I realise that probably sounds harsh. And many people don’t believe me. Most are caught up in the romantic delusion that I haven’t found the right person yet. When I do find the right one I will want to settle down. I know in my very core that this is not true, for me. Others can do whatever they like. If they fall in love and get married and have a billion children that is great! I don’t see why it’s not great that I’m going to do whatever the hell I like. It’s just lucky that I don’t really care what anyone else thinks.

I have been home for 2 months now and I’m in the planning stages of what I want to do next. I’m getting restless. But it could also just be that time of year. I am rather sensitive to the change in season and when there is the shift in the atmosphere and summer turns to autumn I feel it in my bones. When I see the leaves change it is time for me to have a change in scenery.

At the moment I’m itching to get back to England. I have a fantastic network of friends over there and I miss each and every one of them. It is what I think about before going to sleep, it is what I dream about and when I wake up with the sunlight in my eyes I am disappointed that I’m not there.

I feel the need to go somewhere new. I will start in England and maybe go to Spain and drink cheap wine. Maybe go to Italy. And for some reason I feel the urge to go to Morocco. Perhaps I need a place that doesn’t just look different but smells different too.

There are some places I have no desire to go to at all. For some reason Southeast Asia just doesn’t interest me. I would love to get to India but I think Romania will come before that. I like the idea of travelling Europe in one big chunk. Kind of like the Grand Tours that were a rite of passage for so many artists and writers in the 1800’s. Oh, Lord Byron, why don’t you have a modern day equivalent? I could quite happily be a modern day Jane Austen, though clearly less romantic more cynic.

And so the restlessness grows. I always thought I would travel while I was young and get it out of my system. But the older I get the more accepting I am of who I am. I am a traveller, an endless wanderer. The travel bug for me is more like a chronic illness, and it’s terminal. It was only a few years ago that I started telling people that I work to travel. When people ask what you do for a living it is hard to come up with an acceptable answer. But acceptable to who? Society? So I went for honesty over acceptance.

I get told that I’m brave or that I’m lucky. But really I’m just restless. I know what is in my nature and I don’t fight it.  Add a comment below and let me know if you are restless too.

The first change is that I will now post only one day a week instead of two. My aim is to post on Wednesdays. If something else comes up during the week I may post about it when it happens but to keep this blog consistent I will try and post every Wednesday.

I plan to change the tone and style a little. Originally this blog started as an extension of the monthly Update Notes I used to post on my Facebook page while I was travelling in the UK. Before I travelled to Canada I thought a blog would be easier to maintain. It was initially directed at friends and family but I have had interest and questions from others so in order to be more inclusive to all the people that read this blog I need to make a few changes to what and how I write.

I have been told on a number of occasions that this blog is a little censored and sometimes bland. I think that is correct. I have been holding back information. There are some things I like to keep to myself. But to be honest I keep things to myself when I don’t want to hear other people’s opinions or I don’t want to be asked 20 million questions and feel like I have to justify myself. I am very aware of the people who read this blog and I try not to upset of offend. I do plan to be a little bit more honest and share a little more of my emotions.

I realised a long time ago that my life is for the entertainment of others. There are not many that understand or ‘approve’ of my lifestyle but people love to hear the stories or about the stupid things I have done. So with that in mind I will try and bring my unique brand of sarcasm to each post, depending on the topic of the post, that is.

I am trying to be more focused on my aim and purpose of this blog. As I mentioned in the first post, this is not a travel blog but a blog about my travels. I may currently be at home but this gives me an opportunity to tell you all about my travels around my own state and also my experiences on previous travel or anything that I find relating to my travels.

I have plans to continue with this blog and I have ideas as to where I want to take it. I will discuss issues I’ve come across and I will tell you about places I’ve been, places I’ve liked and the people I’ve met along the way. I do not want to give you a list of the 7 top things to see or do but I’d like to tell you about my experiences, some you may relate to, some you may think are insane.

My plan is to inform and entertain and inspire not to instruct so hold tight til next week where I will tell you about my current problem of itchy feet.

With this idea in mind, when I started travelling I started to collect patches and badges of all the places I went to. I then made a quilt to put them all on.

