Mel and Matt's Adventures...

From one Paradise to Another - Bali Part 2

2008-01-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

From my diary.....

It is a peaceful tranquil morning in Ubud. Right now i am laying naked on a daybed overlooking a lush jungle valley. All i can hear are the sounds of birds and running water and the odd cricket. We got here yesterday afternoon and the beauty of this place captivated us both entirely. It's just total perfection. We have our private villa with breathtaking views of the valley, a private outdoor bath surrounded by lush foliage plus out own private deck with a plungepool where it feels great to be naked; surrounded by jungle and the smell of frangipani's and the feel of the cool breeze on your skin.

Ubud is so enchanting and serene. we spent a day walking through rice paddies, villages and 1000 year old temples in the jungle. We explored the streets of ubud watching beautiful hindu rituals and eating delicious foods. yesterday we spent a decadent afternoon in a day spa where we were massaged, scrubbed, and washed and then we had a long soak in a petal filled bath overlooking the valley while sipping herbal tea's...ahhhh heaven!

some moments in life are so perfect that time melts away - you forget everything of who you are and your life and there you are.....just you and life. one to one. face to face. No fear, no thoughts, no time. just complete oneness with the moment.

Our last day in ubud we went on another walk through stunningly beautiful, steeply terraced ride paddy fields. never have a seen so many shades of green! maybe we got distracted by all the beauty because we got lost and matty nearly fell in a river. Well thats what our Balinese rescuer thought was happening. he was a tiny kind little farmer man who climbed down to us and showed us the way to the path we should have taken. his name was roui and he grew fruit in the area. he could hardly speak english but we sat and talked anyway and we smiled alot and laughed together and it was one of those really special travel moments that you treasure. he gave us a blessing and we gave him some little gifts and we parted ways. it was a wondrous morning - now back to saminyak and the city and bustle.

Saminyak - We spent out last days being massaged, shopping and dining at the most incredible restaurants. My favorite part though was just being on the back of the motorbike while matty weaved us through busy streets dodging dogs and people and cars. I loved just soaking up the smells and sights of urban bali. I like having my arms around him as we ride too. it feels like one long hug while flying through space.

Our last night we went to the KUDETA party which was wildest of wild funs! it was like tribal raw heaving party and my feet are sore from dancing and matty puts the h in hangover this morning after. our adventure ends tonight when we fly out. we'll be back in not to long though....bali rocks!

Bali pt 1 - In paradise, monkeys sometimes bite your head....well they do!

2007-10-07T02:55:00.000-07:00

5 days after our arrival in paradise (Bali) i finally got a chance to write in my diary...looking back on it now - my hand writing was rounder and curvier than usual and had no sharp edges at all. it even had swirly whirls at the end of letters. i think the flow and ease in my writing reflects the state of bliss i was in by that stage. the romantic jungle book wonderland around me had already enveloped me completely in its beauty.

Here is my entry...

It's so relaxing and energizing here, I feel like a different person. The first few days we stayed with Sam and franca with sams dad (who lives in bali) in the rural back streets of Sanur. The house was very simple but comfortable. It was next to a little rice paddy field where cows roamed and cobra’s hid waiting to ambush their prey. It was so wonderful to stay with them for a few nights and get a feel for what life in the village was like. We had long relaxing breakfasts on Sanur beach each morning. We visited kuta beach and swam and drank and lounged and ate. Sam got a kerosene massage of a nice lady. ..but then obviously he smelled like kero the rest of the day. We did a little partying and a little sun baking and it was altogether fabulous.

After our stay in sanur we traveled the long winding dirt road to ‘dreamlands’ and our secluded cliff top sanctuary which was called the temple lodge. I almost died and ascended to heaven upon entry. We were high up on a cliff over looking perfect turquoise ocean and surrounded by lush foliage and bright tropical flowers of every color. All about us were shrines and Buddha statues and the smell of incense and frangipani’s filled the air. In all of this was planted a handful of gorgeous Balinese bungalows. Our bungalow – the coral cave – was literally a cave in the side of the cliff with no walls (just a little baliconi) overlooking the sweeping ocean below. It was the most beautiful room I have ever stayed in!

We spent lots of time their just lazing on the big daybed on our balcony watching the surfer’s ride the perfectly formed waves below. Sam and franca were staying not far away and we all played on the beach some days and we all ate lots of nasi goreng and we also went on some great motorbike adventures exploring beaches and watching surfers at the various breaks around the bukit peninsular.

We visited a monkey temple and fed the monkeys there. Most of them were really cute and the temple was ancient and fairytale like but it’s all fun and games until someone gets bitten on the head by a monkey aye?! Poor matty!

In our travels around the temple we uncovered a scam on of the locals was making her living off. She had a trained monkey (with a pierced tounge!) who would steal peoples hats, glasses or anything it could grab, then she would get her son to "chase" the monkey and recover the stolen item from the monkey and give it back to the tourist in exchange for a bit of cash. the monkey pounced on my head at one point and took my hat but we weren't about the pay and matt told the boy to rack off.
I don't think the local lady was impressed as later on she got her little monkey to jump on matts head and pull his hair and bite him!!

We have actually seen quite a few creatures since we’ve been here. Monkeys, sea snakes (matty nearly trod on one), eagles (the owner of our bungalow has 2 pets ones!), crabs (we’ve been racing them), butterflies, bats, huge colorful bugs, squirrels, monitor lizards and much more. This place is teeming with life.

We have been taking long beach walks and exploring the cliffs and beaches and forest around us and getting a few coral cuts and scratches but hey, that’s a sign of a good adventure!

We have also been taking long naps in the sun and just letting the cool breezes caress our skin. It has been so romantic here and so peaceful. I feel whole.

I wrote this on the last day of our stay at the temple lodge -

Some moments in life are so perfect that all time melts away. You forget everything of your life and who you are, and then there You are…just you and the moment. One to one.
Face to face.

No fear, no thoughts, no time. Just complete oneness with the moment.

Just you and life

The very last day there was my favorite, the four of us motorbiked around the peninsular up random dirt roads past colourful roadside warungs and through cute ramshackled villages and found beautiful lookouts, secluded beaches and a ate at a hidden cliff top restaurant which was being terrorized by naughty monkeys. Toward the end of the day matty and I found a secluded white sandy beach and clambered down a cliff to it and proceeded to watch clouds and cuddle for hours….ahhhhh. As if that wasn’t a perfect enough day, we ate the best seafood meal of my life that night on the beach under the stars with cocktails!

Japan - Quirky, Crazy, Kinky!

2007-05-17T03:37:00.000-07:00

We recently went for a very short trip over to Japan and we managed to go just when they had a sumo tournament on which was a great stroke of luck. They only have a handful of tournaments each year so we were stoked to be able to go.

Here is my diary entry

22 March – I am sitting on a train from Kyoto to Osaka right now, watching Osaka’s urban sprawl zip by in a flurry of grey skies and, flashing lights and steeply pitched triangle roofs of every colour.

Yesterday was an incredible day. Our first day in Osaka. We ate cold salmon, miso soup, wasabi broccoli and cold egg parcels for breakfast (yum!) Then we set off to buy our sumo tickets which ended up being easier than expected.

We then wandered the streets eating ramen and exploring random trinkety stores and marveling at all the quirky bits of Osaka – A man in pajamas smoking on the sidewalk, posters of cartoon lettuces with bulging eyes, dried squid jerky, toilets that spray your bum and much more! It’s all those little things that make Japan so fun.

We also made the mistake (or was it?) of exploring a 6 floor Japanese porn store. Some of the stuff they had in there really haunted me. They had anime kiddy porn magazines and they had stuff on the cover that made my blood curdle. Lets just say that people in Australia would go to jail if they were found with those images on their home computer. The scenes involved toddlers and grown men. Not good. We couldn’t believe that they had this in the store!

That wasn’t all though, the 6th floor was an entire floor of what I can only describe as horror porn – It involved a lot of blood, razors, ropes and even the odd corpse. It was intense and some of the images burnt into my mind. I had to shake it off!

Matty took us to don don town (electric town) after that and I had to endure a lot of gadget shops. Then it was off to sumo and it was SO amazing. We got to watch over 20 rounds of gstring clad fatties sumo wrestle. They’d come out and do their little stomping ritual, slap their tummies and thighs, stare eachother down and then BOOM within 30 seconds one had body slammed the other out of the ring.We drank choo hai and cheered loudly all night. so fun!

The next day we went exploring the streets of Osaka looking for more noodles and then jumped on a train to Kyoto.
We saw our first cherry blossom trees on the trip there; pink and white ones blasting color into the grayness of the urban Japan. That afternoon we settled into our little traditional ryokan and then went on a fairytale like walk through ancient temples and through the back streets of Kyoto beside a meandering canal. The canal was lined with cherry trees and there were traditional old wooden houses lining the streets around us.

As the sun started to set we found a tiny pub to rest our feet in and drink Japanese beer. We ended our night by visiting the lively gion district and had a fabulous meal and got fabulously drunk before getting home right on our 11pm curfew.

Our second day in Kyoto was full of adventure. We visited a vibrant market that morning and sampled crazy food like this agadashi chewing gum dish that almost made me vomit and some strange pickled foods….not really sure what they were but yuk! Red bean pancakes and seed biscuits and more. Needless to say we felt ill by the end of it but it was an adventure. There were also antiques being sold – swords, kimono’s, traditional wooded geisha thongs, incense and Buddha statues.

Our feet were so sore from 3 days of walking so at the end of the day we decided to take a train ride into the mountains to this amazing mountain top onsen. Up we wound through valleys, chugging our way past tiny villages and green fields and autumny coloured trees .When we finally arrived at kumera we decided our feet were rested enough and we very ambitiously decided to take this apparently gorgeous hour long walk to the onsen.

To cut a long story short, we went entirely the wrong way and ended up spending an hour wandering around in the bush but eventually we came back to the station just as a bus was taking people to the onsen –hoorah! Finally we soaked our naked tired bodies for an hour and then we stuffed all of our change into the massage chairs in the foyer whilst sipping beer. ahhhhh

Rejuvenated and energetic again we made our way back to town and had another crazy night of exploration, great food and crazy sites. We got fed pork in every “vegetarian” dish we ordered, we saw a giant plastic octopus and also we saw 2 real life giesha wandering through back alleys.

