We loved Phuket

Home from Phuket now. We had the best time hanging out with Haley and Richard. Not in any order as I am too tired to think properly, these are the fun things we did:
jet skiing (1st for R/M), elephant trekking, rod even sat on the elephants head while it was walking down the rocky hill, I was not game, awesome bowling (I still suck at bowling but had fun watching everyone else), lots of cocktails, volleyball in the pool, swimming in the lovely warm water, canoeing in caves, swimming at James Bond island, awesome massages for me, my favourite was a 2 hour – mixture of thai and western aromatherapy – magical and loads more. Spent 5 hours at Singapore airport on the way home so I did lots of shopping – felt so good, not sure if credit card agrees, but it’s worth it.

I’m still here

I know I’ve been a little quiet lately and not posting here. Just been so busy, but life is great. Feb was so busy and chaotic getting things done for the conference. My sub-committee and I had a long meeting one Saturday to review abstracts and place them into our program template, it was like spending 3 hours doing a jigsaw. Extremely rewarding seeing the finished product – the prelim program. That was nearly 4 weeks ago and it’s constantly changing – but all good.

In Feb too we had 2 weekends away. The first was to Mandurah Quest Apollo Apartments, a weekend with my family. It was just so good. The pool was just awesome and the canals were on our doorstep. We played lots of games, taught Mum how to play Mahjong and Rod – Canasta, so that was lots of fun. Swam heaps, drank wine and had a fine time. (Photos on FB).

The weekend after that we went camping to Dwellingup with some school buddies, now that was another awesome weekend. It was so hot that weekend we all went swimming in the river, it was unreal at Bob’s crossing, the water was just divine. We used Pete’s kayaks up and down the river, very relaxing. The kids had the best time swimming in their life jackets. It was the perfect weekend with mates. On the way home on that Sunday Rod and I stopped at Rockingham Beach for a glorious swim. I used to swim there when I was young, step back in time.

So that was Feb and now it’s March – the month I have been looking forward too for so long. Beginning of the month it was Rod’s birthday so we went to Just Tapas Bar in Como for dinner with my family. It was nice and we got an awesome discount with Entertainment Card, was nice to try something new and different. That Friday night Rod went out for birthday drinks and that was fun too. There was a group about 6 of us, some Rod’s mates, my bro and his mates, so it was great. Another hot night. I didn’t drink too much as I had a Girls Night the next day at Burswood. A few of my very close school buddies stayed over night at the Holiday Inn (next time it will be the Burswood proper!!!) Anyway we had a ball even though the service was terrible. Cocktails by the pool, mocktails for the pregnant ones, some swimming, lots of talking, talking, eating, drinking, talking and talking and me taking photos (see FB). We all love catching up esp those with kids, get to have a night off and enjoy themselves. We all had the best time and I think this time was much better as we totally loved the chill out time beside the pool!

Last weekend was perfect for me, been a long time since I’ve had a weekend to myself. Chilled out a lot, rested, read, watched a movie, Rod went to a Bucks Day and me to a Hen’s Night.

And now it’s the 14th of March and it’s less than a week until my great Melbourne buddies get married. This is why I wanted March to come. Its gonna be another “Witney Place” reunion with quite a few of us travelling over for the wedding. It’s so gonna rock, I am a bridesmaid. So watch this space I am sure I’ll be posting something next week. Roll on 5pm tomorrow, I’m flying out tomorrow night – Melbs here I come, yet again

And then…… We are going to Phuket for a holiday to meet up with the new husband and wife – cocktails and swimming, just going to be sooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!

Goals for 2010

I want to keep doing tennis lessons and play Social Tennis. I’ve started gym classes at UWA and love combat. I want to go every Tuesday. I want to keep doing Aqua on Weds. I want to ride my bike. I want to stay healthy and fit & stay on the Healthy Eating CSIRO diet.

I want to be more crafty this year. I want to scrap book my 2008 trip photos & 2009 South African/ Mauritius trip. I want to start a visual journal from 2007. I want to create a visual journal, 5 – 10 lines of each journal of my life starting when I was 15 until now. I want to keep up with my Blog.

