Mid year holidays 2012

Hello all,

Yes I am aware that I am a very inconsistent blogger but I think that's just the way it is going to be.
Life gets busy, and  I am also lazy sometimes too.

Good news, I passed Semester 1 of the hopefully last year of my professional writing course. (I was originally supposed to finish last year but TAFE felt the need to add more subjects. Grr.) Anyway so I have made it through the first half of 2012! Yay.

What have I been up to lately? Well, I have been enjoying my holidays for the past 2 weeks, in between work and submitting poetry for potential publication. This is the first time I have sent poetry off to a competition and to a publication so I find that very exciting, even if it all comes to nothing. It is just nice to have some writing out in the public arena.  I have submitted 2 poems to the Salisbury Writer's Festival and 2 poems to The School Magazine in New South Wales.

I also travelled back to my hometown Waikerie for a week-end and took in the sights and sounds of the Murray River. It is nice to know that it will always be there whenever I come back from the city.

As I walked along the jetty I spotted this feathered friend, who didn't seem at all intimidated by my presence!


I have also caught up with a couple of friends in Adelaide so that has been nice. I recently attended a friend's 21st. She had a themed party, which made it more interesting, but also more stressful in order to decide what to wear. Her theme was Vintage 50's and 60's, so we all had to dress up in vintage clothing. It made for some fun shopping trips and some funny photos. Here are a few examples... 

I found this dress at a vintage clothes shop called Red Ruby just off of Hindley Street in the city. I can't remember if it was a 1950's or 1960's dress but it was a summer dress, so I thought it was quite funny that I would be wearing it to a birthday party in winter! I was sort of going for a Marilyn Monroe style with my hair. 

The one in the middle is Leah. It was her party. :)

When I was in Waikerie I also had the chance to hang out with our family's resident fur-ball Bella. Mum and I are biased cat lovers so Dad didn't really have a choice when we decided last year that the household needed another feline's presence. 

 

Bella enjoys playing hide 'n' seek with me. She also likes to scare me by pouncing out from underneath the dining room table! Bella is now about a year and a half old.

Back in Adelaide I did a bit more exploring around my area for more walking tracks. Horsnell Gully Conservation Park proved to be a challenging but rewarding climb, which gave me some awesome views of the city below. However, due to the overcast weather and then the blinding sunlight at sunset it was actually a better view in person, compared to the average photos I took. 

 
I saw three koalas that afternoon. I had only hiked up the hill for half an hour so I kept seeing one every 10 mins or so! One of them was a bit scared of me walking underneath its gumtree and made a horrible grunting noise.

This was the fire track I followed up the hills. I think this is the back way to get there. Next time I should probably enter via Horsnell Gully Road. It was still a good adventure, and good exercise!