Perth Update

I have had the most wonderful time so far in Perth. It has been so much fun catching up with family and galavanting around town. So far I've been to Noble Falls, Lake Leschenaultia, The Dutch Shop (sigh), Kings Park, Mandurah and Fremantle. I've got lots more on this week including shopping in the City, shopping at Harbour Town, a visit to a tea house (and rose garden I think) and some lovely chilling out time with the family. Oh oh! And I'm going to Miss Maud's this Thursday for Sinterklaas! I'm just a little excited...

Farewell Lunch

My friends and I decided that we needed one last chance to say goodbye before we all departed to our various schoolies trips: Tayla on a cruise around the Whitsundays, Rhett on a road trip to Gold Coast and Rainbow Beach, Marina to Caloundra, Danielle to do Red Frogs in Byron Bay and Jessica and Danielle to Stradbroke Island. It was especially sad for me as I wont see my friend for nearly 6 weeks while I'm in Perth.

{Tayla}

{Rhetty}

{Marina - note her lovely formal hair still up all fancy}

{Danielle}

{Tayla, Jessica and Danielle}

Goodbye my beautiful friends and see you next year!

Formal Pictures

{Rhett}

{The best Drama teacher in the world - Mrs Holthausen}

{My sisters and Michelle}

{The best and most wonderful Youth Pastor in the whole world - Michelle}

{My gorgeous family}

{My formal partner dean}

{Christopher}

{My sisters - Zoey & Bethanie - and Mayana}

{This is where all my good looks come from}

{My beautiful friends - Tayla, Me, Danielle, Danielle and Marina}

Movie time

My girls and I went to see the second installment of the Twilight Saga: New Moon. I've got to admit I rather liked the movie. In fact, I think I may have liked it more than the first film. It's an interesting experience going to the movies on a premiere day because most of the cinema are die hard fans. In our packed theatre there were only 8 males and I'm sure they were dragged along by their female companions. So because it was mostly women in the theatre the movie stirred up some rather funny reactions... lots of 'ooooohhh' s and 'aaaaaaahhhhhhh' s whenever Jacob or Edward came on the screen. A fun night all up.

The funniest part of the night was when, upon exiting the cinema, we stumbled upon a poster for the upcoming Disney movie 'The Princess and the Frog'. We were filled with shock and awe when we discovered that our very lovely friend Danielle looks exactly like the Princess! Well don't you think she does??

Beach Trip

On the final Thursday of school my grade took a trip to the beach where we: went for walks, swam if we so desired (I did not) and just soaked up each others company for the last time. We started the day off with our Year 12 chapel, a chance for us to say goodbye to the grades 7-11. This is was an insanely fun hour filled with songs, the boys dancing to Beyonce's 'Single Ladies', and teacher thank you's. Then it was off to the beach. I have been so blessed to be a part of a year group like mine was. We just have so much fun together and all get on really well. I'm going to miss them.

{Year 12 chapel - my last ever performance at school 'Hit the Road Jack'}

{My best friend - Rhett}

{The girls - Marina, Danielle, Tayla and I}

{A nice wet hug with Chris}

{Dean - my formal partner}

{Danielle}

{The other Danielle}

Graduation

Here are some lovely happy snaps from my graduation. It was such a good night filled with final music and choir items, awards and of course the actual graduation itself.

{Gown and sash}


{The graduating Class of 2009}

{Final cert III Music performance - I Surrender All}

{Proud parents}

{Best of friends all through high school - Jessica, Marina and I}

{The family}

{Mayana}

{The winners of the Peter Slipper Contribution to the Performing Arts Award -Rhett and I}

{All my awards}

My Schedule For the Next 2 Weeks

I probably won’t have much time for blogging for a little while. My next 2 weeks are planned right down to the minute. So I though I’d share with you my busy schedule of events.

Monday 9th
8.45 – 10.30
Maths Exam
Last ever K & P exam. Thank the Lord. Maths is definitely not my favourite.

11.00 – 3.00
Presentation Night Practise
Personally, I don’t see the need for 4 fours of practising how to line up and walk across a stage… but apparently its necessary.

3.00 – 6.00
Study for Legal Exam
I’m a little sad about this. I’ve really enjoyed legal this year. I’m a little sad that I’ll never get to have heated debates about politics with my class ever again.

