And so the time has come. I've decided to start myself a new blog. One that is not so much about trying new things – although I do still hope to keep that up from time to time – but more about my daily life and experiences. It’s more an online diary for myself, and anyone else who chooses to stop by.
So, to any of my thing-a-day pals who still stop by (and lets face it, I won’t be offended if you don’t, given that I haven’t posted in months), thank you for the inspiration and friendship, and feel free to come visit me over in my new home:
Wow, I can’t believe I have been neglecting my blog for more than 3 months :( But I have a super excuse. Truly. I’ve been crazy busy with my biggest new thing so far: I have gone back to uni (part-time) as a postgraduate student to get my Masters degree in Clinical Psychology!
It’s a big challenge balancing uni assignments, my normal job and all my family/friends/boyfriend commitments, but it is SO completely worth it! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the course, and I feel so content as I study, because it really feels like I’ve made the right career choice. Not to mention I get to take these super-cool subjects like Advanced Psychopathology, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Processes. Sigh, it’s great.
So I’m not sure how frequently I’ll be posting, what with assignments and all, but obviously I’ll be doing heaps of interesting new things: like learning to diagnose people, to administer therapy, to give intelligence tests etc, so I’ll try to stop by and record my experiences – I think this little blog will be a nice way for me to remember the crazy learning curve once I’m all qualified.
And PS even though I haven’t been updating, I always check in on all your blogs, and it gives me such great pleasure in my study breaks – thanks to all you consistent bloggers!
Toward the end of last year, I signed up as a volunteer for an Australian telephone crisis helpline called Lifeline. Since then, I have been attending weekly training sessions for the last 4 mths, to learn the proper counselling techniques, and I’m proud to say that I have now finished training, and this month I had my first two sessions on the phones as a fully-fledged lifeline worker!
I have learned so much already from the two sessions that I have had on the phones. At some stages it can be almost physically heartbreaking to hear the pain of some of the callers, and to try to lessen the burdens they carry, but it has been a beautiful experience at the same time. It has made me 100 times more grateful for my happy little life and everything in it that I so often take for granted.
Connecting with these people, and being the one who listens to their fears and struggles in life has been one of the best things that I have ever done.Even when it is horrific, scary, and desperately sad, it is at the same time uplifting, hopeful and tender :)
These are just some of the things I’ve learned from my callers:
There are those in this world who have no one to listen to them: appreciate those who listen to you
There are those who have no one to hug them: give hugs freely to all who are important to you
There are those who feel like there is no reason worth living for: love what you do and savour the passions you all have
There are those who feel so alone in the world: do what you can to strengthen your community and reach out to those who seem lost or isolated.
There are those who feel like they would not be missed: tell your loved ones what they mean to you. Every day.
We are lucky, lucky people to live the lives that we do.
Wow, I have been away from the blogging world far too long. Can't tell you all how lovely it was to return from my holiday and check in on all your new adventures, read about your Christmas celebrations etc. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and new year - from the looks of it you all did :)
Mine was, of course, full of new things. The biggest and best would be after Christmas when my boy and I rented a camper van and went exploring down the south coast of Australia. The south coast of Australia was stunning, and I had no idea that there were so many untouched beaches and sweet little towns to see.
Our happy holiday was filled with swimming, exploring, cooking, sampling local delicacies, counting down the new yearwith other travelling friends, and just enjoying some quality time together.
Our little tent
Among other new things, I did these on the trip:
Visited a cheese factory
Drove the above camper van myself - scary!
Made bread and butter pudding - and on a camp stove too (it was delicious, I will post the recipe!)
Bet on a horse race (at the new years day races) - it didn't win
Tasted chocolate port - yummy
Tasted smoked cheese - as above
Tasted choc mint and choc orange fudge - delicious
And best of all...received a piece of jewellery that was designed just for me - by my wonderful boyfriend - i love love love it!
Bega Cheese Factory - how cool!
Yours truly at some ridiculously early hour - ugh
Wow. So many new things and so much fun. This brief trip showed me for sure that there are so many wonders to see within my own country, and I hope that 2009 will allow me to discover many more of them.
Wishing you all a happy new year full of new adventures, new joys and new ways to give.
