October 2011
1 post
Featured in the Yes and Yes Choose Your Own...
A little while ago, Sarah from Yes and Yes asked to interview me about my WWOOFing experiences for a little e-book she was putting together. Little, huh! So proud to be part of this of this comprehensive career-crisis guide.
If you too are having a peak-out about your career/life-in-general, you may be interested in downloading the book. Behold, the appropriate link here.
August 2011
2 posts
1 tag
July 2011
1 post
The Real World - What I Have Learnt About Talking...
I’m back in the real world, and I’m slowly re-learning a few things. People of the real world don’t talk about their poo all the time. People of the real world tend to keep their bodily functions to themselves.
In fact, they look at you in a rather strangely as you snort with joy, glorifying “that” scene in Bridesmaids with how it reminds you of that time in...
June 2011
2 posts
One Last Family Holiday
Mum had grand plans for Our Last Family Holiday Together and collectively, between all five of us, we tried to make it work. Dad dried the cows off in time, Robbie got off work, and Mum readily supplied her credit card for swiping by her travel agent-wannabe; me. But things just had to get difficult.
Ewen’s exams were unshiftable and as focused as I seemed at remaining unemployed…I...
2 tags
Spectacular Jumping Crocs
Let the name speak for itself, eh? With a choice between The Original Jumping Crocs Cruise and The Spectacular Jumping Crocs Cruise we went not only for the one with the awesome name, but the one that was $5 cheaper and reccommended by Dave at the Window to the Wetlands Visitor Centre.
Oh, so glad we did! Spectacular was down the end of a 2km dirt road which the tour buses obviously...
May 2011
8 posts
3 tags
W-w-wicked! Backpacking Aussie Style
As alluded to last week, Bridget, Lyn and I spent five days camper-vanning around the top end of this grand country of ours. We set up in friend’s driveways in Darwin, drank gas cooker coffee within spitting distance of Florence Falls and were eaten alive by mozzies in Kakadu National Park. We swam in waterholes, picked up a foot infection from said waterholes (me - of course. A popped...
Keep Calm and Carry On
Considering I love examining (and subsequently tearing apart) other people’s packing lists, I thought it would only be appropriate to put mine up here for the killing. I’ve had fun packing this time around - I’ve learned heaps about what I actually need (vs. want to lug about!) after our RTW lat year. This trip is all about the hotness, and packing for warm weather is so much...
New iPod Cover A Day
As much as I love the semi-pro sewing blogs like Casey’s Elegant Musings and Gertie’s New Blog For Better Sewing, sometimes (most of the time) a girl (me) just wants something fun to wear now, without the wank of a muslin and french seams. [“Look at my French seams, aren’t they lovely?!” THEY’RE ON THE INSIDE OF YOUR SKIRT, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT.] It’s...
Steamed Pork Buns - Alice, this is for you!
If you want knitted, not steamed buns look at Etsy shop, thetokicafe.
New obsession: Chinese steamed pork buns, thanks to Adrian for the introduction into making my own. We made some for tea at Alice and Rich’s, and after much begging (the most lady-like begging) of Alice’s, here is the recipe:
Steamed Pork Buns - Adapted from the Women’s Weekly Finger Food recipe
15g dry...
Hipstamatic and Other Fun Travel Photo Apps
I got an iPod Touch! Thanks Centrelink! And like all good iPod/iPhone purchasers, I downloaded Hipstamatic straight away. What timing too - for the photo-worthy event of Ned coming to Marrawah. I’m a bit tired of trying to convince everyone up here that I really do have a boyfriend and I didn’t just make him up.
While I should be knocking things off my to-do list like organising...
Our "I Do" Do: With Special Guest, Sir Elton John
Ned, me and his shiny red pants ( I can’t get the promo for Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys out of my head when I think about these pants. Have you seen the black rapper singing the “Balls…balls” song on the ad?) made an appearance at Adrian and Kirsty’s Royal Wedding party on Friday night. The laptop played “Candle in the Wind” and Ned, ahem *ELTON*,...
April 2011
4 posts
Friday Postcard: Peruvian Mountain Kids
Does anyone else get pissed off by travel blogs and their “Friday Postcard” feature? How bleeding original. And why the hell is it always a Friday? Well guess what?! It’s not even Friday today. Rebel, knowz it.
Ned climbed some amazing mountains over the last two months and took some beautiful photos of incredible landscapes. My favourite picture of the lot though? This one....
Tasmania sounds lovely! But have you ever been to...
I love/am terrified at how many people think that Tasmania is a separate country. But in your defense, you ignorant idiot, I guess that maybe I haven’t been to Australia until now. Not to the real Australia.
This will all change at the end of May - Bridget and I have booked tickets to Darwin! Ten days of crocodiles, blazing sun, Akubras and swimming holes. I can’t wait to get my...
What to do with albino beetroot and a bucket of...
Der, make chutney!
How odd is this white beetroot? It still has pink rings, but none of that lovely purple flesh or juice. Must do some research, but someone was telling me it’s been bred that way, even though Mum and Dad say that they didn’t intend to grow purple-less beetroot. I guess some people don’t like the mess of regular beetroot, but where’s the fun in that?!...
