Another goodbye....

I can't believe that I've lived in Perth for almost four years! Unbelievable! How quickly time flies. But on Thursday I say goodbye for one last time as I make the trek back to Melbourne for a few weeks, and then off to Thailand! Only 24 more sleeps til I see my boy again. I can't wait. It will have been 2 months since I've last seen him!

I'm almost done with my packing now, but it's amazing how much crap you accumulate when you are in one spot for a while. It was a great opportunity to throw a lot of junk out though, and felt very cleansing.

I just sold my car too!! Very excited about that because the proceeds of that are going to be what I'll be living on for the next few months. Hopefully it will last me a little while at least!

Alrighty... not sure when I'll next be able to post, but it will probably come from fire ravaged Victoria.

Goodbye Legs....

Things are starting to wind up here at uni... still got a hell of a lot to do before I head off to Melbourne for Christmas, but it's doable! Sort of! I'm really looking forward to spending time with mum and dad for 3 weeks over Christmas before I head off. We had some sad news the other day... one of our young horses, Legs, was diagnosed with something called "wobbles". It's basically where the vertebrae in their neck grows incorrectly and starts pinching the spinal cord. Unfortunately we had to get him put down as he was losing coordination in his legs and was only going to get worse. At least he had the best 2 years of life that a horse could ever have.

Robbie :)

Had a wonderful time at the Robbie Williams concert the other day with Bry... fantastic day/night... The hours that we lined up for were worth it since we got so close to the stage. Still a little bit disturbed about the girl who peed into a bottle so that she didn't have to lose her place in the crowd, but good on her for her skill! He was onstage for over 2 hours, and it was just an amazing show. He did all of his best songs like "Angel", "Rock DJ" and "Kids" (was hoping for Kylie to come out, but to no avail). The fireworks and flames were spectacular, but spent 5 minutes trying to get the ash out of our eyes because of them!!


Starting to do a bit of research into things to do in Thailand while mum and dad are visiting. We are taking a trip up to Chiang Mai for about 4 days, and then doing a trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai. We'll probably stay overnight there and try to pay a visit to the tiger temple where some buddhist monks have about 17 tame tigers!! Sounds amazing, and just hoping that we can get there.

Aussie! Aussie Aussie!

Dan and I had our farewell party this weekend.... even though he's not going til the 14th of November and I'm not going til January! But it was a great night! Everyone really got into the Australiana theme and had a great time. The drinks were flowing pretty thick and fast and it all went pretty well... until someone got the vodka out (not naming any names, but his name begins with "D" and ends with "aniel")... 10 shots in quick succession, a "stacks on" and then it was all over... spewage on the lawn for 3 hours! Fun!!

Ok... I love the Dixie Chicks

Had a magnificant night on Friday when I went to see the Dixie Chicks for the first time ever at Burswood Dome. It was sooooooo good!! Absolutely adore these guys, and I am completely in awe of anyone who can sing and play instruments on stage the way they do! They played all of my absolute favourites, and for "Goodbye Earl" they had everyone pretty much rocking! It was fantastic!! Also of note is that they played the preview of a documentary "Shut up and Sing" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811136/ which looks absolutely brilliant. Even if you don't like country music I think you should see it.


They were supported by a guy called Pete Yorn from New Jersey. He was a pretty impressive act in his own right, but a bit up himself. He opened his performance with a bit of Springsteen which got him in my good books, and his songs were pretty good. Probalby worth checking out a bit further.

When I was at home in September I decided that I should take some new photos of all my pets as all of my other pictures are a little bit dated. Some of these are soooo cute! Oh.. and the sunset back home was amazing! I managed to capture this picture while I had an 18 month horse nipping at my back... little bugger... needs some teeth removal!

Meet Tilly... she's my 8 year old thoroughbred mare. She would have to be one of the laziest horses around and you will most commonly catch her in this position... asleep!

This is George... a bootiful black and tan kelpie. He's such a dork! The poor bugger is getting a bit old and arthritic, and a bit white around the gills, but hopefully he has a few more years in him.


