Buona Pasqua // Only 2 days to go!!

Me and Ben
pre-costume

Blue hair and eyeliner, anyone? :P
post-costume.

Thursday, April 6: Post-Prosh Report
Wake up at 7, can't figure out if it's 7am or 7pm. Spend 10 minutes pondering how I came to be in my bed. I remember sitting on the couch and watching 30 seconds of a movie, but my computer tells me I watched 55 minutes. That's odd. Remember having crazy dreams about tandem surfing with a complete stranger. We got sharks to go on a surfboard attached to our board, and they surfed with us. We convinced four sharks all up, and they all really enjoyed themselves. We also discovered a dinosaur that had been preserved almost perfectly (except for it's face) and it was really quite scary. Have a really long shower, eat some food. Discover text books under my bed. Wonder how I got here again. Realise it was 7am when I woke up, not pm. I just missed my bus for uni and thus my Italian test. Shit.

This was the sort of beginning to my insane week - prosh, where the students of UWA pull an all-nighter, dress up in ridiculous costumes, then run around in an exhausted, drunken stupor and harass the people of Perth until they buy our satirical newspapers for charity. It's been a highlight of my year since grade 10 when I started at a school where prosh is always sold, but wow it hit me hard this year. My theory is that it was the crazy lack of sleep combined with a scary amount of caffeine :P

Late night trains, attractive faces and
 entertaining photobombs :P 

Tav times.

Apart from prosh I've been procrastinating from the many assignments I need to finish/start before I leave, being the most social I think I've been this year, and madly planning and packing for India! It's strange to think that in 48 hours I'll be somewhere over South East Asia, well and truly on my way. It's so exciting!!

I've installed the Blogger app on my phone, and I've discovered the joys of international roaming, so I'll be trying my best to post at least 1 photo and a short update onto the blog every day that I'm away. Woohoo!! :D

Until then though, Happy Easter! I hope everyone is enjoying a long weekend spent with family and friends :)

Much love! Rhi xx

Holly and Scotty.

James.

Easter surprise :)

My beautiful Madre :)

Easter surprise - take two.

Padre dearest.

A trip down memory lane... Part 2

I've got a temp job at my little brother's school doing admin for the arts department, and there is so much jazz coming out of there! I see now why two of my brother's are jazz musos. It's fantastic! I'm yet to hear anyone play this song, but it seemed appropriate anyway, not to mention the part where I'm a little in love with this duo :) 

And now it's time for part 2 of my trip down memory lane. Most of these are from a school kayaking trip that I went on in year 11. We went kayaking in Shark Bay for 4 days and it was absolutely incredible. Once you get a few hundred metres off the main beach, almost every sign of civilisation vanishes, and the wildlife up there get more and more impressive. There are sharks, turtles, stingrays, sharks, stonefish, stingrays, sharks. By far the most amazing part of the trip began though with a large splash a few hundred metres from where we were paddling. And then another one. Aaaand another one.

Lots of jokes were made about a monster tiger shark that was coming to eat all of us, and eventually one of the leaders went over to investigate. A few minutes later, he was waving manically at us all to come over. There were 40-50 dugongs - mothers and babies. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was the only thing I've ever encountered that could get a group of teenage girls to shut up. We just sat on our kayaks, in absolute awe, for at least 30 minutes. Finding a beach to set up camp didn't really matter anymore, we just wanted to watch these amazing creatures slowly pulling themselves along under the water. We were in such a state of disbelief that we didn't even think to take the opportunity to add to our thousands of photos. 

Shark Bay
2008

Shark Bay
2008

I would like to live in that tent right there please.

Oh hai there Mr Ant.
School Ball 2009

Knees don't work?
Use Dad as a leaning post!

So, anyone wanna go to Shark Bay with me for a few nights? :P

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

A trip down memory lane... Part 1

Every now and then I somehow end up trawling through old photos, whether they be the photos that are archived away in boxes around our house, or those that live in random files on my Mum's computer. No matter where I go hunting though, I always find things that make me laugh, that make me cringe, and that make me remember the good times, even if at the time I couldn't really enjoy it. 

It puts life in perspective once again, which is something I seem to constantly be losing and finding again. If anyone has a trick for holding onto that one, could you let me know please? :P

Hope you like le foto! :)

They were so little!
February 2007

Padre's 50th. Us being our usual crazy selves :) 
October 2008

Shit quality? Who cares!
We were such cool kids.

