Final Words To My Readers

hey everyone, I’m home for good in Perth. Thanks for reading, it’s been an interesting journey abroad with many lessons learnt and many experiences cherished. Thanks for joining with me as I did this, thanks for your comments and your questions. I can only hope I haven’t bored your socks off and caused a mass slumber party across the world.

This will probably be my last blog from here until I start travelling again – which probably won’t be too far away.  In time, I mean, not distance, heck, if I go somewhere, I have to make it worth it! I might start a proper opinionated blog sometime in the future and I’ll link it to here if I do. But I might take a break from being out in the www and enjoy being here in my little ol’ hometown.

My next few months in Perth look set up (well, getting there) and I’m sure many crazy times will be had. Drop me a line if you want to know more.

Other than that, have a great life. It’s been real.

Keep it real

Keep the faith

and about all

keep up the madness.

kez

going walkabout

hey all! i’m writing this on my dad’s phone – thus the craziness!!
i’m in south australia finishing up the very last part of my months long ‘trip’. at themo, i’m on walkabout, out bush somwhere enjoying the unique heat. won’t ever complain about it, still have 2.5 months of internal deep freezer defrosting to do.
love the aussie outback, especially in summer, when i get out here the most. it’s dry, its parched, it’s a scorcher, but it’s home and i suppose i never really realised the importance of it to each person.
i’ve also been blessed with a good amount of down time to read about my hero, adam gilchrist, and reflect on life. and watch movies! mum’s been watching the hopman cup on tv – shes the tennis buff of the family.
oh, dads back and we are driving now
… so, catch ya at the real final complete end of my 7 months travelling..
kezza. aussie girl.

Click Your Heels Together Three Times…

G’day.

Oh man, the joy that comes from saying that. I didn’t not even imagine how excited and happy I would be to be even back on Aussie soil, let alone in my home town, in my home.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. After an hour plus hour drive from Abbotsford to Vancouver, I caught a plane from Vancouver to Los Angeles, 3 hours, spent almost 12 hours in the airport (yes, I went a tad nutty by the end), caught a HUGE A380 Qantas flight to Melbourne and made myself not get distracted by the sickly awesome tv screen in front of me with the 100+ movies and music and shows and instead tried to sleep… 15 hours later, arrived in Melbourne and there was sun and heat and Australian Open posters and australian people and NO WAITING to get through immigration and easy customs (cos I know the drill!) and a short walk to the domestic terminal. A quick change of clothing (man did I ever smell bad!) and then onboard my flight to Perth. 4 hours.

Total travelling time: 41 hours.

I was and still am so very excited to be home. Everything that was ‘once routine is now the perfect joy’. Small things are so precious -  seeing the rabbits and my brother’s home and the cricket on tv and australian currency. I had’t expected to feel like this, since when I came home from Zambia, it was nice but not so powerful. Maybe because the cultures of North America and Australia are similiar enough to veil the differences for awhile.

I love weating t-shirts outside, and shorts, and no shoes. I love not having to spend alot of time putting on different clothes to go outside and then taking them off again upon arrival. I love blue skies! I realised I hadn’t seen a good clear blue sky in a long long time and it was… well, really powerful again. I love being around mum and grandma and seeing my brother and sister-in-law and the new baby and the dog. I love hearing the australian accent on children. I love saying ‘rubbish’ and ‘wheelie bins’ and ‘petrol’ and ‘thongs’ (!!) and ‘Coke’ (!!) and having people not look at me strangely. I love being on the left-hand-side of the road and sitting on the left-hand side of the car in the passenger seat.

I love my home. I spent several moments of yesterday, while it was 6:30pm and ridiculously sunny still, basking in the warmth and wondering why anyone, including me, could possibly ever leave this place.

My trip to Canada is over, but I don’t feel regretful for coming home or miss the country as a whole … because of everything, it was the people that made it awesome and most of them have changed locations by now so nothing can ever be the same as it was. It’s a bittersweet thing.

