Hello Autumn



Last day at St Kilda with Tom.

 

Hello Everyone,

Things have quietened down here, as my time in Australia is drawing to a close. I've been feeling a little down, and the weather is starting to feel the same. The temperature is dropping and we've had a bit of rain. It still looks beautiful here, and I think we'll be in for a very colourful autumn.

Since Tom went home to Singapore a few weeks ago, I haven't really been up to much, since I'm trying to preserve the rest of my money for when I join him there in a month or so. I've still been keeping pretty active though; I've been helping out at school, which means spending lots of time with my favourite Carpet Python, Boston, as well as all the wonderful kids.

I'm sure most of you have noticed the various cancer awareness campaigns flying around, one of which is The Great Shave. One of our kids, Scout, got involved and raised over $2000 dollars shaving all her beautiful blond hair off! She's a great kid, and also a great barista, considering she's only thirteen years old. I love spending time at school with all of the kids - I don't know how I'll cope when it's time to go home.

The rest of the time, I've just spent catching up with my great friend Courtney, who managed to hurt herself on Wednesday pretty badly. She's possibly torn a muscle, so she's been getting around on crutches. I've been helping her get around, feed the horses and the dogs, and make sure she's relaxing as well.

On Thursday, I went riding at Melton for the first time in a few months, which was great. I'm still sore today, but that just means I got a good workout! I rode a palomino pony called Bailey, and fell in love with her, even though she spent most of the ride bucking. She was a lovely horse, and I genuinely didn't feel afraid on her, even when I was half way round her neck! She didn't seem like she was trying to buck me off. Maybe she was just seeing what she could get away with, or maybe she was a bit sore, but either way, by the end of the ride, we had a good partnership. I'm looking forward to riding her again, anyway.

Lauren and I catching up
over Max Brenner

Last weekend, I caught up with my lovely Lauren, who I haven't seen since before Christmas, and we've got plans to spend some time together next week as well.

So, not much has been happening here, but I'm still enjoying myself, and mostly just looking forward to our trip to the Gold Coast in a couple of weeks. I'll be keeping busy until then, and I'll update everyone after that.

Thanks for reading my slightly boring update, and I hope you British folk have enjoyed your few days of sun.

Take care, all,

Em

Victoria on Fire

Guess where we've been?

Hey guys,

So a few weeks ago, I blogged about the fires during the 40 degree week. Well, they're back. It's been pretty tense in Victoria this weekend; on Sunday, we got fire warnings for Gisborne, and we could see the smoke out the back of the house. It was pretty scary, but we were prepared to jump in the car and go if needed, and we were expecting a wind change. Unfortunately, when it came, although it pushed the fire away from us, it stoked fires towards Riddells Creek and then Mickleham.

The Riddells Creek fire scorched most of the land along the freeway, so things are pretty black around here, but they got it under control sometime during the night. However, three days later, the Mickleham fire is still roaring across the state. The house toll has mounted to somewhere around fifty, now, but thankfully, as of yet, there are no lives lost.

Today, Melbourne and its suburbs have been veiled in an eerie blanket of smoke; the wind has died down and the haze has settled in all the valleys and dips, hovering over the city and its surrounding towns. It's weird, but it made for a pretty beautiful sunrise this morning on our way into school!

The dry heat was quite a contrast to the weather conditions in Sydney a few days ago. Tom, who's in Australia for a few weeks from Singapore, and I took a quick trip to the tourist capital of NSW for three nights, and we had a really great time. We really just wanted to see the sights, so although we would have liked to stay longer, three days was pretty good.

We arrived midday Monday, and the weather was beautiful. We checked into our hotel, which was a bit of a hidden gem considering the price; it was a basic, but comfortable room at a great price, and the staff were really helpful. We got hold of a map, and they showed us the best ways to get around, suggesting a train or bus into Darling Harbour. However, considering the price of our train tickets from the airport, we decided to brave a walk into town. Turns out we made the right decision. Even though we got lost a couple of times, the walk was really easy and it only took about 20 minutes, so we did that everyday.

We were pretty blown away by Darling Harbour. Yes, it's tourist central, but it's so beautiful and lively. I joined the tourists and got my camera out, especially when we saw little moon jellyfish in the water!

The beautiful water at Darling Harbour



And these guys were just everywhere!

