my life by dot point...

so its been a while eh??? so much has happened in the last month so you get it by dot point! here goes.....
-arrived in london sept 15th (strangely exactly 2 years after i got here last time!) and bussed up to bristol to hang with neil and jen. had a fantastic time with them and met some great people- sophia and lisa!
-bussed up to nottingham to see samwise, tom tom, lucky and corey! had such a great time here catching up with everyone. got to check out a panthers game and realised just how good at hockey these guys were!!! nicely done boys! had a great chance to hang with sam on his birthday, and tom n lucks on the monday. even got to head out into town for sams birthday and met a whole bunch of really awesome people!
-bussed up to glasgow....way tooo long on a bus! but got to see yvonne and got very well looked after by her family! learnt to golf and LOVE IT!! headed to aberdeen for the weekend, and edinburgh.
-road tripped round scotland with phil checking out the isle of skye, the highland- and got to see jesse which was fantastic! hit up inverness, and dundee where i got to see john and ana again. had such a great time hanging out with them and catching up on the few months past, then headed to stirling to see malcom and catch up on his life and meet his lady!!
-flew to belfast to see neilio. and had the priviledge of staying with ally. checked out belfast with gav and jess whom i met in canada and also got down to dublin. drove around teh north coast of northern ireland and saw the giants causeway, without a front drivers window in the car! very very cool country!
-flew to amsterdam to see julie and matt and got to explore the city. really really interesting town. got to see the van gogh museum and wander around rembrandts house. all very cool and arty!
-trained to brussels for the day to check out the home of chocolate, waffles and tin tin!
-flew back to glasgow for a day with yvonne before bidding her a very sad farewell to her...yes there were a few tears....and gettinga bus back to nottingham again. stayed with tom this time and got to catch up with everyone again and had the chance to meet even more very awesome people. went into town on thursday with claire and amy, and got to watch the boys hockey practice on friday before getting the bus down to bristol...
-jen and neils wedding was great!! had such a fun day and once again- even more great people to meet!!!
-and katrina picked me up in bristol this afternoon and now im spending the week in london. my days are quickly filling up with catching up with people from sydney! so should be a great week before flying back to toronto and then home in a little under 3 weeks!!

whoops....

so a whole summer has gone by and no news.....kinda a testament to how crazy busy my life has been in the last 3 months....
ranch was fantastic but also the most tiring thing ive done in my life. having to apear to be on full energy 24/7 is suprisingly draining. but i met some amazing campers and made some awesome new friends....
highlights of summer include-

• hitting up toronoto in a limo dressed to the 9's with 8 other incredible forgeiners
• new friends- esp the brit boys, breeza, gav n jess and building up some awesome old friendships.
• getting to witness the journey of the brit boys coming to know Christ and being baptised
• getting to impact some awesome campers
• being the cupcake queen
• being so absurdly tired that i lay on the ground in a staff meeting laughing for approx 5 mins with sarah
• random bp adventures involving traffic cones.
• standing on a large scaffold aka lighting rod in the midst of a near tornedo pelting kids with water balloons.

since summer finished ive had my fair share of adventures spending a few days at Josh's cottage with a few fantastic people, soaking up the sun, tubing, water skiing, sipping wine on the deck, checking out the stars on the dock, paddle boating and exploring gangsta island. and then spending a few days camping at tobermorey off lake huron and georgian bay on the bruce penisula checking out the grottos, meeting randoms at the campsite, late night walks in search of fire and the demo derby on the way home.

then i jetted off to hallifax nova scotia with bree o visit the clarkes for the week and had a fantastic time checking out downtown, chillin with bree, catching up with some friends from my last nova scotia trip n seeing jess n gavs for a few days. very early sunday morning bree n i headed to the airport her to head back to toronoto and me to head to London via washington- only to find out my flight to washington was cancelled due to the hurricane and so got shifted to a flight to ottawa (business class- FANCY!) and then onto london. Randomly Julie happened to be in ottawa at the time and so i had a great afternoon seeing julie and matt and catching up a bit on the past few months. it was short but sweet and saved me from a bunch of boredom in ottawa airport!!

