Random Happenings...

Am I the only only person who gets so involved with things that they're actually surprised when they look up and it's dark?

Yes? 

No?

It has happened to me numerous times, in many places for many, many, many different reasons.

Ok, so reading may be involved most of the time, but sometimes it's a book, sometimes it's the laptop. 

I have actually been so engrossed in a book that I nearly jumped out of my skin when my mum turned on the light behind the couch I was reading on.

In all honesty, she was surprised I could still make out the words.

So was I when I realised that the room was so very, very dark before she turned on the light.

One of those moments where you don't realise the exact situation until it changes.

Tonight, I was sitting at my kitchen table, going through the photos on my new camera (I am obsessed with it, and so very very in love), that I was honestly surprised when I looked up and realised my house was nearly pitch black.

My camera: A Nikon 3300. Would love another lens to go with it.

When I noticed the time was 8.45pm, I figured it was supposed to be dark.

Especially when all my blinds were shut to keep the heat out.

33 degrees C at 5.30 pm!!!

But the days are getting shorter as we churn through the last month of summer and head towards autumn. (For those of you who don't know, the Aussie seasons change at the start of the month, rather than with the equinoxes like in most places. Something to do with when the English settled here and realised that it was nearing 40 degrees and it hadn't even hit the official summer yet)

And autumn brings weddings (2), and birthdays (Dad's next month, mine and mum's in May), and warm clothes, and leaves changing colours, and cooler temperatures which mean I can sleep through the night.

Anyway...

I was going through my photos, and the photography book my mum bought me for Christmas, and realised that, while I'm not amazing behind the camera, I'm not as terrible as I thought I might be.

And I'm trying out the 'homework' in each chapter of the book, just trying to find something new to photograph, or something old to take photo's of in a new way.

Random rocks near the drain in the house I was living in, random cat that adopted us (me in particular, he used to sleep on my windowsill) for about 6 weeks.

Nat and I spent a day at Newcastle Beach a few weeks ago and we had an absolute blast. We didn't get in the water because it was more a spur of the moment decision and neither of us were wearing anything remotely resembling swimmers.



Have you seen a sky as blue as this? I've been to lots of places, including through the Asian Pacific and I am still amazed at the blue of our summer sky's. We were very adult like and bought an umbrella to go with our picnic blanket, and we even bought our own picnic! Very adult like. We smothered ourselves in sunscreen, laid in the shade (we still laid in the sun and got a bit of a tan), we snacked on the food we bought ourselves rather than go looking for food at the beach (although the fish and chip shop smelled AMAZING!!!), and we chatted about anything and everything. I love days like that.

The lily's I bought myself. Who says someone needs to buy them for you? Buy them for yourself I say!

How gorgeous is my grandmother's dog?! She's beautiful, in look and in temperament. She's a Maltese Shitzu cross. And she's happy to entertain herself, wandering Gran's massive backyard, or playing with the insane amount of toys she has (she doesn't do squeaky things though). Although she is very much a people dog who loves cuddles, and belly rubs.

The massive gum tree my sister, cousins and I used to climb as kids. Keep in mind that's a 6 foot fence behind it, just to give you an idea of how big it is.

The mountains that are behind my grandmother's house. There's only one or two streets between her house and the base of the mountain. And see? Massive gum tree. That's the top of the shed roof you can see, and that's not even the top of the tree. And the base of the shed sits higher than the base of the tree because the shed is on a slight hill.

My old housemates puppy Rosie. She's a Golden Labrador, and so beautiful. These were taken the Tuesday after she came home (Megan picked her up on the Sunday). She was content to roam the backyard, and snooze with her toys, but she liked being around people (me that day as I was the only one home). However, she liked to bite.

Beautiful souvenirs my mum and dad bought back from Vietnam when they went last year. I love my little Buddha's and my lotus flower tea light holder.

I am so in love with my camera.

Now I just need to use it more and take more photos with it :D

Well, hi there

So, I planned to take a social media time out. Which I did...

Clearly.

But, I never planned to take this long off. A whole year and a bit...

Oops.

Oh well.

The time out was good for me. For a while there I started obsessing about what everyone else was doing, then I started asking questions, then it just made me miserable.

You know, when everyone you went to school/uni with are settling down, having families, and just getting their lives sorted?

I started asking why that wasn't happening with me. Where did I go wrong? What was so bad about me that it just wasn't happening to me?

But then, when I took Facebook away, and stepped away from Tumblr, and blogs etc, I realised that while I want that, eventually, I don't want that right now. 

I mean sure, if Mr. Right happened to walk in the door (or Mr, Right Now, I'm not picky, I've been single for many, many years) I wouldn't say no, but there are many many things I want to do before babies, and mortgages. You know? Like travel to Europe and the UK, and do things, and meet people and have fun. Not have to worry about what everyone else wants to do.

It made me feel good and kind of re-centered me again.

So, you know how you have some good years and some bad years? And then you have those years that are kinda good, and kinda bad?

I had the last one.

Although, it was more like the beginning and the end were good, the middle... not so much.

