September 2006

The next 3 weeks is going to be spent camping out on the African Savannah without much in the way of creature comforts… I’m assuming we’ll be having cold showers, eating by candle light and sleeping in tents.

 It wouldn’t be very practical for us to be carrying a suitcase with us so Tash and I decided that we would get some back packs. Being total novices at the whole back packing scene we made our way through various camping stores to get as much info as we could about what to do and not do when back packing….

Interesting facts we learnt:

1.  When back packing never attach your sleeping bag to the outside. ie. pack it inside the back pack because if you lose it, you’ll be sleeping on the sand… or maybe dust mites… or in some hostels… RATS!

2. The day pack attached to the back of the back pack is not meant to be left there. When you walk around you attach it to the front of you so that it’s safe.

3. 75 Litres sounds like alot of space… but in reality you can only fit 1 jumper, 5 t shirts and 2 pairs of pants… who needs underwear when you’re “getting back to nature…” jks!

We ended up getting a really good back pack from Kathmandu (a camping store). It is called the X Pac V3 and is a hybrid back pack that can be partitioned and opens up from the top, middle and bottom so you can access stuff easily. The harness system on it is really comfortable in comparison to the other packs we tried…

So now that we look the part…this is going to be our wardrobe/closet for the next 3 weeks. Can we fool the locals into thinking we know what we’re doing…?

Somehow I don’t think so… 😛

About 2 weeks ago I had visitors coming from England to stay in my house for a week. One of them is my special friend Emily. I met her when I was working in a cruise ship. She was one of the beauty therapists on board the ship. After 4 years of keeping in contact via emails, Emily, her boyfriend (Nathan) and sister (Hellen aka Helly Belly) decided to do an around the world trip and spent 3 months in Aussie Land. Perth was her last stop before spending another 3 months or so in Asia. It was a great anticipation… I couldn’t wait to see her again! We were so close and got along so well on board the ship. We laughed and cried together… we partied and passed out together 😛

      

When I first saw her again it was so surreal… I can’t believe we’ve finally met again after 4 years. But it was just like the ship days… as if I spoke to her yesterday, as if nothing has changed… It was great..! We reminisced alot about our ship lives, our ups and downs at that time, showed her our pics. Her boyfriend was a lovely guy and her sister was just so nice… Since I work during the weekdays, we tried to squeeze everything in during the weekend. We went to so many places and some of them I wouldn’t have done if I didn’t have visitors, such as The Fremantle prison, markets , Bell Tower, Kings Park, Cottesloe Beach, etc. I had a great time with you guys, I hope you enjoyed your time in Perth and I’ve missed you dearly. It wasn’t nice to come home to an empty space after a week of full house and lotsa woohoos and yaays. 

Well, Saj, myself, Candy and Jasmin miss you guys lots and we are so looking forward to meeting you again soon in sunny England… Woohoo… :)  

 

Today at work, as Shen and I were chatting (like we always do) she picked up a brochure from Fiji Experience. There is a photo of half of man’s face with stunned look on his eyes. She decided to fold the rest of the picture in and used it as a mask. All I can say it was friggin’ hillarious… And soon each of us just had to have a turn and I had to take photos of each of us: Murray (aka Muz), Steve, Todd (aka Toddles), Shen and myself. 

It’s been a while since I’ve laughed that hard… We all looked like a bunch of looneys, but hey… after a very hard day at work-we were all feeling oh-so tired. You are allowed to act like idiots sometimes to unleash the stress…

… proves that laughter is the best medicine…

A few days ago I decided that Candy needs her hair clipped for a several reasons:

1. The weather seems to be getting warmer (I may be wrong now)

2. Her hair was all matted anyway

3. I’d like her to look clean and easy-to-maintain while I’m away for 3 wks

Today was her appointment to get her coat fully groomed. I personally prefer her with long hair because she’s just so darn cute. Her legs are so chunky and her paws are just like a teddy bear. But leaving her hair in dreadlocks like that is not good for her health. There could be fleas/ticks living under her fur or even worse grass seeds and burs. So as much as I hate doing this to her (she hates the sound of hair clipper) I had to anyway. I took her to the “Doggy Day Spa” this arvo (seriously, that’s what the shop called). She was so oblivious at first, so she was just as happy as larry trotting along by my side until she started to smell something.. something familiar.. something not-so-good is happenning here… then it suddenly clicked… oh no! but it was too late..! We were already inside the dog salon, she quickly tried to save herself and ran toward the exit door. Luckily I had her in a harness and I safely pulled her back towards me and handed over to her groomer.

Poor Candy had to go through it all again. However, when Saj picked her up she was just as merry as before as if nothing happened and skipped to home. Except she freaks everytime she looks at herself in the mirror, just like humans it does take awhile to get use to your new hair style. Especially when the hairdresser cut it way too short.

Here’s the aftermath…

So we’re off to South Africa in 4 days and basically the whole trip will be oriented around game viewing… Rather than having to get close to the hungry lion I decided I needed to bring the lion to me… and so I went out and bought this baby…

 

Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III

Hopefully I’ll be able to get some decent close up photos without getting my ass charged at by a hippo or rhino…!