Two sunrises in one day

It has begun!

My little ticker on the side bar is now redundant, because I left Australia yesterday. Or today. Depends on where you are really. Today if you're here with me.

My younger brother (meaning the younger of my two older brothers) was a star and woke up at 4:30am (as did my niece and sister-in-law to say goodbye) in order to drive me to the airport, and even came in and had a coffee with me whilst I waited to depart. I left Adelaide on a 6am flight for Brisbane.

I watched the sun rise over central Australia.

My sister-in-law and two nephews (Queensland division) were lovely enough to spend two hours traveling to and from the Brisbane International airport in order to spend ten minutes with me as I changed planes. I left Brisbane on an 11am flight for Los Angeles.

I watched the sun rise over the west coast of America.

Two sunrises on the one day. Beautiful.

I now wait in LAX (Qantas Club lounge of course...) for my now delayed flight to New York. Time enough for a brief blog update I thought.

And, because every post needs a picture; this is my Poppa and I a few days ago in South Australia. He's not bad for 91 huh? Love the cap :-)

Three cats in two days

On Wednesday I left Perth. I left home. I left some of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. People who have made me feel special, and loved, and cherished; and for that I can never thank them enough. And, I also left my little girl. My darling little muffin-head with the fluffy pants who is the most gorgeous little creature I have ever met and who, after stealing my heart, is keeping it nestled safe and warm in her little front paws.

On Wednesday evening I arrived in Adelaide. I arrived at my Yak’s home. I enjoyed the company of some of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. People who have made me feel special, and loved, and cherished; and for that I can never thank them enough. And, I also got to snuggle their little girl. Their darling little fluff-chop with the ninja style outfit who is the tiniest little kitty I have ever met and who, if it wasn’t stolen already, would most certainly have stolen my heart and tucked it away in her back pocket.

On Thursday I left Adelaide. I arrived at my parent’s house in country South Australia for the first time in over two years. I enjoyed my Dad’s home-made toblerone flavoured liquor and my Mum’s amazing banana sponge roll.  My parents greeted me with warm hugs and soft hands, and made me feel special, and loved, and cherished; and for that I can never thank them enough. And, I was also floored by the size of their absolutely enormous nine year old cat! Cfa is three times the size of Annie, and probably four times the size of Fing, yet my mother maintains he is just a well-muscled cat… Yes Mum.

(And yes, I may have forgotten to take a photo of the mega cat that is Cfa...)

Farewell Perth

As you would expect, time is getting a little tight around here... But I wanted to quickly post some photos from my farewell on Saturday.

Here we have my three husbands - the Best Lead aka my dance husband, Mr In Wonderland aka my work husband (and no - it does not mean we are getting a divorce just because I don't work with him after tomorrow), and Mr Italiano aka my gay husband...

A group hug/lift and carry from my fellow swing dancers...

And us dancing the Zorba over the street in front of the Greek restaurant where we had dinner... As you do!

I am so sad to be leaving Perth and all of the wonderful friends I have made here - there are moments where I have the crazy thought of canceling everything and staying right here where I feel warm and loved! But then I pull myself up, slap myself around a bit and say "Hey crazy lady! You're moving to freaking London like you've always wanted!!"

Snap

This last week of mine in Perth is certainly proving to be a hectic one!

Dinner out practically every night, mad lunch hours spent shopping for last minute travel necessities, and trying to put together the perfect plane outfit (ie a combination of "I'm so comfy I could be a marshmallow!" and "Phoar! I'm a stylish little vixen who did nay just spend the last 24 hours traveling on a plane!"), and nary enough sleep to support it all.

To fix this, I have decided to paint my fingernails red. I believe this will help immensely.

I also decided to buy myself an entry level SLR.

Photo Source

I actually wasn't going to buy myself an SLR. After much thought and discussion with my dear Yak, we had actually decided that due to financial constraints, and for the ease of travel, a Nikon Coolpix P100 would be the best option. However, when I went to price compare on Monday, the first shop I went into had my little Sony on mega-sale. He was the only one of his kind left, and so they were selling him at a ridiculously cheap price - less than cost - just to get him out the door. I didn't snap him up straight away - like a good little shopper I visited other stores, and even had a lengthy discussion at a completely different shop about the pro's and con's of the Nikon Vs the Sony. In the end, the value my little Sony presented was just too good to be true - plus the fact that it's an SLR which I so desperately wanted! So, in the end, Sony Alpha 230 + memory card + camera bag + UV filter for less than half the retail price of the Sony originally and for less than what I was going to spend on a lesser camera = epic win for me!!