7.00 – 10.00
Going to the movies.
My cert III lovelies and I are going to see the Michael Jackson documentary ‘This is It’. I’m a wee bit excited.

Tuesday 10th
8.45 – 10.30
Last ever Legal Exam
Easy stimulus test. Tear…

10.30 – 12.40
English Preparation
Not looking forward to this. One of my group members love everything to be perfect… so it may take awhile.

12.40 – 1.30
Choir Practise
Yay! Choir is going to kick some serious butt at Presentation Night this year!

1.30 – 3.00
More English Preparation
Same sentiments as earlier this day.

Wednesday 11th
8.45 – 10.30
Last ever Drama Assessment
It’s not really going to go for nearly 2 hours. I’m doing a monologue of about 7 mins… but I plan on being an audience member for others assessments.

10.30 – 6.30
Last ever Drama Excursion
Yippee! A trip to Brisbane’s QPAC to see The Crucible. I’m very very very excited!!

6.30 – 8.30
Jordan’s OP Music Performance
I come from a talented family… but for some reason Jordan thinks this concert may not be very good. I don’t doubt that he will do a great job, I think he has reservations about others in his class. Ha. Should be fun then.

Thursday 12th
A DAY OFF!
Sigh of relief…

Friday 13th
8.45 – 11.00
Final English Preparation
Getting all set up and doing final organising stuff.

11.00 – 12.10
Last ever English Assessment
A sound collage (difficult to explain what this actually means). Hopefully all those preps pay off.

12.20 – 1.30
Maths Revision
Not at all worried.

1.30 – 3.00
Last ever Maths Exam
M & P. Should be a breeze. I actually know what I’m doing for once in my life.

Monday 16th
A bit of a bludge day really.
I can go to school if I feel the need. Probably will for some cert III rehearsal.

Tuesday 17th
Another bludge day.
But I’ll go to school to spend some times with my friends.

Wednesday 18th
9.00 – 3.00
Presentation Night Practise.
Interspersed with talking, hanging out and mucking around. Nice.

6.30 – 10.00
Presentation Night
I GRADUATE!!!!!

Thursday 19th
Year 12 Chapel
A final presentation from the graduating year 12’s to the rest of the senior school. I believe the morning will feature: an entrance song (think Remember the Titans), an interpretative dance by ‘Da Boys’ highlighting events of the year, and final farewells.

Beach Day
The last chance for the cohort to hang out. We go to the beach, chill out and have a bbq. Hopefully I won’t cry.

Friday 20th
Police Talk
Basically telling us not to drink at schoolies (won’t be a problem for me.. wouldn’t happen anyway), not to drink and drive and not to do anything dangerous. Will probably feature gruesome stories and pictures.

Final Roll Call
Tear…

Dance Practise
Always a laugh. Our final practise before the formal.

Saturday 21st
10.00
Hairdressers
The beautifying process begins my friends!

1.30
Make up
My lovely friend from church, Amelia (who coincidently is a make up artist) is coming around to make be beautiful. Oh boy!

3.30
Photos
With my friends at the Coolum Board Walk. Can’t wait to see everyone. Followed by my parents driving my lovely friend Danielle and I to the formal.

5.00 – 11.00
The Formal
A whole post will be dedicated to this very topic later on so I won’t say much now…

Sunday 22nd
9.00 – 11.00
Church
My last one before I fly away.

12.30 – whenever the crying stops
Lunch with my lovelies
Our final chance to say goodbye before we all go away fro schoolies. I won’t see them for 6 weeks, so a lot of tears will probably be shed.

Monday 23rd
Final day for packing and getting organised.

Tuesday 24th
Goodbye QLD and hello WA.

Ladies and Gentlemen… they’re off!

Friday morning I awoke early, slightly nervous yet very excited. I’d slept poorly Thursday night, due to a combination of too much lactose and an intense desire for Friday to arrive. It was. after all, the day I had been waiting for.

Let me take you back 2 years, 1 month and 28 days. The last ever day I was braces free with crooked teeth. I looked a little something like this:

On the crooked teeth scale, 7 is the level used to signify ‘severe over crowding’. I placed level 14 on that scale. I received 4 extractions and I discovered I was the proud owner of 7 wisdom teeth. I did not miss-type just then.. I literally have 7 wisdom teeth.

