Filler-inner-rers...?

#12

I left you last time with details of my adventures to Thailand and Murray Bridge, but left it at that... But obviously there's been other stuff that's kept me away from this thing, liiiike: crashen at the besty's, hens night, work parties, kasheoke, hospital kiosk, cadets, deciding on my life choices and so on. 

After Thigh-land I stayed at H-Brims new house with Tez and we just did grown up stuff cause that's what we are now apparently... you know, like cooking and being in a house without older people and whatever hahah. I went to Flinders Uni one day for some reason with Terri, and I'm pretty sure it convinced me that uni probably sucks. I walked into the library and instantly I was just on a downer or something, what a mood crusher, seeing all these miserable students doing work and stuff hahah. Terrible. 

 I went to a hens night for a girl at work in November. Never been to one before that, so much fun! Having a crazy girls night was awesome, and its safe to say the work ladies got to know me a bit better after that one. Potent jelly shots and fun games apparently go really well together, as do bathtubs and funny accents... Of course darling!



Work had two Christmas parties, one for the girls and one for all three shops. The first one was for the ladies. We went out to Silverton and coincidently met a bunch of guys on a bucks night out there. It was pretty much filled with bad music and beautiful dancing from everyone. 
The second one was held at the Napredak Bocce club. Who would have thought playing bad bocce with good people would be so fun? Work had a secret santa the other day and I received a heap of alcohol... Interesting to think of how the others see me :P Haha, but I also got a little statue that resembled success and good luck for my future and any exams I have to do to get there, so that was really nice and relevant haha. 




The guy I went to the US with for cadets came up for work again, so again I did the bad tour of BH thing with him and his mates... highlight = big chair on the line of load. Kasheoke was also included, and Ahn, Jess (a friend from work and her room mate) and Adam also joined. They were successful in getting Anh and I to sing Set Fire To The Rain by Adele, so of course that made the whole night sooooo much better D;


I'm happy to announce I've been promoted to bacon cooker in the kiosk. Yep, now I'm in the corner trying not to cry over little oil splash burns lol. It has been fun there the past few months though. One lady has tried to teach me how to make cream puffs. I tried the other day and failed... it was all going well until I looked underneath them and it had like folded up into itself. (Pictured to the left). Yuck. They also had a big Christmas Party on the 1st of December. Dad's boss cooked dinner, which a tad too gourmet for the ladies liking haha, I had duck. Mother and Father also waited on us, hehe. (As a few of the hospital's executive volunteered to help serve the food for all the ladies.) The kiosk gave us all a present each and then we had a secret santa, apparently they raised a heap for the hospital throughout the year so that was really nice to know. 


Cadets did Remembrance Day this year, so that was something different. I stepped down as Guard Commander to teach my Corporal and it all went really well. We did the Catafalque Party for the main memorial in Argent street during the service. Some of Dad's commanders were up from Adelaide and it was great to hear that they were impressed with the cadets. 

We also had our End of Year Parade on the 11th. We had a Lieutenant Colonel from HQ up to give my Officer in Command his 15 year service medal. So the LTCOL decided to also bring with him a ceremonial sword for me to use during the parade. That was a surprise and a half. The last time I'd used one of those was in 2009 when we got taught for our CUO/WO's course. So after a 5 minute reminder lesson on how to salute with it, we were on parade, with me trying to hold it up without the wind and my shaky hand desperately trying to make me look like a fool and drop it. Didn't happen though, I can proudly say no one got hurt :P  The cadet's drill was good and nothing went spaz, so I was pretty happy! The LTCOL brought my plaque that my company and I won on AFX for best company throughout the week, and presented that on parade, which was fun, and I also got the Officer in Command's Award. Not bad for my last End of Year Parade! 

I went to the Lifeline AGM and am still on the board- that's news!

At work we've been wearing Christmas shirts and to be different Anh and I decided to make our own... Ha. It was actually heaps of fun, and they turned out really well! And we matched!! Plus it beats wearing my santa one and having customers call me a ho for a laugh :)

I've sent off my papers to the RAAF and have made some bookings for extra tests to get into specialist jobs, so that's an advancement in the "What am I going to do with my life?" situation. Woo!

Had a family Christmas lunch today, you know, just to warm up for the next two days filled with family and food. Dad's cousins from Croatia are here for Christmas and so is his brother from Melbourne, and my Grandma. So that's fun! Gonna be a massive gathering haha, always better that way I reckon. 

Well, I hope everyone has an awesome Christmas, and that I get to see another post from Brim soon hahahah... awww that big city girl ;D Hopefully I'll get a final one in before the end of the year too! I dunno how to conclude this thing though! Maybe I really will just have a gap life and keep on going with it hahah... ahhh.

Alright, have a good one, eat lots and have fun! :D

-Licul

AFX & Thailand

#11

...Well that was a bit of a delay lol :S
 

First thing's AFX, which was at the end of September hahaaar... It's an annual camp for all cadets, this one being for South Australia. We went to Murray Bridge Training Area and about 12 BH cadets went. There were two companies of around 100, a recruit course and a WO/CUO course for the week. I was Alpha Company Commander, with my unit OC as my mentor, so it was a BH-run COY haha.
 Basically my whole week just involved counting names making sure no cadets went missing and going to orders every night :P But there was heaps of organising for me and we got to have a go on the range and at woodhouse activity centre in the Adelaide Hills. The last day was based on a big scenario for the two companies; all about druggies and finding their stashes… basically :P haha, true story! It went a bit weird when the signallers in each company played around with each other’s radios though… and then the rules went a little lop sided, in A companies mind, we defs won hehe. The weather during the week was interesting, but I’m lucky enough to say I did not wake up in a puddle, unlike others. Like always on anything cadet based I met some cool people. And of course I had heaps of fun, especially upside down on the massive flying fox :D:D:D:D:D
Oh, and Alpha Company (my company) won the whole exercise… f YES!!!!
 

After  that I spent a few days with family in Adelaide, I stayed there with Mum, Dad and Alessando before flying over to our amazing holiday destination…
 

 

Thailand was aaamaaazzzing, loved the resort, the weather, the people, the shopping and the food! We had the best weather, not unbearably hot and humid, but enough to always be able to swim, which we did a lot of. I definitely got my Phuket tan haha, thanks to a good book, “Insurgent” (credit to Tez for that suggestion) and a deck chair by the pool. Got some hilarious tan lines out of it too, actually. We stayed at Graceland Resort and Spa and it was massive. Had about three pools, one about 5m away from the beach, one on the top floor where you can swim up to a ledge looking out to the bottom pool and the sea, and another that was quieter and went straight up to some of the resort’s rooms. Two of them also had a swim up bar ;) Had myself some very noice margaritas thank you very much! The breakfast buffet was also massive and sooo yummy, I may or may not have had waffles and bacon everyday hehehe.

 

We shopped sooooo much, so many bargains- how could we not?! The night markets were huge, you’d get lost in that place. Bangla road was also huge, night clubs (complete with very real lady-boys) and stalls everywhere, same with tattoo shops. I ended up getting a goanna henna on my foot and also a swirly one on my hand, but that got smudged by a lemur I was holding:( The guy shoved it into my hand when I was holding a massive iguana hahaha, worth it! We also went on a day trip to Phi Phi Island and Blue Lagoon, came back on some very choppy waters :S  The elephants were fantastic, we went on a tour to ride them which also included a few cultural demos, like cooking and rubber tapping. We watched an elephant show where they played the harmonica and painted haha. It felt a bit wobbly on the Elephants, but apparently their feet knew where they were going haha, beautiful views on that trek. We went to two theatre shows, Phuket FantaSea and Siam Niramit which was great, the stages had to be made for the show; there was so much detail. A lot of animals too haha, 16 elephants in one of them! At the FantaSea show I got to dress up in a kind of Thai princess outfit, the others wouldn’t do it with me but I had fun by myself! Lol. We wound up at a random snake show somewhere and it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life… you know, it’s not every day you get jumping snakes waved in your face  and some other kind of snake escaping  from the little snake keeper area D; Held a python though, that was fun! And watching the guy tease a cobra then kiss it was, um interesting… I guess.  Went to the Big Buddha and got a bracelet blessed by a Monk which was really nice. Because it was a temple they gave me a sarong and shawl at the front gates cause I was wearing singlet a shorts haha.

