[dropcap]Hi[/dropcap] everyone! Oh my god, it seems like a million years have passed since the last post, so let me start off by apologising for my absence from the blog. I didn’t forget about you, and as you can understand, it was the Christmas/NY’s break/holidays after all (which was a wonderful time to see and catch up with family and friends by the way, and simply relax and unwind and forget a little), so I had very good reasons for this.

It’s also a little late to wish you all a happy new year, but how many of us are capable of writing and publishing such a post on new year’s day, let alone think properly or look half descent on the day? Believe me, I was in no state to do such a thing, although you may be happy and proud to hear that I was very well behaved the night before, for the many reckless nights of last year had taught me to temper my enthusiasm and confidence with alcohol. Anyhow, here I am, unfashionably late, yet better late than never, to welcome you back to the blog and wish you all a very happy new year for 2015! Let us all make this an ultra fantastic and fulfilling year filled with happiness and joy, wherever you are and whatever you do. Sork dee pi mai everyone!

Like many things, having been away and absent from blogging and writing for a few weeks has really made returning to it quite difficult and challenging. Getting back into the swing of things and trying to properly string sentences that make sense together and are half entertaining/interesting is not an easy task. And with the turn of the new year, which is often marked with new/best intentions, dreams, goals and resolutions (in my case, it is to work harder on becoming a better writer and reader [among other things, which I’ll talk about later]), writing a worthy post to kick-start the new year with is not an easy task at all. A side drink does help though. A coffee, I mean.

Typically, a brand new year is a good time to make changes for many of us, and there are several changes that I’ve decided to make to the blog that I would like to share with you. First, and it may come as a surprise and disappointment to some of you, is that I will not be posting on this blog as often as I did last year. The reason for this is that this year, I want to devote more time and effort to my art, and will try to balance my time on both food blogging and practising art. My plan is to post one blog post per week and perhaps, if time allows it or if I have something really juicy to share or if you’re really lucky, I will post more, but I won’t make any promises because we all know what can happen to them.

I will also be dropping my regular posts from the blog. These include the Wordless Wednesday posts, the padaek monthly update posts and the Friday Notes posts. Again, the reason for this is simply that they all take precious time and I want to allocate more time to my art. Also, this year, I want to work on making Padaek a proper food blog. I’m not sure what this means exactly or how I’ll be doing it, but I’ll start by focusing on writing/publishing quality/interesting food blog posts rather than quantity. These will include recipes (Lao and non-Lao), reviews and food stories, when they arise. After saying that though, anything and everything is possible in this corner of the world, so don’t be surprised if I sometimes get all random and publish the odd/unusual/unexpected post every now and then. Be sure to subscribe to the blog to not miss a thing.

Another change that you’ll notice to the blog is that I’ll be posting less photos in the posts. Again, this is simply about saving and utilizing my time properly/efficiently and sharing quality work. In the past, I uploaded about 30-40 photos for a recipe post for example. This was a lot of work and took a lot of time so this year, I’ll be selecting and sharing only the best and most important/relevant photos. You might already know that I’ve been posting and spending a lot time on Instagram, so if you would like to follow the visual/photographic workings of my mind/life, please feel free to follow me there. I will continue to use and upload photos on Flickr for the blog, so you can follow me there also.

That’s it for now folks. Again, I apologise for my absence from the blog, and the planned changes to it but hopefully it’s for the better. The three of us had such a wonderful time over the Christmas break, touching base with family and friends, and simply relaxing and unwinding. We spent Christmas with my folks in Albury and the following week meandering around the paradisiacal bordering coastal region of VIC and NSW. However, I must admit that I am now glad and keen to be back, ready for a new year of food blogging and painting, reinvigorated and revitalized, and with a fresh perspective and fervour. I have some backlog stories and photos of the trip to share with you, which I’ll do so asap, and I look forward to sharing new ones as they unravel over the course of this new year. As for now, take care and ciao!