the quiet side

whoops....my bad....

2009-07-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

hey hey everyone out there....
so its been ages since i left home and ive been so bad with updates...
so heres whats happened in dot point.....

i arrived safely, after a 9 hour delay in lax. very very boring airport....
photographed a wedding 2 days later with jetlag. great wedding!
got my fellow aussies a week later- yay sam and kris
another weddingt the next weekend of one of my adopted canadian sisters. awesome wedding!
started working and getting stuff ready for summer....
spent a week pulling weeds and leeachs out of the ponds on ranch
my brit boys came back and brought more with them!
saw transformers2
camp started. sooooooooo busy
golf cart doenst work so everything takes way mroe time to get ready than it should....not cool
went to ribfest and got free ribs. AH-MAZING!!!!!
going again this weekend!!
went to an amaizng cottage with the hockey guys and rena last weekend. closets to a real beach in ontario! incredible sunset over water!
played a cool game, got rugby tackled and got a concussion! had to be woken up every2 horus all night....curent;ly have a whopping headache!!

so thats it all in a nutshell.
hope your all well!!!

my life by dot point...

2008-10-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-09-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

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????

2008-05-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-02-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

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......?????

2008-02-16T13:41:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-02-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-14T23:00:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-02-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-11T21:46:00.001-08:00

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....

2008-02-11T11:56:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

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????

2008-02-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

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???

2008-01-27T21:40:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-01-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

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???

kirks wedding

2007-12-30T23:17:00.000-08:00

so while im here i may as well let you all know how kirks wedding was....well it was pretty much great!!!

it was so good to get to see people from home again! and so good to see kirk who i hadnt seen since feb! i felt very special to get to be the representative for the Lost party and all those people from home who couldnt get there. it really was special to get to see kirk get married!

it got off to an interesting start with me loosing my voice the morning i was flying out! so i arrived in portland to greet kirk with a whisper! got to see bruce, lorraine, renee and greg and finally meet bethany that night before finally getting to bed! andrew and fiona arried the next day with Lucy and it was so good to get to see them all again as well and far out lucy's grown!

it was nice to get to spend a day or 2 with people and meeting so many new people and starting to get a taste of what kirks life is like in kelso.

the wedding was beautiful and kirk looked very handsome and bethany look stunning! it was really special to get to see little kirkus getting hitched!

all in all the time in washington was great! may favourite parts were definately being ablet to spend time with old friends and get a taste of home again. i had a great night with kirk, renee and greg hanging out in the spa at the hotel it was the first time in years we'd all been together and probably the lats time for a few more years and it was on the other side of the world!

so yeah thats about it!!

fare thee well 2007...

2007-12-30T22:40:00.001-08:00

so its almost 2008.....the year has gone so quickly and yet ive never had a longer year in my life!

it sure has been a busy and full year but its been a good one. as the year wraps up in this winter wonderland in which im currently residing the last week has been good! and as i have nothing overly profound to say on the years end, ill tell you about the last week!

so christmas was good and white at the daniel residence. i was spoilt with presents from mum n dad at home, and julie and the daniels and my roommates and my bosses!!! and had a good day all round! boxing day was spent shopping with laura, julie and camille. i bought me a snowboard bag so i can get the board home!!! yay!!! and saw p.s. i love you at the movies- very very good movie!!!! then headed on back to the ranch for work the next day!

was a busy one ill tell you- not....there was about 5 people on ranch, so its really really quiet and strange!!! Laura and heidi came to stay the night and laura and i went snowboarding on the rodeo hill at midnight! so much fun!!!

the next day i attended the ballet in toronoto with laura, heidi and ash to see the nutcracker- it was AWESOME!!!! i never realised all those songs i knew were from that! absolutely loved it! and it made me wanna be up on stage again....

this leads us into the weekend....being that theres no one really around and i had the apartment all to myself, i cleaned a lot and eventually leah came over for a one tree hill marathon which was truly amazing!!!

a bit more lazing around leads us to here sunday night, with a not very eventful weekend under my belt to finish off 2007 and getting ready for 2008 and all the unknown that lies before me. im both excited and scared. i have no idea where God is taking me in the new year i just hope its going to be full of adventure and im excited to see what he has for me!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

so this is christmas...

