Crushed velvet for a funeral










The title is pretty self-explanatory, but I will share a little detail if you're interested in the touching church service we attended yesterday - 
The man was one of Mum and Ondy's employees - Ben - a darling 48-year-old man whom I had only met once but already admired a lot, as a result of listening to Tom's stories about him.
He had a condition where his neck couldn't move, but it didn't seem to hold him back much at all from working hard (just so he could send his beloved son to Amsterdam for a holiday) and doing what he enjoyed - fishing, mainly. I think he was a gutsy man with a big friendly heart.

One thing I learnt about Ben - and this was greatly confirmed on the occasion that I met him - was that he adored his dog, a beautiful border collie, and it went everywhere with him.
When we went to the funeral service in a Catholic church yesterday, I had no idea, but the dog was sitting up in the front row. 
When those closest to Ben carried his coffin down the aisle and outside, his doggy followed in the procession. 
So sweet.

RIP Ben.

Anyway - enjoy my photos; 
they're just a few muck arounds in the velvet dress I wore - 40c from Lions Shed! 



xZ

Oh dude, I was fully watching gnarly as surfers carve some brutal waves!

In other words, Mum, her friend Jane, and I all went to check out the Margaret River Surf Comp this morning.

It's a pretty happening event so I thought I'd share a little of my experience, though I didn't stay long.
Today's the fourth day, and I think they're up to the last set of heats before the semi-finals and finals tomorrow
... judging by this board behind us:

Mum and I happy to be wandering around checking out the hot surfer bods


Upon arriving, we spotted a tall man with kids crowded around him asking for photographs. He was dripping wet, so it clicked that he must be some famous surfer. Trouble is, none of us really knew any names, besides the big ones like Kelly Slater, Layne Beachley and Taj Burrow.
Jane decided she wanted to approach him anyway - her mission was to get a photo with a surfer, he was tall and good looking, so why not?!


Here they are. We never mentioned to him that we hadn't the slightest clue about who he was. Haha.
But we later found out by listening to the crowd that he was in fact Owen Wright, third-place winner of the competition last year. If you haven't heard of him, hopefully he wins first place tomorrow, and then you will. And I can sell you this photograph.

So what else is there to do at a surf comp besides chasing down cute surfers for a photo? Well you could always suss out their skills in the water -







The guy in red is Kelly Slater himself, in a heat with Tom Whitaker. I actually had what would've been the BEST shot of Slater getting some air on top of a wave... but foolishly chose that moment to play around with my manual focus instead of auto ("Oooh I wonder what this button does?"...).

The general crowd loved the surfers, and wanted to be in their space as much as possible. I'm sure there were a good number of local surfies sitting back and thinking 'Gosh, give the man a break' while super analysing every trick and effort out there in the swell. But for the most part, people were shallow and strived for their souvenir photos with the spunkiest, or well-known, names.


 The crowd waiting patiently, in the path of Kelly Slater at the end of his heat.





I hadn't been able to keep up with the commentator to know what the score was in the end, but when I finally got a glimpse of Slater as he came up from the beach, he didn't look too stoked. Guess it was a tough gig.

From there, Mum, Jane and I just cruised about, got a coffee, watched a guy spray-painting free stencils onto volunteered surfboards...












I really like surf-inspired artwork, so it interested me to see it everywhere.

Mum and Jane decided, after a while, that they'd like to give surfing a crack too, maybe even show up the big guys out there...



Haha! They were actually hilarious.
Jane: "I'm going to put this photo on Facebook and tell everyone that I decided to try out surfing in Margaret River."
Mum: "Yeah! They'll never know! And you can tell them that your friend decided to try and be a starfish."
Jane: "Yes, and on closer inspection, she did a really good job of it!"




Close and funny pals, Mum and Jane




We had a last check of the ranking board, and decided we'd come back tomorrow to see the finals - who will be the winner??


I'm wondering, have you ever been to a surf comp? Or do you enjoy surfing yourself? Have you ever tried?
Maybe you should!

xZ

When 'bad events' are actually just road signs for something great...