I’ll continue to write on this blog, because blogs are forever, and because tomorrow I leave again to fly to Adelaide for 12 days. Yes. I am crazy. Jet lag at the mo isn’t too bad, the sleep on the 15 hour flight meant my body thought it was night and went with that, I’m just a bit exhausted physically. I’ll go have an instant coffee (no more drip coffee!!) and sit in the sunshine and see my unintelligent rabbits and walk down the lane and visit grandma and unpack my bag only to repack it again.

Hello Australia, it’s so good to be home.

love kez.

P.S. As I was walking off the LA-Melbourne flight, ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ was playing in the plane and I smile. So appropriate.

I have been to New York.

The Plan.

Ok, without wanting to speak too soon, let’s hope this is my last blog from Canada…

Tomorrow, at some ridiculously early hour we will drive to the airport far, far away and be there 2 hours early and catch my plan to LA.

That’s the plan.

Christmas was nice and white and homey. It was nice to share it with Luke and his family and it was pretty chillaxed and they even got me presents so that was nice. My Relient K CD also arrived (since it was kidnapped in Caleb’s cd played and taken to Saskatchewan) yesterday so that means I can take it home with me

All my aussie friends and family, hope to see you soon (28th we are hoping for!).

Love kez

Reflecting, the Morning After.

The delirium of last night has faded, and here I am, still in BC.

Hahaha, it SNOWED last night. Massively. As soon as the clocked turned over to Wednesday, it began to snow and is still going. There is power in my words I tell ya. I don’t care anymore though, if it snows. Bring it on, whatever! If I never get home until April because every flight is snowed in then WHO CARES?!

Mmm maybe the delirium hasn’t stopped.

For all you great ones, here are some photos to keep you going.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88557&l=507c5&id=719152526

I should have bought some snow pants…

kez.

‘They Lied to Me Through Song… I Hate When They Do That’ – Homer Simpson

There’s this song that I don’t really know, and it’s playing around in my head… just one line really…

“I’ll be home… for Christmas…”

I’ll be home for Christmas. I’ll be in Vancouver for Christmas.

I didn’t get snowed in. It didn’t even snow. It seems my habit of speaking to the heavens still pays off, I did my part anyhow - no snow at all today. But, alas, around this great cold nation of Canada, it has been snowing and delaying and cancelling flights and combined with the effect of catching up from Sunday’s nutso delayed and cancelled flights in Vancouver, all equalled a delayed flight to LA.

Not usually a problem for normal boring plebs, but of course, I can never do anything the normal way, no, I have to fly all the way to Perth, the middle of nowhere, and so my delayed flight just wouldn’t cut it. I wouldn’t connect. I knew it, the lady at the desk knew it, and all the people waiting in the line knew it. So I had to reschedule or wait for 3 days in LAX for an opening on a flight. 3 days here VS. 3 days there…. here there is a shower and that is good.

New rescheduled flight, due to bad weather, has me leaving Vancouver on the 26th and getting into Perth on the 28th. Not quite Christmas, but certainly earlier than the end of March which it was looking like before. It’s okay, I can deal with that. I leave Perth on the 30th for Adelaide, so I’m really going for EXTREME JETLAGGING*, but that’ll be fun too. My beautiful unmet newphew is also flying to Adelaide on the 29th, giving me very little time to squeeze the cuteness out of him (cos we all know how long that will take, he’s extremely cute).

I am disappointed that I won’t be in Perth as soon as I’d thought, hope deferred makes the heart sick. Let’s hope it’s not deferred for too long. But still, I can’t ever live in sadness for too long, because it’s a waste of opportunity and this is a good time to tick off my experience card:

þ White Christmas

þ delayed so long I missed a flight

þ Spent Christmas with a family that I hardly know

All good things to have done in my life. It’s getting longer, that card.

So, looks like just a few more blogs are to come. I’ve got to go unpack now and sort out all the stuff I gave away that I’ll still need (my snow boots!!… but it’s okay, Luke still has them). Hope y’all don’t miss me too much – I’ll get home. One day. Maybe for Christmas next year…

kezza.

* it’s a new sport I invented for all those who love travel.

 

and the moral of the story is…

Ahaha, I see page views have dropped off since I’m coming home so soon… or am I?

