Once again I am a patriotic Australian Canadian. Today is Anzac Day in Australia. The significance of this day is to remember all the Australians and New Zealanders who died in all of the wars they have faught in. Similiar to Rememebrance Day, but different obviously. (They also celebrate Remembrance Day). Dee, our fellow Australian friend, Monica and I woke up at 3 (well I slept for an hour and the girls didn't sleep) and we took a bus to Martin Place where they had their Dawn Service. It was a pretty cool experience. There was approximately 35,000 people at the service. Then we walked all the way home and went to bed.
I also have two friends from the Whitsundays here in Sydney until Wednesday. Steffan and Simon. They are also Welsh. It is good to have them back and actually hear a true Welsh accent. They also speak Welsh a fair bit and it makes me giggle. A language I don't think I will ever have interest in learning. It is a very crazy language. It's cool how they make words with no vowels.
I am now off to go to my flatmate, Maritzio's barbecue. It is a nice day out today. Probably in the 20s. Definitely, not a beach day though. I don't think I will be seeing one of those for awhile.
Take care!
Holly
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
More Birthdays!
haha. I was waiting for some crazy things to happen before I posted again. I felt like I may start to get boring in these but a few of you have been asking when I am going to post again so I will let you know what has happened in the past week or so. I have been trying to save money so I have not gone out much. Just lots walking around and having friends over.
Karina, a friend from BC was here for a few days. Her birthday was on the 13th so on the 14th we went out for supper. A couple days later was David's birthday. He wanted to go out for supper with just us girls but I decided to surprise him by booking an Indian Restaurant (his favourite kind of food)in Darling Harbour and having his good guy friends from here meet up with us. The boys were very cooperative and he was very happy and surprised. Now, when I made reservations for this restaurant I knew it would be a 20-30 dollar meal and was willing to pay for that. The boys had decided that they had wanted to do the Banquet Meal between the 7 of us. Let's just say 832 dollars later Karina and I were Shocked! haha. The boys were nice and took care of most of the bill. I wanted to cry...and laugh... It was an experience that will not be forgotten that is for sure.
The next morning Karina had a flight to catch at 12:30 pm. So she got up and started getting ready to leave at 8:30 to be at the airport at 9. As I was lying there, listening to her get ready, I heard a shocked sound come from her mouth and then a little scream. She hadn't checked her flight and it was actually scheduled to leave for 10. Moral of the story: Don't go for international flights until 1 hour before and you will avoid line ups! hahaha. She was pretty freaked out but she ended up making it perfectly fine!
The past couple days I have been waiting on some transcripts that my dad has mailed me. So I have been working on a new resume (for a serving job) and I have been running and walking the coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. It's an hour of lots of up hills and down hills and stairs. It is beautiful and has rained everytime, which is cold but really refreshing. It feels good to be getting exercise other than walking around everywhere.
There is a little summary of my past couple weeks.
Holly
Karina, a friend from BC was here for a few days. Her birthday was on the 13th so on the 14th we went out for supper. A couple days later was David's birthday. He wanted to go out for supper with just us girls but I decided to surprise him by booking an Indian Restaurant (his favourite kind of food)in Darling Harbour and having his good guy friends from here meet up with us. The boys were very cooperative and he was very happy and surprised. Now, when I made reservations for this restaurant I knew it would be a 20-30 dollar meal and was willing to pay for that. The boys had decided that they had wanted to do the Banquet Meal between the 7 of us. Let's just say 832 dollars later Karina and I were Shocked! haha. The boys were nice and took care of most of the bill. I wanted to cry...and laugh... It was an experience that will not be forgotten that is for sure.
The next morning Karina had a flight to catch at 12:30 pm. So she got up and started getting ready to leave at 8:30 to be at the airport at 9. As I was lying there, listening to her get ready, I heard a shocked sound come from her mouth and then a little scream. She hadn't checked her flight and it was actually scheduled to leave for 10. Moral of the story: Don't go for international flights until 1 hour before and you will avoid line ups! hahaha. She was pretty freaked out but she ended up making it perfectly fine!
The past couple days I have been waiting on some transcripts that my dad has mailed me. So I have been working on a new resume (for a serving job) and I have been running and walking the coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. It's an hour of lots of up hills and down hills and stairs. It is beautiful and has rained everytime, which is cold but really refreshing. It feels good to be getting exercise other than walking around everywhere.
