Family Trip Update

Having a great time with the family so far. We’ve been crocodile spotting, bird watching, visiting the markets as well as learning about Darwin’s involvement in World War II and attending a Viking Funeral so it’s been very busy but lots of fun.

I’m taking a LOT of photos as well so will write some posts over the next few weeks to tell you about our adventures through Darwin.

I’ve put together a HUGE list of things we can do in Darwin over the next week as well so we’re trying to decide what we should do so we can fit everything in. Although I think that if we don’t manage it all this week they will just have to visit me again!

I’m also really pleased with the house that we are staying in. We are staying in a house in a place called Fannie Bay (I can’t help laughing every time I say that) so their not getting the full outback experience but we’re close to the seaside which I love and so central it takes hardly any time to go to the places we want to visit.

We were also visited by a very cute green tree frog at the house who managed to get covered in my hair after my brother cut my hair for me this week! I was very excited and pleased that my brother was confident enough to give my hair a cut after recently qualifying as a Barber as I am a very anxious person in the hairdressers. Luckily the frog didn’t jump on my shoulder like last time when he hitched a ride after my shower.

100 Days of Happy

Can you be happy for 100 days in a row?

I have seen lots of friends who have been undertaking the 100 Days of Happy Challenge and whilst I am feeling very happy content with my life and have told the Aussie on more than one occasion that I have a very cool life, I’ve been reluctant to give it a go.

The idea is that for 100 days in a row you post a picture of something that has made you happy that day via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the #100happydays. You can create your own hashtag to keep it more personal or can email it to the organisers for no publicity at all.

The main reason for my reluctance is that I am terrible at completing challenges and tasks. I did the Project 365 a few years ago and ended up stopping about 20 days before the end which was stupid. I am also not doing too well with my Goodreads reading challenge and the Summer 2014 Reading Challenge so worry I won’t complete it.

However I did really want to try it and so decided to start it today 22 June 2014 as my family are arriving today (I know who knew I hardly mention it at all!!) well they should be here right now as I’ve pre-scheduled this post and I figure that there is no better way to begin 100 Days of Happy than with the happiest day of them all.

I will be posting my pictures to Instagram and probably Twitter as well and will do a monthly round up until its all completed on here so you can keep track and make sure I don’t give up of course.

It’s Time!

Soooooo I am very excited today as in literally just 24 hours my parents and brother will be arriving in Darwin to spend 2 whole weeks with me and the Aussie!!

I have a few posts scheduled to be posted whilst they are here as I don’t think there will be a whole lot of time to blog, but if I can I will as we will be visiting lots of places with them that I want to blog about so that I can show you how great Darwin is.

Just in case I don’t make it here for the next 2 weeks have a great couple of weeks and see you soon!

Image from this website

Summer Book Swap

Wow what a week that was, very hectic with work especially on Friday! Friday night drinks after work with my work friends and then dinner and drinks with the Aussie and brother were just what the Doctor ordered and now its holiday time for 2 weeks!

I love reading as you all know and so whenever I see anything reading related, especially book swaps I am always keen to take part.

I saw a post on the Endless Bliss blog asking for bloggers to take part in a book swap during June because they also love reading. The rules were simple, you sign up for the swap and are then matched with someone else who is participating and then spend a few weeks getting to know their books likes and dislikes as well as a bit about them generally. Then post the book by 15 June ready for it to arrive before 20 June for the link up.

I was matched up with Felecia from the Hello Felecia blog. Felecia is from Florida and loves to write, she is currently working on publishing her first Young Adult novel which sounds like its going to be fantastic!

It’s been really lovely getting to know Felecia and it was such fun choosing a book for her that I hope she will enjoy! The book I chose (I won’t reveal it here yet in case it hasn’t arrived yet) is one I really enjoyed reading and is part of a series so I hope that Felecia enjoys the book and reads the whole series as it’s really thought provoking but also intriguing, making you really question what you would do in the same position.

I was very excited to receive the book she chose for me which is called Water Walker by Ted Dekker.

The back of the book says:

“My name is Alice Ringwald, but the man who kidnapped me says that’s a lie.”

