Sharing a Favourite Memory

I've traveled pretty extensively over the last few years, and as a result I have made wonderful friends, shared lots of adventures and made happy memories.

One of my favourite memories took place in the USA a few years ago while I was embarking on a 3 month overseas trip. My dad and I spent weeks driving around Canada and the USA, including a 2 week tour. The tour group was one of the best I have ever traveled with. There was none of the normal squabbling and cattiness that can occur when you put that many people together in a confined bus. During the tour, my Dad and I became close to a couple called Bernie and Judy.

Dad and Bernie began telling jokes and bouncing off each other which made them hilarious. Judy spoke about her grandchildren and showed me lots of adorable pictures. In return I showed Judy and Bernie pictures I had brought with me, and when I got to the last picture that contained an image of my grandmother and myself Judy and Bernie stopped in surprise. They knew my grandmother from a walking group in Sydney! It was the strangest thing to meet people who knew my family whilst halfway across the world!

By the time we got to Yellowstone we had joked about coming across a bear quite often. So one night after walking to dinner at Yellowstone, we came across this sign:

This sign did say bear at one stage but as you can see the elk are the bigger threat

 Of course this was very helpfully placed at the end of the path that we had just walked on. It made my dad start bragging though. He was all 'I'm a cattle man, I can handle an elk" "I'll be the matador". Of course we didn't see a single creature on the way back.

A day after seeing that sign at Yellowstone my dad, Bernie and I went for a walk to explore the area. All was going fine until we came across an elk on one of the paths. She was clearly a little distressed and kept looking over he shoulder which indicated she had a calf hiding in the bushes. Fortunately she was alert but not alarmed and we walked past.

Since it was the only way back to our accommodation, we had no choice but to return the same way and that is when things got interesting. The elk went from being just aware of us, to wanting to get us out of there ASAP and started moving her foot like she was going to charge. Guess who was the first to bolt for the cover of the trees? That's right, Mr big shot matador. Bernie and I turned around and he was gone, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Who would run from this cute elk?

After that my Dad was named 'The Elk Whisperer' and he will never live it down.

Sadly Bernie passed away last month, after a long battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed.

Even his illness couldn't keep Bernie from attending our engagement party.

Catch Up

Besides buying a house, life has continued to go too quickly. Am I alone in wishing you could pause life sometimes like you can a DVD, just to take a breather? Oh and the benefit is that then you could rewind when you've just done something bad. Like oops, I smashed my favourite vase, oh well I'll rewind and edit that. I digress though...

After the engagement party, I flew to Brisbane to attend a conference for work. It was a good opportunity to network and hear other speakers working in my field presenting new ideas. It was surprisingly tiring though, and considering that I'd already been doing too much it really took a toll on my health.

 The view from the Brisbane accommodation, from the 20th Floor overlooking the botanic gardens.

 The plane trip to Brisbane just had the most beautiful cloud formations, I had to capture it on camera.

By the time we had a planned trip to Ballina for a weeks holiday I was already physically exhausted and all I wanted to do was a day of 'nothingness'. That might sound boring but to laze around in pyjamas and simply rest and read seemed the best way to recharge my batteries.

Here's where I went wrong, rather than knowing my limits I had ignored my body. Consequently I got a terrible cold, and 2 weeks later I was still feeling awful. It turns out that I have asthma which explains a lot about why I have always struggled to throw off any colds. Now that I've been diagnosed it has made such a difference. I'm back to my normal happy and healthy self, and just having a name for it is a relief.

While we were visiting the North Coast, we (David, myself and his mum Christine) visited Coffs Harbour and swam with a dolphin called Bella (pictured). David and I fell in love with Bella, and we are both keen to eventually do the other experiences. This experience was the shallow water experience. It was the most amazing thing I have ever done.

We had a great time in Ballina, catching up with David's famly and enjoying the warm hospitality of his Auntie Ali and Uncle Allan. I also couldn't resist befriending their cat Rambo:

 How cute is that? With all the rain and the coldish breeze outside Rambo came in for a warm siesta.