I have found that the patches are harder to come by these days. In the 60s and 70s it was common for a person’s canvas backpack or denim jacket to be covered in patches given to the ‘I’ve been everywhere, man’ look. But these days’ patches are more expensive to produce and are not as popular as they once were.

There are some places I haven’t found patches at all and other places where it was quite easy. I have a few patches of NYC because I pick up a different one each time I go. My biggest hunt took place in Las Vegas. I was on a bus trip and we spent a full day in Las Vegas. I went to see Smashing Pumpkins that night at a casino off the strip. I was walking back to meet the bus after the concert. It must have been after 11 at night; I’m walking the strip by myself and went into every souvenir shop only to be told they didn’t stock them. The tenth shop I went into had exactly what I wanted.

Perfection

The quilt doesn’t just have patches from my travels but also from my life. I have sewn on my levels badges from when I did gymnastics and I also have my university patch and patches from places I’ve worked. I’m still to put on my Brownie and Girl Guide badges.
A small selection of my life

So I have quite a collection and the bonus is that I still have room for more. Is there anything special you collect when you travel? Let me know in the comments below.

My favourite place and my favourite patch

I also thought I should make it a permanent tab so people new to this site or that are just interested can see where I’ve been and ask question or request specific posts.  I wouldn’t go so far as saying I’m an authority on travelling but I have gained quite a bit of practical experience that I’m willing to share.  And isn’t that what blogging is about?  The sharing of information, experiences and opinions.

So here is a bit about me and my travel history:

In 2003 before I had graduated university I studied my remaining subject by distance and I finally fulfilled a dream.  I participated in an American Summer Camp program through the International Exchange Programs organisation (IEP).  My camp was situated in upstate New York and for 12 weeks I worked as a gymnastic instructor.

After camp, with the new friends I had made, I spent a few days in New York City.  I then travelled to Boston to meet up with one of my housemates from Uni.  She had been an exchange student and I had lived in an international share house.  I spent a week with her at Wellesley College (where Mona Lisa Smile was filmed).  She showed me around Boston and the Wellesley area and I took a day trip to Salem.  My next stop was Buffalo to meet up with my pen friend whom I had been writing to since I was 11.  I spent a few days participating in Uni activities with her and we took a day trip to Niagara Falls.

I then went to Canada.  I had a 12 month working holiday visa.  In 2003 this visa was issued only once in a lifetime.  I spent my first week in Toronto and got a job within 4 days.  I worked making hockey bags in a suburban area of the city and boarded with the sister of one of my co-workers.  After 4 weeks I had enough money to do a trip with the Moose Travel Network.  My tour took me to Montreal, Ottowa, Quebec City, Tadoussac, Mt Tramblant and Algonquin Park.

I was unprepared for the coming winter, sick of meeting Australians and a little homesick so I headed to Minneapolis-St. Paul to stay with another uni housemate.  I arranged to sit my final exam at her college, Macalester.  She was a great tour guide and I got to see quite a bit of this area including the world’s largest ball of twine and the Spam museum.  I also experienced my first Halloween and snowfall while here.  Next stop was LA to stay with another housemate.  I spent 10 days in LA.  I was taken to Disneyland, Universal Studios and Disney studios (which isn’t actually open to the public, her brother happened to work there).  We also did the tourist things you do in LA and wandered Hollywood Boulevard and Rodeo Drive.

2007 was my next big trip.  I had been franticly saving to go to England to visit my friends from camp but in February that year I got seriously itchy feet and decided that for the first time in my life I needed to take a summer holiday.  I spent four weeks in the United States between August and September.  I spent a week in NYC with a side trip to Pennsylvania.  I then did the two week Southern Dream tour, a west bound cross country trip with Green Tortoise Adventure Travel. This took me to Washington D.C., New Orleans, Monument Valley and Las Vegas, ending up in San Francisco.  I then spent a week in the place where my spiritual heart now lays, San Francisco.

2009 I finally got to England on a tier 5 working holidaymaker’s visa for 2 years.  In this time I got to see quite a bit of Great Britain including Wales, Scotland and various places around England.  Some of my favourite places include Bath, Whitby, and Oxford to only name a few.

