TJ's last Saturday

TJ (aka Tegan Jane, my 23yo sister) is moving to the UK on Monday. We're all driving to Sydney together, which means we have to borrow someone else's car as mum's Triton doesn't fit more than 5. Tegan's a nurse and is heading over to fulfil a dream with her best friend Bron, whom she met in Wagga whilst studying to be a nurse. Interesting.......
She's ultimately hoping that she'll marry a Pommy doctor. Fine by me. Maybe he'll pay for me to continue roaming the world at my own peril. Hah. Jokes.


Tegan Jane

Today we're heading in to watch Nikki's boyfriend play football in Mudgee. Ryan (cousin) and his girlfriend (Sarah, who alerted me re: puppies!) arrive this afternoon and we're going to tapas at the clock with TJ's best friend Lizzie. I imagine we'll head to the Waratah or Woolpack post-tapas.

We're looking after a yappy maltese dog at the moment. I got sick of it trying to help me make pancakes, and she doesn't come to her name so I tied her outside to a couple of long ropes so she couldn't run away. She's just chilling out there now. She got to go on an unescorted tour because the rope's about 30m long so she's pretty happy. And I got raspberry pancakes in peace.

Minkey's pups are due tomorrow. Exciting!

I am with puppies

A few days before I arrived home, my cousin's girlfriend Sarah (she's a city girl but she's so cool) posted on facebook about some puppies on the farm. I didn't get too excited because we haven't had puppies for ages.

Turns out, THERE ARE PUPPIES. Lace the kelpie has 6 adorable puppies. Black, and black and tan with white boots. I visit them a lot. They're only a couple of days old and she's a new mum so she's not so keen on us crashing her puppies but she'll get use to us.

It gets better.
Minkey the favourite working dog was looking really fat and lazy yesterday and I told dad he should probably stop feeding her so much. BUT NO. He should! Because she's having pups too! They're due on SUNDAY, so not only do I get to play with six of Lace's pups, but we get Minkey's too! Minkey's more friendly - she goes and works with dad and leaves the pups behind for a few hours so we have free range. Lace's were apparently an accident; nevermind - it's a VERY welcome accident.

The last few days were pretty stressful. Saying goodbye to people, getting rid of excess food that my not-so-foody housemates would have used (I left some chops in the freezer and cheese in the fridge, and some sweet chili sauce), packing everything, cleaning things, organising thing in the house so they were out of the way. Blah blah. The only tears were when I got hung up on twice from the ANZ insurance guys. I gave up because I didn't have time to cry anymore.

I picked Ebony up on Tuesday afternoon, Monica cleaned my teeth (oh so shiny and smooth now), I continued packing my car and then we cooked up a storm. Tacos for dinner and an awesome steak salad thingy for lunch the next day.

6:30am, EG and I drove off. No tears either; Sarah and Monica waved us off and that was it. Twelve hours later we arrived home (Moolarben) and finally got to cuddle the pups. The drive was slow at times (EG's on her L's therefore it was 80km/hour), but really beautiful - everything's still so green from all the rain. We took some videos of different towns so I can make a video of 'Australia' to take to Mongolia. We ate our amazing picnic lunch in Moree and used their crazy automatic door/water/toilet paper dispenser/flusher/hand dryer.

Now I'm at home, which is so nice. It's just such a huge sigh of relief. I've got all my gear from my car and now I'm prioritising things. I've vacuum sealed one bag of essential clothes weighing 6.9kg. Tonight we're having the neighbours (from all around - Stokes' and Swords') over for dinner - mum's been cooking all day.
Tegan leaves on Monday for the UK. It's weird. She'll have a bloody awesome time - it's just so weird it's coincided so nicely that we're leaving at the same time. Mum probably doesn't think so.

Lai made me some beads. My favourite one reads 'M  iss you xo Lai'. I ordered a bracelet to put them on but our mail only comes 3x/week so it's a slow wait!

