The Travels of Kate

June 1st in Australia is the first day of winter. I remember that I thought it was a really lovely day, but when I was out and about, most people on the streets had out their jackets and scarfs, and I overheard people complaining about how cold it was. Oh well. Like I said, I thought it was quite a nice day. Here are some pictures I took while waiting for a tram at the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke.

Another day, sometime in June, I don't really know when, I went to my local beach because it's pretty.

There are walking paths along the beach with pictures of people walking, so that you know to walk there (as opposed to bike or roller blade or whatever). But someone made one of them a bit cooler.

And a view of the city from a hill next to the ocean.

The weekend before I left, I attended one of my cousin Nick's footy games. He's number 30. His team just won the Grand Final of his league last week! But here they were back in June.

Finally, in the last week before I came home, I had exams! This is a picture I took when I turned up to my very first one, illustrating the hundreds of people milling around! I took my exams in a room with 2000+ other people. Bit strange, but it worked.

After that, I came home for my winter break! Yay, END OF SEMESTER ONE!

Yay, I am back! Contrary to popular belief, I have not completely forgotten about this and do intend to get fully caught up sometime soonish. So, let's go back to where I left off last time...May! I just hope I remember what I did well enough to tell you all about it. Luckily I have pictures to help jog my memory!

Well, the last weekend in May, André's mother and nan were in town. André has a great love of trains, so he decided to take them to see Puffing Billy, something which I vaguely remember doing when I was little. I went with them, and much fun was had all around.

Puffing Billy leaves from Belgrave, which is about an hour's drive away. So the four of us drove there.

When we got there, before boarding the train, I decided I ought to use the loo, so I went. This is of note only because of what I found inside my toilet stall.

Very lovely illustrations of how to use the toilet. Just in case I'd forgotten how. I hadn't, but they were much appreciated nevertheless.

Here's a picture of me on the platform right before boarding.

Then we were shown to our tables inside the train car. Here we are inside, along with pictures of our pretty table and other people in the car.

Along the way, there were lots of nice views.

And they served us lots of really yummy food!

After an hour or so, we reached our destination: Lakeside Station. It was very pretty. Here are some pictures!

Our train engine.

Me in front of our carriage.

A train coming the other way.

The Lake.

Showing my rebellious side.

Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree...well, in some sort of tree.

Then we headed back. The train ride home back to Belgrave was fairly uneventful, and there are no pictures.

Before heading back into town, we went to check out the William Ricketts Sanctuary. It is a park located near the top of Mt. Dandenong. It's filled with Rickett's Aboriginal sculptures that "are an expression of Rickett's philosophy - that all people need to act as custodians of the natural environment in the same way as Aborigines, the inspiration for much of his work." Here are pictures of just a few of the 92 sculptures in the park - the detail is really incredible!

I am currently at my gate at the Melbourne Airport enjoying free internet thanks to Telstra. My flight to LA is, of course, delayed, as we're enjoying a rather foggy morning, though it's cleared up considerably since I first got here an hour and a half ago. I should still make my connection to Nashville fine - I'll just have less of a layover, which is fine by me. But they said that they were going to arrange new flights for everyone who would probably miss their connection and give us the details while we're on board. So I should be good either way.

I wasn't able to get a window seat, which is always my #1 preference, but I am at least in the aisle, which is better than being stuck in the middle of the middle section, which I'm sure would be yucky.

So anyway now I'm just trying to fill the two hours or so left until we start boarding!

A random thing that I thought was funny was that at the front of the airport, near where you check in, there's a suitcase store. When you're already at the airport, about to check in, I think it's a bit late to be buying a suitcase. Oh well.

Not sure what else to talk about. There goes a plane to Tokyo! I'm in a really great seat, facing the window that shows the runway. It's nice.

I just realised that I don't think I'm at my gate after all. I thought I was. But there's a sign over there saying that my gate is downstairs. But the escalator to get downstairs isn't moving. Hmm. I will have to investigate that sometime soon. But not just yet, as I am in such a very good spot.

Oh, I know something to talk about! Well, you know the status boards that say "Now boarding" or "Final call" or whatever? Well, for my flight, it said it wasn't leaving till 12:05pm and the status was "Relax." I was amused.

Ooh, look there's my plane! It's pulling into the gate. It looks like it's going to crash right into me! Hopefully it will stop before reaching the window. I think I'm right above my gate. So I just need to figure out how to get downstairs. Hopefully won't be too hard.

Hmm, what else to ramble on about. I am very excited about my in-flight entertainment system. Those pretty much rock. I wonder what movies they'll have? I hope they have High School Musical. They had it on my flight over in Feburary, so I decided to watch it, because I never had. But they turned off the movies when I still had about 20 minutes in the movie to go, because we had to go land. I mean, I can guess how it ended, but still, I'd like to see it.

Well. I guess I'll stop for now. This entry is sad and picture-less. Perhaps I will take some pictures using the laptop's webcam. Yes, I think I will!

Me!

The view in front of me. Unfortunately you can't really see out the window. Oh well.

The escalator that I think I need to go down. If only I knew how...perhaps I will investigate that soon.

Well, I guess that will do it. I may update again in LA if I'm bored and can get some more free internet. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you soon!! :

All right, one more entry before I leave to come back to the States. I'll just have to catch up on the rest when I'm home!

Anyway, this entry is certain to be the cutest of them all, as it features my new baby-twin-first-cousins-once-removed!

Amity and Myles were born May 8th. Here are some pictures from their birthday:

I went to go meet them the next day, so here are some pictures from then! I am holding Amity, obviously, as she is pink.

Here is my cousin Phillip (their uncle) and his girlfriend with Myles.

But then Amity started crying, so I gave her back. More cuteness ensued.

And that is all the pictures I have of that. This was a really short entry! Oh well. I should probably be going to bed since I need to wake up and catch a plane! So I will do that! Talk to you all when I'm back in America!

The next exciting thing of note was 3 May, Roz's birthday. We went out to eat at a Vietnamese Restaurant. So here are the lovely pictures. They're all related to me except for the guy in the tan next to Eloise. He is her boyfriend, Brent, who has probably appeared somewhere on here before? I don't remember. Anyway. Onwards!

Also, here is a cute picture of Pigeon. He's my favorite cat in the Southern Hemisphere.