Thankful Down Under - Canadian Style

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday ever! To me, it basically comprises of everything I LOVE – it comes with a long weekend, you get to spend quality time with friends and family (without the stress of commercialism and presents), early day drinking (cause who doesn't like sipping on wine early and waiting for the turkey to cook), it's not religious in nature and of course the ridiculously gluttonous yummy food. Basically, it's a time to be completely thankful and appreciative of everything that you have in your life...What's not to like?


This is the time when I get really homesick and miss everything that I love in Canada - the coming of a new season, the beautiful golden hue of a clear autumn day, the smile of pine, the changing color of maple leaves. I wish I was there with everyone - It makes me sad that Vancouver was almost a lifetime away – certainly it feels like it’s been too long. So, I made sure that I had a phenomenal Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend! I ended up having 8 people over for dinner – I have never cooked that much in my life! The whole prepping/cooking took something like 14 hrs. But I was so proud of how the whole thing came out! I must say, I was quite impressed with myself - if I may say so! Not sure that’s going to happen again (at least I won’t cook everything! Although everyone offered to help, I just wanted to have things exactly the way I wanted it and what I was craving. Anyhow, you guys would have been proud of my impressive effort.


Menu – My piece de resistance:

• Turkey – I actually brined it for 12 hours with a salt, garlic, fresh herb before I stuffed it (homemade) and cooked it. For 6 hrs! I can not believe how moist and perfectly brown it came out! 3.8 kilos – I was hoping for more left overs but it was devoured!
• Homemade Stuffing – whole wheat bread, Italian sausages, celery, fresh herbs, apples and cranberry
• Chili spiced gravy
• 2 types of potatoes – Scalloped and chive and parsley mash
• Sautéed cauliflower, beans, carrots with a balsamic, honey soy sauce
• Glazed carrots with almonds
• Garlic roasted Squash and Pumpkin
• Red Wine Apple Crumble with Maple Walnut Ice cream

Things that I’m THANKFUL for:

• Having friends and family that are truly amazing!
• My family for being insanely intense, funny, amusing, brilliant, strong and supportive about everything
• My best friends - despite living in different countries/locations – still managing to be there ALL the time! How impressive are they?!
• Skype, Facebook, my iPod, net book and all forms of technology to help – although I’m disappointed that we are not in the “Beam me up Scottie” days yet.
•  Being able to explore options in a different country
• Having the opportunity to travel and see new places and meet amazing new people
• My new and growing Brisbane crew - especially Nick, my adopted lil bro that makes me feel I have family here.
• The Hub & Natsuki - Awesome place to live and an excellent roommate!
• Being able to start a new tradition and introducing Canadian Thanksgiving
• Day drinking with awesome company during Thanksgiving and being in bed before midnight
• Australia’s relatively strong economy & appreciation for recruiters
• Having the necessary skills and experience that companies seem to want
• Being healthy & strong (working out to get even stronger to follow...)
• Caffeine - without which I would not be effective or survive at work
• Earning money again
• My grandmother continuing to fight and be relatively healthy
• Medical technology and it’s ability to help people find cancer (it’d be better if we can finally find a cure though)
• Having the opportunity to seek personal and professional happiness (still working on this)

I hope everyone had a great Happy Gobble gobble day and had the opportunity to be Thankful for all the wonderful blessings in your life! 

BrisVegas = Home...for now!

And finally, an update! It's been a very busy, emotional, stressful, interesting last month.

I've now officially "moved" to Brisbane, I've miraculously found a wicked place that is in a wonderful location and I was full on job HUNTing! All of this happened under what I called my "Productive and Panic" mode. So much has happened in the last little while and I'm finally at a point where I can write about it. But first, my little side trip...

My most expensive weekend ever - $ydney.

THEME- It's a small world after all :)

I took a fun road trip with my lil brother Nick to Sydney. Here's a lesson I'm going to share - Do NOT have a patch, drink alcohol and smoke at the same time and then go for a 12 hour road trip the next day. It is unbelievably terrible for your system. Ironically instead of seeing Daryl (one of my closest friends from Vancouver) I end up staying with Charbi (who I met on my clean up dive in Thailand) and partying with Kat (met in Bolivia) and Tony & Mark (Same Same but Different Laos crew). Does the world ever get better than spending time with friends from all over the world?!

