I'm going to start writing again - Shock, Horror Etc.

So it's been nearly six months since I wrote my last blog.  The irony is that heaps has happened in that time, so I really have no excuse for updating it except for pure laziness.  I think my desire to write is tied in with my enrolment at university.  Maybe because while I'm at uni it seems like more fun to write blog posts and when I'm not at uni the rest of life and sleep is more exciting :P

So quick update on the last six months!

In December we went to go see Muse in concert - it was amazing.  As expected they totally rocked my socks off and the show was just way too exciting.

At the end of December my BFF's little son turned one! She had a lovely 'woodland' themed party for him and it was very sweet to see all the little ones playing together.  The cake was omg amazing (visually since I couldn't eat it :P):

And I finally got to give Cameron the quilt I'd been working on since *thinks* October.  I did a quilting class for four hours every two weeks - great fun and a really good starting point for a complete newbie to the sewing machine!

In January, where I live in Queensland was hit by the floods.  It was a pretty scary time for us because we can see the river from where we live.  But we were really, really lucky to avoid the flooding - by only about 20cm!  If the river had reached the height they were predicting, we probably wouldn't even be living at home still :(  It was really positive to see Queensland pull together and be really supportive of each other in a crisis - makes me proud to be an Aussie :D

Also in January we went on a trip to Melbourne!  I'd never been to Melbourne but always wanted to and let me tell you, I was not disappointed.  I love how eclectic it is as a city - it has something for everyone, which makes it really interesting to visit.  I couldn't live there, but it's definitely a great place to spend a week in.

View from Eureka Tower, Southbank.

I'd also made the decision two weeks before we went to Melbourne to say bye bye to all animal products.  Yes, I am now a vegan (superpowers pending).  So it seemed quite fitting to spend our time in Melbourne with our vegan friends: Phil and his gf Amy.  I have seriously never been so well fed in my entire life - the food was amazing, vegan and just.. omg amazing.  

I'll cover some of the vegan stuff in another post (as well as updating some of my blog roll!).  For now more photos of Melbourne!

Trams!  Really funky way to get around!

 R.M Williams building in the middle of Melbourne Central (shopping centre).

Oh no! It's a giant bird attacking a village! (Relax, it's just a model tudor village :P)

Dinosaurs @ the Melbourne Museum

OMG! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!

Projects on the go in 2011:

- Learning the in's and out's of veganism, nutrition, cooking and the art of a smoking hot bod.

- Writing a business plan to buy a new business mid next year!

- Going to uni and continue to be awesome

- Learning to sew clothes and look at creating some upcycled pieces (inspired by Tweal blog)

- Creating a line of party decorations and giftware

- Researching homeschooling and alternative curriculums

So this year a lot of my writing with focus on those things as I come across them and as I learn more (of course in amongst the usual day-to-day crap I do that I feel the urge to write about!).  Now off to obsessively download apps for my Iphone before taking a walk through the Toowong cemetery! xx

Bye Bye Hamilton!

Well today we left Hamilton Island.  Boarded my first Virgin plane - way better than Jetstar, I guess you get what you pay for teehee.  This time I had TV so the trip went sooo much faster, but still no food :(
Special of today:  A look back at the biggest WTF moment on this trip, proudly brought to you by the King of WTF - Justin.

Okay backstory:  There's this place on the island that sells sculptures and stuff for tourists.  Anyway out front they have some epic statues of different things.  Justin (who is obsessed with aliens and what not)  noticed this little alien dude hanging off the back of some chiselling ancient dude!  Naturally he couldn't resist capturing the moment and frankly I dont know who's scarier in this photo out of the three of them.   The alien may just take the prize because of the anal probe he's holding in his hand.. EW!

Whitehaven Beach

Today we took a tour to the beautiful Whitehaven Beach.  It was a great trip with Fantasea off Hamilton Island, they served us lunch and afternoon tea which was yumm-o.  The scenery was fantastic on the way to Whitehaven and it just got even better once we landed.

As you can see the water is just unbelievably beautiful and clear.. the sand is so so fine and pristine.  Unfortunately it was a tad bit windy, so it made it hard to read or even lie on the beach without being covered in a fine blanket after 10 minutes!  Justin and his dad gave the metal detector's a swing with no luck - can't win them all I guess.

This is me giving the underwater camera a go (it's my housemate's camera, so I was super paranoid about dropping it in the water!).  If anything is a testament to how much wind there was, it's my hair right there.. outrageous!

This is Justin with a starfish he found in the water.  The photo doesn't show it, but this guy had really really bright red, nasty looking spikes on him.  It was really cool seeing such a big one up close and in the wild!  (The starfish of course, not Justin).  

I wish I could say the trip back was as nice as the trip to Whitehaven, but the wind really picked up and it suddenly become Hurlsville for me (I'm not great with boats that are moving around a lot).  But all in all I really loved Whitehaven and would love to go back there in the summer sometime. :)

Bird Invasion on Hamilton Island

It started with one little cockatoo.  I was eating my sandwich on the balcony of the lovely apartment we were staying at on Hamilton Island when it flew onto the edge of the balcony in front of me.  This cockatoo (who I would end up calling Bungy because of his mangled foot) looked at me expectantly and I thought 'Ah what the hell' and gave him some of my bread.  He took it very carefully and ate in a very dapper fashion.

Next thing I know Bungy jumps on the table, scaring the crap out of me and just when I think he's crossed boundaries he jumps right on my knee and gives me a long hard look with his head tilted towards me.  We would soon find out Bungy wasn't the only overly friendly bird on the island!

This is Justin's dad feeding Bungy nuts.  He would always take food very gently and get very very close, but he wouldn't let you touch him.

This is a kookaburra I found outside our door.  He was literally about 30cm away from me and the camera was about 10cm away from him when I took the photo.  Amazing how tame these birds have become.

And this is what happens when chips get left out on the balcony!  There are about 6-8 lorikeets you CAN'T see in this picture!  Boy were they loud!  

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's been 6 years since I boarded a plane, the last time was to get on a very long flight back to Australia from Germany when I was 16.  Today I boarded my first Jetstar flight to Hamilton Island!  The actual flight was pretty non-eventful (No TV and no food will do that) but once we got near the island we got some sweet views of the islands around.

Once we landed on the island, I was thrilled to find out that we go our own sweet little golf buggy to drive around the island on - hell yeah!  Courtesy of our 5km an hour buggy somehow making it to the highest point by road on the island here is a shot of the Hamilton Island waters.

                                        

Holidays - Moreton Island

My boyfriend and his father have an addiction - treasure hunting.  They won't see anyone about this 'gold fever' which is sometimes a good thing - because I score some pretty sweet trips out of their obsession.  Today's blog entry is about our trip to Moreton Island!

We caught the car ferry from Brisbane Harbour to Tangalooma Resort.  It's a great place, bit of trivia: one of the Scooby Doo films was filmed on the island!  All the places to stay are right on the beach, so it's literally like a 1 minute walk straight onto sand, wonderful! And of course you can always see the beautiful sunrise/sunset from your balcony.

Moreton Island is also home to a lovely lake called Blue Lagoon.  We had great success with the metal detectors there, I even found my first ring!  A lovely little silver ring with possibly a diamond in it - Very exciting!

But the coolest part was getting to feed the dolphins that come to feed every night at Tangalooma.  Our dolphin 'Echo' was really gentle and it was lovely to see them up close like that!