Party in the USA

Last Wednesday, 10th June marked my twenty one years on this earth. We did our usual family breakfast and presents quite early in the morning. Everyone else had to work, so it meant I had an early start, and then had to clean up once they all left.

That evening the four of us went out to Hilarys for cocktails and burgers. It was really nice being together looking out over the water, even though it was really cold.

The next few days were spent setting up for my party which was a Party in the USA theme. I had photoshopped my face onto Miley Cyrus' body for the invite.

Each time I invited a friend over, I'd look away and then Dad would have them doing jobs for him to help set up.

We had flags, lights, a smoke machine, a bubble machine, music and even a cutout of Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty, all set up at our home.

We had 77 people come through on Saturday night. Everyone got along well and there was plenty of talking and dancing. We had hot roast beef rolls, mini hotdogs, pizza, meatballs, crumbed chicken, popcorn, ice cream and a Captain America Birthday cake made by a family friend, with matching cupcakes by Cakes by D'Lake.

I had a great night and it was really nice to see everyone.

I have also booked my flight to Atlanta for August 3rd and I have received my visa. I have been emailing back with my host family too. They are really nice and it sounds like we have a lot of things in common, one of those things is liking the beach, which is great to hear! I have a host family while I'm away, but I stay on campus for most of the time. I still have a few things to sort out before I go.

Free Comic Book Day 2015

So yesterday I got up early and lined up outside Quality Comics for Free Comic Book Day. This is the first Saturday in May every year. Special comics are released for comic book shops to purchase and give to us free of charge, The idea is to get more people into comics.

The line stretched probably 50 metres outside the store, but it was worth it! There were cosplayers and excited little kids to keep us entertained while we waited. I had a quick chat to Wolverine who was as good as the real thing. It was also quite entertaining watching Wolverine pose with a baby for a photo.

The line also moved pretty quickly. Once inside the anticipation built as we could see the comics we had to choose from.

After lining up to get my comics I wondered around looking through the things on sale. It didn't take long for me to have a collection I wanted to buy. Then the waiting started again. They were overwhelmed with people buying things and this line moved more slowly.

After that I walked to the other end of Hay Street to check out Perth Comics Centre. There I picked up a few more comics and was happy with the ones I had.

Unfortunately that was all I had time for, as I had to race off to help out at a hockey carnival. This took up the rest of my day. I raced around replacing canteen supplies for a few hours. This proved a great warm up for my hockey game later in the afternoon.

I was quite happy with the comics I ended up with. Most were previews into new series.The Avengers comic gives a nice little insight into a new, young team of Avengers.

The Uncanny Inhumans is both exciting and interesting, particularly after seeing Inhumans in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Captain Canuck is reworked version of an older hero and I look forward to reading more of it when it comes out. I also look forward to reading more of Doctor Who, Secret Wars and the other comics I picked up. It was great to be able to pick up a Phantom comic too.

I was happy to find some of DC's The New 52 Futures End's One Shots. I had been looking for more of these for a while.

I can't wait for Free Comic Book Day 2016, where I will spend it in America!

dog

Please check this out and share! For a uni class we had to make an attempt to make a viral video so here goes.

Easter 2015

On Thursday afternoon we made the short drive up to Lancelin for the Easter Long Weekend. We stayed in a funny little house that seemed like bits kept getting added to it. We stayed with some family friends and brought the dog along too.

The first morning Dad and I took the canoes out near the surf break at the main beach. We went for a short paddle looking at the island and reef and then spent an hour or so catching waves. This proved difficult and the canoes are heavy for surfing and it was a lot of work to keep them from nose diving, or rolling. I did catch a nice wave and ended up getting thrown out into a big lot of seaweed, which I am still getting out of my hair!

The next two mornings Dad and I got up earlier than everyone else and went body boarding. The surf was not huge, but we caught some good waves. We then got back in time to have bacon and eggs which had just come off the barbie!

We drove to Cervantes one day to have a look around. The sea breeze had come in by then, so it wasn't very nice. This town is actually named after one of several ships wrecks off its coast. We also looked at Hangover Bay, and Wedge Island, both of which are nice fairly quiet beaches.

Each night we spent playing card and board games after dinner. The final night did feel like we were in a cyclone, It was constantly very windy all night which made it impossible to sleep! This meant I was up early, but it was far too blowy for the beach. I took a good chunk out of my book instead!

My highlight of the weekend would have to be taking the dog for a surf! Yes that's right-I would run down to the waters edge with a board and she'd follow me. She would then walk out, till she couldn't stand and jump on the body board. We then went out and managed to catch quite a few good waves. I did all the hard work while she stood up front tail wagging! She hasn't quite managed to catch waves on her own, she stands too far forward, but we are working on it!