I was feeling a bit craptastic the next day from all the pork and sugary drinks plus I got some crazy asian flu and my period all on the same day….uuuuughhh. I wasn’t all sparkles and joy that day let me tell you. While I wallowed in my crapulence matty got us all packed up and we made our way to Tokyo. We were planning to have a longer trip away but business drama meant we had to come home early and head to tokyo.

The bullet train there was super super fast and the views were great. After finding a hotel we hit the streets of shibuya in downtown Tokyo just before dusk. I still felt yuk but the flashy neon, crazy eccentrics, loud music and strange smells drew me in like a moth to a flame. So much to see, taste and touch! It’s sensory overload. I loved it but after an hour or 2 it was bed time for me.

While I ate udon noodle room service and got an in room massage at the hotel matty drank and shopped and drank some more. He came home at 1am with presents for me drunk as a skunk. He bought me socks with cartoon peanuts on them. They are the best socks ever! I love them! He also bought me a crazy doll with a Mohawk - the ones you put on your mobile (well thats what japanese do)

Our last day was spent sampling every bizarre food we could get our hands on and then shopping at takeshita street (yes that is the street name!!) checking out the crazy goth and Lolita outfits and buying trinkets and chocolates for our familes.

Short but sweet holiday but you’d be surprised how much pork a vegetarian can eat in such a short space of time!!

Reflections on Summer

2007-05-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

I have to say, there is no doubt in my mind that this summer 06/07 was the BEST summer of my life. Sydney always comes alive in summer and it is so exciting. All the amazing festivals and parties. The beach days, the long lunches in restaurants by the water, the bbqs and picnics…..ohhh it is just divine! Every summer is fun but this one was IT!

We went to Byron for a week over new years which really stands out in my mind as one of the biggest highlights of the summer. There were over 20 of my great friends in 2 houses right near wategoes beach and it was just the most fabulous party and reunion of old friends.

I also managed a week away with my 2 best buds from school, Katie and Kathmo. We went to Fraser Island in a completely unsuitable vehicle and completely unprepared so it turned into quite the ummmm, adventure.

For some reason I thought fraser island was sort of a big touristy island with lots of bars and restaurants. He he he, I suuuuure was wrong. Within about 130 seconds of being on the island we had the car bogged and a bus load of tourists helping us get out.

Within an hour of being on the island we had totally bogged the car (for the 3rd time) on a sand track and were digging it out with twigs while march flies bit our bums!

We were in good spirits though and we got rescued again by a jeep full of men and decided we had to stay on the hard sand beaches and set up camp. We had such an amazing week of catching up in our quiet campsite, eating lots of great food and going on little adventures.

Our trip was finished up with a crazy day at the gold coast good vibration festival. It had been a while since we’d all danced together and we had a bloody great time. There was a bushfire raging right beside fence and smoke covered the entire festival and made us all really dirty and smelly but we danced on and on and on. God I love those girls! So fun!

I also got more involved with the charity ‘Just Enough Faith’ over the summer and ended up being on the board that runs the charity (there are 5 of us). It is such an honor to do this work and I feel more fulfilled and happy and purposeful than ever before in my life.

We look after homeless people in Sydney and make sure they have a healthy meal every night. However, our objective is much more than just giving them a meal. It’s about giving them hope and helping them regain respect. It’s about helping them get back on their feet. We have loads of other services. Everything from meditation classes and job training to warm blankets and clothes for winter

I am so excited about what we might be able to do this year with the charity. We want to expand our services and help more people this year. We are about to open a free dental clinic for them and we have plans to also open a free legal centre as well.

check us out at www.justenoughfaith.org

I have also just started a program called ‘knitting for the needy’. We are organizing groups of knitters in nursing homes and elderly hostels to knit scarves beanies and blankets for the homeless for winter. It gives the oldies something they can contribute to society and gives them a sense of purpose. It’s a lovely program. I hope to get it Australia wide over the coming years.

Matty has become totally addicted to surfing and is getting really good. Every time he comes out of the water his eyes are sparkly and he has a spring in his step. I believe they call it the stoke!
I went out a lot on my body board and caught some good waves. I’ll have to learn surfing early next summer.

If it’s as fun as snowboarding it’s worth the learning curve just to feel the rush.

So Much Fun and So Much Drama. The Snow Trip That Nearly Took Mattys Life!

2006-12-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

Me Matty and Sammy decided we would go on a quick trip to where ever it was snowing hard on the other side of the world. We found ourselves drawn back to whistler, our old home. Gosh it was great to be back in that gorgeous little village and boy was the snow on! We had a fantastic week of catching up with friends and Riding some awesome freshies but it had its fair share of drama and weirdness too.

On the very first day on the very first run I felt a bit weird and had to stop when I started seeing little gold stars. I called out to matty to let him know I was feeling weird and before you knew it I had passed out cold for no apparent reason! Very very weird. I haven’t passed out since I was about 12 years old! I took mit easy for the rest of the day and didn’t ride to hard. I couldn’t stop riding cause the freshies were far to good. The rest of that day was epic. Loads of good snow and we were just having a blast. It was great to sooth the muscles in the hot tub that arvo as well. God hot tubs in the snow are good!

My body was so stiff and sore I could hardly move the next day so I just had 3 more hot tubs and lovely cups of tea and naps. Ohhhh I love days like that. The boys went up and had a good day

A day later we all went up together again and had another fantastic day of riding. We spent lots of time in the tree’s and got loads more fresh snow. Its was a really really fun day and a really full day. As me and jimmi and suz set off to go home at the end of the day matty and sam decided to go and do rabbit tracks – a very hard, very out of bounds run and they had no certainty about the condition of the run at all. The track out of there was of particular concern to them as if it hadn’t been tracked out by someone else it sure would be a hard slog out of there. Anyway of course in the name of adventure they set off on this run just as the mountain was closing and I went back to the hotel for a nice long tub. Well I hot tubbed, I bathed, I prepared a meal, I read a book – the clock kept ticking and no sign of the boys. Hours past and the sun started to go down….ok now I was starting to worry. I called them and found out they were still way up the mountain trekking through waist high powder. The trail had never been ridden before that year and had loads of heavy snow for them to get through and now it was dark. At the pace they were going they were still going to take many hours to get down they said, and they were already very tired from a long day of riding so they wanted us to call a rescue - otherwise they were pretty sure they’d have to sleep out there the night. We called the rescue place but they said it would be a couple of thousand bucks and not only that but also they said they wouldn’t be able to get up there right away – that it’d take an hour or two. The boys weren’t happy with the news and decided to just push on and try to trudge their way out of there. Poor buggers. Anyway to cut va long story short they ended up walking all the way down and got home at about 8.30pm completely exhausted and we threw them in the hot tub and fed them loads of food. The collapsed in a heap pretty quickly after that.

Another relaxing day off and then we were all up the mountain again and loads of snow about and we had already had a great day of riding when we started down the run that I passed out on that first day. It was great snow and matty was particularly playful that day, riding lots of mini waterfalls and launching of things and getting into mischief as he does. Falling over lots and giggling lots. I was riding just behind him when he fell off the top of a big rock into a river bed ditch sort of thing. He fell kind of weirdly as his feet were up in the air but his head was down in the ditch and as he fell he got completely buried in snow over most of his body including his face. Only his feet were sticking out. Because he was right down in a ditch he was very hard to see but I saw him shaking his feet and went to check if he was ok. When I saw he was buried I launched into action somehow keeping pretty calm. It was hard to get to him because he was in a ditch and the closer I got the more snow fell on him so I had to lay flat on my belly and kind of slide to him and quickly dig him a breathing hole to his mouth. By the time I got to his mouth a he got some air he had already been under a few minutes and was coughing because he’d breathed in some snow. What a relief that he was ok in there!! Next we pulled his head out and I just held him there for a while till he calmed down. By then suzi was with us and was taking his board off so we could get him out. It ended up taking us 15 or 20 minutes to get him out of there. It was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me. The thought that I could’ve lost him if I hadn’t seen him fall in there send shivers down my spine. Of course we all kept riding but quite a bit more carefully.

I had nightmares that night of losing matty of me drowning in snow and didn’t sleep well for the next 2 nights. I was quite shaken. We take so many risks on the snow and often we ride alone. Even though this experience was frightening it gave me so much more respect for the mountain and made me a safer rider as I will be much stricter about safety now and never ride alone.

We spent the last day shopping for new snowgear wich was really fun and really really cold (minus 15). Matty had been riding with gloves that had 19 layers of duct tape holding them together so we had to sort that out!! He he he. It was a crazy wild adventure! this trip but we all managed to get home in one peice.

BURNING MAN!!!!

2006-10-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

Burning man is one of those experiences that people tell you they can't explain to you but you just HAVE to go because its just soooooooo special and mindblowingly spectacular. Thats what sam had been telling us for years and years but we never seemed to get ourselves together enough to organise flying to the other side of the earth to camp in the lifelkess harsh desert for a week. Maybe the princess in me was a little afraid of the dust and the heat and the lack of showers and all the other hardships i had been told about; but anyway after many years of nagging finally we packed ourselves up and headed for black rock desert (a few hours out of reno, nevada)

We arrived in reno and met sammy (with his newly bleached hair-do) at the airport and then set about going shopping for all of our supplies for the day. Since we are going camping in the desert for 7 days we had to take absolutely everything we'd need. 14 gallons of water each, lots of food, tents, pillows, cooking equipment, toilet paper, torches, batteries, glowsticks, face paint, bits of fabric for costumes and so on. It took us the best part of the day and just as we were ready to take the long drive out ino the desert the truck started making funny ticking noises. You always have to have a drama at the start of these kinds of trips aye? Well we spent the next 2 hours driving it around tring to get people to look at it but it was the end of the day so it was hard to find any help. eventually a guy looked it over and said he thinks it might be ok but he's not sure. There is a possibility it will break down on us too. Oh well, we just decided to run the gauntlet and take to ticking truck out into one of the harshest environments possible and of course we made it!!

