The Year in Review

This post is one I’ve been thinking about writing for a long time. Its probably gonna be all over the place and it won’t be all happy or all sad. Its just me…thinking out loud about the year that was 07 and how it has been for me.

Reflecting on my year has been something I’ve done since I was 13. On my thirteenth birthday my brother and his girlfriend of the time gave me a journal and I’ve kept one ever since. Its great to look back and read where I was at and what I was doing over the last 11 years. Its scary too and Thank God for people growing up and changing!!! And its important to me to analyze the year and learn from it.

Anyways 2007 was a massive year for me. Definitely a year of firsts. Some good and some bad. There’s really no other way of describing it. No, I guess there is…long, rough maybe. My gut feeling when I think of it is sadness. But then when I think about the good firsts I am so proud of myself. So proud that I made it through and not just made it…rather I did well. All my life I have considered myself not quite cool enough. Especially in high school. Its held me back in so many ways, I’m sure there’s amazing people I don’t know and things I haven’t tried because of it. Particularly in relation to sport at school I hardly ever tried new things because I always felt I wasn’t cool enough and so wouldn’t be any good. Examples of this would be snowboarding and surfing. Sports that have a very close relationship to cool people! But this year I’ve learnt both. At the beginning of 07 I went to Bondi for a weekend with Lilly and we spent a day learning how to surf. And it was amazing and so much fun and we weren’t that bad! And then in July Kaija, Carissa and I went up to Mount Hutt and spent a day learning how to snowboard. And again it was a million times more fun then I had hoped it would be and we weren’t the worst in the group! And I got another tattoo which I had wanted to get for years as it represented my family and they are so important to me.

And I finished my degree and I went to Thailand and Cambodia and moved to Australia (not a first but feels like it!!). And I made new friends (Nikki, Kaija’s group: the girl and the boy twins, barty, nashie) and I lost some and found old ones (thank you facebook).

But with good must come bad. May particular was a very tough month for our family. My brother had a major accident at work, our cat died, Sharyn got a B and I overdosed. These were first for our family. Firsts that none of us knew how to cope with. But we did and we’re getting better now. I think we all learnt an awful lot though.

And in November a girl I went to school with passed away. This was a first for me, having someone who I was friends with dying. My main memory of her from school is my wishing I was her. Of all the girls at high school she was the one I would most want to be. She was beautiful, funny, smart, fantastic at every sport, everyone liked her and she never let anyone walk over her. If she didn’t like something she’d say so. She was who I wanted to be. And now she’s gone and she leaves behind a beautiful little boy and lots of people who miss her more than they know how to say. I’m listening to the song by Sarah MacLachlan called Arms of the Angels that Jo sang at the funeral. And last night I accidently came across Time of Your Life by Green Day on my friends Ipod and Michael Jackson, You Are Not Alone will never be the same for me because that was the song that was played as she was carried out. I know its clichéd but she really will be sadly missed and never forgotten.

But now it’s 2008 and that brings with it a whole new set of challenges and experiences that I still don’t know about. New things, new places, new people, new feelings. This post feels a tiny bit clichéd but its not meant to be. And maybe if it's something I've been thinking about then others have too. So maybe we all do things this year that frighten us and grow us and may we get to 09 bigger better faster stronger. And may we all start blogging about it! Come on! Deb is fantastic with her blogging and maybe new years resolutions for you all should be to blog!

Jo xx

My apartment on the Gold Coast

I was going to email mum and dad some pictures of my new place but then realised Shaz and Deb etc might be interested too and so I thought where better to put photos than my blog. Just another fantastic use me thinks! And then Deb quietly suggested via the comments section of my last blog that perhaps it was time to do a new post. And its Sunday night and I'm a tiny bit bored so what better thing is there to do then show off the awesome place I'm living. So here goes:

This is my bedroom:

Walk in wardrobe and en suite beside my balcony. (love my photos like this too):

The main area, its a lot bigger than it looks and as you can see it was really cloudy so the view doesn't look very nice!!:

And last but not least I'd like to show you the gorgeous tiny wee baby gecko I found in my room yesterday. His name is Mr T (but feel free to make other suggestions) and I put the lid beside him so you can see how really really tiny he is:

Things from my travels

Things We Learnt:

1. No matter how amazing technology gets, there is still no better way to stop a vehicle rolling then to chuck wood behind the wheel. Even with an aeroplane:


2. When there is absolutely no space in the traffic, as in its bumper to bumper, a Bangkok taxi driver will still work his way through.

3. You can stare at someone on a train for as long as you like but sometimes you just can't tell if they're male or female.

4. You may think a motobike can only take 1 or 2 passengers but Thai and Cambodian people can always fit more on. For example, 5 family members or 3 gas cylinders, or 6 boxes or maybe a 2 or 3 metre piece of wood.