Thirteen-year-old orphan Alice Ringwald has no memory beyond six months ago. The only life she knows is the new one she’s creating one day at a time with the loving couple that recently adopted her and gave her new hope. That hope, however, is shattered one night when she is abducted by a strange man. In a frantic FBI man hunt, the kidnapper vanished with Alice.

So begins Water Walker, a modern-day parable that examines the staggering power of forgiveness, and reminds us that it’s possible to live free of the hurt that keeps our souls in chains.”

This sounds like the perfect book for me based upon the books I would normally choose and it’s on my kindle ready to read as soon as possible and I plan to do a book review on it once completed.

Literary Junkies – June 2014

Last month I took part in the Literary Junkies link up for the first time. It was fun answering the questions so when I received notification of this month’s questions I started planning my post for June.

I’ve also joined the Literary Junkies group on Facebook and joined the group on Goodreads to keep up with the discussions during the month.

The group will also be reading The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton next and you can join in with the discussions about the book once read on Twitter during the book reading party on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7pm CST. This Tuesday they will be discussing the current book which is called Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters.

Here are this month’s questions:
1. What are you reading? Tell us about it!

I am reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson for the Summer Reading Challenge.

The title basically explains the storyline but it also tells the stories of the adventures that he gets up to following his escape including finding a suitcase full of money and his attempts to avoid the owners of the suitcase. It’s a good book but I’m finding it slightly far fetched in places which is making it a slow read.

2. Library or bookstore?

Bookstore – all those brand new books waiting to be discovered!

3. What book(s) have you read and re-read several times?

I’ve read the Hunger Games series a couple of times. I also re-read the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost about once a year since discovering it. This is a series of books about a half human half vampire assassin called Cat who hunts vampires but meets a vampire assassin called Bones which changes her whole life. Jeaniene has also published mini stories as well as full novels based upon some of the other characters who pop up in the book which are a good read and I always look forward to the next release in the series.

4. What is the first book that made you fall in love with reading?

Oooh this is tricky as I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. The book that always sticks with me and is probably my favourite is The Time Traveller’s Wife – it took me ages to get into it because of the way the story jumps around but once I got used to that I couldn’t put the book down. It’s a beautiful story.

5. Who’s your favorite author? Tell us so we can binge-read!

So hard to choose one as I read lots of different genres! Mmmmm I really enjoy Karin Slaughter’s books, Jeaniene Frost, Lauren Oliver, Jodi Picoult, Nicci French, George RR Martin, Liane Moriarty, Gillian Flynn, Cecilia Aherne, Veronica Roth, Cassandra Clare – looking through my Goodreads “read” list did not help!

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

Today is Father’s Day in the UK and a few other countries. We celebrate it here in Australia in September I think.

I wanted to wish my Dad a very Happy Father’s Day and I hope he likes the little gift that I arranged for him.

Me , my Brother and my Dad – not sure what I am surprised by!

I ordered him some chocolates from my favourite chocolate shop in the UK called Hotel Chocolate. Chocolate is one of his favourite things so I really hope that he enjoys them especially as the card I sent him hasn’t arrived (I found a shop selling them in Darwin even though they celebrate here much later which was very cool but the post is terrible).

According to good old Wikipedia Father’s Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June, though it is also celebrated widely on other days. Father’s Day was created to complement Mother’s Day, a celebration that honors mothers and motherhood.

My family are a huge and important part of my life and my Dad is very supportive of me and everything that I have done. I know he is proud of everything me and my brother have done and continue to do and he has been so lovely about my living in Darwin.

I also love that he thinks so much of the Aussie that he has been overheard introducing him as his friend from Australia and also telling people about the Aussie and the fact that I was moving to Australia and now live here.

He has a few health problems which we are dealing with and I’m hoping that spending some time in the sun in Darwin will help him a lot.

Finally it is literally only a week until they arrive here in Darwin and I cannot wait. I will be waiting for them at the airport exactly a week from now and am so so happy that they are making the very long journey to come see me and the Aussie and discover Darwin.

Whinging Poms!

I just did a search to find out why British people are called Poms by Australians and of course Wikipedia has the “answer” here. Apparently it’s not meant to be derogatory and I’ve never really found it to be, I find it more amusing than anything else!

