect with current and potential clients and people who are interested in web design in general.

What are the Benefits of ‘Liking’ ZenAngie’s Facebook Page?
If you’re on Facebook regularly, ‘Liking’ my page will mean that all blog post updates and other news about social media and the internet will appear on your News Feed.  

Facebook keeps you Updated Easily
Liking the ZenAngie Web Design Page takes the effort out of keeping up to date.  This is perfect if you don’t already subscribe to an RSS Reader or receive email updates about new blog posts.  Even if you do, it’s great having all your information in one place, especially if Facebook is somewhere you visit often and rely upon for information updates from friends and businesses.   

Exclusive Information
I’ll be sharing tips, advice and tidbits on my Facebook page that I won’t be sharing on Twitter or my Blog.  So, if you’d like to connect and/or show your support, please join me on Facebook and ‘Like’ my page.  

I hope we connect soon. 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ZenAngie-Web-Design/

This is my 19th London winter and I have to say that in all the years I’ve been here I have NEVER seen so much snow.  It’s only a few months since the big snowfalls and disruption of January, so to most Londoners the early snow in November and early December was a bit too much too soon.  And now it’s back with a vengeance and causing the usual travel disruption and general chaos.

Luckily for me, I live across the road from a park and I work from home, so for the most part I can snuggle in and enjoy the Winter Wonderland that’s on offer.  I love walking in the park in the snow!  The snow muffles all sound, so it’s normally quiet and tranquil.  And beautiful!  

It's taken a while, but the website and blog for my web design business is finally live! I've been developing it inbetween other projects over the last few months and I'm so glad to finally be able to share it with you. 

If you head over to zenangie.co.uk you can read about the Services I offer, view my Portfolio and also discover the Process involved in designing a website. You can also discover a little more about me and find out why I decided to call myself ZenAngie.

I’ve also been writing a blog - ZenAngie’s Web Design blog. So far I’ve written posts on mistakes to avoid when planning a website, how to get ideas for your business blog and why I love being a web designer, among others. I plan to update the blog weekly and include posts that will help business owners, organisations and individuals to plan and maintain their websites, and also share my enthusiasm for all things web design, social media and internet related. If there's anything in particular you would like me to cover please let me know by leaving a comment below.

This year we did something we’ve never done before – we returned to the same place for a holiday.  Not only that, we went to the same place twice in the same year! That place was Dorset, a county in the South West of England.  

What I loved most about Dorset was being by the sea.  I grew up in Durban, a seaside city, and the thing I miss the most is being able to escape the hustle of everyday life and clear my head with a walk beside the sea.  There’s something about the sound of the surf, seagulls crying, the smell of sea salt and the wind tugging at your hair that is so invigorating.  An hour’s walk beside the sea can feel like a holiday – it’s so calming and refreshing.

Dorset is home to the Jurassic Coast, and only a few miles from where we were staying, the first dinosaur fossil was discovered back in 1811. On some beaches the fossil hunters out in force, armed with rock hammers and a keen eye.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find a fossil, but my partner did, which was very exciting.

What  struck me most about being by the sea was just how changeable it is.  It was quite mesmerizing. Each day was different, sometimes it varied hour by hour.  The changing tides, currents flowing in this direction and that, waves and calm, sunshine and storms, sandy beaches, shingle and pebble.  We had it all.  

So, now that Dorset has a special place in my heart, I can’t wait to return.  Maybe in the Spring...

Last autumn I spent hours on my knees planting tulip bulbs around the front garden.  Then winter came, the coldest, snowiest in thirty years, and I was afraid that the tulip bulbs would rot in the damp ground and all my hard work would be in vain.  

But, all is well, Spring has sprung and so have the tulips.  I’ve been marvelling at their beauty; their delicate petals, the velvet sheen of the dark Queen of the Night, the unexpected splash of red on the yellow, and the intricate stripes on the orange.  Unfortunately, they don’t last long, a week at the most, so I’m glad I captured them on camera to look at in the months to come before next Spring.  

