HoLLy SpAcEBaG

There are only four or five people on this earth who have witnessed the full extent of a Rhianna move - Manuela, Maxime, Romy, Niklas and my mother...

For those of you who have not, I thought I would share the experience - I have a small room at my mothers chaotic house, very small, maybe 2.5m sq. I have lived in four countries, and moved house nine times, in the past seven years... and I like stuff, I like having clothes, linen, nice kitchen things, mementos from various travels and lives... and I attach a lot of memories and sentimental value to these possessions (not very zen, I know) and ALL this stuff is now in my room... it is like a ship, things stowed everywhere, using the most ingenious storage ideas ikea have to offer... That works ok, until I have to MOVE again, until I have to sort through what comes with me and what stays, what gets thrown away and what is a keeper....

Until I have to open the spacebags full of things I keep packed away, and their contents expand and take over every inch of space in my life!!!

(Case in point - did I REALLY need that brown authentic Icelandic wool sweater.... costing $200, it itches, and I look like a giant whaling sailer in it... Helgi I blame you for that one!)

So - here's to simplifying life, to starting fresh, to letting go of the material, as it will never replace a memory, place, or friend...

And for future reference - please stop me shopping so much, and if you see me go to send packages home to my base, question the need for doing so! Please!

testing

just testing my blogger group....

hope it all works!

The next phase

As many of you know, I was planning to be on my way back to Cambodia this month. However, there has been a change of plans...

As all my cambodia plans simultaneously collapsed, I was offered a job in Katherine, in the Northern Territory of Australia, working on an early childhood development and literacy program focusing on six indigenous communities. This job is to run June-Nov 07 and Feb-Nov 08. A very good friend of mine is already living in Katherine, and it seems like this job and new adventure could provide me with a real chance to explore my own country, and have some time to consider a few longer-term plans.

I will have three months free over the southern summer, and during this time I plan to return to Cambodia and travel in Southeast Asia (only a hop-skip-and-cheap-TigerAir-jump from Darwin!)

So, with this new adventure will come new photos, stories and experiences, which I will share with you all via this site. Please keep in touch with a comment every now and then.

/Rhi x

To view where Katherine is in Google Maps, click here

Birthday mumbo-jumbo

I only believe in horescopes when they are good - and this one looks quite nice for my birthday!

Pisces
You should be sure to do everything in your power to make this a weekend to remember. The Sun moves from your sign on Monday so it's important that you make the most of the incredibly positive energies that are happening over the day. It could be an incredibly lucky day, and that may be financial but it could also bode well for love. However the opportunities seem to stack up in favour of making some sort of advancement because of who you meet and talk to today.

Quarter of a century - yikes I'm old!!

Melbourne on a good day

Just a few pictures from Moonlight Cinema at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens - wine, food, gossip, great movies.... one of my cities best views!

Hope those of you far away will get the chance to come along with us one of these days.

Bonne Annee, Gott Nytt Ar, Happy New Year

To all my wonderful, cherished and much missed friends, I have had a most humorous New Year's Eve here on Mt Dandenong, and I must say that at 12:00 as I looked over the mass of lights that make up the suburbia of Melbourne from a hill-top forest track, I was thinking of you, my 'family', and missing you dearly. As the pictures below show, I have spent my New Year working a 12-hour shift as a waitress at 'Wild Oak' then taking a trek through the bush to watch some non-existent fire works (too much bushfire smoke to see anything), then drinks at the local pub, then breakfast back at work at 4am with my colleagues, boss (chef Ben) and his remarkably patient wife and soon-to-be-mum.....

I hope wherever you are you are dancing, drinking and laughing....

The night's off the a flying start in the kitchen

All star service gets all revellers out the door by 11

Ben kicks the post-dinner party off

Hundreds of people came to the hills to see the fireworks over melbourne - but bushfire smoke covered the city, and the view

At 'Kate Kelly's' - the local pub in the hills

And we all ended up back at Wild Oak, where Rhianna made rum cocktails and Ben cooked up a stunning 4am breakfast!