 

Overall I had heaps of fun and I loved just being able to chill haha, great last official family holiday (maybe) :P Going back home was great though, spending more time with Rosa, Hugo and Ioana back in Adelaide and then seeing Adam and Catty back home, beautiful :P hehe.
 

Well that’s the main events of the past couple of months; I shall fill you in on the fun little things that have been taking up all of my blog-writing time since then later on haha… maybe, if we’re lucky!

Kop Koon Kar :D

-Licul

18 and 12months!

#10
The big one-oh at last! ...Quite sad really but anywaaay. 

So I've had a birthday since the last time I've written on here, eighteen and twelve months.... well now thirteen months haha. Had the pleasure of spending the day at work, which was in all seriousness pretty good! My first birthday out of school, and I loved it! That may have had something to do with the yum morning tea the girls put together for it hehe, and of course their company! The night before I went to the cross with some friends for the karaoke night and we ended up having an awesome time, of course with the help of some lemon, lime and bitters... with vodka. That lasted till my nineteenth which made it even more fuuuun! 
The night of my birthday I was invited to present the Quota Student of the Year Award and watch the speeches. There were only three girls that were in it, but it was really good to watch! Brought back some memories of the good old public speaking days hahah, it even made me feel nervous watching them up on the stage! Especially the impromptus... I was extremely happy to be able to give the award to the only BHHS speaker there, and I gave a little congrats speech- surprised I still had the public speaking nack :P
On the Sunday I went over to Aunty Michelle's to make my birthday cake with her for the family dinner that was on that night. I was psyched to spend the day cooking yummy stuff but definitely not prepared for the intense baking sesh that actually happened aha. We spent five whole hours baking this red velvet, chocolate mouse, toffee, strawberry, chocolate massive cake thing. SO MUCH FUN! SO MUCH FOOOOOOD! We used like 5 punnets of strawberries, nearly a litre of cream, 400 grams of chocolate (at least) and about 5 cups of sugar for the toffee. Yummmmmmm, Cant describe, so here's a pic ;) Enjoy. Haahahah, I definitely did. We took it to the dinner that had around 16 people, and everyone got a massive piece with as much toffee and chocolate covered strawberries as they desired. So I just took the plate it all came off, with the leftovers and downed it all... I was in absolute heaven. Totally oblivious from all the horrified faces staring at me the whole time I ate that toffee, chocolate and strawberries... oh and the cake hehe. 

So I now have a councillor for a Father, that's new. Hahah, I helped him out on the polling day with the how to vote pamphlets, so that definitely helped :P Nah, he was on the Labour ticket, and they did a fair bit of work before hand! He's pretty surprised and excited I reckon! Very proud of my daddyyyyy :D 

Had a lovely visit from the girlies as well. Went to the black for some games of pool and cocktails, and also had a Lifeline dinner/auction to go to with them! That was fun. As always, awesome to see Terri and Hannah again, especially when I got spoiled with some out-of-this-world fluoro pink heals from the bestie as a birthday surprise!

Got my apron at the hospital kiosk this weekend! Hehe, now I'm really one of the ladies! Also got taught how to do some of the claim for Medibank at work today, loved learning some different stuff. 

So AFX in four days... Wooooo! 0400 start on the Sunday and then a whole week of fun before its off to Thailand with the family! CANNOT WAIT:D:D:D:D

Until then friends, I'll catch you later- hopefully looking mighty fine with a fresh Phuket tan ;P

-Licul

Just A Quickie ;)

#9
Hi guys, thought I might do a bit of a quick update cause it seems like I have so much planned in a big clump in the next month that the next time I do feel like I have stuff to write about, it'll be way too much and yeah.

So what's been happening? Mainly work, 9-5:30/6 5 days a week. Been veeeery busy there. Just all round hectic, especially because they're trying to introduce a new system. Kind of enjoying it though, the busier it gets the faster it goes. Learning heaps, starting to feel like I can actually give customers helpful advice that is actually relevant haha. Blood pressure readings, phone calls, scripts, accounts, post,  painkillers, and diabetes and cold and flu stuff are probably the main things that take up most of my average day now. We had a Ethical Nutrients training night that was pretty interesting and we also got taught a bit about diabetes meters because Outback Pharmacies have been giving out free blood glucose testers. 
Been doing a few things with some of my friends from work too, including going to a lingerie party one of them hosted haha. Tried a skittle bomb that night, was pretty tastyyyy. Work also had a Jeans for Genes day and my friend Anh and I went as twins, that was pretty fun... 

Active Broken Hill brought out our new sports directory, so we were in the paper for that, sporting out cool new t-shirts haha... "sporting".
 I met the acting CEO of Lifeline the other week. The board had a meeting/dinner with her to talk about some stuff that's going on around Australia. Interesting to know some of the stuff that makes massive organisations like that survive. 
Yesterday I went down to the hospital kiosk at 7:30 to help out the ladies that volunteer there. Just serving, cleaning and preparing some food, got to use the coffee machine too- woo! 
Slowly getting there with cadets, teaching quite a bit, and mostly big lessons that get forgotten because no one wants to teach them... So that's fun. Got sent some promotional posters about AFX to pump up the cadets for September, lol, looking forward to that. 
Again, had some school friends come back to town, so that obviously called for a couple of nights out. The first was quite a happy and random night with a cheeky pizza and a teachers fair well mixed in and the other was intensely fun, went to a party and then the good old night train. Also went to a few tamer dinners which are always good :)

Well that's about all for now, going to see Ted this afternoon, just in case you were wondering haha, catch ya laterrrrr.

-Licul

Weeks 22-27 halfway there!

Gawshhhh, cannot believe 2012 is over half gone... It feels like only yesterday that I moved to Adelaide, and now I've been here for almost half a year.
It's weird that although these experiences I've been having are completely different to what I'm used to, it feels so normal. I've finally adjusted to city life and definitely keen for my second semester at uni.
Again I've left this post for way too long so I'll dot point some of the highlights over the past month+ I also have a lot of uni reading to do so I'll make this one short and sweet :)


EXAMS
Not quite a highlight, but I have survived my first round of uni exams - sahhhh happeh!! They weren't nearly as difficult as I thought they would be, and way less stressful than highschool or HSC. I swear they put wayyyy too much pressure on you in your junior exams when really there are so many other pathways to get into uni - if that's even what you want to do - so there is no reason to be stressed at all.


Which leads me to my first actual highlight;


PASSED FIRST SEMESTER!!
Sooooooo relieved when results were finally released after days of checking and refreshing the webpage where they would be. I ended up with credits for both of my law topics and distinctions  for both of my psych topics, very happy with that!!!!
Now that I've fully settled in and don't have to worry so much on transitioning,I can concentrate more on my studies. I'm already so organised and on top of things with all my lecture notes printed out and ready to be further scrawled upon! I think if I aim for a distinction average this semester that that would be a realistic goal - wish me luck!!


