Heels, Lanterns and Mojitos!

Although our days had been fairly chill (well, except for constant job searching), our evenings seemed to fill up pretty quickly. We played soccer mid-week for mixed sport, that left a bit of a mark on a few of us - scabs and scars included. The following night was our weekly Lenten Share Group and Adoration, so much goodness.

Friday rolled around and we discovered a friend of ours, Michaela, was preforming in a singing competition, so a couple of us went to watch at the RSL (The Returned and Services League). It was my first time attending an RSL, and probably my last... Once we arrived, a very large, attempting-to-be-intimidating man was checking ID's, but not only ID's, also footwear and clothing. Apparently you will be denied entry into an RSL if you are wearing flip flops. I found this out the hard way. He double checked with someone over the radio saying "there is a group of 4 ladies, one of whom is wearing thongs... RUBBER thongs..." we could hardly keep a straight face! He said I would not be allowed entry unless I changed my shoes, which I definitely didn't have. Luckily for me, Michaela happened to have an extra pair! She brought out size 7 stilettos that were a solid 3 - 4 inches tall. I am a size 9. Let's just say, with them, the big scary man let me in.  Though he was sure to say "you HAVE to keep them on the whole time, you CAN NOT, under any circumstances, take them off once you are upstairs." Not a second after we had sorted out the whole shoe dilemma, Jennine realized she forgot her wallet at home. We thought after all that, we'd have to leave, but Michaela mentioned even minors are allowed in, you just have to become a League Member. And so, Maegan signed up as a League Member (complete with a membership card, including a photo!) so Jennine would be allowed in. So, an eternity later, he finally let us all through. I hobbled to the elevator and over to the table where Michaela and Co. were sitting, I could hardly feel my feet at that point, they were so cramped! Finally! I sat down and immediately kicked the heals off. And kept them off the entire night, there was no way I was keeping them on. Praise God for thongs. Rubber thongs. 

The competition was full on, everyone was so good! It was particularly thrilling watching Michaela belt out the tunes, I had heard her sing once before, but I am constantly amazed by the power in her voice! What a firecracker! So happy we were able to be there to support her. 

How pretty, eh! 

 After about an hour and a half in transit to get back home, it was nearly midnight - best time for baking! I made cinnamon roll monkey bread for Chloe's birthday party the next day! Partially because I wanted everyone to try it (Cinnamon Buns aren't super popular here. I know. It's a tragedy), but mostly cause I miss the taste of heaven in my mouth. 

Decorating with Chloe and Jennine.

The birthday bash was held at a nearby park with gazebo, perfect location for an outdoor party! I arrived early to help decorate! We had mason jars with flowers in them on the steps of the gazebo, hanging lanterns and a few others banners. It all came together really well, I was quite impressed!
The 'Soiree' was a blast! We played some ulti and soccer (you'd think I was planning the activities, eh?), but had lotsa low key hangout time too, fully equipped with quality conversation. I found out a friend of ours from the area, Naomi, got accepted to NET Canada! How EXCITING! 

What a beautiful day with lots of laughs, delicious food and few casualties (Jess' toe took a beating). 

Chloe and Simone!

Photo Credit: Jess Laundy

We wrapped up in the mid-afternoon, cleaned up and had a nice chill time at the girls house afterwards.

Chris and Jess had us over for dinner, what an honour! Jess was the bartender for the evening, she makes a real good mojito! During dinner they took turns telling us their story, how they met and everything in between. The pure love for God and each other is so evident in each of them.
A little later they then started brainstorming more epic places they could take us. Valley of the Fireflies came up, apparently it's a pretty intense hike, starting at the top of a canyon and climbing down to the bottom. And Boom. Just like that, our next adventure was planned. 

Stay tuned. 

This ones a gooder. 

If You Like Pina Coladas...

Me and Mae at Audley!

Throughout our first week back in South Sydney, we started our job search. At first it wasn't so bad, but after dropping off nearly 30 resumes in 3 days without even an interview, getting rejected got old pretty fast. It'd definitely the wrong season to be looking for work!

