The End

Well here we are... a whole year and 213 blogs later, and I can't really believe it to be honest.  I had these grand plans to have this beautiful reflective piece for my final blog on 22adventures, something that looked over everything and talked about how far I had come and what happens next.  But the truth is, I don't really know if I can write that at the moment, because I am sitting on the floor at a Big Band rehearsal, feeling very tired and sick.  My nose is running and my head is stuffy and I am just not sure what will come out as I continue to type.  However, the fact is, today is the 8th of April 2010, which means tomorrow I turn 23 and the adventures of me as a 22 year old come to an end.  So whether I feel like it or not, I need to write something to tie it all together.

I find it really hard to believe that exactly a year ago I had an interview in Castlemaine, and getting a job, moving out of home, moving to the country was just a little idea that I wasn't really considering because I didn't want to jinks the job.  Yet here I am writing this blog, a year later and everything, and nothing at all has changed (if that makes any sense).  

There are lots of things that are still the same.  I am still Emma, I still love Disney, blogging, eating and Dave, but now I live in Castlemaine and visit Melbourne.  Now I have a 'real' full time job, not a part time fun thing.  Now I can cook and clean and do general adult things, because I have to and no one else will do it for me (unless they are feeling particularly generous).  Now I have lots of new friends, people who I hadn't even met a year ago today.   

I feel like I have grown a lot since I moved to Castlemaine, and I am not really sure how much of this is just me getting older and how much of this has been because of the fact that I had too.  There have been some really low times, like homesickness, being lonely and getting used to being away from all my friends and family, but there has also been a lot of fun stuff to, and some really really great stuff... my new friends, the things I have seen and the places I have been...oh that rhymed, nice.  I have no idea how to actually sum up this last year other than the fact that I am different and I like it.  I know that I haven't done this by myself and that I my life really has been in God's hands through it all. But I guess when it comes down to it... I am really glad I went to the interview, I am really glad I was offered the job and I had enough courage (and support) to move and give it a crack.  I am also really glad that I have been able to share this with all of you (even if its just Mum, Dad and Dave at times).  Thanks a bunch for reading... my blog would be no fun if no one read it, so thanks for dropping by!  

So what happens next... well I am glad that you asked.  For now, I stay in Castlemaine, and because I can't give up I will continue to blog.  But as I am no longer 22 my blogs will have a new home: www.emjlewis.blogspot.com, so please keep dropping by and checking it out.  But after that I am not really sure and that's ok.  I still have plenty of adventures left in me and I am kind of excited about what is still to come... I guess I will just have to keep to posted, because I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Half marathon

So the training has started, luckily the half marathon is still a good 6 months away because after this mornings gym session I think I am going to need all the time that I can get!

This morning I met Jana at the gym, yes that gym that I signed up for with all the best intentions and then never really returned! Anyway we began the journey, the only thing is Jana is quiet a bit fitter than me, which isn't really that hard to imagine, given the fact that all I have done since the last half marathon is a SYG and and few random basketball games and not much else. This means that this morning as we trained together I felt like needed to prove myself just a little, you know, back my tale of my last half marathon up so that it didn't seem as unrealistic as it sounded. So needless to say I went pretty hard, and despite the fact that I only walked/ran for 3.5km... I already have blisters and very sore quads and I am a little worried that this is a bad sign! Sure perhaps I went a bit hard for my first time back in the saddle, but if I am this injured after 1/7th of the race than chances are I might struggle. But I have 6 months and I am not giving up yet! I have another hot date with Jana and the gym on Friday morning... So I better find better socks so I don't get anymore blisters!

Oh and just in case you needed proof... here are the mighty half marathoner's after our last race... don't we look spiffy! 

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New Car

Well today, with the much appreciated help of Mum, Dad and Davo, and after much stress and money budgeting and test driving and stressing and budgeting and stressing today I put a deposit down on a new car... Today I ordered my new Kia Rio.  Sure its not the most glamorous of cars...I mean its not a Ford...but I am super excited about it and I can't wait until it comes....but I really will have to wait because it is going to take forever.

Being slightly paranoid, I decided that because I was getting a small car I wanted it to be as safe as possible, this meant getting the curtain airbags installed, which meant that my new car was now a factory order.  So it turns out that it takes a really long time to get a factory ordered car in and so I won't actually get my car until mid to late May, which feels like forever away!  The other thing that has to happen, is I need my good old Saabie to hold up until then...Saabie is staying strong and holding in there, but I think that we might be cutting it fine.  I think that due to my climate control issues, I will have to start packing extra clothes and stuff to keep me warm as the Castlemaine winter starts to set in as heating is no longer an option.  