On the way home from Ballina, we missed our bus back to Canberra. Our plane was delayed 3 hours from leaving Ballina airport and although I had left a 2-hour gap, it wasn't enough for extenuating circumstances. Luckily my grandparents gave us accommodation in Sydney for the night and we got to spend time with this cutie again:

We still don't have a clear moving date (since it's 2 weeks from when the tenants move out it is highly likely we will only have 2 weeks notice) and it is making moving plans tricky. I don't want to start packing too early and be tripping over boxes constantly, but I also don't want to be stressed out leaving it to the last minute. I'm really impatient to move in to the new house :)

David and I have almost booked a photographer for our wedding and we just had our save the dates printed. Soon it will be just a year until we get married ♥

On My Wants List...

A dolphin experience at Coffs Harbour. Swimming with dolphins is on my to-do-list.

This birdhouse from storybookdesign.

Scratch Map - scratch off countries as you visit. Potentially very rewarding (and expensive).

This garlic zoom, sure beats the ordinary garlic crusher.

Britain as Florence Tells It

David and I got back from Britain and Ireland at the beginning of this month. I could bore you with details of our trip but I think Florence tells it better in pictures:

About to leave Sydney airport to begin our adventures.

 No visit to London would be complete without visiting the Library

 Getting Lost in Hampton Court Palace maze

The famous Tower of London Bridge, before protestors closed it for a few hours

High Tea - Because that's what you do when in England!

National Leprechaun Museum - Only in Ireland ;)

Cardiff Castle in Wales

 Bath

 Stonehenge

Whitby

Stirling Castle in Scotland

Best Thing on the Trip: By far, for me it was visiting Scotland. Partially because it is my heritage but mostly because the scenery was stunning. The heather on the hills was breathtaking beautiful. I can't choose just one location though because I enjoyed them all.

Worst Thing on the Trip: Getting sick. Dubbed the 'superbug' or the 'plague' we both got a terrible cold (I don't think I have ever been so sick from a simple cold) and we both got secondary infections from it. It's always expected that you'll get something overseas but it really makes exploring hard some days.

Weirdest Thing on the Trip: Being on the Tower of London Bridge exhibition when protestors started jumping out of a window right in front of us. You can read the news story here

Not Long Until I Hit the Sky

So my long awaited UK trip is getting so close. In my world this means the suitcase needs to come out and some serious consideration needs to go into what should (and should not!) go into it. In David's world this means it is still 24 whole days away. You can probably tell which one of us is the crazed organiser.  

Knowing that I'm also about to sit on a plane for a whole 22 hours, (which is torturous by the way - people who say they like flying have only ever been on short flights) I'm loving How Commercial Planes Are Currently Laid Out vs How Commercial Planes Should Be Laid Out. If only the airlines would adopt it someday.

All Things Travel and Real Estate

I started my blog while working at ACU last year. I loved blogging so much I always intended to continue.

Enter lots of distractions, like booking an overseas trip to the UK and now having to work out an itinerary (travellers will sympathise with me as fun and exciting as it has been, it's also time consuming). Thank goodness August isn't here yet!

Then there's the compulsion to scrapbook in my limited free time, and I can spend hours at it. Plus the hours of thinking about scrapbooking and purchasing (unnecessary but totally needed!) supplies online. Drool.....

I've also changed jobs, and I felt bittersweet about it because I did love ACU but a fractional income and trying to get ahead financially did not go together well. I now truly know the value of a regular wage, even if it means working full time and having less time for fun pursuits. It's totally worth not having so much financial stress. Fortunately in my new job I'm working with great people and I love the actual work itself so it has all worked out perfectly.

The biggest thing in my little world at the moment though is the decision to buy a house sometime in the next year. David and I have been hitting a couple of open houses but we haven't been able to do too much yet. I'm building up an idea of where I want to buy and I plan on hitting open homes with more regularity soon.

I am under no illusions that my future house will be as grand as this one, but there's no harm in daydreaming occasionally.

Oh and for anyone looking at buying (or even just for a laugh) I can't speak highly enough of this book:
The Property Diaries: A Story of Buying a House, Finding a Man and Making a Home... All on a Single Income! Antonia Magee

Seriously I was laughing out loud (my housemates probably think I have gone mad). I'd read most of it in one night (it really was that good!). Plus it gave me some good advice. As a complete novice to buying a home, my reading has been limited to real estate, property investment books or budgets. I will succeed though, and I can't wait to have pets again and be paying of a mortgage rather than dead rent money!