One of the many reasons Melbourne is amazing

http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20100630-34a667ac98778b43bc553ccff4033f12.flv

8 planes in 14 days...

Plane trip: 1/ 8

Current location: Melbourne, Australia

Baggage weight: exactly 7 kg. (Seriously? that's like 15 pounds...)

Weight of the stuff I was carrying/ hiding in my coat: likely a good 3 kg. Take that Tiger Airways!

 UPDATE:

• Currently heading to the Great Ocean Road via a tour. Then back to Melbourne then to Alice Spring to Uluru (Ayres Rock) then a Melbourne- Sydney combination.
• Alice Springs weather forecast: day 13 and raining. RAINING. It's the desert! The coat I bought- not rain proof.

See you after July 9th, unless, of course, you are anywhere between Melbourne- Alice Springs- Sydney. Then I may, in fact, see you before July 9th. 

Backpackers internet is lousy- Massive massive update at the final destination.

View Pacific, It's been swell

I've spent today packing my belonging back into 2 suitcases and 1 carryon sized bag. It's amazing how much I've managed to accumulate over the past year (not nearly as much as I had imagined, though). So far, it's all in the bags and fits well! Fingers crossed that I can close them tomorrow!

So the apartment itself was kind of crap. It was lacking in just about everything a typical apartment requires: stove, bedside tables, dresser, decent cutlery... but it did offer some pretty nice views of the Ocean:

And it is featured in the handy dandy Lonely Planet:

Good Value? Questionable. But really, steps from the beach and a block from Elkhorn and 2 from Cavill- it's pretty hard to beat that! 

A year ago today: NYC

My life in the last year and a half has been pretty wild. Sometimes I stop and think about all the

places I've been and it's pretty insane.  Here's a quick run down from April 2009 til now

... Ready for this?

NYC

London, UK

Bath, UK
Bristol
Stonehenge

Cotswalds 

Paris, France

Zurich, Switzerland

Zug, Switzerland

Swiss Alps

NYC (June 23rd- a year ago today!)

Gold Coast, Australia

Surfers Paradise

Brisbane

Mt. Warning

Mt. Tambourine

Wollongong

Sydney

Rockhampton

Yepoon

Airlie Beach

Whitsunday Island

Magnetic Island

Townsville

Cairns- Great Barrier Reef

Cape Tribulation

Adelaide

Byron Bay

+ several more amazing places which I am excited to write about once I get back! 

All of these places, and yet I left my heart in NYC:

I take it back Canada Post & Australia Post; I'm sorry

So about 4 months ago I was mailed a package with scarves, a DVD, M&M's and all that good stuff. About 3 months went by and it never arrived. A month after that, and once I was back on the Coast, it miraculously arrived in Adelaide. So my friends mailed it here and when it arrived it didn't have a Unit number (I don't think I was supposed to get this package!) Then a few weeks later, I get a call from Australia Post at 8am and it's here!

So this morning, I went for a walk in the rain on the beach with my new scarf and came back to my warm blanket and watched Uptown Girls while I ate (slightly stale) M&M's.

I always loved this dress:


Now it's cleaning, packing, re-packing, working out how to fit everything I need for 2 weeks including an outback adventure (hello warm clothes!) into a tiny bag that weighs 7 kilos. SEVEN. Ahhhh

These pictures belong to the previous post...

I realized I didn't post the accompanying images to the previous Brisbane post...

Here is the Regatta:

Paris restaurant:

Ok, we didn't actually eat here but it has an Eiffel Tower on top and that's pretty neat! 

You learn something new...

After an excellent Sunday Sesh at the Regatta (ie. early afternoon drinking at the bar on the river in Brisbane) and delicious desert at 16 & Park, a few of us attempted to get to the Fox in Southbank. An eventful drive, basically in circles around Southbank  that landed us in a dead end construction zone.

The conversation with the construction worker went a little like this:

Our driver: Will you turn a blind if I do a U-ie?
Construction worker: Why don't you try a blockie?

BLOCKIE! Have you ever heard that before?  In case you're wondering, it looks a little something like this:

This is likely the most ineffective maneuver- ever. Yes, the blockie takes you in a circle. Who knew? 

And in case you're wondering, we never made it to the Fox...