After all the preparations and car hassles we finally arrived at Black Rock City at night fall. Black Rock City is the name of the city that the burning man festival forms. aprox 40,000 people come out for the festival and form the 3rd largest city in Nevada for that week. So Anyway when we arrived BM (burning man) was Engulfed in MASSIVE dust storm and it was almost impossible to see more than half a meter in front of you. I was glad to be in the car and not outside at that point. the people outside looked like sand monsters. we handed them beers out the window (then quickly wound it back up!). I'd never seen anything like it....ever! How Sam managed to navigate us to our camp still mystifies me.

But the drama's of the day were not over. The shade structure sammy had set up the day before we arrived had blown over in the strong winds and dinted our camp neighbours car. In the spirit of burning man they were very forgiving and gave us some glowsticks and smiles so all was ok. We set up camp for the night and braved the dust (wich had settled quite alot) and went and got amoungst it!
We intended to only go out for a quick look and then go to bed but we were like little kids in a giant toy store once we got out there! As we walked the dusty streets passing pirates, topless glittered girls and giant pink mushroom cars we realized we wouldn't begoing to bed any time soon. We visited lots of bars and drank free alcohol all night and visited a massive wooden structure called the waffle. the bigest structure that had ever graced the playa and had a huge bar and dancefloor inside it, then we met fire blowing rainbow bearded dudes who took us to a 'vampire' bar where they were serving port out of bloodbags hanging from the roof and was full of people dressed as vampires and there were naked girls with shaved heads pole dancing. they were mesmerizingly weird. I ended up getting to bed just after 4am and they boys stumbled home after the sun was up.

Day 2 we slept most of the day and cracked a beer shortly after waking, had a bit of food and headed straight back out to see what the new day held for us. The way of burning man is sort of like being a child. You do something for a while till something else grabs your attention (like a man on fire riding a bike or a crew of multi coloured aliens wanting to abduct you) and then something else and again and again and thats the fun of burning man. So night 2 found us watching a chainsaw that had been converted into...ahem, some girating genitalia. it also found sam riding a skate ramp whilst simultaniously playing a trumpet in the middle of a dust storm and before long my top was off and my boobs were painted and we were dancing the dusty night away. I managed to have a pretty hectic bike accident that night and was cut and bruised nicely. Thats what you get for not wearing lights on your bike at night. The dust got into my wounds and i still have the scars months later!

Day 3 was wilder again because the festival was really starting to ramp up. more people were arriving and there were more art cars and wild tents being erected. there were wearwolves, robots, pharohs and fairies all over the place. there were beaver eating contests, naked twister, thunderdome fights and all kinds of other wild shanangans errupting all over the place! We woke in the afternoon and cracked our beers for breakfast and then I spent a good 2 hours dressing the boys up. Hair dying, body and face paints and bright coloured fabrics were all involved and then i donned my cop outfit complete with leather hat and big studded belt and boots and off we went. This was the first day i saw the water truck wich is used the wet the streets to settle the dust but everyone uses it for amobile shower. sam and matt has there clothes off preety fast and ran under it. i kept mine on but got nice and cool under the spray. then after i arrested and whipped several people for loitering we found a giant see saw to ride and then the biggest dust storm whipped up and so we decided the only thing for it was to seek shelter in this cute little cowboy bar with no walls but just salloon style doors sitting out the front on their own. these cowboys gave us shelter from the storm and some warm pink sweet stuff with high alcohol content. I painted faces for people there but it got so dusty that you could hardly see the paint and everyones face had the same pale grey dust mask. It was about that time i started arresting more people and giving public whippings. i ended up with quite a line up of people waiting to get a lashing from me. i gave em some serious welts but they loved it...he he he

After the pink stuff changed to brown stuff we decided to move on to an exciting and lively bar nearby and we danced and had loads of fun. i'll just leave it at that for this story as some things at burning man must stay at burning man (or at least not published on the internet) ; )
We sure had fun though and somewhere during the night it got cold and i found myself in a blue onepeice ski suit (given to me by a hot poledancing chick named goergette) that kept me warm (the suit that is). It is so hot during the day in that desert but the nights can get absolutely freezing cold.

By day 4 my hair was starting to form dreads and our tents were getting a bit dusty but we were having the time of our lives. We had taken to having cute little bird baths in the nuddy in the mornings with a bucket and a washer and matty would carefully wash my bike accident injuries. what a bummer that i had roughed myself up so much. Burning man was getting really full and atmospheric now. More art cars, more people, more vibe. We had become good freinds with our tent neighbours. We had a really fun boy from South Carolina with a really cool deep south accent right beside us. one of those "heeey yaaaa'll" accents. Then we had a talented spanish guitar player who would play guitar while on his unicycle and even went off a jump once on his unicycle while playing to guitar still...very impressive! All our neighbours were great and we often had people sitting around our camp with us eating dinner with us or having a drink or just a chat. It was such a nice little community we had going. Today was a mellow day of resting and in the night we decided to have a bit of a more chilled night & just walked all over the playa just taking in all the artworks and watching little shows and meeting people. It was beautiful. We went at checked out this massive metal serpant artwork that moved and breather fire, then we checked out a huge tent full of psycodelic artworks and watched a movie about the painter that was fascinating, we visited the thunderdome where all night they have fight matches and the two fighters get strung up by bungee cords so they are kind of weightless and they wack eachother with padded foam bats. that was incredibly crazy vibe. We saw many Incredible art cars that looked like dragons, venus fly traps, monsters and boobs. The other thing that happened that day was the tornado that ripped through many peoples camps and came close to destroying ours. We saw it coming and it was one of the coolest things i have ever seen! As it was coming right for us we had to rush to get anything that was loose and throw it in our tents and then we were getting ready to put all our weight onto our shade structure to keep it from flying away but luckily for us it stopped a block or two away from us and just hovered there a while and then went a different way...phew!

Day 5, After a sleep and a bird bath found us hanging out at center camp wich is a huge communal area. It was a bit sad that when we were there there was an accident that involved some guy falling off some railing he'd climbed up and injured someone he fell on. The guy he fell on was hurt couldn't feel his legs or walk and was wheeled off. It was a reminder to me that burning man is about radical self reliance and total responsability for yourself. If you want to climb up onto art cars and onto structures you can but if something happens to you out in the middle of nowhere then you'll be in a pickle. The people who make these structures aren't necisarrily going to be making them 100% sturdy and safe and you have to keep your head about you. People get injured every year cause they get high and then go 'play with the art' a bit to much or dehydrate and stuff like that. After my bike accident i was already a bit cautious and feeling a bit fragile and sore. That afternoon we went and watched the critical tits parade where about 6 thousand women do a topless bike ride with decorated boobs. what a cool site!! it sure was hot this day i remember. That afternoon we found out that our unicycle riding freind had earned a fight in the thunderdome (the people who run it loved him cause he was doing his jumps on the unicyle while playing guitar trick for them) so we all sat around at camp getting him amped up and the boys were drinking dark rum - not good for sammy cause rum seems to get him a bit crazy and agro and boy oh boy...really loud! Anyway it was good for going to the thunderdome to watch our freind fight so we got rummy and climbed up the thunderdome walls (i had to take my pants off and climb up in my undies cause my jeans didn't have enough movement in them he he he) and watched him get absolutely cained when it was his turn to fight. poor little bugga. After the fight sam had mellowed a bit from screaming and yelling at the thunderdome and as we roamed the playa looking for our next adventure we found dr megavolt!! Now seriously this is one of the coolest things i have ever witnessed. Picture a truck trailer with 2 MASSIVE tesler coils on it and this guy walks out in what looks like a space suit and they fire up the tesler coils and massive bolts of lightening come out and zap the crap out of him in this suit. the noise it makes is sooooo cool and he does this little show where he manipulates the lightening bolts in differnt ways with differnt objects and its just mesmerizing. never seen anything like it!! We also saw this weird artwork thing that blew an intense green flame out the top and made a scary highpitched noise like it was about to explode. then we danced at the waffle with brian and watched some great fire dancing and then saw the most amazing drag show EVER! it was a giggly wild night. i went to bed early and then boys came home well after the sun came up looking pretty rough indeed. he he he

Burn Day! day 6, is what burning man is all about. The burning of a huge wooden man stuffed with fireworks. The party is now in absolute full swing and there is electricity in the air. Every art car is out and every ones in fancy costumes and on their craziest behaviour. Now our tent in really dusty and we can never find anything cause our tents are so messy but we are very happy little campers. We went and slept most of the day in a big communal airconditioned tent that is decorated to look like a forest. Man that was nice. That night we headed straight out to the man and soaked up the great vibe. They had a ring around the man of about 800 or so fire dancers and when they set the man on fire it was incredible. there was such electricity in the air as the fireworks exploded and the flames grew huge. All these fire tornados started coming off the fire and ripping into the croud in one area are spraying hot ash all over them. What a site! We had a little mosey around but had a fairly early night as we had exhausted ourselves the previous night.

Day 7 was our last real day as tommorrow we had to pack up and leave. We were lucky to organise a lift back to reno with our mate brian because we had to give the ticking truck to sams freind hannah so she could drive it to sanfran. phew. Now i do have to admit that the heat, dust, dready hair and all that was starting to get to wear me out a little and i wasn't sad to be going home the next day. The thought of a shower and a nice hotel bed with clean sheets were very appealing indeed but i sure am glad we stayed because that night they burnt the giant waffle structure and this thing was the bloody size of a sideways skyscraper so to see it get burn was really incredible. i doubt i'll ever see a fire that big up close again! During the day we packed up lots of our stuff and then went on a fun bar crawl involving margarita ice cones and matty got shitfaced. We went and watched the burn that night with our mates georgette and sean who are a fun and sexy and inspiring couple from reno. It was a great night but you could see that many people had left BM already and there was lots of packing and a constant stream of cars leaving.

Day 8 was a real chore day. We packed up and it took a lot longer than we thought it would and it was hot and matty was hungover the poor boy but finally we got it all packed and got in the 4 hour cue to leave. That was a pain in the ass, and then we had a long drive to reno as well but we ended up getting a hotel room with the clean sheets and i had 2 showers and got all the dreads out and then we ate at a nice restaurant and it was soooooooooooo good to feel clean and eat food in an airconditioned restaurant. brian nearly fell asleep on the table at the restaurant cause he hadn't slept in almost 48 hours but he held out for the green tea icecream. he he he

After burning man we me sammy and matt flew to l.a and spent a few days in huntington beach to relax and unwind wich was perfect after BM. What a great adventure!!