2007-12-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

well first of all MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

im still over herein canadia and enjoying very much my first ever white christmas! everything looks beatiful outside and im hoping we'll get some snow this afternoon to frollic in! im spending christmas at the Daniels house, they've pretty much adopted me as an extra daughter so its been fun! very differnt to home in Australia but still great!

the lead up to christmas has been sooo crazy busy that ive got myself sick! i had kirks wedding last weekend in washington state which was awesome....ill do a separate blog on that later! and things at the ranch have been crazy in preparation for christmas! there was much baking to do for the ranch and then yvonne and i had christmas baking fest 2007 with heidi late on saturday night! with all we had to get done, we got to our beds finally at around 6am! but we did have a very productive evening of baking, wrapping, packing and dying my hair!

its been pretty cool being over here for christmas! the snow is amazing (theres about 2 foot at the ranch!) and it makes everything seem more christmasy! theres lights everywhere and we even put some up outside our apartment! we had our apartment christmas on saturday morning before everyone went there separate ways, and i made mums crepes and we opened our gift. was really fun!

hmmm so thats pretty much it for now! we are off to lauras grandparents for dinner so i must get ready but i hope you all had a great christmas and enjoy the rest of the year!

whoops

2007-12-12T01:28:00.000-08:00

so i missed a week....sorry and this has to be quick because its 4:30am and i really need to get to bed!!....

so the past week. i guess the biggest things have been my first snowboarding experience last wednesday! it was awesome. the next day my whole body hurt! muscles i didnt even know existed were mad at me for snowboarding!. we wnet very early to blue mountain and got set up with a lesson. rachel, luke, stephen and i all had lessons together on the little hill and we learnt all the basics. which pretty much took us til lunch time. after lunch janet and sarah somehow manage dto convince me to go down one of the big hills with them....let me tell you the difference between the 2 hills was beyond imagination! i gave sarah instructions to send my body home to australia if i died! standing at the top of that hill looking down was one of the scariest momments of my life!!!

so as expected- i fell ALOT of times on the way down!!! and spent alot of time on my butt! it took me at least 15mins to get down the hill!!! but.....i did it! and i was learning all the way! after that i reverted back to the small hill and practiced more, even made it all teh way down without falling on my last run of the day! all in all it was an amazing day! everyone said we got the best day ever to learn. the snow was freash and there was heaps of powder so it didnt hurt very much to fall in! and we just had so much fun.....and yep i love the snowboarding!

in other big news....julie came to visit for a weekend and i got to show her the ranch in winter!! we went for a snowy trail ride wher ei thought my legs fell off because i lost all feeling to them! went skating by ourselves at the rink! wnet to the best resterant in town wher ei even got aussie rack of lamb- AMAZING!!! and even got to go down to church in oakville. all in all it was awesome to get to hang out with her and show her more of where i live!

today, steve, stephen and i all got up very very early and headed down to the state sto pick yvonne up from buffalo airport! was a nice little road trip and an eventful boarder crossing. stephen got mistaken for a dude who'd gone on a nice little crime spree throughout america!!! we picked up yvonne and made our way back up through niagra falls. i got to drive for the first time in canada! and we checked out the falls because stephen hadnt been yet and as he leaves on fridya it was kinda his last chance. they were amazing in the snow!!! we found this awesome tree that was totally covered in ice!!!! so cool!

so this week is full of airport runs and mixed emotions! i fly out tomorrow to go to kirks wedding which is really exciting! i cant wait to see kirk and the mellers and andrew, fiona and lucy and get to see kirk get married!! but this week also holds sadness as stephen heads back to scotland. its going to be very weird and quiet not having him around and we're definately going to miss him!

ooo and i almost forgot- we christmasfied the apartment!!!! sunday afternoon ashley, sarah, jon boy and i headed out to the front field, cut down our very own real live christmas tree and dragge dit all teh way home!!! set it up and decorated it! and tonight sarah and i put lights up in the hedge!!! it all looks so lovely and christmasy!!!!! i love it and yes indeed it really is begining to look alot like christmas.....

so if you've no place to go...

2007-11-29T23:03:00.000-08:00

so its winter!!!! outside is covered in snow, and its not an uncommon sight to look out the window while working toe see snow flying around. it makes you feel like your in a snow globe. pretty fun!!
ive learnt that when snow stay son teh ground for a littel bit it get sreally really icy and really really slippery!!! so there has been many a slide on the ice walking to work.

i have also learnt that as its soooooo cold outside and soooooo warm inside everytime you enter or leave a place it takes a good few minutes to dress or undress yourself tpoo fut the temperature. i bougty a winter coat and snow pants on teh weekend and it was perfect timing because i wouldnt have made it this far through the week without them!

turns out everything is brigher in the snow and i can walk around at 1am and i can see evrything almost like its the middle of the day! the swimming pond look particularly amazing in the middle of the night and ive decided its my new favourite place. as you get to the end of the forrest just before it opens up into the campfire area, the trees are a littel further apart but still shade the path enougah dn it feels like your walking through narnia. absolutely amazing!!!!

so my extra exciting news for today is the purchase of a snowboard!!! yep its true, im now a snowboarder. im gonna go ahead and guess at least for the first little bit ill be a bad snowboarder but one none the less!!!! tomoro if i get time im going to try it out on the hill in front of the hosue and pray that i can stop before i get to the pond and crack through the ice!!! so sarah and simon you have a new snowboarding buddy when i get home!!!!

thats about it for now. really should go to bed cos its late and i have a ridiculously long day ahead!!!

quick....