And this is Banjo! This is my Dad's dog... he's one of the most spoiled pets in the world! A cutey though, and very photogenic!

Well... I'm still working at my thesis and going slowly crazy... it's definitely getting there now, but it's just so hard to keep motivated. My key motivation is to join my boy in Thailand at the end of the year though, so hopefully it will get written quickly!

I've got the Dixie Chicks concert in only 10 days!! I can't wait, and I will certainly be giving a report about it once I've been. I have been wanting to see these guys for years and they never made it to Perth last time so I'm wayyyyy too excited!!

Ok.. heaps to do... better get back to it!

Trouble in Thailand

Wow... this report really surprised me and gave me a bit of a scare...

"On 19 September, late night media reporting advised of coup underway in Bangkok, Thailand. While the situation is likely to stabilise in the next 24 hours and there have been no reports of violence, there exists a credible risk of protests and clashes between pro and anti-Thaksin forces and there is the possibility of demonstrations turning violent. According to media reports, the military leaders have declared Marshall Law, set up a ruling Council and have suspended Thailand's constitution."

Hopefully they'll get it sorted out soon... they reckon that there is no risk for Australians at the moment, but everyone is apparently advised to leave the country. The UN has come out against the military coup, as have most leaders around the world... amazing in a democracy how things can turn to shit.....

Holiday?.... i don't think so!

Well, this is where I've been for the past week or so.... I've been demonstrating (tutoring) for a first year geology field trip in Albany.... all I can say is there were magnificant sunrises and sunsets, but I'm very glad I'm home! Sooooo many questions from people... my voice has given out now, and I'm croaking! Also, a cold has managed to weasel it's mingey little way into my body and i've been suffering for the past few days!

Also moved into a house with my boyfriend that we'll be housesitting until he goes away to Thailand... for good :( Very sad, but at least I'll be joining him in January :)

Avon Descent

How gross is this thing? I had to try to rip it from my b/f's leg the other day!! He must have hitchhiked back with us after camping!!

Pretty clever huh? Amazing the cool stuff you can do with time-lapse on your camera!! I was just amazed how accurate I was when I was drawing it!

These guys are brave!.. There weren't many of the boats who hit this little rapid at full speed, but the ones that did usually had the best success.. was definitely one of the best vantage points considering the river levels were so low....

This pretty much sums up the nightly activities while we were camping. The first night consisted of drinking games... bad idea!! Especially when you have a slightly annoying person with you :)

And I remember..ba..ba..ba

Ok... you have to watch this video clip... It's from the Family Guy "Petergeist" episode... when I saw this I almost peed myself :)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dPES0lxBWRo

Also... check out one of my favourite video clips of all time... this used to play on the ABC around about 5.55pm once a week or something... Do you remember it?

http://www.youtube.com/w/Love-is-all?v=Np_FB8i3Vbc&search=butterfly%20%20love


Classics!!!!

Here's another picture from my trip across the ocean. Ok, it's different spelling, but I reckon it's pretty good! I found this bar just around the corner from the hotel I was staying at in London on my last night there. It turned out to be the longest pub in London! So, Billo and I had a beer in there just because we could!

Welcome!!

I'd just like to welcome my mummy to the big world of technology!! She's finally got her own little piece of the WWW... YAY!!! You can go to her site using the link on the side here --------->

We are going camping this weekend to the Avon Descent... how exciting!! Hopefully it won't rain too much... I just can't wait to get out of the city. There is nothing better than eating seared marshmallows around a blazing fire while burning the soles of your boots from having your feet too close to said blazing fire!! Will probably have some interesting photos to show after the weekend!

San Francisco

I spent sooooo much time with these guys while I was in San Francisco.... aint he cute?!!! There were hundreds of these sealions just hanging around on the pontoon thingies.... and they were fighting with each other constantly cause it's mainly the males that hang out here... typical huh?!! They were noisy and smelly buggers, but they were definitely one of my favourite things to do in San Fran.

Kirk Yetholm

This is the small town on the Scottish Borders where my mum's family comes from. It really did feel like home while I was there, and it was like stepping back in time with all the cobblestone streets and stuff... but it was just gorgeous.

