For those of you that know me well…well if fact for those of you that have ever been to my house, or my old room in Melbourne, or to any event I have also attended, or even spent sometime looking around on my facebook or my blog, you would know that I love photos… I have photos everywhere and while most of them are self taken and consist of a whole lot of my face and someone else’s face and not much else, I still love them all the same. I think what I like about photos is that they are normally of something fun, happy and/or exciting, so when I look back on them it reminds me of those times and the fun things that I have done. They help me to focus on what’s important and to remind me that my life is filled with people who love and car for me. 
So I realise that it almost the end of September (in fact it will probably almost the end of october by the time this blog goes up) but tonight I did a big spring clean and it felt soooooo good. In fact I would almost go as far as saying it is something I would like…well maybe just should do more regularly. But while I was cleaning I also did something else…something that I have never done before by choice. Tonight because I knew I had a lot to do, I turned the TV off.
Now before you say oh big deal, and stop reading this is a big thing for me. I am one of those people that likes noise, I don’t really like being by myself, and so when I am I like background noise so I don’t notice that there isn’t anyone else around. However, because my house is only one room if the TV is on it’s never really just in the background, so be a distractible person as well, I get distracted and have often wasted my whole night watching programs I don’t even like. So tonight, as a start of something new I turned off the box, put some music on (because you can’t have nothing) did my spring cleaning and then got stuck into my list of tasks.
What surprised me the most though, was that I actually really liked it with out the TV on, and I felt like I had actually achieved a lot more that I normally would. In fact I would even go as far as to say I was proud of the fact that I could turn it off and I would like to think that in the future I will just turn the telly off rather than just watching it for the sake of it.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
I really really love Disney…this is something you probably already know, but today as I watched the movie ‘Bolt’ and then went to the cinemas and saw ‘Up’ it dawned on my just how much I love Disney…
It’s probably a little sad actually, but every time the castle comes up and the music begins to play, as the star goes over the castle it makes me feel really good inside…and that I believe is the magic of Disney. Its not really the nice stories, or the songs or even the princesses, its just that magic castle and its shooting star…even just thinking about it makes me smile.
So, as I said yesterday, this weekend I am in Daylesford with Brad, Kat, Mim and Dave…and today we after a massive cooked breaky, we celebrated Grand final day in true Australian Style… With a cake decorated to look like a footy (amazing work kitty), an open fire and a lunch fit for kings…sausage rolls, party pies, and chicken nuggets. I really like grand final day, it just makes me feel 
very patriotic, and the fact that Farnsey and Barnsey we both in the pre-game entertainment was even better.
I know it was just yesterday that I said that distance was relative in the country...tonight I am heading to Daylesford for a weekend away with Dave, Kitty, Mim and Brad and I am loving the fact that its only half an hour away for me and the rest of them have to travel the full 2hrs... Even though I don't mind the travel anymore, its still nice when you don't have to do it. Especially when it means you can just relax and enjoy your night and then head out.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
So I know normally one blog a day is enough…but I really need to share something with you…tonight I had what I would call a ‘real country’ experience…and I thought it was super cool.
Tonight on my way home from Ballarat I was driving along minding my own business...keep my eyes peeled for roos and other wildlife (cos that’s what you have to do in the country) when up ahead I saw some yellow whirly lights, the kind that you see on the top of pick-up trucks, so I assumed that someone had just broken down, but it appeared it was all under control. Anyway, as I go closer I saw another light…a torch light waving frantically so I thought to my self maybe I should slow down a bit and check this out…and it was lucky I did coz as I got closer I realised that there was a gum tree that had fallen down and was now blocking the hwy. So I pulled my car over, and jumped out to chat to the man with the torch. It turned out the torch man and his friend were actually wildlife rescuers and they happened to have whirly lights on their van. They also had some old saws, so they were trying to cut the tree up so that it could be moved. So I decided I would help. 
They were chopping the branches off and I was moving them to the side of the road out of the way. Eventually a truckie came along and he was helping too, and all was going well except that once we had removed all the branches we still couldn’t move the tree, so we had to call backup. Once the tuckie finally got the person on the other end of 000 to work out where we were…apparently they hadn’t hear d of Castlemaine or Daylesford…the told us they would send some one out. By this stage though, we had cleared enough of the tree for traffic to go through, so the truckie told me I could go if I wanted…but I told him that ‘I only just moved to the country, and so this kinda thing just doesn’t happen to me so I wanted to see how it panned out’.
Eventually a police man came along and out of the back of his van he grabbed a chainsaw which, to my disappointment, isn’t standard issue for country cops, he just grabbed it when he heard what he was going to. So the Cop removed the rest of the tree and everyone went on their merry way.