A little blue wren inviting itself to the leftovers of our 1 year anniversary lunch - 27.1.12


Yesterday afternoon, Mum came home from lunch at The Berry Farm, and told me they might be looking for workers. She'd spoken to a waitress who had retired from the Farm but was serving as a fill-in that day. So, on a whim, I printed out my resumé this morning and went to give it a go. Never mind that I've been waiting for a call from the last three places I applied for in the past three weeks...

Wow. I'm so glad I went, and I think I can pretty much say I've got the job right away!
The application just went incredibly well, and I wasn't nervous at all while talking to the manager. He's a cruisey, funny guy, who is obviously very connected with the type of atmosphere he wants his business to convey everyday. In fact we spent half the time chatting amicably about little things (eg. the amusing history of both our surnames) and the other half was spent by me asking all the right questions or giving all the right answers, in my opinion.

It just felt right, and as I literally adore The Berry Farm and its peaceful, romantic set up, I could well and truly indicate that I'd enjoy working there and be exactly the burst of joy and enthusiasm that any employer is looking for.




The cottage in which the café/kitchen is set up



I have to say, this makes me feel so much better about the past three job applications that haven't worked out. It's almost as if they were meant to fail so that I'd end up here. Driving ten minutes to a beautiful place that I already know and get excited about... where I don't need to feel pressured to act elegant and refine my language to suit the surroundings. Yep, I'm pretty pleased with myself.

So I just wanted to point out; sometimes bad things happen because they're meant to... disappointing letdowns can be leading you onwards to something better. You have to keep up your hopes - whether you're looking for a job, a relationship, a house... Anything that doesn't work out, just tell yourself, it probably wasn't meant to be. And look forward to the awesome things to come.

I'll leave you with some pics of The Berry Farm from my visits in the past... enjoy!



Family lunch in Feb when my Nanna was down from SA <3



Passionfruit bubbles - I know you'd all love it! Yum.



 Nanna in the beautiful little garden




xZ

The Walled Garden



This post is about to get extremely image-heavy, but don't worry because it is not full on - as my warning may suggest - but very relaxing, and hopefully aesthetically pleasing to your pretty eyes. I just wanted to share a bit of my beautiful day playing in Voyager Estate's "walled garden."

Apparently the idea of walled gardens begun in Medieval Europe when it was necessary to produce the best supply of fruit, vegetables, and flowers possible, before the growth of trade and modern food preservation techniques. The walls shelter plants from wind and frost. They can actually 'raise the temperature within the garden by several degrees, permitting plants to be grown that might not otherwise survive in that climate' (Source: History of Walled Gardens, Myloverisagardenenclosed). Mum tells me that, nowadays, walled gardens like Voyager's are also designed simply to contain more of an aroma of the flowers' natural fragrances, so they may be intensely enjoyed by visitors. I wasn't particularly smacked over by any wild hit of rosey deliciousness, but I think it's because it was rainy for a while there and the fragrances may have been dampened and reduced by that.

Each photo kind of has a little story behind it, which makes this a perfectly precious stash for reminiscing upon in future years. I won't bother to try and convey every single meaning to you, but I will explain a couple for your clarification as to why I look like a goober and have actually published them, haha:
#4: Jumping up and down because I've just spotted a rainbow and I want to steal the camera from Tom to take his picture with it! Following photo is of Tom and said rainbow.
#10: Crossing my legs whilst sitting on a bench... Tom says it looks like I'm sneaking out a fart.
#15: Tom was wanting to snap photo after photo... I was kind of over it to be honest, and keen to move on. So I hung my head upside down in a plot to ruin all his photos with silliness.
#18: When Tom shaves his face, he happens to look at least 5 years younger than his 23 years. He also looks oddly "more English" as I kept telling him. I made him pose with the lamppost which I had also labelled "English looking" and felt they were a perfect match.
#19: This is just my favourite moment from all of today :).


Voyager Estate is such a gorgeous place; I really hope you can see and enjoy that through our photos.























xZ

What's new, good looking?




Sitting around the house today, I decided to change my blog around a little. This included, da-da-da-daaaah! - a new blog header! As well as a series of "pages" that you can now use to navigate your way around easier. For example, if you click on 'outfits', all my daily outfit posts are grouped together. Do you like it?? :D

I realised that grouping my outfit posts together has not helped all that much for people who just want to see pictures of pretty clothes and to ignore everything else... because I tend to clump everything together in a huge post, sorry! I'll try to separate topics more in future.

