SANTA - YOU CAN FIND US AT THE BEACH!

My friend Charlotte invited me to join her and her housemates on a trip to the beach in Torquey for Christmas. I was stoked!! Sherissa and I (we're kind of a 2 -4- 1 deal) packed up our things, bought some bubbly, and headed out on the train on Christmas eve day to meet up with Charlotte, Hywel (like fuel with an H), Chris, and Tim (all from Wales).

The train took us to Geelong from which we caught a bus to Torquey. One of the things I am going to miss most when I end up leaving Melbourne is the public transportation system. There are so many options and you can go almost anywhere you want - I LOVE IT and I love not driving!! Anyway, we missed our bus stop and ended up hitching a ride from a local surfer boy to our backpackers - Bells Beach Lodge. This was a first for me so I was pretty excited :)

Once we got there, we wasted no time getting out to the beach because it was a gorgeous day. We were the first ones to arrive because the boys slept in and Charlotte had to work during the day. We decided to celebrate with a little champagne and some sun! It was paradise and it only got better once the others arrived. By the end of the night, after running amok throughout town and spraying Hywel down in the do-it-yourself car wash, we ended up in the backpackers' TV lounge area that was straight out of the sixties, singing along to Christmas songs that Chris had made a playlist of. We weren't the most popular of guests but we sure had a great time!

Torquey Beach, Christmas Eve

Oh Christmas tree

At the car wash The next morning was Christmas morning and it was like none other I have ever experienced. We woke up at 7:30 and for breakfast we had bloody marys and a whole roast chicken from the night before that had been on special for $2 at Safeway. Sometimes these things just happen and let me just say that it was delicious!! We also got to watch the family that owned the joint open their presents. It was pretty awkward but I think they kind of enjoyed the company. There were about 15 guests staying for the holiday and everyone was gathered around their tree. Eve had been thoughtful enough to hide presents for Sherissa and I before she left so I was pretty excited to have something to open...gift certificate to the spa WAHOO!! We were all pleasantly surprised to receive something from the family to open as well...Bells Beach Backpackers caps and koozies. We were all very excited to say the least. The hats stayed on our heads the remainder of the day. As we were making our way to the beach, I felt like one of those families that all wears the same thing so they can pick each other out in a crowd. We were a sight.

Charlotte and our bloody marys

Hywel eating chicken

The Bells crew We spent the day at Janjuk, this gorgeous beach set under some cliffs. I swam and played in the waves if you can believe that. At the end of the day, we barbecued the massive quantity of food we had purchased the night before in a very drunken state. It was so weird to be on a beach on Christmas but totally amazing. If you can imagine what a Forth of July might be like in Seattle if it wasn't raining, this was the mood of the day and I loved it!

poppers

poppers prizes...crowns for all

Santa surfing. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I AM A MEDICAL MARVEL

We have a friend named Donna who is one of the designer's from the Fashion Incubator. She's a twin and her and her sister just had a double-themed birthday party. Donna's theme was medical marvels and her sister's was nurses and doctor's. At the party there were a whole bunch of freaks walking around and a whole bunch of doctor's and nurses there to help them. It was pretty funny!

Sherissa and her parasidic twin

my new pickup line..."It's so good to see you again!"

I can kick myself in the eye with my third leg growing out of my head

CROWN OAK'S DAY

Every spring in Melbourne (October) comes the Spring Carnival Horse Races. The races go on from the beginning of October through the middle of Novemer but the real festivities happen the week of the Melbourne Cup. The day of the Melbourne Cup is a public holiday for the state of Victoria but people come from all over Australia and it is considered "the race that stops a nation". It is a very big deal and we were lucky enough to be able to attend one of the main days thanks to Eve's generous birthday gift to Sherissa that allowed the three of us to attend Oaks Day.

We started the day with a champagne breakfast and even before we left the city, there were guys and girls dressed to perfection...guys in three piece suits and girls in gorgeous dresses with headpieces and hats. Then it was off to the Flemington race grounds on the train. I've never seen so much wonderful fashion all in one place. AND they were handing out free chocolate!! It was heaven! The weather was beautiful and we were literally right on the track to watch the races.

It was so much fun and the only problem was how fast the day went by. We all placed our bets and Eve walked with the most (she won $50). I was happy winning $15 just because it was something.

On the way home, we were supposed to have caught another train but an incident happened and shut down the entire system leaving 100,000 drunken, sunburnt, and wrecked people stranded 45 minutes away from the city. The trams - few that there were - were so entirely packed that they didn't even bother stopping at the stops but they had to go so slow through the crowds that people were hopping on anyway. Eve separated from us just before we were leaving and ended up on a bus (one of the few that were there and hidden at that) and there was a guy who was so drunk that the rest of the people on the bus literally threw him off. She said she'd never seen anything like it. When he hit the ground, he knocked his head so hard that he didn't move. Finally, after a few minutes of stillness, he perked up with a huge grin on his face and everyone on the bus busted out in hoops and hollers of cheer. It was pretty crazy.

