Wild Wild Western Australia

Western Australia was jaw-droppingly incredible. It is still very untouched and untamed in many parts. After a day trip to Margaret River, we spent two days and camped for a night with my cousin and her husband on the deceptively named, Rottnest Island. It was paradise - we biked, snorkelled, and spotted wildlife all day long until we watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean. We even saw our first pink lakes, then had withdrawal after leaving the home of the adorably friendly and happy quokkas. 

Withdrawal didn't last too long as we flew north, then drove past hundreds(?) of gigantic termite mounds through the desert to the teeny tiny town of Coral Bay (population: 190) on Ningaloo Reef. The coral in the reef is still in good shape compared to the Great Barrier Reef, but it doesn't have as many colorful soft corals. We spent three out of four days on a boat all day, and were lucky enough to spot numerous pods of dolphins, snorkel with a 20 ft. whale shark, a reef shark cleaning station, green sea turtles, and gigantic manta rays while they were chaotically chain feeding. 

We had gorgeous weather the whole time - sunny and warm, but not hot. We were only gone just over a week, but it felt like we were gone for much longer, off in another world. 

Al and Kara's Wedding at Q Station

We just spent a whirlwind 24 hours at the historic Q Station with our frisbee friends for Al and Kara's wedding. We have known and played frisbee a lot with both of them since moving to Sydney; Al is originally from Ireland and Kara is originally from Canada. It was really fun taking over the whole compound, and the staff did a wonderful job of taking care of us. We stayed in groups in very comfy, not rustic cabins. There was an after-party after the reception, and then an after-after-party in one of the cabins, and quite a few people were up until sunrise. The party continued after we left today to get ready for our trip, but more in the form of relaxing at the beach and playing lawn games.

Q Station has some interesting wildlife, and we had some long-nosed bandicoot sightings at the after-party, a first for any wedding I've attended. No penguins this time, though. 

We had a great time and I can't wait for the next wedding, whosever it will be.

Holiday Road

Even though I'm off work for school holidays, it will be a busy week. Mike is back from the Philippines, we have a wedding tomorrow (yes, on a Thursday), and then we fly off to Western Australia to visit my cousin and play with wildlife. 

Stitches and Southpaws

This weekend, Mike is playing frisbee at the Boracay Open, his first frisbee tournament in Asia. From the bits and pieces I'm hearing, he's having a good time despite already needing to get some stitches on his eyebrow. I would have gone too, but we have a lot going on this coming week and I didn't want to be on trips back to back. 

Since Mike gave me the parting gift of his cold, I've been taking it easy when I haven't been working.  I saw some friends last night, and now I'm just getting some done around the apartment. 

This morning I took a "Learn to Crochet" class, to see if I would like it better than knitting. As it turns out, I do not. But, going to the class did highlight something for me that has always been an issue for me. I am left-handed. Being a left-handed person in a right-handed world, most left-handers and ambidextrous people are used to having to find ways to adapt at literally everything. Most right-handers don't even think about how many daily tasks involve handed-ness and dexterity, let alone specialized skills like playing string instruments and sports. There is an excellent book called The Left-Hander Syndrome by Stanley Coren, if you ever want to know amore about it. We make up about 10-15% of the population. 

Anyway, both learning to knit and crochet are more difficult for lefties because almost everyone teaches right-handed. I bet there are so few lefty teachers because all the lefties have teachers that don't know how to teach lefties, so the lefties never get good enough to teach. Anyway, they give a few tips that might help, but you're generally left to flounder and figure out the best way for yourself. I was particularly annoyed with the crochet teacher because she had taught long enough that she knew it was hard for lefties to follow the patterns chart; this is because if you crochet left-handed the chart is literally backwards or mirrored. She knew enough to tell me I should flip the pictures and reprint them. I don't carry around a computer and printer with me. If you knew that lady, why didn't you print some for the lefties that you say you have in every class?! That's like telling someone to translate some writing from English to Mandarin, but then to write it in backwards Mandarin, while everyone else in the class just has to copy sometime form English to English. It just took so much more effort for so little reward. I normally take pride in my southpawedness, but today I was just really annoyed. 

At least I was able to drown my sorrows in delicious, garlicky, olive oily, Vapiano pasta. Nobody cares if I hold my fork in my left hand there.