February 2010 Highlights

G'day! We meet again!

Since landing back in Sydney I've hit the ground running. There was so much to do when I first arrived! I could write a novel to catch up on everything since my last post, but there a few highlights that are definetly worth a mention.

Meeting Nick's brand new baby niece, Ciara, who was born just a week before I landed was incredible.

She was so so tiny and gorgeous, and her mother even let me have a cuddle!



She is a bouncing 8 week old baby now and still oh so good to snuggle with :)

Another definite highlight was the trip Nick and I took to the Hawksberry river for a five day camp-out music festival. The vibe was amazing and Nick and I danced each night away to an awesome line up of bands. The festival is big on organizing dress up events and Nick and I took full advantage of the opportunity to do a little facepainting...


... ok a lot of face painting!

I wasn't about to spend the free time I had before uni started hiding from the sun inside like I did last year, and made sure I hit the beach for some 'Triple S' fun (Sun, Sand, Surf. Yes I made that up myself. Yes, I'm a nerd.)

I pulled my best version of "Blue Crush" and almost* surfed pipe! (*By 'almost', I mean I stood up in white water. Yay!)

More importantly, Nick and I and a few friends had a great time at the beach!

Moving right along into some cultural highlights... celebrating Chinese New Year with my friend Jane was waaay cool, and the costumes, singing, dancing and chinese lion dragons were worth braving the torrential downpour to go and see:

Then of course there was Valentine's Day. Not a day that's been very pleasant for me over the past year or five, but this year was pure bliss!

Nick planned an awesome day for us to spend together. We packed a picnic and drove into the Royal National Park, (where we'd gone on one of our first dates.) There, despite the overcast skies and slight drizzle we rented a canoe and went for the most surreal and dreamlike paddle up a tree-lined canal. The weather was actually a blessing in disguise as the water, and park in general was pretty deserted and felt like our own slice of paradise, just for us to enjoy.

Along the way Nick in all his orthinological glory, pointed out the myriad speciese of birdlife, presenting themselves along the bank. (A bird is on the branch just to the right of my head.)

Spotting the usually shy liar bird through the trees was an especially delightful treat, and we giggled at its machainery-sounding robot noises interrupting the silence of the earily still and quiet wilderness. I also admired some wonderful wildflowers and plantlife as we stretched our muscles paddling along, enjoying our weightlessness in the canoe as it glided across the water.

We pulled into the dock just as the drizzle turned into rain, and upon disembarking from the canoe, dashed over to an undercover picnic area to devour our well-earned feast. We had decided on a medditerrainian theme of baquette, olives, feta, sliced meat, and grapes and boy did it it the spot! Of course we had to give a nod to the Brits, and opted for a carten of custard for dessert. Turnes out a hollowed out grape filled with cold custard is super tasty!

Thanks babe for such an amazing Valentine's Day 2010!!!!

Oh My Gosh! Look who's here!!!

[I'll give you a hint...]

But first some updates!

Where have I been you ask?

Ok folks, I know it's been a while since I've blogged but I have lots of reasons for having been so busy. Firstly, the last couple of weeks of my trip to home to Canada was a whirlwind to say the least! In completing my goal of catching up with every friend I have (and their parents too,) it was a bonefide race to the finish. An "Amazing Race" one might say, since it was so amazing to get to see all of my beloved friends whom I miss so so much!

I have to show you this photo of my girlfriends from Oakville and me at Tenleigh's "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. I swear the second hand stores put in a special order just for us cause we managed to pull off some doozies!

Speaking of dressing up, I had a great time getting together with my Brock girlfriends for a Christmas Pajama party! It was so great to be there, and to see that the girls haven't changed a bit (well okay maybe some have a tiny bit; see below.) I love going home and being able to slide back in to old friendships. Of course I wish there was a cosmic black-hole through which I could go home to see my friends every other weekend; however, on the upside, I have wonderful memories of this year's visit, and am very satisfied in the fact that I at least got to congratulate one friend on her engagement and another on becoming a mum-to-be!

Of course I can't forget to mention the absolutely fantastic parties put on by my friends Kristen and Sean. Their apartment has the most amazing view- perfect for midnight noise-making to bring in the New Year!

Now not to worry, I know what y'all are thinking... but I did do stuff other than raid Goodwill and party. Yes, to balance out the parties, Kristen and I enjoyed some very refined and civilized socializing with our friend Mara and her cute little toddler. Seeing adorable Skylar again was great as the last time I saw her she was a wee new-born at my going away party. My- they grow so quickly!

Of course no trip would have been complete if I hadn't of tried to outdo myself in a feat of culinary genius. Ahem, since Masterchef's roster was complete, I decided to recruit my Aussie mate, Jessie as guinea pig for a homemade feast of bruscetta, pancetta caesar salad, creole chicken chili, and New York cheesecake with raspberry sauce and blueberries (yes, the cake was homemade too of course!)