Picnicing at Audley

Being unemployed had it's perks though, time for more adventures! Pete took Maegan, Jennine and myself to the Audley Weir in the Royal National Park. It was slightly overcast that morning, which was perfect for a day on the water. We rented out a row boat and each took turns

We got the goods :)

rowing. The pressure was on to preform when you were in the drivers seat. Of course when it came around to my turn, I had to weave through a ton of rocks jussst below or jussst peaking out the surface of the water. Thankfully I didn't bottom out the boat! Everyone was heaps impressed. Saw a couple eels along the way. We got to the end of the creek and scoped out a place to have our picnic lunch. A little later, a couple friends from Wollongong came outta no where! We had opened the event up to everyone, but assumed we were the only ones keen. Guess we were mistaken! We headed back together, they were so much faster than us in their canoe! We noticed a snake swim across the water, then ironically a couple minutes later we went for a

Bartender Pete!

dip... ha. Jennine wasn't too fond of swimming in the same water as snakes, but somehow hanging with Chris, Jess or Pete - fears are conquered. It's like they have special powers or something.

Once we got back to the car, we decided to grab some snacks and go party at the Simon's house. While we were at the supermarket, I saw Pina Colada Tim Tams, and went on about how we'd been trying to locate a Pina Colada Cocktail since we'd arrived in Australia, but decided they just don't exist here. So Pete, being super spontaneous, was like "why don't we just make them!", before I knew it he was looking up a recipe and at the liquor store buying Malibu rum. We all dispersed throughout the store looking for the necessary ingredients.

We may have been a little excited...

Upon arriving to Pete's house, much to our surprise and delight, we found Jess in the living room. And so it began. We listened to the Pina Colada song (Escape by Rupert Holmes) on repeat, at least 8 times. What better thing to do on a rainy day than sit inside with some of your best mates playing Wizard, sipping on Pina Coladas! Best.

Jennine and I headed over to Maegan's in the evening for some quality girl time. Watched a movie and had dinner. The fun times just keep coming. In the documentary we watched (Twinsters), they said "The great is the enemy of the good." Which brought me to ponder my life; here in Australia and back home. We have been having the time of our lives over the past few months, with so many GREAT experiences, though knowing my reality might not be quite as exuberant back home, I wouldn't trade this trip for anything. Thus, I'll just bask in the beauty of my current life as an honorary Mortdalian.

Much love and prayers!

<3 Miss Silks

Welcome Back Canadians!

Alas! The time had finally come for us to graced with the presence of the beautiful people of South Sydney. We moved into our new home with the Ng's, a family in the Disciples of Jesus community who agreed to have us live with them for the next few months. They are originally from Singapore, but moved to Australia 14 years ago. Basically this means we get to eat ridiculously delicious Asian cuisine all the time! BEST!
Although we would be moving with them to their new house exactly a week later, we were so excited to unpack our backpacks and have our clothes in drawers or the closet where we could see them! Ah, you don't appreciate the little things until you have gone without them for so long. Like a real bath towel. The towel I'd been using for the past 4 months was literally the size of a hand towel. We're really living the good life now! Get to use a real towel every day! How good.

A bunch of our friends threw a welcome back party for us, complete with nachos (courtesy of Steve), cider and quality company. Being back in Mortdale was another dream come true, although I loved gallivanting across the vast and varied landscape of Australia, it was here that I felt the most at home. After spending our first week in Australia here in Sydney, I was convinced that after we were done backpacking, all I wanted was to settle in Mortdale for the last few months.

Daniel, Sam, Tim, Steve, me and Jennine at Oatley Pub!

Anyways, after dinner it was time for the after party at the Oatley Pub! Some of us weren't so keen on the whole "clubbing" thing, so they bailed early. Lame. Apparently this place was a bit 'seedy',  I didn't know what that meant at the time, but I soon found out. There was an outdoor location with music and dancing, pretty epic! Unfortunately Canada doesn't typically have such venues. The boys dubbed us official 'Mortdalians' cause of the experience. What a blast. We stayed till closing then met up with a few more friends later on. We felt quite privileged to have a party thrown in our honour! What gems, they are so good to us.