I want to travel. We plan to travel to the USA and UK this year to see friends & family. I can’t wait to see Vanessa/Dan in Houston and take Rod to the US for his 1st time. I want to see friends over East. I want to go camping more in WA. I want to experience new things in my home city.

I want to learn something new in my job at UWA. I want to put my heart and soul into organsing the 2011 LT conference to be held in Perth. I want to get colleagues at UWA Library to join in and encourage them to submit a paper/talk.

Of course I have lots more I want to do this year but these are the main goals. I want to keep in touch with family and friends in Perth too.

Summer Holidays and 2010

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2010 brings you lots of happyand fun-filled memories.

My summer break was totally awesome!!! The lead up to Christmas was part of the fun. We had Secret Santa with Charlotte and Co.  We went to Clare’s for the school gang’s Xmas catch up where we swam for most of the day. I was in heaven. Swimming and being with mates, and a good glass of wine. Couldn’t ask for more really.

Christmas Day started off with breakfast at my brother’s new house. I only grazed, but most importantly I got to start the day off with a swim. (Also went for a run and did some crunches etc before we even arrived – my idea!!) Then headed back to my parents house for a nice lunch and Xmas dinner in the evening. Such a relaxing day, lots of swimming for me, pool and then spa at my Mum’s. My icecream cake was spectacular. From the Coles free recipe book.
Boxing Day was great, different for me. Normally hang out with my family and friends, but this year went to the zoo with Rod’s family. Really enjoyed hanging out with the McDonalds, as don’t get to see them much. Was nice to get to know Ali and Jeremy who live in Germany. Rod and I enjoyed a picnic of Xmas leftovers before heading to the Windsor for a Boxing Day drink – never done that before, didn’t know pubs were open on Boxing Day Then we watched DVD’s in the evening – totally relaxing!

I love the 10 day break from Uni closure – it’s one of the best things about working there. Over my break we had a girls dinner out with Clare over from Sydney – that was fun. I swam a lot, found a new beach which I just love, Sorrento Beach. It’s shallow, beautiful clear aqua water and not to many big waves and hardly any kids – perfect! Read some books – Paullina Simon’s latest – A Song in the Daylight – pretty good (fav author), Eclipse – 3rd vampire book, JP latest book in Alex Cross series, I, Alex Cross – awesome, totally love this series, plus a few more. Had friends over for a scrapbooking afternoon, they totally inspired me and now I have finished my Egypt album! (will post photos later) Only 3 more to go before I start my Africa album. I went out and bought some scrapbooking goodies with vouchers I got for Xmas.

Had Meg’s 30th birthday the night before NYE. That was great, a shame it was a little cool, but we all had a ball and Megs loved her birthday present from the gang – an antique ring, which Charlotte found online and was posted to us from the US – great work Charlotte!

NYE day caught up with old ECU friends and then Rod and I drove to Albany for 4 day weekend. It was so much fun. We chilled out, played some chess, swam at Emu Point Beach, caught up with Charlotte and Leigh and had the best time!!!!! The weather was perfect, even warm enough for me to swim, it was like a bath at Emu Point. Water is so shallow there, superb for me!

It was a great break and I am so relaxed from chilling out and swimming as much as I could. I’m refreshed and looking forward to an awesome 2010.

Down South

We went away for the 2nd weekend in a row, to Busselton. The weather was glorious down there and the beach was superb. We stayed with Rod’s brother and his family. Was great to see the kids again and little Henry is so cute. I pretty much swam all day on the Saturday and then in the evening we played games as we always do – love that.

Sunday we drove to Pinjarra in our 1920s outfits for Rod’s Xmas Party, at the Pinjarra Races. It was extremely hot but we were inside with air con, in the Members section. It was a fun afternoon. We placed small bets and we came out even I think – so that’s not too bad.

This Saturday I’m off to Rottnest Island for the day for more beach and swimming. I’ve had a good swim every weekend so far – it’s superb – loving summer!

Photos to come of Busso and my costume, so watch this space!

SA and Mauritius photos – finally

South Africa – As you can imagine it has taken me a very long time to upload these photos to my Flickr site. So there are no photo titles or tags yet. Hope you like them. I have lots more…..

It’s taken me a couple of months but I now have Mauritius photos. Not as many as South Africa.

Enjoy