BH VISIT
After all that hardwork studying hcore, holidays finally rocked up! And I spent 90% of it in BH hahaha. Was so good seeing all of my fambam and home friends, esp the bifffff HL!! :D
We went camping which was awesome fun. As well as lunch dates, going out, adventures, and other cute stuff.
My major achievement though was on out first day back where I FINALLY GOT MY PS!!! I could have cried I was so happy. Getting it at the start was v. convenient too as then I could drive everywhere and be great at life :)))))


CUTE UNI FRIENDS
After my visit home on the day we drove back I went to a movie night at one of my uni friends' house. It was so good to catch up with those guys as I hadn't seen them since exams! It was also really great of the first day back at uni last Monday seeing everyone and realising that I had lucked out and made so many friends. Actual v. v. lucky to have them <3
Also on the first Thursday back at uni, Lauris, Liam, and I, went to the Flinders O Week Toga Party. We dressed up in bronze silver and gold AND WON $100 FOR OUR COSTUMES!! So stoked, I was so proud!!

CUTE FRIENDS FROM HOME
Since being back in rads, I've seen quite a lot of the BH mob. Went out with Loz Nick and Tez one Thursday and had the best time! Also went to dinner with a big group of girls and went out afterwards (last night) and had so much fun. Did not realise how much I have missed these biddies!!!!
Super keen to have a big reunion some time!!!


Anywho I best be off, lots of reading to do for tomorrow.


Until next time,
Help me I'm poor!!!
- Brim

Gap Life?

#7

Hi future me and probably future Brim...

The last month has been pretty hectic, when I left you last I was looking forward to Corps Day. That went alright, after having a rough time of putting a BH team together it was just a matter of surviving the ride there and the freezingness of Warradale Army Barracks. I got the task of being the assessor/marker person for the camouflage and concealment station/activity thing. I hid stuff in trees and bushes and cadets had to find the 25 items without crossing a certain boundary... those rules altered a tad when it became dark. Even though I was doing exactly the same thing from 0700 till 2345 with only meal breaks I managed to keep myself entertained for most of it. Talking to the different units was good, even though they were very hesitant in giving me any info on where they were from... Apparently this was an order given to them because the assessors are bias butt holes who will give teams from amazing units like Broken Hill's 1000 more points... Yep that's definitely the reason why. I got to know another CUO that I haven't met in my previous 6 years of cadets, even though we've probably been on many of the same bivs. We slept on stretchers inside, and a lot of the male officer's were complaining about some of the more experienced officers snoring. It was all a big joke until the Saturday night when the CUO and I came back from counting scores at around 0200 and realised that one of our own teenage cadet girls was possibly possessed by some kind of wolf demon dog- there is no other explanation for the snoring sounds that young girl was producing. But the highlight of the whole weekend was seeing Brims slightly still recovering face come through the mess door just to visit me! After a massive night of free wine and prom heels she found it in herself to get up before morally necessary and walk all the way down the the barracks just to be reunited with her bestie. AHmazing. Isn't that just beautiful, cannot think of many other people who would do that. Pretty sure a tad of AAC nostalgia encouraged the adventure, but I had fun for that hour or so!

Cadets is a tad different these days (starting from last Tuesday) as we're kinda getting all pumped up for AFX (annual camp). I've made a new training program for preparing the cadets, and making sure they know stuff for the camp. The new thing is that the instructors pretty much just include me and my captain. Awesome.

After that I had Sarah and Dario's engagement party. I was really looking forward to it, it was going to be massive, with heaps of family and 200+ balloons -(literally). I helped them set up on the day and that was fun- mucking around with the balloons and being harassed by Unlce Nino because the music didn't meet his taste standards. Catching up with some family and friends that came to BH for it was really good too. For their prezzie I chose a photo from our trip to China and we got it enlarged and framed, it looked really good in the end, perfect for their future new house. I went with Adam, pretty sure he enjoyed being talked at by my family and told drunkenly that we are perfect together, oh, and that he's got groovy moves on the dance floor... Yep, definitely.

So I did get accepted onto Lifeline's board, and I've been to a few meetings. It's very different to what I naively thought it would be, a lot of financial and business type of talk. But I'm finding that I'm learning a few bits here and there that will probably be helpful later on in life. It feels good to be involved in something so big, so I'm looking forward to relaying different opinions from the youth council when a topic that's relevant comes up.

Had a few school friends visit so there was a bit of a reunion of our year on a Saturday night, which was quite fun. The following Tuesday I went to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Road Show with Adam, fricken hilarious, I must say. They had Cal Wilson and Randy, that funny purple puppet... Haaa. (As well as 3 other comedians).

THEN THERE WAS HANNAH AND TERRI! We went camping :]

Hehe, we got a group of friends together and went down near the main weir and camped over night. This mostly included eating and playing with fire... which was very enjoyable. Camping food is the best... marshmallows, spuds will bolognese sauce, bacon, and heeeeeaps of junk food. Most of us slept in swags, which I love. In conclusion, it was fun.

Having friends in town again was extremely nice. Quite beautiful even. We got the whole crew together for a lovely dinner at the mulga, and got a tad weirded out at how everyone had and hadn't changed and talked about what we were doing with our lives now. Then we did the normal things like maccas, movies, games, going out and I went to see Brave with Terri. Very good, but a tad fricken scary for a kids movie...

Last weekend I went to Adelaide with Adam and he took me to see my first ever footy game. It was Essendon and Port playing, so we were pretty much outnumbered by the Adelaide crew... but that seemed to change after the Bombers had won by 50 points, interestingly enough. It was a great game (and that coming from me is huge), very close until the last quarter. Just so glad it didn't rain, it was already so COLD. We went bowling and shopping too. Mama Carmela's, Hogs Breath and the Watermark were all on the menu, so that was extremely yummy. We stayed at the Stanford Grand which was very fancy hahaha. I got to catch up with the cousins as well, Hugo, Rosa and Ioana, which is always fun! Can't wait to see them again later on in the year.

Mum has just planned an incredible family holiday for us to Thailand. So I'm just always secretly excited for life these days. Its straight after AFX with cadets so its gonna be a nice transition haha. It's gonna be in October, which was around when I would have liked to go to Europe, particularly Malta. So I've been thinking and talking and kinda of half-deciding that I might book that for May next year and have a little more than a gap year hehe. Why not I guess, I've got a full time job and I'm still not sure what I would like to do with life (other than have a gap year+ and travel :P) even though I've definitely narrowed it down... well maybe not- I've actually thought of some other ideas that might be smarter to start with. Anyyyywaaaay, THAILAND!

Well that was a biggen... serves me right for not writing one sooner I guess... Now onto Brim.

Loven life ladies and gents...

-Licul

Weeks 16-21 - Surprises :)

Yo Yo Yo!


Again, has been a pretty busy month ......and a bit (hehe, oops).


I'm currently in the middle of studying for my exams, which start on Saturday, so this post will be in dot point form haha. Sentences are not my friends right now - my brain is pretty much dead ;P


- Law and archaeology pubcrawls
Closer to the start on May I had a couple pubcrawls. The Law one was on the Friday night and so I got to hang out with my Law School buddies - was quite fun. Then on the Saturday straight after I went with the girls from home on the Archaeology pubcrawl. The shirt for this one said "Everyday I'm Shovellin'" - how could we refuse? That night was actually so fun. Went to the woolshed for the first time, which has since become one of my favourites haha :)


- Hanz visited
On the 12th (approx) my bestttttie and some of the crew from home came up for Belle's 18th. We went on the Big Night Out bus, which was really fun. Just singing and drinking on a double decker bus, and getting off at various parts all over town was actually really fun. I had such a good time and seeing everyone was good too.
We also went shopping, which is bad.. As whenever I'm with HL I end up spending too much and I'm just too poor for that shizzzz!


- Florence and the Machine
OMG BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!!! I went with Tezzy and Steph to F+TM and Loccy ended up tagging along, for what was literally the most incredible thing my ears have ever experienced. She played all of my favourites, except Howl, and was so perfect live it was insane!! During one song I got on Loccy's shoulders, and could see so much. We were so close to the front, eeeeep, wow. I just cant explain how good it was!!!