Wattamolla in the Royal National Park.

A couple days later, which happened to be Valentine's Day, a group of about 15 of us headed to Wattamolla for a day at the beach! It was gorgeous out, beautiful blue skies above, crystal clear water below. Maegan, Pete, Jennine and myself arrived fairly early - after claiming our spot on the beach, we didn't waste any time getting in the water, climbing up the rocks and jumping off the cliff! Got the adrenaline pumping pretty quick. Part of the cliff was a meter or two higher than the rest, which Jennine and I wasted no time conquering, but had to encourage couple guys at the top just kept looking down and phsyching themselves out.

Adventure time! After swimming out into the ocean a bit, a few of us climbed up on the rocks and quickly found the sheer joy awaiting us. Lotsa scaling, scrambling and scoping with waves crashing along side us the entire way. Ah, paradise. I just couldn't get enough. We headed back with cuts and scrapes all around, every one was worth it.

We had a nice little picnic, then played soccer on the sand, which felt like we were playing on the surface of the sun it was so hot. Lasting maaaaybe ten minutes, everyone, sweaty and covered in sand, booked it to the water for some refreshment. Ah, what a glorious feeling. Couldn't cool down fast enough! We were sure to grab frozen cokes from Maccas on the way home, good life choice.

All in all, our first weekend back in Sydney was a solid 8/8. So much good.

Coogee!

The view from our hostel in Coogee.

We arrived in Sydney on February 10th, which also happened to be Ash Wednesday. We definitely got a couple comments at the airport about us having dirt on out foreheads. But in all seriousness, it was actually quite depressing knowing that we were back in Sydney, but not going my beloved Mortdale, the land where milk and honey flow. Instead, a three story walk-up hostel was where we would call 'home' for the next few days. Since we (and by we, I mean Lloyd) had found permanent accommodation for us for the duration of our stay in Oz, we had hoped we could cancel 2/3 of our nights booked at the hostel - but no such luck! Once we got settled and had dinner, morale was low, when all of a sudden, out popped a Canadian. And another. And a couple more! There were 7 of us who happened to be sitting in the living room all at once! *sighhhh* A little taste of home. A couple of them were from BC, and they had just arrived in Australia a couple days earlier, so they were going off about all the snowboarding they had been doing the week before. I may have been slightly jealous, but mostly just excited to be hearing about the mountains, the snow and... home. We ended up having a really good chat about the differences in lingo, animals, and culture, as well as epic places they needed to see while in Sydney. Jennine had been hanging with a couple others from Ontario, getting in debates about which hockey team was better (typical Canadians...). After I went for a walk on the boardwalk with my new friends, we went back to the hostel to play random a random dice game and, of course, drink goon. Before we knew it, it was 3am, and the evening had turned out much differently than I had expected.

The next day we headed to the beach with our buddy Mike (Ontario), which was right across the street from our hostel. We had been in the ocean for a while, ducking under and swimming over waves, when all of a sudden I felt a tingling sensation on my hand. A blue bottle jellyfish had wrapped its tentacles around various fingers and my thumb. So we got out of the water right away to discover the beach was blue - just covered in jellyfish. I got some ice and the lifeguard sprayed it with something to help the stinging. Though the tenatacle had vanished, a line of red dots replaced it, While we were heading back to our spot on the beach, we hear in the distance "...it is them! SILKEN!! JENNINE!!" Our friends, Alannah and Marina from summer school came running towards us. We were shocked to see them at Coogee, of all the beaches in Sydney, they were here. Pretty crazy. Was so nice to see familiar faces, they were the first friends we had seen since arriving back in Sydney. What a pleasant surprise, we just basked in their presence for a while, taking in their beautiful selves.