My Trip to Darwin. I am lucky i escaped without getting eaten by a bloody croc!

2006-08-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

Do you know how many crocodiles there are in Darwin? If you pour a glass of water out of your kitchen sink there will probly be one in your glass that will bite your head of when your trying to quench your thirst! ok maybe a slight exaggeration but there's heaps of em. Its such a weird little city. I love it. So quirky! Its this tropical paridise with lush green tropical foliage all over the place but then there is red dirt everywhere. its this mix of desert and coastal beauty. very unique. very cool.

So i went to darwin to visit my best freind katie and i can't remember ever squeezing so much fun into 4 days. its was amazing! The first thing we did was get in this little boat a bit up river from where katie lived and check out the wild crocs. we were out only for 2 minutes when i saw my first one. then within about 3 minutes the boat was surrounded by 4 and 5 meter crocs fighting over who got to eat the bit of bloody carcas on the end of the rope our guide was dangling over the edge. coooooooooooooooooooool!! they looked like dinosaurs. it was so weird to be so close to them. the boat didn't have much side railing and was really low so we were only about a meter from the crocs faces and when they lunged out of the water to get the meat they came within inches of our faces and there was nothing between us!! truly scary and extremely fun! you don't dangle any part of you over the side rail at any time....yeah. we found out there were about 3000 of them in a ten k stretch of water that eventually spills out into darwin beach and darwin harbour. now this would be one of the reasons that no one swims in the ocean in darwin no matter how hot it is. the other reason is the box jellyfish that frequent the waters. they have swimming pools instead in darwin...although they did find a croc in the local pool not long ago too, oh and there was one hanging outside a local pub that they had to harpoon and drag outa there before he ate a dunkard. i think its best to just sweat it out when in darwin aye? i was scared to even take a bath!

There were to many amazing fun things to go into great detail but we saw many more crocs and some other great creatures. we poured water on a wild piggy and we saw a tiny monkey who did some weird and dirty things, we went on some wild rides at the darwin show (we screamed our heads off and got bruises!), we had wonderful seaside picnics with wine and prawns, we cruised the outdoor markets and went to moonlight cinema. we fed giant fish some chillies and lemon, we went out and partied and saw a great drag show, we bbq'ed, we talked, we had the time of our lives.

I learnt something valuable in darwin. the only way to survive a croc attack is avoidance. you avoid, you survive. you get attacked you die. no second chances. remember that boys and girls!
he he he. darn crocs.

From Heliboarding to Getting lost in the New Zealand Bush! There is always an adventure to be had! ha ha

2006-08-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

A little update on the events of the past few months....Well the business is going pretty well besides a few hiccups. We have got what we came home for - We have sold our business and now we have a great little nest egg to play with but we still have a lot more work to do and alot more money to make so we are working hard (Matty especially!). We are still living at coogee but i think we will be moving to manly very very soon. Ahhhh maybe we will finally settle into Sydney life since we have been back for over 3 months now - almost 4 actually.

We have endured the winter and now summer is not to far away. I can't wait to get some sun on my skin and enjoy what sydney is all about... summer, beach, nature, wine picnics, outdoorsyness, bbqs....oh not long now.

We have managed to squeeze some adventures in our work filled wintery life though. A few weeks ago matty was in the US on a business trip and he called me 2 few days before he was supposed to arrive home, "honey, book yourself a flight to christchurch, it's dumping snow over there. Lets go heliboarding!"I was on a flight the next day and met matty at the airport Saturday morning and we hired a car and drove straight to methvin through breath taking scenery and sheep filled paddocks and up a long windy dirt road until we finally arrived at a small house and a helipad surrounded by mammoth snow filled mountains. My heart was pounding with nervous excitement. I was so excited at the thought that i would soon be riding freshies beyong my wildest dreams but also worried that i wouldn't be a good enough rider to keep up with the group. It all happened so fast from there. They stuck at avalanche trancever on me after i quickly got changed in a shed toilet and the next thing i knew i was in a heli! It was a visual mind explosion being in that heli over the mountains. I was speechless. Words cannot discribe the awe and wonder i felt at that moment as we flew over those mountains. The nervousness gave way to pure excitement and i couldn't help but let out a few squeels.
After the first run i knew i was most certainly a good enough rider for heli boarding and riding Once we got on the mountains those freshies were just absolute ecstacy. Iwas the most stoked person heliboarding that day for sure. I was just laughing and smiling and squeeling ALL day and by the end of the day i was so high i thought i had ascended to nirvana! We had a cool little snow picnic for lunch and it was all just perfectly perfect beyond words.

The next day i was soooooooooooooooooooooo sore i couldn't move without moaning but it was worth it. Iwas too sore to ride another day so after a looooong hot tub we decided to go on a bush walk. ha! we had no idea what we were in for!!

We were told there was a gorgeous scenic walk around this place called rakaia gorge. It was normally a 2 hour walk but we found out when we were half way that no one had walked it for a long time because it had been snowed over. Now it was all melted but there were tree branches (well more like entire tree's) all over the path and also parts where the path had pretty much just caved in down a steep cliff. It was a very pretty walk but challenging with all the obsticles and instead of 2 hours it took about 3 and a half and we had run out of water and we were hungry by the time we got to the end, and the only way back was the way we came. It was about 3pm so we were very disheartened by the fact that we would be thirsty, starving, cold and in the dark on that scary crazy path in the very near future. We sat on the river banks nibbling on a tiny squashed untasty sandwich portion i had with me when we heard a noise...is that?......a boat!.....it is!. they were doing jetboat rides along the river in the gorge!! we stood up and waved frantically as they went past but they just zoomed by and waved to us i a freindly way. doh!! hmmph back to the sanwich but then 10 minutes later they were coming back and this time we waved like we REALLY meant it. They pulled over and gave us a wild and super fast ride back to where we started and ended the boat ride with a huge 360 burnout. We were rescued! yay! What took us 3 1/2 hours to walk took 7 minutes too get back by boat and instead of being on that scary dark crazy path we ended up at a gorgeous restaurant drinking rasberry beers and eating delicious food for the next few hours. woohooo!!

That was our 2 day adventure in new zealand.

Red Centre Adventure (And a Very Odd Vegimite Sandwich)

2006-06-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Mattys birthday and after the past 6 weeks of madness (moving from one side of the world to the other straight into a full on work schedule and an office with staff) I knew the best thing I could give him was a break. I managed to whisk him away somewhere where internet connections and life in general moves at a nice slow pace. The middle of the Australian outback.

We got there on Friday afternoon and got our first glimpse of Ayers Rock (Uluru) from the plane as well a nice view of the Olga’s which looked a hazy purple color from the air, a quite spectacular effect against the intense red of the desert sands and Uluru. After a wander around Ayers Rock resort (which is really just a grocery store a café, restaurant and a tourist info centre and hotels) we promptly found ourselves a bottle of champagne and found our way over to the bright orange sand dunes to watch the sunset over the desert and Uluru. We stayed out for hours watching the sky change from reds and oranges to soft purples and blues transforming the dunes and the rock into a million different shades and colors before the sun finally was gone (as was the champagne) and all the stars came out. It was so relaxing and followed by a nice long hot tub. It was just what the doctor ordered to wind down from the week.

The next day, Saturday, we set off for a big day. We were going to climb the rock, which is quite a strenuous 2 -3 hour climb and visit the cultural centre where we could learn about the Anangu aboriginal tribe which had been living in this area for as long as recorded time can tell and more. Well when we got to the cultural centre we found that the Anangu felt very strongly that they did not want people climbing Uluru at all. It really upset them as this was sacred to them. A place they had been using for hundreds of years to conduct ceremonies of huge spiritual significance to them. We decided although many people were still choosing to climb, that we would respect their beliefs and walk around the base of Uluru (which the Anangu don’t mind at all) instead of climbing.

As we were walking exploring all the interesting nooks and crannies of Uluru we ended up in an odd shaped cave that looked like a crashing wave. A lovely aboriginal man named Keith came up and explained to us that this used to be (it still is to him) a sacred women’s area and said men shouldn’t really be in there and proceeded to teach us about how this was a food preparation area and showed us sacred rock art in there. It seemed our friend took quite a shining to us and adopted us for the afternoon. He was there with 3 other friends. Keith and his friend Tiwa were both aboriginal tour guides and they were showing two of their other friends around Uluru for fun so they adopted us and told us dreamtime stories and funny stories about how they used to hunt emu at the watering holes. Keith swore lots and told us his story of how he was taken from his parents when he was two so he could be raised like a white boy. We talked and laughed all afternoon by a watering hole under Uluru and then Keith can and stood between us, threw his arms around us, looked at his mates and said “what’d’ya call this? “A f*#k’n vegemite samwich mate!”

That night we went along to an outdoor dinner in the desert which we had heard was awesome…..it was. We found ourselves sipping champagne, to the sound of the didgeridoo and watching the sunset over the big rock once again. This was followed by an amazing meal and lovely Aussie wines and then all the lights we turned off so we could see the stars. We learned about the planets, stars and constellations from an astronomer with a funny theatrical voice and then had yummy desert and peered at Jupiter through a powerful telescope.

Sunday we hired a car and drove out to the Olga’s which were so much more amazing that I thought they’d be! They are these enormous towering red domes plonked together in the desert. They are bigger than Uluru and have such a magic about them.

We made sandwiches on the boot of our hired car while being attacked by flies, then ate them in the car so we wouldn’t eat any flies, then we set off on a 3 hour walk through the Olga’s called ‘the valley of the winds’. It was spectacular! One of the best walks I have ever done for sure. We walked through flat open planes, through tiny lush gullies sandwiched between the domes and also thin rocky trails weaving around over and through red round mountains. You could look up at any time and marvel at how tiny you are compared the gargantuan red rock formations all around you. There sure were a lot of flies there though…and they seem immune to fly repellant.
We had some beer and a bush style bbq to end the day which was just perfect.

