Make a difference this Christmas

Hi again kids!

Just a quick little blog entry tonight that I really wanted to do, as it is a little time dependant.

I was out shopping today, trying to get some inspiration for Christmas gifts, and I bought the Myer Spirit of Christmas album for myself. This is something I do every year (I think I have about 20 of these albums! Almost every single one since they actually began producing them in 1993!) as they are always chock a block full of fantastic Christmas carols sung by an array of great Australian artists, and the money made from the sales of the album goes directly to the Salvation Army, who do so much great work all year round, but especially at Christmas, for those less fortunate than you and me.

ANYWAY. It really got me in the mood to do something for others this Christmas. I spent several Christmases when I was at university volunteering with Lifeline, Apex and the Starlight Children's Foundation at many of their Christmas events. It was always gobs of fun and something I thought was really important and really enjoyed being apart of. Unfortunately these days with my flying schedule and my odd work hours I can't commit to stuff like this anymore.

So tonight I was trying to think of some other way I could make someone's Christmas that little bit brighter this year. And then I remembered that a few years back I had read somewhere about sending care packages to our diggers who are currently serving overseas. I absolutely loved the idea and eagerly filled two boxes to send away (of which there are pictures below - I can't believe the pics are still in my phone, but I do remember being proud of these boxes and so I guess that's why I took the photos of them and kept them for like four years!).

 

So tonight I have done some searching to find the details to send away some Christmas care packages and I wanted to share this with you all, in the hope that you too might make a package to send away this Christmas to show you care and are thinking of our troops during a time when I know they are all wishing so much that they could be back with their families and enjoying Christmas like the rest of us.

I have found a fantastic blog with all the details you could need - www.oceanskykhaki.blogspot.com.au - but if you don't have time to go have a squiz through this website fully, just know that if you head to an Australia Post outlet and buy yourself a B2 or BX sized box and fill this with goodies such as roll on deodorant, lollies, tissues, pens, writing paper, magazines, toiletries, biscuits, tinned food, socks, games, chewing gum and coffee and tea, you can send it free of charge, as long as it is under 2kg in weight, to our awesome guys and girls serving overseas.

Address it as follows...

An Australian Defence Member
AFPO 60
Australian Defence Force NSW 2890

...and make a soldier's day a bit brighter, and their Christmas a whole lot better than it would've been before your package.

These amazing soldiers are making such a sacrifice for us - let's show them we are thinking of them and care about them this Christmas! You can send your packages to this address until December 8th, 2014, and if you get them in before then, they will be delivered in time for Christmas Day.

Jorgs

The ecstasy of friendship

As soul crushing as it is to have a friend like the one I described in my last post, where it is such a shame that that friendship is no longer, I also thank my lucky stars for many of the other people who have floated into my circle and had a positive impact. Here is the story of one such gem…

I have done two Contiki tours in my time, both around Europe, and I truly loved those experiences for so many reasons, but most of all because I got to meet and make friends from all over the world that I still have to this day. Of course I don’t still speak to all of them, but I have become very close with one in particular, and the way this started off took me pleasantly by surprise.

My first Contiki to Europe in 2009 was the most glorious whirlwind. It was my first trip overseas by myself, a three month party that I had saved two years for. I met so many great people and after three weeks on a tour bus, the thirty or so guys and girls I shared my adventure with were like family.

I kept in touch with many in the years after the tour ended, and in Melbourne a few years later I caught up with one Contiki sister, who I hadn’t even really been that buddy buddy with on tour, but who I still had had a blast with. We went out for dinner and then laid on the grass in Fed Square and watched the tennis on the big screen in the close January heat, and when I said that one day I wanted to move from Perth to Sydney or Melbourne, she said so genuinely that she would love it if I moved to Melbourne, even if it wasn’t for a few years. I was so taken aback, gobsmacked that someone could be so chuffed at the thought of being able to hang out more. Someone so awesome and gorgeous, seemingly who had it all, was excited to become better friends with me? This did not normally happen to me.