In My Dreams: See by Chloe dress

I spent the afternoon with N & H trying on ridiculously expensive dresses at David Jones in Brisbane! ...When in Rome, right?

I tried on a few but this one by See By Chloe was my absolute favourite!

The best part:

The worst part:

The $799 price tag is clearly out of the budget. And so is the $319... sigh.

Bumbles: My Breakfast Destination

I love finding great restaurants, but I haven't really found one I absolutely love (in a city I live in, anyway) since Hot Belly Mama's in Ptbro. Then I was introduced to Bumbles in Budd's Beach- Surfers. I found my new favourite!

Beachy interior

Photography wall paper (amazing!)

PANCAKES! But flower shapes pancakes with strawberries and blueberries. YUM!

So one week left here and I'm not sure I'll get a chance to go back for breakfast, but perhaps a coffee and book midday?

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes.

So ugly, they're amazing.

no camera= webcam shot

Things to Remember

*from my graphic design inspiration files... not sure who to give credit to, again.

Wednesday Night

It's somehow Wednesday night, again! I really only know this because I can see the Surfers Night Markets outside my window- otherwise it could be any day of the week. Ahh life vacation, how I will miss you. That being said,  the count down to travel (and subsequently, home) is on! 

Anyway, H and I were sitting around and ended up at Wolly's completely stocking up on delicious candies and chips. A healthy Wednesday night, as you can see!

Tonight's View Pacific Screening is:

The menu for the evening consists of:

A solid evening really! Thursday itinerary: walk, jog, run... 

From the Inspiration Files

These will, of course, have to be part of my summer home...

*Again, these are saved to my lovely laptop so I'm unable to give credit where credit is due. It's they're yours- let me know! 

Career Ideas of the Week Part 2

 Dissertation in and the cloudy weather commences. Of course, right! Although I utilized the past few days of summer-like weather by heading beachside and reading by the pool. Can’t complain (too much!)

Now comes that overly fun time of spending the majority of my waking moments roving the internet looking for jobs!  What an exciting time! No really-- its sort of exciting knowing that I have no idea where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing in several months time. Right! Right?

So I’ve created a list of things I like:

Writing

Books

Fashion

Social Media

Internet

MTV

This is the short list, of course. My interests go much deeper than 7 words- but I’m attempting to mash my interests into a career focused job searchable title.

Web Content, Fashion journalist, novelist, social media expert… hmm do you know anyone? 

The "Ocean + Camera" Incident

Due to the "ocean + camera" incident*, it appears that todays Byron Bay pictures are going to have to wait quite some time until they get posted. Unless of course, I manage to find a camera (anyone?) or it miraculously starts to work again... please, camera, please!


*This was basically my reaction to my camera and Everyone Worth Knowing novel opting for a swim in the lovely Australian ocean.

1. ohh scaling rocks beside the ocean... this is fun-ish

2. OMG look at the bag in the water

3. eee... salt water+camera/book. This is not good. 

These were, interestingly enough (subjective) from a while back. Who doesn't make faces at Photobooth? Just me?

Things To Remember (Not Smart Edition)

Clouds in the sky; books by the pool

During my recent walk to Broadbeach (and subsequently to the used book store) I picked up a few gems:

  Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger

Serendipity by an Australian authors who's name escapes me at this moment 

and Tasmanian Babes Fiasco by John Birmingham (author of He Died with a Felafel in His Hand ) 

So a week into my life vacation and I've been reading heaps.. ah, I miss reading mass amounts of novels for fun! I am an English Lit major after all. 

So to get into my book, I headed pool side to start Everyone Worth Knowing: 1 afternoon. 100 pages. Heavenly.

My camera happened to be in my bag, so I snapped a few pictures of the sky. A few minutes after I took these, it got a bit too cloudy and the sun went away... back inside! It is winter here, so I'm getting all the sun I can!

Things to remember

Beach Walk to Broadbeach

When was the last time you got to walk on the beach to do a little shopping? sigh I'm going to miss this.

Surfers in constant construction

Surfers Paradise beach

Neat new building and Q1 towering above

My old beach- no one is ever there...

22 degrees celsius- birr

perfect sky

Massive waves in Broadbeach