Monday we flew home but managed to squeeze in a sunrise over Uluru which was freezing cold but very very pretty. I saw that rock from every angle in every shade of light over the weekend and enjoyed every bit of it.

What a great desert adventure!!

A Sudden Goodbye to Canada

2006-06-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, the past couple of months have flown by in a whirlwind of big changes and massively life altering decisions. The business we have been running from home for over 2 years now had become very successful towards the end of the 2005 year in whistler and in 2006 we began to have interest from partners wanting to merge with us and to cut a very long story short we decided to be ambitious and put some hard work in to make this business something big. We made the decision to let go of our dreamy life in whistler only to chase an even bigger dream back in Oz. We had always planned to go to live in europe for another year or 2 after whistler but we are putting it off for the business.

So after making a definate decision very suddenly we found ourselves back down under within only 2 weeks of making our minds up! It has been such a change from living an outdoorsey life of snowboarding every other day and hot tubs and long walks in the forest (and not all that much work) to now working 5 days a week from home while matty is in the office in north sydney every day (we now have an office and staff!!)

Although it has been a full on change we are enjoying working harder for this dream. Its a challenge but it is also alot of fun and a hell of a lot of growth for us both. Especially matty. We have now been back for just on 6 weeks and it has been the busyest 6 weeks i think we have had since we have been together!

Whistler was such an amazing, inspiring, adventure filled, spiritual and visually spectacular place. It has made me such a better person from living there a year. I feel so much more able to face fears but also so much fuller and more at peace inside. I brought alot of whistler home in my heart (as corny as it sounds) It was just changing seasons when we left. The snow was melting, the days were getting longer and the bears were all coming out of hybernation. I followed a bear around for 25 minutes a few days before i left. I wish i was there for the summer in a way but being home feels so right. I love having my wonderful freinds here in sydney with me again. they are so full of life and love and they are so funny. Its a shame we have to do back to back winters but it will be good for the business anyway.

I never felt i got to say it properly because it was all such a rush but .......goodbye whistler!!!! i love ya

Snow Mobiles Can Dint Your Truck & Ice Can Dint Your Bum!

2006-02-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

They say you learn something new every day so....What have i learnt over the past few weeks? 1)Having my whole family in a 2 bedroom house can be cramped but wildly fun........but really cramped 2) Falling over on ice pretty much feels the same a falling over on cement except slippery (owww my coccyx!) 3) Driving a snow mobile up a ramp and onto the back of a truck can be really really bad for the truck if you don't know what your doing. 4) Snow boarding and pub crawls do mix very well together contrary to popular beleif.

The adventures all started when my family arrived 2 weeks ago for their first ever trip overseas. Mum, my step dad and my two brothers piled into our cosy little place. The month before they had arrived it had snowed almost every single day and was actually whistlers snowiest january ever recorded. We had powder day after powder day but the day they arrives was crystal clear skies and beautiful sunshine and it ended up staying that way the whole time they were here....not one drop of snow for 2 weeks!!!

Family Highlights .......

Snow mobiling on cougar mountain for the day was amazing. We each had our own machine and we explored beautiful forest trails through the mountain and saw breath taking scenery from the peak. We also had lots of fun little races and mum rammed the back of step dads snow mobile because she wanted to go faster...he he he
Tobboganing with them was cool too. There is something really cool about seeing your mum speeding down a snowy hill at top speed giggling and squealing and trying to dodge tourists.
Long talks in the hot tubs, snowy forest walks and some nice dinners out were also really great and unforgettable memories.

While my family was here i tried to spend as much time as possible with them but there was one event i could not miss. The mountain pub crawl!
This event had been in the making for some time. We had the idea that we could have one drink at each pub on the ski hills of whistler and blackcombe in a day. I think there were 8 or 9 fine establishments in all and the only way to get from one to another was of course to snow board. It was such a crazy adventure and was heaps of fun. By 1pm we were pulling the lifties into the gondola's, yelling out the windows to skiiers below, mooning eachother on the chairlifts and slurring our words but we managed to stay upright on our boards and make it to each pub in one peice. We probably shouldn't have gone in that half pipe at the end of the day because matty kept catching his edges on the blue runs but hey....we were all ok. It then turned into an all night crazy party back at our place with my family for the rest of the night with my mum being the wildest one there!

I have to say though, that the day that really stands out as an amazing adventure in the past weeks was our Valentines day wich was 2 days after my family had gone home. We have a truck and our own snow mobile here so Matty and I decided it would be fun to go on a back country mountain adventure on the snow mobile with some champagne chocolate and sushi. We had all our supplies ready and we headed off. We stopped of for gas on the way and matty gave the car some oil while we were at the gas station. 4 litres of oil to be specific!! Now Matty admits he doesn't know much about cars but he did think it a bit odd that it took that much oil. Anyhoo, as we started off the truck started violently billowing offensive amounts of black smoke wich we thought was a very very bad thing so we took it to the mechanic who told us we had flooded the motor with oil and the only way to get it fixed was for them to put it up on a ramp and drain it. The wait would be at least an hour. Doh! Anyway we just laughed and went to a cafe and chatted for the hour but when we came back the car hadn't moved. double doh! They said it would be another 40 mins and we were unsure that we would even be able to take the snow mobile out because we may not have enough time before dark. We found a nice spot by the river and ate the sushi lunch we had prepared and then eventually we got the truck back in working order and sped of to bradywine where we yanked the snow mobile off the back of the truck and after rugging up with plenty of extra clothes (it was minus 14) we took off on our adventure.

You know those moments in life that are so perfect?- the ones where you think to yourself "this is what it is all about"? This was one of those kind of things. Well i'll never be able to quite put this in words that discribe how amazing it was but i'll try.

We drove the mobile along a deserted snowy trail that wound up through the frozen pine forest at brandywine as the sun was begining to think about setting so there was all this dappled light dotting the trail creating such a pretty effect. Everything looked so full of life. There was nobody out there but just us. We kept driving and matty kept getting faster and faster and going over bumps and rises so fast my tummy would tickle and i would squeal half in fear and half in delight. As the trail wound higher and higher we rose above the tree line and to the top of the mountain where we had the most spine tigling, surrealy stunning views of the mountain ranges all around us. We stopped the machine and popped our champagne and toasted and kissed and then nibbled our chocolate and watched the sun start to set and turn the snow orange then pink and we just sat in silence smiling for so long it seemed like for ever. It was so magic!

By the time we got back to the car later it was almost dark and we were both really cold but happy. I couldn't feel my toes at all! Now it was time to get the snow mobile back onto the truck and this is no simple feat (although matty had led me to believe it was easy)
To cut a long story short, there was a wooden ramp that was sitting in the car park down there so we decided it was the best bet. We lined up the truck and had two tries at getting it on but it was hard because it would lose traction as it started to go up the ramp because of the angle so it couldn't make it up unless matty really gave it some speed. 3rd time luck aye? Well sort of - he went up with so much speed that the mobile rammed into the roof of the truck and ended up half off the right hand side therefore dinting the *#^# out of the truck...he he he. lucky it is a beat up old thing anyway. We had to push and pull at the mobile to get it properly in the trailer. The truck is so dinted and the paint job is now very unique too. Boy, what a day!

Happy Holidays Indeed!

2006-01-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

Wooooah, what a whirlwind holiday period. Jesus Christ batman, the lead up to xmas was loaded with wild xmas parties involving lots of Chris cringle presents, delicious food, bon bons, tinsel and great friends. The village became a winter wonderland with tea lights in all the trees and chrissy decorations all over the place. The village was bursting with tourists and snow men started popping up all over the place. Even though it rained leading up to xmas and washed allot of the snow away before Christmas (leaving us without the white xmas we had hoped for) we had a perfect xmas with our closest friends. We opened pressies under the xmas tree (I got a great new camera and matty got a new ipod that can play movies on it too), we ate a roast and we talked drank and laughed the night away. It felt wonderful to be around people who are like family for xmas day.

On boxing day mattys little sisters Tara and Alyssa arrived and the next day mattys friend Steve arrived as well so we had a full house and it stayed that way for almost 3 weeks. As you can imagine it was cramped in our 2 bedroom house and very messy but a hell of a lot of fun too! We have spent these last 3 weeks in full on holiday mode. I have hardly done any work at all but the business is booming and is looking stronger every day. We have been having an amazing time snow boarding in these past weeks as it has been snowing almost every day and we have been having huge dumps of 20 - 35cms every few nights so we have had so much fresh snow to play in! Yep, the past 3 weeks have basically been either boarding or spending days off nursing our tired sore bodies in the hot tub. Nights have been spent in pubs, at parties, tobogganing, having nice dinners together, dancing around the loungeroom, drinking in hot tubs or making snowmen. It’s been so much fun having the girls here. I feel so much closer to them now. We have had so many long conversations on the couch and so many great adventures together like forest walks in the snow & bungee jumping & slumber parties in our huge bed. They are growing up so fast now. New Year’s Eve we all spent together at a private party a friend of ours threw. Tara and Lyssy and I danced our little hearts of all night long and made up some weird dance moves much to the amusement of the other party goers. We tampered with the party music and put on tunes we liked and I fended off the boys that kept hitting on them informing the boys that the girls were way under aged and to go pick on someone their own size.

Today symbolized the end of the crazy holiday period for me as the girls left at 5.30 this morning and Steve is moving out in a few hours to go find a place of his own here in whistler so Matty and I will again have some time to ourselves and to catch up on work and some more intimate time together snuggling on the couch or just reading books or what ever. We better not get to used to it though because my family will be here in a few weeks and the house will be full and wild and messy again but it will all be fun times.

Favorite memories from the silly season…

Snow boarding with girls!
I have always had to snow board with the boys or alone before I got to whistler. I could never really keep up with the boys and their riding is so intense and crazy that it can be more challenging than fun at times. Riding alone is nice but its always nice to have a mate to share your fun with so it has been so awesome to have girls to ride with since I have been here. I have been riding with Em, Lizzy, Tara and Alyssa a bit and it’s been so fun. They are all good riders and more importantly they know how to have a great time up there so there is lots of laughter and games while we ride at our own pace. Some times we chase freshies, sometimes we are fast and other times we just cruise but we are always smiling.