I served up the meal on our finest china, and, as Jessie was preparing to make the move back to Perth, we toasted both of our returns to Australia. Jessie, I hope we get to see each other again soon (PS please don't make me eat any Vegemite)!

Lastly, I absolutely HAD to go to my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto, I've mentioned it before here, and it was even better than I'd remembered. Kristen, Sean and I were joined by our out-of-town friends Jess and Di for an oh-so-scrumptious and drool-worthy dinner of rare-beef pho and rice-paper spring rolls. Topped off with copious amounts of tea and laughter, I left the restaurant with that satisfyingly stuffed feeling that I can only get with Asian food.

Well that's it for the post-trip round-up. More very soon (I promise!) on how I've been keeping busy since arriving back in Australia. Ta-ta for now!

Farewell North Toronto C.I

So it's been a wonderful trip home to Canada for the holidays. Thanks to the generous hospitality of my parents I've been able to make the most of my time at home, enjoying both some much needed rest and relaxation as well as the chance to catch up with all the friends I've missed while I've been away at law school this past year.

One of my first excursions was taking my dog Bailey on a trip to my old high school, North Toronto C.I. When I started high school in 1997 the building was decrepit and falling apart; the clanging, banging noises emanating from the radiators would (sometimes mercifully) drown out the teacher's voice and most of the windows wouldn't open: not ideal for writing June final exams on the third floor of an un-air-conditioned building.

Despite the peeling paint and the crumbling plaster, I loved the history and character of the school's architecture. The location was great too- how many people can say they went to school within walking distance of some of the best restaurants and shopping in the city!



Since the building, located at Yonge and Eglinton, happens to be on the Toronto District School Board's most valuable piece of property, the solution to the building's condemnation was the Board's striking a partnership deal with condo developers. In exchange for building two huge condos in what was the school's baseball field, the developers are footing the bill for a new school building. While I know the students need and deserve a better learning environment, it is still sad to say goodbye: the original building is slated for demolition once the new school opens this summer.

The original North Toronto C.I. was completed in 1912, and the new building is going to incorporate some of the "heritage components" of the original building. Still, I'm sad that I will never again be able to visit my high school and walk down the halls recalling memory after memory of five years spent growing from an awkward, shy teenager to young adult. As tumultuous and full of angst as those years were, I do enjoy being able to go back and think about how far I've come.

So farewell original building, North Toronto C.I. I'll miss getting to include you in my "blast from the past" tours of Toronto.

Happy 100th Birthday Grandad!

[A Beatles cover band busking at dusk; Cambridge, England 2009.]

Phew! We'll it's been a whirlwind trip home so far and I'm so excited to blog about it. I've been saving up all my little adventures to share with my devoted readers (yes all 5 of you.)

First stop after I landed at home in Canada was back to the airport for a family trip to England!

This is my Aunt and Uncle's farmhouse where we stayed for the week. I have so many fond childhood memories of staying here and playing in the haystacks in the barn. It was great to be back!

I finally got to see all of my siblings (first time we've all been in the same room since 2007) and all of my cousins!!! We're missing a few cousins in this picture (6 to be exact) but we were all together the next day for my Grandfather's 100th Birthday Party!

It was so lovely to be able to come together as a whole family to celebrate my Grandfather turning 1 Century old. Don't you think he looks great? I hope his longevity genes run in the family!

My Aunt organized a wonderful birthday party. The location was a gorgeous canal-side restaurant. The view reminded me of our family trip to England when I was 15, where we spent two weeks traveling around on the canals in a narrow boat.

One of the most exciting things about the trip was when the Royal Mail arrived with my Grandfather's birthday card from the Queen. The Queen of England sent her own postie to deliver the card right to the front door! There was a slightly humorous mix-up because, so on the edge of our seats were we waiting for the mail to be delivered, that when we finally saw a man delivering mail we all crowded into the doorway and threw open the door with huge smiles on our faces. The man looked quite shocked and furtively handed us his windows and doors sales pamphlet. Upon realizing that he wasn't the Royal Mailman our joyful expressions deflated an we let out a collective groan of disappointment. Mr. Windows and Doors looked very confused and a bit apologetic until we explained that we were anticipating mail from Her Majesty. Luckily we had no more false alarms and the next guy was it!

No one was more excited to have a card that Her Majesty had physically touched and signed than the Birthday Man himself. When asked if he knew why he got a card from the Queen, my grandfather poignantly replied, "it's because I've been a very good citizen all my life."