Nevertheless the new car is ordered...its coming and it is going to be awesome... Here are some facts about my new car that I am excited about (and yes I know some of them are lame):

1. Its small and cute2. Its blue...ford blue...3. It only uses 6.9L/100km...cheap cheap cheap4. It has a CD player - this is a massive step up from my tape deck
5. It has a drivers arm rest
6. It has air con that works
7. It has windows that work8. It has a 5year unlimited km warrenty
9. Did I mention that its small and cute and blue?10. It has a plug for my iPod
11. It has bluetooth for my phone
12. It has curtain airbags13. Its a rare gem, coz it turns out there just isn't that many Kias in Melbourne...yet
14. The ignition is in the regular spot... as apposed to the center console ignition I currently have15. It has a drink holder made for 1.25L bottles...just in case I am really thirsty16. I will no longer have crazy big blind spots
17. It won't put my oil warning light on every time I turn the corner
18. There is no 'void' between the driver and passenger like in Dave's car
19. It will enable me to park on Dave's lawn again...coz it's got a little button nose, and little bottom
20. Its mine

So now I just wait and wait and wait... but while I wait, I will enjoy my last drives with Saabie and think about important things like...What I will name my new car??? 


I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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A New Type of Movie

Tonight I have once again been to the movies, this time I went with Mum, Dad, Dust, Jake and Dave and we saw 'Law Abiding Citizen' and if you want a good film review check out Philpy's rant, coz he does a much better job of that stuff than I do.  What I really wanted to say about the movie was that I that tonight's experience has made me realise something, something very important...

Generally speaking, I am a childrens and romantic comedy type of girl, in fact I rarely see anything out side those two genres, unless its like some massive blockbuster that I feel like I have to see just so I can keep up with conversation.  However, I think that after tonight I really need to put more effort in to deliberatly seeing other types of movies, because it turns out, I actually really enjoy them.  Sure they don't always make me feel super gooey on the inside, but more often than not, they actually make me think, which isn't such a bad thing!  It's werid coz I am always a little surprised by this, it always shocks me that the movie was actually good, but the thing is, it probably shouldn't, because if the movie was that bad...it probably would never have even made it to the cinema. 

So.... as of now, I am going to make a conscious effort to see some other types of movies...I probably still won't check out the latest horror, but I will definatly try to see something other than the new chick flick out. 

I guess that's all part of the adventure!

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Sad Saabie

This past year has been a year of change, which if you have read even just a few of my blogs you will probably know, however it appears that there is another change on the way. Once again it is something I am not quite ready for, something I don’t really want to have to deal with, but once again it is something I may not actually have that much say in. I am sad to say that I think that the end of my car's life is not too far away.

My car, my saabie, and I have been together almost as long as Dave and I. We first meet in 2005, just after my 18th birthday and just before I got my license. At first I wasn’t sure if we were going to get along, Saabie had a big nose and smelt a little like vomit, which I have to admit didn’t turn me on. However, with the ignition in the centre and the fact that he was given to me (thanks Mum and Dad) we persevered and now we are the best of buddies, well most of the time.

Sure we have had our downs, like the time I smashed his face into the back of someone else’s car, or the time I thought he was out to kill me, given the crazy number of electric shocks I constantly received, or even the time when the remote central locking decided its time was up and I sat in the carpark at uni with both the car and me crying, of course Saabie was much louder, given that his cry was in the form of his car alarm. But there have also been a lot of ups, like Saabies trek to Adelaide with Davo, or up and down from the beach for the last 4 years, or the trips to Ikea because Saabie has the biggest boot in the family.

We have been through a lot together really, Saabie survived my years as a P-plater and now carries me to and from Castlemaine week after week... But I am beginning to fear that Saabie’s life is coming to an end. Recently, its been taking a lot more for Saabie to get up and going each day, and this afternoon, when I stopped at the petrol station he wouldn’t get going again. Now because I am not completely car illiterate I thought that it was probably just a dead battery, which was no biggie, so I rang the RACV and they came and checked him out. Despite the fact that it was a jump start I needed to get going again, the RACV man tells me that my battery is fine, and every thing is charging fine and that he is not sure what it is. Now this along with some other little problems, like the fact that my cruise control is no more are beginning to make me think that over 500kms a week is too much and that perhaps this is the beginning of the end. I am not really ready to safe goodbye, and I can’t really afford a new one. So I guess for now we just ride it out, but perhaps someday soon I will need to say goodbye.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Dexter's New Home

Well its been a little while since I posted a blog about my little dog and there have been a couple of reasons for this:

1. Nothing really that interesting has happened to him...he did go for his first swim at the beach but other than that, not much.

2. I figured that after the influx of posts when I first got him, it was only fair that I gave everyone a break and...

3. He hasn't been living with me. 

This last reason is something that I am a little sad about, because I love him to bits (despite our initial struggles) and I miss him stacks, none the less he is a very active dog and I have a very small house in which he has to get locked in all day because my landlord keeps letting him out and the poor little thing is just a puppy with no road sense. 

Anyway, over summer, and a little bit before that, Dex has been living with Mum, Dad, the boys and his new best friend, Harley and the two have been getting very attached to each other.  And while this has been good for them, because they have become good company for each other, eventually, when I get a bigger house, I would really like Dex to come back and live with me, but the more attached he gets to Harley the harder this will be to do.  So this week I have made a decision (well not just me, in-conjunction with the others involved, except Dex and Harley, because they are dogs and they can't talk), one that I think is best for both Dex and me.  Until I workout how to have Dexter up in Castlemaine, in order to prevent two very depressed little dogs, Dex is moving in with Dave. 