Ever since that night I have often gone to Melbourne to visit her, and she has come to Sydney, and we have grown very close, sharing our darkest secrets and fears. When I got my job at Qantas she was one of the first people I told, and last year I was one of the first people she told she was pregnant. And then just a few months ago she asked me to do a reading at her wedding.

I just find it so funny how we were not even that close on Contiki, but now she is one of my best friends, despite living in a different state to me. That she trusted me with all her secrets, offloaded so many worries to me, as I did to her, and is so supportive of everything I do. What a terrific friend. If only all friends were like that. I got a tear in my eye when she asked me to be a part of her wedding – the most special day of her life – and knew I would move the earth for her if she asked me to.

And that is what I think friends should be. They should move the earth for you if that’s what you need. True friends would not even hesitate. I am so lucky to have several friends who are like this, and I hope they know that I too would move the earth for them, if they so asked. Nothing is too much trouble when you are true friends.

Jorgs x

The agony of friendship

Today’s topic is going to be friends. In the last year or so, and especially since I left Perth and moved on my own to a city I knew next to no one in, I’ve learnt some hard truths and been lucky enough to have some absolute blessings when it came to friends.

Maybe it is just me, but I feel like you have less friends as you grow older. People move interstate and overseas, sometimes forever, they get married, split up, have babies, study, have ultra busy jobs, run businesses – there is just an endless list of reasons why your circle of friends dwindles as you grow older. That being said, I’ve never been one of those people with heaps of friends anyway. Just a beautiful handful, who I can always count on and who are just top notch guys and girls. A few others float in and out as I get older, and this is what I find funny. Those floaters – are they there to teach us a lesson? Good lessons AND bad lessons?

Perhaps it is Sydney – a place where I feel like everyone already ‘has enough friends’, because they sure didn’t seem to want to be my friend – or perhaps it is just age, or maybe the wisdom that comes with age. I don’t know. I feel a lot more strongly about my friendships than I used to I think. I also have higher expectations, and when these expectations get slaughtered, or exceeded, well, I think you become a little bit more adult every time.

I once had a friend who I met about four years ago at work. She was the only person I’d ever met who totally got my love of Australian comedy and could quote Rob Sitch in Frontline right along with me. She had the same thirst for travel I did – we even backpacked around Europe and America together some years later – and I could just talk to her for hours on end. It was awesome, and I counted her as one of my good friends. I always think that if you can travel with a person, successfully, then you must be pretty good friends and pretty damn close.

Anyway, she moved overseas and got a new job, but we still kept in contact and travelled together and visited each other. Then when I got my dream job in Sydney, she applied too, and was also successful. It meant we were both moving to Sydney. I was excited, and while not getting too ahead of myself I envisioned us hanging out, bidding to work trips together, walking Bondi to Bronte, having Australian comedy marathons on the couch with bowls of icecream, maybe even being flatmates.

But none of that ever happened. Truth be told she is flighty and scattered and the kind of person who is very hard to pin down, a true gypsy. But still. We had both lived in Sydney for six months before I could finally pin her down enough to catch up at my place.  Then after that I got a text message two months later, and ever since, nothing. That was ten months ago.

Now I understand moving to a new city is a big deal. There’s lots to organise, plus you want to make new friends, settle into where you live, settle into your job. But I truly never expected to just completely be given the cold shoulder. No explanation. Nothing. And I persisted, believe me. But after a while of too many unanswered and unreturned phone calls, unanswered text messages and being pretty left out on the one trip where we did work together, I gave up. A friendship cannot be one sided. I decided if she doesn’t want to hang out with me, then I don’t want to hang out with her. Of course I was very disappointed, and had a bit of a cry, not understanding why she suddenly had ditched me. I’d thought we were good friends, but it’s pretty rude if someone just never answers your texts, never calls you back, never includes you. What had I done wrong? And why didn’t she want to be friends anymore?

