Who Am I

I haven't actually been tagged for this, but I've seen this on a couple of the other blogs I stalk, and seeing that I can't actually hook up my camera and blog what I want to about the past week just yet, I'll do this instead.

Here we go.

What Is Your Current Obsession?
Apart from the usual (babies and Africa)? The most current one is probably Twilight. I know that's completely unoriginal, and that many of my friends are in exactly the same predicament - but hey, at least we can mutually appreciate the sadness that is our escape into Forkes.

What Are You Wearing Today?
Well excluding the very glamorous towel on my head, I am wearing my comfy jeans, teal long sleeved tshirt, purple polo neck 'skivvy', and my very fancy very new silver ballet flats.

What's for dinner?
I'll be at work during dinner (late shift for me, hurrah!), so it will most probably be spaghetti on toast.

What Would You Eat for Your Last Meal?
It would be a grand meal. First off the entree would be a delicious steaming bowl of mum's slow-cooked pumpkin soup. Then the main meal would be chicken schnitzel on a bed of sweet potato. Dessert would be a very nice piece of wildberry cheesecake, or mums apple cinnamon teacake. And then a platter of Maleny triple cream brie, proscuitto and olives.

Drinks would be Coffee Club Pine Lime Ice Frappe Splice for the entree; Forest Estate Pinot Gris for the schnitzel; Brown Brothers Dolcetta & Syrah for the dessert and then Irish Creme Latte (with Baileys) for the platter.

What's the Last Thing You Bought?
The ballet flats I'm wearing. Along with Dr Pepper for hubby; a scarf for me; and a pair of black ballet flats (it was a 2-pair deal!).

What Are You Listening To Right Now?
A lot of P!nk. Otherwise the 'fast song' playlist on my IPhone (again with the Pink, No Doubt, Powderfinger, U2, The Cat Empire, Muse and Evanescence).

If you could go anywhere in the world in the next hour, where would you go?
Rwanda, obviously. Passing that, probably London. Or Washington State.

Which language do you want to learn?
Kinyarwandan, obviously. I'd really like to go back to intensive French, just to get my speed up and the grammar down again.

What do you love most about where you currently live?
I love that my family is close by. I love the fact that we own this house, and that it's bigger and better than I ever expected to own at my age. I love that we are really close to the ocean, and also not too far away from the mountains. I love the sunshine in winter; and I love that we don't have the traffic issues of some other places.

What is your favourite colour?
Purple. Definitely. Although I do own a lot of black, white and deep blue in my wardrobe!

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
It's a tie between two corsets. One is a deep red with black embroidery and the other is a blue with metallic-type gold woven through it. Couple either of these with my long black satin skirt and my calf length lace up 'emo' boots.

What were you doing ten years ago?
I was still recovering from my first breakup. Half way through my first year of my BNursing degree. Still living at home, and adjusting to mum's remarriage/the addition of stepsiblings/the new house.

Describe your personal style?
I'm very much a comfort girl. With my job, I really don't have the time or reason to be as quirky as I'd like. If I did have the time and the money, I'd probably have a look not disimilar to Abby in NCIS (minus labcoat).

If you had $300 right now what would you spend it on?
Totally unglamorous, but probably getting the drains fixed at home. Or, if I was going to splurge, a 2 day minibreak at the Marriott Gold Coast. With the breakfast.

What are you going to do after this?
Check that the upgrade to my IPhone worked. Then dry my hair and go claim money on medicare and get some more drugs.

What inspires you?
Reading about people who do an "Africa Change". People who work with NGOs in Africa. People doing medical work in Africa.

What are your favourite films?
Michael Caton-Jones' 'Shooting Dogs' has been my favourite for about 2 years now. I don't see that changing. Honourable Mentions include Amazing Grace, Sometimes in April, The Kite Runner and Juno.

Who's work/designs are you inspired by?
I'm very inspired by Bells, my blog & forum friend. We've never met, but I always find her blog posts about her latest clothing creations cheer me up and inspire me to get creative.

On a more 'Africa' front, and a different type of work entirely, I have been very inspired by Dr Catherine Hamlin (started Fistula Clinics in Ethiopia); Gemma Sisia (started the St Jude's School in Tanzania); Gary & Marilyn Skinner (started the Watoto villages in Uganda); Donna & Errol Spence (started the VANA village in Chivhu, Zimbabwe).

And I'm really inspired by my best friends Dion and Bek Allen, and their work in Zimbabwe (with VANA) at the moment.

Your favourite books?
We Wish to Inform You that We Will be Killed Along With Our Families (Phillip Gourevitch) is one of the most heart-wrenching and impacting books I've read in a long time.

The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) is a book that I don't think will ever leave me.

And who could go past Austen?

Do You Collect Anything?
Cows! Soft toy ones. I don't really tell many people that, simply because I'm very particular as to the cows that come into our family, and I don't want to turn around and be overrun by cowprint one day. I'm sure you understand.

What makes you follow a blog?
Most of the ones I follow are written by friends. Although I do like reading blogs by people who are working in Rwanda. And I do read a few blogs by people going through infertility/assisted reproduction.

What was the most enjoyable thing you did today?
Probably the cup of coffee and piece of chocolate cake I just ate. It was a pretty lousy day before that.

What's one thing you dream of doing?
Living in Rwanda, with my children and my husband, running or at the very least working as part of an NGO based around women, women's health and children.

And, my final question...

Who's getting tagged?

Emma

Beck Head

Liz Mac

Kirsten

(I'd tag the Allens too, were it not for no power and limited internet access when they DO travel to get emails and read blogs!).

