Rain, rain go away!

It's kind of funny to look at the 30 day forecast and see there is a high chance of rain EVERY SINGLE DAY. Wtf, brisbane summer! Seriously, drought shmought!

There was a break in the rain for Australia Day, which was this past Thursday. We were good little fake Aussies and rode our bikes to a friend's place for a BBQ feast. It was slightly idiotic to ride our bikes on a very hot and extremely humid day. Our friend ended up collapsing on the lawn dry heaving when we got there. She pulled through and was fine in a few minutes, but yeah...it was pretty dumb. I then proceeded to be sweaty and gross for the whole time we were there, about three hours. We were inside an air-conditioned house, but there were about 20 people and the a/c just couldn't cope!! So yes - we did the traditional Australia Day thing, which is to have a BBQ and listen to Triple J's Hottest 100.

The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll, based on the votes of national Australian radio station Triple J listeners, in order to determine their favourite song of the year. Voting is conducted by the internet and begins roughly two weeks prior to the new year for the previous year's songs. The 100 most popular songs are then counted down on Australia Day weekend – usually Australia Day itself, 26 January.<sup>[1]

Last night was a going away dinner for Lisa and Nicole. We had duck curry served in a pineapple! It was also a med keg, which we opted out of but met up with people afterwards. I finally got to meet a random Facebook friend. My friend Nick (who some may remember as the man of honour at my wedding) sent me a message saying his friend Ian was heading to Brisbane to start med school so we added each other on Facebook. I was sitting at a table outside and saw a guy who looked vaguely familiar and lo and behold - it was Ian!

Hmmm...what else? This is a bit rambly. Well, I had my first week of work as a speech pathologist. Friday was my first meeting with a school contact person, a principal at one of my high schools. I think I managed to not look too moronic, which is a positive thing!! Monday is a big day - I meet with people and my two big primary schools. I had a hand over for one of them Friday morning and there are soooo many files and things to deal with!! Eeek. Crossing my fingers that it all goes well. Jeremy wrote an exam yesterday for ophthalmology surgery, so he's already ticking things off his list! He starts neurosurgery on Monday, which sounds pretty intense! Anyway...that's us in a nut shell. Plugging away, employed/working hard at uni, getting soaked in the stupid rain!</sup>

Started my job today.

Although I didn't really want a GPS, it has already proven to be an invaluable tool. Driving around to random places in a city you are familiar with mostly by bus is tricky business. So - thanks Mum & Dad, it's been really helpful and it's only the first day.

I am a little bit intimidated, a little bit overwhelmed and a little bit scared...but I know I can do it :)

Goodbyes. They are a constant through life, especially if you choose a lifestyle where you are uprooting yourself often. It's all very exciting to be starting my new job, but at the moment I'm really trying to wrap my head around all the changes that are going on.

When you graduate with a class of ~25 people, it's kind of a given that you will become close to most of them. All of a sudden, everything is different. People are moving to start their own careers. I dropped Hayley off at the airport this morning. She's heading back to Vancouver and is really struggling with it. Lisa is arriving from Ottawa tomorrow and heading up to her job in Hervey Bay in a week. Kim has already left to get her and Lisa's house ready and started her Ed Qld job up north. Nicole is off to Tasmania to look at places in Hobart and find something for when she moves there permanently for her job in the rehab unit of the Royal Hobart Hospital. Nicky went up to Townsville (would never want to do that in a zillion years - watch this be where J and I end up!!) and has been working for about a month already. Alyce went back to South Australia. Alyssa is in Emerald, a mining town about a 14 hour drive away. Alizah and Rach got a place together in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. Others have returned home (e.g. Hong Kong) or moved down the coast (e.g. to the Gold Coast). So really, everyone has scattered. We were all each other's support systems and I hope we'll be in touch to help each other out with resources and clinical questions. I really am quite lucky to have found a job in Brisbane - I would have been open to going somewhere else but there is the small matter of Jeremy and it's much better to be living together full time.

There are still friends left, though. Although most of my class is gone, I have my amazing med friends who have been there for me since my first year here. Obviously Jeremy and I have each other. I have friends who I got to know through working at SpeechNet. I will meet more people at my Ed Qld job. Life will progress, shifting and shaping into a new routine, and it will be good. some of my old friends, I will never see again (Tuna) but I think that I will keep in touch with many of the people I've met through this class. This time next year will be even more crazy - we literally have NO IDEA where we'll end up at all! It's fun though...nothing holding us back from doing whatever and going wherever. It's all really a big adventure, isn't it?

After six weeks of family time, I dropped the parents, Grandmaman and Marissa off at the airport today (in two separate batches). J came for the second drop off and we stopped at the dfo (direct factory outlet) afterwards to check out the bargains. It was reminiscent of six weeks previously when we did the same thing before picking up our guests. I got a $70 dress for $10, so that is pretty exciting.

Let's see...so clearly a lot has happened in the last six weeks. We are both really distraught about losing our friend Tuna. It's just so unfair. The house has an emptiness to it now - keep expecting him to push through the office door, or meow in greeting when we arrive home, but he's really really gone. We were definitely kept occupied with the family here. Among other things, I went zorbing with Mum, paddle boarding with Marissa, saw a man made glow worm cave, took the Skywalk through a rainforest, swam in the ocean multiple times, etc etc etc. I had been planning to go see my family in Coolangatta (far end of the Gold Coast bordering New South Wales) while Jeremy had some time to relax and wind down before starting 4th year med. However, because of what happened to Tuney he really didn't want to be in the house by himself for those first couple of days so we decided he should come to Coolangatta with me, which was really lovely.