i arrived nice and early in london on monday morning and made my way into the city and onto a bus to bristol to spend a few days seeing neil and jen my mates from ranch last summer. they are getting married in oct and so it was great to get to spend a few days catching up with them before the hecticness of wedding prep takes over!! been a great week here and tomorrow i head on anotehr few buses to nottingham to visit the brit boys from ranch this summer for a few days, before heaidng up to glasgow on tuesday.....so many adventures still to come, got over a month in the UK so lots to do and see and maybe some more stories before i get home....

juxtaposition

so im sitting here on the porch of the dining hall as the sky spews forth a lot of lovely hail and i realise ive been gone over a week and had no contact with the motherland.....whoops......

ok so then canada. got here a week or so ago and hit into full swing of work trying to get stuff ready for summer.

its been a strange week filled with great joys and great sorrow. one of the ladies here had a baby- called sam and he is just beautiful. such a blessing and brings such great joy to athena and andy. one of my adopted canadian sisters got enaged and another one is getting married tomorrow night. and its been great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones already.

now the to deep sorrow from this past week. a young guy mike (25) who i was working with in the kitchen this past winter, sadly on wednesday night last week he had a seizure which led to his death. this was a big shock for everyone at the ranch as he was such a part of things here and has stirred so many emotions. he was really a great guy with an increadilbe heart for the Lord. his servant heart put all of us to shame and he will be deeply missed. he was very excited that he'd been accepted to be a bunkhouse leader all summer and it sadens me deeply that the kids who would have had in his cabin wont get to meet him, because i know the impact he would have had on them would have been of eternal significance. the funeral was today and was a wondeful testament to mike and though we will miss him deeply, we can and do all rejoice with him that his sufferings on earth are completed and his joy with the Lord can now be fully realised.

so staff training has begun and its been quite a hard start to the week. there is heaps to get done, and little time for rest in that process. so i will be relying heavily on God and His strength to get me through and complete the tasks he has set before me for His work.

where did all the time go????

so its been quite a while.....and life has been ultra busy of late....

so heres the last 3 months in a nutshell.....

after i left ranch canada, i headed to new york where i met julie for a few days. loved it of course as i always do.....then after a few days filled with shopping, rent on broadway, food at le ecole, and all things new york......a quick cab ride to the airport, fligth to willmington and Julie and I met andrew, fiona and lucy to spend a few days there! i dragged julie around town all day friday checking out the spots made famous by dawsons creek, one tree hill and empire records baby! did a studio tour of mulitple one tree hills sets (yes im that cool!!!) helped julie celebrate her birthday, and a lamb roast later and we were off again, back thru new york, toronto, calgary- 3 lost bags later and we were back home at julies! i spent a week here catching up with julie, seeing a few mates- clay and adam an amazing afternoon snowboarding at sunshine village- bamff and lovely walks around calagary and i was off again on another flight this time on my way to the right side of the world....2 days later (yes march 2nd did not exist for lynda in 2008) and i arrived in NZ.....one mroe quick flight and i walke dout to meet channah and lisa!!! a sight for sore and tired eyes!!! so i spent the next week having an awesoem time catching up with channah and jords, and lisa, touring the areas around christchurch. it was a great week and then i up-ed into the plane again this time to return home....

the next few weeks were filled with catching up with people, getting new visas, KEC, and getting back into working....

from here its been a crazy 3 months.......work work work, planning winter camp band, and planning stuff for summer in canada again.....its been busier than i could have imagined and its looking like its gonna stay that way until i head off again in 2 weeks! i have plenty to fit in before i skip the country again including a lovely physio rehab program for my knee i busted back in january, winter camp and plenty of band practice and planning before then, summer planning still! a license test to get off those embarassing green p's, people people people to see and say goodbye too, a weekend crazier than ive ever had and of that little thing called packing!! so its gonna be a hectic few weeks, but thursday 12th june i fly out of sydney airport again somewhere around 2:30pm to head back to ranch canada.....arriving there june 13th at a rather nasty 7:20am about 31 hours after leaving sydney! its gonna be a long trek but one thats becoming pretty stock standard for me!