 

We squeezed in as much as we could on the first afternoon, because we were concerned about the weather for the following days. We decided to go straight to the aquarium (after stopping for a traditional Maccas lunch) and we were really impressed with the effort Sydney Sea Life Aquarium are putting into Shark Conservation. Have you heard of shark fin soup? Millions of sharks are killed every year for this, and trust me when I say it is neither quick, nor painless, nor sustainable. Beautiful, harmless little sharks are plucked from the water, relieved of their fins, which is like someone cutting off our arms and legs, then tossed back into the water, where they either drown or bleed to death.

Tell me this isn't gorgeous?

What's worse is that, while these lovely little reef sharks lose their fins for use as food or medicine, there are some boats out their stalking, capturing and butchering Whale Sharks, the largest fish in the ocean and the least harmful one there is, just to use their fins as decoration outside restaurants. As far as I'm concerned, this is barbaric behaviour, and can only be called human, since no animal would do this to another animal.

The good news is, that aquariums like Sydney Sea Life are educating the masses, and trying to put a stop to this awful practice. This particular aquarium has about 15 different species of shark, and since Tom and I are losers, we were really excited about that.

Staying on the topic of sharks, we later went to Sydney's IMAX theatre, which is apparently the largest in the world, to see the 3D Great White Shark documentary. I'm not big on 3D as a rule, but it was a beautifully made film, and I felt really privileged to be able to see it. I would recommend it to anyone in the area; it lays rest to an awful lot of false rumours about the supposed man eaters.

As the sun was setting on Monday, we grabbed a water taxi round to the famous Sydney Harbour for a drive by visit, and although we didn't get off and walk around, we were stoked just to see the iconic bridge and the opera house (pictured above). It was a really beautiful evening and we polished it off with dinner in a really nice pasta restaurant back in Darling Harbour,

Tuesday brought the rain with it, so we spent most of the day exploring Darling Harbour, and we also took a trip to the zoo. Sydney have been really innovative with their space; at first, we thought the sign for the zoo was just advertising it and the actual place was somewhere else. Turns out we were wrong. Sydney Wild Life Zoo is cleverly and carefully built into a building no bigger than the neighbouring Madame Tussauds museum, yet still holds an awesome range of Australian animals, including Snakes, Tassie Devils, Kangaroos and one of the largest salt water crocs in captivity.

I won't bore you too much with more zoo talk, but since I got to hang out with a python who was two or three meters long, I think it's safe to say we were, again, pretty damn impressed.

Wednesday's weather was slightly better, and after a bit of confusion regarding public transport and which bus we should get, we made it to Bondi Beach. I think this possibly ranks in my top ten favourite days.

 

I watch the show Bondi Rescue, so I was so excited to be here. I think I drove Tom mad, since I spent most of the day stalking life guards, blushing, and taking photos of surfers. I got to say hi to one of my heroes; one of the life guards from the show, we made friends with a couple of awesome surfers, and we walked from Bondi to Bronte.

Tony Audin, catching waves.

By the end of the day, we were pretty worn out, but more importantly, we were very sunburnt. This baffled us, since the day had been mostly cloudy, but we learnt the hard way that in Australia, the sun doesn't have to be out to get burnt.

All in all, we had a really awesome time in Sydney and I'm so glad I went. Even though I love Victoria and want to stay here forever, I really wanted to do the tourist places, and Sydney was definitely worth it.

This week, I'm heading up to Brisbane to meet up with Tom again, so expect a post dedicated to Steve Irwin and his zoo very soon!

Thanks for reading, (if you got this far) and take care, guys!

Em

Catching Lightning

Thursday's sheet lightning

 

Hey folks,

As many of you might know, Victoria got HOT last week. I've been simmering through five days of soaring temperatures, which bottomed out at 29 degrees during the coldest hours of the night. We had a relatively cool start on Monday, at only 36 degrees, then the mercury began to climb. It didn't cool down until Friday afternoon, when 44 degrees became 30; the cool change blew in about 6pm and we were all relieved.

Still, I actually really enjoyed the week. The scorched ground seemed so Australian, and even though we were worried about the fires springing up around us, it was a great show of humanity, with hundreds of volunteers stepping up to support the CFA and helping to protect people's homes.

