A Little Bit of This and That

After a trip home I am now living in Vancouver and starting up for the third time in a year… hopefully third time is the charm. New blog:

A Little Bit of This and That

At the end...

It’s hard to capture the end of my trip and in hindsight I wish that I was more on top of my blog. Prior to leaving Australia was a busy, emotional and entertaining. I will be brief and do some highlights:

• Tournament in Ballarat, coldest place in Australia (or felt like it anyway) where I got to play with a team called Funny Duck. It was my first tournament where I treated it super casually and got to drink for the bulk of the weekend. The people were fabulous, I had a good couple of games, somehow even managed to get MVP at one point and had an excellent road trip

• Going away dinners and party. Just a good time to see everyone one last time, which seemed to turn into seeing them several times before I left. By the end of it I think people were wondering if I was ever going to leave, but then seemed surprised that I did

• My fall league Frisbee team, Pirates Hearts Ninjas won the Divison two fall league. I even managed to throw a hammer point (however it wasn’t the best hammer ever…)

• Sadly I sprained my ankle, so pre-finals I had a couple of days off my foot, some tape and an ankle brace I managed to pull it together for that final game. It made for interesting times when I returned to Canada and did some hiking
• Annie and I did a tandem bike ride around Melbourne, hilariously fun. I am sure that we almost went into the river. It was quite a challenge keeping time with each other and the seats were horrible, it was days before my butt felt okay again.

• I took some time to enjoy the coffee shops, take my final pictures and visit the art gallery. I was luck to get to go to the Selvador Dali art exhibit, it was really interesting and slightly disturbing

It’s weird at this point (about two months later)…sometimes it feels like it was yesterday that I lived in Melbourne and sometimes it feels like it was years ago. I have visited LA, Vancouver, home to Newfoundland and now live in Vancouver. It’s been a pretty crazy couple of months with a lot of transition. I’m happy to be back in Canada but Melbourne is the place that most feels like home right now.

Snowed on in Australia

This was written shortly after my trip to Tassie, just getting around to posting it now. Oops.

A couple of weeks ago I went on a little weekend adventure to visit my friend Jenn in Tasmania to do a little hiking, drink some wine and of course play Frisbee. While it was the middle of winter I have to say that I had a really great time. There is nothing like knowing someone when you get off a flight. After almost a year of never having anyone meet me at the airport I couldn’t have been more excited to see Jenn.

Tasmania is essentially the Newfoundland of Australia, a small island off to the side of a huge country with a relatively similar population (200,000 in Hobart, 500,000 in Tassie). It truly reminded me of home instantly, as Jenn continually ran into people she knew at the airport. I have forgotten what it was like to be in a place where familiar faces are everywhere. It made me excited and slightly overwhelmed about the idea of returning home. I am used to blending in and having huge amounts of anonymity after living in such large cities.

I think the highlight of the weekend was the hiking; we did a couple of hours at Mount Field. If I had more time in Australia I would definitely go back again and do a couple of week hiking and visiting the wineries. Jenn lent me a pair of gum boots (rubber boots) and I got the privilege of a giant jump into a puddle, which made me feel like I was 5. I seriously think they are an investment I could make…if only I had more room in my luggage. That night we stayed at a quaint little cottage, drank wine and had a totally girly night, it was fabulous, another way it reminded me of home.