According to my father,
knowing how to pick up a bobtail is vital to one's education.

Wearing pink in honour of seeing my only female cousin :P
January 2011

February 2009

I've always loved this photo of mother-dearest :)
February 2007

Who knew attempting to clear out my usb could be so nostalgic?

Until next time! :)

PS. Terribly sorry about the ridiculous gap in posts. I'm back at uni and I've taken on a pretty heavy load, so I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. I promise to try my best and start posting once a week again! :)

Backlog: To the wind, the sand, the green grass and the sea...

It's been a while since I've posted a blog that I wrote during my high school days, but this seems thoroughly appropriate, and it's one of the few posts that I still actually like. About 20 months ago, I stopped being an insane child and decided to listen to doctors. I stopped doing outdoor sports, and worked on exercises given to me by my multiple physios instead. I began the long and horrible process of having 4 joint reconstructions, spent countless weeks on crutches or in a sling and slowly, but surely, slumped into a state of depression. It's not something I've told many people, I don't really like to talk about it, but in the past few months something has changed and I'm aware that depression is not something to be ashamed of. I didn't let myself stay there, I fought it every step of the way, and a few weeks ago I suddenly started to become myself again. There'd been stages where I'd been better, but better was never quite me. The feeling of hopelessness that it was only ever going to be just 'better' made it worse and worse, all I wanted was to get out and be myself - the crazy insane child who was constantly out and being active and doing the things that I loved because I knew my joints were fucked anyway. Now I've decided to go back to that and it's like my personality has come back, I feel like myself again and even though my emotions still hang on a tenuous balance, I feel lighter, like my life is my own again.


With this being said, I've decided to re-blog this (with some slight amendments). It gives me hope. It puts a cheeky smile back on my face, but more importantly, it has made me me again, instead of a person who hardly recognises themself.


So to the wind, the sand, the green grass and the sea...


...it's just you and me baby, you and me.

People often wonder why I don't follow doctors orders and go surfing or kayaking or running, and while I do say that it's because of the natural adrenalin that flows through my veins, it's also because I live in a world and a society where there is so, so much pressure to do well and become something or someone, and for me, the way to escape this is by doing crazy, physically challenging things where it doesn't matter if I'm a success or a failure. It's my personal way of escaping my family who expects so much of me, the pressure I place on myself to do well at uni, my friends who I love so much but just sometimes get a bit annoying and everything else that is playing havoc with my emotions and with my brain. It's my escape because when I'm out there, in the ocean or the sand or running on the green grass, there's no one expecting me to do something amazing. When I go for a surf, I know that even if the only waves that carry me are the ones that are pummelling me beneath their rough surface, that no one will be angry or disappointed when I trudge once again on the sadly solid ground. When I'm running around the oval inhabited by ants and birds and beetles and shrubs, I'm free from the expectations of everyone and everything, and I can simply enjoy the cool wind sweeping against my face and the floating sensation that follows.

But there's more than just that. When I go for a surf, I'm amazed that there is a single body of water with hundreds of thousands of living things swimming around inside of it, and that there's somehow still room for so many oblong bumps to rise out of the water and carry me and my surfboard (whether above or below) for a few meters before I either get my head up to suck in the oxygen or before I jump back into the blue expanse triumphantly. When I've finished my run and have collapsed onto the ant-filled grass I can be amazed that such tiny creatures exist so perfectly. That is, I can be amazed until one of them bites my back and leaves me with a sore, itchy red lump. Either way, every time I go surfing or running, I'm allowed to just be me. To be a version of me who has forgotten about the world and instead to be filled with liberating freedom and wonder.

So, when people ask me why I don't follow doctors orders and go for a surf or a run, I tell them that it's because of the wind, the sand, the green grass and the sea.

It's just me and them baby. Them and me.

A Return to Innocence

There's something brilliant about being around little kids. They're so innocent and cheerful and simple.

I went to my cousin's 8th birthday not too long ago, and all the kids there were so excited by the imminent waterfight. As soon as they realised there were water balloons they flocked to get them. It was pretty great.

And then I went to my old neighbour's new place and chilled out with the kids. They're a bit older than my cousins but still, the two younger one's were happy enough doing their own thing. Just chilling out, and telling me all about how cool their new house is.

Anyways, I'm not quite sure what the point of this blog is - perhaps to say that we should try enjoy the simple things in life some more, demonstrated by little kids and some mildly hipster photos :P

Happiness and The Smiths - One week down.