For months prior to the event, we had been hearing from everyone that we HAD to go to the Melbourne Cup and now I know why! It was quite the experience~

This horse didn't win but it was the most beautiful horse I've ever seen!

Everyone thought Sherissa was Pink (the singer) all day. This is profile shot I took later in the night that's pretty representative.

WICKED

When Mike left town, it was right around Evelyn's birthday so as a departing gift, he gave the three of us tickets to see Wicked!! It was an awesome show and the costumes were fabulous. We drank ozmopolitans and tried to take pictures in the beautiful front lobby of the theatre until we got yelled at for doing so. Then we took some more :)

Afterwords, we had dinner at this really cute restaurant called Collins Quarter that Eve and I stumbled upon before I went to Indonesia and had been looking forward to returning ever since. Even though we were absolutely stuffed, we decided to go somewhere for dessert too...High Society. They have these two really great rooms upstairs that we checked out afterwards and decided it would be a perfect spot to host a party. Now we just need to find enough people to fill the space!

FUNNY THING HAPPENED...

My good friend Angie has a very strong hatred for her name same song by the Rolling Stones because, for years, she worked in a bar full of "clever" drunks who loved to serenade her with it. We were in Vegas once nursing a hangover with some sleep when I decided to play this as a wake up call. That's when I found out exactly how much she hates this song because I've never seen the look in her eye that I did then. I tried to send this in an email to her but couldn't get the video to send so I thought I would just post it cause it's kind of a funny story anyway! But for my blonde friend...don't hate me you know it's only out of love!! :) So I'm in Lombok, my first night in the Gilli islands (paradise) at dinner and there was a live band. They were playing all the typical songs I had heard everywhere else on my trip and then they busted out with this. I couldn't help my self he he :) Make sure you watch it all the way through!! and then think about this... Just after I took the video, I went to the bathroom. They had typically been disgusting so I was totally stoked when I got in there and it was a normal toilet!! But I squatted over the seat anyway just out of habit, and started number one. Out of nowhere, this HUGE (no exaggeration here, it was seriously the size of my hand) cockroach came running up to me and attacked my foot!! You didn't know cockroaches attack did you? They are fast little f*****s and so creepy and it is very hard to keep balanced when you have one of them crawling all over you! It was disgusting and I couldn't do anything about it because I was in the middle of doing my business so I screamed and suffered the consequences when I walked out and got weird looks from everyone who had heard the commotion even over the music. It was instant karma and I must say, I'll never play this for you again . . . maybe :)

A LITTLE SLICE OF HOME

Mike came to visit in August. Sherissa and I were able to show him a little bit of Melbourne but for the most part, we were up in the Northern Territory Visiting Darwin and the Katherine Gorges. On the way up to Darwin, we stopped in Sydney for two days but I came down with strep throat so we spent one of those valuable days at the clinic :( Hooters was my "reward" for going to the doctor (remember when it used to be stickers and icecream?) and I can officially say that I am over it! (for the time being anyway :) ) It was so good to see him and I was very sad to see him go as his time here went by way too fast! At the Croft Institute in Melbourne

Harbour Cruise in Sydney Harbour Cruise in Sydney Harbour Cruise in Sydney Harbour Cruise in Sydney Rico Suave and I at the Katherine Gorges

We took a helicopter ride of all 13 Gorges

Mike's swan dive into the rock pool near the Katherine Gorges

Sunset in Darwin

HAPPINESS

I believe happiness is only possible if you follow your feeling, your intuition, your real desires. Only happiness is gained by acting in accordance with duty, or obligation, or guilt, or the desire to please others. You must accept happiness when you can, not selfishly, but remembering you are a part of the world, of others, not separate from them. Should people pursue their own happiness at the expense of others? Or should they be unhappy so others can be happy? There’s no one who hasn’t had to confront this problem. --The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi

QUEENSLAND, BACK IN JULY

OUR QUEENSLAND TRIP:

I travel in style

Sherissa and I grabbed our German friend Daniel and headed up to Cairns, Queensland to start our trip down the east coast of oz. We started the trip with a snorkel boat cruise out to the reef where she and Daniel were able to scuba dive. Unfortunately, I couldn’t because I am an asthma child.

Our snorkel boat, Ocean Freedom

I snorkeled! Look at that enthusiasm.

Daniel (aka Hanz) snorkeling

Sherissa and Daniel with their dive certificates.