Bush fires out here can be started so easily. In my opinion, the most common cause is as simple as flicking a cigarette butt out the window; even though we're on a total fire ban, people still smoke in their cars. When the grass is nothing more than hay, it only takes one spark to set the fields alight.

Another cause became apparent most nights last week; dry lightning. As dusk drew in, we started to hear distant rumbles of thunder, and we watched the clouds stumble over each other to crowd the evening sky. At first, there was only sheet lightning, staining the clouds purple and lighting up the sky. Then, over the hills, the forks lit up. The first night, we just watched and listened, and felt the thunder shake the house. But on Thursday evening, I ventured outside with my camera.

Several years ago, a flash storm in Greece struck up one night while we were eating dinner. It was the first year I'd had an SLR, and I was lucky enough to capture a Rip in the Sky, featured here. Since then, I've never had my camera on hand during lightning shows, so I've never been able to confirm whether it was talent or sheer luck that caught that image. So on Thursday, I stood outside, watching two spots in the sky for lightning.

After thirty minutes of holding up my camera, my arms were aching and I was getting pretty frustrated. I'd caught two mediocre flashes of sheet lightning - nothing to brag about - and I decided to give up and go inside. Five minutes after I sat down, however, the sky began to light up with electricity. I grabbed my camera and ran back outside.

I'm so glad I did; my second attempt proved more fruitful, if not bountiful, and I was ecstatic to capture this beautiful bolt across the big Australian sky.

Lucky Catch

I am now able to conclude that catching lightning is hard work, it hurts your arms, gets your feet wet when the heavens open and makes you paranoid about getting electrocuted!

Last week, despite the heat and the worry about bush fires, was great. I'm proud of my photo, even if it's not perfect, and it's nice that things have cooled down a little now! Victoria is exhausted and a little charred, but the CFA have worked tirelessly and quickly and saved as many people's homes as they could, so they have my heartfelt gratitude.

Stay cool, everyone, and I'll be back soon,

Em

Happy New Year

The Grange in Adelaide

I'm a bit late with this seasons greetings, but since I'm one of these travelling types now, I'm sure you can forgive me.

Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope you've all had wonderful Christmases, Hanukahs, Yules and whatever else you celebrate. It's been a busy month for me and as it always does, the time is flying. Christmas was a hot one here, and unfortunately, my uncle was working, so we had to wait for him to come home. We had a lovely day anyway, and we all spoilt each other with an excessive amount of gifts and plenty of food and love. We're still working through our Christmas stash. Slowly.

In the short period between Christmas and New Year, I managed to fit quite a lot in. My auntie and I took a trip into the city to catch the third day of the boxing day test match, and thoroughly enjoyed the cricket. I'm an Aussie supporter, as my love for cricket was only discovered four years ago in Cairns; to me, it seems natural to support the team that caught my interest.

It was another very hot day, but the atmosphere was fantastic and even though we were sticky and sweltering, we had a really great time. ALL the boys put on a great show.

 

 

After the cricket, I hopped on a plane to Adelaide to visit my lovely friend Jacquie, who before now, I haven't seen since we were both in year nine together. I spent New Years with her and her boyfriend, family and friends, and we spent the night on the Grange Beach, somewhere between a dozen sets of fireworks and the ocean. It was a beautiful warm evening, and we swam until it got dark, ate cheese and crackers, home made chicken burgers and hand picked cherries.

 

The New Year gang, minus me

As the sun went down, I grabbed my camera to get this shot.

 

The night was perfect, since I'd been worried about how I'd celebrate New Years. I'm not much of a party girl, but I don't like to sit around and ignore it. As it happens, Jacquie recently stopped drinking, so it turned out we were the perfect match!

 

While I was in Adelaide, Jacquie unfortunately had to work a fair bit, but we made up for it by spending plenty of time on the beach, eating great food and watching lots of Disney movies. Throw in a couple of hysterical games of Trivial Pursuit and you've got the perfect recipe for a great Radelaide holiday.

 

I'm back in Melbourne now, and although the weather was a bit miserable when I first got back, it's certainly heating up now and it looks like we're in for a great summer. In the last two days, we've been to Melbourne Zoo, which was awesome, and St Kilda beach for a few hours. Let's keep the review short; you'll get bored of my zoo stories otherwise.

 

I was so excited at both Adelaide and Melbourne zoos to see that they had Gila Monsters.