Highlights:

• $5 martinis at Darling Harbour. Yum. Probably the cheapest thing from the trip.
• Celebrating Mark's birthday by doing a pub crawl with the gang! Although he smoke bombed at 9pm!! May have been the Jäger shots...
• Making the most of the crappy weather and trying to take wet tourist jumping shots outside the Sydney Opera House! Outcome = not so successful
• Sitting for 5 hrs at the Lowenbrau in the Rocks drinking Mango Weizen with the girls. 
• Buying a bottle of wine and drinking it from a brown paper bag on the ferry from Manly to Downtown Sydney. Yup, Charbs and I = classy broads. 
• Teaching my Solid 7 theory and going Solid 7 hunting. 
• Hearing: "Charina, people travel the world just to meet a person like you.  Aw!!"
• Experiencing the Birkley Housemates dinner with Shandi and Uno. 

LowLights:

• It was the rainiest weekend in $ydney so far this year.
• Finding out that my waterproof winter jacket is NOT waterproof. Mom, terrible! I can't believe that's what you brought for me!!
• $ydney is ridiculously and terribly expensive. That's what my VISA says. 

                                 Classy We Know                                       How cool is that? 

One of the rainiest days in Sydney ever! But we made the most of it. I'm pretty sure the bottle of wine on the ferry helped us! We rallied oh yes we did!

We stayed so long in this bar that we ended up on their website!

Sitting at the Rocks with great friends, gigantic mugs of beer.

Happy Birthday Mark! Next time you've got to last past the 5th Jager shot!! :)

BRISVEGAS - 

Dunno why it has that nickname, but apparently 

Brisbane = Brissie aka Brisvegas.

After a glorious 6 weeks with the girls - Shout out to Nina, Jacqui and Heidi, it was time for me to find a place, build some roots and figure out exactly how different Australia is to Canada. Being the 3rd largest city, it's very similar to Vancouver at around 2 million people. It's got a town feel to it with big city amenities and a river that winds through the whole city. It's divided into tiny neighbourhoods - of which I'm still trying to learn but the public transportation seems impressive. They have a City Cat that takes you around the river, a train system that links the whole area all the way out to the Sunshine Coast in the North and the Gold Coast to the South and buses that seem to impressively run on time. I live in an area that is a kinda hybrid of Commercial Drive meets Gastown. 

View of Brisbane from Kangaroo Point

One of the many bridges that cuts through the winding Brisbane River

The Sydney girls coming to visit.

Man made "swimming pool". It's the "beach" of Brisbane in South Bank.

HOME sweet HOME!

So now I've moved into a cute 1 bedroom shared accommodation in New Farm, that is stumbling distance from all the bars, walking distance to downtown and close by all the necessities. I also completely lucked out with my quiet Japanese roommate, who is actually a completely cool chick (I panically asked her to move in with me after talking to her for 15 mins! Not usually my style, but so far so great!). It's a wonderfully cosy place that kinda reminds me of university! We have a little kitchenette, where I've been cooking up a storm already, a balcony that looks out into our neighborhood and lots of window to let in the sun.

WORK - I think I'm not backpacking anymore...

I had been maniacally job hunting - I had forgotten how daunting it is to cold call, apply online and walk into businesses. But it's wonderful to get back into the swing of things. Slowly but surely, I'm learning that there are tons of differences with work culture/expectations...it's coming as a bit of a shock, but so far, aside from being way too impatient, I've been fascinated by the process! But it's coming along and I'm hoping to find something good and excited to actually experience Australian work culture. We'll see what is in store for me - back to the corporate world or working at some funky cafe. It seems that despite 1.5 years of traveling, my default setting is appparently to apply for stressful jobs! Mmm, now what does that say about me?!?! So perhaps, I'll actually broaden my horizon and see what else this country has to offer...that or I'm back to recruiting again. Seems they love recruiters here...which is great considering it's my background. Do you know, they even have a recruiting companies for recruiters?! Insane but hey, plenty of potential opportunities there.