We were lucky enough to see wales (on this trip and our sailing trip which was pretty amazing) but I couldn't get a good photo so you get to see the splash.

From Cairns we went up to the Daintree Rainforest where we went on a crocodile river cruise and stayed at this amazing hostel on the beach called the Beach House. The beach is pretty unique because the jungle spills out onto it and there are all these weird creatures everywhere. I could show pictures but my camera ran out of batteries just before I saw the weirdest looking thing I’ve ever seen.

We got up to watch the sun rise over the ocean. We're still half asleep.

It was much more magical looking from the back.

Sherissa and I rocking a bridge over the Mossman River.

Daniel and I jumped in and it was FREEZING!

A croc. They were huge and they were close! So crazy to see a creature that's been around for so long.

We made our way down to Port Douglas next and rented beach cruiser bicycles to ride down 4 mile beach. Our roommates at the Parrot Fish Lodge were these German guys who joined us on a crazy night on the town and together we drank about 4 boxes of Stanley “goon” (goon is the Australian Carlo Rossi and comes in 4 litre boxes that have their own little pour spout which makes it very easy to scull (australian for chug) ).

Me, Sherissa, Daniel

Aspen's competition but don't tell her! This dog had the most amazing personality and you could see straight to her soul through her eyes! Awwww...

Purple toungues after too much Stanley

I met a couple guys from Byron Bay and we ended up building a campfire and staying up to watch the sunrise over the ocean from the beach. It was totally gorgeous. After Port Douglas, we went back down to Cairns where we did a skydive over the reef and the farmlands of Queensland.

From there it was on down to Airlie beach where we met our Whitsunday sailing crew of “the Card”. We ended up with a really small group of six passengers and four crew members but managed to get in some trouble anyway. This also meant we were able to make a couple special trips that are not possible with larger groups so that was pretty cool. This trip was only three days but I fell in love with sailing and would love to possibly learn more about it and go around the world someday because it was that beautiful!

The "card" is the one on the right. It sleeps 25 people and was pretty huge.

Our Captain being cheesey.

This is sign language (snorkel style) for "we're REALLY good"

One of our island stops. Whitehaven beach...total paradise

This was our group on the Card

Sherissa, me, Mari (France), Michael (Holland), Phil (the signature annoying American)

I did a flip off the front of the boat but the girl had really bad timing so let's just say I can walk on water.

I tried again for the video but did a back flop instead. OUCH!

South Mole Island where we spent one of our nights.

Sherissa cracked a coconut and we got fresh milk and meat.

Parrots. They were all over the island and they were so beautiful!

Another highlight of the trip was camping on Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world. We were put into groups of 12 and then loaded up with enough food and booze to last for three days and sent on our way to go four wheeling all over the island in our rigged Toyotas. I drove for the first time on the other side and even managed with a stick shift! We were lucky to be out there on a full moon and it was cool because all the trucks found each other when it came time to set up camp and everyone ended up partying together. We went to this amazing lake with turquoise water and a white sand beach which was one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen.

Our entourage of yellow tops making our way to the ferry to Fraser

In the triangle (from the bottom left) : Ross (Ireland), Daniel (Germany), Kiernen (Ireland), Sherissa, me, Jo (England)

McKenzie Beach. "One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen" (and it was a fresh water lake)

Jo, Kiernen, and me cooking dinner for everyone

These boys came by our sight and started an illegal fire. They were stupid enough to hand out business cards to all the girls to call them on so when the sheriff came by in the morning, we were off the hook because we just gave them their card.

One of the many dingos that kept harassing us. Daniel took this awesome shot.

We also got to go to this lookout spot called Indian head (it looks like an Indian Head with a big headpiece on from far away) which is this huge cliff that overlooks the ocean. From here we sat in the sun spotting whales, dolphins, stingrays, sharks, turtles galore. I could have sat there the rest of the day and then some but we had to head off to set up camp for the night. On Fraser there is also this really cool old shipwreck on the beach which was pretty fun to explore.

Indian head

me and the dutch girls

Our caravan

We made it to Brisbane for a couple days and explored a bit but had to be back down to Melbourne for the architecture inspired fashion show at the Incubator. Sherissa had made a dress inspired by the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) and the two of us had helped Jenny Bannister create a dress (it was actually more of a sculpture) modeled after Federation Square. Both buildings are huge Melbourne icons. Daniel stayed on and journeyed down to Byron Bay. If I could have I would have stayed away longer. Australia is so big and there is so much I want to see before I leave!!! I’d like to do a west coast trip from Perth to Broome, and see Ayer’s rock and Adelaide, and of course Byron Bay. We’ll see if I can check ‘em all off my list!

A brisbane sunset

Sherissa and I struggling through life on Magnetic Island