- Mum's surprise birthday
Mum's 50th was on the 5th of June and conveniently she was in Adelaide for a business trip. She had voiced to me how she was too busy to organise anything special what with her work and full time study, so I decided to contact my Aunty and organise a dinner. Due to her great organising skills, we actually managed to round up 15 people including two of her friends, another of her sisters, and her mum - who all flew down from Sydney, and my cousin from Germany who stopped over for a couple days in Adelaide on her Australia trip. So basically she was a bit upset the whole day because we had told her that only we could make it, and the boys because they had better things to do.... But then she walked in and everyone was there. It was pretty great. She just cried a lot and I think had a great time :)


- Law Ball
On Saturday we had the annual Law Ball at the National Wine Centre. I got to dress up in my formal gear, and pretty much had an amazing night. Apart from getting blisters on my blisters, everything was great. I made heaps of new friends, and took a lot of cheeky selfies on too many different peoples cameras. Was hilarious!!


- Visited Hanz
Then the next day, after getting home at 2:30, I was a great soul and got up at 7:30 and walked 2.5km  to meet Hanny, who was at the Warradale barracks for a cadet biv. I was actual pretty proud of myself for even waking up, but it was so good to see her - even if it was just for an hour before she had to go back to bh.


But on the plus side, my exams finish on the 21st and I'm probs driving home with tezzy on the sunday - so I'll see everyone again, and am really looking forward to it.
The next time I post, I will be at home YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!


Help me I'm poor!!
- Brim

Eyre Battalion Biv!

#6
Heeey whats up??


I've been buuusy being a grown up haha :P Trying to balance stuff with work is hard but at least I'm never bored!
Active BH and Youth Council have things going on and I have shirts for both of them now- woo hahaha. I've applied to be apart of the BH Lifeline Board to represent the Youth Council as well. Cadets has just gotten busy again, we have an Eyre/Coorong Battalion Biv coming up soon, so obviously the whole unit's being all hectic preparing stuff... Its gonna be sooooo cooooold. And then I find out Corps Day's happening haha, which I guess I should've known. That will be fun though.


Last weekend was fuuuuun! I flew to Adelaide Saturday morning and went to Belle's 18th on the "Big Night Out Bus". That was heaps of fun, they took us to a few clubs around Adelaide like Dog and Duck and Marble Bar. It was 90's night at one of them which was AAAAWesooooooome! Spicegirls... naw.
It was so so so so good to see my amazing friends, especially Tez and the Bestie HBrim. They're so City and Uni-fied its crazy. I luurv the places they're staying, and it looks like they're having an awesome time livin life... Except the whole having to do uni work thing- but that doesn't seem tooooo bad haha. Terri gave me an awesome surprise when she picked me up from the airport with more than half her hair cut off. It looks so good, haha I love it.


...Okaaaay, so a bit of a delay there. Since writing that first bit I've been and come back from the battalion biv and have definitely been elected treasurer for Active Broken Hill- woot!


The biv was aaaweeesome. It was cold, as I said it would be, but not too bad. Not nearly as bad as what I was expecting... that may be because of the fact that I go to spend my nights sleeping on a stretcher in an old bus :D Wooo! I could not have been happier when I found out that's where I was sleeping. OMG. Just amazing. (Special thanks to my fellow CUO) I mainly packed lollies... eheh. That was also amazing. Another thing that helped with the cold was the leggings I wore underneath my uniform, they were given to me by Sarah's sister when I was in China- very handy.I was given the job of organising the recruits, so it was a pretty chill weekend, talking about random stuff with hilarious cadet people. And of course, doing recruit stuff, but the CPLs and SGTs made that pretty easy for me- aw. Another good thing about the biv was how we got to eat real food. Another yay. It sprinkled here and there, but not too badly at all. Although it did take us ten hours to get there by bus, the area was awesome, it was like a mini secluded caravan park in the middle of nowhere, but it was actually a military museum worth around $2 million. (I know right?- It's called Bublacowie). At the end of the weekend I was asked if I would like to become the Eyre Battalion CUO, so that was really nice and something that I'm definitely thinking about. The whole weekend just reminded me why I love cadets haha, so much fun :)


Workies is all serving customers (on the phone and over the counter), sorting scripts and ordering diabetes stuff... Same same :)
Today I put together a playlist for Sarah and Dario's engagement party. Took forever, just going through all of my music (mostly from Catlin, Terri and Hannah) and adding their CD's. Got pre pumped though :D Cant wait.


Weeeell, I guess that's it, next weekend is Corps Day (hopefully) so I'll have something to tell ya next time. Till then, have fuuuun!


-Licul

Week 12/13/14/15 - home!

Just talked to HL and have decided that this blog thing will probably become a monthly thing as we are actually a lot busier (/lazier) than previously thought.. hehehe.


Anywhooo.. WHAT UP!? The past month and a bit have been pretty good. Handed in quite a few assignments, including doing a psych presentation where I got to dress up as a mexican! Which have gotten pretty good results. A few distinctions/high distinctions is just what this doubtful student needed to reassure her that she was in the right place.


The major event though was my mid-semester/easter break which I was able to spend in BH. Tez and I flew down on the Saturday, and had the funniest flight. Before we took off they found that a piece of the door was missing, but flew anyway.. and half way through the flight the hydraulic pumps malfunctioned so we had to turn around and go back to Adelaide... Eventually we got to BH and I got to see my fambam, and of course HL and the rest of the BH crew! We went out a fair few of the nights and I had a great time being out with a group of people I knew/actually being old enough to go, was exciting!!


After a lovely relaxing two weeks, Tez drove us all the way back to Adelaide ..and we didn't die :D:D:D! ;P I smashed out another couple assignments and went back to uni. 


As Hannny mentioned in her ANZAC Day was last week and it was the first time in so long that we didn't do it together, which is crazy. Instead I was part of the crowd for the Adelaide march. I was a bit upset that I couldn't make it to a dawn service, but I didn't have transport/know where any where. But the city march was great. Sososososo much bigger than the BH one, with way more bands than I expected. Saw a few familiar faces in the cadet section though which was fun. I also got to go a shindig afterwards that I had been invited to previously but could never go cause I was never in Adelaide... Win!!!


Friday was my first uni pubcrawl which I was so excited for! Unfortunately I got a bit too into pre-drinks and didn't make it through one pub... So have decided to stay sober for the Law one this weekend, and see how that works out...  


That's about it I think....


Til next month ;P
- Brim

"Gap Year Soldiers On"- Father

#5

“Soooorrryy, I’ve been so slack and busy and annoying and I haven’t been able to find the time to write on here, but here goes anyway, I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me…” Hehe oops…

Heeey guuuys, ok so I’m back at my normal home after about a month house sitting out the south, which is nice, but I do miss having my own massive space haha. The two cats survived and nothing catastrophic happened so that’s cool. I think the worst thing that happened was me dropping the cat’s spoon behind a pile of fire wood hahah… I did come home quite a bit though haha, mostly for food/internet access :P And of course to see my loving family hehe.

Hope you had a lovely Easter, I know I did, especially with my besties on the Saturday night :D Sooo much fun! After like 6 months of not being able to go out with Hannah and Terri it was awesome for them to finally be 18 and experience the roaring night life of BH :P It was great to have them back in the hill, and to also see Grace again! Easter Sunday was a fun BBQ with the family, and lots of choccies of course… according to one of Mum’s friends, if you break the egg before you eat it all the calories fall out.

I got my green P’s on the 17^th just in time before Brim left which meant she could give me a lesson in her little manual. Interesting… but not enough to be really hilarious (ie. I wasn’t too bad haha). I think it’s safe to say I can drive a manual now, not well, but I can :P

There was also ANZAC Day, my 7^th and last with Cadets (probs)- and also my first in 6 years without Brim! :( It was a great day though. I went to the dawn service with Adam and then to the Garden of Remembrance and Memorial Oval with the cadet’s guard and the midday service with the rest of the unit. Then there was lunch at the barracks with Dad, where I also had a good chat to someone about being an MP in the Army. I was proud of the cadets for doing what they did, there's a lot of practice that go into their drill, especially for the guard where weapons are involved for the ceremonial drill. Then there's all the uniform prep. It's definitely all worth it on the day. 