5. Food: sometimes you just don't know what you're eating. And you'll never know. Don't think about it.

6. Books: no matter how hard you try to give them away by leaving them in random places there will always be a nice person to come and try and give it back to you.


Quotes from our trip:

"Jo, can you remind me..."
"Stairs are a killer"
"Cold showers are great"
"This is so much funnier than it should be"

Possibly that section will only be funny to Kaija and me.

Cambodia and Thailand were amazing. I have loads of amazing photos to put up but I don't have time just now as tomorrow I move to Australia. Slightly stressed. I'll be fine I'm sure. I go to Melbourne for new years with my bro and his lovely Eva and then on Saturday I go to the Gold Coast. Should be fun times. Gonna miss Rokocoko an awful lot tho!!!

Stay tuned for updates on my adventures.

I'm a bit tired cos we just flew back to Bangkok from Siem Reap so this won't be a long or humorous post. Cambodia was amazing. It was so beautiful and the people were lovely and the food was great and the shopping was cheap. I miss it already! We're off to do a bit more shopping now and then back to crash at our hostel. We're off to Bann Kruit tomorrow for a few days. Very much in need of some beach time so that's what we're gonna do! Check our www.thailandbeach.com for where we're staying. Think its gonna be pretty amazing. I'll write more when I am awake and when I can put photos on which is probably when I'm back in christchurch.

Oh we went to Angkor yesterday. It was AMAZING! Google it if you don't know about it. We took some really great photos so stay tuned.

And Andrew, we're staying at Bangkok Centre Hostel in Bangkok. We stayed in Riverside Hotel in Phnom Penh and Mandalay Inn in Siem Reap. All awesome places.

Take a breath and...Walk!

That's something Kaija and I say a lot. Its how you cross the road here. I'm in Phnom Penh in Cambodia by the way. It's mad here. Absolutely no road rules but it works so well. We haven't seen any traffic accidents. People just drive through intersections and nobody hits each other. Its scary at first but now that I've watched it for a day I don't mind it at all. Crossing the road took ages for the first couple of times but now we see that you just keep on walking. Everyone moves for you and its no problem.

The money gap is massive here and so obvious. There's people begging everywhere and motorbikes and all that and then suddenly a brand new toyota hilux ute will drive past you or maybe a lexus, shiny and black. There's no in between.

There's dogs everywhere. I think its great because for me animals are a really reassuring thing. When I'm having a bad time there's nothing that'll make me feel better then playing with a dog or cat. And the animals here just don't care about humans eh. They sleep on the road or at the top of the stairs in the train station and won't even flinch when people walk past them. There's loads of puppies around. Its terrible at the same time though. These animals are homeless and hungry and we can't touch them cos of the fleas and sickness that they have. Its great but its so sad. Sometimes I just can't look eh.

Moving along. Today we went to the Russian Market which was awesome. Then Tol Sleun Museum or S.21. It was a school but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison. I think 14,000 prisoners went in and only 7 came out alive. They killed whole families because of the theory of "getting rid of the roots to get rid of the grass". It was hard to walk around but beautiful at the same time. After that we went to the Independence monument which wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped for. Next we tried to get go to the Royal Palace but couldn't get in cos one of us was wearing a tshirt. We also went to another market today but that wasn't as good as the Russian.

Tomorrow we are going up to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. Should be fun eh.

There's so much to write but I forget by the time we finally find a Internet Cafe!

Oh we feel like celebrities here eh. Everywhere we go there's people asking us if we want rides on tuktuks or motos. It's hard out. They're really nice about it but by the end of today we are very tired of it. And when you walk anywhere near a stall they ask if you want to buy what they're selling. Or there's kids walking around selling water, glasses or books.

Better go. Tired now!

We have arrived!!

So we managed to make it to Bangkok, despite getting into the international departures lounge in Melbourne without a boarding pass or anything!! And Kaija getting stopped at every check point for having something wrong in her bag even though she didn't. And despite someone in Melbourne being dumb enough to refuel the wrong plane...does it not cross someone's mind that maybe the plane going to Sydney doesn't need 67,000 litres of fuel when it only takes about 12,000 to get there?? And that the one going to Bangkok might need fuel? So 2 hours of sitting on the tarmac later we got on our way.

We sat next to a lovely couple who were from Laos but have lived in Sydney for 30 years. And behind a priest who we're 97% certain wasn't actually a priest and after listening to his conversations we found out he thinks that the holocaust was fake and that 9/11 was a set up. Hmmm...and he had an american accent but claimed to not have been able to speak english until he got to australia. Hmmmm

Better go...shopping to do!!!

So yesterday I sat my last exam of my degree...its all done. Feels pretty good eh. No more assignments! No more exams! No more stupid 8am classes!

And monday Kaija and me go to Thailand. I've been packing today...bit of a mission! And I got attacked by the travel section of the chemist...dangerous!! So many convenient little bottles etc.

Keep checking for regular show off posts from overseas!!!