Goodnight for now, lovely people with possibly square-eyes (I know mine hurt after a big day spent in front of the screen!). 

xZ

Ps. Hurrah! 50 posts to Chronicles of Zannia!

Today






Today's outfit makes me happy because it teams mustard, blue and tan together, which happens to be one of my favourite colour palettes at the moment. Actually, I can't wait to show you my Mum's painting after she finishes it on Wednesday - it's of the Willunga Hills, SA, and she's used colours similar to my outfit!
I dressed in this and went to drop off my resumé at the Voyager Estate winery which is a short drive away. This is the third job I've tried to apply for since moving to Margaret River, so hoping I get some positive results from this one... :)

Oh, before I left the house I wanted to give the chickens some socialising. I chose to show one chicken the new home that they can anticipate. Tom started building it the other day - a mini shed with luxury perches and a series of cut-out "doors" for exit into the wild and for us to collect their eggs through!

Hope your week has started off well,
xZ

A new sprinting legend is born

School sports days; I was always the slow kid.
You know, the one that lags a mile behind the rest of the pack and might even skip a little towards the end, as if to say the hoardes of spectators, 'Huh... what race? I'm cool.'
I was always that kid, and probably still am, try as I may to change it.
So enough about me, and more about my little brother Louie - who WON A RACE TODAY!
Cue, evidence:



Yep, that's my eleven-year-old Speedy Gonzales.
I am very proud, and obviously very happy to live vicariously through him to get my taste of the sweet victory that I'll never race to on my own.

The best bit is that he was feeling extremely nervous this morning when he woke up. At six am. You see, this kid: Ben, is something of a sprinting legend in Louie's school. He has won sports day races THREE years in a row, or four, even. While Louie has been known to kick up his own fair amount of dust for the kids left behind to eat, Louie is a mere Year Six in comparison to the mighty Ben's Year Seven self.

But Louie was determined to change this, and put a series of competitive advantages into place.
1:: He ate a breakfast of protein powder and egg milk smoothie (I discovered this when I entered the kitchen and tried to sip on what appeared to be a delicious fruit mixture left behind... blehhh).
2:: He tied up his shoelaces extra tight.
3:: He had butterflies all the way to school - gearing up to enter the fight AND flight response, eh? eh?
4:: And, finally... he got his sister to dress all in blue in support of his "faction".

Actually, I did that all on my own accord - I told you I wanted to live wholly in the moment.
Anyway, to end a long story short... oh look, who is number two on the podium below? Is that.... Ben?
Ohhhh yeah.




Hooray for Louie!!!!!
I'm so proud.




Today's story, however, has its extreme highs... and one very sore low.
Moments before Louie's race, I was standing on the grass and gently swapping from foot to foot. I needed to pee. Badly. But with my camera around my neck and Louie lined somewhere near the front of the multicoloured pack of kids across the oval, I was too anxious to leave.

A stream of colourful kids making their way to the starting line


It took a while but Mum finally convinced me that I should go - run - because Louie's racing group appeared to be stalled behind various streamer-adorned groups of girls, and I should make it in time.

But woe is me, I didn't.
I washed my hands and ran out the door with watery droplets flying out everywhere, reaching our spot only to find Mum and Tom had moved onwards to the blue faction's tent. Please, no, I thought.
Tom told me the words I didn't want to hear - "You missed it."
I spotted Louie approaching the podium and knew it was true.
Gahhhhhhhhh it was literally THE ONLY RACE I had missed in the trip to the bathroom. Stupid, STUPID coffee.

A bad idea when you await an exciting spectacle



I grabbed my camera and took a quick snap of Louie standing above Ben on the podium, then one of Louie eating watermelon. It felt good to witness his satisfied and happy face, but I was so disappointed and I still am.
I thank Mum and Tom for not taking any pictures of my teary eyes, but yep it sure happened. I told them I had been so keen to make up for all the times I haven't been able to make Louie's sports days over the years, because he's always lived in a different state from me. Naw.
Anyway, I know as long as he keeps fit and determined, there's always his high school years =].






Louie and I

Love you buddy, well done.

By the way.... there was a last minute entry into the sports day races.
And guess who won?




Hahahahhaha I will never get over how gooby I look in this photo.

xZ