Lately I've been...

1. Wearing big bows in my hair, even on stormy days.
2. Admiring the cool things in my boyfriend's room, including his fish-like skateboard.
3. Trying to save. Trying really hard.
4. Enjoying relaxing days with my boyfriend, who cooks a killer breakfast.
5. Having fun setting up surprises on my second-ever official Valentines Day.
6. BEING surprised with an amazing home-cooked meal of Moroccan lamb with sparkling strawberry wine.
7. Planning more appropriate and nice workwear following an incident where I rocked up in cut-off jeans and Converse. Yeah.
8. Making manky beer bottles a beautiful feature.
9. Loving my dogs, Jaz and Bowie.
10. Reporting on beer festivals with my good friend Jess and trying to not get drunk from all the free samples.

xZ

Everybody knows money woes

 

My friends: Blacky, Nick, Narelle and Landon enjoying a day out with sparkling nashi wine at the Berry Farm, Margaret River.

Two weeks ago, I was living the high life, splashing money all over the place.

Going to the beach? Let’s pick up a six-pack of ciders, I’d say.

Hungry? It was a choice of fresh, ready-made meals from IGA, the pub or takeaway Indian/pizza/Chow.

I drove my fuel-guzzling car from house to beach to winery to town non-stop, and I shouted my visiting friends to whatever indulgence I could.

I love living that way.

However, it caught up with me and this week life decided to teach me a lesson.

On Monday, I was driving home from the beach when I was pulled over by the police for a broken headlight (care of roo incident two weeks prior).

I did well in hiding the fact that I’d just shared a whole bottle of sparkling passionfruit with Nick  and they didn’t breathalyze me, thank goodness (ps. I will never drive post-drinking again).

But I got what WA calls a “yellow sticker” which means my baby Merc is under strict order to visit “the pits” where it will be scrutinised from bonnet to tail light and slapped with many bills for fixing whatever they find. Gah.

That same night, my Mum sent me a worried message on Facebook. “Zann, Jaz is sick. I don’t know what’s wrong. She has a large lump on her leg and she seems listless and sad.”

I took Jaz to the vet the following day and discovered she had cancer.

Luckily, the kind vet told me that it won’t harm her and can’t spread, but it will eventually irritate her enough that it will have to be removed before it grows back within the following 12 months.

$200 for that was definitely worth it, but with $0 savings I was suddenly worried about affording everything I needed to pay for – phone bill, rent, flights to and from Adelaide next week, my car. 

Wow!

Adults are faced with so much responsibility which can be lurking in the subconscious for so long, until life goes, ‘Wait! You cannot have this much fun!”

So everyone has to learn how to behave and save for that famed rainy day we’re all warned about.

Have you learnt to save by whatever age you are now? Was there a particular event that taught you a lesson?

xZ

What do you want me to do, take up underwater hockey??

Image source: Pinkperfume

I often used to joke about taking up underwater knitting as a profession or a hobby whenever somebody asked me what I wanted to do with my life.

Last night, I was gobsmacked when somebody invited me to play underwater hockey.
"They do that?!"
Karen - a girl I had met on the same day at work - replied yes, in fact they do, and said that I should come along that night.
"We meet at 6pm... at the aquatic centre."

I drove home with full intentions of skipping that night but going to check it out the week after - because really, 6pm was half an hour away, I didn't know where my bathers were (actually yes I did, I just felt it had been way too long since I'd worn them and felt comfortable!), and I had only just met this girl and I was feeling shy.
But Mum and my stepdad totally talked me into it, bathers and all. Mum even volunteered to drive me to make it all less daunting.

We walked into the massive olympic pool arena, breathing in the chlorine and cautiously looking around. I spotted Karen, and ran up to tap her on the shoulder.
"You came!", she exclaimed, obviously stoked.

Mum took her place on the benches, while a woman introduced herself to me as Jasmine. She explained the gear I would be needing, holding out a snorkel mask, flippers, a padded glove, and best of all - a cap with built in ear guards. 
I put on the gear, very amused at how I must've looked, and slipped into the pool.

Yep. That's me. Looking like a boss. 

It turned out our instructors actually used to play for the national team. Yeah I know, underwater hockey is actually that big.

One of them was also a school teacher, I found out, because I had told her, "I feel like a six-year-old kid at a sports event" while she was adjusting my mask for me. 

"Oh, sorry! I'm just used to fussing over the school kids," she said. 

"No that's okay," I laughed, "I started it - I was the one that brought my mum along to watch!"

And everyone laughed at me. 

I didn't care that I felt like the baby, it was fun sharing the experience with Mum afterwards.
She mostly saw me kicking about and coming up for air countless times with HUUUGE gasps.

The game is actually really intensive on your muscles and on your lungs. You play with mini sticks, and a heavy weighted puck which can be passed a metre or two, but you mostly just push it around when you're frantically swimming low to the ground. People swim over you and into you, with dangerously kicking legs all over the joint. If you're unfit, like me, you're going to be panting and dying within the first fifteen minutes, being forced to give up some chances at scoring because you just can't hang on underwater any more.