Aaaaaaaand, and and anddddd- I now have a full time job :D The pharmacy offered it to me when one of the full time girls changed to casual so we pretty much just swapped places. So that’s what I’ve been doing haha, I started on the 23^rd and I hope it’ll get me closer to achieving my travels this year. Speaking of travels, the people I went to China with, Uncle Dario and Sarah, are now engaged! So that’s nice, and quite exciting haha :)

I reckon that’s about it right now, hopefully it won’t be too long before I can tell you all more…

Cya! 

-Licul

FUUUTTUUURE TRIP!!! Oh and I guess being a grown up…

#4

I think my signature greeting for every post to this blog is going to be something along the lines of “soooorrryy, I’ve been so slack and busy and annoying and I haven’t been able to find the time to write on here, but here goes anyway, I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me…”

Anyway, on the 10^th of March I flew to Adelaide to have a girls trip with a group of friends from BH and to see some special-BH-smarties-turned-city-grown-up-uni-students hehe. We went down for the Adelaide Future Music Festival which had Jessie J and Skrillex and THE WOMBATS and heeeeaps more… it was pretty cool, sooooo many people and music everywhere. Experiencing hayfever that lasted the whole day for the first time made it even more fun :) I have no idea how to explain to you how amazingly amazing one of the nights was on this trip. You know, all I got to do was experience a childhood fantasy/dream. Hahahahaha so extremely ecstatic with this, its been like 3 weeks and I still get all happy and excited when I think about it. We went to see... AQUA! Yes, Barbie Girl AQUA!!! They were so good. I didnt even know they still existed, but they actually have some new songs haha! They sound exactly the same, even the guy, he really really does sound like Ken in Barbie Girl! So cool! We were non-stop the whole trip; shopping and going out and being fun made the trip amazing, especially being able to do it with the best friends. Being reunited with my favourite; HBrim was awesome, and it was great to see her enjoying city/uni life. All the uni girls down there seem to be loven life as well x.

So then I came back to real life, half dead from an awesome trip but it’s all good now haha. I have accepted an offer to be Active Broken Hill’s temporary treasurer, so that will be interesting! I hope to learn heaps about the role and help the committee out as much as I can. Cadets is going good, except we’re losing one of our crazy officers to Victoria… bleh. I did a training program for a biv the other day so hopefully we’ll be able to put that to use. I’m excited for ANZAC Day this year, although it’s the first in like 5 years I don’t get to spend it with Brim :( I went to see The Hunger Games with dad and it was aaahmaaayzing!!! SO good. AND the circus came to town last week! I went with Adam and we loved it, some pretty crazy acts. It’s good to see BH being able to enjoy things like that. I’ve also been enjoying some nights out… even though one of them was ANOTHER farewell (I have been to WAY too many of them in my lifetime). But there was also St Pats, which was the first time I’ve been; excellent day/night!

Oh yeah, and I practically moved out of home last week… Ha. Only to house sit for a month but still, I’m aaaall aloooone in a big house. It’s pretty cool though… and weird cause I really do feel like a grown up. Especially with my new job :D!!! I now work at C.P Peoples Pharmacy (part of the outback group) and I love it. I started on the 17^th and I’m still at Big W but I’ve been getting way more hours at the pharmacy, ie 9-5:30 shifts all week. Such an adult :’) I love being able to serve customers, the people I work with are very friendly and I’ve been learning heaps.

I can’t wait till Brim and Tez come back for Easter and we get to have Hannah’s second 18^th birthday :) hahahaha gonna be awesome ;D

Well, that was a “quick” summary of the last three weeks, bloody hectic from my point of view but dunno how interesting from yours haha.

Happy Easter!

-Licul

Week 9/10/11 - OH HEY ADULTHOOD!

Soooo, I've been just a lot slack with the blogging regularly thing.. To my surprise I've actually been really busy, and a lot of things have happened in the past three weeks making the time just fly! 

I can't quite remember which order things have happened in, so stealing Hannah's countdown idea from china, I'll list the top 3 things in 3 weeks.. in reverse order.

3. Uni and general goings on

Apart from classes and assignments, there has been a few uni related events that have been enjoyed muchly!! Mainly from the law side of my degree as they are organised as f, but doing two degrees equals twice as many social activities, so there are plenty more planned for the future.

Pretty early on Law School put on a First Year Dinner at the Duke, which was heaps good. There was trivia, boat races, and of course dinner, and for something that had lectures and the dean there, it was so chill and made me feel even better about going to uni!! The same night as this there was supposed to be a Psych movie night, but the location of it got flooded out so it was postponed - worked out well.    

I handed in my first non multiple choice assignment too. Very nerve racking as I struggled quite a bit with the finer details... not looking forward to the results of this one :S:S:S


I also got a job :D!! I am now Pharmacy Staff at Amcal Pharmacy, legitimately like a 5 minute walk away from home - happyhappyhappy!

2. BESTF AND GIRLS FROM BH VISIT!


Although I was devo about missing out on future music by 9 days, I still had an amazing weekend when HLicul and my girlies from home came up :D
Dinner with LozJohn and brunch with the others, followed by lots and lots of shopping, which I definitely didn't need because I'm already poor as anything!! 


But seeing the familiar faces of those I miss so much, and hearing about things at home was amazing, and it has made me even keener to go back home for Easter :)))) 

1. EIGHTEEEEEEEEN!


Not only the highlight of the past three weeks, but highlight of my life. I had been counting down to this moment for a ridiculously long time, and was ecstatic as I watched the minutes tick over til 12:00am March 21 :)))
And my birthday week was so jam-packed, I will definitely remember it forever.. well most of it....
Went for dinner with mummabear when she was in town on the sunday, had my aunty cook me a lovely greek dinner on the monday, TURNED MOFOING 18 ON THE WEDNESDAY, and had a lovely dinner with the girlies, followed by MIDNIGHT SCREENING OF THE HUNGER GAMES!!!! so gooood. Thursday I went to apple bar with tezzy, and had quite a late one, and saturday was mine and my housemates combined 18th which was a veryveryvery messy night. The results are two bruised shins, a burnt elbow, an egg on the head and a cute black eye.. Don't remember how, but I'm sure looking hawt as now..... Aha.

The Hunger Games themed cakes from Tezzy!!

The double decker Crunchie cake from Alyse!!

The rainbow cake I cooked for Rhys and myself :)

Well that's about it for now.. Loads of assignments to be done soon, so guarantee I won't post for ages hehe.


Help me I'm poor!!
- Brim

Week 8 - UNI!! ...AND SOUNDWAVE!!!

Possibly one of the best weeks of my life except that's impossible cause I didn't get to share any of it my my bestfrieeeeend HanJoLic!! But I may just be saying this because I'm still on a high from last night. SOUNDWAVE HELL YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! But I'll talk about those adventures a bit later!


First things first - Uni classes. We actually started lectures and stuff this week, which I was really looking forward to, and all in all they didn't disappoint. There were a couple bits where I could have happily fallen asleep and never awoken, but I'm actually really into my topics so that's a good sign. By the end of the week I had done like 5 quizzes, 80% for the hardest one and 100% for the others, fark yeah, non-graded passes, I LOVE YOU!!
Monday was my first lecture - PSYC1101, Psychology 1A, good as, but it was just a bit of an introduction. Monday was also my first public transport experience... I bought my multipass ticket, caught the M44 from home to Marion and then the G10 from Marionis my wife to Uni. This trip ran smoothly, however the return not as much.... I finished my lecture and went down to the bus bay. Awaiting me was a G10, I thought "what amazing timing" and jumped right on. However it wasn't until I was in the city, kilometres from home, that I realised I had jumped on the one going the opposite way.... I knew that it woul eventually do a loopdedoop though so I stayed on. After what felt like 40 lightyears I ask the bus driver if the bus was going where I thought it was... To which he replies that the bus has actually changed numbers, and that it had now terminated. So I had to get off and onto a different bus which after a combined total of 2 and a half hours finally brought me to exactly where I had started, Uni.... I then got off and started again, actually getting on the right buses this time. 