Now, if only I had a free night on which to learn how to use it...

The Last Weekend Before The Last Weekend

This weekend is the last weekend I have here in Perth, before my last weekend in Perth. With me?

I decided to get in a little tourist practice so, after dropping the ever lovely Yak off at the airpot this morning, after her keeping me company and looking after me for the last few days*...

... I decided to go and explore the beautiful buildings and grounds of the University of Western Australia. Having driven past this delightful place a thousand or more times, and having always wanted to go in and look around, and with time to kill before my afternoon's activities, I finally made it through the front gates. I'm so glad I did.

"Verily by beauty it is that we come at wisdom" - what a fabulous line to remember whilst traveling around Europe.

* Yak and I had an absolutely lovely visit... We are both nanna's you see, and so spent a great deal of time curled up on the couch together, in our trackies and hoodies, drinking red wine and watching movies. It was lovely. The problem is, we never take photos of ourselves. For being such good friends, we have surprisingly few photos of us together. Apart from Yak's wedding photos, I can actually only think of one photo we have of the two of us. This makes story-telling on a blog quite hard because blogs are about being visual and this is mostly why I have avoided talking about the last few days but, for the record, Yak looked after me like a little mother-hen, gave me lots of love, cooked me some amazing meals, and gave me cuddles at all the right moments. I love my Yak, and I can't wait to see her again in a week and a half's time.xx

True Love

Nothing makes you feel as special as having a gorgeous little muffin-head rest her chin on your hand and purr as she lets you stroke her fluffy little head.

Photo by the lovely Yak, on her iphone.

Double Fail

Fail #1
On Friday before I left work last week, I decided to play with Adam's keyboard and make it completely awesome...

Which I thought would be taken, in our usual playful manner, with guffaws of laughter and congratulatory chuckles throughout the morning on my aweseomeness at coming up with something so utterly awesome. Instead, Mr Grumpy Pants came to work today instead of Adam, and he was nothing but annoyed at my awesome gesture, complaining that his password now wouldn't work because he couldn't get his brain to ignore the misplaced letters on his keyboard - not to mention that he hadn't even seen the word "awesome" imbedded in the top alpha row. I'd even had to give up my own 'e' for this effort! Such little appreciation to be had at 7 o'clock in the morning... We have since discussed his lack of mirth at what was so clearly an awesome joke played on my part, and he has agreed that I now have permission to change his keyboard around whenever I so wish. Oh, and he'll buy me flowers.

Fail #2
Sex & The City 2 isn't tonight!!! I slumped at my desk in complete devastation and could have cried this morning when I opened my diary and realised that I'd bought the tickets for next Monday, not this Monday! I was so looking forward to tonight! So, I've done what any girl in my situation would do, and have decided to placate my tormented soul with new episodes of Gossip Girl at home instead...

Gaol Time

One of the things on my 'must do before I leave Perth' list was to go and do the Tunnels Tour at the Fremantle Gaol. Double M and I managed to get this done today and it was so much fun! We had to get kitted up in lovely white over-all style suits, black gumboots, and we topped all of this with blue harnesses, red life vests and red hard hats with headlights on them! It's official. We were the hottest chicks in any Perth tunnel system today!

Our adventures underground were followed by a lovely pasta dinner at a family Italian restaurant in Fremantle - I had the special, four cheese gnocchi and oh my gawd it was amazing! I was even good enough to stop myself from eating it all in one go so that I can now look forward to if for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Perth but I've volunteered to work (as it's not a public holiday in other the other states of Australia, whom we deal with) so will be trundling in with my yummy pasta lunch, counting the hours and minutes down until 6pm.... Because at 6pm I'm going to watch S&TC2 in Gold Class!!! I'm so excited, it's going to be fabulous!!!

Other than that, not much to tell really... My apartment has finally settled and everything is nearly wrapped up with that. By the end of this week I should officially be debt free for the first time in about ten years! Huzzah! I have two weeks and two days left of work before I fly back to Adelaide... Everything is getting rather close now! Must email resume to temp agencies in London soon... Yep, that's about it.