There is a little summary of my past couple weeks.
Holly
Monday, April 13, 2009
Give me a home among the gumtrees
Well, I just got back from a weekend away at Pacific Palms. We did lots of really cool stuff. I got to see some animals in the wild too! Kangaroos, wallabies, dolphins, kookaburras..and many other cool birds!Here is the link of the place we stayed.
http://terms.pacificpalmsholidays.com.au/game/realestate.nsf/BlueysBeach/BLUEYS_SANCTUARY
There were 7 of us all together. Kristin and Steve, Rupert and Jess, and then Jo, Matty and I. It was a beautiful place with a green scenery in the backyard with kangaroos and wallabies playing around in the grass. From our balcony we could see the ocean. On the first day there we saw dolphins playing in the waves. We saw them again on the last day but it was nothing like the first day. There was a huge pod of them jumping around and playing. It was sweet.
We were pretty lucky, the weekend was supposed to be full of rain but we had sunshine and nice warm days. We went to Seals Rocks first thing in the morning on Friday. It was packed with Surfers. The water was nice and warm although I didn't get the chance to go for a swim. Later on that night, after driving around for hours to find the perfect spot, the boys went fishing while the girls just hung out. Steve managed to catch a flathead which we ended up cooking and eating for supper. Delicious! After supper, Jo went under the sink to get something and came out to ask the boys to help her with a spider. She seemed very calm about it so I didn't think much about it. All of a sudden, Steve came out with a HUGE SPIDER on a cutting board (Stephanie, you are lucky you didn't see this) Jess and I freaked out! I ran to the other end of the balcony. I realized that I probably wanted a picture of this to show everyone back home so I started to run to get my camera. That plan did not work as the spider felt off the board and onto the ground right in front of me. I ran in the opposite direction of my camera. This was like the size of a tarantula or something. Huge body, thick legs and HAIRY! Steve, who has lived with this kind of stuff for years, said that that was the biggest spider of that kind he has ever seen! Yikes!
At around 1:30 or so that evening (or early morning) the boys and I went fishing with the flathead's head as bait. It was kind of neat fishing from the beach in the dark. The moon was bright enough that we could see everything. Unfortuately, Rupert snagged the line into the rocks and that was the end of our fishing for that night.
On Saturday we did a few little hiking trails. The trees and forests are so beautiful around here. Pictures cannot do justice. We went in an area called Booti Booti National Park...hehehe. The boys and Jess went to fish at Elizabeth Beach while Jo, Kristin and I walked up a trail to Shelly Beach (the beach that was known as a Nudist Beach...ek!) It was a beautiful beach. Not very busy like I had thought it would be. There was a little colony of nudists off to one side and the rest of the beach had children and families running around. Kristin, Jo and I decided to Rock Scramble (from pictures you may see there are always lots of rocks at the end of beaches. We climbed along those) across to Elizabeth Beach. We got about half way and reached a cliff that made the rest of the trip impossible. We then met up with the boys and Jess and headed back for a relaxed evening at the house.
Sunday, I was woken up to two little "easter bunnies" hoping into my room with a plastic bag telling me to get ready for the easter egg hunt. Jo and Kristin had hid a whole bunch of eggs outside and we all had to go find them. It was actually really fun and there was TONS of chocolate. I do have a bit of a tummy ache now. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a Market and the beach. Steve dusted off his surfboard and surfed like a pro, until his fin hit his ankle. He stayed in for a bit but thought it may not be a good idea to be out there like shark bait. He was bleeding pretty bad. I had to sit in the van and wait until everyone was done bandaging him up. Puke. I did manage to get a picture of it while the blood was cleaned up, before it started gushing again. The boys ended the night with fishing again. We watched them for awhile. Dolphins would come up to them every once and a while. It was so neat. Steve caught another flathead which made for another delicious part to our supper again.
Today was a day of lots of rain and busy traffic. We decided to take the scenic route back to Sydney. We went off the highway and drove through Myall Lakes National Park (remember Stephanie?! I will explain it in another post as this one is long enough.) It was beautiful!!! Still didn't see any koalas even though we were constantly on the lookout. Back on the highway traffic was pretty busy. It took us a lot longer than it normally should to get back. But we did. And now I am back in my lovely home.