so i guess the next time im on here is most likely gonna be from the other side of the world again!

farewell canadia...

so its been a hugely busy weekend but an amazing one....
i had some amazing friends come to visit like laura, brooke, sarah, mel, josh and preston and some of the locals came round to hang. so it was really good to get to see people again before i leave.
i went to my fav resturant in town- one99 on saturday night with the ladies and it was a truly awesome night. we got totaly spoilt thanks to cassidy (the manager) getting our very own private room overlooking the resturant, complimentary patte, lamb and duck as specials for von and me and dessert platter on him with a sparkler cos it was my final weekend in canada. was very very cool night and so so so much fun!
weekend activities also included hiking up teh hill and snowboarding down, a walk to the swimming pond, singing and sharing my testimony at young adults sunday night, playing ice hockey and getting to ride the zamboni (thats the thing that makes the ice smooth again for all you non canadians out there!) with jaime, and lovely teen ranch family dinner and generally getting to spend time with people i love!!!!
and then to top it off ontario decided to make today a public holiday called family day which i enjoyed having lunch with stacey, JVD and preston, follwed by snowboarding at blue mountain with steve, rachel, and sarah with yvonne, ash, and priscilla coming along to hang out. was a great afternoon/nigth with lots of sweet boarding, some scary rides too! lots of falls, a huge bruise an dlump coming out on one of my knees, a very sore tailbone from the ice, a sore finger from getting it stuck in the car door and scary trip home complete with whiteouts (where the snow is blowing so thick taht you literally can not see anything and have to stop cos you have no idea where the road is!!!)
so all in all its been a great weekend. its now 4:47am and i leave at 6:45am to go to the airport in the morninga dn im always packed- yes still leave everything to the last minute. so here i leave you as i head to new york, willmington, calgary, new zealand an dthen finally home march 10th!!!
see you soon!

day 8......?????

so i have the priveledge of having 4 of mjy lovely friends- laura, brooke, sarah, and josh come visit me this weekend. and one of the lovely exciting things that we decided to do was take a nice trek up the hill to seee teh view of teh ranch and orangeville covered in snow.
so turns out its quite a trek.....so so tiring and my legs still hating me from making them walk the hill so many times this week were so mad at me!
but we made it and i lugged my snowboard up with me to make the trip back down so much easier! So i hads a sweet ride back down the hill. was so good to have a ride that lasted longer than 30secs before having to walk back up to go again! and was really fun doing some bigger turns n stuff.
so turns out my 7 days turned into 8....lets see if i can keep this going!

Day 7...

so the final day of my experiment to see if i could board everyday for a week....and i am happy to report i was successful!!!
My trip to hockley with jacob fell through but i powered on again on the apartment hill. the snoww has packed better over the days and provided a nice base to board on. i headed out about 6pm and fit in quite a few runs in teh half hour i was out there. was very enjoyable!!!! but my legs were starting to hate me for making them walk up the hill after every run!!!
day 7 COMPLETE!!!

Day 6...

well the week is almost over and today i was particularly pressed for time, and so 20mins before i had to be up for dinner i kitted up and ran out to the hill, put in a few runs then ran home to change for dinner.....all in all a very quick visit to boarding land but a visit none the less.
snow was a bit better packed than the last few days, but still thick when off the path created over the last few days....
i have 1 day left of my snowboarding week and so il hopefully be heading out to hockley valley with jacob tomoro to get some better runs in with a ski lift- cos im sick of walking up the hill!!!!
day 6 complete...

Day 5...

so today was a beautiful day. the sun was shining and the temperature was cold but not coooooooold....so i set out after work, into the loevly fresh power, but as the last few days have shown. this lovely fresh powder is nice to look at and fall inot but produces less than successful snowboarding.
but non-the less as planned i boarded. got in a few runs and then headed back inside as i wasnt realy getting anywhere fast!!!
but still another day of snowboarding complete....

this the hill outside the apartment ive been snowboarding on everyday!