The next morning, September 3rd 2007 I set off to the Orthodontist, where a man named David Vautin proceeded to glue brackets onto my remaining teeth and then fit a wire and a plate. The result looked a little something like this:

The above photo was taken the day I got my braces on. After seeing this photo I decided there was no way I was smiling with my mouth open and so for the next 4 weeks remained quite firmly tight lipped and covered my mouth with my hand while talking. This got a little old, and by the end of the month I was smiling open mouthed:

This is me on the family holiday to Sydney. Still very crowded looking in there but boy were things straightening out. Looking back now, I realise the initial movement was very fast and obvious. Exactly one year later those teeth were starting to look good:

If you look closely, you can see my bands, which were my constant companions for about a year. When David finally told me I wouldn’t have to wear them anymore I nearly cried with relief. Not even kidding. They are a pain in the bum and you should pity anyone who has to wear them. Although I am glad I didn’t have to wear headgear. By the end of 2008 my mouth looked like this:

I was very comfortable now and had the strong belief that I suited braces. In fact I liked them. Well, I didn't like the pain and the cut up lips or pokey bits of wire but I liked the look of them. And so 2009 came bringing with it great expectations. This would be the year that the braces would be removed. I held great hopes for the month of March, as I was originally quoted 18 months. However, March came and went and by June the braces were still on. This distressed me a little as in June I played Dorothy in the school Musical ‘The Wiz’ and would have loved to have them off for this. It didn't happen:

Looking at this photo I realise my teeth were not straight. The frustrated rants (about how there was nothing wrong with my teeth anymore and the braces should be off) given to my friends during this month were.. lets face it, immature and not warranted. By late July I looked a little like this:

And finally, FINALLY, in early September David announced that the braces were coming off! Friday the 30th of October 2009, at 9am my braces were removed at a lovely, albeit slightly painful, appointment. This my friends, is the result we’ve all been waiting for:

Please excuse the hideous make up job – it was fluro bowling night at Youth and these are the only pictures I have at the moment… expect more. I’m a little proud of my new smile.

One last picture… my new cheesy grin!

driving miss daisy

I’m a learner driver. Have been for oh about 14 months now. Unfortunately I’m not too fussed on the whole being in control of a car thing. I don’t really know what my problem is. I mean, I know that the ability to drive is ultimately for my benefit. But for some reason I have no motivation to get my P’s. I realise that next year when I need to get myself around I will totally regret my slackness but for now, I am quite content to sit back and let someone else do the driving.

To make matters worse, 3 people I know have died in car accidents this year. One of them was a guy I went to school with – it only happened this weekend. It’s really not helping me or giving me the desire to drive. At all.

I should probably get over it, suck it up and get on with it. And I will. I swear I will. Just in my own time.

mayana banana

Happy 9 months Mayana! You’re the best niece in the world and I love you lots and lots!

*Mayana dressed a bunny. She refused to look at the camera and instead looked away with a face that said ‘I can’t believe you’re making me wear this!’

I've been to heaven

I have a new favourite place. It’s a beautiful cafe, new to the Noosa Civic, called Chocolat. For weeks my mum and I have walked past the shop, waiting for it to open so we can try it out. Well it finally opened and try it we did. Zoey, Bethanie, Mayana, Mum and myself toddled off on Saturday morning to indulge in a ‘chocolate high tea’. This ‘high tea’ was only $30 and served 2, although 2 of us struggled to finish it.

Basically, each of us got a silver platter with about 6 little chocolate desserts on it. Our eyes grew wide, our mouths began to drool and our stomachs grumbled. But this was not all that was brought out to us.

A white chocolate Panacotta with a strawberry coulis was then brought out. We sat, wondering how on earth we were meant to eat all of this delectable food when suddenly, our waitress appeared once more carrying this:

A chocolate crème brûlée. I can’t even begin to explain how heavenly these desserts were. One word that pops into mind is AMAZING!!

So we begin. Eating, talking, eating, talking, laughing, eating, laughing hysterically,  getting full now, giggling uncontrollably. Then, the pièce de résistance arrives. A hot chocolate shot.

This is basically liquid chocolate. I kid you not. And if we weren’t on a sugar high prior to this, we certainly were after.

An hour and a half later we rolled out of the shop, more full than I have ever been in my entire life. Like I said, I have a new favourite place. I plan on going here a lot. I’ll probably get fat, but it will totally be worth it.