Things have been amazing lately. I’ve managed to get my hands on an incredible fulltime job at Greenco in booragoon, working with Sarah Green doing the admin work for the electrical company. Its pretty sweet – own office, computer, desk, freedome to get through my work at my own pace, send emails, take long breaks, learn about this incredibly successful business – I love it. I love it because it’s easy, comfortable and really interesting, and it’s something i’ve never done before. I’ve always worked in either hospitality or retail and this is something completely different. It’s so cool to learn about the business side to a successful company like this one, and the reliable income and fulltime hours doesn’t hurt either So yes, as far as work is concerned - i’m feeling very privileged indeed.

As mentioned in a previous blog, i’ve also signed up to do the HBF Run for a Reason which has been an awesome little project to a) get fit for and b)raise money for. It’s been awesome to have something to train for in terms of my running… giving me some motivation to push it furthur. Sarah Green has also been an amazing influence with it all, as she has decided to now run it with me and be my little training buddy for the months leading up to it. Without sounding arrogant, I truly feel like I am the fittest and healthiest I have ever been in m life, and it’s a pretty awesome feeling. Working and training with Sarah has also been such a learning experience for me because she is so knowledgeable when it comes to whats good for your body and whats not, which I just feed off because I find it SO interesting. It makes me realise how much I want to take this seriously as I get older.

It’s been so nice to have a special somebody on my mind lately as well. He’s cute, charming, generous and so loving… he’s also someone I never thought I would be interested in. For someone who I originally thought was very generic and arrogant, he has turned out to be the most understanding and caring person. I feel so lucky to have him to hang around these days. He’s already taught me so much.

Friend-wise, feeling especially lucky as usual. There’s not much to say on the friend front, because i’ve always expressed how lucky I am to have these amazing people in my life. Been having some wicked weekends as of late, filled with fun drinking, 21sts and chill times with the best people you’ll ever meet. Besides my family, my friends are always going to be my top priority. Love em’ love em’ love em’.

It’s moments like right now when im feeling so unbelievably blessed and lucky, when i start to think about those that arent so fortunate. Doing this HBF Fundraiser has really opened my eyes to the joy of giving (as pansy as that sounds).  I really don’t have a lot of money right now, but even just giving $20 to the charity can be the most rewarding feeling. It’s so exciting watching this online tally grow as people are donating more and more, and it just makes me want to spread the word around because knowing how much good it is doing is giving me the biggest warm fuzzies right now.  I’m not going to rable on about it, but please if you’re reading this, just go and check out the website to see what it’s all about. Donations are always appreciated, but even just becoming more aware about it is a big step in itself.

http://hbfrunfundraising.com.au/sarah_dinsdale

Well im still not tired, still high on life, and definitely not complaining. Stay happy, healthy and busy everyone. Life is sweet.

xxx

Anyway, as Sarah is in the midst of training for this upcoming triathalon, it has been making me question why I’m always doing so much running what my actual goals are. Whilst Sarah is jogging along with her heart rate monitor, her spiffy calorie counter watch, her pedometre and her speed tracker, im just bopping along with Kanye in my ears… because i enjoy it – thats my only reason. I think it’s a good enough reason too – I mean we should only really do things if we enjoy it, right? Well whilst I enjoy it, I feel like I could be pushing myself more. I love running, it makes me feel great, but admittingly I am getting a little bored of running the same routes and distances everyday.

So with inspiration from my new fittness idol, I’ve decided to enter the HBF Run for a Reason on the 22nd of May. I’ve been reading up on it for the past week and finally entered this morning, and man I am so excited! Its a fantastic event which supports 6 of the major health charities around WA (arthritis, cancer, athma, diabeties, heart foundation and lifeline counceling). I really want to try and raise as much money as possible, particularly for the Cancer Foundation as it’s cancer which has taken the lives of the small amount of family that i’ve personally lost.

If any of you guys want to run it with me, the more we can get on board, the better! There are options to walk the course as well, and the choice to either walk/run 4.5k’s or walk/run 14k’s. I’ll be doing the 14, but if anyone wants to make a team in any category, its the participation and donations that count.

I think this event is an awesome reason to get up and improve your fittness, as it’s for such a great cause which will benifit you and others in the long run. Please let me know if you want to join or make a donation, it would be so appreciated

“Well she certainly has Uncle ___’s nose…”
“He is deffinitely from ___ side of the family…”
“Oh he/she looks just like you!”

NO, THEY DON’T. It’s tiny, it’s pink, it’s shrivelled and the closest thing he/she looks like is a very tiny/pink/shrivelled prune. I’m not trying to be mean, I just dont understand how babies look remotely like anyone in the family when they are first born. Just an oppinion is all.