So fast forward to mid September and I'm now trying to get use to being at an office 40 hrs a week in a suit. I'm working as an "Associate Consultant - Engineering and Infrastructure" - basically sourcing for Engineers (which, by the way, if you guys know any experienced Civil/Electrical/Mechanical Engineers in Mines, Infrastructure, Oil & Gas, Roads, Water I'd be interested). But I digress! I'd be lying if I didn't say that I haven't had my freak outs but the 13th floor view overlooking the Brisbane River, being "productive", learning about new industries and most importantly my bank account is happy that it's getting replenished! 

WaterFront Place - where all the recruiting magic happens.

First post work drink. Much needed and deserved! :)

Notable awards of late:

• Best Non-date Date - Goes to Nina - We went hiking in the bush, walked around Montville, a quaint town with cute shops and a phenomenal view of the valley. We shared a glorious late lunch with a bottle of wine in a garden while listening to live music with one of the most angelic voices I've heard.  We bought mini desserts, fresh strawberries, champagne and drank it on the beach. We then headed to O'Malleys to people watch and met the most random interesting characters. There was the unplanned long hike at Noosa Heads as well!

• Best Nickname Giver - Charbi - Teletubbie.  Nuff said. 
• Most Oblivious - Me. It's amazing how I can still be so shocked and surprised by things. It's kinda cool. Sorta. 
• Best Umbrella - 4 Seasons. Classy and you seem to find them randomly in bars everywhere in Sydney.
• Coolest Slang - The Aussies. It's all shortcuts: Arvo - afternoon. Devo - devastated. Derro - derelicts. Avo - Avocado. Sandwich - Senga.
• Wicked Random job - I helped a friend wax and buff his plane.
• Best Friend - Daryl! He came down for the weekend and spoiled me with awesome treats (ie. we ate way way too much and too well ;) It's been over 4 years since we've seen each other and we made sure we made the best of it by celebrating over great food, champagne cocktails and way too much wine! Thanks buddy!!

• Best Dessert - JellyFish - Bread and Butter Pudding with Truffle Anglaise and Salted Almond Ice Cream! Yum!!

• New Fave - Fireworks from a Bridge! Daryl was here for the  kick off of the Brisbane Festival and we saw the fireworks from my neighborhood. 

 

•  Healthiest moment - Running Bridge to Brisbane. Nina and I rocked. I ran it at 36:27 - I'm pretty proud considering my smoker's lung!

So as you guys can tell, life is coming along in Brisbane. I've started to meet people, I'm getting out there, I have a job, a home...I'm definitely trying to make the most of it here!

With Sadness and Smiles...In Memory of...

There's an unbearable sadness when tragedy strikes unexpectedly. All the fleeting memories start flashing before your eyes and you're temporarily blinded by the shocking pain of loss. I'm reminded that we are mere mortals, that things come and go, that life is precious, and that in a split second it can all go. I haven't been one to necessarily share my romances nor announce things on mass but I'm grieving the loss of my ex-boyfriend, who heroically passed away in an unfortunate accident while he was trying to save his girlfriend.

Keep smiling from above Justin.

Although we weren't right for each other, he will always remain one of the nicest men I've ever had the honor of knowing. He was truly wonderful, thoughtful and amazing. He was the kind of guy whose maturity came with a boyish charm. He had a beautiful smile and a ridiculously infectious giggle that was heart warmingly adorable. I had always wished that we were meant for each other. We broke up because I knew he deserved more than I could give him. In the end, we were just too incompatible in many ways but he was also incidentally the last man that I've really cared deeply about.