I still don’t know the answer. And I’m not going to be totally dismissive here – I know that so many things can pull you away from friendships –family problems, a new boyfriend, study, work commitments, anything. But no explanation at all, not even a simple ‘I’m super busy right now babe, can I call you when things have calmed down?’ text, well that’s just not cool.

I got pretty mad, trying to figure out what the eff was going on. She is the type of girl who loses her phone (which could explain never texting me back), or who is out having too much fun, just totally scatterbrained and a bit irresponsible that she might take a day or two to return your text, but she always used to. But now, nothing.

It was also pretty hurtful because I was having a hard time fitting into Sydney, and my new job for a while there. A job like mine takes a while to get into the groove with, a while until you feel totally comfortable on board the aircraft and know what you’re doing so much that it is second nature, and on top of that I had made very few friends in my new city (as opposed to her, who could make friends with a washing basket it comes that easily to her!), had had a bit of time off work for some major (expensive) dental work (never fun!), and had lost my uncle early on in the year. Death is still a new thing to me – I have only ever lost two people I am close to in my entire 28 years – and it was a horrible time. Having a friend close by at a time like that would’ve been the help I needed.

Anyway, finally, a few months ago, we had to work together again. This was the first time I had seen her in eight months. I was not happy, having come to all my own conclusions as to why she cut me off, so I was determined to give her as cold a shoulder at work as what she had given me for almost a year. I spoke about 5 words to her over the course of four days, and it felt good. Maybe that’s spiteful and childish, I don’t know, but I felt I had to let her know I was not happy. And I could have gone up to her and said straight out ‘what is the deal?’ but I don’t have that much balls, so I gave her the silent treatment.

And this brings me to today. In typical gen y fashion I suppose, I have blocked her on Instagram and unfollowed her page, which also felt great doing at the time, as stupid and petty as that may seem. If she doesn’t want anything to do with me then I don’t want anything to do with her. And really, I am pretty sure I know why it is that she doesn’t, and it centres mostly around the fact I am not ‘cool’ enough to be her friend – I don’t drink often enough, I don’t enjoy going out to bars and such on the weekends, I haven’t dabbled in any drugs, I’m not into the things she thinks are cool, I’m not pretty enough or skinny enough, to be her friend. Well, that’s fine. We don’t need people like that in our lives. Sure would’ve been nice if she could’ve just been an adult about it though and told me the truth and let me down quietly and kindly. But I guess it’s easier to just ignore someone. The coward’s way out.

Wow this has turned into a long post! Apologies if I sound a bit grouchy – this chick kills me! I don’t even care if she reads this – but since she can’t even return a text message, I highly doubt she will read a blog post.

I promise that I have nice friend stories too that I want to post about, but because this entry is so long I think I will make a part two and post it later!

Until then,

Jorgs

That time I went to...Dallas, Texas

Howdy y’all!

Well I’m back from Texas, and I had a fantastic time! Let me tell you allllllll about it.
 

 

I started my day off awesome the day we left for Dallas, because before the trip even started the on board manager gave me a Recognition on Q letter, which is a kind of reward program the company runs. One of my colleagues from a previous trip had nominated me! I was pretty chuffed, even though the nominator was anonymous and they didn’t say why they’d nominated me. But still, I felt pretty spesh!

Just me and Abe Lincoln, waiting for the bus

So I was in a top mood all day as we flew across the globe to Dallas. The flight over wasn’t bad at all – I had been prepared for it to feel endless, but in reality it was only about 30 minutes longer than a Sydney to LA flight, of which I’ve done hundreds of times before. So I got to Dallas with my crew feeling much better than expected!

We arrived on Monday afternoon and on my way up to my hotel room I ran into Lizzie, a girl I knew who’d arrived on the flight from Sydney the day before with her crew, and together we decided to go to Target a few blocks away. Because I was feeling pretty good I pretty much got to my room, took off my uniform and my make up and put on some fresh clothes and went out again to meet Lizzie. We spent about an hour in Target, wandering up and down the aisles buying stuff we didn’t really need, but couldn’t resist because it was so cheap, and when we got back to the hotel at dinnertime only THEN did I start to feel like fifty shades of tired. I was asleep by 7:30pm.