Right that was really random. To be honest I woke up this morning at 5am for no apparent reason and now, after a really big coffee, am feeling a tad weird.

All this talk about babies has got me thinking about that of the opposide side of the human life span – the Nannas. My 82 yr old Nan is staying with me right now and whilst she can be a bit of a nag, it has been so awesome having her here. A few months ago my Pop passed away unexpectedly from a hidden cancer in his lung, and now Nan has flown over from Sydney where they live to come and stay with us for a few months an a sort of escape from the hard memories which linger in her house over east. If you’ve met my Nan, you will see how unfair it is for her to ever feel so down. She is the most gorgeous woman, and it has only since spending the last 2.5 weeks with her where i’ve fully realised just how strong she is.

Every morning I get up at around 5:30/6 to go jogging and come home at around 7/7:30, always to see my Nan sitting out the front with my dog having a cup of tea. Lately i’ve been joining her for a chat which always ends up to be a 2 hour life lesson – tedious to get through but at the same time, SO interesting. She talks to me about her life – what she did for work, how she met my pop, what life was like during the war, how she raised 7 kids on a small income, how she coped once her kids left home and how she is now with her best friend in the world no longer with us. I won’t go fully into it, but I can’t tell you how much respect I have for this woman now. She has been through a hell of a lot, and how she still manages to be the strong, level headed woman, i dont know.

It kills me to see her get so choked up about the loss of my Pop, also. I mean, i’ve never been in a relationship longer than 2 years, let alone the same man for 64 years. How the hell do you carry on with your life after your second half for over 6 decades suddenly leaves you with no warning? I can’t understand it. All I can do is take my hat off to her and only hope i’ll be even half as as strong as she is one day.

I made these to take to Matty Watt’s house on Friday and according to him, they’ve all been eaten and were thoroughly enjoyed! Yessss success on the baking front!

I was suprised at how easy and quick it was to make the little babies, all it involved was whisking together some mixture (butter, castersugar, vanilla essence, self raising flour, eggs and milk), placing the mixture evenly into patty pans and bake in the oven for 20 minutes on 180 degrees. Once that was done, let the muffins cool down then cut a small circle into the top of each cake and use the lid as upside-down wings. To make them stick, fill the left over hole in the cake with jam and whipped cream (i added a bit more sugar and a tiny bit of vanilla to the cream to make it extra sweet once whipped). I also found that if you dont have any jam, you can experiment with pretty much anything sticky and sweet, like pureed fruit or lemon curd. I used this yummy passionfruit curd that was in the fridge which, in my oppinion, beat the jam by a longshot

Anyway here’s how it all went down:

Pretty happy, but I will admitt it wasn’t very much of a challenge. Next challenge I was thinking maybe a carrot cake or a mud cake, will let you know

xxx

Wednesday was a crazy night out at my old friend The Raffles. It’s been a good 7 months since being at that place which once felt like ‘The Local’ , so Sinead and I hit it pretty hard. Many shots, martini’s and other poor drinking choices later, it was pass out town in the Richardson house. Night one of the bender complete.

Thursday wasn’t so much a big night in terms of drinking, but it did involve alcohol which didn’t go down easily after the night before. I met up with the lovely Andy at the Windsor Hotel at around 7:30 for a few wines and massive chats about my trip away and what he has been up to over the past 6 months. I can’t tell you how good it was to see him and get to talk to someone about Europe who has essentially ‘been-there, done-that’ before. It’s one thing to tell someone about what you experienced, but another thing for someone to actually relate to and understand exactly what you’re trying to describe. There are just something about that place which can only be fully appreciated if you see it for yourself.

Friday was yet another big one at the famous ‘Shed’ which i’d heard so much about. Matty Watt, owner of the ‘Shed’ and star Beer Pong player has us all around for many more drinks, shots and pizza with some good chats on his amazing-but-not-clean shed roof. After most of us had hit the drinking wall at around 11pm (so weak) we all passed out on the roof, later waking up from the hundreds of mosquitos and a bailing either inside or off home (hats off to Matt Richo, Lani and Mitch for toughing it out and staying on the roof all night though). I learnt from the Shed times that beer pong is a wicked sport which I highly recomend to anyone with a strong drinking ability and good aim. I also suggest that if you really want your team to win, you could just try dacking your partner whilst they go in for the shot…as it’s clearly a successful tatic for a clean beer-pong swish - just ask lani. haaahahaha.