I hope I have remembered most of it. It was so great to get to go on a camping trip with some Australians!!!! We had lots of fun and I was very appreciative of it all!
that is all for now,
holly
http://terms.pacificpalmsholidays.com.au/game/realestate.nsf/BlueysBeach/BLUEYS_SANCTUARY
There were 7 of us all together. Kristin and Steve, Rupert and Jess, and then Jo, Matty and I. It was a beautiful place with a green scenery in the backyard with kangaroos and wallabies playing around in the grass. From our balcony we could see the ocean. On the first day there we saw dolphins playing in the waves. We saw them again on the last day but it was nothing like the first day. There was a huge pod of them jumping around and playing. It was sweet.
We were pretty lucky, the weekend was supposed to be full of rain but we had sunshine and nice warm days. We went to Seals Rocks first thing in the morning on Friday. It was packed with Surfers. The water was nice and warm although I didn't get the chance to go for a swim. Later on that night, after driving around for hours to find the perfect spot, the boys went fishing while the girls just hung out. Steve managed to catch a flathead which we ended up cooking and eating for supper. Delicious! After supper, Jo went under the sink to get something and came out to ask the boys to help her with a spider. She seemed very calm about it so I didn't think much about it. All of a sudden, Steve came out with a HUGE SPIDER on a cutting board (Stephanie, you are lucky you didn't see this) Jess and I freaked out! I ran to the other end of the balcony. I realized that I probably wanted a picture of this to show everyone back home so I started to run to get my camera. That plan did not work as the spider felt off the board and onto the ground right in front of me. I ran in the opposite direction of my camera. This was like the size of a tarantula or something. Huge body, thick legs and HAIRY! Steve, who has lived with this kind of stuff for years, said that that was the biggest spider of that kind he has ever seen! Yikes!
At around 1:30 or so that evening (or early morning) the boys and I went fishing with the flathead's head as bait. It was kind of neat fishing from the beach in the dark. The moon was bright enough that we could see everything. Unfortuately, Rupert snagged the line into the rocks and that was the end of our fishing for that night.
On Saturday we did a few little hiking trails. The trees and forests are so beautiful around here. Pictures cannot do justice. We went in an area called Booti Booti National Park...hehehe. The boys and Jess went to fish at Elizabeth Beach while Jo, Kristin and I walked up a trail to Shelly Beach (the beach that was known as a Nudist Beach...ek!) It was a beautiful beach. Not very busy like I had thought it would be. There was a little colony of nudists off to one side and the rest of the beach had children and families running around. Kristin, Jo and I decided to Rock Scramble (from pictures you may see there are always lots of rocks at the end of beaches. We climbed along those) across to Elizabeth Beach. We got about half way and reached a cliff that made the rest of the trip impossible. We then met up with the boys and Jess and headed back for a relaxed evening at the house.
Sunday, I was woken up to two little "easter bunnies" hoping into my room with a plastic bag telling me to get ready for the easter egg hunt. Jo and Kristin had hid a whole bunch of eggs outside and we all had to go find them. It was actually really fun and there was TONS of chocolate. I do have a bit of a tummy ache now. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a Market and the beach. Steve dusted off his surfboard and surfed like a pro, until his fin hit his ankle. He stayed in for a bit but thought it may not be a good idea to be out there like shark bait. He was bleeding pretty bad. I had to sit in the van and wait until everyone was done bandaging him up. Puke. I did manage to get a picture of it while the blood was cleaned up, before it started gushing again. The boys ended the night with fishing again. We watched them for awhile. Dolphins would come up to them every once and a while. It was so neat. Steve caught another flathead which made for another delicious part to our supper again.
Today was a day of lots of rain and busy traffic. We decided to take the scenic route back to Sydney. We went off the highway and drove through Myall Lakes National Park (remember Stephanie?! I will explain it in another post as this one is long enough.) It was beautiful!!! Still didn't see any koalas even though we were constantly on the lookout. Back on the highway traffic was pretty busy. It took us a lot longer than it normally should to get back. But we did. And now I am back in my lovely home.
I hope I have remembered most of it. It was so great to get to go on a camping trip with some Australians!!!! We had lots of fun and I was very appreciative of it all!
that is all for now,
holly
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Neil's Birthday!