That evening, considering it was the first week of lent, we were invited to a Lenten share group led by a friend of ours from Mortdale. It was so exciting seeing everyone again! We had dinner, then read and discussed the upcoming Sunday's Mass Readings, with Adoration to follow. This event would be every week throughout lent, what a lovely way to come together and share in faith and fellowship. Heading back to our hostel after was so weird, mixing backpackers life with Mortdale life. When we got back to the hostel we played Catan with our buddy Mike, and for lack of a better place, we played on the floor of the patio, trapping cockroaches under beer bottles. Fun times ;)

We ended up leaving the hostel a day early, I was pretty anxious to get settled in our new home, and some of our friends were hosting a welcome back party for us that night, and it would be a lot more convenient to get home if we didn't have to travel an hour and a half back to the hostel. So, finally, we moved to south Sydney, not Mortdale, but close enough to experience all the goodness!

Tassie!

We made it! Although it was never really in the plans, we figured we really couldn't miss out on Tasmania. Paulette Wilson (a friend from Saskatoon) would be proud, she RAVED about Tassie to both me and Jennine, on separate occasions, about how gorgeous it was on the island, and how we could not go all the way to Australia and miss out on this little piece of paradise. Luckily for us, we happened to meet a couple people from Hobart at Mass in Melbourne two days before we arrived who both agreed to have us and show us around. I know, we are so blessed.

So we met up with Calvin upon arrival in Hobart, his family hosted us for 3 nights. Calvin 'sent us' up Mount Wellington on day 1. After about 4 hours of intense hiking, climbing, tumbling, sweating and shivering, we had made it from bottom to top and back (while tons of other tourists just drove to the top... lame). On our way back into the city we were waiting at the bus stop, chatting with this elderly lady, Margaret, when a car drove up and asked if we wanted a ride! We soon discovered that it was Margaret's neighbor, Rosie. Once we got in the car, Rosie mentioned she thought we were Margaret's granddaughters, then she found out we were some random girls from Canada! She ended up driving us, well, almost all the way home. I was trying to give them directions to Calvin's place, but they were sure they knew the street, but that wasn't quite the case. So we politely thanked Rosie and walked the rest of the way. What lovely ladies.

Scoping out which route to take.

Wineglass Bay!

Calvin took us on an epic hiking/camping trip! We ventured out to Freycinet National Park. Took a lovely, incredibly picturesque stroll by Hazards Beach, around to Wineglass Bay. Wowza. Just breathtaking.

The view from Mount Amos.

We definitely took time to enjoy the beaches, but crushed the hike like no other. Pounded back some protein shakes when we got back to the car. Then headed to a campsite - after scoping out the place, we found the BEST site, hidden in a bunch of bushes. We set up camp, and made some dinner! Veggie burgers! Well... they used to be... at that point it was complete MUSH. But we grilled it up nicely and served it with toast and ketchup. We may have overlooked bringing proper cooking gear,.. so we used a spoon and cardboard to flip the "burgers" over. The silent laugh was basically constant at this point. After we cleaned up we played multiple games of Catan in tent, drank tea and slammed some Tim Tams! 

Woke up bright and early to get a good start at the next adventure! We hit up Mount Amos. I felt like a mountain goat, lotsa straight up rock climbing - I was in my glory. We summitted in no time, we keep a mean pace, and before we knew it we were on our way back to Hobart.


 Part 2 of our Hobart experience was with our other friend, Petronella. What a ray of sunshine. Her goal while we were at her place was to "spoil" us, and that she did! In the mornings she would come to our suite and offered to make us a "cuppa" (a cup of tea/coffee). She made us sticky date pudding from scratch! -it's to die for, especially when homemade with love from Petro.
Her beautiful family absorbed us into their extended family reunion too! So much good. Their house is a couple minute walk from the ocean, so we made good use of the beach! During this time at Petronella's house. we were trying to figure out the next couple steps of our trip, like: booking flights back to Sydney, trying to find a place to live in Sydney, potentially staying in Tassie for a while to work and being quite unsuccessful at all of the above. Mrs. Petronella's mom was so adamant about us staying as long as we needed before we sorted things out - just another thing to add to the endless list of blessings.

Eventually we got everything sorted, and only had the pleasure of staying one extra day. Though this time heading back to Sydney wasn't quite like the rest...