Hehehehe Brim, you've been sabotaged >:D Luuuuurrrrrve Yoooooou exoh


...well I guess thats what you get when you have a dodgy internet connection and can't finish your post, cheeky girl!!
But yeah, Tuesday was lawfull - HAHAHA UNI PUNS ALREADY. No? Okay.. Nah it was good. The rest of the week was similar, except for Thursday which I had the day off :DDDD!! I spent it doing a tiny bit of shopping, for socks and other fun things.. then went home and got ready for TEZZZZZYARNZ 18TH!! We met up on campus, at the bit I've never been to, so of course I got lost... But after a little (a lot) of help I found Steph and Tez and we caught the bus to the city. We met up with Alyse and Chloe, and went to Marble Bar for dinner. I felt a bit bad cause I was the only underager and was stopping everyone from going out, but a few, ic. moi, had Uni the next day so that made me feel a little better. We then went to the casino so T could have her first gambling experience. Of course I couldn't go in so I waited outside, got chatted up by some drunk dudes and watched another powerspew all over the place.. delightful!


Friday was fuuuuuun! After Uni I went to lunch with Mummmmmma, as it was our last meal together before she left. Then we went and picked Tez up from her apartment and mum dropped us off at the Garden of Unearthly Delights. We said our goodbyes, but it was rushed so I didn't feel to sad, until I came home today and she wasnt here :( ..but she's back in about 10 days so thats good :D
But yeah, we walked around the Garden, we weren't really keen to see a show cause we are uni poor, and instead just wanted to wander. We grabbed dinner and sat on a grassy hill packed with couples... awkward. After that we were spontaneous and got hair feathers, because they were there and because we could, and also bought giant rainbow umbrellas :DDD
Then back to Tezzys house for sleeeepovers!!! Cause the next day was SOUNDWAVE!!!!!!!


HOLY CRAP SOUNDWAVE WAS AMAZING!
After a lovely fruit salad breakfast we jumped on the bus heading to Bonython Park. We were wondering exactly where it was... until we saw the 836236475km line of people. Thankfully on our walk to the back we some some girls from home and they were lovely enough to let us in. So after a bit of waiting, a lot of walking, an under 18 wristband, and a bag search, it was time for the fun to begin. And what better way to start the day than a bit of intense screamo? Chimaira were great, and I actually knew a few songs which made it better. Then onto Zebrahead, who were hilarious. A lot of fingers in the air and a circle pit where "if someone falls... KICK EM".

We also saw Kill Hannah, Limp Bizkit, You Me At Six, Marilyn Manson, Tonight Alive and Four Year Strong. But my favourites were definitely Cobra Starship, System of a Down, Slipknot and A Day To Remember!!!!!!
ADTR was first at around two, and even then there were a lot of sweatysweatysweaty bodies. We somehow got to the second row, could have gone barrier but I prefer a gothapotomus in between for cushioning. It was a pretty hectic mosh that's for sure, not once was I still and rarely did I have both feet on the ground. Beach balls, toilet paper and confetti were great additions to the amazing music being played. Definitely my favourite band but second favourite experience for the day...

        Go into ADTR mosh with dead straight hair.. nek minnut;

Cobra were also good, the lead singer is a massive tease and knows how to put on a show. We made excellent eye contact and I touched his abs - winnnning! SOAD were also fantastic!!! They finished off the night, and sounded so good live. But my favourite experience by far was Slipknot!!!!! We weren't very close, so couldn't see much apart from the screen, thank gawd it was there!! Surrounded by drunk men made it hilarious as they were falling all over the place and saying the weirdest things. We made a friend... who was ridiculously tall and paid us out about our view. At one point he lifted me up so I could see everything which was really nice though!! But it wasn't until it was dark and even outside the barrier was getting a bit intense. This other random drunk guy was telling our new friend to lift me up, but I politely declined. Next thing I knew I was on this random guys shoulders and my goshhhhhhhhhhhh the view and everything was incredible!!!! I could see the stage and the entire crowd moshing in sync. I was amazed yet terrified as the guy I was on was jumping along with the crowd, but it was absolutely insane and I would do it again and again!!!

Just a little bit hard to see...

After the best day ever we jumped on the bus to go back to Terri's, and met the most hilarious girl and old man, swearing and getting really into stories. Good times. 

So now I'm at home.. more or less alone. Did three loads of washing and cooked dinner, awwww yeahhhhh! But that's about it for another week.

Help me I'm poor!!!
- Brim

...Life after China?

#3
Hello again!

See you later photos :')

Ooook, so I guess this can be for all the weeks since I've been back from China... Which is only like 3 which is weird. I have to say its gone buy in a bit of a blur and I can't remember much of it, probs why I should keep up to date with this thing.

What I definitely do remember is the horrific goodbyes I had to say to my amazing friends nearly as soon as I got to see them after I'd been away for a month. It was poo :( Very nice farewell partygatheringthingo though, nice to catch up with everyone from school and be amazed at how quickly everyone's settling into grown up/no school life. Steph, Tez and of course Brim have all gone to uni to be smart and go on buses and what not... so I'm all alone (hehe not really but still) just floating around BH not going to uni or being on buses. I did like seeing the love pour out of HBrim's eyes when we said cya though... quite nice :P Not really- it was actually mum and dad's fault tbh. Stupid goodbye hugs. 
I did get to talk to the girls when I rang Terri for her OMG YOU'RE 18 NOW HAPPY BIRTHDAY phone call. That defs made my night hehe, I miss em :') But I did catch a bit of a city accent in there somewhere when I talked to them all... That was a bit of a worry :S Seeing all of their fun amazing grown up Uni adventures on facebook I did think a bit about whether or not the gap year thing was a good idea... But have no fear, in the world of Gap Year Vs Uni, I'll make sure the gap year funness comes out on top hahaha :P


So I've put in literally 10 resumes to places all over town to try and score a nice job that could help fly me to Europe (Malta and Croatia especially). I've got one reply so far so we'll see how that turns out :] Currently my 14 year old brother is working more than me and actually enjoying it, so that's quite sad hahaha. 
But I'm still with Big W and Army Cadets and I've just put in my official application kind of thing to Active Broken Hill. Cadets is going alright, definitely changing as time goes by though- this will be my 7th year!!! Wow... And you can tell cause when I teach a lesson the little people actually shut up and listen/learn! Dont cha just luv that!? 


I did spend a bit of time last week cleaning out my room. When I say I, I actually mean my mum hehe. Well it makes sense, if she likes to clean and organise and sort and whatever, wouldn't you let whoever do that annoying job you've been putting off since the end of high school when you were meant to be throwing away all your notes and books and stuff? Cheyeah!! Of course I helped though, cause I'm an aaaangel. So we just smashed though that room like it had some kind of atomic bomb we had to detonate which doesn't make sense because we wanted to clean up... but yeap we definitely set off some kind of bomb cause my room was just destroyed. There was SHistuff everyyyywheeeere. Catty had a field day in that huge obstacle course. We ended up chucking out 5 rubbish bags full of I don't know what (mostly school stuff) and 2 bags of clothes for lifeline. Thankyoooou to my Mummy who made it all possible heheh xo. Oh and I guess Alessando who wiggled his way under my bed to help out.

(Of course with Mum's skill it all worked out for the best and it's better now haha)

My lizard wall :D After the epic clean up we've discovered I have a fairy and lizard collection, mainly lizards... Wooo!

