I have been informed that my league of adoring fans are displeased at the lack of blog updates.  I shall endeavour to improve at this task!

7.5 years into this crazy adventure and I still sometimes need a translator.  Learned a new term recently "larry" (or is it lary?) which apparently means bright and colourful. 

Jeremy was away on his own epic adventure for most of August.  I have yet to see photos from his Greenland hike!  Apparently it was definitely worth it, but I'm not sure he's in a hurry to do it all again (his feet are still recovering).  He also had the chance to catch up with his family in Canada (even the ones currently living in Africa!) and meet nephew Balin and niece Freya for the first time.  Not to mention, he was offered a ticket to see the Tragically Hip's second last show ever, which he gratefully and happily accepted.

I've been doing quite a bit of my own travels, although staying in one country.  I had my first ever trip to Canberra/Australian Capital Territory recently.  The Smart Strokes conference was held in Canberra this year and I was offered a scholarship to cover the conference fee.  I had a poster in the exhibition hall outlining my systematised review on self-management in aphasia and also gave a short oral presentation.  My main advisor, Annie, was one of the keynote speakers at the conference and we had the chance to catch up as well, which is always nice.  There was a presentation given by a lady who had a stroke about 6.5 years ago - she was a typist who became a pharmacist who became a  GP who spoke 4 languages and was an absolutely incredible woman and engaging speaker (she also had aphasia, I should note!)  I would outline her speech but wouldn't do it justice - let's just say it was fantastic.  I convinced one of my friends from uni, Jody, that she needed to do some professional development so she should totally come to this conference!  Jody and I decided to also spend the weekend in Canberra, since neither of us had been before.  I think we covered many of the main Canberra attractions - we did a tour of Parliament, saw old Parliament house, went to the National Art Gallery, saw the War Memorial, tried out some of the restaurants, and went to the Old Bus Depot markets.  I thought it was a lovely city, very sensible and easy to get around, and people weren't kidding when they say it's cold!

Before Canberra, I spent some time in Sydney.  The main reason for the trip to Sydney was to meet up with five friends from interstate and see ALADDIN THE MUSICAL!  Jen is one of my best friends and my first friend in Australia.  She is from Brisbane, but moved to Adelaide for 18 months to try something different.  Sadly (for me) she has now returned to Brisbane, but I got to see her in Sydney which makes me happy!  Lisa is a friend I met at university - she is from Ottawa and she stayed with Jeremy and I for a couple of weeks when she first moved to Australia for speech pathology.  After we graduated, she moved to Hervey Bay to work with kids with disabilities and she has since moved to Adelaide which is fantastic! Lisa and I have many of the same interests and she's always up for random events! Claire did intern year with Jeremy at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.  She was my Japan travel buddy and my hockey playing friend when she was living in Adelaide.  She moved back to Melbourne after intern year to pursue her dream of becoming a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon but we still keep in regular touch.  She is one of the hardest working people I know, while also being one of the most fun and bubbly!  Jane is another friend from Jeremy's intern year.  She and Jeremy bonded instantly over a love of meat and beer, and I got along with her right away as well.  She has the greatest dry sense of humour and is one of the most generous people I've ever met.  She recently moved back to Brisbane after three years in Adelaide to try to further her career and I think she should move back to South Australia.  Andy went to med school with Jeremy, Jane and Jen but we didn't know him until we met him in Adelaide, through Jane.  This year he moved up to Mackay (QLD) so that he could get some specific rotations such as anasthetics and ICU while he decides what he wants to specialise in.  Andy and I share a love of musicals, randomly bursting into song, and the Nightmare Before Christmas.  He is a wonderful person and I would be super happy if he came back to Adelaide as well!  So that's the gang...we had a great weekend in Sydney which included a delicious Japanese meal, yum cha brunch, shopping, Pokemon hunting, virtual reality David Attenborough trip to the great barrier reef, eating at a place called Tequila Mockingbird, and of course, ALADDIN.  The musical was spectacular - the sets and costumes were absolutely brilliant and the singing and acting were fabulous.  It did change some key movie elements but you can't really blame them when they're putting on such an epic show. Almost two weeks later, I still catch myself humming 'Prince Ali'.  All my pals left Sydney on Sunday, whereas I stayed until Tuesday to travel directly from Sydney to Canberra.

On one of my alone days in Sydney, I travelled to Penrith (near the base of the Blue Mountains) to interview a man with aphasia.  The man and his wife were such lovely people - and they had a  beautiful cat!  Their home was also just stunning.  The man dutifully went through an assessment and then let me interview him.  He is the first person I've interviewed so far with 'fluent; aphasia, where the person can speak fluently, and some of it will make sense but some of it will be nonsense words.  They know what they want to say and think that they have said it, but the listener can definitely end of quite confused.  Sometimes you have to try not to burst out laughing - like when he pointed at a car during a picture description task and said something like "And that's a whore!  Is that it?  A whore?  Yes, a whore!  No...not a whore...that's a CAR".  His wife says they spend a lot of time laughing, which is probably the best approach, really.

Gosh I have just been blathering on about anything and everything so I'll leave it there and get back to doing some actual work.  Other quick updates include Speech Pathology Australia awarding me a $10 000 grant for my research and I've also been accepted to lead a discussion forum at the Australia Aphasiology Symposium in October.  So things are going along pretty well with that stuff at the moment!