2012 I went to Canada again.  The visa restrictions have changed and are no longer ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ so I wanted to make up for stuffing up the first time.  This time though I started on the other side of the country and arrived in Vancouver.  Again I had a job within the first few days of being there so I travelled to Prince Rupert via Vancouver Island.  After a couple of months I quit my job and took off to Whitehorse, Yukon with a really hot guy and spent a month there then travelled through the Rockies and returned to Vancouver.  Again I left early after only using 7 months of the now 2 year visa.

My future travel plans include driving the Mongol Rally, Travelling the Trans-Siberian Railway, Volunteer trips to India and Romania, and exploring Europe.  I would also like to see more of my home country, Australia, but there is no place like home and I’ll always come back here.  That gives you an idea of my travel history.  I will put up a new Tab for more comprehensive information of where I’ve been and an official Travel Resume soon.

If you would like to request a future blog post and read about my experience in any of the places I’ve been, please leave a comment blow.

New Year’s for me is a chance to reflect back over the year that was and look at what I achieved, where I failed and how I could have done things better.  I also like to be organised at the beginning of a new year.  I like to have all my ducks in a row.  Instead of making New Year’s resolutions I make a list of what I want to do, learn and achieve for the next 12 months.

I am happy to say that I am almost organised and have tied up most loose ends from last year.  I am awaiting the actual certificate from the course I did last year.  I am in the process of cancelling my travel insurance and trying to get some sort of refund on the unused portion and all I need to do next is my Canadian tax refund.

In this post I thought I would share with you my list of things I want to do in 2013.  I will be travelling less due to finances and commitments but that does not mean I will be writing less.  I will be writing differently.  I am currently assessing the direction I want this blog to go and I will make changes accordingly.  I want to pay a little more attention to my other blog, www.awomanofmyword.com and see where I can take it.  I want to write guest blogs and write more in general so that is where I will be concentrating most of my efforts this year.

But here is my actual list:

To Do in 2013

• Get published = get paid
• Trip to Melbourne = Visit grandparents and friends
• UK – August =     Walk Cotswold Way by myself

Highgrove House

Spend my b’day in Ireland

Catch up with friends

Harry Potter Studios

Spain or Italy or Germany

• Sydney Writer’s Centre = Magazine Writers course
• Save to donate to Fred Hollows Foundation
• Learn a new skill = Volunteer for community radio
• Save money
• Finish at least one major project = writing/ quilting etc
• Make an effort to catch up and keep in touch with friends and family

There is nothing like starting a new year with a new list and a fresh outlook on where you want to go and what you want to do.  Some of the things I have on my list are underway already.  Other things, such as, saving money are going to be a little harder but I have 12 months to see where I end up and I think that is the most exciting thing about a new year, you have no idea what it will bring.

I live near Deloraine so inevitably she had to come into town with me.  Deloraine is a sweet colonial, country town.  Honestly there is not a lot to do but it is pretty to look at and wander around.  The tourist information is really helpful with things to do in the area, as long as you have a car and some cash.

Another day I had to go into Devonport to do a few things.  Devonport is my hometown and got slammed in one of the Lonely Planet guides for having absolutely nothing to offer except free wifi at McDonalds.  Which, in my opinion is pretty much spot on but then I escaped as soon as I was able to.  There is though, a lovely walk along the foreshore that takes you to the Bluff, a local beach and the walking path continues another 10km to Don.

On the way home from Devonport we stopped at the House of Anvers, a total chocolate experience, which is just before you reach Latrobe.  It has a café for lunch or dinner or simply for a traditional hot chocolate.  We enjoyed a hot chocolate.  It was a nice day for it given that there was a storm raging outside and I wasn’t keen to be driving in it.  After exploring the museum and watching the chocolates being made we went into the tasting centre to try some fudge.  We both brought a few little sample chocolates.

A little way up the road is The Cherry Shed.  We bypassed this stop.  I’m not a big fan of cherries myself.  They offer a range of cherry related products including cherry ice-cream, wine, port, liqueurs, jam, pickles, chutney, relish, and sauces.  From what I remember they have a lovely café.  The cherries are not grown on site but are grown locally at a nearby orchard.  Due to the soil and conditions some of the largest and richly flavoured cherries are produced.