This week, well last week cause it's Sunday today but yeah, it rained. Yep. It just raaained and raaained and rained. I enjoyed it quite a bit actually :) 
So that's about it... Chillen with Adam, going out with the girlies, putting feathers in my hair and chasing Catty around the house. AND GETTING KEEN FOR OUR GIRLS WEEKEND AWAY TO ADELAIDE FOR FUTURE MUSIC AND AQUA (YES AQUA AS IN BARBIE GIRL AQUA!!!) AND TO SEE MY LOVELY SMART UNI PEEPS! So stay tuned because my next little spill will probs be all about that awesome adventure ;D


Well I'm out cause I've got a lovely dinner mother has prepared waiting for me :) ....Poor little Uni :( Hahaha don't think I'm not jelly of your two minute noodles etc xoxo


-Licul

China China China!!!

#2
Heeey!
I feel a little, actually a lot guilty about my lack of commitment to our blog, but I guess that just means the Uni side of things is winning at the moment in the whole game of Gap Year Vs Uni. I do have a bit of an excuse though, I didn't have any access to the site over in China, or facebook cause it was banned or something. So yeaaaah... But I did write down stuff that we did everyday so you wont miss out on anything my brain fails to remember... It really doesn't feel I even went, but then again it doesn't feel like I've been back for long! But I do have some awesome memories and 2000 + photos to prove it :D Soooo I have no idea what week this is... but its my second post. Wooo lets do this! 


Alrighty, (hehe Brim ;] ) I got offered to go on this amazing four week trip around October last year by my  Uncle Dario and his partner Sarah, and the plane tickets for the three of us were booked the next day! It was pretty random and spontaneous and impulsive and GAPYEARISH hehehe, (I think we're back on our way to being better than Uni) :P I'd never really looked into travelling to Asia or had a massive interest in it all, but Sarah lived there for most of her life and we would be going to visit and stay with her family in Shenyang (North East, near Russia and North Korea); a huge cultural opportunity.

We made the most of the 20 days we were in China and did something cooool every single day... So I kinda can't compete with Brim's amazingly detailed description of her awesome trip to Balli (not saying she and her mum didn't do something cooool every single day, but she had a better way of writing all that coolness down), but I've got a plan (well it was actually Dario's suggestion)...

TOP TEN AMAZING EXPERIENCES IN CHINA! 


1. CHINESE NEW YEARS


The whole reason we were going to China was to spend time with Sarah's family for Chinese New Years, and OhMyGoodness it was amazing. Just the best. It lasted pretty much the whole time we were there too. Now I fully understand why some business' in Australia close because of the Chinese New Year... How could you not!!!?? The first day we were in China we went to the shops to buy food... I just cannot describe how incredibly and ridiculously busy it was; like Christmas in Aust, times 10000. 
New Years Eve was the third day we were there, on the 22nd January, and the atmosphere of the whole day was also just like Christmas at home. Decorating the windows with cut-outs using tooth paste and eating as much fruit as you can and spending the whole day with all the family. You could just tell there was something special happening... I dunno, it just didn't feel like any other normal day. Sarah, her sister and her mum spent the whole day cooking for dinner, which ended up being around 18 dishes for 5 people. Wooo! And it was delicious, except I wasn't keen on the silk worms. The jelly fish salad, pigs trotter and rabbit was good though! (Dario and I made a pact that we would try everything we were offered... and more, and also to use chopsticks the whole trip- we got pretty good at it too!) We were definitely very thankful that we didn't have lunch. That night it was tradition to make dumplings and eat them at midnight, we also made a few lolly ones that meant good luck if you randomly picked one to eat. It was also good luck to wear new socks into the new year and leave on lights in the rooms. That whole day sounded like a war/rain because of the amazing amount of fireworks... just incredible. Everywhere, they were just going off! We lit some that night too, but more on that laterrrr. Outside that day was completely different to the shops the first day, it was like a ghost town (except the fireworks) because everyone was with their family.
New Year's Day was also family-orientated, and we spent the day visiting Sarah's family and bringing fruit and juice as gifts, it was funny because there were all these other people walking around doing the same thing carrying heaps of fruit haha. But it all just went around in a huge circle cause when you visited each family they just stuffed you with heaps of fruit and nuts anyway hahah! Yum!
There were so many traditions and I really enjoyed experiencing everything that Chinese New Years had to offer, the culture it showed was really great to see, definitely memorable, and way more than any text book, or I guess internet page, could ever offer. 

2. FOOOOOD


As I said, Uncle Dario and I made a pact from the beginning that we would try everything we could... and we really did. Dog, donkey, pigs trotter, jelly fish, silk worm (definitely not silkworm'S), lilly stalk, boiled blood clot (dunno what of), fish from the Yalu river (border of North Korea/China), rabbit (I've tried it before but it was just sooo gooood), snails (even though that was in Melbourne), ducks tongue, liver aaaaand sea cucumber. I think it was the first day we all tried the dog dish, I didn't know it was dog (even though I have to admit I was keen to try it just to say I had) and I thought it was just a chewy, stringy bit of beef... Sorry Barney. My absolute favourite was these sticks that had quangdongs or strawberries on them, and they were all covered in toffee. So simple. So delicious. The quandongs were good cause it was like a sweet and sour taste and the strawberries were good cause they're strawberries. 
The whole time I was in China, I think I was only hungry when I was purposely starving myself because I knew there was a massive lunch or dinner planned for later on. Everybody there just wanted us to eat and eat and eat. It was so different to my usual menu, and yeah, I really did miss the food here- we may or may not have binged on Aussie junk food as soon as we got home hehehe. 

3. FAMILY


Again, the whole reason we were there was to visit Sarah's family. As soon as we met them, they made us feel reaaally welcome. They sacrificed heaps to make every single bit of our stay comfy and fun. Even Sarah's sister's in-laws were incredibly friendly to Dario and I. They were really happy to have us, and we couldn't even communicate with them, except for a few gue ne how's and xie xie's (happy new year and thank you). But laughter's the same in every language and there was plenty of that everywhere.
I got pretty close to Sarah's niece and nephew, 6 year old twins. They could read and write English at about the same level as an Aussi 6 year old, but they only spoke a little, but they did get heaps better at it by the time we left. They were really smart and cheeky, and for the whole trip I was "sister" :) 

4. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

The Great Waaaaaaall! It was pretty great... and no, I did not see any rabbits on either side of the wall... jeeez, the amount of people that have asked that :P We went to the most Eastern end of the Wall, the very start of it, 3 hours away from Shenyang. This bit was 1000's of years old, but it was not joined to the longer, famous bit of the wall when the emperor joined all the province's little walls together. This bit was by itself and protected China from Japan. It was over a huge hill/mountain and had a few death-trap-steep stairs that really could've been quite lethal... we couldn't stop imagining all the people who built the thing, or the soldiers who ran up and down those stairs that took you up and down the mountain... without railings! The views were amazing... and looking back at what you'd just walked was like looking at a post card. We kissed the Wall and did a dance on the Wall and then at the end we did victory snow angels :D (The cute little blue camera the girls got me for my 18th got a good work out this day- what a perfect present for my gap year adventures xx).
On the way to the Great Wall, we stopped at the Yalu River Broken Bridge. The Yalu River is the border of North Korea and China, so technically, because I went onto the other side of the bridge, I visited North Korea in my travels hahaha (even though the end bit of the bridge was blown up by American's ages ago and there was security or whatever on the other side so I didn't touch land... It's still their bit! Ha). It was a little eery cause they had built fake three story houses and chimneys and even a ferris wheel just to show China (which by the way, was just casually sporting around 50, 20 story buildings and what not) that they could build stuff too. No one lives in these houses cause they're not allowed to see the border... Yep. 
Anyway, The Great Wall- that's gotta be a point for team gap year right!??! I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to experience something so... hard to describe...and Great.