Last night Jeremy cooked up something many people would find quite unusual, I think - kangaroo lasagna! It had been quite some time since we had a kangaroo meal (2+ years) but we thought it would be an appropriate send off. Everyone gobbled down their meal and exclaimed at how delicious it was. Jeremy made an announcement at the end of it that they had all just eaten kangaroo - one final Aussie experience!!! My wonderful friend Jess joined us for dinner along with her parents (Kathy B and Waynie B). To quote Jess, I'd say our families got on "like a house on fire". Jess actually had accompanied Grandmaman, Marissa and I on one of our day trips and had met my parents a couple of times as well so they were already acquainted. She even had her own special name for Grandmaman - Grandmerie (I think she really just couldn't say Grandmaman). Hehehe. The poor Aussies trying to pronounce my parent's and grandmother's names! I think Grandmaman was called Nan, Grandma, Cecilia, and of course Grandmerie. I know Mum definitely got Gillian but I'm not sure what else. People were actually surprisingly good at pronouncing Dad's name - and by the middle of yesterday evening, Kathy B was even calling him "Por" (my mum's nickname for him).

So that's that - and now Jeremy starts 4th year in a big way, starting on eye surgery and I start my CAREER as a SPEECH PATHOLOGIST!!! :)

I'll leave you with this fantastic video of Mum and me zorbing. Clearly she is having a ton of fun and not screaming in terror at ALL!!

Goodbye, friend

I am so sad right now. Tuna, our favourite friend, went missing and Jeremy found him under the house today. We buried him in the backyard with his favourite bear. We both really loved him. He never, ever scratched, hissed or bit anyone. He loved to cuddle (on his own terms). He would go for walks with us at night and stop when he felt he had gone far enough from home, then he would wait at that spot for hours until we came back again. He got in and out of the house through a window, but he would always meow at the door. We told him to use his window, but always let him in. He liked to rest his head against your arm when he sat in your lap. Even people who didn't like cats liked Tuna. I wish that we could cuddle him one last time.

Feeling rejuvenated after a fantastic mini-holiday in Sydney this past weekend. I finally got to meet the Deans - I can see why the Nichols have stayed friends with them for decades! Maureen greeted us at the Waverton train station and we walked back to her apartment, which just happens to overlook the Sydney harbour/city. She was so welcoming and friendly and fabulous! I hear she is known for her party throwing abilities and we didn't miss out - she pretty much invited the whole lane from Lindfield for a BBQ that evening. There was Jeremy Dean and his wife (Lizzie), Jessica Dean and her daughter Ella, a guy named Michael and his parents (his dad is the Aussie publisher for Margaret Atwood, JK Rowling, Jodi Picoult, etc etc etc), there was another Jeremy who couldn't make it, but his mother was there (Christine) and a bunch of other people I don't remember. Lizzie and Jeremy Dean were so awesome - Saturday morning we were up bright and early and went for breakfast. Jeremy was planning on taking Jeremy kayaking while I went for a walk with Liz, but Jeremy ended up requesting a trip to Palm Beach, a place he remembered from his childhood. We walked up to the lighthouse, came back down, had a picnic and went for a swim at Whaley Beach. The water was PERFECT. Brought back some memories for J. It was really just a spectacular day. We topped it off with Jessica's husband's 40th b-day party, where Jeremy was engaged in an animated discussion about meat. Sunday, we left for Manly and it worked out perfectly - Jeremy Dean was going to do an ocean swim from Shelly Beach to Manly Beach and back, so Jeremy Nichol joined him and just casually ocean swam it up. Going for breakfast now, pics to come!

Mooooooooooooore!

Another Christmas Eve photo. How amazing is this sunset?! We were outside and mum asked a man passing by if he would take our picture and he refused - jerk. Shortly after, we went to this horrible comedy show. At some point, Marissa showed me her watch to tell me we had half an hour before midnight mass, and I whispered "Ok, we still have half an hour". The same man who wouldn't take our picture gave us a dirty look and admonished us for talking...JERK! we left the comedy show soon after - it was that bad. Later on the cruise, he was walking by and I said "Ugh, there's that guy". My mom grabbed his hand and said "Happy New Year" and then when she had his attention said "You were rude to us before" and he replied "Oh you mean when those two were talking during the show? (Pointing to Marissa and I) Well, SOMEONE had to be an adult!" All for one whispered sentence! Hilarious.
When we stopped at Tauranga for the day, we found an amazing tour guide who gave us a full day tour through Tauranga and Rotorua. This was one of the stops. Marissa and I in our matching "jumpers" posing in front of the giant kiwi. Mum even posed in front of it even though she's allergic to kiwi!
During our Rotorua tour, we stopped at these incredible natural hot springs. There were multiple pools to swim in, varying in heat. This was a cooling off pool. Such a great day!
Marissa, Grandmaman and I entered the onboard gingerbread house competition. Mum and Dad came to help out as well. Our house was horrendously bad and fell apart. The judges laughed at it and the chefts tried to help us because they felt sorry for us! Needless to say, we didn't win any prizes...but we had a very amusing time. Jeremy laughed hysterically when we showed him the pictures/video of our house. This was at the end when we destroyed it by diving headfirst into it and biting off some of the roof. It was one of my favourite things that we did on the ship!

Mum, Dad and a waterfall when we were cruising through Fiordland. So scenic and beautiful!