Just before we got back to my place we stopped into Ashgrove Farm Cheese.  They have a tasting area in the centre of the sales room and there are usually some interesting flavours on offer.  I love their wasabi cheese.  I always find the lavender cheese interesting but cannot bring myself to eat a lot of it.  I also love their marinated fetta.  The other great thing about this place, and there are many, is their packaging.  I picked up a sample pack and my friend brought some boutique Tassie beer, so that was dinner sorted.

Up the road a little way is etc, or the Elizabeth Town Café.  This is my local bakery.  Bread and a range of cakes and biscuits are made on site.  I asked what bread they would recommend to go with all the cheese I’d just brought.  They were very helpful and though I don’t remember the name of the type of bread it was perfect, even if the flour on top made a bit of a mess.

We got back to where I am housesitting for my parents and had a simple dinner of cheese and bread and beer.  There may not be a lot to see while driving on the highway in Tasmania but if you pull over at the various stops along the way there is a lot to eat.

The Taste festival takes place in a big shed on the waterfront.  It is a food and wine festival which showcases the best produce that Tasmania has to offer.  Actually, I don’t think that is necessarily true.  To get a stall at the Taste is very expensive so really the people that can afford to showcase their efforts do.

There is a fantastic atmosphere that surrounds the site.  It is nice to wander the various stalls and taste wines and cheese and various Tasmanian seafoods.  I love the variety that is on offer.  I love being introduced to new wines and to support Tasmanian made.  I loved it when I lived in Hobart I could spend a day wandering around and have something lovely for lunch or finish work and head down there and have something different for dinner.

The sheer size and amount of options can be overwhelming so I have developed a particular way I like to tackle this festival.  I enter the shed and start at my right and do a full lap around all the stalls before I try anything.  I usually bring my own plastic glass but last year I forgot and had to buy a new one.  After my first lap I decide what type of wine I’m in the mood for then will do another lap and have a taste of either whites or reds.

I love talking to the stall holders and discussing the flavours and the harvest and what their aims were for each one.  If the stall isn’t very busy they are more than happy to talk about the tasting notes and recommend food that would go with each.  I am by no means a wine snob.  I know nothing about wine other than what I like.  And I like to try new ones and discover new favourites.  I also love wine speak.  Words like robust and bouquet and trying to taste the ‘tobacco overtones’ is for me, a lot of fun.

Last year I had two friends visit so I took them down.  We went on the Saturday so we could wander Salamanca markets then have lunch at The Taste.  We sat in the sun and sipped wine then found something else for dinner. It was a great way to introduce my English friend to something that is uniquely Tasmanian.  She is not a big fan of seafood but enjoyed a wallaby hamburger and the fresh berries with Tasmanian ice cream that was available.

They both got sick of my endless laps pretty quickly and left me to it.  Watching me talk rubbish to someone while I get a free drink isn’t fun for everyone, I understand.  I did find one wine that I really liked and ended up buying a bottle.  I also remember having the Cajun calamari which was delicious, and many other people thought so too because I was waiting in line for a good 20 minutes.

The Taste festival is one of my favourite events in Tasmania.  I love an afternoon sitting in the sun with a crisp glass of white wine with a sea breeze on my face just watching the world go by, or as the case may be, watching the yachts from the Sydney to Hobart float in the harbor.

Entry is free and there is entertainment all day.  I love many things about Tasmania but this event is at the top of my list.  Leave a comment and let me know your favourite festival and why I should go.

I think that I was more responsible as a 15 year old and definitely more ‘grown-up’.  When I was 15 I had a wonderful boyfriend and pretty decent sex life from what I remember.  I had a part time job and studied hard at school.  I was a prefect and had a close knit group of friends and represented my school in athletic carnivals.  I was also a competitive gymnast and helped my single mum out by contributing to the household both financially and doing chores.  I was a shit of a teenager because I was opinionated and constantly tested the boundaries.  I wanted independence and my own identity.