Oh, and just quickly, remember a few entries ago I talked about the pumpkin spice obsession America has? Well in Target I found further evidence to prove this to you all with more things than I could have ever imagined flavoured like pumpkin spice. So of course I took some photos to share on this blog (I also may or may not have bought several of these items).
 

Jet lagged holding jet puffed!

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, next day I caught the bus into downtown Dallas and went to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. This is where President John F Kennedy met his sad end on November 22, 1963 when he was assassinated from a sixth floor corner window of the Texas School Book Depository as he drove in an open top motorcade on the street below. Today the TSBD has been turned into an incredibly detailed museum that is a fantastic legacy to a brilliant president.

I was at the museum for opening – I don’t waste my time when I’m travelling…I like to fit in as much as possible, so I’m there when the doors open first thing! – and paid my $16 to get in. I already knew this museum would be great, even before I entered. I have been to many museums, memorials, presidential libraries and national monuments all over the US in my years of travelling and have always been very impressed by how fantastic they are. Those Americans, they do these things so well I tell ya! They are always so well kept, detailed, compassionate, clean, unbias and beautiful. And remembering America’s, and the world’s, obsession with the Kennedy family, I knew I was in for a treat. As I entered I was given a headset to listen to some audio commentary throughout the museum, and I was off.

To begin you take the lift right to the sixth floor – where Lee Harvey Oswald sat and waited at the corner window, in amongst boxes of books, for JFK and Jackie to drive past. You aren’t allowed to take photos on the sixth floor today, but you wouldn’t have had a chance to anyway – there was too much to read and look at and watch.

The infamous sixth floor corner window

The whole floor chronicled JFK’s life from even before he became president, and then onto his time in office, the challenges he faced as president – there was extensive detail about the Cuban Missile Crisis for example, and the positive things he made a reality during the presidency – the Peace Corps, space programs and the African American civil rights movement. There were an array of videos to watch, inspiring speeches to listen to. Much of the sixth floor was dedicated to that day in Dallas though, with unimaginable amounts of eye witness accounts, photographs – even the cameras used by some eye witnesses are on display here, videos, timelines, police reports and so much fascinating detail to read about the assassination, who did it, how they found them, what happened to them, the trial, the conspiracy theories, the heartbreak of Jackie, the swearing in of a new president. It was just beyond. I was captivated on that one floor of the museum for at least 3 hours.

 

Many of the photographs were stirring, to say the least. Because of camera technology back in ’63 the photographs that exist of the actual event are grainy at best, but the museum has still broken them down into slide by slide, second by second, and put them on display. There were also many pictures on the walls that we have all seen many times before – that of Jackie climbing over the back of the car, thinking she too was about to be shot and trying to get out of the way, or of JFK Jr, just 3 years old, saluting at his father’s funeral. One of the photos that gave me shivers the most though was one of Jackie Kennedy standing ashen faced next to Lyndon B Johnson as he was sworn in as the new president just hours after JFK was shot. The look on her face, I think, is haunting.

I took this picture not inside the museum, but later out
of the souvenir book I bought at the gift shop

The very corner window where the shots were fired from is glassed off on the sixth floor, and behind the glass is a recreation of how it looked that day. The original floorboards are still there, and the boxes of school books still stacked high and haphazardly. There are even shell casings on the floor. Inside one of the boxes is a webcam that looks out onto the street, giving anyone who visits www.jfk.org and views the webcam the exact same line of sight Lee Harvey Oswald had as he pulled the trigger. It’s chilling. And then you look out the window and see two X’s on the road – a yellow one showing where the first shot hit, and a white one a few metres up the road where the fatal shot hit. Later I went outside and got a closer look at the X’s (although didn’t stop traffic and take a picture with the X like I saw some tourists distastefully do) and of the Grassy Knoll, a nearby hill where some onlookers thought they heard shots from, it’s location now almost as famous as the Texas School Book Depository is. Seeing that X on the road and then turning around and looking up again at that sixth floor window of the depository was just amazing. I was standing on top of history. It is hard to describe – but it felt weird that I was standing exactly where a world changing event had happened just fifty years earlier. Crazy.