Building a kicker for the toboggans
Our place is right on the side of the ski hill here so we often pull out all our toboggans at night and go for a slide. Last night was the last night for the girls so we took all the gear out at 3am and sped down the slopes at high speeds rolling in the snow giggling and having snowball fights. We decided at some point that building a jump for the toboggans would be fun so we all pitched in on the job and I got to christen the jump. I ran at the jump and dived onto my board belly down and head first (like you would jump on a boogie board in the ocean) and slid into the jump launching into the air and landing on my belly. Ha ha ha, it was so fun. We all took turns after that, at launching ourselves off the jump. It was wild and uninhibited crazy fun! It was well worth the bruised hip bones and ribs I have this morning.
Melli’s tip on tobogganing – don’t mix ¾ of a bottle of bacardi, large jumps and toboggans. You may end up with false courage and a sore body. He he he

Hangin with my girls
I have known Tara and Alyssa now for just over 7 years. They were 8 and 10 years old when I met them and I was 19. Now they are both young women and two of my best friends in the whole world. It feels like we have sort of grown up together in that time. It has really hit me hard since they came to visit that they have grown up so much. It has been so good to have long talks with them about life, love, boys, the future and our challenges, hopes and dreams. The older they get, the closer I feel to them. We danced wildly together, we sang the little mermaid song 36 times, we drank way to much dr pepper (Alyssa will need to go to dr pepper rehab after this trip!), we built snowmen together, we had 14 hot tubs, we snow boarded, we ate lots of spaghetti and we laughed a hell of a lot. God it was great to have them here. I miss them already but at the same time feel closer to them than ever.

Whistler is getting bombarded with snow and the experts are saying this is shaping up to be one of the best seasons whistler has ever seen! we are so spoiled for snow that most of our friends won't go riding unless there has been at least 10cm of snow. ha ha ha spoilt indeed!

How a Queensland Girl Lost Her Phobia of the Cold...

2005-12-19T18:49:00.000-08:00

Whistler is all about winter. Its rated the number one ski resort in all of north america. Me....i have never really been a fan of winters being a queensland girl and all. I didn't actually experience the 'cold' until i was about 13 when we moved to Tamworth and ever since then i have tried to aviod it as much as possible, So naturally i didn't really think Whistlerwould be my scene but i was lured here because of the amazing community spirit, the unbeleivable natural beauty, the stories of non stop winter fun and the damn cool vibe this place has. Well i will tell you now, this winter has lived up to every expectation i had and exeeded them 100 fold! The funniest thing is it has officially only been winter for under two weeks as i am writing this! ha ha ha i have caught the whistler bug!
The best thing about Whistler for me right now is Snowboarding. It is truly my kind of sport. Anyone who is in love with surfing should try snow boarding i think. Its like riding one big wave for anywhere up to an hour (if your legs can still hold you up). Also you don't have to paddle or wait for the wave because you catch a gondola and the "wave" is waiting there to be ridden once your at the top of your run (wooohoo!). I am loving snowboarding more and more as i do it more and more. I have been learning jumps, riding some nice powder and hiking back country to some beautiful areas. Just being out there in nature rugged up in my warm clothes is so nice too.
But snowboarding is not the only thing that is helping me lose my phobia of winters. I love taking long walks through the snowy forest and watching how the rivers and lakes are freezing over, I love watching the snow fall and Matty loves playing hockey with the locals on frozen lakes. Then there are the wild nights where we have a few drinks and then grab our toboggons and tubes and run outside and take turns sliding down the hills (sreaming and giggling uncontrolably). We often build jumps to launch our toboggons off and end up with bruised bums but it is worth it. There are also the long steamy outdoor hot tubs we have every second night. All these things help me to forget for a while about warm summer days in sydney - about beaches and picnics in parks. I have to say this is the first winter i have been so excited about in my entire life. Phobia terminated!

Preparing for a White and Wonderful Christmas

2005-12-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

Today was the the much awaited christmas tree cutting day we had been waiting for for some time now. In true white christmas spirit we set off into a very snowy and foresty area to choose and cut down our own fresh christmas tree's for our loungeroom. Whistler is basically in the middle of a huge expanse of pine forest so it wasn't to hard to find some great tree's but we decided we would only cut down the ones that are growing under powerlines. It is good to cut these ones down because they will only get cut down by the council later when they grow taller (so the locals tell us). So we trudged through the snow comparing the bushiness and perkiness of each tree and after lots of walking, comparing and careful thought we put our saw and ax to use and we had our christmas trees ready to go. We all had very cold hands (from the snow melting off the tree's) and the boys smelled like pine sap (because they carried the tree's to the car) by the time we got the tree's home but it was so worth it. Oh it was just such a christamasy festive wonderful thing to do. Our tree is so huge we had to cut the top off to fit it in the house and i had to re arrange the house to fit it into the loungeroom! I spent all afternoon putting the tree in its mount, decorating it excitedly and then vacuuming all the pine needles up from the carpet. Now it is glittering lights and colourful borbels are making me feel so festive and happier than ever that christmas is only a week and a half from now!
Our plans for christmas are to snowboard and toboggon in the day, have a snow picnic in the mountains complete with a few butterscotch schnaps, build some snow men, have a hot tub or two and then have a big yummy baked dinner and pressy opening that night! See why i am excited!!!!
Time to wrap the pressies and think about christmas dinner preperations next!

The Only Tourists in all of Italy – Us!

2005-12-19T01:02:00.000-08:00

After Bosnia we drove all the way back to Dubrovnik and said goodbye to Kath (after a night of skinny dipping and drinking) and Lithy and I embarked on the next part of our journey. We jumped on an overnight ferry that would take us to Italy. The ferry was the biggest boat I have ever been on. I found it so exciting to be on a boat that size. It had 2 restaurants, a cinema and the most amazing thing – escalators! I just thought it was so cool that the boat has escalators in it. Now I’d seen it all! After a lovely meal and some great wine we had a silly and wild ipod party in our cabin. We danced, we tried lipsticks on and showed each other all the cool dance moves we knew. We had it all – the rope and pully, the windscreen wipers, the ‘jumping on hot coals’ and many more.

The next morning we were in Italy and our new adventure began. We were soon to be asked by 176 confused Italians over the course of 2 weeks, why the hell we were in Italy at that time of year. It’s off season! I swear we where the only tourists in the whole damn country!

We traveled in Italy’s south from Naples down the Amalfi coast and then down to Sicily over the two weeks and my highlights were…

Naples
Our first stop on the trip was Naples. A city renowned for its Mafia activity, crime and dodginess. Initially I was reluctant to go there, especially after I read the lonely planets description of the city which basically said the city had bad lighting, bad crime rate, bad traffic, bad paving, bad smells and was dangerous. But lithy convinced me that we had to see this city because the Italians say Naples is the real Italy. Well I never noticed bad lighting or bad paving (god the traffic was bad though!) and what I did find is that Naples is one of the most vibrant, bustling, full of life cities I have ever seen! I swear every one in this city has the strut of a catwalk model as they walk. Every ones has the Gucci shades, the Dolce and Gabbana belts and the Prada bags. It was just such a funky city! We did lots of wandering around cobblestone streets, lots of shopping (the shopping was amazing!), some exploring of stunning churches, plenty of pizza eating (they say Naples is where pizza was invented) and we even got to see anciet smut at a secret room in a museum. This was an exhibit of ancient sexually explicit art (we are talking thousands of years for some of it). We definitely had to watch our backs in Naples and we were constantly on guard while we were there. There were lots of very dodgy looking characters some of which looked they belonged in the movie ‘the godfather’ but we managed to leave Naples in one piece and with all of our possessions and a big smile on our faces. We also did a side trip to Pompeii from Naples as well that was an incredible day of exploring ruins and letting our imaginations run wild imagining what life would have been like there 3000 years ago. We were pretending the city was still alive and we were virgins being sacrificed on the alters there, or merchants selling goods or the kings daughters (running away with the stable boy), or peasants.

Shopping
Living in whistler has me very far away from any decent fashion (besides just snowboarding clothes) so it had been a long time since I had bought any new clothes but boy oh boy when I got to Italy I made up for lost time. I know it is so girly to say but it was just so fun! I found it very hard to zip up my bag with all my new stuff by the end of my trip and had to pack my bag very strategically to get it all in. yay!!!

Ruins, statues and churches
I loved Italy’s churches so much. They were mind bogglingly, unbelievably beautiful. The first one we walked into almost brought me to tears. We walked around it in awe. The huge painted ceilings, the amazing colorful stain glass windows, the detailed and inspiring statues of saints and scenes of biblical events. I remember saying to Lithy that if churches were like that at home I would go because you feel inspired just to be there. You can feel god there. We also saw an amazing church where the interior was totally covered in mosaic artworks depicting Jesus life. God I love mosaic so much and it was breathtaking in there. So much work went into it. So much detail. The artists were so talented. We also explored so many beautiful ruins including Pompeii, and King Tiberius’s holiday houses from 3000 years ago on the island of Capri old churches and much more. We would get very exited exploring ruins and sometimes we snuck into some places we weren’t really supposed to go. One day we found a secret church in a secret garden. We explored every nook and cranny of the little church and then realizing the church had an intense echoey sound quality I sang in the main hall for lithy. It was a favorite memory from the trip. Italy also has so many amazing statues, fountains and monuments. There seems to be a beautiful piece of art at every turn. My favorite was the fountain of the cavorting nudes in Sicily. A fountain surrounded by statues of nude men (well endowed men (it wouldn’t have fit under a fig leaf like most of the ancient statues you see!)) and women in provocative poses of all kinds including a woman having her legs licked by goats and a man laying with a lions head between his legs…..hmmmmm a bit odd but interesting.

