fun in the sun

well this week has been nice but beleive it or not i'm getting a bit worn out. is it possible to have too much fun and sunshine?
a couple days ago we went to bellows beach. i used to go there a lot as a kid with my grandma nammy and various other family members - my mum has six brothers and sisters and there were many family gatherings with little erin. its not at all toursity at bellows, sometimes we'd be the only ones on the beach. its part of a US air force station and you need someone from the military to get in. it was no problem in the past considering dad, mom, granddad, and my uncles chris and bill were all in the air force/ army or coast guard. i remember the basic cabins that we'd all stay in three metres from the beach, it was windswept and peaceful. my uncle chris got married under the casuarinas and my grandmas ashes were scattered in the waves.
uncle bill's the only one still serving, so he let us all in. we went boogie boarding and while we were out in the waves my cousins steph and kayley told a cute story about when they were last boogie boarding there. they had floated around complaining about the lack of waves when they suddenly smelled nammys perfume, and a whole set of awesome waves came in. there were some great ones for us that day, too, it was cool fun.
so we swam and walked along the beach, which is surrounded by those beautiful and majestic hawaiian mountains, all volcanic and striking and green. we lay around in the sun, and played some beach soccer (i defended with my usual vigour, but had to leave the field injured after a devastating slide tackle to my sister, and my knee came off for the worse)
and we've been to waikiki twice - thats way touristy but still ok, the waters been really nice. katie went and had a surfing lesson and did really well, it was fun watching. i didnt bother i knew i'd suck.
we went to pearl harbour and saw the arizona memorial. they had quite a decent documentary about the whole pearl harbour attack, i thought it would be over the top yay-america but it was balanced, and moving. i expected to cry cos i always do with these type of things but i was fine.
and today we went back out to shark cove and this time we saw eight turtles! i've been really, really spoiled. the family are feeding me every night theres a different delight. its funny it's like being a kid again. mum and nick and my uncles etc (aka the old fogies) sit at one table and drink wine while my me and my siblings and cousins etc ( aka the kids) sit at another, just like old times, when our average age was 12, not 22. but hey, i'm not gonna complain its heaps of fun and soooo cruisy.

just lovely

I.Love.Snorkelling.
yesterday we took a convoy of killions (theres about 13 of us here at the moment) through the pineapple fields, past the lovely mountains to the north shore of oahu. shark bay was this nice little lagoon with water that was really sparkley. like you know how when you go to the beach and its late afternoon and the sun catches the water and it sparkles? well it had that sparkle all day. and coral and fish fish fish. bright orange and blue ones, ones that looked like rosellas only they were fish (think about it), polka dotted ones, big massive ones and nemo fish, and much to troys enjoyment we saw what is known in hawaii as a humuhumunukunukuapua'a. its a real fish google it. and there was this lovely school of little yellow ones with black stripes that we got to swim over. it was all so pretty i looked down and went oh! then went oh! at the next fish and oh! again it was very exciting. but thats not the best bit.
i saw three turtles! the first one was out on the other side of the bunch of rocks sheltering the bay. i am normally a bit of a woos when it comes to swimming out far and deep but i was so excited and followed my brother out there and in a minute there was this massive turtle. john-ashleigh touched it, so of course i had to. it was all slippery like it had moss growing on it. j.a. said it turned around and looked annoyed like it was gonna bite me, but it didnt. then we went around another corner and there were two more, one the same size and a smaller one. and i was so excited that i had to share, and made troy come out again (he'd just gotten dry) and he proceeded to chase the little one around this rock. the wildlife probably hate us now. but anyway it was sooo nice and fun and relaxing.

and today we went to waikiki and hung out at the beach. the waters really clear blue and next week we're gonna go back and sail. even doing the dishes is fun, we had the accompaniment of my cousin kayley on ukelele while we cleaned. ahh this is so good and i just walk around thinking yay! all the time.

aloha

here in honolulu, after a hellish flight. guess who came down with a cold the day before we left? moi. stuffy head and sore throat and yuck - so all that dry airplane air and the descent into honolulu was just GREAT it felt like someone was stabbing me in the ears.