However the phrase whinging Pom’s gets batter around a bit and the Aussie has before said to me as a joke (mainly during the incredibly humid wet season when I was fed up of being hot and having wet feet all the time from walking through puddles from all the rain) that I am a whinging Pom which always made me laugh. He didn’t use to call me a Princess for nothing!

I have also been told before that I have adjusted quickly to the Darwin climate and also that I am a Territorian now for the same reason! It is good to blend in with the locals where you live when you have moved there I think but sometimes it seems I have adjusted a little to well especially as now the dry is finally hear (thankfully) the weather during the day is usually in the late 20 degrees C but overnight drops to around 12 degrees some nights.

Temperatures at 6.10am Darwin time and 9.40pm UK time

Now being from the UK I am used to 12 degree C days and as the temperature rose towards the 20’s thought it was a bit too warm, I used to sleep with a fan on overnight during the summer months in the UK, but now anything below 20 degrees feels pretty cool for me and when I wake up in the morning to 12 degrees it reminds me of mornings in the middle of the winter in the UK when the temperature was barely over 0 and I did not want to get up. I also used to tell the Aussie to man up when he was complaining about how cold it is here, I take that back but don’t tell him!

Add to that the fact that our solar power water heating system seems to be having a funny 5 minutes so the hot water is as cold if not colder than the actual temperature it does not make for a happy shower experience. Two days last week I stared at the water for a good few minutes trying to make myself step under the water before giving up. The Aussie could be heard swearing as he tortured himself with the cold water and I don’t know how he did it.

Luckily today work was carried out to try and fix the solar panel so fingers crossed a few cloudless days will give us some hot water.

I keep warning my parents and brother to bring their winter woolies when they come to Darwin! It seems very sensible when I slept with 2 tops a sheet and blanket last night!

Books ‘n’ Blogger Swap

I love reading and talk about it quite often on my blog as well as discussing how well (or badly) I am doing with the Summer Reading Challenge.

I saw that Chaotic Goddess was running a book swap for bloggers and knew I had to participate as this kind of thing is totally up my alley so to speak!

The rules are simple, after signing up and confirming where you live and what kind of books you like to read you get partnered with another blogger with similar likes and I have been partnered with Chiara from Books for a Delicate Eternity and then you get to know each other before sending three books as follows at the end of June:

1. A book that you love
2. A book you haven’t read but are interested in
3. A book from your partners wish list

This is going to be the perfect way to meet new bloggers but also discover books that you haven’t heard of or read before. My wish list is small at the moment as I just started it and need to work out what books I don’t yet own from my “to read” list.

I’m looking forward to the challenge of choosing 3 perfect books for Chiara as well as getting to know her better.

Greek Glenti Festival Darwin

This weekend the Greek Glenti Festival has been on in Darwin and we had heard great things about the event and especially the food so we had to pop down for a visit.

The blurb for the event says:

The Greek Glenti, held at historic Bicentennial Park in Darwin, is a fun and vibrant festival where the Greek community shares their culture, food, wine, dance and music with locals and visitors. The Glenti consists of local and interstate entertainment and acts and besides being able to eat Greek food, you can see people wearing traditional Greek clothing, be enlightened by the Greek culture, listen to Greek music, and see traditional dancing and much more.

It was great fun and I got to try a yiros for the first time which is crazy seeing as I have been in Darwin now for just about 10 months and this is not my first time in Darwin. It was delicious and as you wandered around you heard the hosts talking about how much lamb was cooked over the weekend to create the yummy dishes.

There were also other Greek traditional foods like octopus balls (cooked in a cement mixer apparently), baklava and other amazing Greek sweets. After the Yiros’ we were a bit full so “had” to buy some Greek sweets to bring home. It is a hard life sometimes!

Because I am mature and find “Octopus Balls” amusing

We also watched the hosts teaching volunteers including Darwin’s Lord Mayor how to do the Zorba dance which was quite amusing to watch. We didn’t take part in the lesson but I now can dance the Zorba *cough*.

We had a fun time in the sun and I would definitely recommend a visit to the Glenti Festival if you get the opportunity but don’t eat any food before you won’t regret that decision!!

I am also participating in the Sunday Traveller link up which is run by SJ of Chasing the Donkey. This is a great way to catch up and read other bloggers posts about their travels.

Silent Sunday