I am so excited about the new thing that I will be doing tomorrow, which is packing Christmas Hampers for needy families with Basket Brigade. They are a fantastic organisation who provide hampers full or food, clothing and other necessities to those most in need over the christmas season.
I love this little description from their website:"The Basket Brigade is founded on a simple notion: one act of generosity on the part of one caring person can transform the lives of hundreds. It takes only one light to dispel the darkness and just one basket to bring hope."Who are the inspiring people behind these organisations? Well hopefully I will meet some of them tomorrow on packing day. And, if I get lucky, I might be able to be involved in Delivery Day. I would absolutely LOVE to see the happiness of those families as they receive their Christmas Hampers!
Credit for this new thing must go to Kathy and her Advent Conspiracy post for getting me inspired about giving my time and effort to those in need this Christmas, and to the fab Empower Magazine who ran an article on different ways to give at christmas, which was how I found our about Basket Brigade
Well, it's official. I am in LOVE with New Zealand. I didn't expect to be so overpowered by emotion and awe during my trip, but it truly was like that. The scenery was stunning at every turn - I could and probably will post thousands of pictures. I'm hoping to learn how to make a nice collage using Picasa which I will then upload - but that's a new thing for another day. For now, this entry is dedicated to the new experience of my glacier walk, which surpassed all my expectations.
Here we are, at the start of the trek with our icepicks. It was Simply Spectacular - I can only say it was the most incredible, overpowering experience. The amazing natural world is hard to believe sometimes - I was in awe of the size of this incredible mass of ice, the beauty of the ice caves, the intricacy of the shapes made by crevaces and just the fact that I was literally trekking through a world of ice!
Here is the mighty Fox Glacier in all her majesty. We flew up and over in a helicopter (also a first for me and very exciting!) and then landed, strapped crampons on our hiking boots and began to trek with our ice-picks.
Here is our guide inside one of the many stunning ice-caves we ventured into. The formations and colours of the ice were so beautiful.
This is me with my Mum, Aunt and Uncle on the glacier. As you can see the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm - you work up a sweat with all that trekking. And finally below is me with the ice-pick, experiencing how hard it is to carve a path through this field of ice!
All in all, SUCH a fantastic experience - my best new thing so far in terms of adventures. You feel so alive and so feel in touch with nature. I recommend it so wholeheartedly if any of you ever make it to NZ.
Sigh, I have been having some technical issues with my blog this month – something to do with invalid html formats?Who knows, but it has stopped me from publishing posts several times – very frustrating. Now it all seems fine again, so I have backposted the entries about my adventures in the new this month. Even though I haven’t been posting, I’ve still been out there doing, exploring and giving. Happy reading!
This week I am off to New Zealand with my mum and my favourite aunt and uncle who are visiting from England. I’m super-excited about both the week off work and the chance to explore the stunning landscape of our neighbouring country. I haven’t been there since I was 9 years old, and I don’t really remember that trip, so I feel like I’m going for the first time. I’m sure I’ll return with lots of tales of new adventures and experiences, but one that I’m really looking forward to already is the Fox Glacier walkthat I booked as an early christmas surprise for my mum!
Basically you walk across the glacier through some incredible ice-caves and frozen rivers, exploring the intricate ice-formations. It looks amazing, and just the kind of thing my Mum will love. It’s like nothing we could ever do here, which makes it even better as a gift. I can’t wait to surprise her on the day – I’ll post some pics of it when I get back, but for now here are some from the web. Doesn't it look spectacular? I can't wait! More news when I get back
My year of new discoveries and adventures. I'm hoping to have a year full of traveller-style fun without leaving NSW (well occasionally I hope to venture to other states, but mostly, the focus will be new things as part of my every-day life, in my every-day hometown). By making lots of my new things charitable, I also hope to give something back to my local community and the city that has made me so happy for 23 years :)
I want this to be a space full of snapshots of my life right now, as I’m living and loving it. The adventures and the quiet times, the fun and the hard work of my current full time working + part time student life. To help me remember every piece of the years gone by, and to motivate me to make the most out of each day, to squeeze every last drop of fun and pleasure out of the opportunities that come my way.
Please feel free to contact me at every.lastdrop [at] hotmail [dot] com