Saturday night I was asked to accompany Matt to an engagement party along with the rest of the touch football gang. In a nut shell, I felt pretty ditched by my ‘date’ which was hard at the time but I’ve since realised that there is only so much you can do for your +1 who essentially doesn’t know anyone, so I tried to toughen up and pretty much turned to vodka and coke to get me through it. Bit sad, but it worked haha. Woke up this morning feeling pretty shabby, but my 3 hour nap today has helped and now I am so over alcohol for this weekend, I think I might spew if I see some lurking around the house.

All in all it has been a really good,fun and social weekend with little sleep but many laughs. Now, unfortunately, it’s time to get serious this week and get me a job and some direction in my life. Mum has started to nag me to get it all together, which secretly makes me want to put it off even more… but I know I have to stop being such a bum and get out of holiday mode. You think 6 months away would be enough of a holiday? Clearly not. Why can’t I just stay on holidays foreverrrrrrrrr

This week will also be all about Australia Day on Wednesday and Chris’ 21st on Saturday which we’re all very excited for. Not really sure of the Aussie day plans, but im sure something will work out and probs involve the gang getting silly drunk and sunburnt in someones pool. Here’s hoping?

Have an awesome week everyone xx

This is what they’re meant to look like, for those that arent exactly sure what they are…

Now, lets compare and contrast…

Not too bad, if I do say so myself. However the same can NOT be said about the taste. Basically the idea is to soak the vermicelli noodles in hot water, then mix them up with some shredded wombok (didn’t have it so I used carrot), crushed mint leaves, tablespoon of lime juice and a teaspoon of brown sugar. Once the mixture is made in a bowl, you then fill up another bowl full of hot water to soak the rice sheets in to make them soft and sticky so they can be folded later to keep everything tightly packed.

Before everything though, shell about 500g of king prawns, making sure to take weird photos to freak out pussy’s like Sinead who can’t handle sea food or any other living animal for that matter.

Then wrap them all up into tight little parcels, cut in half and serve cold with a side of hoisin dipping sauce mixed with 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar.

I served them to my Mum, Dad and my Nan with high hopes that they would enjoy them… however the look on their faces said it all. They tasted horrible, but its ok! Because I know where I went wrong. I didn’t soak the noodles for long enough in the hot water, so they were still very hard and dry. Also, I made way too many noodles for only a small amount of mixture (the lime, carrot, sugar and mint) so the flavour was not very strong at all. I ended up tasting one, and it just tasted like old rice. If this happens, just drown the sucker in the dipping sauce and it therefore becomes somewhat eatable.

I’ll get it right next time.

Anyway we were both not feeling overly hungry, so we thought it might be nice to have a light salad for dinner. I got out my trusty cooking book and decided on probably the second most easiest recepie in the world (next to that of the Titty Cakes) – the Chicken Corriander Salad. All it entailed was a simple raw salad of whatever you want (I just used snow peas, spinach, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, carrot, almonds and corriander) with panfried chicken chopped and thrown on top. So thats simple as, clearly. The flavour is in the dressing though, so the book says. It was a mixture of sesame seed oil, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, vegetable oil, caster sugar and white vinegar whisked  together in a pan over a low heat untill warm. It was soooo delicious, really just made the salad go from cold and boring to warm and tasty

So thats the cooking part done. In other news, Meg is great. I always love catching up with her every now and then because she is so great at just talking. I think we sat at the outside table for about 3 hours just chewing each others ears off with chatter about love, work, interests, families, futures…just life in general. She is deffinitely someone I aspire to be like with my cooking one day aswell - she’s brilliant! She can make just about anything, and it’s always done by experimentation. Pretty amazing girl, that one!

One thing she made me realise though is the reason why she cooks so much is because she is constantly buying fresh produce nearly everyday after work to make dinner with. She also has a huge cupboard filled with heaps of spices and herbs…all of which I dont have. I realised in order for me to get those things to spice up my cooking, I need money to be able to buy them. Ergo, I need a job. Can someone please just pop out of no where and offer me a job so I dont have to get off my arse and look? Thanks.

Arg. I hate the realisation that holidays are over.

So I set up the kitchen – I needed a big bowl, a beater, a wooden spoon, a knife and a baking tray, lightly greased.

Ingredients included:

• 250g softened butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2.5 cups plain flower

Once beaten, mixed and roled into 25cm logs, I put my cookie dough logs into the fridge to harden and preheated the oven to 180 degrees.

Sounds so simple?

Course not.

