Friday, March 22, 2013

Two weeks and soon a weekend in Perth

Good morning Anna :)

Great post on your hiking adventure. What a shame about the weather. It looks like London all over again. I think I would've stayed in bed if I had a choice.

You'll have to come visit me one day. There's plenty of room in the house and hopefully by then I would've made a few more friends and checked out one of the three pubs they have here. Haha!

Today marks two weeks of teaching. I've been swamped with work and my list of to-dos is never ending. Nevertheless I finally found time and allowed myself to be dragged by my housemate to a session of box fit on Tuesday. I still have sore arms but it was well worth it to get out of the house and ogle at the instructor.

Random notes:
1. I overcooked my kangaroo steak last night and it was terrible.
2. I had pizza shapes and Smith's crinkle cut chicken chips for dinner the night before.
3. Still loving my half hour drives to and from work.
4. This is also because drivers in the country are friendly and they steering-wheel-palm wave at you.
5. We successfully  rid of the millipede invasion by spraying Mortein until we nearly passed out.
6. Country  living also means going to the ladies toilet and gasping in shock because there is one golf ball sized hairy spider all hunched up on the roll of toilet paper.
7. And chances of having snakes inside the classroom seems highly likely.
8. Can't decide whether to drive back to Perth late afternoon or tomorrow early morning.
9. Either way I'm looking forward to dim sum!!!!!

Happy Friday :) 

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Roughing it out down South

Hi Chia!

I'm so happy that you get along with your housemate :) I hope to hear more about how you guys get along!

I also really enjoyed hearing about your observations of your new life so far! Amazing that those kids know about K-pop! Who would have thought!? How did they know about it?

How long is your drive from work to school? Must be awesome not having to deal with traffic jams!

We spent a lot of our weekend driving at 110kmph. It's quite a liberating experience. As I looked out the car windows, I noticed that I got this 'expanding' feeling and a sense of freedom when I looked out to see empty space rolling on, and on, and on.  It's the same feeling I get when I look out to the ocean on my runs. I love it. It just feels like the whole world is out there waiting to be explored and I feel like anything is possible!

On Saturday, Kev and me together with his Mom, Brother and Sister-in-Law decided to go to Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges. However, from the early hours of the morning, it was grey and dreary with a constant drizzle.

Here are some of the snaps taken throughout the day.

Kangaroo riding an emu up ahead


Wild drive up to Bluff Knoll


A token 'snap' at Bluff Knoll

What we could see at the parking spot at Bluff Knoll
The weather in Mount Barker was completely different to Perth; wet and cool at 15 degrees! So when we arrived at the car park of Bluff Knoll, we quickly realised that it was not the ideal weather conditions to go walking.  It reminded me a bit of the time that you and I went up to Mountserrat in Spain. We could see the clouds which were moving so fast through the rocks! However, this time, the clouds had wind and rain with them, and so we had to make the decision to give Bluff Knoll a raincheck for another time.

We then decided to give 'Castle Rock' a try. The weather didn't seem as wild as Bluff Knoll, and we were pleasantly surprised to experience a lovely cool walk up.  The cloud and rain cloaked over the tree tops, creating a luminous white diffused light and delicate black silhouettes of branches that stretched higher and higher.






The rain and mist on top of the trees



Walking up





A photo request of Kev's which turned out awesome!

Fiddalee-dee he's touching it.

A natural frame. Loved this!

One of my favorite snaps - this is what we saw for most of the walk.

If you hear a 'cooo-ing' noise in the video, its not a pigeon. It's a Kev-pigeon.






When we reached the top of the climb, near the lookout of Castle Rock, we saw all these awesome rock formations. Obviously, we couldn't help but do some fun poses.


Kev's awesome upper cut


Me doing the 'THIS IS SPARTAAAA!' kick
When we finished posing we reached a sign which told us that we had two different paths to choose from; the Karri Lookout or the Castle Rock Summit.

The Karri Lookout was a easy 50m walk to a bridge which allowed you to look out in one direction.

The Castle Rock Summit however, required a 65m scramble. This included climbing up 2 sets of rocky walls, and then a ladder which takes you up to the sky walk on the summit. At first we thought we would just do the Karri Lookout as it was still pretty windy.  However, after seeing the Karri Lookout and feeling slightly deflated (didn't seem much of a challenge), we decided that we would do the 65m scramble to the Castle Rock Summit.



Climbing up to get to the lookout

At the base of the look out



We then had a narrow corridor before climbing up the second wall.

Kev on the ladder. 

The ladder was by far one of the scariest parts. The wind howling through the grates and the rain lashing on you while you climb up this wet and slippery ladder which was high above the ground, made me freak a little. But I 'just kept climbing, just kept climbing' (in a Dory-like voice) and started humming a random happy tune to keep me going.

When we got to the top, it was the weirdest sight ever. It was as if we had reached the edge of the world. Where there was nothing else beyond where we stood. Just white emptiness.

Sky walk leading to no where

Our confusion

This was our view looking down from the sky walk.

We weren't disappointed, if anything, it was a slight relief that we couldn't see out and below us as if we could, we would have probably freaked out more when the wind and rain thrashed against us.

On the way down, we took some more fun photos:


 





 


It was such a cool, fun and adventurous weekend. Kev and I were happy that we could try out our new 'outdoors wear' such as our trekking boots, Icebreaker thermal wear  and for me, my new waterproof jacket and water resistant pants. All items proved well worth the money and are definitely things we will pack in any upcoming holidays... *hint hint* 


From Narrogin

Very early good morning to you Anna :)

It's currently 4am and I'm wide awake. Serves me right for going to bed at 8pm the last couple of days. I've just been so tired that I can't stay up late even on a Sarurday night. However it works out well because the Internet works well at this time in the morning. I'm sorry that I can't get photos uploaded on blogger. I'll put some on FB though.