So last night, Dex spent his first night in his new place, and he looks pretty happy there... The other good thing about this arrangement is that Dave (or so he says) will bring dex up to visit sometimes, which is exciting because I really miss him.  I just hope that he is a good boy and doesn't destroy to much...

I guess that's all part of the adventure!

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Australia Day - # 41

Just like my last blog, today’s is filled with a number of super Australian things I have done today, which I guess is appropriate given that it is in fact Australia Day. So Happy Australia Day to you all!

Here is my super Australian Australia Day…

10:30am – woke up in Inverloch after a beautiful sleep in to find a fantastic summer day!

11:00am – 1:00pm – Dave, Kat and I were joined by Brad and Mim and together we watched some tennis and cricket on the telly

1:00pm – Had a sausage sizzle for lunch

2:30-5:00pm Soaked up the sun and surf at the beach

8:00-9:30pm Enjoyed a Australia Day spectacular at the Blackburn Sound Shell, were I caught up with Mum, dad and Jake and then completed my day quite nicely with fireworks, allowing me to cross #41 – see some fireworks, off the list.

So there you go, what better way is there to spend Australia day than with friends, family, sausages, beach, Australian tunes and fireworks…it just doesn’t get better than that.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Back to work

Here is something that is probably exceedingly obvious...it really really suck to be going back to work while everyone else is still on holidays!  Its not that I don't like my job, I actually really like it, but the thing is, Mum, Dad, Jake, Dustin, Dave and most of my friends are still on holidays....everyone except me and I am not happy about it.

Oh and just to top it off, today I started on a new ward and it was nuts...busy busy busy and I didn't really know my way around, but I am sure I will get my head around it soon enough.

Anyway, the point of this blog is just to whinge...I wish I was still on holidays :(, I already told you I am not made for full time and I miss my 3 month uni break...

I guess that's all part of the adventure!

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Goodbye 2009

Here we are at the last day of 2009.  What a year it has been, who would have thought that this year would have seen me not only get my first full time job, but also move out of home, get a dog and learn to be independent?  Certainly not me!  I can't believe how much I have grown this year, its been pretty massive really, and even as I sit here and write this I am still a little overwhelmed about everything that has happened in 2009.  But instead of doing a recap of the year, I am just going to tell you about my new years...because tonight I have reached a whole new level of cool, oh and the fact that you already have most of my year documented on this blog. 

The day started out very nicely with breakfast in Inverloch with Dad, Dave and Jake and then a morning swim at the beach, which was more like an ice bath that was super refreshing in the heat of the sun!  After that we packed up our stuff and headed back to Melbourne.  Tonight we (Dave and I) have been having a bbq pool party, well actually it was really just a pool party for me because I didn't swim as there was lightening and you aren't supposed to swim in a storm, but anyway, we saw the new year come in, no thanks to the tv count down, which seemed to have very little idea when 2010 was actually coming, and then once everyone left...well that' when the party started.  Once Kitty and I had the house, well the living room to ourselves, we played mario on the wii and boy did we go hard...we played mario until 5:30am because that's what all the cool kids do!  The only downside to this is really the fact that if I wanted to de-nerdify a little in 2010, this probably wasn't the best start, but it was fun so what can you do. 

Oh and Kitty made another one of her amazing cakes...this time appropriately new years themed.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Inverloch

So I got a new camera for Christmas and while I have been down at the beach I have been taking some happy snaps!  So even though I don't have anything super exciting to say today, I do have some pictures to share: 

I guess that's all part of the adventure!

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Brass Bands

There is something very peaceful about brass bands, perhaps its their classical music, or even the fact that it makes me think of my childhood and going to Dad’s band concerts, either way I don’t really mind, coz I still like it. This weekend the Box Hill Salvation Army Citadel Band was up in Bendigo, so being a Box Hill Girl, and living almost in Bendigo, I went and checked it out. This was my fist Band Wag experience and I did enjoy it. It brought back lots of memories from when I was a kid, because that was probably the last time I went to Brass band concert.

I think what made the night even better though was that the concert was full of all my favourite things about the box hill band:

• Some great marches
• A classic chorus
• A solo, on alto sax, from Davo
• A trombone solo from Benny
• A skit
• Some lovely male voices
• And just to top it off, Craig singing ‘Love changes anything’

Seriously, I don’t think that band concerts get much better than that!


I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Father's Day

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…

The card had a picture of a boy in a bed that was being lifted off the ground by a large monster, the boys father was at the door and instead of comforting words the dad says “Yes, there is a giant monster under your bed, deal with it” and inside the card it says “Thanks for toughening me up Dad”

Anyway, I thought it was very appropriate, so Happy Father’s Day Dad, I love you stacks, and I know I am the way I am because of you. (except for the silliness, I am pretty sure that’s mum!)

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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