Power Plant: Not Fukishima, But Fukinawesome.
Last weekend, a group of us (including two “bloody designers, hurry the eff up!”s - Dom and I) went to see Power Plant at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. As a part of the Ten Days on the Island festival, Power Plant was a trippy experiential show of light and sound; using the gardens as a gallery.
Gramophones projected the story of a slice of a tree - the rings of growth...
March 2011
5 posts
Pop Off
I sent these self-promo party poppers out to a few Creative Directors today.
I know I would quite like to be posted a party popper with a message inside.
Fingers crossed they go off with a bang.
Show Me The Money!
Andrew, it’s a DEAL! My money has come through! Albeit, not in a shiny gold case or written on a novelty-sized cheque. I would make a customer suggestion to Centrelink if I hadn’t already spent hours in the “satellite office” in Smithton (read, telephone out the back of Service Tas). The brick-lined hovel had a phone, a non-destroyable high school chair and “THIS...
Wanderlust Returns!
Look! I’m planning again! After hissing and seething that I would happily NEVER think about transport in another country EVER again, here I am. Guide books a go-go!
Nan, Mum’s Mum, recently sold her house and moved into a nursing home. Get this: rather than popping the from-real estate money onto her will, she doled it out to her daughters now. She requested to see the money was...
Confessions of a Hoarder
No one warns you how terrifying it is after ten months living out of a backpack to return to all your junk. Mountains of stuff. It’s always in the way, you can never find anything, there’s just. So. Much. Stuff. I LIKED being able to go straight to my storage cube (drawstring bag - luckily I kept that should-have-been-op-shop-bound pillowcase and scrap of ribbon to make it with)...
February 2011
11 posts
So What Are You Doing Now?
A lovely picture taken last weekend at Mollie and Rob’s wedding. Thanks Kat!
I’ve only been back for five minutes and every person I’ve talked to has asked, “so what are you doing next?” Being back in the North-west is obviously working it’s magic, as I’ve already gotten rat-arsed at the Marrawah hall and perfected my bogan twang. I can hit back with...
"Home is Wherever I'm With Youse" *
* Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home
After a crazy busy few days, I’m finally back home in Marrawah! And oh, what a welcome home! Just look at the sign Dad made me. I always wondered where my arty streak came from…
I’ve been dreading this post a little bit. How do I encapsulate all the feelings swimming around in my brain? Home, after ten months travelling the...
Machu Picchu and Eating a Guinea Pig - Things You...
Where is that damned list? I knew I put it here somewhere…ah! There it is! Go to Machu Picchu. *TICK* Maths wasn’t my favourite at school, but I still think I was strong enough in the subject to recognise a dodgy equitation. Effort = reward is a common example of mathematics I like to apply to real life but in the case of Machu Picchu…sorry, no banana. I’m glad I went up...
Greetings and Good Luck From Copacabana!
Dear Ma,
We are spending a couple of days in Copacabana to go to Isla del Sol (where the Incas came from, apparently) and then will head into Peru. Little did we know it was festival time! There are so many pilgrims in town, pouring champagne on their decorated vehicles for luck in the coming year. You have to watch out for the Bolivians sloshing some beer on the ground for luck before tipping...
It's a Potosi!
Potosí was kind of a given destination for Those Travelling with Geologist™. One word: silver. And lots of it. As legend has it, a farmer looking for his lost llama lit a fire on the red hill one chilly evening (Potosi is at around 4000m above sea level - brrrrr!) and molten silver ran out from under the coals. Ned got really frustrated every time this story was mentioned - apparently silver has...
Bum Shots Are The New Jump Shots
Train graveyard, Uyuni.
Thanks to Mesa and Tyler and their new-moon inspiring ways, travel jump shots are no more. Looking to jazz up any landscape? They say to put a cheek in.
Bottoms are the new black - you heard it here first. So what are you waiting for? Pull your finger out already and get a wiggle on!
“Bum shot!”
The Only Gringoes in Tourist Town
We decided to make Tilcara another sleep-over due to it’s handy in-between altitude (getting prepped for 5000m in Bolvia!) and said-to-be nice setting. It’s very close to Purmamarca, home of Cerro de los Siete Colores, Hill of Seven Colours. There is only a paragraph of information in Lonely Planet so we assumed it wouldn’t be too overrun with tourists. It seemed that most on...
Take it With a Pinch of Salta
After 22 hours on a bus, we would have been happy to get off at anywhere. How nice that anywhere turned out to be Salta! A gorgeous town filled to the brim with colonial style architecture - and I’m actually in the mood to appreciate them seeing it has been a while since Europe. My gag-reflex isn’t so easily triggered by churches since we’ve had a little rest!
Things work...
January 2011
10 posts
“Hello, friends. Just to let you know I have not forgotten ye or this dear blog....”
Buenos Aires Bits and Pieces
Suddenly, after two months in Latin America, I have been hit with a real urge to learn Spanish. Properly. Y’know more than “do you have…” and making a rubbing myself down with a towel action. Why the sudden, rash decision? So I can move to Buenos Aires!