Now I am 32 and am a shit of an adult for similar reasons.  I can barely hold down a job for two weeks, I closed my nest egg account last year and have a slight credit card debt.  I am housesitting for my Mum and Step Dad and have no intention of leaving when they return.  The last time I signed a contract for anything was 2007.  And the last time I had sex was about a year ago.  My healthiest relationship was when I was 15.  Now to some people this may seem a bit sad.  But I love my life and I’ve made my choices but I do think maybe I should start making better ones.

I remember a few years ago I was grocery shopping with my mum.  She takes me along for the entertainment because I make loud comments about what people have in their trolleys and I sing along to the music while doing a rather bizarre sliding walk.  Hey, I love the slippery floors.  Anyway, in a rare moment of embarrassment she asked me when I was going to grow up.  My reply was instant, “When I own whitegoods.”  I am happy to report that I still don’t own whitegoods and I haven’t even owned a car in my 32 years of existence.

I think being a traveller and being a person that travels are entirely different.  I identify myself as a traveller.  I don’t just go to another country for a holiday then go back to my secure real life.  Travel is my life.  Everything else seems temporary.  The ‘hard choices’ seem to be the easier ones to make.  Do I want to get married?  Not particularly.  Don’t I want to have children some day?  Actually, not really.  Then I get home and get the first crappy job I apply for and immediately break my own rule: Never take a first offer.  And hang on, didn’t I make the decision earlier in the year when I quit my wash up job via txt message that I wasn’t going to ever work in hospitality again?  And after quitting my hostel job in Canada and taking off with a random, rather hot, stranger didn’t I realise I shouldn’t work in customer service?  When am I going to learn?

I don’t just need to organise my life but I need to figure out what I want to do with it.  As I’ve accepted the fact that I’m bound to end up a ‘tragic spinster’ shouldn’t I find something to do with all the extra time I’m going to have to myself?  The jobs I’ve loved were the ones I could make my own hours or didn’t interfere too much with what I actually wanted to do with my day.  Last summer I milked cows for a season.  Sure I started work before 5am and got covered in shit but cows don’t talk and I was finished by 8am and managed to study for part of a masters degree.  And what have I done with that knowledge?  Bugger all.

Perhaps now is the time not to be responsible but to take responsibility for my choices.  I want to be a writer.  I want to forge a freelance career so that I can still travel and work from wherever I want any time I like, and I’m not required to talk to people, (though I love meeting people on my travels.  It’s a bit different to serving them food).  In order to do this I need to stop arsing about with jobs that I hate and fully embrace what I love and what I truly want to do.  It looks like I need to grow up after all.

Judgemental comments on my life are not welcome but if you would like to share your own experience I’d love to hear about it.  Please leave a comment below.

Once you get settled back in that is.  I like being home but the process of coming home can sometimes be overwhelming.

I’ve been back home for 2 weeks now and I still feel out of sorts and out of place.  It’s a strange feeling because home is where you are meant to feel most comfortable.  After I returned from two years in the UK I found it really difficult to just slot back in.  I did have a rather servere case of Reverse Culture Shock that time though.  I plan to share my experience in an up coming post so I won’t expand on it just now.

This time coming home from Canada was relatively pain free in comparison but still difficult.  I don’t like a lot of fuss or attention.  I prefer to ease myself back in and catch up with family and friends in my own time.  But then I have everything else that needs to be done.  I need to reorganise my life.  Before I’d left I was prepared to be away for 2 years so I am now in the process of undoing all that as well as getting on top of my health again.

Before I go on any trip I make sure I am the healthiest I can be.  While in Canada I experienced 3 months of insomnia, the worst tasting “fresh” food of my life, incredibly expensive dairy products and a poor diet in general because of the expense and availability of food and the lack of opportunity to cook myself anything decent.  So I think my body is readjusting to not only the change in season but my change in diet as well.

So now I am doing my usual round of check ups.  I also broke my glasses while away and can’t drive at night until I get new ones.  I came back in a little bit of credit card debt and managed to get a job after only being home for a week but my new work commitment is now getting in the way of all the other things I want to do, and seeing the people I want to catch up with.  It doesn’t help that I have a slight problem with impatience and I really just want to get everything done now.  And I mean right now.

