A Day With The Penguins

This last Tuesday was my nephew Hudson's Birthday Celebrations. Taking advantage of the slightly cooler weather, the familia decided to head out to Penguin Island in Rockingham for a Picnic in the sunshine.

A Fremantle State of Mind

Wednesday was spent catching the train to Fremantle with Emmily. After a ridiculously over priced lunch, we strolled down to the esplanade to lay on the grass and bask in the sun.

An Invasion of Lace

Well hello everyone, long time no see! So it seems I have been MIA where by dear old blog has been concerned. What can I say, I've been in holiday mode, which in large part has meant lounging around my hometown, eating in abundance and trying to avoid getting burnt by the cruel sun.

Today me and my dear sister Emmily went for a spot of shopping in the city. I'm still on the look out for the perfect lace dress, but in the meantime I found a nice cream lace top and black lace head band to tide me over until said dress surfaces. Oh and I found a pretty floral purse too!

Home Sweet Perth

At 1am on Saturday Morning I touched down in my hometown of Perth after a very long flight- part of which I was sitting next to a man who insisted on sleeping with his mouth open and his breath floating in my general direction- Argh. But not to worry, I am now home!

Day one was spent enjoying a nice lunch with my mother, sisters and niece Kaylah at Hans Cafe, I forgot how good the Prawn Lemon dish they serve there was- Delicious. Something feels different about Perth, everything seems a little more unusual then I remember it. I'm still getting terribly excited about little things as well- the look of the taxis, the sound of the streets, the things on television.

Tonight I shall be heading out with some wonderful folk to paint the town red, but for now I need to rest my weary head for a little bit. Nap Time!

Au Revoir, Arevaderche, Adios Amigos!

Today is my last day of work until the new year. And tomorrow afternoon I begin the 22 hour flight that will take me home for the first time in close to 17 months! With a hefty 15 hour stop over in Dubai, lets hope the airport has some wonderful free entertainment- or at least a nice corner where I can rest my head for a few hours. See you all in Perth! Yay! Yay! Yay!

The Miss You List

I don't know if it is the cold weather or just living alone for the past two weeks, but I'm feeling very uninspired and terribly sluggish as of late- In fact most of my free time the past couple weeks has been spent watching Mad Men and having extended sleeping sessions. But not to worry! In two days I will be boarding that plane that is going to take me back to the motherland for a few weeks of sunshine and smiles.

A question I have been asked a lot on my travels is 'What do you miss about home?" and besides from the obvious answer of Family & Friends, there is a lot of little things that I miss dearly. So since I am feeling particularly thoughtful today, here is a short list of six things I miss about Perth.

• Chocolate Supashakes - Although it may seem sad that a flavoured milk should be at the top of my list, I have travelled far and wide and have failed to find a chocolate milk that even comes close to the delight which is a Brownes Supashake


• My Mother's Lasagna, Roast Vegetables, Lentils - Okay so just my mothers cooking in general. Living abroad is expensive, which in large part has meant a diet that consist of toast & two minute noodles. Craving Good Food!


• Being around Australian People - I look forward to having conversations with strangers that don't start with the phrases "Oh where is your accent from?" or "Oh are you from England? Oh Australia- same thing" No, its really not.


• Hearing my older sister Jessica sing, in it's entirety, Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby'- self explanatory.


• Not having to tip at Restaurants - Oh how I have missed thee


• Watching Neighbours - Please let Doctor Karl Kennedy still be in the show!
  

The Things You Find...

Today whilst I was cleaning up my email account and deleting things that were long overdue to be deleted, I came across a very old story I wrote when I was about Nineteen and bored at work one day. It's terribly corny, not very well written and full of terrible punctuation- but since I'm feeling very uninspired today, I decided to share it with you all- Enjoy!

DOOMSDAY PICNIC

Bryan stood by the window staring into the sky, into the eyes of the meteor that was now only hours away from ending everything. He remembered how he had been walking through the city on the day he heard about the earth’s soon to be final chapter. A man, who at the time he had presumed to be crazy, was being held back by police as he screamed “What’s it matter anymore! There is no hope! God has abandoned us all!”.
He had phoned Feeona straight away to tell her about the event, only to be greeted by her tears as she whispered “It’s all over now Bryan”.

Bryan walked away from the window, he had decided the only thing worse then an unstoppable death was waiting for it to come. He looked at the clock in the Hall, 5.38pm; he recalled the news from the previous day stating that the presumed time of contact was around 11.45pm. He had found it almost humorous how the news reporter had told the story, as if she wasn’t announcing the time that the world would be no more, but more like she was reporting a Feline fashion show or something equally as uninteresting.

The house was painfully quiet, the silence was deafening to Bryan’s ears as he sat waiting and listening to the distant anarchy of the streets outside. A knock at the door broke his concentration and he jumped up straight away to go answer it.
Feeona stood there with a basket and was wearing an unexpected smile, she walked past Bryan into the house in silence.
“You’re here” Said Bryan. Feeona smiled and reached into the basket “I’ve brought you something, I was saving them for our anniversary, but I suppose there’s no point in that now”, she pulled out a pair of socks in the shade of baby blue and held them out. Bryan hastily grabbed the socks and ran to his room to put them on. They looked perfect he thought to himself.