Leaving Brisbane

I'm starting to get really worried. I'm leaving Brisbane! I still have packing to do! I HAVE to go to the gym or I'll go crazy ( I haven't had time for a week). I get to pick EG up (Ebony Grace; 17yo super cool sister) at 2:30pm but I have a lot to do before then. I've made a list but I can't seem to prioritise it. For example: yes, it is very important to get to BigW to get my Diana film developed just to see what the photos look like. BUT I do realise it's not THAT important.

I'll mull over it for a while longer.

Last night - Lai's farewell dinner. It was great! Great turnout; unfortunate table setting meant it was hard to talk to anyone but the person in front of you. The food was fantastic (if a little over priced and over salted) and the atmosphere great. I got to go for a ride in Martha's new little Mazda (or, new to her) and with Han as well. We chilled out at Lai's for a bit afterwards and I got home at midnight-ish. All in all, a good night. Thankfully incomparable to my farewell night, else Lai and I would get competitive. (okay maybe not, I think we're good enough friends that it doesn't matter PLUS we shared both anyway, which is cool)

Above: eating in action.

I kind of feel like I'm still recovering from Friday night but I know that's not true. My room is vacuumed and empty. I've got little bits of the loungeroom and kitchen to go, as well as my massive pile of things for Vinnies. Cam's coming over tonight to collect my remaining food (he's so generous like that) and I'm hoping I can wake Ebony at 5am and head off as early as possible. I THINK I'll be able to get it all done.

Lai's last day

Okay, it's not really - she leaves the same day I do. But I'm about to head to mundo churrasco to eat all I can from the meat buffet. I was suppose to starve myself from lunchtime but I'm not a friendly person when I'm hungry, so I ate a plum, some biscuits and dip and some ice cream (which has conveniently lessened in quantity since the last time I looked; thanks Monica, from saving me from a brain freeze and extra calories).

My jeans were a massive struggle. I don't imagine it's going to get any easier - eating Mongolia foodstuffs.

I got to spend more time with Bec this afternoon which was lovely! And Lai and I had an awesome lunch date at the gunshop cafe. It's suppose to be amazing but we were unimpressed. Good atmosphere, great menu - overrated food. When a menu says 'ham off the bone', don't feed me 'champagne ham from Coles'. You lose brownie points.

We drank the bottle of wine that Fransie gave me for my birthday; it was absolutely delicious. And then we took a roll of film worth of photos in my Diana in an attempt to find somewhere cheaper to develop my film. It's a Russian camera; it's designed for cold climates. I have to take it with me. I just am worried I won't be able to afford the development. It's not cheap!!! Especially seeing as no one takes analogue photos anymore AND it's going to be in Mongolia. So, if BigW does good tomorrow with the film of Lai and I (and really, how could they not - with such beauty to work with) - it's going to be totally feasible!

My jeans are still tight. I was hoping after sitting in them for a minute or two, they'd be less restrictive. Right now they'd be suitable for a muscle strain or something that requires a very tight compress. SNAKE BITE. They'd be perfect for a snake bite. And I haven't even EATEN yet.

Tomorrow I have a lot of packing to do. All the little things. I get to pick Ebony up, which is fun. Monica's cleaning my teeth and I have NO plans for breakfast, lunch OR dinner. Oh man. Awesome.

Piker

I've spent much of the past year and a half bitching with Simon and Lai about people piking on different events and the etiquette of piking. Last night I became a piker; I feel so bad. I was feeling horrible and tired - self induced, of course. I had a cat nap that was not a good idea. It made me just feel worse. So I piked and I woke up with what I can only described as a hangover hangover. Coupled with procrastination.

I had some chicken and fish flavoured tofu for lunch today. I don't go much on it. I ordered some mushroom rice and it was pretty disappointing. Mind you, the dumplings were delicious.

Lunch and dinner to share today; Sarah's new house is ridiculously cool. Bec and I will be eating so many rice paper rolls tonight. Tomorrow is another dentist appointment (I may as well open up shop), a massage (thanks Bec), gym and packing packing packing.