I really just need to give myself time.  I have a week over Christmas and New Years to get on top of everything.  This might also give me a chance to get on top of my writing also.  I have a new found sense of community and I want to get involved more in my local community and neighbourhood.  I am hoping that over Christmas I am able to catch up with people and after I’ve finished my round of appointments I’m a lot more settled.  Then it’s just a matter of saving more money so I can go away again.

Last week I was staying with a friend who lives near Bondi so I was able to visit one of Australia’s iconic beaches a number of times.  The weather was lovely for it, though it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.  For starters I imagined that she lived right near the beach.  It turned out she lived 2km away, it was a nice walk along the main road to get to the actual beach, which was smaller than I was expecting.  My friend had warned me that for one of Australia’s most famous beaches there wasn’t much to it and there were much nicer beaches in the area.

The reason Bondi is so famous and iconic is mainly because of Australia’s beach culture and surf lifesaving history.  Bondi was in fact the world’s first formally documented surf lifesaving club with the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club being formed in 1907.  Many of the key features of surf rescue were developed in these early years at Bondi and the surf lifesaving movement spread from here, initially through New South Wales then throughout Australia and the rest of the world.  More about Bondi’s rich history can be read about HERE.

My friend is ex-Air Force and still likes to keep fit so my first trip to Bondi was one morning in the role of spectator.  I like to walk rather than run and my fitness levels are not what they once were.  I enjoyed sitting with my coffee and my guilt while watching slim, bronzed Aussies running around the beach.  Actually, Australia is such a multicultural nation so I am just presuming here.  But it was a very active place to be.  I watched people take surfing lessons, do surf lifesaving training, and right in front of where I was seated there was a personal training session going on.  I felt sufficiently lazy by the time I’d finished my coffee.

 Bondi on not a very nice morning

On the walk back to my friend’s place she pointed out Bondi Icebergs Club, a building and pool at one end of the beach.  Here there is swimming all year round, as it was first developed as a place for surf lifesaving members to keep fit during the winter months.  It is now a winter swimming club open to anyone who is willing to uphold their strict membership.  You are required as a member to swim 3 Sundays a month over a 5 month winter season.  So it is a commitment rather than just an annual membership payment.  Also, the Bondi Pavilion that was built in 1929 in Mediterranean Georgian Revival style, it seems pretty swish to be just a changing room and toilet block but I’m sure it’s used for many other things.  There are also the houses of the rich and famous, Hugh Jackman is said to have a house at one end.  I did entertain the thought of running into Sarah Murdoch though I had no luck.

A few days later on a very warm afternoon my friend and I wandered back to Bondi as she wanted to show me more of the area.  Bondi is generally for the tourists.  The shops opposite the beach along Campbell Parade are full of tourist tack, beach balls and buckets and spades.  They also look like they haven’t changed much in 3 generations.  So she took me for a walk along the coastal path that takes you from Bondi all the way to Coogee Beach.  We didn’t go that far.  We walked around the cliff top path while she pointed out Waverley Cemetery, (which kind of looked like an olive grove to me), and told me about events that have gone on in the area.  We watched a lizard try and catch a spider and we were both amused by the shock of the passing foreigners who all thought both the lizard and spider where “huge”.  Both were quite small by Australian standards.

 Tamarama Beach

We continued on past Tamarama Beach where my friend explained that it is quite a small beach, about 80 meters of shoreline making it one of the most dangerous beaches because if a rip comes through it takes up the entire beach.  It is also quite deep and the waves don’t roll in so much as just dump right on top of you.  We stopped for a look but then kept walking to Bronte Beach. Bronte was really lovely.  It is smaller than Bondi but bigger than Tamarama and partly shaded by the sandstone cliffs, and surrounded by a grassy park.  It has a nicer atmosphere to it and seemed more family orientated.  We stopped for a while and just watched the people.  My friend was tempted to jump in the water but after dipping our feet we decided it was a bit too cold and the afternoon was cooling off slightly so it might take a while to get dry again.  After some time we decided to walk back to her flat.  There were some really lovely looking cafes across the road from the park and it seemed like a nice spot to spend an evening.

I enjoyed my time wandering around.  I would say that Bondi is a nice place to go just to say you’ve been there but don’t forget to have a look at the rest of the area, there are some other lovely beaches hidden around the cliff tops.