It was really quite exciting…and part of me feels like I really am from the country now, but I think my excitement about the whole thing probably just shows how city I am. Oh and I discretely took some pictures...they are a little dark, but you get the idea.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
One thing I have learnt while living out in the country is that distance and traveling time is all relative. Seriously, if I was in Melbourne and I had to travel half and hour or 45mins to get somewhere I would probably complain about how far away it is…but now that my nearest Kmart, Coles, Big W, Myer etc etc is 40mins away in Bendigo, I don’t really mind…it doesn’t actually seem to take that long. I guess just the fact that it doesn’t feel like it takes that long to get home to Melbourne anymore is another good indicator that I am on country travel time, because even though it takes 2hrs…it certainly doesn’t feel like that anymore.
Anyway, the reason I say this is because tonight, I went to Ballarat for tea, which is a good hour from my house, but it really didn’t bother me at all, in fact I would almost go as far as saying I enjoyed the drive. Why did I drive all the way to Ballarat? Well I wanted to catch up and have dinner with my friend Flic, who lives there now. It was actually really nice just to catch with her, and even though I had traveled what seems like a long way it really just felt like a normal drive, as if I was just going round the corner or to the next suburb over in Melbourne. I know it seems strange, but its true…distance is all relative when you are in the country.
Oh and while I was at flic’s place I did get a little bit of house envy…coz she moved to the country too, but her house has like 5 separate rooms…unlike mine which just has the one.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
Yesterday, for those of you that didn’t know (which I didn’t so don’t feel bad) was International Talk Like a Pirate Day…true. And I while I missed it (the photo is from another pirate dress up), I really wish I hadn't.
I love weddings, I don’t know if it is just the girl in me or whether its that I have seen way to many chick flicks, but I really like them. They just make me feel really happy and excited and hopeful and today was no different. Today I was lucky to attend a small country wedding in Wagga and it was beautiful.
After a short hiccup with my outfit, (in which I had to go and get a new dress because mum had neglected to tell me I was planning on wearing exactly the same colour as the bridesmaids) Mum, Dad and I (not Dusty, coz he was one of the groomsmen so he had headed out much earlier than us) headed out to a beautiful country property to witness the marriage of an old family friend, Evan and his fiancé Sarah. 
It was a really lovely wedding and I think the thing that I like most is how clearly happy they both looked. The wedding had been in the works for two years so the pure relief and joy for both of them was so nice. I also liked all the little touches that made the wedding even more special, my favourite being the sand used in the candle displays was the sand from the beach on which Evan had proposed and they had had it sent over from South Australia for the day…so nice. Right as we speak I am on the road heading to Wagga Wagga in NSW, don’t worry Dusty is driving and I am on the computer. I am a bit excited about the trip actually, because fresh off the heels of Charlie and Boots I am ready to see Australia, but that’s not the reason we are going, we are heading north for a wedding, which you will hear more about as it happens. Although I have to admit that this is the longest period of time I think that I have ever spent with Dusty by myself, but I am sure with a little help from Farnsy, Barnsey and Elton we won’t kill each other.
Perhaps if I wasn’t driving with Dustin, who doesn’t seem to care much about the country or its little towns, I would have taken the opportunity to stop in some of towns with cool names that we have passed on the way like…Wandong or Longwood or Dookie.
Anyway, while we have been driving we have actually driven through a lot of the land that was effected by the massive bush fires earlier this year and although the black trees are a harsh reminder of the power and devastation of fire, it was also really amazing to see the regrowth happening too. It was refreshing to see the green, even though it was small slowly taking over the tops of the black trees, giving a bit of hope that life can restart after fire. It still amazes me how God can make something so damaged and broken into something new.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
I also really like boardgames, I don’t know why…I just do. Perhaps it’s the fact that its inclusive and everyone needs to get involved, perhaps its because game they are just fun or perhaps its even because I don’t get to do it very often so they are still a novelty. But tonight I got to play Boulderdash with my good friends from high school and it was great, it was just a really nice way to hang out with them and have a bit of fun. I think I need to play board games more often.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
For anyone that knows my family well, it seems that someone is always heading off to china, well today is no different. Tonight Jake heads off to china on his year 11 study tour with school. So because I am a great sister and I don’t get to see him very often I headed out to the airport to see him off, which it turns out isn’t that bad a drive from good old Castlemaine.