I'm writing this blog because of something I read in Smith Journal, so I was going to post a song by the Smiths, but ended up with a scene from 500 Days of Summer, one of my all-time favourite movies, featuring Hall & Oates and the mighty attractive Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But I figure that works (somehow) because 500 Days of Summer is what got me into The Smiths in the first place... :P

One week post-surgery and things are going well...except I decided to stop taking pain meds because they were giving me headaches of epic proportions and so now my brain is returning, and I am getting antsy. I'm so bored!

And then I read this thing in Smith Journal, which is a pretty rad magazine that you should totally get a hold of, and it helped a little. The next 5-7 weeks of hell-in-a-sling means no more dislocating shoulders, which will be well-worth it and I'm sure will help with this dudes* notion of happiness which I really like, so I just have to focus on that.

"HAPPINESS
This is an uncomfortable word, too full of associations of cheerfulness and mindlessness. I prefer fulfillment. The goal is to have a fulfilled life, which may have enduring periods of great difficulty, but in the name of something worthwhile**. Also, it feels vital to conceive of happiness as something one might, at best, sample in 10-minute bursts. To imagine a decade of happiness seems insane - happiness is a rich food that we can't stomach for very long. We're creatures of anxiety and apprehension. That's how we survived."

And besides, there's a stress ball attached to my sling and who doesn't like stress balls?

*Alain de Botton, who is apparently an author and philosopher.
**My friends and family are making this far less difficult though - thanks everyone :)

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If only I were a better fan, I would've known about this song and been able to post it on "I'll dance 'til I die"! They go together perfectly! In any case, you can listen to it now, because it's still a rather lovely song, even if the combination of Death Cab and happy music does weird me out a little...

I finished classes for the semester yesterday, finally. It's been a really tough semester so this is an epic milestone for me :D Also, terribly sorry about the lack of blogging lately. I've been mighty distracted. I actually spent a weekend there looking like I'd been hit by a car - leg in an epic brace, arm in a sling and drugged to a ridiculous degree - so I wasn't really all that inspired. Anyhow, I'm back now, sadly still lacking in sufficient inspiration, but I'm sure we'll get there :)

Hope you're all fantastically well and enjoying the warmer weather!

Photo courtesy of Christian Fletcher

I'll dance 'til I die.

Seeing as this short post was inspired by Fremantle and the local music scene, this blog's clip comes from one of the raddest local bands out, The Seals (who you can also find here). I've only actually seen them live once, but they were pretty fantastic, and their EP never fails to make me want to dance. I hope you like it!!

Coming up to my 18th birthday I had a lot of 30 and 40-somethings telling me to enjoy myself while I still could. "You're young and free! Enjoy yourself before you have a full-time job and a mortgage and you can't go out anymore!"

Well, I went out to Clancy's Fish Pub for Dad's 53rd tonight (happy birthday Padre!!) and after dinner we went to watch the band that was on, Tom Fisher & the Layabouts. By the final song the ages of the people dancing ranged from 14 to 60, and they were all having an utterly radtastic time.

So you know what all you 30 and 40-somethings who were so determined to hand on your life wisdom? Clearly, you're doing something wrong and I'm going to keep on enjoying myself 'til the day I die.

Photo courtesy of VolunteerSG and google images :P

Don't think, you'll ruin it.

So, I've spent the last two and a bit days working pretty solidly on my politics essay, (with a brief interlude to the Fremantle markets for coffee, of course), and I keep finding myself listening to this guy's playlist on repeat. I don't mean to, but I hit play on the first song, and then get really involved in my essay and realise two hours later that I all of a sudden know the lyrics to songs whose existence I only discovered 48 hours ago haha :D

Anyhow, I thought I'd share the joy.

Despite the assignments, life has been good lately. If you read the last post, you'll know I'm getting a bit overexcited about summer, but moreover, I've started to do things without thinking so much. It's kinda fun.

I went to a friend's gig on a whim last week, which ended in some rather entertaining drunken shenanigans. I asked a barista/photographer, who I regularly go and annoy on Sunday afternoons, if he'd show me how to put film in my Mum's 30-year old Pentax K1000 properly (cheers Tim!), and have since started snapping some random photos. I don't even know if I used the right film, but I figure I'll get the hang of it. And, I got the butcher down the road to teach me how to break down a chicken, because it seemed like a useful thing to do.

Cello, we have a bass!
Dublin Jazz Aunts

Pure radness.