but i'm not a whinger cos we walked outside and the warm humid hawaiian air filled my little lungs and i was happy! i'm home! my uncles bill and mike placed some beautiful fragrant leis around our necks as we walked out of the airport, it made me smile. ah the deep green volcanic mountains and sun its just lovely. but havent done much as yet, just slept at my uncle mike/aunt susan/cousin steph and kayley's house.
mom and the rest of my fam arrived this morning and we went to our condo - AKA the party house - where me, troy, my brother john-ashleigh, his girlfriend mikaela and my sis katie are staying, while the folks bed down with the relos. now we're all arguing about what we're gonna do for the next two weeks. but seriously its great to be amongst family, i love them all to bits. my uncles etc are so friendly even though i havent seen half of them for a decade, and its good to spend some quality time with the siblings before i leave them for a year or two.
the fun starts tomorrow we're rising early for the australia-brazil game then its markets and beach and snorkelling woohoo!

George Bush vs the Ents

George Bush vs the Ents
It was a rainy Monday morning last week, one of my first days after finishing work. My train-driving friend Bea came up to Newy to visit me, have lunch and say bon voyage. I dragged her out to the dog beach for a demo for World Environment Day.
Newcastle harbour - AKA the worlds biggest coal port- was the target for this action. The coal industry wants to expand coal exports from the Hunter, and are getting a truckload of money from the state and federal governments to build new rail lines for their coal, and dredge Newcastle harbour to make it deeper for more coal ships. Despite local communities like Anvil Hill opposing any increase in mining due to its effects on the environment and peoples health- residents in the mining areas have sky high rates of asthma, COPD, and other nasties and theyre over it.
Anyhoo, Rising Tide, a climate change group in Newy, put on the action for World Environment Day, and it captured my imagination. People were gonna go out in boats and have a symbolic blockade of the coal ships to make the point we need to reduce coal exports, not increase them, if we all want a future for humanity.
A noble cause. But lets remember its been organised by hippies so theres the inevitable comedy about it. There were many in wetsuits and kayaks, brave given the cold. I wanted a staying-dry boat option, and we were shown our canoe. Driver Bea ran the other way screaming. Yet strangely it was not the least seaworthy vessel there. There were the two guys who no doubt were trying to make some point about recycling, who strung together some of those big plastic water containers, a couple bread crates, some piping and god knows what else, and set sail. They got about 2 metres off shore before the thing collapsed, much to the amusement of the on-shore wooses such as myself.
Yes we opted for the on shore, holding placards, listening to speeches course of action. But there were some touching moments, too, like when someone made a space for a tree in their canoe, and took it to the front lines on the harbour, its leaves glistening in the rain, where it stood up for all flora facing extinction. It reminded me of the Ents of the Lord of the Rings. We sure could use some of them in this movement; some pissed off trees kicked George Bush's lily-white Texan-oil arse.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a morning, especially when we followed it up with some coffee and yummy lunch. Thanks for coming Bea, it was memorable.

haiku for cass

how lucky we are

the universe brought you forth

to make us all smile


how emo is blogging making me!

fun

well well what a night! had an absolute ball with the beautiful nurses of 5g last night. it had it all - great food, too much alcohol, drunken conversations about sex, uncontrollable laughter and about seventy billion hugs. and dancing! and presents! and a lift home at the end! these people are the sweetest and most fun ever! why am i leaving?
oh yeah, cos i'm going on an ADVENTURE! YAY! the countdown is on! 8 more sleeps and troy and i will be zooming off to hawaii and beyond.
i must say this is the happiest i've been in a bloody long time and i've got a feeling its gonna last. so stay tuned cos soon i'll be let loose on the planet. who knows what will happen?

me

this is what i like to wear when i'm going out on a hot date ;) nah, its me dressed up for mikaela's alice in wonderland party. i was hot though, literally. wearing a sleeping bag isnt as comfortable as it sounds.