I hope you had a great time in Bluff Knoll. It's unfortunate you couldn't climb it. The weather has changed too sudden for my liking. I was freezing the whole week. When I get back to Perth I'll have a great excuse to go shopping.

I have settled well into the house and school. Here's a list of things you might like to know.

1. My housemate is from Seychelles and we get along great. I didn't know Seychellois consume rice everyday. She has a rice cooker and I don't.
2.Millipedes are a problem here and in one night you can see about 10 crawling around the house.
3. I was too lazy to scoop up and dispose outside a millipede and earwig that I spotted one night so now they are somewhere in the room...
4. I love driving to and from work. No cars and I'm on 110kmph and I get to see all the sheep i want.
5. I've found out that the kids know kpop more than I do.
6. There are 3 pubs in Narrogin. None which I've been to yet.
7. The movers arrived without notice  on Thursday 9pm whilst I was in bed.
8. I'm currently wondering what is an acceptable time to unpack, assemble and move furniture.
9. In the meantime I've been sleeping on an air mattress.

I can't think of anything else. I'll do a bit more googling until the rooster next door calls.

Wishing you a safe journey back :)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Drive from Perth to Mount Barker

Morning Chia!

I've awoken to the sweet voices of kookaburras calling and other birds singing in the light morning showers.

It's completely quiet. I do not hear any hint of the ocean near by which is quite unusual. There's no dog, no cars passing by, no wind; just the birds and quiet.

Kev and I are currently in Mount Barker, just north of Albany. As you can see in the screenshot below where the blue dot is.



Today we will drive to Bluff Knoll to climb it in our new trekking boots and other travel gear. I'll give ya an update when we get there.

In the meantime, I thought I'd give you some pics taken during our drive down yesterday :)

We left Perth CBD and drove past
Gosnells.



Then past Kelmscott.



Then continued down Albany Highway.



We made a short pit stop in Williams, which brought back childhood memories of going to and from Narrogin.



...and then we just drove on and on.



The photos are pretty ordinary, but they do truly represent the route we took :)

Friday, March 15, 2013

Hello country bumpkin!

Hi Chia!

A country bumpkin now! How does it feel?!? How is your new home? New school? New job? New life?

I must say, your last few days in Perth looked like a lot of fun, and I must say you looked fun, flirty and fantabulous in your photobooth pics! Did you cut your hair? Or sport a faux bob?!?

On my end, things have been a little quiet. Been engaging mainly in further planning for the future, superleague tryouts, saving money and running in the mornings.

This morning I just wanted to stay here instead of going into work:




But I can't complain, I'm taking a half day off to go to Mount Barker for a trekking weekend at Bluff Knoll.

Will update you on how that goes in a few days!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Before I leave

Good Sunday morning Anna :)

I should be doing many things like moving things into the car but I wanted to do a special post to congratulate Emily and Will as newlyweds! I would love to share some photos with you of the beautiful  couple but to respect their privacy I'll save them for FB once I sort through them.

I had a marvellous time and I told Alicia that it felt as if I was there for everyone's wedding that I missed whilst I was gone. I felt incredibly blessed to have these people in my life and the night ended on such a high that I woke up this morning wishing I could experience the love and joy all over again rather than pack for the move.

 I ADORED the flowers in the recycled jars, long seating arrangement and outdoor setting. All ideas I will keep in mind...

And how can I forget? The PHOTOBOOTH! I love the simplicity and effectiveness of black and white photos.

Making ourselves home with our little collection
 Fifi and I. My other single lady :)
My next post will be from Narrogin. Here's to the next chapter!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Bright things

Hi Anna :)

The last couple of weeks have been a  rollercoaster of emotions and it certainly didn't help that I wasn't 100% in health.

Luckily I was OK for Em's and my faux farewells. Speaking of which, I had a great time and it was a good turn out considering it was very last minute. I struggled through Saturday and I'm still feeling exhausted. I keep thinking I'm going far far away felt sad about being away from these wonderful people, but then I remember that I'm only 2 hours drive away!


My favourite photo of the night! I didn't even have to ask you lot to do a silly pose :p I'm sure you didn't need the support to stand up and you were just posing...
Since then I've been madly planning for my first week at school and also doing some furniture shopping for the move down. I've also resorted to some retail therapy. Spending before earning is never a good thing.  These bright things make me happy :)

This is my 20th or so tub of body butter. But the first time I've tried it in PEACH! It's limited edition but it reminds me of a cross between the grapefruit and satsuma.


It's hard to find such a pretty journal. Saving the first page for my new adventure!


I was in Target and couldn't say no to this knitted jumper. Would go very well with my leopard hat from Colorrun.
My neon green banana ear dazzlers!
Five more days!




Friday, March 1, 2013

Perfect snorkeling conditions

Augggghh Chia!

It's perfect snorkeling conditions right now! But I have to get ready work.

I have this strong compulsion to go in... It's making me sad. Head and heart are not agreeing on things.

I just imagine myself going in regardless of work and seeing myself losing track of time. There's no chance of me sneaking in an exploring session without me being super late.










Gah! Look at it! High tide, a dead easterly. It's so peaceful. It looks like it would be fantastic visibility.

*sigh*

So sad.

But then again, it may not be safe to snorkel at dawn.

Oh wells.