I’ve always seen the oven as this scary complicated object of knobs and buttons which somehow makes the thing heat up. It’s a beast which, if you know how to talk to it, can create good…but if not, it can destruct everything. As previously mentioned, I am as useful as a dog in the kitchen (i only hang around it for bits of food) so I kind of looked at this oven and instantly yelled “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddd……” Another thing I have learnt through this baking experience is that my Dad is just about as hopeless as me, and that will be the last time I ask for his help because as soon as he touched the thing, it made a weird popping noise. “Just get out” I then said, going back to square one.

EVENTUALLY (after many trials and errors) I figured it out, pre heating the oven and placing the cookies in for 10 mins/untill they hardened. Admittingly, some hardened a bit too much, but there were a couple in there that were just perfect

When I took them out, I put some saltanas on the tops where the dough was still mushy for decoration. So as a big bunch they all looked like little tittes!! Titty Cakes I shall call them. I know, how very creative of me. Paaahaha.

They seemed to taste pretty good, probs made them at the wrong time of year though because the family have all decided to go on a crash Weight Watchers diet all of a suddon, so some of the cookies still remain which is RARE in the Dinsdale house. But still, I was happy.

Yay for Sarah conquering her first cooking experience

This one was for Sinead hahaha

But now I feel challenged. I feel like I SHOULD make myself as New Year’s resolution, because I’ve failed at keeping every other one in the past. Maybe my resolution should be to actually stick to a resolution? But I still need a resolution to actually stick to. I’m just going to say resolution one more time now. Resolution.

And now, after much thought, I’ve found a resolution, a goal. But not for the year, because I think that is where the problem lies. It’s too long a time period, so the thought of it just makes me go ‘pffft, not going to happen’. I’m going to make a “New Semester One” resolution, seeing as I’m still on my year off and am probably going to have way too much time on my hands. Things never seem to happen in terms of extra curricular activities whilst I’m at uni because I’m way too busy, but I see no reason not to try something new for the first half of this year? So I’ve decided I’m going to learn how to cook.

21st gift from Mum. Could not have given me a more obvious hint.

So far the foundation of my cooking knowledge consists of toasting bread, boiling water and chopping vegies and putting them in a bowl which makes a very dry and tasteless salad. I know, watch out Master Chef. But it is my goal this semester to broaden this knowledge and hopefully be able to cook something heaps tasty and impressive come the end of my 20 week challenge. And then, ill host a big-ass dinner party, and see what you all think. WAAHAA this is a great idea! I’ll start off slow and learn the basics and build my way up, and I’ll be sure to blog about every step. And then you can all see my journey and do the tasty-taste at my dinner party and then praise me and be amazed at how great a chef I will have become. It’s going to be epic.

Ok, I’m really excited now. I might go teach myself how to make a toasted sandwich. (Baby steps, people. Baby steps.)

Stay tuned xx

However there are some things my travel blog doesn’t include, such as feelings, lessons learnt, my reason for leaving and my reasons for even coming home. The Sisterhood joining Sinead and I for the final chapter wasn’t included either, but you can also read up on that in another travel blog made written by all of us (sisterhoodtravels.wordpress.com) (Whoa, we really do love to blog hahaha)

Ok. Let me start at the beginning.

When I was going through high school, I never saw myself as the type of girl who wanted to take a year off after year 12 to travel. In fact, I never imagined myself the type of person to travel at all – it honestly never interested me. As some would know, I’m petrified of flying. So that was reason 1. As others would know I was always content with my living situation at home whilst growing up – reason 2. And as everyone would know – Australia is amazing. Final reason – why leave it? More than anything though, I guess I was just plain lazy. I’ve never liked change. Typical creature of habit, I was. I never liked dealing with complicated situations on my own, I never liked being fully in charge, I never liked saving my money (just liked spending it) but most of all – I never liked being on my own. Since I was 15 I’ve always had a boyfriend and I think between my 2 main relationships I only had 2 months in there of being single, and I hated it. I hated not having someone to depend on to fix my car, pick me up from places, someone to call when I was waiting for something/someone, someone to talk to before bed – basically someone to rely on 24/7. And it was only till January 2010 when I realised enough was enough. Fresh out of my last relationship, I realised some things had to change. I seriously needed to find some strength, independence and some freaking life experience! I felt like I had no idea who I was when I was on my own, which then lead to other issues like body confidence and unhealthy weight loss. I was struggling and felt really unhappy with myself, so the decision to finally grown some balls was made. My gorgeous best friend Sinead and I both decided to fly to London and backpack around Europe mid year. Now looking back, (and I’m sure Sinead will agree) that was the best decision we have ever made.