2007-11-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

hey ho,
just a quick one....about to finish wokr and the internet is still down at home so here it is.....
getting very veyr cold!!! wnet to guelph on teh weekend (about and hour from here) to watch a mates high school footy match! very funny! and very veyr cold. minus 6 infact and we were outside!!! crazy huh! he's definately the most popular guy on his team now aftre having 3 girls 2 of whom are foreign cheering very very loudly all game for him!

the ponds froze over the otehr day but with a little rain and slightly warmer weather they defrosted. apparently this is just temporary.....

tomoro i heda to pennsylvania in the states to do some hardcore shopping with hardcore sales. apparently its nut so im excited!!1 and we are expecting a huge snowstorm 2mroo so that will make driving fun!

we've put up the christmas decorations in the main places at the ranch in teh last 2 days so thats been way fun, listening to christmas carols and decorating trees and putting up lights. i love Christmas!!!!!! we even had a nice little christmas family dinner last night squishing 10 of us around the table and eating by the light of a canlde an dteh tree, and today at lunch we lit the fire in teh dining hall for the first time. tahtw as fun and smokey!

now im off to shannons for a while, shes up from college for the weekend and we're gonna go watch hairspray because frankly who doesnt love hairspray????!!!!

snow and other such things

2007-11-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

so last week we had an amazing snow fall- well amaizng for the aussie at least! it stayed on the ground for a whole day!!!! so heres some pics!

the coach house

the hill outside the dining hall across to the circle

the fence...typical canadian country fence

yvonne and i in the snow with our retro headbands

thats pretty much it for now.....maybe heading to guelph for weekend to see a friends championship high school football game. im kinda excited! and also singing at a youth group this friday which is exciting- been missing singing alot. headed to the states the weekend after that for black friday- the hugest sales of the year!!! so shopping spree ahoy!

other than that things are going along as normal. the internet is down at the hosue which sucks, and means blogging n all that jazz gets done less!!! as does booking flights....whoops.

ive found a church that yvonne and i have decided to make our home while we are here. its calle dthe meeting house and its amazing. the idea is that its a church for people who dont like church. the music is top notch and the teaching is just as amazing. the preacher bruxy cavey does an amzing job at getting into the bible in depth while holding your attention. its pretty much everything a church should be. its huge as well which i guess is maybe the one downfall in taht its hard to get to know people (also enhanced by the fact that its an hour away so its hard to hang out with people) but bruxy has adopted yvonne and i as his new foreign friends which is cool. they try to get around the fact that its so big by making home churchs (bible study) their focus for community building. so if we get the chance yvonne and i might look into one. but yeah its great. you should all go and find the sermons on podcast, go to www.themeetinghouse.ca to check out more about it!

hope your well! more soon!

do you speak french?

2007-11-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

so we have a band camp in this week at the ranch and tonight they had a latin band come in to play for the kids- it was AMAZING!!!!!!!

the band was absolutely tops, and yvonne being the amaizng pro dancer that she is, taught us how to salsa. so we got to spend the night salsa dancing to sweet music!!!! n then we hung out with the band after and they are great guys. all from cuba- Emmmy you would have LOVED it!

definately the best night ive had in a long time!

viva musica e bailar en cuba

SNOW DAY!!!!!!

2007-11-06T20:49:00.001-08:00

so i woke up this morning to my room mate proclaiming that it was snowing out.....in my sleepy daze i fell back to sleep......but when i did ventur eoutside with yvonne an hour later- to our amazemenet it was indeed snowing!!!!!! we laughed all teh wya to the kitchen at the sheer absurdity that it was snowing in november when in theory i should be at the beach with all you sydney siders......i slipped on the stairs to the dining hall! and continued to laugh at the whole thing!

so from there on i ventured into the snow many many man y many times today as i was hosting a few groups in teh ranch and shifting meals from building to building. i also gave anice little introduction speech to a group of school kids who are at ranch for band camp...yes i said band camp......in the snow!!!!! it was fun!

just after lunch it began to snow more and yvonne and i went skipping and running and cartwheeling in the snow!!! much much fun!