Bryan walked into the lounge room to find Feeona playing with some trinkets on the shelves, “I’ve been waiting for hours you know” he said, Feeona kept her back faced towards him as she told him of how the public transport wasn’t running anymore and of how cars littered the freeway making it virtually impossible to drive down, which had left walking as her only option, “I got here as quick as I could you know” she had said, “I’m just happy you’re here” he had replied. Feeona turned to face him and smiled “ I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else Bryan”. She would have been content just spending these last few hours staring into Bryans eyes for eternity.

Bryan was laying on his back on the roof, staring once again into the sky. He heard Feeona calling him from the Balcony, “Bryan its ready! Help me up!”, he scurried over to the roofs edge and held out his arms for first the basket Feeona was extending out to him and then Feeona as she struggled to pull herself up. “Shall we?” Bryan asked with a smile, “We shall indeed” Feeona responded.

Feeona pulled out a red checkered blanket from the basket and laid it out on the roofs tiles. As Bryan sat down he looked on at Feeona as she fiddled around with the contents of the basket- pulling out a hot thermos of pumpkin soup, a small plate of buttered bread, two small bowls, two cups and bottle of champagne. Bryan popped open the champagne and poured two large glasses, “What shall we toast to?” he said, “Hmm what about us being together for the rest of our lives?” asked Feeona, “To us” whispered Bryan.

They had been laying in each others arms for hours now- sharing secrets, childhood memories and theories on what they thought was going to happen after all this had ended. “When I first heard about it I thought it was some kind of sick scientific study on human behavior- that it was all made up to see how everybody would react, but then it started getting all too scary not to be real” Feeona had told Bryan. “I guess all things, all times eventually end- I mean look what happened to the dinosaurs. I think this may be the end of human existence as we know it, but not a complete end to existence at all” Bryan had shared. It was around then that the ground started shaking, slow at first, but faster as the minutes went by, “Its happening” whispered Feeona.

Bryan and Feeona had scampered off the roof before it had collapsed, they had taken refuge under a nearby tree, holding on tightly to each other. “Bryan” Feeona shouted over the noise “I just want you to know, that there’s nobody else I would want to be sharing this moment with right now”, “Me to Feeona” said Bryan before kissing her for what would be the last time ever. Suddenly there was a massive blast of light instantly blinding all who saw it. And then there was nothing.

The Price I Pay For Perfect Pants

On a recent revaluation of my thinning wardrobe, it came to my attention that I am lacking in the pants department- in fact the only pants I own are either jeans, tracksuits or pajama's.

Looking to rectify the situation I have been keeping a watchful eye out for some pants that take my fancy- to no avail.

Until recently on a walk home from work I decided to have a quick look in an American Apparel Store- something I have avoided doing for the last few months due to the fact I can never just 'look' in an American Apparel Store without buying something that I could not afford in the first place. But on this particular day since I had no more then twenty dollars to my name I decided having a look could do no harm.

This event took place about 3 weeks ago and since then the vision of these pants have been floating in my head, refusing to leave me alone. Alas, I shall return this weekend to see if they are still in store. Damn you American Apparel! You win this time!

A Box of Memories

When your a rolling stone with no direction home, you try not to accumulate too many trinkets that are going to weigh your suitcase down- a light traveller is a happy traveller. But still along the way it's almost impossible to not carry some keepsakes that for some reason or another you don't wish to part with.

And so last night I pulled out my suitcase to slowly start preparing the packing process for my trip home to Australia in one week (Yay!) and I came across a black box I keep full of wonderful gems that fell into my possession along the way around this world so far. And now if you'll come along, I shall share some of these with you....

San Francisco Dreamers

This year in July, just before we left Vancouver- it was decided that while we were still on that side of the country, that we must visit San Francisco. So off Emmily, Neil, Bryan & Myself went! We stayed at the Amsterdam Hostel on Taylor Street, which is a wonderful old building with squeaky steps and it is located right down town.

San Francisco is a beautiful, relaxed, bohemian type city. The houses reminded me of the intro to Full House and the streets are so steep that I imagine living there would keep you pretty fit- me and Emmily almost died walking up a particularly vertical one and were like fallen soldiers telling the boys to "Go on without us".

On the second day we spent the day exploring the waterfront, which included Pier 39 which has shops, rides and best of all- a whole lot of sea lions that call this Pier their home. We also came across the darling Musée Mécanique, which is an arcade full of coin operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines mostly from the 1920's and up. Going through it made you feel like you were on a date in the olden days- a lot of fun.

On the third day we took the ferry over to Saulsalito, which is a small seaside community just over the bay- with an abundance of restaurants, art gallery's and locally owned boutiques full of trinkets. We decided to walk back to town from Saulsalito via the Golden Gate Bridge- which was a lot colder then I expected. Something about standing on the edge and looking over the sides of the Golden Gate Bridge gave me an eerie, haunting feeling.

Every night we went out to different bars around town- we found one that did $2 bottles of beer, which made for a VERY cheap night out! On the way to this particular bar we were hustled by a homeless man who sounded distinctly like Tom Waits... in fact I'm not entirely convinced that it wasn't Tom Waits in disguise.

San Francisco was a whirlwind vacation for me, sometimes it doesn't even feel like it really happened- not because it wasn't fantastic but because three days is definitely not enough time to spend in this beautiful town!

Pier 39

Sausalito

Golden Gate Bridge

Neil & Emmily keeping warm

Me & Bryan- taken at an old photo booth in Musée Mécanique Arcade on the Boardwalk