My sadness is lifted by remembering the good times we had together. I often say that people come into our life for a reason, a season and a lifetime. For me, he will constantly be a reminder that there are truly phenomenal people out there. That it's ok to keep searching for the one that is right for you. That like him, you should be brave and live openly. That you shouldn't settle for anything or anyone less than you deserve. That you should always keep the great ones in your life. That there are lessons to be learned everywhere and in everyone. And that sometimes even though it's not forever, they will still enrich your life in ways you can never have expected. The salty tears are sweetened by honoring the fact that most importantly he was perpetually optimistic. He believed in LOVE, in LIFE, in celebrating the small moments, in remembering the little things and in cherishing the most important things the world can offer. He was truly one of a kind and I'm blessed to have known and had him in my life, no matter how short it was.

I wish for so many things in this life. But as I sit here and mourn the loss of a great soul, a lover and a friend - I can't help but count my blessings. I recognize that I'm lucky enough to keep meeting people like him who are truly special. That I have the opportunity to keep living life the best way I know how. That it doesn't matter if I fall in love with a man or a woman - I won't give up on finding love. That whatever job or career I have, no matter how hard I work or how much of myself I put in, I won't let it define me. That weight doesn't really matter at the end of the day and I will try and not beat myself about it. That even though I seek and struggle with wisdom, life will always find a way to surprise you and teach you what you need to grow. That happiness is attainable and those moments can come with nervous excitement or with a peaceful contentment. That I'm surrounded by amazing friends and family who will always love and support me no matter what. That I am grateful to have another day...

It's moments like this when I wish I could be a million places all at the same time. My world travels have been and continue to be life changing and so amazing I couldn't even begin to describe its impact on me. But it's also difficult to miss out on so many momentous things - being there for a friend's wedding or funeral, supporting best friends falling in love or starting families, watching my nephews and niece grow up, holding loved ones during health scares and issues. Please know that my love, thoughts, prayers and well wishes are with everyone all the time.

I may not know what my future holds - who I'll meet, fall in love with, new friends I've yet to make, experiences to go through, adventures to seek... but I do know that I will always try and make the most of it and embrace everything with open arms and be the best that I can be. I keep pining for a sense of foreverness that doesn't actually exist. Life is about taking advantage of all the small moments seamlessly joined together through shared experiences. I do hope that somehow I've enriched you all as much as you have given me.

Live life to the fullest - it's the only one we have.

Thank you for all the smiles, good times and most of all for being YOU.

You will always be one of the most amazing men I have ever met.

You will be missed Justin.

G'day mate! The Australian Canada! :)

Australia = It's totally the Canadian oz but with funny accents that I totally have to get use to.

First impressions: Gorgeous! It's beautiful here. There's tons of space, its clean and people are really friendly. There is a wonderful familiarity about Australia. It's pretty much like home but warmer. Mind you I'm in the east on the sunshine coast (just north of Brisbane). Aside from 2 days of rain where it reminded me on Vancouver, it's been beautifully sunny. It's chilly but this is the best "winter" I've ever experienced!!

Stereotypes & myths - let's tackle this one a bit. Alright so it's only been 2 weeks so I could definitely be wrong but here are some observations:

• Yes, they are all pretty friendly. Everyone one does say " G'day mate. How's it goin? " and it comes with a smile :)
• I swear I do think they all know how to surf. Walking by the class of 20 kids taking lessons is not helping dis-spell this stereotype nor are the multitude of surf shops everywhere!
• They are heavy drinkers and kinda crazy. Well, if you go to the bars, it's very true. Then again, where isn't it?
• It's very expensive here. True. It's not quite as bad as Europe but everything definitely costs more than North America!! Ugh! The cheapest thing in 7/11 should not be $4! Seriously...
• The sun is really strong here! I got a raccoon tan from my shades just sitting in the car. Yup I'm wearing sunscreen all the time here!
• Myth- I have not seen a koala bear yet. So they are definitely not everywhere. Although I have seen kangaroos. Wow are they ever cute?! Disappointingly though, they weren't boxing. Haven't seen giant spiders yet either. Or snakes. Or dingos. Or anything creepy like that. So far so good on minimizing my experiences with deadly huge animals.

Too cute! They were just on the side of the road...

• It's bone dry - yet another myth. Actually there are a suprising amount of lakes, rivers and water everywhere! They build beautiful homes right on the water with parking spots for their boats and yachts. Gorgeous! Now that's the life!

