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

A month in Melbourne

Healesville Sanctuary water tower, complete with Platypus

Hi readers!

So I've been in Australia for just over a month now; I can't believe it! The time has gone so quickly, and Christmas is on its way in.

I decided to wait until now to post a blog because although I've been keeping busy, we haven't been up to a whole lot out here. My auntie, who's putting me up while I'm out here, works at a school, and her summer holidays start at the end of next week. We decided to put things on hold until then, because we'll have much more time to do everything we've planned to do.

That doesn't mean I've been sitting around doing nothing, of course.

I love Australia. The first thing I thought as we were driving into the city early in my visit was how big everything is. It's so flat here that you can see so much sky and land. Even though the weather has been a bit up and down, everything is so beautiful. Gisborne is out in the country side, about an hour's drive from the city, and the views are amazing. This place makes England seem so small.

I've been doing some riding over in Melton, the next town over, and the equestrian centre is in such a beautiful location. 

There are fields full of kangaroos all over the place and the sun setting behind the school lights everything up like gold dust, even when it's been raining all day. It's been great to get back to riding, now that  I have the time and some money to spare.

 

Outside of that, we've been doing a lot of shopping. Melbourne seems to be the shopping centre capital of Australia and I've been indulging myself a little in some new favourite shops. Mostly, though, I've been Christmas shopping. Auntie Kim and I discovered valet parking at Westfield shopping centre - what a brilliant idea! I've just about finished, now, and we've vowed to stay away from the shops for a while.

In more exciting news, I got my working with children pass, which means I've been helping out a lot at the school. I love it; the kids are so creative and enthusiastic, and the teachers are great. Templestowe college is like no school I've ever been to. 

As a result of helping out there, I've been able to tag along for a couple of field trips. As mentioned in my last blog, a few days after I arrived, we visited Healesville wildlife sanctuary, which focuses on preservation and rehabilitation of Australian wildlife, and we had a lovely day. The weather was great and the kids were so well behaved. The only downside was that the dingoes were all sleeping in the shade to stay out of the heat!

 

Sunbathing 'roo

Goanna... showing his good side

Wedgetail Eagle

 On Thursday, we joined another excursion, this time to Werribee open range zoo, which is an African safari themed park. Another great day with amazing kids and fantastic talks from the zoo keepers. We met three lovely lions, who put on a good show for us, just by sunbathing and yawning.

 

Brothers

 We also got to see Nunki the Serval; the most well behaved cat I've ever seen! She was so beautiful and it was great to see her up close, and learn about these beautiful animals in the wild.

 



Nunki the Serval



Showing off her moves

At home, we've been cooking, baking, wrapping presents and watching the cricket. As an Aussie supporter, it's been smiles all round. As you can probably tell, I've been keeping busy and I'm really looking forward to things kicking off next week. Christmas will start off the summer, and I'll keep you updated on things after that!

 

 

Stay tuned,

Em

Jet lagging

Flying in over Melbourne at 7am

I've touched down on the other side of the world, and I've been here for 24 hours now.

I flew with Qantas with a stopover in Dubai, and the flight was pretty good. It was quiet, so I had a whole row to myself, which was great as it meant I could actually get some sleep! The service was awesome as well - good food and non stop snacks. I watched a few movies, but mostly tried to sleep, so it wasn't much of an ordeal.

None the less, by the time I got off at Melbourne, I was wiped out. They're pretty strict with customs and passport control there, so getting through to baggage reclaim was a bit stressful. I woke up a bit once I saw my aunt and uncle, and actually did quite well during the day, although I was probably a bit spaced out. By 4.30 I was asleep on the sofa, and by 9 I was in bed!

This morning, I got up about 5, and I checked in with everyone in the UK. Today will probably be a pretty lazy day, but I'm so excited to be here and we've got a lot planned.

Although the weather's not brilliant now, we're expecting it to brighten up quite quickly, and Gisborne is such a pretty place that it doesn't matter whether it's sunny or not!

The plan is to go into the city tomorrow, and on Monday, we're going to healesville animal sanctuary, so I'll update Everyone after that.

Stay tuned,

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

What we do when we go to Sleep

It is rare for me to have what one might consider a 'normal' dream. Okay, so dreams are dreams, and I appreciate that they are never precisely normal. Our subconscious worries, fears and contemplations manifest themselves in strange ways, that more often than not make no sense at all to us.

I'm not a lucid dreamer, but I do believe I have some amount of control over what I dream about... To a certain extent. I wonder if this is down to my distaste for living in reality; I am a fantasy writer after all, so perhaps my subconscious takes note of this and chooses my dreams more carefully. For instance, I haven't had a nightmare for several years (not since I went to Madame Tussaud's and walked through the live museum. Never again.) 

I think this comes down to positivity. I look forward to dreaming, and I don't allow myself to worry myself to sleep. This seems to culminate in the strangest dreams, and sometimes, I manage to pluck the thread of a story out from the complex dream weave of my sleeping mind. Sometimes I dream about stories already written, sometimes about real people who I've known and loved coming back in to my life.

I don't claim to be a expert on dreams, but one thing I have learnt is that my dreams are a sign, and not always in the way you would think. I've learned to take each dream and interpret it individually. If I'm dwelling on something that has been worrying me, I may dream about that - maybe a failed Exam or a missed train. But when I wake up, I am relieved, and in many cases, I know to expect the opposite of my dream.

When my dreams take a turn for the strange... Well there's not a lot I can do about that, except the above. Turn it into a story, which is what I plan to do with last night's dream. Perhaps I will post a sample of what I write in my next blog.

Anyway, the summary of this blog I suppose is to consider taking control of your dreams, and if not, then learn from them, and don't be afraid of what a dream is trying to tell you. Remember that dreams are a part of our minds, so why shouldn't we have say in what we do when we go to sleep?

Stay tuned,

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