Dirskin
Lithy and I had wanted to go to Italy together for years. We had the idea a long time ago that we wanted to go and crush grapes with our feet and make our own wine from it. We giggled many years ago that we would crush the grapes with dirty feet and then call the wine dirskin (a mix of dirt and skin (gross I know!)) and make our boyfriends drink it.
Anyway towards the end of our trip we realized this old fantasy of ours would not come to be as there were no winery’s around to do it so we had the idea we’d do it ourselves. We’d make our own dirskin! We set off and bought containers, strainers and a hell of a lot of grapes from the market and some little wine bottles and we were ready to go. We spent a night picking grapes, then crushing with our feet in the hostel bathroom with the ipod pumping out tunes and us giggling uncontrollably and squealing as the grapes squished in between our toes. We made our own labels for the wine bottles and had a taste test. It wasn’t to bad at all. It really was just grape juice. But not to us. To us it was a dream come true! Our trip felt complete.

Food
Anyone who has been to Italy knows that it is pretty hard not to put on weight while your there. Everything is so darn delicious and there are so many great things to try. The best pizza ever, Seafood that is to die for, and oh my god……the pasta’s are unbelievable. We spent lots of time sampling yummy things in restaurants and drinking lots of delicious wines and yep…we both put on weight too.

Hike
When we were in Sicily we had the most wonderful Hostel to stay in. Well not that the hostel itself was anything special really. It was the owner who made it so. He was so friendly and helpful and one day he took us and 2 other guests on a wonderful hike along a breathtaking coastline high on some cliffs overlooking the turquoise ocean. First we visited a tiny village and picked up some sandwiches and then spent the day just walking and talking and admiring the view. So relaxing and revitalizing after being in the cities so much.

Islands and beaches
This is the part where we had a hell of a lot of people asking us ‘why are you here?’ over and over again. The amalfi coast and Capri especially. It was winter so there were no tourists at all and locals just could not understand why we would be there. I sure am glad I went though. I have never seen such crystal clear water in my life as I did at Capri. The water is so perfect and I swear I was every shade of green and blue in the water that exists. The natural beauty around us on the islands and in the coastal towns we visited made up for how ‘dead’ they were. We spent our time going on long walks, picnicking, reading, having long chats and eating at charming restaurants (and attempting to find some night life (mission failed – we could barely find internet).

Italy was amazing – My company made it even more amazing. Lithy is so fun to travel with!

Bosnian Road Trip. Bullet Holes, Craggly Mountains and Breathtaking Landscape

2005-12-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

When we started our journey from Split to Bosnia I had no idea what to expect of
Bosnia besides a very very long drive (8 hours to Sarajevo to be exact). I had never
heard much abou this tiny country exept that there had been a war there in the not to
distant past. Now i don't know exactly what it is about my personality - but the idea
that it might be a bit dangerous only made me more facinated by the idea of going
(like the time i went to nepal during when it was on the brink of a civil war and got
held up by terrorists - fun!) and after reading up on bosnia on the way there i found
out the war was over but the place was bullet ridden and not to walk any where off
main paths as there were thousands of landmines still unexploded. thats a nice happy
medium of the excitement / danger scale.
Anyway, as happens on all trips, just when i had no expectations at all Bosnia turned
out to be one of the highlights of my trip. The drive there was absolutely amazing.
The beautiful rolling hills, vast perfectly still lakes, and the towering craggly
mountains that were so craggly we couldn't stop saying the word craggly the whole rest
of the trip. The landscape was dotted with gorgeous little villages and farms. It was
on this drive that we saw our first bullet ridden homes.
The war in Bosnia, or should i say, the genocide attempt in bosnia has left the place
with plenty of reminders of what happened here. There are bullet holes in most homes
in bosnia, there are landmines and burnt out buildings all over the place. It is
really quite eerie. You can't help imagining what happened as you stare at the bullet
holes. Our short stay in Sarajevo was well worth the trip. It is a funky vibrant city
with so much history. The city was a battle feild for 3 years from 92 to 95 with the
Serbs surrounding the city and wanting to take it over and kill the remaining
bosnians. There was constant shooting in the city 24 hours a day for those 3 years so
the city is absolutely riddled with bullet holes, ruins of buildings, and horrific
stories or war attrocoties. We learnt alot about war history while we were there.
World war 1 was actually started is Sarajevo, Hitler also came through Bosnia in world
war 2 and then the recent war as well so if there is anywhere to learn about war
history its bosnia. The main thing i learnt is that we could never really understand
what the Bosnians went through. I realised that the realities of war were so much more
horrible than i ever thought. It is not just people shooting eachother, its people
torturing, raping and killing babies. Some of the stories i read about made me cry and
made me so angry. I just can't understand how people could be cruel enough to do the
things i heard about. They must have so much hatred and fear in their hearts. I really
can't imagine how it feels to have gone through something like this.
Dispite its hardships through, Sarajevo is full of life now. Its also full of yummy
food (wich we ate lots of), beautiful cobblestone malls (wich we srolled through) and
lots of scarf stores (wich we bought from). Another nice surprise we had in Bosnia was
an absolutely enchating medievil village that we visited on the drive home. I have to
say though one of the most wonderful things about the time in bosnia was all the great
girly chats we had in the car and the games we played to keep ourselves amused as we
drove. We played the genital alphabet game, the 'getting to know you' game (where you
ask a series of question to the others to get to know them better), we played the give
a compliment game and many more. This is what really made it an amzing road trip.
Great company makes a long drive such a delight!

Skinny Dipping, Squid and Streets of Marble....Yeeahhh Dubrovnik!

2005-12-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I got myself into this much of an excited tizzy over a holiday but I felt I had been waiting so long for it. Kathleen, Lithy and I were finally all in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Together.

Well let me just start from the beginning and say that Kath and I almost didn't make it to Croatia at all because we missed our train to the airport. (We were having a great chat and forgot to hop off at our stop which would have got us on the only connecting train that would get us to the airport on time) We ended up running out at the next stop and catching a 100 pound cab to the airport stressing all the way that we may not make it. We had to do something to alleviate the stress in the cab for 50 minutes so we made up songs about our bad situation, using a pen as an "air guitar" and wincing at the fact that the cab ride was costing much more that our airfares. Thank god, we got there just in time to catch the flight and then we sung songs...again
with the pen "air guitar" about how wonderful it was that we were finally safely on our way. This is a picture of kath showing her 20 pound train ticket that we purchased but never got to use

This was my first ever trip to Europe so I was beaming with excitement and when we landed in Dubrovnik the scenery outside was like nothing I had ever seen before. High
Pale Mountains that looked so barren and strange to me, Craggily (very craggily weren’t they girls) cliffs and buildings that were all made of sandstone or painted pale colors so they all matched with bright red roofs as well. Kath and I settled into our Hostel then went exploring Old Dubrovnik, an absolutely mesmerizing 2000 year only city with streets made of marble and buildings made of sandstone (with the same matching roofs as the rest of the city), with tiny winding alleys and dotted with ruins and the odd erotic statue. The entire city is also surrounded by huge stone walls and a mote and you have to walk over a big drawbridge to get in. If all that wasn't enough, the city is surrounded by perfectly calm turquoise water and pebbly beach. It’s the stuff of fairy tales.

As we were exploring the tight alleys we stumbled upon a bar tucked away in a corner where they were playing live jazz by candlelight so we sipped 9 Euro Wines till it was time to greet Lithy. We got lost on the way home and Lithy found the room to be empty when she arrived but we came bearing wine when we did arrive so she still loved us. he he he. With a first day like this I knew the rest of the holiday would be a great adventure!

The next day and a half was spent exploring Dubrovnik. We walked a lot and found so many wonderful things. We found the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen which was exploding with bright flowers and ageing statues of saints and angels, we ate squidgy
squid which the girls loved but I thought was too squiddy. We walked the top of the city
walls of Dubrovnik marveling at the breath taking views of the ocean and buying yummy ice creams of friendly locals. We had many wonderful girly chats and made our own little picnic on a pebbly beach at sunset.

On day 3 we hired a car and set of on a big road trip. First stop - The island of Hvar. So off we set with the sun setting over the ocean splashing intense unforgettable colors all over the sky as we drove. A few hours, a car ferry, a game of cards or two, and many wonderful girly chats later we found ourselves on Hvar but still a few hours drive from our destination city. We
were not anticipating more driving this late at night and the road was the windiest,
wiggliest, car sickness inducing, highly flammable (that’s what the sign said!), steep
road ever.....with of course a massive drop over the side to the ocean far far.....far
below. You had to turn gracefully round the corners. We turned up tired, hungry and
car sick in Hvar city but still happy just to be on an adventure. The next day was
spent lounging around beautiful (but totally dead because it was off season) Hvar which
is a seaside town with the whole marble streets and sandstone building thing going on,
eating giant seafood platters and listening to kathleen make tummy noises which she can
make on demand. Then it was time to jump back in the car and make our way to the city of Split. A huge coastal city which we were going for one reason and one reason
only.....to go clubbing. We had heard it had a pumping nightlife and we were ready to
party! So a few hours, another car ferry, 4 games of cards and more highly flammable roads and we were in Split and we were ready to party. We spent about 4 hours getting ready drinking the foulest vodka I have ever tasted, dancing wildly to Lithys ipod and getting changed at least 6 times each and then we hit the road armed with the knowledge of where the main dance clubs were. Boy were we amped and very drunk. We were ready for a big night indeed but it turned out that Split had a few surprises up its sleeve for us. You see the roomers all turned out to be true....Split has a pumping clubbing scene but ummm how should I say this....it is pumping Croatian style. That means clubs heaving with funky young people enthusiastically dancing and screaming to polka folk music (think accordion sounds with a beat) that we just couldn't get into. We tried too.....and we tried 3 clubs but it just wasn't to be. Maybe next time aye?

The next day it was off on our long drive into Bosnia......I guess it was a good thing that we got a good night sleep

2005-10-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

They say Canada is the land of the four seasons.

This is a picture i took today of our front yard today. I am so enchanted and mesmerised by the raw beauty of nature here. I love just watching the seasons change. We are having a real autumn here right now and its so magic. All the trees are different shades of reds and yellows and oranges and the leaves constantly fall on me as i walk around the village like some kind of romantic confetti. There are leaves all over the ground everywhere!!

Its getting darn cold too and our hot tub is getting used every day. We had one of the first snows of the season today on whistler mountain and are expecting snowe in the village in the next week or so. The bears have come down from the high mountain areas now and we have been seeing them around a bit more. They will be getting ready to hibernate in the next two months or so.

