A snapshot in time.

Making: Olive oil crackers to eat with my very large wheel of double brie from King Island Diary
Cooking: some summer soup full of lentils, corn, kidney beans and fresh coriander.
Drinking: too much wine, true to form at this time of year I guess.
Reading: A Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog by Dr. Bruce D Perry. A very disturbing read at times but also very insightful for me as a future nurse.

Wanting: for my love to be home. 1 month to go.
Looking: forward to seeing Augie March play at MONA on the 1st.
Playing: nothing much these days.
Waiting: to hear the outcome of a job interview (I guess it won't be til the new year now).
Liking: the time of year, the long long days, the warmth, the fruit, the festive cheer.
Considering: the future.
Watching: the rain drops running off the leaves of the tree outside my window.
Hoping: for good guests, good weather and good times on my next work trip starting after Christmas.
Needing: to get on top of uni work. 3 work trips and a flying visit to Canberra in the first 3 weeks of the semester is not a good recipe for a calm, stress free study schedule.
Wearing: my delightful Nimble tights. Sold out I know, but you can still admire their beauty.
Noticing: my knee getting better. WOOHOO.
Thinking: about the year that was.
Buying: a few odd gifts but mostly just the essentials.
Getting: tanned.
Bookmarking: various chapters of my nursing textbooks.
Feeling: that hunger that really is just boredom in disguise. 

Welcome back, Sun.

It's so good to see the sun again. Hobart has been pretty grey for a while now but today, I woke with dappled light across my face.

Between classes and frantic assignment writing I went for a walk through the rose garden near Uni. It was the perfect respite from the stark white world of my text books with its pink lemonade fragrance and vibrant petals, still coated in the droplets of last nights storm. Moments like this remind me that it's the little things.

Enjoy them.

Dee x.

Time away.

Tonight marks the start of a long stint of nights where I will sleep in my own bed. Prior to tonight, I have spent a total of three nights of the last month asleep on a sunny hillside in South Hobart, the rest spent in Overland Track huts, on the beach at the Bay of Fires or most recently, in Canberra.

I'm feeling especially grateful for my time away from home because each night has represented something significant in terms of the opportunities that I am lucky enough to have had. From working in one of the world's most remarkable landscapes and sharing it with my guests to attending a two day workshop in Canberra for ASANNA (the Australian Student and Novice Nurse Association) that focused on how a small collective of amazingly accomplished student and novice nurse leaders can CHANGE THE WORLD! (Well maybe not the world but we can certainly change things like the experience of clinical placement, for both the student and the nurses they interact with AND the opportunities for nurse post graduation all in order to better the health outcomes of Australians).

So, if you're a student nurse or a graduate then I hope you too are inspired by the future of ASANNA and all that we represent.

ASANNA deets:
Sign up for email updates here.
Follow on Twitter here.
annnnnd on Facebook here,

Dee x.

Step inside my office...

I'm heading out to this beautiful part of the world tomorrow.

Guide life on the plains south of Pine Forest Moor. Thanks to Sohee Kim for the photo.

The Overland Track. 

And I'm excited.

I'm excited for the beauty, on both a big and small scale.

I'm excited for early mornings and watching the sun wake up the bush around me.

I'm excited to eat RJ Fish Fruit Cake. 

I'm excited to see my guests shift their view and start to see and feel what I do.

So, with that in mind, I better pack!

Dee x. 

Details:

The company I work for is Tasmanian Walking Company. They are a beautiful bunch of people. Check 'em out. 

The Overland Track is a 65-84km long walk through Tasmania's world class wilderness World Heritage Area. The track takes you across alpine moors, over mountain passes, through dark forests and along rushing rivers over 5-6 days. Get out there, you won't regret it. 

Out with the mad and in with the glad.

Awhile ago I was drafting a blog post that started a bit like this... 'Here is a list of all the things I hate'.

Lately I've been consumed by this feeling of hatred, anger and frustration. I'm not sure if the feeling created the thoughts and the whole thing grew from there or if the thoughts came first but what I do know is that it doesn't matter.

What I know now (thanks to Eli) is that by focusing on the negative and by giving power to my inner bitch, I am just making myself unhappy and coping less and less with all the bullshit that crops up in my life (eg. exams, bitchy people who should grow up, bad drivers, flab etc).

So, in order to turn the tables on the well trodden route of negativity in my brain, here is a list of all the things that I am grateful for.

friends. You guys are the best.
family. I've recently uncovered a heap of information on my Dad's family that I never knew. I'm super grateful to come from a family of strong, educated women who quite literally, ain't need no man.
food. I'm really appreciating pears, banana smoothies, greek feta, silverbeet and whole free range chickens that only cost $6.99.
my body. Even though I don't love the way I look all the time, I do love my body for allowing me to climb mountains, ride my bike, lift things, eat things, excrete things and love other people.
my education. I don't even really know how to put this into words but I just feel so blessed to be able to read, write and think critically in a world that is too often dominated by weak politicians, hearsay and propaganda. Thanks brain.

That's enough positivity for one day.

Dee x.

12.10.14

Things I'm looking forward to this week:

Getting my hair did. Blonde bob, be mine.
Feeling the relative freedom that comes with the end of week 13.
Getting crunk to celebrate said end of week 13.
Watching Gone Girl.
Seeing a physio and hopefully getting my dud knee fixed.
Riding my bike.
Being in Hobart.
Signing up to my next block of Go Booty.
Memorising the names, function and origin of the 12 cranial nerves (mmmm yes, fun).
Dinner dates with friends.

Dee x.

Burnie v Hobart

When the opportunity to spend two weeks living with Alex in Burnie arose, I jumped. I thought to myself, 'nursing prac? what nursing prac? I'm going to spend two weeks hanging with my boyf'. But you see, I was wrong. The nursing prac, although sometimes a bit slow, was all consuming. I was vacant, tired, distracted when I was done for the day and all I really wanted was to be at home, cooking in my own kitchen and eating dinner overlooking glorious Hobart, not staring into the world's ugliest courtyard from Alex's kitchen table.

Here is a totally biased list of the things that make Burnie and Hobart what they are.

Burnie

bakeries fresh out of the 70's
bogans
empty streets
a truly massive woolworths with a disproportionately small range of items
one hours drive from Cradle
beeeeeautiful beaches
tulips
dominant primary industry
young kids, young parents and old people
whale sightings from the main drag.
rain
Waratah (NSW varieties) growing on the nature strip

Hobart

pigeon hole bread
a sentient mountain to keep me company
bonsoy flat whites
people on bikes
french cheese
tree lined streets
traffic
MONA/ tourism/ culture
people between the ages of twenty and thirty
shops that have competition
a sense of community


Until Sunday Hobart, I'll keep dreaming of you.

Dee x.