But if you're like me you just try your hardest, and get in a good few saves, as well as one VICTORIOUS GOAL at the end - woohoo!
Except Karen and I had pretty much both driven the puck in - she got confused and thought she was battling someone from the other team. I knew it was only her but didn't stop to let her get the goal by herself because hey, this was my first and only moment! Haha. Aren't we the ultimate example of team work?

Anyway, point of story - I am definitely not the kind of person that just jumps up and goes, "Yeah why not! I'll be there in 5!" in the face of completely new situations.
But that night, I found some sort of boldness, even if only forced into me. And I'm so super glad I did.

Do you have any fun water sports offered at your local aquatic centre? I definitely recommend checking it out! It only cost me $5 to play, and different people are allowed to come each week. It's all for fun, with the chance to meet people without the pressure to make up conversation with them right away.


xZ

She's a part of the assembly line

On my first day working as a waitress at my new job*, my manager - a funny, easygoing, potty-mouthed man - showed me around the winery and suddenly said, "Hey! Do you want to do some bottling on Wednesday??!". 

I of course, didn't know what this meant at all but nodded excitedly and said "Sure thing!". 

And so I rocked up at 8am this morning and got going in a production line - to bottle over 2000 bottles of Sparkling Nashi Pear wine!

It was fantastic. Really, to explain it to you guys, I'd tell you to just imagine me doing rocket science. =] Yeahhh like that. Mainly I picked up corks and thumbed them through a big tube, while watching the bottles to make sure nothing went wrong, and put the wire caps on top when they came along past me. 

This is all operating on a nifty looking piece of machinery, by the way. It was a small team that we worked in - just my manager, a friendly bloke called Sam, and I. Once the bottles had passed by me, they went on to Sam who picked them from the machine line and put them in another thing which quickly twisted the caps tight. He stacked them in a 'honeycomb' pattern in huge crates.

It all went at a leisurely pace at first, but when Sam's machine started stuffing up and munting all the caps so they had to be replaced, things got hectic. Bottles were piling up on our working bench left, right, and centre. I kept leaning over to take some off the machine line so they wouldn't stack up to a dangerous level around Sam, but still, we were swamped. We had to tell my manager to slow the pace. Instead he came over and fixed the cause of our woe (ie. the temperamental machine) .. after numerous attempts.

After that, we soon hit success and finished our goal of 2000+ bottles (including some freebies for staff, yay!).

It only took us six hours.

Anyway I decided to draw you a simplified model of what we looked like, here it is:

The best part about the whole day is that we were quite simply looked after like royalty. Although, yes technically we worked like slaves.

But the minute we got started, we were brought deliciously hot coffee. Then warm ham and cheese turkish bread toasties. Then scone-like bikkies with sprinkles on them.

When it came to lunchtime, Sam and I both politely declined because we were STUFFED!

So we had a late lunch instead, feasting on what is easily one of the best tasting curries I've ever had.

Anyway I wanted to just share with you what a fun time I had discovering a completely new task, and a very generous workplace. 

If you're interested in doing such work, just approach your local winery and ask them when they start their bottling production. Let them know you're interested in being hired to help. They can probably just hire you for the occasion alone.

Sweet daydreams,

xZ

*A clue-in for newcomers: I'm a waitress at The Berry Farm, which does all its own amazing jams and fruity wines, as well as morning tea and lunches everyday. Gorgeous property, funny and laid-back managers and staff. My very first day was last Saturday. =]

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

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

A step closer to becoming self-sufficient

A crateful of chickens arrived at my house on the weekend, along with 8 eggs that they happened to lay along the way!

There are now around 12 chickens on our miniature farm, which takes our household closer to fully 'living off [our] land'. I dream of selecting fresh fruit and vegies from our garden, and taking showers in solar heated water, and .... perhaps not slaughtering cows for meat because I could never do that to sweet Daisy. But not having to rely on supermarket quality produce - and potentially supporting cruel animal industries - as much as we can is great! You can bet we've enjoyed a few quiches and bacon and egg brekkies since. And Jaz and Bowie, our bordercollies, are overjoyed to see an increase in the stock they love to proudly guard (or drool over???)!

In other news, I visited a naturopath in Margaret River today. She was absolutely lovely - the best I've talked to in a long time. She half counseled me as well, just in expressing her beliefs about the pressures on women today and such.
I got given some probiotics, some herbal tonic, and something else I forgot the purpose of. Basically it's all to fix my energy and iron deficiencies, and to help deal with the anxiety/depression that I sometimes suffer. Hoping it works out well!

Here's what I wore. Just a light, Margaret River-esque outfit. I really like this lace blouse I picked up at the last Lion's Shed sale (for no more than 40c!). The skirt is my Mum's.... discovered it yesterday and was quite shocked to think she has never worn it.

Top - Lion's Shed

Vest - Just Jeans

Skirt - Sportsgirl

Shoes - Ebay

Bangle - ?