sadly though- its not yet cold enough to actually have snow collect on the ground....but we are meant to get about 5cam overnight so hopefully when i venture outside at 7am....it will be venturing into a white covered winter wonderland!!!! heres hoping.....

third person

2007-10-31T15:42:00.001-07:00

so not really much to report.....its been an average week.....

its starting to get colder. much colder. lynda is not likiing this so much.
there were snow flurrys on saturday morning......i did not see them as i was sleeping.....
today is halloween....lyndas first halloween.....when she finishes work......lynda is going to a halloween-ish party where they are all dressing as bible characters. she is looking forward to the pizza which will be at said party as she has not eaten much today at all, as lunch was crap and dinner was likewise.....
lynda got her first ever halloween candy (yes is candy because its in north america).....
lynda is going to be scared tonight when stephen makes he watch a scary movie because its halloween......
lynda realises that the photos in teh last blog did not work and so will try to fix said issue....
lynda's apartment got skunked again.....it smells......very very bad....
lynda has the golf cart this evening....she likes this.....
lynda i sdone with talking in third person, she is amused at herself, and will be leaving now.....
lynda likes comments on her blog....

the apartment

2007-10-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

so.....i thought it was time to write again......im going to attempt to write every wednesday cos im in teh office and got nothing to do...we'll see how it goes eh!

so i figured i should show you where im living so......here goes. my apartment is smallish, id call it one and a half bedrooms....you walk in the front door, and on the left is the kitchen which opens into the main living room,

which is a reasonable size, with our tv n couches and our new fish!! (yes i bought fish...theres 3- i own hunter and ezekial, yvonne had noah but he died so we replaced him with reuben today! so cute!)....we have a small bathroom with bath which is nice on occasion, then past the bathroom and into the main bedroom which houses me, yvonne from scotland and sarah. yvonne has top bunk, sarah has bottom and i get the single bed. score huh! ashley has a tiny room to her self (the half room)....we all share a closet which is actually a good size. and thats pretty much the whole thing really! so its nothing huge. we just got a door put in between the bedroooms an dthe main room which is sweet seeing as im always the last one up, i dont have to be quite so quiet anymore!

outside is starting to cool down a bit, and the colourful leaves are changing quickly and then falling off of just falling off with little change to colour. apparently its been a weak fall, with little colour compared to normal, but for us foreigners who've never seen a real fall its pretty spectactualar anyway. im learning if i wanna take a photo of a nicely changed tree to do it that day because by the next day most of the leaves will have fallen off with the wind.

i spent one aftrenoon this week putting som eart up on the walls of the paartment. yvonne and i have been meaning to do so for a while now because we hated the stuff thatw as up. so i found some matt boards and got some photos printed, and put them up. looks sweet. i have some of different flowers ive taken, one of andrew and lucy from the photo shoot i did when she was 8 days old, and some of sydney. its good, make sit feel more homely which is nice. and ive become a clean person! crazy huh!! because we live in such a small space and there are always people in and out so i like it too be clean. so heidi and i have decided that contrary to popular belief, we are not anal, we are just particular!

last night, some of the ladies decided to doll ourselves in black dresses and heals and head to our favourite resturant one99!!! was such a good night, i had duck and it was amazing!!! it was such a great and a sweet change from eating food we've cooked all day, and served and cleaned up after! fine dining is amazing! we did however leave there and head to walmart, followed by maccas for mcflurry's followed by blockbuster for a movie and then to boston pizza to get cheesecake for one of the girls and mints!!! they have the best mints ever!!!! yvonne and i pretty much live on them and kelseys mints....sad huh!!!!

anywaysy- hope that brings you up to speed a little!!! hope your all well and ill write soon.....

gap jeans????? more like CRAP JEANS!!!!!

2007-10-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

so bougth myself some nice new jeans when i was in the states to get me through a bit of the cold, wore them once in new york and bought them back to the ranch. so last nigth i put them on for the first time sinc ei got them in canada, crouched down to pick something up and the RIPPED!!!!!! like a HUGE rip!!!!! all the way down from the zipper and the across the leg so theres a huge gapeing hole like about 20cm long!!!!!

so took them back to gap in canada today same company right??? yes!!!! but can they take them back cos they're jeans suck????? NO!!!!! and why???? because of customs crap?!!?!!!! what the???? so if i wanna get my money back or get new one so im not loosing ove rhalf a weeks pay check on nothing i have to get them bakc to the state!!!! GAY!!!!!