More photos

Isn't this the most amazing cathedral? I've never seen anything lit up like this before... I was gobsmacked!! I also felt like I didn't belong there and that I should get my atheist butt out of there as quickly as possible!

Favourite photo

This would have to be one of my favourite photos from my trip around the world... I had tried to take many photos of squirrells and most of the time they were running away... I swear this guy just posed for me!!!

Times a wastin'

The comment about my "do-able" 10 things to do list is right on the money.... I guess I'd rather set goals that I know I might be able to achieve than to put unrealistic expectations on myself. I know you should aim high and whatever, but I'm more of a "safe" person who likes to pass something small well than fail spectacularly along the way. It's always been my biggest fear in life... failure. I'm not sure if it's something that I've gotten from my parents, or maybe just something about the insecurity of people not "liking" you if fail... I guess this is where my competitiveness comes in. But on the otherhand, I don't let the fear of failing something, or being bad at something, stop me from giving it a go. I've found that a lot of the things I am really crap at have given me heaps of laughs, or taught me something. I could have put things like "Climb Mt Everest" or "Break a world record" or something like that, but I'm happy with what I've got :).... Besides.... Finishing my thesis is the only thing I want to do right at this moment!!!

10 things to do before I die:

* Live in a foreign country
* See a volcano erupt
* Go up in a hot air balloon
* Learn how to surf
* Witness a tornado from afar
* Go to/fly over Antarctica
* Touch a whale
* Save someone's life
* Ride a horse in Montana, US
* Climb Mt Kilimanjaro

There are many things that I want to do during my life, but these would have to be up there at the top. If I can manage to achieve some of these I'll be happy. Of course, as soon as I do manage to do them other things will replace them. I was actually finding it hard to think of some cool things that I could do.... I was thinking "touch an elephant", "touch a lion"... and I realise I've already done it! I've been very very lucky with what I've been able to do in my 26 years, but there are so many other things as well! Am I greedy?

Yes Bill, that would be the same bloke.... and yes, he has been suspended for a week!! Stupid bugger... Sometimes too much bravery can be bad... especially when you have no idea about what's going on around you!!! Did you hear about him fainting on TV while giving an interview a couple of weeks back... quite hilarious really :)

So... are the Saints going to beat the Dockers on the 19th of August? My prediction is: NO BLOODY WAY IN THE WORLD!! Well, that's what I'm hoping anyway! I'm taking a few footy virgins to the game (a couple of brazilians and a serb... should be interesting!).

I've just finished a 3 day course at uni and boy am I glad it's over. Electon microprobe!! Yay... how exciting. Hopefully I passed the test last night, but owing to the fact that I only got 5 hours sleep the night before and the test was at 6pm I'm not sure. Shouldn't be too bad.

Life continues to amuse me.... why is it that when you are getting an average of about 5 hours of sleep a night you still can't go to bed early and actually sleep? I've been lying awake for hours worrying about all sorts of things... probably just the usual insomnia that I get when I'm stressed. But I mean... the less sleep I get, the more stressed I get, so the less sleep I get. Hmmmm... apart from sleeping tablets... any suggestions?

**sigh**

I'd love to know who the hell is playing with my brain right now, but somewhere, someone is pissing themselves with laughter!! Seriously... last week I was walking past a service station and a guy's petrol cap fell off his boot lid as he drove away so I flagged him down and gave it back to him and he turned out to be this Irish guy (think kinda leprachaun-ish) and he said "I hope you have a good day cause you deserve it". Well, maybe I was being a bit greedy at the time, but I thought that nothing really good happened on that day so I thought it might carry over... not so!! I've just had the most frustrating morning of trying to spoon-feed an Indian professor in the course that I'm doing at the moment. Hmmm... maybe I should rephrase... and start from the start!! I'm doing a course at Uni at the moment so that I'm allowed to use a machine to do some analysis on my rocks. Anyway, we have to do these practical classes using Excel to show that you can calibrate the machine etc etc.... well... this IDIOT.... grrr... even after you tell him about 500 times what to do (and bear in mind (is that the right bear? bare?) that this is the first time I've done this course too) he still hasn't got a f****NG clue!!! So, as a result, I've had to spend the whole morning helping him while only being able to get a 1/4 of what I needed to get done, done!!! So... Cathy not in a happy mood right now. Best part is that I don't have to work with him this arvo (well, I hope not anyway!). It will be really painful if I do, and I think I'll have to jump off the building if he does it again. It's the first time (really!) that I've actually had homocidal thoughts about someone. I'm pretty sure everyone in the room could hear me getting more and more frustrated with him. Hopefully they'll have some sympathy for me!!
Anyway, I'm off to see if I can do all that stuff online so that I can catch up a bit.