I can't wait to take her out on the water again!

Surf Boats

Last weekend wrapped up the Surf Boat season with the Senior Surf Life Saving State Championships. This weekend will be the last volunteer patrols for the 2014/2015 season.

We spent all season and most of winter training hard and it all paid off, even those 5am sessions when it was still dark.

We entered every carnival and had a lot of fun. We were the first female crew for Trigg Island SLSC for 14 years-and we had two!

I did not qualify to compete in the Masters competition, unfortunately I was not old enough, but one team managed to come home with a bronze medal.

On Saturday we went out in slightly bigger, but clean conditions for our warm up. Then when we were on the line ready to go the sea breeze kicked up and made the ocean a bit of a mess. This made rowing long and hard.

The conditions got worse as the day progressed and we only got two races instead of three. Some other events for that day didn't wrap up until 5pm!

On Sunday due to different circumstances my team wasn't going to race. I went down anyway to show my support and they ended up needing me to jump in.

Our first race was tough but we ended up catching a nice wave back in, which ended up filling the boat with water and we rowed across the finish line waist deep.

We then found out that our mixed up crew made the final! It was hard work and we experienced a bit of carnage coming back in the wave zone.

It was also nice that our club won the triple crown, this means we won Masters, Junior and Senior States! It was a great season and I look forward to coming back to it.

Madness

Last night I went to the final show of Guy Sebastian's Madness tour. We got Mum tickets for Christmas and went together as a family.

The support act was Fatai. The 19-year-old really has a set of lungs on her! She has a quirky presence on stage and really involves the audience. She also changed guitar about five times! Later on in the show she also came back on stage to sing Lightning with Guy.

Guy opened with Madness and then sang Like a Drum and Who's that Girl. He also sang Get Along, Elevator Love, Linger, and his encore included Battle Scars and Mama ain't Proud. The final song, Gold, showered the crowd in gold confetti.

The set was very simple with a lot of video and lighting effects. His band even included four brass instruments. Guy told a few stories and experiences from his life and the inspirations for some of his songs. He also talked about The Sebastian Foundation, which I hadn't heard about before.

While there were no aerobatics like the other shows I have been to, the vocals and dance choreography were very impressive.There were many songs to sing along to. It was a fantastic night!

National Leadership College 2015

Last week I flew to Sydney for the National Leadership College for Surf Life Saving and it was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. Surf Life Savers from all around Australia were selected to attend.

Coming from Perth, a group of us flew in the day before and stayed one night in a hotel. That night we ate at a little art club and it was "Tight Arse Monday's" which suited me just fine.

We stayed in dorms at St Paul's College at the University of Sydney, which is basically Australia's Hogwarts. In my head I had set the bar pretty low for my room (from other camps I had been on) which exceeded my expectations. St Paul's is an all boys College which meant some of us were an exception. The rooms were a reasonable size, with a bed, couch, desk and closet; some people even had a fridge.

We learnt communication and leadership skills; and about personal brands, positive attitudes, motivation, relationships, resolving conflict, networking, vision and innovation.

We had the opportunity to hear from and speak to some amazing, powerful and inspirational people. My favourites would have been Trevor Hendy, Suzanne Young and Shandra Moran. It was incredible to hear the stories and wise words from these people.

It will take me a bit of time to process, but I now know an awful lot more to help me in Surf Life Saving and in other aspects of my life.

We also had many chances to step out of our comfort zones. We had a talent night, with a varying array of talent and a huge step into the unknown for some. We had a trivia night, which my team came from last place in the 5th round to win. This being the first time I have ever been in a winning quiz night team! There were also a few other things I'm sworn to secrecy about.

The final night we all got dressed up in our matching shirts for a dinner, speeches and entertainment. This was a really nice evening and gave us a chance to talk to everyone including some important people in Surf Life Saving.

After the dinner wound down we were all eager to go out for a drink before we all went back home the next morning.  

This experience is one that will stick with me, the connections I have made and the skills I have learnt are invaluable and I hope they will greatly improve the things I do in my surf club and in other parts of my life.

During this week I also found out I have been offered a scholarship through the Georgia Rotary Student Program to study at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville. This will be from around July this year for one year. I was excited to accept the offer and am awaiting more information. It was an ideal place to find out about this as everyone was so happy and supportive.

I hope both experiences will provide me with long term friendships and I am excited to see where this all leads.

Australia Day Long Weekend

I went down to Esperance with some boatie mates to compete in the Country Carnival. A few of us drove down on the Friday and made it there in just under nine hours. The drive did seem to go quick as we were chatting or busting out some serious vocals the whole way down.