What a wonderful city! It has everything, EVERYTHING a very-happy Lindsey could want. Good food, [pretty] good coffee,...
The Steak Diaries
We did it. I did it. A week of meat - Argentine style.
First off, I’d like to show my appreciation to all the people throughout my life who have made this achievement possible. Dad, Mum, you have always been there for me, bringing in the steak from the outside BBQ. Peter Benson, your steaks are legendary. Such fond memories; a little part of me still thinks of the Marrawah Pub as The...
Tanned, Buenos Aires
And no, I’m not talking about Ned.
Haw-haw, Macaw! Our last days in Central America
It’s been pointed out that I haven’t written a blog post for over a week! Oh the shame. And especially disgraceful now I’m on the home stretch. Picking it up. And GO!
Doesn’t Macaw Mountain sound like it should be a theme park on the Gold Coast? It’s actually just short jaunt out of Copan Ruinas, Honduras. It was my highlight of this cute little town, but I...
Home Time
Hello there, Blogland, it’s been a long time in between drinks, eh? Speaking of drinks, I feel I deserve a stiff one after the stressful decision making of this week. And Mum deserves one too, after hours on end to Qantas! [Insert important reminder here: Oneworld Round-the-world and possibly ALL round-the-world tickets suck MEGA balls] The time has come for this little one to head home.
...
Save the Turtles - Take Viagra! Cayos Cochinos
Another day, another picture perfect smattering of tropical islands. Upon first glimpse of Cayos Cohinos, I mentally gave myself a boot up the arse. I WISH I were one of those travellers that knew their Moon guide inside out (Hello, Jason from our Raggamuffin trip!) and had a better idea of the places REALLY worth visiting in a region. I cannot believe we spent over a week on shit-pile (it pokes...
Sambo Creek - A Beach of Chooks and Kittens
Oh Sambo Creek, how you soothe the soul! A long, sandy beach with WAVES - just what this homesick Marrawah-ian needed. Okay, so it’s a little different to Green Point Beach with the colourful boats, grazing chooks and Garifuna blokes chillin’ while their ladies do all the hard work - carrying stuff on their heads.
But oh! The bliss of having the option of walking in the sand for as...
Ned Rings in the New Year
Guatemalans and Hondurans (I can’t vouch for the rest of Central America, but hey, lump them in too!) LOVE their firecrackers. Apparently they’re illegal (word on the street in Honduras) but that doesn’t stop people letting them off day and night. ALL day and ALL night. A particular highlight was being inside the little ATM room at the bank on Utila and some little bastard...
Kick with your legs straight - you're not on a...
Thanks for the swim-tip, Peter. I’m sorry I can’t stop calling you [Scuba] Steve. It’s just that you are our scuba instructor and you look so much like the actor who plays Frank (his real life name is Steve) on the Betta Milk ads. And I guess you don’t go much for students giggling at your Northern English accent when you’ve got a hangover so bad, you’ve...
December 2010
12 posts
All I Want For Christmas Is A Botfly Growing Under...
Christmas Day was fairly low key for us. I woke up with a case of runaway bowel, and Ned discovered he had maggots growing under the skin of his shoulder. Human Botfly is apparently quite common in Central America, but neither of us, or anyone we’ve talked to since have ever heard of it! Lucky Ned is a worrywart because I sure as hell wasn’t on his team when he came out of the bathroom...
Livingston, I Presume?
As a day trip from Rio Dulce we went to Livingston, a town on Guatemala’s tiny portion of Caribbean coast. The best of days surely start with sun, a boat ride and a random conversations with the locals, and end in something completely unexpected - in this case, a private tour in and around the homes of the Garifuna community and a whole fish soup.
Livingston is about an hour by boat...
Christmas Carols Aren't Any Less Annoying in...
I feel so out of touch. Even though there are Christmas decorations all around us (the lights on people’s houses in Guatelamala rival those of Hill Street, Smithton!) and carols blaring from the shops, I can’t believe it’s that time of year already. It only seems like five minutes have passed since I asked for no presents because I didn’t want to feel the guilt after not...
The Ex-pats of Rio Dulce
You know how everyone laughs, says “ten points” and grabs the door handle when driving past a cyclist? Turns out to be pretty funny. Once you know the guy on the bike is alright, of course. The bus pulling up in Rio Dulce swung it’s door open a little early and knocked a passing biker for a six. The bus man apologised, a few drug-running trucks honked and the dusty biker got...
How Many Caves Is Too Many Caves?
Guess who didn’t want to hold the scary cave spider? The joke about Europe being the place to learn your ABCs isn’t exactly new. The traveller who has spent too much time on the continent soon learns the phrase, Another Bloody Church or Another Bloody Castle. Although we haven’t spent nearly enough time in Central America, I’m erring on the side of ABC - Another Bloody...
We went to Semuc Champey. It was fun.
I was just whinging about this to Mum in an email - it’s almost harder to write a blog post about the great experiences travelling than the crap ones. I can make a bad situation funny, especially if it involves poo. Attempting to capture something amazing, however, is really tricky. I feel like I’m back in grade one, reciting my story to the class about visiting the beach; we went to...
