Vegemite.

Proudly made in Australia since 1923.

Post It...

I walked town to the little surf shop at the beach the other day and found these quirky postcards.... love them so much and cant wait to do something interesting with them when I get home.

-Rottnest Island-

On Saturday I had possibly my best day here in Perth, my brother and I took the ferry across to Rottnest Island which is just off the coast. It is a tiny island only 11km long and is covered in untouched secluded beaches...so beautiful! The water was turquoise, the sand was white and we managed to find a beach all to ourselves. We took a picnic with us so spent the whole day in the sun then took a walk on the way back to stop at the old lighthouse. we also got introduced to Quokkas - little marsupials that Rottnest is famous for, they are so sweet and friendly so I managed to get some good photos of them. To end off our lovely day we stopped at the pub for a drink before we headed home on the ferry. I am so sad that I wont have time to go back again before I leave... I guess that means I will have to visit perth again!

kangaroo for dinner???

The grocery shops here in Aus are just my dream they are clean, well organized and you can find literally anything you want...including Kangaroo. I felt that a trip to Australia would not be complete having not tasted the local delicacy so last night we decided to cook some for dinner. It was really delicious, a bit like ostrich but not as dry and eating it with bacon just makes it that much better. It isn't a very common dish here in Australia and it seems that quite a few Aussies havent even tasted it but they definitely are missing out on a treat!

magical music.

Not only are Bon Iver one of my favorite bands but they also have a song on their new album called 'Perth' so I can't think of anything more appropriate than posting this song...it is just magical! Apparently the lead singer , Justin Vernon spent some time in Perth after leaving the US and it was a very meaningful time in his life that he describes as 'being a birth for him, like a messy beginning' - so please enjoy.

The right kind of ranga....

On the weekend we went into an area called Fremantle for lunch. Fremantle is a developing old industrial area right by the harbor, it is an interesting place as there are parts that are old and falling apart while other parts are newly renovated and modern. I really love harbors; I find that there is something so romantic and charismatic about them, this harbor had a giant ferris wheel right by the docks but unfortunately we ran out of time and didn't get to go on it. For lunch obviously we had to have fish and chips-I ordered a ginger beer with mine, but this was not just any ginger beer it was THE best ginger beer I have ever had...its called Bundaburg Ginger Beer and comes in the quirkiest little bottle. I think I might have just found one of my favorite things about Australia... this ginger beer definitely is the right kind of ranga...haha!

hmmm...fishy

The other day on the way home we stopped at a fish shop to buy some dinner, this shop gets fresh seafood daily and has a serious selection. We bought some oysters to snack on and some sword fish which we cooked with asparagus and pureed cauliflower - it was absolutely amazing! (if I do say so myself) and my conclusion is the australian fish really is top notch!

back-to-back

I'm loving the backpack trend at the moment... pretty and practical! - hoping to get one for christmas;)

Beachy keen.

My brother and I went to the beach yesterday afternoon- it was the most perfect day and the best way to unwind after slaving away at work. These are just a few of the photos I took to give you an idea of what it was like. I have realised that Australians are seriously active people; there were people fishing, swimming, running you name it...I even saw about three guys running on the beach in their speedos.. (speedos along with tattoos are a regular occurrence here in Oz) and on that note I saw a whole lot more tattoos including a couple who had matching tattoos on their backs but unfortunately didn't manage to get a good photo of it. As the sun began to set we made our way to a little vibey italian restaurant next to the beach; I had one of the best ciders I have ever tasted 'pipsqueck cider' and a deeeelish pasta which came to the equivalent of roughly R400-can you believe it?!?! Food is seriously expensive here so I guess its lucky that im earning Aussie dollars!

Well hello Perth!!

I landed in Perth early on a Sunday morning and although I was as jet-lagged as ever I went straight to the beach at Cottesloe where I am staying with my brother..Cottesloe is sort of the camps bay of Perth although a little more relaxed. At the beach there were about 25 lifeguards all running around making sure no one put a toe out of line but I guess it is understandable as there had been a shark attack at that exact beach about a month ago and the body was never found!!! Anyway after the beach we went into the city for an afternoon drink at a place called the Aviary; its a very trendy roof-top bar which has just opened up, a cool place with astroturf used for the carpet. A strange norm here in Aus is for the girls to dress up to the nines on a sunday afternoon with their hair done, make-up etc etc I was literally the only girl without heels on in the place and absolutely everyone has some sort of tattoo I felt very much out of the loop seeing that I didn't have a bleeding rose inked onto my forearm. We came upon one beaut of an individual who hadnt washed his mullet for substantial amount of time which thus lead to it so begin to naturally dreadlock-absolutely stunning! haha anyway after a bit of a culture shock we headed home for a good old South African sunday night braai.

The land down under...

So holidays have begun and for the next couple of weeks I am going to be living in Perth, Australia doing some vac work but also hopefully having lots of fun and discovering new places...I love travelling so much and cannot wait to see what is in store for me as well as to share my experiences with whoever is keen to read them..please enjoy.

Itsy bitsy spider...

A friend of mine showed me this picture taken in Pakistan after the floods...millions of spiders crawled into the trees to escape the rising water and have cocooned these trees in their webs. Absolutely amazing and rather eery but fascinating all the same.

Florence love

I just stumbled upon this song by Florence Welch.....she never fails to make me a little happier than I was before I heard her music. Enjoy.

Join the treevolution...

Last year during exams trying to find the best excuse not to slave away at my desk, a friend of mine suggested that we go plant trees for an organisation called greenpop that she had heard of. It was an amazing experience as we went into some undergreened areas and planted trees in schools- I met some facinating people, while at the same time doing my 'good deed' for the month and being able to mess around with school kids. I have since been following the organisation and they have been doing some really great stuff, it is such a fun and exciting project and anyone can get involved by either volunteering to plant trees, sponsoring a tree or even attending the occasional party they host at assembly - find out more about it on facebook or on their website...

The Picture above was taken on the UCT campus... a pressure hose was used to produce reverse graffiti  on a dirty wall on campus...very cool.

The Best of the BEST!

I have stumbled upon one of the greatest websites yet...  www.pinterest.com... it allows people to 'pin' ideas from all sorts of blogs to share with others... I dont want to ruin the experience for any of you by sharing too much so rather go check it out!

Above is one thing I fancied- a map lamp, how great? enjoy.

The RAW deal...

A few months ago I went to the design indaba in Cape Town and one of the projects which caught my eye was a company called RAW who specialise in in-house products which are designed and produced with sustainability kept in mind. They do this mainly by making use of glue-less joints in their designs, it is fascinating to see how innovative they have been in working with these glue-less joints. Many of their designs can be completely dissembled and put back together with ease making storage convenient. Here are some photos of their designs, have a look at their website for more...

Angus and Julia-my new best friends.

About a week ago a friend and I were working on a project into the early hours of the night, to assist us in getting through this excruciating process he bought along some new music and introduced me to Angus and Julia Stone; they are a sibling duo who were born and bread in Australia and their music is heavily folk influenced. Since that night I have completely fallen in love with them, their lyrics are tragically poetic and they have a calm and soothing sound. So do yourself a favour and get your hands on some of their music. Enjoy.