X marks the spot

I left the museum feeling quite drained, as there had been so much information to take in, but I was still so glad I went. Once again America showed me how well they do museums! In 2009 I went to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and thought that was the best museum I’d ever been to, but the Sixth Floor Museum comes very, very close to that one!

I wandered around a little bit after I left the museum. Downtown Dallas was not exactly what I expected it to be. I was there on a weekday, so I suppose it may’ve been a bit quieter than it would’ve been on weekends, but there weren’t even as many workers and businessmen around as I thought there’d be. It was very quiet. I was on foot so couldn’t go for miles, but thankfully a few other sights of interest were only a few blocks away from Dealey Plaza. I took in the John F Kennedy Memorial Plaza, which was an impressive, but not exactly pretty landmark and Pioneer Plaza, where 49 bronze steers are placed over a large area commemorating 19^th century cattle drives through Texas.

Pioneer Plaza

It was a big day downtown and I retired early to be up the next day to go to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, which I shall write about soon.

Until then, as they say in Texas…

Y’all come back now!

Jorgs

Wanderlust

I’m quite excited dear readers, that on Monday I’ll be jetting off to Dallas, Texas for the first time! When you only fly to a handful of destinations as a flight attendant, getting to go to a new one you’ve never been to before is like Christmas!

 

What’s even better is that I will get a heavenly 78 hours on the ground in Dallas (compared to the 24-36 hours I usually get in other places) to explore to my little wanderlusting heart’s content! For me, there is nothing better. I have already decided that downtown Dallas is already on the must do list so that I can visit the Grassy Knoll and the JFK Museum, plus the stockyards at Fort Worth on another day and plenty of shopping at the huge mall across the road from our hotel in between! I am going with an empty suitcase and my new Texas Lonely Planet tucked into my crew bag!

Seeing snow for the first time on Jungfrau Mountain, Switzerland

 

All this talk of a new destination brings me to my topic for this blog post though. Wanderlust. I absolutely just love that word…WANDERLUST. Doesn’t it sound magical? Exciting? Wondrous? Well, I think it does. And I suffer from wanderlust BAD!

But that is never a bad thing to suffer from I think, and I kind of wish everyone suffered from it like I do. I cannot put into words accurately the feeling of stepping off a train or an aeroplane and stepping out onto the street for your first glimpse of a new place, taking a deep breath in and being so overcome and overwhelmed with the incredible feeling that this new place, whether it is half way across the world from your home, or just a few hours way, is now at your feet and just waiting to be discovered by you. I really don’t think there’s any feeling better than that. I love the endless possibilities that come with that feeling – especially if you’re travelling solo, as I have often done – because really, it’s like that saying ‘the world is your oyster’. You can, from the second you hit the ground in that city, do whatever you damn well like there. If you want to discover the parks and gardens, you can. If you want to shop in every single clothing store, you can. If you want to eat your way through every neighbourhood, you can. If you want to museum hop or see musicals or go on a helicopter ride and take in an icon of architecture…YOU CAN. How awesome is that? Travel frees you like nothing else can.

I remember the first time I ever went to New York City as a wide eyed 22 year old. I had caught an Amtrak train from Philadelphia, got off at Penn Station in NYC and was instantly overwhelmed just with trying to find my way successfully out of the humongous station! But then I finally found a door, and pushed my way through it and got out into the sunlight and I just froze. I wasn’t in Times Square or anywhere pulsing like that, but it was still the biggest treat for my senses. I could’ve squealed. To this day I still remember looking to my left then to my right and then straight up ahead of me and not knowing which way to go to find my hostel, but I didn’t even care. I could not believe I was there and this unbelievable city was at my fingertips at last, just waiting for me to devour every single inch of it. It was amazing.