Ummm, no, I still am. Just wanted to create some suspense ALTHOUGH *sigh*. It’s always the way when you love something that you end up hating it. Well, not always the way. In fact, not most of the time, but it is in this case so here it is: Snow.

Snow.  Beloved traitor of the species. Some snow is fun and magical and new and mystical and all a bit wonderful. But too much equates with Kerryn’s coldness and bad roads and cancelled events. And if cancelled events turns into my flight to LA from Vancouver, Kerryn will be muchly mad at snow.  It’s not that I don’t love the winter wonderland of Northern America, it’s just that my heart is set on a summer scorcher in Australia. Beloved homeland.

I had heard that it was predicted snow for Monday, Tuesday, and well, today is Monday and it’s been clear. I have ordered the skies to be sown up for the next two days… clear until Wednesday is by me, then it can snow all it likes as long as I’m gone. Hey, if Elijah can have some power over the skies….

(granted, this is slightly more self-centred but.. I just want to go home.)

I spent a lovely weekend with the Gair family, whom our family knows when the couple spent a year on exchange in Perth and taught my brother and I music and choir. Now, 13 years later, we have caught up and seen life in a Canadian household. We sought and cut down the family Christmas tree, endured large amounts of snow (1 foot and then later 7 inches) and made gingerbread men, which I have now eaten too much of and cannot possibly eat more for at least a few hours…

Not sure if this’ll be my last posting from big ol’ COLD Canada, but it just might be. It’s been a crazy experience with many lessons learnt along the way, and many, many precious characters met and connected with. It’s the people that make experiences awesome. And that is why I am coming home, home to friends and family and newly-born nephews and bunny rabbits. That, and hot, hot sun. The sun also makes experiences awesome. It always will. Please never let me fly to a cold place again.

the end.

kez.

kez.

Pining Away For Home..

I know there are only a few days to go of my trip, and I really am having a good time filled with much enjoyment.. but… there’s no place like home. *sigh*

I went to the movies last night and saw ‘Australia’ with Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and directed by Baz Luhrman. Again, *sigh*

I think I got so much out of it, since I’m far, far from home and everything reminded me of life back in Oz, from the scorched earth to the diggers marching along in their uniforms to the Australian crest at the beginning with the kangaroo and the emu. Home.

I understood so much more of the context and history than American audiences would have and so I can see why they wouldn’t think it was that great, but I still loved it. And a very ripped Hugh Jackman is never a bad thing.

I’m off to hang out with my friend from YWAM today and see her family..

have a great day, see you on the 25th..

Kez.

Crisis Averted…

HI everyone! Turns out I am alive, after a crazy cold day at Whistler, we left to a myriad of ambulances and fire people and came home to find out one of the towers on the gondola rides up the Blackcomb Mountain had partially collapsed. We had been on the mountain only an hour or so before, although I don’t think we went on that lift – only the Whistler one and the Peak2Peak ride. So, as you can see, accident at Whistler, but I am okay.

God’s looking after me, and I’ll have some photos to post once I’ve defrosted. It was stupidly cold. But I found the one place where I could wear my snow boots and finally fit in.

Peace out kids, coming home in… 9 days. Back to the warmth.

Oh, P.S. There are so many bloody Australians in Whistler I wanted to ask them, ‘why don’t you get a room country?’

Changing Timezones, and lives.

Greetings from Abbotsford, BC!

I’ve changed provinces again, this time to one with a good amount of weed and a provincial tax. Welcome to British Columbia.

My flight was slightly delayed, and security was a bit of a bore, but otherwise it was fairly uneventful, other than meeting my internet friend for the first time at the other end. It wasn’t as awkward as we’d both anticipated, which is a pity because we do both like a good awkward moment. It’s snowing here, a balmy -6C and I was about ready to pull out my t-shirt since we’d been leaving on a -25C day in Blackfalds. So lovely and cold. I might even miss it.

Another 12 days and I am home. This time in BC I hope will be relaxing and different and fun and packed full of Guitar Hero 3. Much love.

Photos, I am sure, will ensue, so if you are on Facebook, feel free to check them out.

Peace out my liberty-loving friends…

kez