5. FIREWORKS


All. The. Time. Just, all the time. Everywhere, anywhere, anyone. Because it was New Years, everyone was taking advantage of the temporary cease of the fact that they're illegal... It was pretty cool to walk down the street and hear distant explosions of crackers and bombs and what not and then to have the absolute sh-life scared out of you cause someone just lit one off a couple of meters next to you.
We got to light some too hehehe >:D There was booths on a lot of the corners of the city's streets selling heaps of different kinds of fireworks, from little ones to 600 Yuan ($100) massive box better than the Silver City Show ones. We lit so many with the help of Sarah's brother in law, and we had to bend back just to see them in the sky. One night I decided (actually no, I didn't decide, I was actually asleep when Dario rang me to say they'd gotten some fireworks and to look out the window to watch them) to stay with the kids and look at them through the 7 story high window, cause they were lighting them in the little courtyard kinda thing in between the buildings. One kinda looked like it went off a bit low, then when I asked them later Dario said it hit a tree going up so it pretty much exploded right in front of them... fun. And "total disregard for our safety". Hahahaha, more so fun.
At night you  could see fireworks everywhere you looked, we were pretty much (when I say we, I mean Dario and I, not the 6 year olds) running from window to window all around the house to look at each one exploding... preeeettyyyy. In the morning's you woke up to crackers that kinda sounded like really really really heavy rain on a tin roof because the shop owners would let them off in front of their door when opening up their shop after New Year's Day, apparently this was to scare away bad spirits. It was just everywhere. And then Sarah's mother tells us there definitely isn't as much as there used to be.... WHAT!?

6. TORTURE CHAMBERS... Oh I mean the day/night spa thingy...


Yeaah... a tad awkward. But super cool. Kinda. So, Dario goes with Sarah's brother in law (Cinn) and comes back with these huuuuuge bruise things all over his back and has tails of bottles sucking up his skin and showering with all these men and getting his feet skin cut off and being "massaged" and washed all over, and decides that I just have to go experience the spa house, or whatever they call it. I was pretty keen for a massage, cause I'd never really had one before, and I just pushed out any doubt I had in my mind about what violating stories they had told me.
Ok so, I go into this place with Sarah and I take my shoes off, we go into a locker room and apparently this is where you are meant to get undressed. Yep. So next is showers, which is a room with shower heads around the walls, and massage table type things in the middle... yeah about that later. So showering and sauna-ing and being stared at by people because you usually get stared at fully dressed just cause you're a westerner so of course, this just must be so much more interesting for them. Now to the tables, I hop on and they exfoliated me, a lot, with milk. Enough about that. Then we got dressed into cute matching pj's and went up stairs and found Dario and Cinn in this snazzy little room with four beds and fruit. I then watched one of the most gruesome sites I have ever seen which is described as sucking the blood through the back muscles and then I guess just under the surface of the skin. The doctor (" ") gets these little bowl, bottle suctiony things and quickly puts a flame into it then takes it out and slams it onto Dario's back (repeat like 15 times) and then waits until you can see the skin rise/get sucked into the bottle like a big red mushroom thing and then they just pull it off.. how enjoyable. I got a full body massage, which included feet, legs, thighs, bum, head, shoulders, back... and I got my tummy rubbed. I know..? 
I have to admit that I did quite enjoy the experience, mainly just to say I've done it hahah... 

7. COLDNESS D;


Sooo... amazing doesn't always have to mean good amazing, but the temperatures really deserved a mention, it was the kind of mind boggling amazing. Keep in mind my favourite season is Summer, well was, until this trip kinda messed up my body thermostat kinda thing and I'm pretty much an ectotherm now and cannot, CANNOT tolerate heat like I used to.
It makes me sad to think of how cold it was. I knew it was going to be cold, and I was expecting it, but you can never imagine what that cold is going to feel like. It hurties. It just hurts... hahah, -28C, and the highest we got to was 0- on one of the last days. It was so cold, it couldn't even snow (until around the day it got to about 0). It was so cold, I wore 4 pairs of pants, 5 at night time. 5 layers of tops, minimum. And you know those doctor mask thingos that you see people overseas wearing because of the pollution and stuff? Turns out, they're just so you're nose doesn't fall off, and at least, if the cold does get through, and your nose does detach itself from your face, the mask will catch it and you wont have to go looking around the frozen spit covered street searching for it :) Very early on in the trip, when I wasn't aware of how incredible this cold was, even though I was wearing gloves I'm pretty sure I got like the very first, early signs of frost bite or something (hehe maybe, or maybe I'm a drama queen), I literally could not move my hand, and it was just so painful... SO painful. I could not go through that every winter, but then again, the twins didn't seem to mind too much, they're used to it I guess. 
The cold was definitely worth experiencing the Chinese New Year festivities, but it would have also been nice to enjoy the museums and the city in Autumn or Spring. But I wouldn't have changed it. 

8.SNOW SKIING


Woooo! Snow skiing! Funfunfunfunfun! Hahahah, although we did not go onto massively huge or steep slopes, I am proud to say that I have found a sport I am at least ok at. Hahahah the only time I fell over was my first go down, when I'd just completely surprised myself that I'd survived and I'd kind of slowed down next to Sarah and was waiting for Dario to come down and I could hear someone saying (maybe shouting) something in the distance. In hind site, I now realise this was probably GET OUT OF THE WAY in Chinese, but anyway, he took me down, good. And that's the only time I fell over :D So proud hehe. Even though I looked hilarious bending my knees and wearing my long orange coat, I enjoyed it so much I went again with the family and without Sarah and Dario.

9. BENXI WATER CAVES


Preeeeettty!! The water caves were really awe-inspiring. It was like a small boat ride through caves of rock formations and stalactites and stalagmites on crystal clear water, actually, it was exactly like that. It was really nice because they had placed coloured lighting in places to highlight the formations and it also made the water reflect off the rocks (and also because it wasn't too cold hehe). They also had signs that said the names of some of the rocks to describe what they looked like, like "water creatures bathing" and "waterfalls" (in English too!!). There was also a small lake outside the caves and you could see the steam rising off the surface of the water because of the temp- that was cool.

10. SHOPPING


All the shopping was really cool cause of the currency exchange ($10 = 60 Yuan) but there was one place that was just, incredible. I don't even know why it exists... But it does, and it's amazing. Whenever we went shopping in the malls or whatever, if I picked anything up Sarah or her sister would say "nah, don't buy it, we'll find something better and cheaper at the markets". The markets... They seemed to say this so many times that Dario and I were beginning to think the place didn't exist, and if it did, really, how good could it be? Turns out, pretty good. We went to a kind of shopping centre place that had around 3 stories to go souvenir shopping. In the building was row after row of around 2 meter square stalls that sold everything. There was just so many of them, like 1000's on each floor. Apparently there are other markets as well, like leather markets, clothes markets, furniture markets and postcard markets... ? I even started to haggle a bit towards the end, even though we spoke completely different languages, that lady knew I wasn't going to pay the extra 10 Yuan because that bag was from the floor and not packaged! And she definitely knew after Sarah came to my rescue and actually told her that... yeeep, I sure showed her. Wooo around $2 saved :D


Soooo I am REALLY glad I did that 10 AMAZING THINGS thing cause, even though I thought it would limit my rambling... that's a lot of words, and if you're still reading now, kudos to you. Very proud. 


I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to go on this trip and Sarah and Uncle Dario were amazing to take me, it was definitely the experience of a lifetime... even with the coldness :P I might even mention it was great to see people in Melbourne in the few days before and after the trip, like Uncle Armando :)


Again, a very sincere sorry for the delay, but I hope it was worth the wait. I hope to make it up to you as well, heaps has happened since this, but this post is just so massive... Anyway, thanks for reading and happy year of the dragon to you all!


Gue Ne How! 


-Licul


P.S more photos on facebook ;D