My New York City experience was a pretty extreme one, because it’s a pretty extreme place, and pretty bloody special, but I get this feeling anytime I go to somewhere new. Actually, I even get it when I’ve come back to a city I’ve visited many times before, because I get excited about being able to visit again all the shops and restaurants and beaches and events and sights and sounds that I fell in love with last time I was there.

The Vatican

I know travelling isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and not many people are as deeply passionate about it as I am, and I don’t want to push my passion onto anyone who isn’t interested, but I implore everyone to travel as much as they can for as long as they can. Have your own little wanderlust experience. It will shape your life like nothing else can. I am forever just incredulous that there is so much of the world out there that I have yet to see with my own eyes, so many foods I have yet to try, so many mind blowing natural and man made sights that I have yet to see and touch and revel in. It gives me shivers. There is just so much out there, and it is all incredible. I feel like I could travel for the rest of my life, every single day, and never be bored, and still never see everything the world has to offer. That’s what’s so great about it. It’s all just out there waiting for you to discover it.

That’s why when I was 20 years old I decided that once I finished university I would go and do a big trip. I worked two jobs and saved for more than two years as I finished studying and in April 2009 I set off on my big adventure – my very first time overseas on my own. It was scary to get on that plane and wave goodbye to my family for 3 months, but once I touched down in London, I never looked back. I backpacked all over Europe and the US, made countless friends, had endless fantastic experiences, learnt so much about the world, other people and myself, and most importantly had the time of my freakin’ life. My first taste of wanderlust. And let me tell you, I liked the taste!

 

Like I said, I don’t want to push my views onto people who feel that travelling just isn’t their thing, but I truly feel sorry for those who don’t leave their own countries. They’re missing out on so much. You can’t explain it til you’ve done it, but once you have, you just know that it was a top notch decision to go travelling. Even if you think seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty or the Grand Canyon or the Berlin Wall on tv or in films is enough…well you’re wrong. NOTHING compares to being there. Standing in the middle of history, or great architecture or untouched natural beauty and breathing in and maybe even closing your eyes for a second and pinching yourself to remind yourself you’re actually there is way better than anything you could see in even the greatest of movies. You stand there soaking it in and just never want to leave.

The Washington Monument, Washington DC

I also think travel is so important because it matures you, toughens you up, opens your eyes and makes you resilient. It is very easy to adapt to travelling, and being a traveller. You suddenly know so much more about other people and their cultures and customs. You learn people’s life stories and some of their deepest, darkest secrets too. You just bite the bullet and walk down a dark alley at night to get to an out of the way hostel and you do survive! You cross borders and get pat downs in airports and are forced to wear your thongs in the shower at the hostel because the bathroom floor looks very questionable. You see a rat in your dorm and it’s gross but you just deal. You walk down busy streets – some of the busiest in the world, shoulder to shoulder with 25,000 other tourists – and you are scared someone’s going to pickpocket you but at the same time are bewildered in a good way. You are suddenly forced to deal with other languages, other currencies, complicated metro systems, tipping, being careful with your valuables, relying on the friendliness of strangers and through all this, YOU LIVE TO TELL THE TALE. I swear, it makes you a better person. Countless times since I’ve begun travelling my friends and family have asked me ‘how do you know that?’ or ‘how did you do that?’ and the answer is always that I know it through my experiences travelling. And it is stuff you would never, and will never, know unless you travel the world.

So go and do it I say. Who cares if it leaves you broke? The experience will be priceless. It will be worth it. The world is just sitting here, quietly, knowingly, waiting for you to find your time and discover it and make some kick ass memories.

See you when I get back from Dallas!

Jorgs

High above Chicago at the Sears Tower

The Tian Tan Buddha, Hong Kong

 

There's No Place Like Home

Howdy my (non-existent?) readers!