Oh... and GO SAINTS :)

I love sport....

Anyone who knows me knows that I love sports.... Any sport really. If Australia is playing then I'll be one of the loudest people cheering. My dad definitely gave me a love of competition and some think that I might be a little too competitive sometimes (ask Dan and our games of punch buggy!). Hearing that Italy won the soccer last night made me a little happier since we got beaten by the World Cup Champions, but the fact that it still came down to a stupid penalty shoot out enforces the reason as to why I only watch soccer when the World Cup is on, or when Australia is playing. See, a game like AFL is much better... they don't have pansies falling down every five minutes clutching their ankles, they have proper contests and you'll see more than one goal scored in a game which to me makes for a much better game to watch. The Saints had a bloody fantastic win on the weekend :)... especially so because it was over the Pies!!! Love it :)

Well, this has been a wonderful waste of a day.... I had a stack of things that needed to be done and I've only managed to achieve one of them! I guess it's better (marginally) than nothing.

Noticing that everyone has been doing a bit of soul searching lately... me included. So many people have been asking me what I want to do once I've finished my PhD.... I have no idea! I know what I don't want to do, but it doesn't really help me with what I DO want to do! It's giving me the shits actually... In high school all I wanted to do was to become a vet... that petered out eventually, so now I've ended up doing a PhD in geology! How on earth did I get here? I guess it's become something to be interested in, but I'm not too sure how long I want to do it for. Of course I want to get out there and earn some of this money that everyone else in the industry seems to be earning, and I want to put my 8 years (!) of uni to good use, but exactly what that is just yet, I don't know. The future seems pretty uncertain right now... the only thing I do know is that I want to keep the love of my life IN my life, and if that means taking a big adventure to Thailand next year then that's what I'll be doing.

WE WERE ROBBED!!

I can't believe that after such an evenly played match that was actually refereed fairly well that it all came down to one stupid referee decision. GRRR..... so angry right now. I hope all the Italian fans feel like it was an empty victory and that they get their butts whipped by the Ukraine in the next round!! I'm so over the world cup now.... Don't really care who wins now as long as it gets me up there in our World Cup footy tipping competition :)

Blogging with a headache is fun....

I thought that it was about time that I actually did something about this web blog thing that everyone seems to be doing at the moment. I had grand plans of getting it all done before I headed off on my adventure overseas, but alas it never happened! So, you get to just endure the boring, mindless stuff that I endure in my everyday life!

I can't believe that I'm finally back at uni and supposed to be doing work towards my PhD. The last couple of months have felt like a bit of a blur. Catching up with everyone in London was amazing, but kinda sad too because I've realised how much they've all changed. Unlike Bill :) It was a blast catching up with him... vague recollection of being at a tube station in London and being way too drunk to be civilised!

Probably the best bit was seeing all my family in Scotland again. My mum is from Scotland and all of her side of the family is still over there, bar her cousin Ray who lives here in Perth. I find it amazing that I've never lived in the country, and I've only visited once when I was 12, but I still found that it had this pull on me. It really felt like it could be home.

Anyway, my boy is about to pick me up from uni so I must sign off. That's one thing that I really missed while I was away.... the past month away from Dan has reaffirmed that I just don't know what I'd do without him anymore. We are coming up to 2 years together now and I've never felt more happy in my life. My only problem is that he may be moving to Thailand soonish.... I think "we" are meant to be though so we will make it work somehow. Just don't know if I could handle doing the long distance thing, but we'll see.