Our house is so nice and cosy. it is a wicked winter pad. It is ski in ski out with two hot tubs, one indoor and one outdoor. nice fire place and views of the nearby mountains. it is going to be soooooo much fun in winter!! They are building a tubing park here in whistler for winter wich will be wicked. I can't wait to try everything here this winter. Snow shoeing, cross country skiing, tobboggening, snow-mobiling and loads of snow boarding!!

Mountain biking is almost over for the season so matty and jimmi are trying to get in as much riding as possible. Its a seriously rough sport and matty seems to get a new injury every week or so. nothing too serious just lots of cuts and bruises. I have been doing lots of cross country riding but it is getting so cold that my ears burn with wind nip as i ride so i don't know how much longer i'll do it.

Working from home here is working well and the busines is doing great. We will work hard in the in between season so that we can snow board our butts of in winter.

2005-09-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Our wild American roller coaster of a holiday !!

We just got back from 10 days in America. Matty was there for an internet conference but we decided to makeit into a little holiday as well.
I arrived on a red eye flight to Mattys hotel room here on Thursday morning (he was already here because of an internet conference). Niether of us had slept much that night but we were determined to pack in a full day of roller coaster riding and sugar eating anyway, i dropped my bags, jumped on Matty then jumped in the shower and by 9.30 we were on a bus on our way to Universal Studio's 'Treasure Island'. We were insanely delerious for the first half of the day as we were so sleep deprived and overwhelmed by the Orlando heat and humidity but we managed to have an absolute blast dizzying ourselves to the degree we could hardly walk, by going on roller coasters and twisting turning churning rides of every kind back to back for 4 hours! After we sat down and had a rest and the adrenalin had worn off we got a jumbo sized soda full of sugar and caffine and soon we were ready to roll again and we proceeded to get absolutely satuarted to the bone on some on the water rides. Lots of Laughing and screaming all day.

Day two we went to the actual Universal studio's (wich is separate to the treasure island park) and went and saw pretty much every show and ride at the park. It was a day of the most wonderful sensory overload and mind tingling crazy fun. We were like two little kids wandering from atraction to attraction holding hands, giggling and gasping at all the sites. Then at the end of an awesome day we ran back over to the treasure island park (our passes could get us in to both anytime) and rode the biggest rollercoaster over and over till closing time constantly sneaking into the express line that you are supposed to have a special pass for!! he he he, i think i screamed so much my voice box almost fell out!

The next day we spent winding down...lazing by the pool and eating thai food (wich you can't get any of in whistler and we so desparateyly miss) and exploring this magnificent enormous hotel of ours, wich has a movie-set-like man made rainforest in the middle of it complete with 5 waterfalls, lush foliage and rivers full of fish, turtles and crocodiles. It also has a massive pool area, hot tubs, 3 extravagant theme retaurants (one in a life size boat that is afloat on a little man made lake - beach thing), heaps of pubs, a luxury spa and gym, a mini timezone-like games palour (wich matty has been enjoying) and heaps more. last night we went exploring and found this amazing exabition of this modern day treasure hunter who has found pirates treasures and spanish gold aniques at the bottom of the oceans. it was so awesome.

Since we had a nice relaxing day off, the next day we decided to go back to universal studios for the third time! It was so hot so we decided we would wear our swimmers and not much else and then just go drench ourselves on all of the water rides.It was a fun way to cool down i'll tell you now! We ended up spending heaps of our time in this area of the park that was obviously designated for kids. They have this 'wet' area that is a big Dr Seuss playhouse with water spurting out of the ground and buckets of water that automatically fill up and tip out from above and this sort of thing and we proceeded to absolutely drench ourselves from head to toe. Matty and I were running around screaming and playing with all the kids while all the dry adults around us watched on. They looked quite amused. We even managed to get some of them to play!! (if you call playing, us spurting them with powerful water pistols and them giggling at us and running away)

After we were all theme parked out we spent the next 3 days driving the coast of orlando to some beautiful beaches (staying well clear of the category 5 'hurricane rita' just down the coast!) where we relaxed, went nude body surfing and did a reverse bungy 4 times each. Our last stop in orlando was the historic and appanrently very haunted st Augustine, America's oldest continually civilised town. Wewent to a wine tasting in the afternoon and then went on a very eerie ghost tour (made more eerie by the blurry visions the wine was causing) of the town and learnt about the grusome darker side of the towns history. After about the 11th cold chill went down my spine on the tour it started terrentially raining and we got wetter that wet and ran through the flooding streets giggling and retreated to our lush hotel for a hot tub.

Then it was off to Las Vegas for 3 days which was quite a spectacle indeed. I ended up being so tired and jetlagged while I was there that I never quite was myself the whole time. We spent most of the time during the days just wandering around looking at all the crazy themed hotels in vegas. Some where between the giant eiffel tower at the paris hotel and the giant sphinx at the luxor we saw a full grown lion playing ball with a man and went to the worlds highest theme park (yes we went to another one!)
We did also manage to go out to this very exclusive club called 'the pussy cat dolls' which had great music and a 3 hour line up which we talked our way though in 30 mins and danced our little hearts out in an open air balconi over looking the gawdy neon of the vegas strip.

The three days in vegas ended up being 4 because we missed our flight home. We made the best of it though and went to a great ice hockey game where we yelled and screamed and ate giant pizza. the airline was nice enough to give us free tickets to fly home the next day so it all worked out well.

2005-08-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

The soul of the forest...

Every day here in whistler is an adventure for me. Almost every day i explore and commune with nature. These enchanted forests have stood here for hundreds of thousands of years and they tell me secrets of stillness and peace. I sometimes just sit quietly for extended periods of time and simply watch a tree blowing in the wind which feels like a very sacred experience to me (as simple as it may sound). Sometimes marvel at the lakes calmness and then i wade in it with my pants rolled up and watch as my ripples radiate out on the waters surface. I take long rides through forest paths and go flower picking. I feel like I am getting to know the soul of this forest. She's like a dear friend who nurtures me and fills me up every time i see her. And I am her biggest admirer. In fact i am totally in awe of her beauty and her balance. I learn allot from her.

I was warned before i came to whistler that this place is like a black hole for a lot of Aussies. They come here and then fall so desperately in love with it that they never want to leave. I think i may be teetering on the edge of falling in the whistler black hole! I love the balance of insane adventures and overwhelming tranquility. Its a sure recipe for fulfillment and balance in life. Funly enough 3 other friends that we have here (2 from Australia, 1 from London) are all considering living here for good. One is going to apply for residency very soon.

Coming here was one of the best decisions i have ever made in my life!
Mums going to freak out when she see's this! he he he.

by melli xxoo

2005-08-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

We moved to whistler, canada to live (for a year or so) just over two months ago and we are just absolutely loving being here! They call this place disneyland for adult because there is so much fun stuff to do here. Not only that but the scenery around here is just mind blowing. Towering snow capped mountains. Fields and hillsides exploding in wildflowers of every colour imaginable, thick lush pine forests, crystal clear lakes and breathtakingly powerful rivers and waterfalls. All of this beauty is either right out our window or within a ten minute walk! Whistler is literally sitting in the middle of huge areas of forest so there is also more wildlife than you can poke a stick at (which is not a very good idea becasue someof it bites!)
There are 4000 bears living in the whistler valley plus heaps of deer, moose, beavers, squirrels, chipmonks, marmotts and even cougars (and especially bad one forpoking astick at).

Activities here in summer and winter are unbelievable! theres - hiking, mountain biking, white water rafting, snowshoeing, skiing and snow boarding, tubing, cross country skiing, ice skating, rock climbing, abseiling, toboggoning, trapeze, atv-ing, horse riding, fruit picking, zip trek, four wheel drive tours and hummer tours, wildlife watching, canooing, sailing, camping, glacier walking, tree trecking, wake boarding and more and more and more!

Its paradise!

Since we have been here we have been on lots of awesome adventures. We have been white water rafting and bungee jumping (which was really scary! and fun) hiking and lots of mountain biking. lots of picnics by the lake and in fields of flowers. We have also done this thing called zip trek - picture long wire cable suspended over gorges with rushing rivers below (the longest cable is as long as 3 football fields) and your in a harness that gets clipped to the cable and you zip across it like a giant flying fox. its really fun!!!
We have seen bears, eagles, moose, beavers, deer, squirrels, marmotts and chipmonks.

We have both bought bikes and we go mountain biking almost every day! we have both taken a real shining to it. On top of the many trails that are scattered all through the forests around whistler, all the skii runs on whistler are turned into mountain biking trails in summer and they are graded just like ski runs as green (easy) blue (intermediate) and black runs (hard).

matty was going down the insane ones on his first day riding. he axed himself a bit but had fun. now he's macking it jumps and riding his bike off small cliffs and going down crazy steep stuff. Me i am just having fun and taking it a bit more easy. i have though, been riding my bike over see saws (they call em teeter totters) and down sets of stairs and doing lots of blue runs. lots of fun!
Yesterday we did a trail called train wreck. its hidden out in the forest and it actually has the remains of a huge train that slid off the track and crashed into the forest years ago. it was pretty awsome to explore it. the whistler locals have made it into a bit of a crazy bike park now. they have built jumps off the mangled train carriages and see saws on the roof.
the stuff people ride here is so insane!

We have a pretty nice place here. its 'ski in ski out' so in winter we will be able to ski right to our door. its 2 bedroom with a nice big fireplace and nice views of the mountains. we have 2 hot tubs (1 indoors and 1 outdoors) and a heated pool as part of our complex which we have made great use of. its not to far from the villiage (10 minute walk) but far enough away to be nice and peaceful.

i (melli) feel so free spirited and alive inside since i have been here. Every day there is a new trail to explore on the bike or on foot. every day there are hundreds of choices of fun things to do right at our doorstep. its great to be away from the big city back in sydney. i love playing in this big enchanted forest!

We are working hard as well amoungst all this fun. we are working pretty much a five day week on our internet business. its keeping us busy and there is lots of exiting things happening. its giving us such a great lifestyle for travelling as we can go where ever we want and just take our laptops with us.
After canada we will probably go travel through europe and south america as well. I am tingly with anticipation of all we will see on this incredible adventure!