2009 - A Reflection

And the award for most pretentious title for a blog goes to...

2010! What a year it shall be! So far today I've already learned a couple of things:

1) 97% fat free mayonnaise tastes bad. Really bad. It is uncomprehendingly bad. I couldn't finish my sandwich it was THAT bad. Back to salad cream for me!! Damn Coles at Wynyard for not having any yesterday!

2) When a dog bites the tail off a lizard and then tries to eat said lizard, the lizard will manage to avoid digestion and run amok while it's tail bounces and wriggles for a couple of minutes after it's been detached. Nice.

So 2009 was a year of many firsts for me.

In April, I saw Pink, not for the first time, but for the first time in Glasgow :P And she was as awesome this time as 2006. Possibly more so. I also saw Snow Patrol and Take That for the first time. The latter also being the first time that I managed to navigate the streets of Glasgow at night from Hampden back to Sauchiehall Street (eternally grateful to the policeman who helped :P).

First time I met my cousins from South Africa.

First time I quit a job that I managed to hold onto for two years. First time I had physio for my back problems. First injections for a long time... three of them, but it probably could have been more.

Though not technically the first time that I've lived abroad, it is definitely the longest I've ever been away from home (longest period of time that I lived in Germany was just under 3 months, the rest of the time was broken up with a trip home after being robbed in Prague and Easter Holidays). So far, I've been in Australia for over 3 months.

And of course, travelling on my own... heaps of firsts! First flight that lasted over 5 hours, living in a hotel that I had serious doubts about, going on a tour where there was just me and the guide around some of the better known temples of Bangkok, shopping in Boots in Bangkok, knowing what it feels like to step into a wall of heat, eating a buffet on a river cruise, speaking very broken Spanish to an actual Spanish couple... and then onto Australia where I experience the following...

Lots of turbulence, landing in a dust storm, bizarre weather, ferries, the amazing views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from all around the harbour, hostel life, the joys of internet cafes, living on fast food... meeting a published author who I'm related to and her family, staying at their amazing house for a week... the list is pretty much endless... PANCAKES!

And most recently, my first Christmas away from home, my first Christmas in shorts and the first time I'll have lived in a house on my own with a dog and a cat and a pool and a lift and balconies and views of the Harbour... I'll stop now.

I just hope that the next year is as good as this one ended up being!! After reading the guidebook I got from Emmiiiistake and Bilip Bunnaaaaaaay, I have a ton of places I want to visit after I've saved enough from working. Kelly Fallulah Innes is coming to Oz at the end of the month and I can't wait to share all of my experiences here with her and see more of this country. After all, this place is MASSIVE (for more information on just how massive this place is, see my next blog :P which I'm already working on!).

Dinner is nearly ready (beef pie and chips) so I'm going to go... must have an early night, I feel a little zombieish!

Happy New Year to you all, miss you and love you lots,

xx