priscilla, queen of the desert!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Jeremy took me to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert as my birthday gift. It was, without a doubt, one of the best musicals I've ever seen, and will ever see--the songs were all amazing, the actors phenomenal, the sets and costumes delightful every time. Oh my.

The basic premise of Priscilla is based around three drag queens from Sydney trooping out to the Alice to take care of some family issues--and to be the first drag queens to sing on top of Ayer's Rock in full regalia. I'll leave it there, you can imagine the rest!



As Bernadette said in the movie, "A cock in a frock on a rock." Heh heh.

terra australis incognita

Sunday, August 12, 2007

And so, I find myself sitting up on a Sunday evening playing with photos once again. This is the first installment of a couple more to come; I like to call it, "How Joni Got to Australia and Her First Few Days There." Pretty imaginative, non?

Now that I've been here for a couple of weeks and feel pretty settled in, I'm going to have to start blogging a bit more--I admit that I've been horribly mute on that point. Not any longer, however! The minutae of terra australis shall be recorded in full. For tonight, however, we're going to start with the photos--a good picture is, after all, worth a thousand words!



a typical Vancouver farewell... and greeting...



flying into Los Angeles at sunset



Sean, who I met randomly in the security lineup after going to two wrong terminals in LA



Katie, a fellow Canadian, was also on our flight!





sunrise over the Pacific



almost there!



Esben, my Danish seatmate. we drank champagne together and watched each other drool and snore for 13 hours. fantastic bonding experience, let me tell you!





our first glimpse of Australia!



circling to land...



downtown Sydney; note the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House just past it!



my first glimpse of Sydney out of the airport... it was raining, of all things!





this & next few are views from Jeremy's rooftop garden right in downtown Sydney







the rooftop garden, which was featured a week or two later in a show about cool backyards!





driving over the Harbour Bridge for the first time





eek!



out for dinner at Darling Harbour



Jeremy & I!



Jeremy and his parents, Peter and Jennie Medlock



moi, contemplating my (still) blank wall



the new Macquarie fitness centre, which I walk past every day on my way to class



one of the main thoroughfares at uni



sunset in the village as seen from my desk window



rise of the full moon...



downtown Sydney as seen from the Queen Victoria Building... that guy in the toque (oh wait, 'beanie') is my roomie, Mat



Darling Harbour from a different angle on a different night



the Art House Hotel... it was too cool!



me & some new friends: Ola (the other girl from SFU), Monica (a friend of my roommate's), and Ryan (a friend of Ola's roomie)


Until next time... I believe pictures from Featherdale and Oberon shall follow, then my birthday and miscellaneous things. Stay tuned!


sunset mountains

Monday, July 9, 2007

With Canadian flags sewn onto all my pieces of luggage (or at least, SFU patches!) and with clothes strewn across my floor, the packing for Chilliwack, Vancouver, and Australia has begun. It doesn't look like a lot right now, but as I've been mostly fussing with things for the last few days, that saves me a lot of time for tomorrow's final push--now it's just putting it all into the bags, and finding a way to make it all fit. (How, I don't know, but I'll find a way!)

It doesn't feel strange to be leaving Revelstoke. I've done it enough over the last two years to know that when I come back, my friends will be here and not much will have changed. We'll have done more and none of us will really live here anymore, but together, we won't have changed. The Columbia valley is reassuring in its constance.

What does feel strange is that less than a week from now, I'll be standing with one of my best friends as she promises the rest of her future to her fiance. Little Alaina is going to be a wife, married, and on her way to France! And so young, too, at the tender age of 20--it would worry me, except that across from her will be Ashton, and it makes my heart swell to know that two such wonderful people have decided to share their lives together. They deserve each other, they've earned each other. I already know that the day will be exciting and breathtaking--and not just because we're also going whitewater rafting. Hehe.

I'm surprised at how many loose ends I'm not leaving behind. My to-do list has dwindled into completely mundane things like, "get chapstick," and I can now pack without worrying about living out of a suitcase for a weekend. Gifts have been bought for weddings and Aussies, plans have been laid to see friends for one final evening, and I'm making myself not worry about logistics for bachelorette parties and weddings. Soon, mum and I will be in the car and off to the Coquihalla once again.

To say farewell to the mountains, Eric and I ate dessert at 5000 ft tonight, on Mt. Revelstoke. Chocolate sauce and strawberries? Yum. (We also saw Transformers, which was surprisingly good!)





oh, how I go

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

the seattle airport

cincinnati at 6 am

megan and I, first morning in ohio, after showers and the like

requisite foot photo!

the bridesmaids and our shiny new purses

canadians in america


"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
-- R. Frost


for some reason we thought swimming first thing in the morning was a stellar idea... and it was!

tree kangaroo


taryn oggles the cheetahs

prep for the bachelorette party

meri with a martini!

the night before the wedding saw us drinking champagne in the jacuzzi... ah, twas the life!

the 5000th photo

meri, moi, taryn, and donna

flowers!

rain and hail pre-wedding

the bride arrives!

a melange of mike & taryn

vancouver sunset

over british columbia once again

disembarking in kelowna... fiiiiinally!


see the rest of the photos in their facebook album, here!