Let me recap the highlights and the lowlights for you:

January: A month of highlights:

• I was offered the job of personal trainer for a gym I was a member of. Literally, mum was having a walk through, thinking of joining, and the woman who was leading her around knew me, and asked if I wanted to be a personal trainer at the gym. I said yes, put in my resume (which was really just a formality), and got the job, plus 15 hours a week in reception as well, so I got to quit my job at the pub.

• I also sat an interview in Sydney for a job in a call center. Not what I want to do, but stable hours, and a stable income, which I haven't ever really had. This job offer should have been a sign.

• I also moved out of mum and dad's house (hopefully for the last time), and in with a friend of mine. It was amazing!!! No parents asking 'where are you going?', 'who are you going with?', 'when will you be home?' type questions. Surely I'm not the only one who has parents that treat you like a child again when you're living under their roof? Right?

February: A bit of an everything month:

• I was settling into my new job and loving it. I had many clients, and was really busy. I absolutely loved it. We started an 8 week challenge, and my clients were doing really well.

• However, I started my new year of uni, and while I really enjoyed my exercise science class (possibly because a lot of it was recap from the year before), my anatomy class moved too fast with too much information. (So many people complained about the info overload, and the issues we had with getting the lectures etc that we were all given special consideration for our exam which gave us an automatic 5 marks on top of our exam mark).

• Was still loving living at home

March: Nothing worth mentioning.

April: Lows, Many, many lows

• We finished our 8 week challenge to find many miners (I live in a coal mining town) were losing, or going to lose their jobs, so my PT work went downhill really fast. I was getting maybe 4-5 clients a week at most.

• One of my high school 'enemies' (we weren't really enemies, she disliked me, I hated her back, but I pretty much ignored her while she went out of her way to make me miserable), had a public go at me on her facebook page. While she never mentioned me by name she did put 'the personal trainer at insert workplace name' and made mention of what I was eating (which was wrong). When someone made mention that maybe I didn't eat like that all the time, she told them that I was very overweight and unfit. Made for a very miserable me for a few weeks. And yes, I was overweight, and I still am (although I am starting to work on this again), but she didn't need to publicly shame me. And the gym just put up a note around the gym telling people to be courteous to other people. Strike one against my employer.

• Went to res school (where we basically sit in lectures, and do all out practical work. I met up with some great people I met the year before, but felt like I was just so far out of my depth it wasn't funny.

• Lost my hours in reception, because I had too many clients and they didn't want me splitting the shifts. (In hindsight this should have been a sign too).

May: 

• My birthday!!!! I specifically took this day off, and had a spa day. I also had a session with a psychic (a friend of my then housemate) which is a whole other post on it's own.

June: highs!!!

• I managed to pass my exams!!! Pass for anatomy (which I thought I would fail), and credit for exercise science!!! Yay!!! happy dance was done round and round my house.

July: lows!!! lows, lows, lows.

• I was fired from my job. Basically I had only a few clients at that point in time, and the owner told me that I wasn't spending enough time there, blamed uni etc, when really the town was making no money, laying off workers left right and center, and no one had any spare money to pay a personal trainer (many people interested in PT told me that they just couldn't afford the rates and would I hold sessions outside the gym for cash in hand cheaper). Told me that if I ever wanted to come back if I tool a break from uni, or if I needed to do my prac work there, I was more than welcome to come back, Ah, no thanks. Every time I offered to do something to help get more clients it was turned down. They wanted me to start doing things for free (I already was), and they don't have the right people for me to do my training under.

• On the plus side, my few clients were sad to see me go, and I actually had one lady who demanded a refund because she had paid to have me train her and I was no longer going to be there.

August - September:

• Nothing much. Res school (again) but this time I felt a lot better about it all.

• Finally got myself back into the gym.

• Started to get down about not being able to find work.

October: highs!!!

• Finally got a job. It's only in fast food, but at least it's an income.

• Met some good people at work.

• Uni results are in!!! Credit for anatomy (a huge improvement over the first semester and only a few marks off a distinction), and a distinction for human bioscience (a few marks of a high distinction). Cue the celebrations.

November: Meh

• Decide to study over the summer to get one more unit over and done with.

• Decide to move out on my own. Started to look for a few places.

December: Highs!!!

• My little sister and her partner bought a house. (They bought it about a month before, but it settled in December).

• I got rejected for a few rental places, but then finally got a little villa type thing in the next town over. Plenty of space for me and only $90 a week more than I was paying before. I finally had my own space. Moved in the week before Christmas (the 17th)!!!

• Christmas!!!!!

So, as you can see, a little bit of a rocky year last year. Hopefully this year will be better. At least my uni units look better this year. No more foundation units, we're finally getting into the good stuff. Although I am printing out some of my lecture from last year and putting them in a binder (like my muscle and bone lectures) for future reference, because guaranteed that I'll forget things now that I'm not obsessing over them.

I also managed to catch up with friends a lot more last year, and I'm hoping to continue that even more often this year. I also have 2 girlfriends getting married this year (on the SAME BLOODY DAY!!!) and they're always occasions for get togethers.

I promise it won't take me so long to update again.

Dxo