thribble

Those of you not following my status updates on Twitter or Facebook may not know that I'm in LA. This is because said status updates seem to have supplanted blogging. They're way easier, for one, and I don't have to think too hard about what to say. However, there are times when they just fall short. Like today, when I've done so much stuff I can't fit them all in. So here goes.

Kirsty:

- has rented a convertible chrysler sebring
- has had lunch on the beach - yes, as sandwich!
- resisted the temptation of the "Aussie Special" - meat pie and any side.
- listened to "The World's Greatest Wino" sing "jingle bells, jingle bells, give me some money so I can get drunk".
- avoided buying a CD of "happy Senegal music".
- narrowly resisted buying a T-shirt saying "I need more cowbell".
- had the best value $12 massage ever and now feels a lot less pain!
- got her feet wet in the sea
- drove on the right nearly all the time :O but remembered just in time on the exception!
- bought Oreos, the world's best biscuit. Sorry, cookie.
- discovered that her hotel charges for parking. Cheapskates.

Labels: holiday, LA

It's been a while, to say the least. As I was chatting to my Mum earlier, I realised that I had been remiss in my postings. This is partly because I've been spending a lot of time going up and down to Bendigo, and to be honest, it's not that exciting. However, last weekend I got the opportunity to use my new camera in earnest. We went to Hobart with some friends for a long weekend, and it was lovely!

When we arrived at the house we'd rented we discovered that the lovely people who own it had left us breakfast - two loaves of bread (but no fish), jam, honey, vegemite (of course), cereal, milk, coffee (real and instant!), tea of various sorts, and a couple of packets of biscuits incase we were really hungry. That kind of set the tone for the holiday - nothing went really wrong, and we had a lovely break.

Day 1 was a trip to the Cascade brewery (thankfully our designated driver doesn't drink beer) followed by a trip to the Lark distillery for whisky tasting. We rounded it off with a good Thai takeaway back at the house.

Day 2 was Salamanca markets (a new hat, hair band and chilli oil for me) followed by a trip up Mount Wellington. We were all very excited to see that it was covered in snow. I was Des that day, and was a little nervous going up the windy road with snow on the side! We cooked ourselves a big roast that evening, with veggies from the market and pre-roasted chickens from the amusingly titled "Legs and Breasts", and rounded off the day with a game of Cranium. Which I won!

The final day was the most sobering. We started well, with a trip to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park (v. cute until they open their mouths and crunch through bones), then headed down to Port Arthur. When convicts reoffended after they were transported they were sent to Port Arthur, a prison town where hard work and religion was supposed to rehabilitate the convicts. It's a pretty dismal part of Australia's history, but even more so was the memorial to the victims of the massacre there in 1996. We drove away very quietly. I would recommend it though - an interesting day, and a really beautiful part of the world.

Since then I've been back to Bendigo (I know, you can hardly contain your excitement) and now I'm back! And I'm hoping the photo links in this post work, or that's all my hard work up the swannee. You can judge for yourselves if my camera is any good!

Labels: holiday, tasmania

We're back from Brisbane, after a week of relaxation. We flew out on Sunday afternoon and got back late last night. In that time we managed to fit two theme parks (Movieworld and Dreamworld). Of the two I think Dreamworld is likely to get my repeat business, as we didn't have time to do everything there, by a long chalk. However, the rides at Movieworld, whilst there were less of them, were better. Superman was amazing, the Batwing was very good, and best of all, the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster was surprisingly fantastic. As we sat there going, yes, this is it, this is pretty obvious, blah blah, we were shocked to the core by what came next. And no, I'm not telling, because it would spoil it for you!!

Dreamworld had some fantastic retro rides (Wipeout, The Claw, Cyclone (a genuine roller coaster) and the Vortex (like the cages at Yarm Fair!)). However, their big ones (Tower of Terror and Giant Drop - and finding the links is an exercise for the reader!) are a bit disappointing. I enjoyed the view from the top of the Giant Drop, and I did scream on the way down, but it wasn't particularly exciting, just that we dropped a lot longer than I thought we would. Tower of Terror left me going, "is that it?". However, as I said, there were a lot of things we just didn't get to. An added bonus was the tiger show (I know, keeping them in captivity is wrong, etc etc etc, but they're there already, 3rd generation captive) which was informative, interesting and very impressive.

We also spent some time walking around the city, along the river, through the botanical gardens, and over to SouthBank and the museums. The botanical gardens feel much more like a big park than anything grander, but are lovely. The mangrove boardwalk is worth it, though. The man-made beach at South Bank is impressive - full of kids having a great time, and not for us!

Sadly, due to my camera still being borked, and me not getting my act together to get a new one yet (considering this, this and this, or dropping down to 4 or 5x optical zoom) there aren't many pictures to show for the trip. Even sadder is that Dreamworld don't have a camera on their log flume. And apparantly Pete had given me a lovely pair of moose antlers in anticipation. We'll never get to see it!

Labels: camera, holiday, theme park

I really have been working like a dog. So hard that I stomped my little foot a couple of weeks ago and declared I couldn't do two jobs any more. My little helper has been fantastic since then (thanks Ricky!!) and I've calmed down a bit. So what else has been going on?

I signed up Stone Fitness to be my personal trainers for 6 weeks. I've had my first three sessions (cardio and core, upper body, and lower body) and ached for the whole week. I'm hoping next week will be better! I also have "homework" and have to run 3 of the 4 remaining days. I'm hopeful for a new me!

I've been out and about aswell. It's the world swimming championships in Melbourne at the moment and last week I watched some water polo (disappointingly one sided, as Australia beat Puerto Rico by at least 22 points). Next week we're going to see some of the swimming finals. And this evening we've been to see the new Cameron Mackintosh production of Miss Saigon. Which was excellent. The Engineer was played by the same guy who played him when I saw it in London in 1999 - he was as good as he was then, and I really wondered how he keeps it so fresh. There were other highlights (including, for the ladies, Juan Jackson's six pack!).

And finally... I've booked flights and a hotel for a week in Brisbane, so Bris Vegas, here we come!!

Labels: fitness, holiday, PT, theatre