We set up camp and happened to actually be right beside some more boaties, which worked out really well and meant we got to stay at our camp for drinks! I also thought I was pretty cool with my inflatable couch!

On the Saturday we went down to Twilight Bay for a training session. Here we ran into difficulties. The swell was big and the pump for the boat wasn't working. We ended up going for a row with another surf club which was really nice and a great display of Aussie mate ship. It was also helpful to learn a few things from the other crew.

The surf was even more rough on the Sunday- just in time for the carnival! We decided the conditions were beyond our capabilities and elected to watch the carnage instead. We even entered ourselves in beach sprints and were terribly excited when we didn't come last in the relay!

Sunday night was a bit of a wind up, there were lots of drinks and lots of dancing with all the competitors from our club.

After only a short time down south we did the long drive back to Perth on Australia day. It was slightly longer than the way down, as we started heading for Kalgoorlie and then took a very long gravel track to cut back.

I had a great experience in such a short space of time and wish I could have stayed longer.

Christmas and New Year

We did the usual Christmas thing. Lunch with Dad's side of the family, and then dinner with Mum's side at home. On Boxing Day we did the frantic clean up and load up the car to go down south for our usual family-after-Christmas holiday.

This time we rented a house and brought the dog with us (after selling our camper earlier in the year). We also thought we were hilarious in booking a house next door to some friends, who had no idea where we were staying. The plan was to just say "oh fancy seeing you here" when they arrived.

Some plan that was. When we arrived there was someone else staying in the place. We ended up ringing the friends saying, "surprise, we might be sleeping on your floor!" Turned out there was a mix up and we stayed in the house next to that for one night and then moved into the right place for the rest of the time.

We took the dog for the biggest walk of her life and had a look at the markets in the Dunsborough town. It was great looking at all the little bits and pieces and we had a yummy-freshly-squeezed juice.

Dad also took the dog for a bike ride. Yep, he spent all Christmas Eve finding a basket for the back of his back. She seemed to like it, but it didn't last long when we all went for a ride because she wanted to be with everyone.

Same story with the kayak. She came for a paddle with me a few times, but when she saw someone else she jumped out to see what they were up to.

There is no doubt that my dog loves the water as much as me. Whenever we took her to the beach she would run down into the water and swim out with us.

We also checked out Bussleton, Yallingup, Grace Town and Margaret River.

I also found this awesome jacket on sale. I saw the same one a while back but it was really expensive so I didn't get it then. I hadn't seen it since and I thought I would never see it anywhere again!

As always our time away didn't last long before we had to go back to reality.

This Is How I do

Last night I moshed for Katy Perry's second show in Perth. It was the first time she had been to Perth, and it kicked off the Australian leg of her Prismatic World Tour. She came to Australia in 2009 with her Hello Katy Tour, but didn't come to Perth.

My sister, a friend and I got there at six and waited in line for half an hour before the doors opened. We got inside and found ourselves in the middle of the crowd, a stones throw from the stage.

At 7.30 Betty Who came out and got the crowd going. The New York based Sydney girl was also performing in Perth for the first time. She had a 'P!nk-esque' vibe, brought a lot of energy and everyone was singing her last song Somebody Loves You.

Just over an hour later Katy Perry came out belting Roar, which everybody sang along to. She wore a plastic looking dress with neon lighting. She also sang Wide Awake in this outfit.

Later she came out dressed as an Egyptian on a gold god-like horse, singing Dark Horse. This song has a great beat and got everyone moving. After that she sang I Kissed A Girl.

On a very sparkly guitar Katy impressed us all with some acoustic songs including Unconditionally. During this, everyone had the lights on their phones on and were singing along too.

She then performed the song I had been waiting for-This Is How We Do,  in a funky mash up with Last Friday Night.

She brought up two girls on stage, taking selfies with both. The first to offer pizza, and the second for her first encore-Birthday where she
flew across the audience hanging off some giant balloons.

For her second encore a robot voice informed everyone of 'prism-vision'. This meant we all had to put on glasses we were handed when we entered the event. The glasses were very similar to those blue and red 3D glasses, but they were colourless and patterned. She sang Firework and we were thrust into a laser show. It was exactly like the scene where Firework is sung in Madagascar.

I thought it was remarkable the number of times she changed wigs. All artists these days have frequent costume changes, but it has got to be much harder to change wigs. I always find wearing them uncomfortable, but Katy's seemed so realistic and comfortable-I must find where she gets them for my next dress up party!

It was an exciting show, even though I could only see sometimes. I would see her again, but would either have to wait out all day to get a spot against the stage, or get seats!