Since being away, I have learnt SO much. I’ve learnt how to live on my own, buy my own groceries, weekly budgeting and taking on domestic challenges. I’ve learnt how to cook a tiny bit (if you knew me well before I left, all I ate was raw vegies, fruit and tinned tuna. Not necessarily to be healthy, but because I didn’t know how to actually cook with them hahaha.) and learnt a whole lot about respect for those you live with. Obviously I’ve only ever lived with my parents, so living with Sinead for 6 months was a whole new experience. An experience, though, which was neither hard or ever un-enjoyable. I really scored with that best friend of mine. There were never any issues which I am so happy about. It really shows how strong our friendship is.

 Travelling around Europe really made me find a whole new level of appreciation for Australia, too. Whilst the cities of Europe are all so beautiful and different in their own unique way, there is also a lot of filth and poverty around. So much more than in Perth. For example, Barcelona: an amazing city with the most incredible beaches and markets…but a place full of thieves, dodgy men and pretty filthy streets. Also, if you were to compare the city of Paris to the city of Perth, the Australians are a lot cleaner, NICER and obviously more modern in the overall architecture of the place. So it was seeing these sorts of places which made me really appreciate how stunningly clean, fresh and beautiful Perth is… it was something I never really realised before. I also never really appreciated our gorgeous weather as much as I do now. Those last 2 months spent in London were not easy when stepping outside into -4 degrees. The wind can be so harsh, cracking your lips and forcing your skin to turn all leathery and hard. There were times where I thought winter was stupidly cold in Perth – Hah, not anymore. I have a feeling winter this year will be an absolute breeeeeze.

Before this trip, I never appreciated how good I really do have it with my parents as well. I feel like I really took them for granted before I left, because there were times where I missed them SO much more than I ever thought I would. There were times where I would go months without hearing from them, which hurt a lot at the time, but I’m really grateful for it now. Because the truth is, if I had spoken to them more often than I did, it just would have reminded me of how amazing they both are, how much I love them, and how much I wanted to be with them back at home. I really didn’t want to be feeling like going back at all during the trip, and the only reason I ever did feel that way would be because of them. They are two of the most amazing, generous and supportive people I know. I couldn’t tell you the type of screwed up child I would be right now without their guidance. Words will never describe how much they mean to me.

Another new found appreciation was discovered in my friends. As with my parents, I never realised how freaking amazing I have it with the group of beautiful people I surround myself with. I’ve always appreciated my friends, but I never realised just how much I really love them and need them for my own happiness and contentment. After being away from them for 5 months, I really realised just how happy they make me and how much I need them in my life. They are the most caring, genuine, supportive, hilarious, talented, witty, kind, thoughtful, considerate and compassionate people I have ever met in my life, and my appreciation for having them in my life only grew stronger from being away from them. Lani, Chris, Mitch, Sinead and Niki – you, besides my immediate family, are the only reason I couldn’t live away from home for too long. I just love you guys way too much.

The most important goal from this whole trip was to discover more about myself and what the hell it is that I want out of this life of mine. And now, I can so happily say, I really do feel like I achieved this goal. I realised I’m actually more capable of things than I ever gave myself credit for. Especially backpacking, that really stretched both Sinead and I to our limits – but we coped and became so much stronger and better for it. If you had told me a year ago that I would be backpacking around Europe, sharing rooms with up to 20 other people, going days without showering, eating my breakfast out of a half cut open water bottle, having the most romantic experience with an Irishman in his Parisian apartment, spontaneously getting a tattoo on my ribcage, cutting my hair short, drinking red wine (used to hate the stuff), eating snails, standing over Mozart’s actual grave, being so stoned I could barely move, moving into a house with an Indian, Frenchman, German and vampire, waking at 4am every morning to work in a bakery with a snot coloured uniform and making snow angles in the snow during Christmas time with my 5 gorgeous best friends – I would of laughed in your face. I would have then walked away, felt a sudden lack of satisfaction, come back, and laughed again. And now as a write this, I still can’t believe all those experiences are real. I love that I did all that, and all I want to do now is go back and do it again.

I feel much more independent and content with myself which is what I’ve been striving for for quite a while now. I figured out I wasn’t happy with my uni course and I’ve made the decision to drop it and follow something more promising as a career and something I’ve become far more interested in and passionate about. I feel like I know more about the person I am and the woman I want to be, which is the most amazing and rewarding feeling ever. All I have to do now is get there. But in the meantime, I’m 21, young, single, and thirsty to learn more about everything. I am most definitely not done with travelling either. My advice to all of you – get out there and see it. See it alllllllll.

Peace xxx