I live on Koh Lanta in southern Thailand and donate my time as a Financial Advisor to Lanta Animal Welfare.
I love cats!
I want the help people to stay positive, make good life choices and find happiness each and every day as they journey through life.
Check out my blog www.thehappycat.ca to find out all the fun and crazy things I'm doing.
I’m the HAPPY CAT
I’m a Canadian from Ottawa, but live most of the year in my amazing home on Koh Lanta, a small remote island in southern Thailand. I’m 61, healthy, active (still wear a bikini), have kept my red hair (oh ya, I was born a redhead) and I totally love cats. I also love life and welcome new experiences, challenges and possibilities as these make my life exciting. And it sure has been? And will continue to be as I’ve consciously chosen to be positive, to seek out my things to learn and to continuously grow as I journey through life.
I’ve spent over 25 years as a business analysis consultant on high technology projects around the world. I’m the one that goes to the airport Monday morning and doesn’t get back until late Thursday night. On the road I live in a hotel, work 12-16 hour days, and am constantly upgrading my technical skills. Many of my clients are in Ottawa, but I’ve been lucky enough to have had contracts for projects in the US, Thailand, Kenya and Chile, as well as in Calgary, Toronto and on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
I’m also an MBA and have Ph.D. in Business. I have lots of academic publications and have taught university business courses for years. My specialities are organizational behaviour, organizational theory and international business. The doctoral thesis focused on the expatriate experience, which is still my research favourite topic. I find expatriates in foreign countries so interesting and am always inquiring into their stories and analyzing their lifestyles.
For sure my consulting life is full of stress big time. I manage it with distance running and by practicing yoga. I’ve crossed the marathon finish line over 25 times and I’m not done with marathons yet. My finishing time isn’t important. For me running isn’t about the time, it’s about the experience: how good I feel, how strong I am and how happy it makes me. Oh ya, it makes me happy! As for yoga, I do it almost every day on my deck. I’ve honed my practice to fit my body’s needs and to get a good workout. Yoga keeps be centred, physically strong and mentally balanced. Everyone should practice yoga!
And I have hobbies. I’m a potter making functional art. My pottery line is Happy Cat Ceramics as every piece has at least one cat on it. I’m about to set up a studio here on Koh Lanta which will be wonderful, but more about that in my blog. I also love to to crochet and knit, making things for the house and friends every chance I get.
And in my spare time (I seem to put every minute of the day to good use) I do pro bono work for this wonderful animal rescue charity called Lanta Animal Welfare (#1 on Trip Advisor for things to do on Koh Lanta). I’m their Financial Advisor and help organize their major fund raising events.
Oh ya, I almost forgot, I’m a cancer survivor: going on 8 years cancer free. It was breast cancer, aggressive and nasty. But that’s a story (or many) for the blog. The only thing I can say is early detection is critical. Sure I ended up having chemo and radiation, but hey, I’m still here – it’s all good! So what if I lost my hair! It came back, well sort of. Thinner and sparser, but I have hair!
I’m alive, I’m happy, and I’m looking forward to each and every day, enjoying my life to the fullest!
Here are my articles: https://www.thehappycat.ca
Check out the Lanta Animal Welfare Website: https://www.lantaanimalwelfare.com
Follow Lanta Animal Welfare on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lantaanimalwelfare/
And I want you all to know that I'm completely different from all of you - I'm old! Hahaha, but I'm me and that actually makes me more like you than the other typical old ladies who love cats! In a nutshell: I'm a runner, I'm a loner, I'm involved, I'm passionate, I'm a geek, and I'm anal about what I believe in, and I believe in myself, in happiness (to make our lives better) and CATS!
Hi Happy Cat, welcome to Steemit! For your tags, can you add words like introduceyourself, animals, community? It will help you gain more visibility too.
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