Anyway, after I said good bye to Jake I jumped in my car ready to head back to my little house. As I pulled out of the carpark I was thinking about the best way to get back on the Calder and how there must have been a better way to go, rather then heading back into the city and out again, so as I drove out I noticed a sign to Sunbury, which I knew was in the right direction, so I took it and off I went. Little did I know this road look me a back way to Sunbury on a dodgy little road and not to the freeway at all. I did think to myself though as I drove through Sunbury and a couple other little towns that this was much nicer than the boring freeway and that perhaps I had been missing out by just jumping on the Calder. For just a moment I kinda felt like I was in the Disney movie cars and that Sunbury was a bit like radiator springs which had just been bypassed with out a care. I did eventually make it back to the freeway and Castlemaine safe and sound, but it certainly did make me wonder what else I miss. Maybe I will try this new scenic root again some time, although perhaps I will do it during daylight hours and not in the middle of the night.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
I really really really love going to the movies, in fact I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have been disappointed after a trip to the movies…I could even go as far as to say both of those times have been because of Mr Bean too…it turns out his movies not as good as the TV show.
Anyway, tonight after a lovely dinner in Bendigo, Jana, Jane (two of my mates from work) and I went to the movies and saw Charlie and boots and not surprisingly I loved it. But the thing that I liked most about this movie was that it was Australian and I knew lots of the towns that they went through. It really made me want to get in my little Saaby and just drive, just head off north and check out what Australia has to offer.
I think that one day I would really love to do just that, jump in my car and go right round Australia from town to town and just have a look, maybe I will have to invest in a camper of some kind and do a bit of caravan of courage style traveling. Cos the thing is Australia is massive and unique and there is so much to see, every town is different and has its own little quirks and I really want to see at least some of them. Perhaps one day I will have another blog about my Australian Adventure rather than just my adventures as a 22 year old…who knows.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
So this morning, like I do most Monday mornings I drove back up to Castlemaine, but something was different, the trouper that I posted about only like 2weeks ago was not there…there are a number of possible reasons for this…
1. I am getting lazier so I have been leaving later and therefore missing the troupers run
2. He is running on Tuesdays now
3. Something has happened to him
I am really hoping its not number 3, but I am not sure where he had gone and I must admit I am a little worried…I will continue though to keep my eyes peeled…awaiting his return.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
What a day I have had today…in fact my day has been so full on I have a lot I could talk about… I could write about how I met my two favourite drivers and kept relatively calm after a pep talk from Dave or I could write about how my heart was broken when Ford, well team Vodafone can second in the last lap despite leading the race for 99 of the 113 laps... Or I could even talk about the fact that this is my 100th blog. But no today I want to tell you about Andrew ‘Fishtail’ Fisher, the Jesus racing team and the Jesus car… 
For most of the day we sat track side and watched the cars, which although it may sound boring to you is fantastic. While I was watching one car caught my eye more than usual. It was a car that isn’t normally in the V8’s in fact it normally isn’t a car at all…its normally a ute. But today, as part of the enduro races the guys at ‘Jesus racing’ have a car out there. The car is known as the Jesus car because of that fact that it had ‘Jesus, all about life’ on the side as its major sponsor and I think that its pretty grouse.
Its pretty rare these days to see unmistaken about Christian messages sponsoring secular things, in a way that is actually relvent and cool and not just a ‘repent or die’ card or a John 3:16 cardboard banner. But here broadcast live to all of Australia is a car that speaks the message clear as day. And not only is it out there but its actually taken really well, the commentators and the spectators love it. I think that maybe this is something that we should be doing more of. Putting our selves out there, doing a bit or marketing for our selves. Coz the thing is what we have is good…in fact its better than that its great, so why shouldn’t it be out there. We should more things like it, because when done in a relevant and tasteful way it’s powerful. In fact I would really love to see a salvo shield on the back of the ute/car…that would be wicked.
Sometimes I feel like because I am technically an adult now I am not supposed to do a lot of fun stuff anymore. For example, people look at me funny when I colour-in during long flights, or when I choose to watch a Disney movie over anything else. But last night I discovered that I had almost let something else just slip away without so much as a thought…Sleepovers. Seriously, once you learn to drive sometimes I think that sleepovers just because get lost because you can just drive home and hang out again tomorrow anyway. But last night I had a sleepover with Kitty and it was so much fun, movies, games, chatting, just like old times (although unlike my childhood sleepovers, we didn’t discuss top 5 boys, and who we were going to kiss by the time we were in year nine…which just for the record were very poor predictions on my behalf…although not so much on Kirsten’s…wink wink).
Anyway, I think the reason why I almost let sleepovers is simply a matter of laziness, I couldn’t be bothered to get organized and get stuff together and it seemed like a lot of effort when you were just going to sleep. But I was very very very wrong. Sleepovers are great and definitely worth the effort and I think I will need to make the effort more often.