I had terrible jet lag due to England being my fourth timezone in eight days (Sydney, San Francisco, Toronto, London) so I kept falling asleep every time I sat down on a lounge or went somewhere in a car. How embarrassing! Finally towards the end of the trip I became acclimatized to the new time. Just in time to go home again.

One of the nice things about visiting my rellies in England is shopping in the quaint nearby town of Cambridge (yes, that Cambridge, with the famous university.) Well-known for the plethora of cyclists, bicycles are so common place that hardly anyone bothers to lock theirs up!

There was also a gay little market. Stalls of gorgeous pottery and artwork and lots of delicious looking British sweets like lemon drops, fresh fudge and strawberry sherbert. Drool.

I'm standing next to the market with my younger cousin. This is right before we tried to meet up with the rest of our group at the end of our shopping trip. We'd arranged to meet at the 'Mac' store. To us that meant the Computer 'Mac' store; to my sisters it meant the Make-up 'Mac' store. What a fiasco! Thank goodness there was a (and by "a" I mean exactly one) cell phone amongst the group of seven of us so finally we were able to rendez-vous but not before there was some serious teeth gnashing!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye... three of my siblings flew back to their respective corners of the earth (China, Manitoba, New Brunswick) and the rest of us departed back to Ontario, taking with us only our pictures and memories of a wonderful trip!

I'm Baaaack!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Apologies for my looong hiatus. I've been jet-setting around the world visiting family and friends and have hardly had a moment to catch my breath! Thankfully, the suitcases have been unpacked, the presents purchased and wrapped (well most of them), the Christmas tree trimmed and the cookies baked so I have a moment to relax and reflect on the year that has past. It's hard to believe that this time last year I was getting ready to embark on my big adventure to law school in australia and now it's all over. It's almost overwhelming to think about the past year, moving to Australia, finding a house, starting university, catching swine flu(!), meeting my incredible boyfriend, graduating first year law, and then my post-semester travels. What a busy year!

After leaving Sydney I flew to California to visit my best friend from elementary school and her hubby in their gorgeous new flat in San Francisco. We had just the best time shopping and enjoying the festive atmosphere of the season! My favourite day was the day we drove to Palo Alto for a tailgate party and a football game. Tossing the old pigskin and tucking into a yummy bbq of burgers and sausages filled the void of North American culture I'd been missing while living in Australia.

Lets not forget the bag of chips that was large enough to fit a medium sized toddler. Gotta love Costco! The weather was a perfect sunny and 10- 15 degrees and aside from this total tool who was sitting in the row ahead of us at the football game, the company was perfect. At least Stanford's spectacular come from behind win deflated his (the moron in front of us') sails. Every time we cheered for Stanford he'd turn around a glare, even when his team was winning! I guess we showed him who got the last laugh! After Stanford won, we all flooded down onto the field in the new, and amazing, state of the art stadium and listened the the (rather eccentric) band's on-field revelry.


What a day to remember!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Hopefully I'll be back soon to tell y'all about my other trip, this time to jolly 'ol England!

Merry Christmas!

First Year: Done and Done!

That's a wrap folks! First year is in the bag- well I think it's in the bag- apparently marks are released mid-December, however barring any unforeseen disasters I will be starting second year law school next March. Needless to say, as of the invigilator calling "time" on the last exam, it was time to PARTAY!

We made a bee-line to Manning pub and proceeded to enjoy a few cold ones in the warm early afternoon sun... It was a perfect ending to a perf... well interesting year!

There were many ups and downs, but thankfully mostly ups! Just to name a few....

Obviously moving to Australia to go to the University of Sydney to start my dream of going to law school...

Next, finding an awesome house close to uni, and lucking out with some inexpensive second hand furniture (except for a brand new, comfy bed- thanks Mum!) and new friends looking for a willing recipient of some no-longer-needed household items...

Then, finding gainful employment in Sydney and, while I was there, making some great friends whom I'm so glad I met!

Being treated to a fantastic weekend away in the Blue Mountains.

Meeting a group of amazing girls at uni and being able to help, support and learn from each other every step of the way.

And last but not least... meeting my wonderful boyfriend Nicholas! He and his family have been so wonderful to me. We have so much fun together and as Nick will soon be back from Darwin, I am looking forward to us actually living in the same city next year!

Lastly I have to say a BIG Thank You to all of my family and friends who without their love and support, I would not have been able to do any of this. In particular my Mum, Dad and Stepmum who kept me in the loop this year at home with lots of emails and phone calls and a computer to do everything on! And, my best friend's in-laws who, not only believed in and supported my idea of going to law school in Australia, but offered to adopt Bailey (my puppy). If not for being able to feel secure in the fact that my darling baby was in such competent and loving care, I wouldn't have come to Australia. I hear she is doing great and has finally graduated to level 2 of puppy pre-school!

Cheers to one down, two to go!