The Skunk

2007-10-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Oh and i almost forgot.....this country has the most retared animal i have ever met in my life!!! the skunk! tell me what use it has other than to annoy lynda.....

our lovely little apartment has been sprayed by a skunk 3 times in a week!!!! 3TIMES!!!!! and the smell of skunk is like nothing you have ever smelt. its actually suffocating its so disguisting!!!

and its the same stupid skunk, it lives under our apartment....jamie and matt were out with bows and arrows today trying to coax it out from underneath to kill it! we all just want it out of there.....

yvonne got up one morning to leave for work and was stuck inside, because said skunk was very happily rumaging through our rubbish.....

i think we need to name our little skunk.....

Thanksgiving

2007-10-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

ok so final blog for now.....just spent the weekend at the Daniels place- they're kinda my adpoted family while im over here!!! i met laura last year and we bacame pretty close, so they tend to look after me! so this was my first reall full on thanksgiving....i had to work the first half of the weekend which sucked, but after saturday lunch was finished at the ranch, lauras sister heidi drove me, yvonne (my scottish roommate) and steven (another token scotsman at ranch!) down to missisauga for a weekend of fun, food and being away from the ranch!!

mostly it was just alot of relaxing really!!! it seemed that whenever we stopped we napped. we made it to church on sunday morning which was great, and then had thanksgiving dinner with lauras extended family. thanksgiving ffod is pretty good! lots of turkey, mash potatoes, sweet potatoe and gravy basically!!! after dinner, we headed out for a walk down to the river, which was really beatiful. all the leaves are changing colour and its looks amazing!!!

after our walk we pretty much went back to eating!!! hahaha.....follwed by napping....followed by watching many movies!!! pretty much the perfect weekend! hahaha.

but the best bit was definately getting to hang our with laura, ian, von, steve, heidi, julie, ruthy, and eric!!! and the rets of the family. was so nice to be just away from the ranch and get some space and some relaxation!!

i vote australia adopts thanksgiving!!!

Start spreading the news....

2007-10-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

so new york city was just as amaizng as it always is! love that city. we hada little scheduling mishap and i ended up arriving in new york a day before mum and dad and had no where to stay....so big sister to the rescue booked me a hotel and i arrive in times square sheraton at 1am on a saturday evening! dropped my bags and went to explore...because its the only city you can shop at 1:30 in the morning so im gonna make the most of that!!

the next day i spend shopping like crazy then met mum and dad down in chelsea where we would be staying the rest of the week and had a generally relaxed evening just catching up with them a bit which was nice.

monday morning we slept in which was amazing!!! an dthen headed downtown to ground zero. its still crazy there! we then headed west to the hudson river and walked along till we reached the south of manhatten island to catch a ferry to staten island. this is the free way to see the statue of liberty pretty close!!!! we then headed up to the east villiage and down past NYU through SOHO, up to the best chocolate place around an dthen headed bakc again to SOHO to have dinenr at 8 mile creek, the aussie bar and resturant!! i had some amaizng australian lamb and pavlova for dessert!!! great all round!

day 3 found us heading to the NBC studio for a tour, i liked it but i think lots of the stuff about some of teh specific shows was lost on mum and dad!! i got to do the weather for our little tour broadcast- so much harder than i expected- especially when you have no idea where thinsg are in the country to point to them!!! we then toured up through times square and down to 34th street to the wonderful macy's. this is where dad left mum and i to shop and he went off exploring on his own. i found so much sweet stuff including my very much loved new steve madden shoes.hehehe.....dinner that night had been booked for us by the lovely julie at an amazing resturant attatched to the french cullinary institue and can i just say- if you are ever in new york- GO THERE!!!! its called l'ecole and it cost $40 for a 5 course meal with some of the best food i have EVER tasted. everything was perfect even the service!!!

then came my final full day in the city and we headed up to central park to explore seeing as we've never managed to get a really good look around in there. we walked up through the amll which is probably one of the most common shots of central park used in the movies, and up to the big fountain which is probably teh otehr most commonly used shot in movies!!!! by the fountain were this awesome jazz blues band called the blue vipers of brooklyn . they were amazing and just playing for passers by, they were so good i even bought they're cd and its now the favourite kitchen cd back at ranch. after central park i split from mum and da dto finish the shopping i needed to get done, and met them down in greenwich villiage to get cupcakes from magnolia to bring back to ranch, then headed back to the apartment, after a nice rush and a quick dinner up in the theatre district we went to see HAIRSPRAY the musical on broadway!!!! was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! we had amazing 3rd row seats, that we got half price, and it was everything i expected it to be and more. its definatly one of the best musicals ive seen, and having seen teh movie made it all teh more sweeter as i could sing along!!! loved it! and yes i do indeed love link!! hahah

so after packing lots of stuff back into my hockey bag, thursday morning saw mum and dad wlak me down to9th ave to get a taxi off to the airport, and aftre a bunch of tears from mum and then a few from me in teh taxi, i was on my way back to ranch. all in all it was a great trip and i loved gettin to see mum and dad again and get to enjoy new york with them!!