New Favourite Song

Shouldn't take much to work out why I love this song.


Just over 3 months til Africa. A bit of a mantra in my head lately.

What is it about Africa and its people that embeds itself so deeply in a soul?

Visits to the Police Station

Last night was a night I'm really not in any hurry to experience again.

On the way out of the tutoring family's house last night, I was 'followed' (for lack of a better word) by someone back to my car.

Now, as a relatively rational adult, I was thinking I was imagining it. That guy's just walking, ok he's going for a jog, he's getting pretty close - nah, he must just want to run past me.

It was only as I reached my car door that I realised exactly how close this guy was. As I got in the car, I could see him at the front of my car, making a beeline for my door. I have never been so thankful for central locking as I was right then!

As the guy continued to slide himself alongside the side of my car, my whole body went into shutdown mode. People talk about panic taking over, and being frozen to the spot - that was me. I saw him reach the passenger side of my boot, and then take off behind the house next door.

I made it home okay. I told B about it and I was fine. I went to bed, and wasn't worried at all.

Then the nightmares started.

Thankfully I have a police officer in the immediate family now, so I talked to him this morning about making a report. As I started retelling what happened, I had a panic attack, and just sobbed down the phone line. My brother in law is a wonderful man (obviously with years of police experience behind him, he knows what to do with scared, panicky women!), so he talked me down and convinced me to file a report.

B came home not long after this (I think my blubbering phone call to him, followed up by his brother phoning was enough impetus!), and so off we went to the Police Station. The police won't get much from what I had to tell them - but at least it's on file.

I'm writing this mainly to tell the girls out there that it's okay to go to the Police with things like this. Even if nothing happens. Even if you can't tell anything else other than shape of a person/car/location that it happened.

My brother in law told me the story of a crime that happened not so long ago. How earlier in the night another person had run into the perpetrator, but decided not to report it as 'nothing happened'. However, when the person watched the news and saw that a crime happened not long after their 'event', they went to the police and gave them the very small amount of information they had.

Thanks to that person reporting the 'almost crime', they were able to arrest and charge the perpetrator of the crime that happened.

Don't ever underestimate the power of reporting. Even for your own sake. I know now that I've got this on file, and know that there is something there documented, it makes me feel a lot better.

Oh yeah - and I'm fine. The guy didn't touch me and he didn't take anything. I'm still a bit 'fragile' emotionally - but that might just be the Clomid talking.

(Oh yeah, and the Police Officer told me that if that ever happens again - beep your horn like it's going out of fashion. Just thought I'd pass that piece of information on to you guys too!).

A Brush with Africa

So I was telling you how we went to an Art Exhibition the other day, but got sidetracked by our walk through the gardens.

I'll continue.

Obviously with my passion for all things African, I regularly have a quick peak at event calendars for Brisbane, on the off chance there may be a festival or show or display I might want to go and see.  Whilst doing this a few weeks back, I found out about the 'A Brush With Africa' art exhibition going on at Mt Coot-tha and figured we should probably go.

Now I am not an art aficionado.  I like it, usually sculptures and canvas paintings of people and life painting and sculpture of the human form, but that's pretty much the extent of my art appreciation.

But this showing was amazing.  Almost like looking at photographs, instead of paintings.  The colours and the vibrancy and the 'realness' of the people painted drew me in and had me wishing I was the kind of person who had $4000 to spend on art.

But I didn't come out completely empty handed!

This is a card depicting one of the pieces available for sale.  I was so struck with the expression of this child, and the colours used in the jewellery and earth, that I couldn't walk out without it.

The photo doesn't really do it justice.

Goodbye to the Mergards

Well it seems like if my friends aren't having babies this year, they're leaving Brisbane!

When I went to Rwanda, Kirsten was my dearest friend through it all. So like a sister, so like myself, I became really close to her and Paul, her husband.

They've been offered an amazing opportunity down in 'Mexico' (New South Wales to the uninitiated), so will be heading off next week; and so we had a farewell lunch today over at Shorncliffe.

Paul and Simeon

Karen and Tim

Gorgeous shot of Leonie, Kirsten, Emmanuel and Asher

One of the best mums I know with her gorgeous boy

A great day out

It was a blessing to spend the day with you, Paul and Kirsten, and we hope and pray that this new adventure opens doors for you that you never imagined.

Me and my gorgeous man

A Day at the Gardens

Well after waking up and going to Church yesterday in the middle of a massive downpour, we walked outside to the most glorious sunshiny day.

There was an African watercolour show on at the Botanic Gardens (Mt Coot-tha) that I'd wanted to go to, so we thought we'd head up there and take a look. After the showing we thought we'd take a walk around the gardens, being that Brad had never been and it had been years since I'd taken a wander.



It is so beautiful up there, so many different flowers and plants, and with the light coming through the trees as it was, I couldn't help but take a multitude of photos.


I just love how the reflections come through so vividly


Hibiscus - again with the glorious light!


The colours in this Fungus just stood out to me


Such a pretty colour amongst the green



And my favourite photo - look at how the light just comes through the foliage




There's something about gardens that just makes me feel connected to my Grandma, who passed away back in 2005. She would always be found pottering away in her garden, and when I come to these gardens, I feel for a moment as if I'm back with Nan.

Dabbling with Digiscrap

I haven't used my photobucket site in a while. As in, I hadn't seen all the new things I could accomplish whilst using it.

So today I discovered they have a digiscrap 'shop' now, including tons of things you can use for free. So after playing around for a little bit (with me stuck at home with a head cold, it was a boredom buster!), I came up with the following...








I think they look pretty good.