Day 4...

well the day went almost totally by without me hitting the hill and so at 11:35pm i quickly slipped out to do my daily agenda. accompanied by the lovely yvonne i took my newly fixed snowboard thanks to moguels-my favourite people in the world- to the apt hill and pushed my way through about 2-3 foot of snow, strapped in and went down the hill.....very slowly on teh first run. but after some snow was cleared and tracks began to forn the runs became faster and more useful!!!
stayed out for about half an hour and headed in cos it was too cold an too late for anymore!!!
and as unhelpful for snowboarding as teh snow was it was perfect for falling in, and as i sat in the soft powder looking over the frozen pond and out across the snow covered field with fresh glitter falling softly on my face kkt really really was spectacular. nothing has ever been more still and silent than that which fell across adventure island as i sat alone at the bottom of the hill. God is amazing in the things he has allowed me to experience while ive been here, and this one is pretty close to the top of the list!
day 4 complete...

Day 3...

so day three of snowboarding week.....my bindings broke yesterday and i didnt make it into town to get it fixed this afternoon so i borrowed my room-mates board. headed out about 7:30pm with leah to the apartment hill. was soooooo cold, i think it was sittiing about -15 plus windchill. there was heaps of wind last night and so the snow has drifted soooo much. the result??? really thick snow thats still good for packing but this means its light and fluffy until pressure is applied and it sticks in big clumps......what does that mean for snowboarding??? it was even harder than yesterday! i finally got my bindings done up in the dark- harder than you think with black bindings....and turn to head down the hilll get about a metre and fall over becasue your board has a foot and a half of snow caked to it. really good for snowboarding eh!

so needless to say the attempt didnt last long i think 2 runs in all and neither even all the way down the hill and teh snowboard would physically go no further!. but still day 3 completed!

Day 2....

Sunday.....its really really cold out, and the wind is nasty! but as planned i headed out. time was short which was a good thing with the weather, and i headed just outside the apartment again.

this time i fit in 4 runs or so and headed back in within about half an hour. the snow was still pretty sticky and thick so i kept getting stuck again. but im getting better with my turns and making it all teh way down without falling.....day 2 complete.

Day 1...

saturday.....hit the hill outside the apartment about 3pm. we'd had a great freash snowfall so the snow was imense....was doing well but facing problems getting stuck half way down the hill in teh snow as its so thick and its good packing snow so the board gets stuck and wont go any further once there is about a foot or so of snow atop my board!

i attempted the jump set up by the stevens boys. id done it a few days earlier, however as so mcuh fresh snow had packed up on it i got stuck halfway up and did afront flip over it...less than comfortable!

i then moved on to the hill outside the kitchen, and the hill next to the hotel- all were good hoever after goiing down the hill by the hotel i headed out onto the road nicely....until i slipped and felll ncie and hard on the solid road....painful

and so after an hour and a half of boarding i headed in....day 1 complete.

last week...

ok so...the internet has been down for a week ish so hence the delay on the posting....but to your delight you'll get plenty more before i leave here.

i have one week left here at the ranch before i head off to New York, North Carolina, Calgary, Christchurch and then eventually home on march 10th! so this week will undoubtedly be a full one....i have a big list of things to do an dthe time is running shorter and shorter to get it all done!!!

so one of my plans for the week is to go snowboarding everyday....i starte dthis on saturday and ill put a daily report on so make sure you check it out!

and so till then....

long day????

so today has been a long long day...sarted at 8:30am got an hour or 2 off in the afternoon and then worked until 12:30am the next day! so i think that ends up being about 14 hours without the break.....why you ask???? WELL!!!

today was the NHL hockey gala at the ranch. and i had the pleasure of wokring the VIP room. so we spent all day preparing for said gala and also lunch for staff, then...this fine evening we got to serve food and all that jazz to the players and they're families. the way it all works is that we have a bunch of old awesome NHL hockey players come and people pay a whole bunch of money to play on teams with them to raise money for the ranch. so after the game there were a whole bunch of the most famous canadian hockey players in one room, and boy were people excited to see them! people were getting autographs every which way and tv cameras were all around....but my favourite thing was that i had no idea who any of them actually were! i dont know the difference between them and the other guys in the room!

