Road Trip!!!

Tuna, Spanka, Big Red and myself went on a little road trip last weekend up the Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve Apostles (even though there aren’t actually 12). We rented a car, booked a B&B for the night in Apollo bay, packed up our Frisbees, some ridiculous cd’s and hit the road.

I must say it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. The girls are absolutely fabulous, and while I did have to take several pain killers because of the lack of indoor voices, couldn’t have asked for a better trip. And yes, I know it is me making the no indoor voice comment, but two of the three ladies defiantly have me beat (I think it’s what happens when you play outdoor sports).

We basically drove and stopped in several of the little towns along the coast, walked on beaches when we could and even got a toss in at Apollo bay… it was slightly windy and several times I was forces to run into the ocean, it was freezing but such an ideal Australian thing to do. I am going to really miss beach…
The night activities were highly entertaining as we visited the Apollo Bay pub, where clearly the towns finest come out to party. The highlight of the experience may have been watching a guy get an atomic wedgie (typical small town pub behavior so I hear). To clarify an atomic wedgie is when someone is wedgied to the point their underpants are ripped off… and in this case returned. This was quite a departure from the calm meal/drinks we had while playing scrabble, the night was truly all over the place.

Favorite day activities are tied for me between seeing a wild koala in a tree with a baby that looked directly at us and the Twelve Apostles. Fortunately I didn’t panic when Red spotted the koala, as she yelled like she was on fire, and we pulled over in time to get a great view. The Twelve Apostles were stunning and I really could have hung around all day, but sadly we had to return to the city. It is really nice to get to see these things because slowly they Apostles are falling down, nice to know I saw them while I could. The only big downer is that my camera battery died, but fortunately I made Tuna take lots of pictures.

I have booked my ticket to leave Australia for August 27th, will spend a couple of days in LA before going to Vancouver for a trip. The ticket back to NL will be sorted soon… so crazy that my year is almost done. Lots of mixed feelings about that… but it has been the most amazing year!!

The wrap… the hardest haircut ever to explain

Firstly, let me state that I am horrible at this self portrait thing and feel like a total geek putting my hair in different ways and taking pictures… but anything for my fans…bahaha. I mean Mom asked me to post some pictures, my biggest fan :)

So obviously I got a haircut, these are the options I now have with my hair, I have to say it is the trendiest haircut that I have ever had, but much needed after almost a year of not getting my hair cut. There was more hair on the floor than on my head by then end of it, but I couldn’t be happier. It really does make a statement, not totally sure what statement, but I love it. I can wear it kinda punk and fun, curly like I am 7, or classic corporate. It was a bit scary when he started to cut some of my hair to a little over an inch long but it’s only hair! And just to clarify, yes I do have an undercut.
If I went with the punk do I think I would weary fairly girl makeup, like I have on in the pic… clearly enjoying my first night not going out in weeks a little too much.

The adventure continues… read the last post first!

Interesting that the numbers increased when we got to the beverages portion of the day…

Activity #4: Pints!! This continued on again later as well…

Flinders street station… nothing that interesting just a must have picture.


Activity #5: It can’t be an all day event without a Frisbee getting involved… tossing around Federation Square… maybe not the most appropriate thing, but it had to be done. Marcy wearing her oven mitt, her chosen item for the day.


The MCG a little bit before sunset.




South side of the city… we didn’t make it too far because we were running out of daylight but it was a beautiful walk to the Shrine of Remembrance.

To end the night we went to the rooftop bar in the city, a very memorable day all around!

I like to make things complicated…

Due to my inability to do things in a simple way a “Touristy photo adventure” was undertaken last weekend. Basically, I didn’t want to take Melbourne for granted and not take pictures of all of the things that I see everyday so I organized a touristy day with a couple of the other travelers I know and invited the Honey’s along (my Frisbee team). In the end we had 10 ladies running around the city doing random events and was one of my favorite days in a long while. I am amazed that we almost made it through the entire list of tourist activities. The activity list is as follows:


The adventure started with brunch at my favorite spot the green refectory on Sydney Rd in Brunswick…mmmm the breakfast stack!!


Activity #1: Secondhand stores are huge in Melbourne so we decided to stop at a Savers and take ten minutes to purchase something for $5 or less. After the purchase was made everyone had to select a random ticket and wear whatever item they selected for the rest of the day… I won the beautiful pink backpack (later to be traded for the yellow karate belt).


Activity #2: Next we took the tram to Victoria Market where we did a $5 gift exchange, the idea way 15 minutes to find someone else a present (like secret Santa). I got a lovely bottle of $5 white wine… that I used later that week to make risotto.


A visit to the Old Melbourne Gaol was in order (that’s how they spell jail). Artistic picture stolen from Cath Matthews (more to follow).


Next we went for a walk to the Royal Exhibition Building, the only world heritage building in Australia. The first picture of Carolyn was taken by Cath.


As per Carolyn’s request we visited church where she picked up several very informative brochures regarding religion. Quote of the day was “Celibacy, second chance for non-romance.”

A visit to parliament… clearly exciting times.

A trip on the free city loop tram.


Activity #3: How long can Tuna stay silent in the State Library. Everyone selected a time for $1, winner won the money. Guesses ranged from 10 seconds to 5 minutes, with Tuna clocking in at 3 minutes 30 seconds. This picture is when she can talk again, she wasn’t so happy during the challenge.


A couple of my favorite statues in Melbourne, the three skinny men. The ladies and their boyfriends… and another stolen from Cath… trying to look like the skinny man.

Brisbane and a black eye

Recently I have received several email inquiries questioning my whereabouts in the world, so it appears that I am probably long overdue a blog update. Possibly because I feel so settled here I forget that some of the things I do might still be remotely interesting. A couple of weeks back I actually did fly to Brisbane for a weekend ultimate Frisbee training camp, it was quite a busy weekend. The training was really great, worked on all kinds of throws, how to break a force, different cutting techniques, learned a lot of new drills and just got to run around in the sunshine for two days straight, can’t really complain about that one. The highlight of the trip was definitely staying with Foxy and Annie (from St. John’s). They were pretty awesome, they let me crash in their spear bedroom, eat some of their food and Annie even lent me her bike to ride to the field and back each day (however, might I add that Brisbane is a ridiculously hilly city). Hanging out with people from home makes me look forward to my trip home even more, only a couple of months now. In two months I will actually be home! I can’t believe how quickly my year has gone.

Post returning from the Brisbane, the Monday I went to league and got hit in the face with a Frisbee… from a huck (basically full body weight behind the throw) and got a very glamorous black eye. Fortunately it didn’t hit me in the eye and I heal ridiculously well and it wasn’t too noticeable by Friday with the help of a little makeup. The only big down side was the pain and going to work on Tuesday unable to see.