Cool kids and great food.

I wish I could do an urbanspoon review of Scott and Sasha's cooking. Coming home to homemade meatballs al pomodoro was pretty fantastic :D

Hope life is treating you all equally well!

"Let me out of this cage, before I swell up with rage

And let me sing to old age, before I'm done

Let me shout to the skies, that I'm too young to die

And that fate will never stop me from trying."

Roo Panes - Open Road

Backlog: Dreaming of an Endless Summer

The weather is so beautiful today. Summer is here - or at least, Spring is :P And this song shall be its anthem :) I love these dudes - I love that you can hear their Aussie accents and that they seem so down to earth and that their black labrador features in so many of their youtube videos...

Speaking of Summer, I'm going to post part of a post from my old MySpace again. Every time spring rolls around I get a little overexcited because it means the dry season is nearby. It is without a doubt my favourite time of the year, which is pretty evident in how much I romanticise it. Although, now that I think of it I wrote this in September 2008, and what I wrote still embodies how I spend my summer days :D 

Dreaming of an Endless Summer

Summer Paradise

...I'm going to the beach. Every day that I can I'll go to the beach and swim and snorkel and surf to my hearts content. I'll roll around in the waves after toppling off my board, and laugh at myself when I manage to pop my head out of the water. I'll paddle out the back, enjoying the rise and fall of the bigger waves that I'll be a little bit too scared to surf. Then I'll paddle up to the front and laugh at myself sliding off my 6'7" hunk of fibreglass, before unexpectedly staying up for the first time in a while. It'll be enough to put me in a euphoric state for the rest of the day, and maybe even a day or two after that.

I'll go to the river with my family, some snorkels, hot chips, a few fishing rods and a kayak. Me and Scott will swim just a metre away from a dolphin and not even realise it, swans will try to steal our chips and we'll just laugh. We'll run along the top of blackwall reach and climb down the cliffs to discover tiny caves, and I'll jump off the top of the ominous walls of rock into cool, murky water. I'll go for a long kayak, a snorkel in my lap so that I can push my head into the water and enjoy the sweet, cool liquid and the darting schools of whitebait desperately swimming away from me. Then Scott will jump on the front and we'll paddle through the yachts.


Laughing.
Yelling.
Screaming.
Singing at the top of our lungs.
Mum and Dad will get angry because we stayed on the water 'til after dark, but who cares. We had a good time and they'll get over it. Then we'll fish and catch blowies until we're too tired to put the bait on our hooks, before going home and arguing over who gets the shower first. 

Christmas will be the same as usual. The ever so lovely family lunch of a roast lamb, a roast chicken, too many roasted vegies, a Christmas pudding that I pretend to like, and a pavlova covered with fresh fruit. We'll sit around the tree after church and appreciate everything we get because we know that it was as much as Mum and Dad could possibly afford. We'll muck around outside and maybe even go for a swim at the beach as the sun slowly melts into the calm, blue expanse that is the ocean...

Eep! I'm getting so excited :D

Blue skies make me so happy :D

Hot Tods

I realised that I lied in my last post. The Beatles isn't quite as far as I get when it comes to listening to older music - I'm also a little in love with Crowded House. Although, just out of curiosity, does music from the late '90s/early noughties count as old yet? Because that would vastly expand my old music repertoire :P

Also, just a little music trivia for you - did you know that Neil Finn actually said this song was his homage to The Beatles, as well as an attempt at sounding like them?

I've had quite the amazing week. Not quite enough work (although I've still managed to watch about 20 lectures), far too much drinking, catching up with old friends and lots of other fun shenanigans.

Chilling by the Docks

Our version of 'study'

Cool kids.

On the downside though, almost all of my family members have been sick this week. I thought I'd managed to evade the dreaded cold, but alas my throat is suddenly really quite sore... So, I thought I'd share my favourite cold cure with you all (even though winter is technically over).

Hot Tods
What you will need:
  - Juice of 1-2 lemons
  - 2 shots of brandy
  - Tbsp of honey
  - Hot water

Mix them all in a large mug, and voila! Not only will it help you sleep and stop your throat from hurting, it also tastes amazing (and may give you a bit of a buzz) :P

Side note: Somebody told me the other day, they read my blog but don't follow it because they think they'd come across as stalkerish. It's not stalkerish! I post them on facebook for the whole world to see, so follow away!! (Please?) :P

Dislocato Girl

No. 1: Shark bite - Right knee :P

So, on Tuesday I woke up with a swollen face and a dislocated jaw, and my joints wouldn't stop hurting. I went to uni, tried to ignore it, and then realised around 3pm that I couldn't actually feel my left hand. Apparently, my 'good' shoulder had subluxed or dislocated, and thus we welcome back Disclocato Girl.