was a pretty sweet evening all round, i got some free stuff, met some very famous people (Paul henderson was there, the goalie from slapshot, mike gartner, daryl sittler, laurie boschman to name a few) got to eat some lovely lovely lamb!! and pretty much had a sweet but busy time....and needless to say at 2:15am im ready to sleep.....

off to niagra falls tomorrow....

australia day???

so i had these big grand plans to celebrate australia day in canada.....i was originally going to go to the beach (lake beach of course because im in teh middle of the country!), bbq lamb, bake lammingtons, cook a pavlova, do anzac biscuits, go snowboarding with the aussie flag, train my foreign friends in all ways australian and do it all in the snow in shorts and tshirt if i could stand it BUT.....

12:30 the night before aus day on a quick walk to the dining hall- a freak accident involving a head lock, a scared leah screaming, yvonne and some slippery snow, i ended up busting my knee, being carried back to my apartment by 2 random knights in shining armour, and henceforth spending the whole of australia day on my butt icing my knee cos i couldnt move it!

needless to say my celebrations of australia day have been postponed until further notice....

january times...

so its been almost a month since i posted....whoops- been busy getting back into the swing of the year.....so i guess ill give you all a brief run down of all things 2008....

its been a slow start with groups around the ranch, an dthings being quiet yet somehow just as busy as ever. the ranch looks amazing all covered in snow. we had a brief thaw for a few days but after 1 day of snow- winter wonderland had returned however so did the freezing temperatures- an dthey came back worse than ever! its been sitting around -12 to -17 most days and let me tell you that cold bites right through you! but it really is beautiful! the snow flakes are getting bigger and nothing makes you feel more like a child than looking out the window to your very own real life snowglobe! and running into said sno globe to catch snowflakes on your tongue!!

ive also been snowboarding a few more times and im getting better!! im now off the baby baby hill and onto the graduate hill. i can make turns and i only fall baout 2 times down that hill now- pretty big improvement really! i took i huge fall last sundya night though on the run, got a whiteout cos they were making snow, and couldnt see a thing, got a bit of air, lost it and landed square on the shoulder and tumbled a few times. it hurt! and still does but i love it more and more each time i go boarding!




the biggest news of the week is that i now have plans for the rest of the year! im heading home in march, planning on working lots and then in june ill be heading back to canada! ive been offered the postion of program director for the coming summer at the ranch and im pretty excited about it! id felt for a while that God was calling me back to canada to do this job, and was just waiting pretty much for confirmation of that- and surely enough it came, not without a stressful wait- but all in Gods timing right! so ill be away for about 4 months from june till the end of october likely. im planning on heading over to the UK for abit over a month after ranch to see friends there while im on the rigth side of the globe! so its pretty exciting- got lots of planning to do but im excited for it! however, dont get me wrong im really really excited to get home and see everyone- i really do miss Australia and everyone there! but i figure these are the days of our lives to do these kind of things. when you arent firmly rooted to a place and can enjoy the wonderful oppourrtunities that God is giving me in these foreign places! the world really is amazing and theres just so much to see i may as well do it while i can!

the excitement for today is the birth of TROY- the valient kitchen warrior! Troy came about when a mug was dropped in the kitchen and somehow broke perfectly into a helmet for an orange! and hence iwth a little imagination, a littel sleep deprivation and a little too much time in the kitchen Troy was born and his adventures began!


and then some sad times.....hearing about the death of heath ledger really hit me yesterday. its just so sad- someone in teh prime of they're life and career with seemingly everything going for them. a death clouded in suspician with no one really knowing what happened and in reality no one ever being able to really know exactly what happened or was going on in his head yesterday afternoon....it brings up memories....

ok thats about it for now i think.....

new years baby!

so i brought my new year in at a mansion, sipping on $85 a bottle champagne, watching firworks in the snow and enjoying delctible cheesecake......quiet simply amazing....

how was yours???