This week has been a pretty laid back week. There are no more beach days for me, I think. The weather changed quite quickly. It was like we went to the beach one day and the next day it was colder and has been the same since. On the weekend, we had a barbecue. By the end of it we probably had around 25 people in our house. Most of them Irish. There was even a guy here who was short like a leprachaun and he talked like Brad Pitt does in Snatch!! It was crazy. Apparently for St. Patrick's Day he dressed up in a sweet leprachaun outfit! If I could add pictures you would be able to see him. Hopefully soon.
Yesterday was Neil's birthday so David, Monica, Lisa, Neil and I all got dressed up fancy and went to some "Posh Bar/Restaurants". haha. They were all beautiful inside. Something like from the movies. I would have taken pictures inside all of them if it wasn't dark out. One of them even had no roof, so if you were in the middle you could look up and see beautiful sky. It also had a pool on the roof. We also went to a place called Orbit. It was a revolving restaurant. It felt very weird but it was so cool. We stayed there for about an hour. That was how long it took for the restaurant to make a complete circle.
Today is the last day I will see Neil and Lisa. I am going away to Port Stephens with Kristin, Steve and the gang and Lisa and Neil leave to head down to Melbourne on Monday. It is a sad day! I have really enjoyed spending time with them. I have learned alot about England and already have my place to stay and my tour guides (haha) when I go there. Hopefully, in the near future we will get to do some traveling together. Anyways, I must go pack for my trip this weekend!
Holly
Yesterday was Neil's birthday so David, Monica, Lisa, Neil and I all got dressed up fancy and went to some "Posh Bar/Restaurants". haha. They were all beautiful inside. Something like from the movies. I would have taken pictures inside all of them if it wasn't dark out. One of them even had no roof, so if you were in the middle you could look up and see beautiful sky. It also had a pool on the roof. We also went to a place called Orbit. It was a revolving restaurant. It felt very weird but it was so cool. We stayed there for about an hour. That was how long it took for the restaurant to make a complete circle.
Today is the last day I will see Neil and Lisa. I am going away to Port Stephens with Kristin, Steve and the gang and Lisa and Neil leave to head down to Melbourne on Monday. It is a sad day! I have really enjoyed spending time with them. I have learned alot about England and already have my place to stay and my tour guides (haha) when I go there. Hopefully, in the near future we will get to do some traveling together. Anyways, I must go pack for my trip this weekend!
Holly
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Royal Treatment.....haha
Okay, I tried to post yesterday but I was having a brain fart as to what to write so I didn't. But Stephanie has insisted that I post asap! So here I go.
The Womens Conference first. It was amazing. The first day I really didn't know what to think. The speakers would really good and I had learned a lot from them. I took lots of notes. But I wasn't really feeling passionate about it. Although I did learn that Bobbie Houston is a genuine passionate woman about God and my judgementalness of Hillsong changed. (Funny story...Lots of people hate Hillsong Church here. They are in the newspaper and all over the internet with really negative stories about them. We met this one really nice guy..then when he found out we went to a church here he asked what church we went to. When we told him Hillsong. That was the end of his niceness and conversation. I was ashamed. But then I realized how God uses Hillsong in soo many great ways!) The next day is where I got really passionate and excited! Hillsong has a whole bunch of different organizations that they support and basically what the Colour Conference was about was bringing the "Sisterhood" together to support different causes not only around the world but in our own cities. One woman can make a difference so just imagine what a bunch of women can do (if they work together). They had a missionary from Uganda and she shared her stories and her passions. I could go on and on about this. Maybe another time. I will blog what all I learned and maybe set a spark in one of you ladies. hahahaha.