I planted dozens of allium bulbs at the same time, but unfortunately they are nowhere to be seen.  I guess they either succumbed to the damp or the squirrels ate them.  

Back in October 2007 I was involved in the launch of a blog for the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery called Dulwich OnView.  The blog was the brainchild of Yang-May Ooi and the idea was to change the impression many people had of Dulwich and the Dulwich Picture Gallery being rather dull and boring and only for the elite.  We wanted to use the blog and social media as a subversive marketing tool - to promote the gallery as a cultural hub in the middle of this thriving, artistic community in the heart of South London.

Just over two years later, I think we have achieved our aim.  We have over well over 10,000 unique visitors to the site every month and many people from the local community contributing to the site or wanting to appear on it.  Over the two and a half years that we've been up and running we have been the subject of academic papers and have presented case studies on how we created and run our blog to museum conferences in London and internationally. 

We are Unique
What makes Dulwich OnView unique is that although it is linked to a museum - the Dulwich Picture Gallery - the blog is run by volunteers rather than employees.  Some of us are Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery but a large number of contributors aren't - they are drawn from the local community.  Our strength lies in the fact that we are independent. 

It's all Voluntary
For years I had been thinking about doing voluntary work and when Dulwich OnView came along it seemed the perfect way to do something creative that would benefit the community and the Dulwich Picture Gallery as well as my CV.  Over the years I have written many articles and spent countless hours in my role as one of the Acting Editors, preparing the blog for publication as well as training other people to be editors.

We've been nominated for an Award
This week one of our team, Ingrid, is going to be at the Archives and Museum Informatics conference in Denver, Colorado, where we have been nominated for a Best of the Web Award in the Social Media category!  This is really exciting for us, so fingers crossed. 

New Web Design
What is also exciting is that we have a new look to our blog as well.  Up until recently we used a free wordpress.com template but that meant our blog looked pretty similar to thousands of others out there with the same theme.  I project managed the redesign, collating all the design ideas from the team and liaising with the web designer, Dave Robertson.  It took months to get it right, but it was worth it.  I love the bright, fresh look.  Check it out and let me know what you think.   
Dulwich OnView: http://dulwichonview.org.uk/

It’s been a whole week since I developed a sore throat, which then became a cold, which has now become a chest infection.  I’m still feeling awful – probably due to lack of sleep from coughing all night – but I’ve been trying to look on the bright side.  It’s not like I’m capable of doing much else.  So I’ve been thinking about all the good things which have happened this week, while I’ve been in my sick bed.  This will probably not be a very long list, but here goes....

I’ve had time to read.  
This is a pretty big deal because I used to love reading novels and I don’t get the time any more.  These days I tend to read everything online or read non-fiction like web-design manuals.  Last year I read exactly 1 novel – The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.  Hard to believe that I once majored in English and was even an English teacher for a while, but hey, people change. This week I finally finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters which I had started in January while on Jury Service.  I’ve also started reading Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent – Travels in Small Town America.  I had to choose something that my extra foggy brain could read easily.  

I’ve heard the dawn chorus every morning...
...and I can tell you, it gets pretty noisy out there.  Still, it beats the sound of my coughing and nose blowing any day.

I’ve had an excuse to have a hot toddy every evening...
...and they are lovely.  And very good for you, I’m sure.  If you don’t know the recipe, squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a mug, add a large teaspoon of honey and  a shot of whiskey and top up with hot water.  You’ll feel much better.  

I’ve stopped setting my alarm to get up in the morning.
Always a good thing, and I’ve been able to do it without feeling guilty.

I’ve had time away from the computer.
Work may have suffered and the state of my Inbox may induce a sneezing attack,  but I’m sure my eyes, neck and back are very grateful.   

I felt warm and cosy every time another Spring shower fell suddenly from the London sky.

There, as I said, a short list, but better than nothing.