catch up

2007-10-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

sorry!

its been a long time since ive posted an dyour all probably wondering what has happened to me....welll life has been CRAZY! ive been so busy!

moved into my house, started my long term job at the ranch and still getting use to canada crazy as it seems! im working mainly in the kitchen, which is always busy but the pats few weeks have been crazier than normal as ive been wokring 2 jobs here at ranch and im TIRED! ive bene in the kitchen but also hosting groups that come in and lookinga fter the weekend staff while they are here, so its alot of being on the ball mentally if that makes any sense! but the person im filling in for is back tomorrow which is amazing cos im tired! im ready to go back to wokring a normalish persons work load!

so before that craziness mum and dad came for a visit! they stayed here at ranch for 2 days to see wher ei lived, and then i met them in New York taht weekend, and we did all teh touristy things etc....ill do a separet blog for that!!!

ok....thats it for this one....

a few photos.......

2007-09-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Chillin on the ice
bens birthday cake....that much ice cream cake definatly brought on ice cream shakes and feeling of nausea all round! its lynda, ian, ben, laura and brooke
ready for mission impossible with ian and laura, we play this pretty much every week and its amazing!
view from the hills at sunrise after our camp out. the ranch is hidden beneath that fog....
dress up dinner with Spencer and Yvonne....we pretty much rocked that one

changes....

2007-09-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

so summer is finally over....its a good and bad thing.....good because im so tired and exhausted from the 11 weeks of intensity but bad because it means that all the amazing people i got to spend summer with have also gone!

so its abit quieter now around ranch, ive moved into my place for teh next 6 months. its called teh apartment and its up near the barn, i share it with 3 other lovely ladies, and im working mostly in the kitchen, but also the office one night a week, snack bar, and i will be doing promotion wokr for the ranch in schools and churchs and hostessing for groups that come in. so theres lots to do! today has been especially busy! we started in teh kitchen at 6am.....because theres 5 hockey teams in this weekend so we had 3 breakfasts to serve! its been a long day! but it ended well with a lovely trip to the cosmic bowl!!! where we bowled by black light, i even tried 5 pin bowling and its weird!

im getting used to the apartment being my new home, and went on a trip to ikea the other day to get the place organised. had much fun of course!!! and iv decided along with yvonne (the scot im living with) taht we should take advantage of living at the ranch and us ethe stuff we have around us....taht being said we went boating last night after finishing in teh kitchen an dthen sat on the hypo pond log and fished for teh evil fish thats lives in there....sadly to no avail....but fun all the same.

mum and dad are coming on tuesday for a few days. it will be greta to see them and show them around my home!! so they'll finally know what im talkinga bout when i describe thiings! then a few days after they leave im heading to new york city to meet them for a few mroe days...ahve a small accomodation problem at the momment in that i have no place to stay in new york for 1 night!!! so praying that will get worked out quickly!

thats about it for now!!!

camp is dangerous

2007-08-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

so just quick little note, i have a lovely gash above my left eyebrow from a kyack paddle to the face on sunday night. we were doing a kyack race of sorts in the games on sunday night with campers and the kycak next to ours capsized and i caught the kyack paddle straight to the head. thought it was going to need stitches for a while, but luckily its holding togeter pretty well with just tape. so hopefully i wont get too much of a scar!

its been a while.....

2007-08-25T22:10:00.001-07:00

hey there everyone in internet land....yes its been a long long time since ive made a good post. so i have a few minutes....so ive been busy beyond what i ecpected and im totally emotionally, mentally and physically tired, but tahts ok, cos im still loving it. the people are amazinga nd every week a new group of awesome kids come sin. ive spent the last 2 weeks running teh program at night which pretty much means i get to go crazy and have a whole bunch of fun running game sfor the kids. and i get to ride the golf cart around. i love it. been wokring snack bar or day camp during the day time, which has been making it tiring, but i wouldnt give up the program stuff for sleep so hey thats my call!

this week coming is teh last week of campf or summer and thats a very good thing, im back on counselling this week, and i have like 5 girls, cos theres only 14 campers so it'l be interesting. but it should be a great week, and then after summer we all head to wonderland as staff to just chill out. then ill be going up to cottage of one of teh families who work shere, and mum and dad come in a few weeks, then new york city just after that....and plus work at the ranch in amongst all that. it'll be a heaps slower pace by then which will be a nice change.

rigth now im sitting in teh coach house, chilling with some of the guys playing music and such when we really should be in bed, but this is much more fun. love it. made some amazing friend sthis summer and i cantw iat to go and visit them all afetr summer, i think its going to be a really good year ahead....

so im gonna get back to it....when i put photos on my computer ill add soem uup here so you can see a bit of life here. till then hope ur all well. sne dme letters cos i dont get enough mail!!!

busy!