If you’ve been reading my blog from the start, you will remember that I recently made the move back to my hometown of Perth from Sydney, where my job is. My Dad and I drove all the way back to Perth – that’s 4000km for those of you playing at home – and it took us four and a half days. We saw almost 100 road kill kangaroos, drove through four Australian states, crossed three state borders, stayed in four country pubs, did hundreds of trivia questions with each other, ate thousands of lollies (okay not really, but we did have a lot!) and saw zero whales in the Great Australian Bight.

 

 

 

It was a fantastic experience. One I’m in no hurry to do again, but a fantastic experience all the same. Not too many people can say they have driven across the Nullarbor, much less in a Hyundai Getz! And we survived! I’m so proud of us. The trip reminded me of how much I mother trucking love Australia, and how amazingly beautiful it is.

 

 

 

But then I got back to Perth and remembered how amazingly beautiful my home town is too. I have always loved Perth, but it is only now that I’ve been away from it for a while that I realise fully how lovely it is. That’s a bit cliché I suppose – but hey, in a way my whole moving to Sydney experience was a bit of a cliché now that I look back on it. I really wanted to be one of those success stories. One of those people that leaves Perth and makes it big in their field and they never come back, because they’ve found such success away from little old Perth. Perth is just that place they mention (albeit still very proudly) they’re from in magazine and newspaper articles, and the media back in Perth never tire of proudly declaring that so and so is from Perth and look how famous they are now! Of course I’m mostly thinking of celebrities who were either born in Perth or trained for their profession in Perth – Melissa George, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Rove McManus – but nevertheless, there are many people from Perth who are very successful and we are so proud of all of them.

So I packed my bags for Sydney thinking I was off to bigger and better things, and even though my family still lived there, that Perth would soon just be a memory. Just that place I was born and started out in. And I did find bigger and better things, but I also realised things were pretty great in Perth still too.

Last night I drove to a friend’s new home in the southern suburbs of Perth and driving this way is something I always have loved, even before I left Perth. I live in the northern suburbs so I had to go across the Narrows Bridge, over the Swan River and past the entire city skyline and Kings Park. And every time, especially at night, when Perth is all lit up and sparkling, I almost lose concentration on the road because I am so besotted with the sights around me. Perth may the most isolated city in the world geographically, but despite this it is such a pretty city, and I love gazing around at it as I drive across the Narrows. Sure it doesn’t have a huge harbour or an Opera House or an Arts Centre or a Story Bridge, but it’s still beautiful. I always find myself smiling when I see Council House all lit up in rainbow colours, ditto with the Bell Tower, when I see the lights on the trees on Fraser Avenue in Kings Park, when I drive past the South Perth Flour Mill at Christmas and it’s been decorated with lights and has a star on the huge pine tree that stands next to it, when I am coming back towards the north and I can see the War Memorial on Mt Eliza lit up. I’m making it sound all about lights, which I guess in a way it kind of is, but that is when I think Perth is most magical. It looks stunning during the day too of course, but at night time it just glows so peacefully. Perth did used to be known as the city of lights, after astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, could see Perth all lit up as he passed over my fair city in the Friendship 7 space craft in 1962. The people of Perth turned on their lights at the right time, and stood in their backyards waving torches, and he could see them all the way from space.

So I drove over the Narrows again last night after visiting my friend and soaked in the beautiful views as much as I could. It made me so happy to be back. I had missed this gorgeous place. Maybe the connection is just all the childhood memories I have of growing up around these landmarks, but I still love them just as much as a 28 year old today.