It does make me wonder what else I may have let slip though…
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, tonight as I was heading back to Melbourne from Castlemaine, I received a very very very very very exciting phone call from one of my best friends….pheebs rang to tell me that….PHEEBS AND STEVE ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!! Seriously I am so excited. Steve and Pheebs are great and now they will be great together forever! Oh man I am so so so so excited. Congratulations guys, I am so happy for you both! So happy in fact that as well as the numerous phone calls I have already made to pheebs (and one to steve too) I have been singing a little song for most of the trip home and it goes like this….
It’s a year today since my Nana was promoted to glory. It doesn’t feel like it’s been a year, but it has. It’s still werid for me to think that she’s not just up in Monbulk whenever I want to visit, and I am still sad when I think about the fact that she is gone, but I also know that she is in heaven and she is loving it.
I do miss my Nana, but I am really glad that I have so many wonderful memories of her and that its not really the end, I will see her again, I just have to wait a while and until then I know that as God watches over me, nana will be there too and…All I want to say today is that I love how sunshine makes everything better.
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
Today is Father’s day, a day where everyone gets to tell there dad how much the love him and get all soppy etc etc etc. Well it turns out, my dad not in to soppiness, so it’s always difficult to find a card that says what you want it to say without the need for a bucket. A lot of the soppy free cards are not really right either with talk of booze or naked women, it always takes me a long time to find one that is just right, but this year I found the perfect one…
I am not very good at most things athletic…and I am ok with this…sometimes I surprise myself, for example when I ran the Melbourne half marathon last year…who would have thought I would be able to run 21.1km…or the time I was accurately able to resemble a penguin during a basketball game…or even the time I got hit in the head with a baseball bat. Anyway, the point of all this is that today my athletic ability was tested once again, except this time it was tested on ice with sharp (and slightly rusty) blades strapped to my feet. Today I went ice skating with the Griffiths family and Davo.
I have to admit I was a little worried about what would happen when I would try to skate because I am just not very good and it does take me quite a while to warm up and I wasn’t sure how long I would have…the other thing is I am Jamie and Ally’s Sunday school teacher, the look up to me and most of the time think I am pretty cool, what would happen if they learned I couldn’t skate? Luckily for me and my pride though I found my happy place pretty early on in the afternoon, you know that special thought that can help you fly, I mean skate? With my happy place, a few words of advice from a lady in tights and leg warmers and the inspiration of the gracefully old man, I was pretty much amazing…and the best bit was I didn’t fall over. I did come close though, it turns out you should definitely not try and dance to Flow Riders’ song Low while skating on ice with two girls either side of you, coz when you go low things get a little tangled.
There are some people in the world that just win stuff all the time, the win the school raffle, they win random door prizes, they win lucky seat competitions, they win bingo, they just get given random stuff…they win everything and then there are people like me…who wins nothing…well almost nothing!
3. My third and final win happened today…I won (with Jana, Benny Waterworth and Mr. Google’s help) the footy quiz for footy colours day at work. There was an email sent around with my name in massive letters and then a poster at the end of the day with me listed won of the day’s winners and I got a wicked prize. I was given a bottle of French Champagne and a footy…and because Jana worked out the answers together she got the Champagne and I got the footy…and I love it. Seriously I am pretty sure this has been the best day of work so far (it also helped that we had to attend two morning teas today too). I love being a winner…and I wished it happened more often. 
Yesterday I had visitors again…and these ones even stayed the night. Yesterday Kitty and Annie came to visit and spoil me with an amazing diner and desert and a few rounds of sing star. But the best bit was the surprises they left behind. When I got home from work today there was a pasta bake in the fridge and note explaining they just thought they would make on incase I couldn’t be bothered cooking…and as if that wasn’t already the best surprise there was also a packet of glow in the dark stars for me to put on my roof, because I had been telling Kat how much I wanted them. Seriously Annie and Kat…you guys are the best! Thanks so much!
Tonight I was able to go back in time...not for long, but for long enough. Tonight I went to Pizza Hut....now before you get on your high horse about the fact that there are Pizza Huts everywhere, this wasn't the take away Pizza Hut that you get in Melbourne...no this was an eat in Pizza Hut, you know the ones…the ones from the good old days where you have a salad bar full of Pizza, chips, pasta and then a separate one with soft serve ice cream and everything you could possibly want as a topping.
I was so nice to go back there and reminisce, it really had been a long time and it was everything I remembered…although being a little older now I realized that they only put the ‘good’ pizza’s out like margaretta, Hawaiian and supreme…none of those ‘bad’ ones which I have become much more accustomed to like BBQ chicken or meat lovers.
But I tell you what nothing beat the salad bar desserts…seriously those things are heaven, and it was probably a very good thing that I was there for a 6 year olds birthday party and that the other kids were restricted to only one dessert, because if I had have had free reign, I might still be there eating dessert…seriously
I guess that's just all part of the adventure!
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