2007-08-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

hey everyone....so its been a while.....

been so so so crazy busy, and this is the busiest week yet. im programminag dn working snack bar so basically have zero free time.....infact pretty much have to go right now to run lunch....but just quickly- im having and aawesome time still, so much fun and great people. missing back home an dthe beach though!!! and esp the people!!!

gotta run...more soon!

this and that

2007-07-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,
just a really really quick blog, its been hard to get time to go on the internet, but hopefully ill get mor etime soon. so basically been having agreat time, its father son camp this wesk so ive been on work crew and we've been cleaning the swimming pond an dthe hypo pond getting them ready for summer. its fun but hard work. pulling weeds all day from teh bottom of the pond. but hey we're girls working hard, and doing a good job. plus im wokring with amazing people so its fun. just had a massage - yeah hard life eh! they bring in professionals for fatehr son camp, so staff scam massages as well. its awesome! and been painting this morning. lots more work to do but still having lots of fun. getting a sweet tan, and going to see transformers....seen it twic ethis week, once for free and its awesome! this weekend im off to a few peoples houses to hang out aweay from ranch which should be nice before we get into the full swing of summer camps on sunday.

feeling a bit sick, and still got a bad chesty cough but slowly getting better. had dinner at the best resturant ever last saturday and il post about it later. but till then, hope your all well, miss you lots and hope to hear from you soon!

ps- also got a cell phone now so email me if you wnat the number!

fun times to boot

2007-06-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

so ive been spending the last few days hanging out with Laura, her sister Julie, and yvonne teh scottsih chick. has been awesome just hanging out and having fun with them!

yesterday we got up very very early (in the 5am region) and drove out to london, ontario for lauras orientation for college which she starst in september. we dropped her off and then set off to set up the apartment her and julie will be sharing. and they employed the cheap foreign labour (yvonne and i!) and we built them a table! was fun, and we even met some of her neighbours, and got to know the apartment we wil be crashing in when we come to visit. we explored campus and the town abit and its really nice. we approve.

then today, we went down to lakeshore very early again for breakfast with some lovely ladies from ranch bethany and shannon. was so greta to see them both again and breakfast was amaizng. i was weirded out by the fact that the lake (lake ontario) is so large that it actually extends to the horiaon so it feels like your looking out at the ocean but its totally flat and doesnt smell like the sea!

after this lovely jaunt we headed to downtown toronoto to watch the toronoto blue jays play the colorado rockies in baseball! this was the first baseball game for both yvonne and i and was very exciting! there was a hilarous chillie race between 2 innings, and we got sunburnt!! we also decided to explore the statium which is massive!!! and found a kids club thing and ran arond the statium getting stamps so we could get a free baseball player bobble head. you were menat to be under 14 but apparently being forgeing works just as well! yvonne an di also joine dthe kids club for $10 each which got us a shirt,visor,sweat bands, dog tags and a memebrship card!!! soooo cool!!! so we are now officially jnr jays! we also got photso with the team mascot, ranodm people and police! good day all in all!

then after dinner we headed out to the drive-ins. this was everyone except mines first drive-in experience. so we were all excited. its didnt start till 9:45 cos its still light so late. so we piled into lauras an julies parents van and set up the back with cushions and blankets. was so much fun. yvonne and julie ended up on teh roof for most of it, and we got a sweet deal with $11 for 2 movies! what a bargain! had an amazing time and got home about 2:30am!

im still having a great time as you can tell! we all head up to ranch tomoro afternoon to start staff training at 6! so from here on out there may be less blogs
depeneidng on when i get free time and net acces...but keep checking in to see hwat sgoing on. hope your all well!!

transcontinental jaunt

2007-06-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

so its a few days on....monday i spent at the canada services building in calgary gettinga social insurance number so i can work...fun fun fun...followed by a good quick meal at earls with julie, before rushing to the airport to get my 3:45 flight to toronto....