No. 2: Screws in, screws out (please!)

It means I'll be in a sling for a little while, and usually my emotions would be completely out of whack, but this time, I seem to be doing ok. The people that I've been around have been absolutely amazing.

No. 3: Gun shot wound.

So a big thank you to everyone who has been there for me in the past week. The last few times I've found out I'm going to need more surgery, I've been an utter mess, but this time I've managed to get through relatively unscathed. Without getting soppy, you've all helped me see past the shitty side of this. I know what's coming, which doesn't help in the slightest, but I also know I'll get through it. I'll watch the whole of Grey's Anatomy again, sneak off to the beach when no one's watching and float around in the water, eat a damn lot of ice cream, and more importantly, I know that this time there'll be people I can call at 2am in the morning when the horrible post-surgery insomnia begins.

Soon-to-be No. 4
Chilling with my sling and showing off some of my scars :P

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So I sometimes think I'll start writing, and then the words just don't work for me. But I will start posting again properly soon, I hope. In the meantime...



A video that I can't stop watching...

 

And some seriously rad coffee art!

I keep thinking perhaps I should revert back to the summer of 2009. Making coffee by day. Sitting on the beach with friends til after dark, the taste of chips on our fingers, sand between our toes, salt caked in our hair. What a life, hey?

The Ocean Floor

A song that's meant a lot to me these past few days.

I've had a rough couple of weeks lately, which in the summer would usually culminate in me spending far too much time duck diving time and time again, trying to see if I can sit on the ocean floor forever. The murky blue light that filters through the water and the gentle ebbing of the ocean as it fills my ears gives me peace. 

Lying on the ocean floor. Sand ingrained in my skin. Staring at the waving sun, clouds, blue fragmented sky, I find a stillness that I can't get anywhere else.

Last weekend, I took a trip to the ocean. It was calm. Gentle. I almost walked in fully dressed to try and find some of that peace, but decided against it.

This weekend, everything had gotten that bit harder and I fully intended on going for a quick swim. Just one dive down, that was all I needed to be able to wade through all of the hard times that were coming. But I didn't need to.

One look at the roaring ocean. Almost getting blown away by the wind. The tide sweeping up higher than I ever expected it to and turning my shoes into sandpits. The taste of salt on my lips. It was enough to make me realise that life is bigger than me. Things will happen that I won't understand, but life is still beautiful. The hard times are what make the good times so good, and all we can do is try our best.

RIP

Yesterday, I woke up hungover and feeling utterly horrible. My friend Chloe, whose house I stayed at, and I, were just chatting, laughing, wishing we could get back to sleep. And then Chloe got a phone call. Our friend Guppy had passed away on Wednesday night.

It was sudden, and completely unexpected and I thought that it was some kind of weird joke. It's only just starting to hit me that he's gone. I didn't know Guppy as well as a lot of our friends, but I knew him well enough to know he was a pretty rad guy.

To Guppy's family, our hearts go out to you.

To Guppy, we all know we will see you again someday, but until then - rest in peace.

To everyone else, life can change so suddenly, so do your best to enjoy every minute of it.

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It would appear that I haven't written anything on here in rather a long time, so I thought I'd let you know I'm still here!

Of late, my life has been a little hectic. I've picked up two more jobs, quit my old one (last day is next Friday) and sat my first exam in a long time! Plus I've been saving my butt off because this time next week, I'll be in Singapore!!! :D

I'm so ridiculously excited. For the first time in my life, I'll get to go on a plane and leave the state, I'm going to go shopping properly for the first time since last year some time, eat some amazing food, and most importantly, I'll get to see Rebecca Wiener!!!! :D I miss that kid so much.

We're going to Universal Studios on Tuesday, the weather won't be cold, and hopefully I'll take some pretty pictures and start making this blog a tad more colourful :P

For the moment though, you'll have to settle with a picture of the awesome bar at the Greenhouse (which isn't that great quality cause I took it on my phone, but you know...)

Anyways, it's back to Italian study for me and listening to a ridiculous amount of City and Colour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZqnqH9s1jk 

(I am so addicted to this song!)