Another cool thing I got do to this week was go listen to the question period at the Parliament building here in Sydney. I know, most of you are thinking, how boring. But it was actually quite interesting. I took my friends Monica and David. I had been in contact with Russell Grove (the clerk) and he emailed me back usually right away telling me that he was looking forward to us coming every time! When we arrived we were met by Manuela (his secretary) and Greg Kelly (the Sargent of Arms). Manuela was very friendly and helping. Greg was the one that took us into the room. He had told us to leave the room that we came in, which was a "No entry" door. I also noticed that the public came in from the other door. Watching the members of parliament going at it was actually quite funny, in a non funny way. They constantly bickered back and forth (Saskatchewan's government is weak compared to these guys/ladies). The speaker spent his whole time given members strikes for talking to loud or being rude and out of turn. It sounded like if they got more than 3 warnings something bad would happen. Half way through he reminded the opposition party that they had 4 people on their last warning. Then at the end he read the rules of how they can and cannot speak to each other while in session. He seemed pretty fed up at the end. It was honestly like watching a teacher in a really bad classroom! After it was done, stuff was still going on so we didn't know whether to leave or not. I looked at the Sarg. of Arms and he mouthed to me, what I thought was, "You guys are still here?" So I nodded and giggled. I thought that was a key to leave. But when we were leaving this big security guard told us that we had to go out the general public door when we were leaving....so we did. We ended up OUTSIDE! So we had to go back through security. The security remembered us and just let us go through. On the other side was the Sarg. of Arms waiting for us, confused as to why we went out that door. We told on the big security guy and had good laughs. He was really friendly and good at making convo. He went off to get Russell for us as Russell wanted to see me before I left. Manuela met us and said that he was busy in a meeting but would like to take us out for lunch at the member's restaurant in the parliament building. She is going to give me a call sometime this week. Taking David and Monica, I was worried they would be bored out of their mind. But they loved how they were treated and loved how interesting question period was. Monica is also american so this whole way of doing things was new to her..haha.
There is my update for now.
I will blog more later!
The Womens Conference first. It was amazing. The first day I really didn't know what to think. The speakers would really good and I had learned a lot from them. I took lots of notes. But I wasn't really feeling passionate about it. Although I did learn that Bobbie Houston is a genuine passionate woman about God and my judgementalness of Hillsong changed. (Funny story...Lots of people hate Hillsong Church here. They are in the newspaper and all over the internet with really negative stories about them. We met this one really nice guy..then when he found out we went to a church here he asked what church we went to. When we told him Hillsong. That was the end of his niceness and conversation. I was ashamed. But then I realized how God uses Hillsong in soo many great ways!) The next day is where I got really passionate and excited! Hillsong has a whole bunch of different organizations that they support and basically what the Colour Conference was about was bringing the "Sisterhood" together to support different causes not only around the world but in our own cities. One woman can make a difference so just imagine what a bunch of women can do (if they work together). They had a missionary from Uganda and she shared her stories and her passions. I could go on and on about this. Maybe another time. I will blog what all I learned and maybe set a spark in one of you ladies. hahahaha.
Another cool thing I got do to this week was go listen to the question period at the Parliament building here in Sydney. I know, most of you are thinking, how boring. But it was actually quite interesting. I took my friends Monica and David. I had been in contact with Russell Grove (the clerk) and he emailed me back usually right away telling me that he was looking forward to us coming every time! When we arrived we were met by Manuela (his secretary) and Greg Kelly (the Sargent of Arms). Manuela was very friendly and helping. Greg was the one that took us into the room. He had told us to leave the room that we came in, which was a "No entry" door. I also noticed that the public came in from the other door. Watching the members of parliament going at it was actually quite funny, in a non funny way. They constantly bickered back and forth (Saskatchewan's government is weak compared to these guys/ladies). The speaker spent his whole time given members strikes for talking to loud or being rude and out of turn. It sounded like if they got more than 3 warnings something bad would happen. Half way through he reminded the opposition party that they had 4 people on their last warning. Then at the end he read the rules of how they can and cannot speak to each other while in session. He seemed pretty fed up at the end. It was honestly like watching a teacher in a really bad classroom! After it was done, stuff was still going on so we didn't know whether to leave or not. I looked at the Sarg. of Arms and he mouthed to me, what I thought was, "You guys are still here?" So I nodded and giggled. I thought that was a key to leave. But when we were leaving this big security guard told us that we had to go out the general public door when we were leaving....so we did. We ended up OUTSIDE! So we had to go back through security. The security remembered us and just let us go through. On the other side was the Sarg. of Arms waiting for us, confused as to why we went out that door. We told on the big security guy and had good laughs. He was really friendly and good at making convo. He went off to get Russell for us as Russell wanted to see me before I left. Manuela met us and said that he was busy in a meeting but would like to take us out for lunch at the member's restaurant in the parliament building. She is going to give me a call sometime this week. Taking David and Monica, I was worried they would be bored out of their mind. But they loved how they were treated and loved how interesting question period was. Monica is also american so this whole way of doing things was new to her..haha.
There is my update for now.
I will blog more later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