it was hard saying goodbye to julie again. its amazing how quickly we slip back into it being jsut normal to have the other one around. so that was hard. but the flight went fast enough and i arrived to the best welcome ive ever had! yvonne, laura, and julie (lauras sister) were waiting for me at the airport and were so excited to see me that they actually jumped the fence thing and came into the bagge claim to hug me. pretty funny! and pretty sure evryone else was jealous they didnt get the same welcome! was so so so good to see them all again. and have spent the tiem since then hanging out and slipping back into that being the norm.

yvonne and i are staying here at lauras all week until staff training at the ranch from sunday. so we have a fun week of slepeing,e ating, shopping and random fun planned.

today we ended up meeting up with a friend of mine from School- joel. we didnt manage to catch each other when we were both in canada last year so we made a concerted effort to do it this time! so we picked him up at the station and hung out in the mall food court for a bit over an hour! very scenice location i know,, but the company was good. it was very cool and random to get to catch up with joel on the opposite side of the world to our normal existence. and nice to have a good dose of the aussie accent as hanging out with the canadians is already chipping away at my accent!

so all is well, missing home and people alot...and my body clock is still messed up, but hopefully that should all subside soon as i get into the swing of things here!

hope your all well :)

some large hills

2007-06-17T23:37:00.001-07:00

today we headed out to the mountains in an attempt to prove to me that they actually exist....and it appears that they do....and there are rather large as well. we went to lake louise out past bamff and another lake whose name i dont rememeber. i was suprised to find snow still on the ground and the mountains in summer... but none was more suprising than the colour of the water. it's intense blue, almost fake looking and pretty opaque as well. julie said its to do with the limestone suspended in it.... whatever causes it, it looks pretty awesome.

and seeing as i dont do regular tourist photos here is the first of many lynda tourist photos...jumping at lake louise.

calagary fun n shennanigans

2007-06-17T00:55:00.000-07:00

today i caught up with my friend Clay who i meet when he was in Australia earlier in the year. he drove out from BC with some friends to hang out for the day. after an adventure filled trip to chinook mall (we got pretty lost and then more lost cos of roadwork!) we braved the large mall and shopped more then most boys would! we found marble slab- the equivelent of cold rock and also found the amazing free tast testing policy, i tried 3 flavours, dans tried 4 and matt won with 6 flavors. love scamming the system....moving on, we went into downtown calgary, and ventured to the calgary tower. apparently its the highest tower in the western hemisphere (once you add the height above sea level!) its pretty cool tho, you get a 360 degree view of calgary, and apparently on a clear day you can see all the way out to the rockies....however as im yet to see them, im not entirely sure they exist! pretty cool is the glass bottom section on the observation level. you can stand and literally look straight down on the city. pretty freaky and it took me a while to go out onto it! anyways, had a pretty sweet day all up and ready for sleep!

lost in transit

2007-06-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

hey peoples,
so ive arrived in calgary....23 hours in transit, 3 airplanes, 4 airports, 3 currencies, 3 countries, 4 hours in delayed planes on the tarmack, 1 security scare, 3 airplane meals, and 1 lost bag later....and here i am...exhausted and ready to sleep.....more later.

so so tired

2007-06-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

so its 1am....and i have 1 night left after this in sydney....i have way to much to do for the few hours i have left, have not begun to think about packing, am tired beyond words and now have a sore throat.....things are looking less than fun for the next few days....

said goodbye to the beach tonight, its gonna be a long time till i see that wonderful sight again....

....these are all the words i have for this hour....

newbie blog

2007-05-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

so this is my first post eh.....

first things first- the name.....if you know me you'll probably be thinking 'quiet side??? she has a quiet side?????'...do not fear! its after a song i am currently listening to called "the quite side" by a band called meese.....it was all i could think of at the time and figured it could be a bit ironic in regard to spending a summer with kids 24/7

second....so i figured it would be easier for me to create a blog and have you all check it rather than trying to email a stack of people. so if you wanna know whats going on in lynda's canadian adventures you've come to the right spot....for anyone who doesnt know, i head off to canada on june 14th to work at Teen Ranch for 9 months. il spend my time hanging out with little kids and telling them about Gods love, horseriding, playing ice hockey, hanging with very cool people, learning to speak slowly so canadaians can undertsand me, drinking lots of tim hortons french vanilla cappucino, listening to country music, becoming a true cowgirl and doing all kinds of other camp activities! its going to be a challenge, but i cant wait...

....as for now im doing a whole lot of the little things i need to get done before i leave in less than 4 weeks!!! like thinking about packing, having coffee with people, organising final flights, visas so i can get into the countries of choice, bits of paperwork here and there, making the phone calls you forget you need to make and trying to earn as much money as i can!

thats about all i have for now......check back later to see if anything new is here!