Gorgeous homes in Noosa. Too bad all the yachts were out.

After being greeted by Heidi's beautiful smile at the airport, within 24 hrs we were packing up her car and heading south to see over 600kms of arrestingly beautiful coastline. Oh and by then I had already climbed Mount Coolum with her and her dad and had my first steak sandwich and gelato in Noosa. She hasn't wasted anytime showing me some of the best this country has to offer!

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Heidi! I have been having a great time because of her. She's been the perfect host/tour guide/friend. Even though we haven't known each other for long I think we've experienced so many facets of our personalities already! Together we've been - Extremely zen. Studious and serious. Debaucherous and crazy. Discliplined and healthy.

We were sooo excited to get going!

• Nimbim - An odd and funny little hippie town where anything goes. They have a hemp embassy, a mardi grass and the happening place to be at is the museum.

No political asylum. But it was informative in there.

• Bundjalung National Park - nothing beats waking up to the sound of the ocean, watching colors change in the reflections off waves and having the whole beach to yourself.

One of the prettiest places I've seen.

• Byron Bay, Yamba, Coff's Harbour. The east coast is sprinkled with tons of small fishing towns that are postcard perfect! It reminds me of the Maritimes back in Canada. At one point we had a picnic on the headlands and it felt like we were in Signal Hill in Newfoundland.

We watched dolphins and whales on the other side of this hill!

• Driving through a double rainbow. It was amazing!! At one point, we were so close to it we were expecting to find the pot of gold or Lucky charms.

Epic. Amazing.

• Heidi's place and roomates! It's a 10 min walk through a little forest to the beach, which means I get to enjoy the gorgeous sunshine, watch hot surfers tackle the waves and feel the sand and cool ocean everyday! And who gets lucky enough to meet awesome people right away so you feel you have girlfriends already?! Me!! :)

The girls having wine on the beach during sunset!

• Heidi's cooking! It's phenomenal and she's been spoiling me!! Goodies on the menu - Thai green curry, prawn and chorizo paella, Asian herb crusted salmon, Aussie steak & 3 veggies, apple & mixed berry crumble and some other creative desserts involving cookies, chocolates, pies and ice cream.

LOWLIGHTS:

• It's pretty warm considering it's winter but it was still pretty darn cold while we were camping. I'm not complaining though...honestly.
• Juice cleanse - I'm putting it here cause it it was interesting to only have juice for 2 days. Beets. Pineapple. Celery. Grapefruit. Ginger. Name it I think we juiced it. But, I'm so over it now...lol.
• Setting up a tent in pitch black darkness = not a good idea. And same goes for not closing the tent door...it's cooold at night and we're lucky the native bush turkeys didn't come in.
• Detox & cleansing. Australia is my get healthy, fit and back in shape continent. I'm not really sure the patch is working...but at least the desire and attempt is there!
• I do not have enough winter appropriate cloths. I miss my wardrobe back home! Sigh. First purchases here has been a red fleece jumper (look at me getting into the lingo) and sexy/practical black boots.
• My resume! Yup, I've been obsessing about getting it right...makes sense considering what I use to do for a living. But it's unnerving to get back to 'reality' considering I've been traveling for so long.

To be honest, I have such high hopes for Australia. I want to find passion...explore opportunities, find work, a new place to call home again (at least for a little while). It's both exciting and daunting to try and get back into the swing of everyday non traveling life. It's funny cause I do actually miss my professional persona. I guess that's a sign to get working again! I can understand why people find it daunting to start fresh. You have to orient yourself, find a place, pray that you meet good people, source a job that will hopefully pay you enough and that you'll enjoy. There are tons of things that you have to think about.

I'm excited to be here... I'm in a great place and extremely hopeful. I've always believed that life is about choices and that you create your realities. That said, I'm looking for an awesome paying job that is exciting and fruitful, with a gorgeous place near the ocean, amazing new friends and maybe a Hugh Jackman lookalike massaging me after learning to surf and maybe Cate Blanchett for a neighbour?! So if anyone has any info, contacts, connections, recommendations let me know ok?! Anyone?! Lol. :)