 

 

These are one of only two venomous lizards in the world, and also one of the first dangerous animals I ever learnt about. I've never seen one in the wild, so to see four, two at each zoo, in the space of a week was mind blowing. I love these things.

 

Melbourne Zoo also had the most gorgeous baby Asian elephant running about in the sun, three big male lions scrapping over lunch, and a lovely brown bear, to name but a few of the sights. Adelaide Zoo only topped this with their two Giant Pandas, who were magnificent, but I felt a little sorry for them (and the rest of the animals), because they never get a moment's peace!

 

Yesterday, we topped off the week with a stroll down St Kilda beach. Here in Melbourne, it's considered to be a less than perfect beach; my cousin warned us to watch out for needles in the sand, but when we got there, I thought it was lovely. It's a city beach, so yes, it is surrounded by roads, cars and industrial areas, but the water was lovely and clear, and the beach was packed, so it can't be that bad!

 

As beaches go, I rate this one pretty highly.

My auntie bought me lunch, and we sunbathed for a bit, got a little burnt, and paddled along a sand bank. It was a lovely way to spend a sunny day. Today is a bit hotter, and we're planning to spend most of it just relaxing, but we've got quite a bit planned for the next month.

I've booked my trip to Sydney for the beginning of February, my auntie and I are planning an overnight trip to Brisbane (to visit another zoo), and my friend Courtney and I are talking about heading to the Gold Coast for a few days.

Anyway, that's my adventures to date, and as always, I'll keep you updated as often as I can.

Thanks for reading, guys,

Stay cool!

Em

Enter Graduates

Waiting for the ceremony to start... Mortar board and all.

So I feel as though the last two weeks have been about two days. It's like the days are tripping over themselves to get here, and I'm running out of time to get everything done. Since finishing work a week and a half ago, I've spent five days in Devon, (where admittedly, we did a lot of sitting around and watching TV), taken a trip to Cheltenham, graduated and celebrated with my friends, some of whom I won't see again for a long while.

I've started packing my suitcase for Tuesday, and I've also been trying to sell my car, so I feel as though I've been run off my feet! Even though it's been stressful, I've been glad to be keeping busy, although the odd day to relax, write or paint is always nice, especially since I'll probably be even busier very soon.

Graduation was so much fun. Although I was apprehensive about the ceremony, and really nervous, we all had a real blast and it was so great to see everyone one last time. We spent the whole evening in our favourite pub, and even though I don't drink, it was a lot of fun watching everybody get more and more unsteady on my feet. It's a shame I didn't have my camera to hand.

Shaking hands with the Vice Chancellor... or the Pro Chancellor. I didn't know him, anyway.

I was really grateful to Tom, who's putting me up in Singapore in April, for letting me stay overnight in his flat, and we went for coffee and breakfast early the morning after, despite the fact we didn't go to sleep until 2am! It was great to catch up with him too, and the next time I see him will be on the other side of the world.

I was so pleased to have my family around me, and so so proud of all my friends who graduated with me, especially my darling friend Becca, who won the creative writing award for enthusiasm and hard work.

Becca with her award.

My flight to Australia is at 10.30pm on Tuesday, flying from Heathrow, and happily there doesn't appear to be any snow on the forecast. I'm really excited to get going, and although I haven't been able to save as much money as I wanted to, thanks to the generosity of my grandparents, so long as I'm careful, I'll have plenty to keep me going. Expect my next blog from Melbourne, and I'll keep everyone updated!

Roll on Tuesday,

Em

Freaking out

Last year's snow... Let's hope it waits as long this year!

This weekend has been overshadowed by an article I read on Saturday, claiming that all hell is going to break loose in November. Apparently, we are set for a monster winter, due to hit us as early as November. Severe snow storms will affect public transport and cause major disruption... So I'm told.

So my plan is to leave the day before my flight and camp out at the airport. Sounds good, right? I'm afraid, because a few years ago, my brother was supposed to fly to Turkey to visit our dad in March. He never made it to the airport because of the snow, so he never got the money back for his flight. At least if my flight were cancelled, I'll get moved to another flight or get my money back, but if I don't make it to the airport, I won't get anything.

So think sunny thoughts, people. I can't miss my flight!

Argh!

In other news, just a couple of weeks left of work until it's all go. Visit to Exeter in the works, then a last stop in at Cheltenham for Grad. Where is the time going?

Em