Perth isn’t Sydney and it isn’t Melbourne. Every city has its own identity and pros and cons. But I love Perth. I love that it’s not too big. I love that everyone knows each other somehow or through someone else (hence the term ‘you’ve been Perthed!’ when you meet someone who knows someone you know). I love the perfect beaches and the views of the city you get when you stand on Fraser Avenue. I love the burning hot summers (the pleasant mildness of constant 24 degree days in Sydney just didn’t do it for me! I’m way too used to extremes!) and the small town cheeriness of our suburbs. I love how there are no toll roads and that because we don’t have some things other states take for granted or have in excess – large sporting events, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, inclusion in concert tours by international artists, a super thriving television and film industry,  and (up until recently) Zara just to name a few – we appreciate and value them so much more when we do have them (who hasn’t asked a relative to bring them back a box of KK’s from the eastern states?). We love what we have and make the best of it, and sure we’re a bit behind Sydney and Melbourne, and sure there are still people who live in Perth who seem to make it their number one mission in life to whine incessantly about how boring and quiet Perth is and how there’s absolutely nothing to do here and how WA is a nanny state. But I truly believe Perth still has its little gems. There is plenty to do, if only you look for it. If you are determined to talk Perth down then you will find nothing to do. Get a little motivation and get out there and discover this city. And same would go for any city! Every city has something to see. Not all cities are mega tourism drawcards like Sydney or New York City or Paris, but every city still has things to offer residents and tourists alike.

So I’m glad to be back. Not just to be reunited with my family and friends and be able to drive around places and actually be familiar with the layout of the streets and know where I am going, but also to rediscover and immerse myself in it once again. I can’t wait to hire a bike and ride it along the beach at Trigg and Scarborough. I can’t wait to walk the tree top walk at Kings Park again. I can’t wait to go to Carols by Candlelight by the Swan again, and do my Christmas shopping at Karrinyup and feel so proud when Perth rallies together for Telethon later this year. I can’t wait to wake up to and fall asleep to the sounds of the crickets outside my bedroom window in summer, and walk around my suburb and dodge the sprinklers that are on just before dinner, or smell the barbecues cooking in backyards as summer gets going. I’ve come back at a good time – today was 32 degrees and I could just begin to feel the pulse of summer time.

Summer in Perth is magic. I’ve missed it dearly. And while I will keep travelling away from it constantly with work, forever changing time zones and hemispheres and climates and summer clothing to winter clothing and back again, I will make sure I lap up every single second of that long glorious Perth summer I’m about to find myself in. I cannot wait.

Your proud Perthite,

Jorgs

Love affair of the week

Today I thought I’d write about a recent love affair I’m having…with Samantha Wills jewellery.

Thanks to the fabulousness of Instagram, a few months ago I discovered this line of jewellery. I already knew the name as I had seen it in many magazines, but lately Sydney born Samantha Wills has really taken off, and a hashtag search of her name on Insta instantly bombards the searcher with many gorgeous pictures of her gorgeous bracelets, bangles and my favourite, her rings.

The most popular is undoubtedly the Bohemian Bardot ring, and I instantly fell in love with it. There are so many beautiful colours it comes in, so, because I am a bit wary and challenged with technology, therefore don’t buy a lot of things online, I went searching in stores for these rings because I decided I had to have one.

 

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any in the colours I wanted, so I finally bit the bullet a few weeks ago and ordered one from an online boutique in Sydney. It arrived by the time I had moved back to Perth and I am LOVING it sick right now. It was $70, which is probably a bit excessive when I am not too well off in the first place, but I am also a firm believer in spending your money on things and experiences that make you happy. No matter how much it costs, if you are happy with it, it’s been money well spent (I guess this is how I justify all the money I spend on travelling the globe!).

So I used this excuse again earlier this week when I was browsing the actual Samantha Wills site late one night and ordered myself the Wanderlust nameplate necklace and the Wanderlust bangle. The necklace is beautiful but the bangle is STUNNING. It is inscribed with the French ‘Va explorer’ on the outside and ‘I am Wanderlust – I long to touch every corner of the globe’ in English on the inside. Quite simply it is the most accurate description of me I could probably ever find.

They both arrived within two days of my having ordered them, and, like my Bardot ring, came in a soft little drawstring bag to keep these beautiful treasures safe and then placed in a lovely carved wooden box.

Money well spent I think!

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t heard of Samantha Wills before today, go and check out her site at samanthawills.com and salivate over all the gorgeous pieces like I did. And maybe treat yourself to one too!

Jorgs

*This is not a paid endorsement…I just really love my Bardot ring, just like everyone else does who owns one and posts about them on Instagram!