Living it up in freo!

Things have been hectic; I would have it no other way. I've been wanting change; change of job, change of pace, change of landscape, in the last month I have got all that and bit.

 My new position at the Fremantle Sailing Club (FSC) is spectacular; my title for those who like that sort of thing is Sailing and Events Assistant Manager. My key role is focusing on the three National Sailing Championships, FSC is hosting in January 2015, with expected daily attendance of 1000+ people from overseas and interstate there is quite a lot to organise. The other major event I am assisting with is the Fremantle to Bali Race and Rally in May 2015. Amongst juggling these planning activities I'm learning all about FSC’s winter onshore and offshore Sailing races which occur weekly for members and non-members alike.

Just to clarify when I say I'm assisting I mean organising entertainers, accommodation, logistics, social media and marketing, event photogrpahers and videographers, it's brilliant really!

 

At the end of my first two weeks I feel pretty happy at where I am, the job is keeping me on my toes, the team is amazing coming with such experienced backgrounds, it's a pleasure to hear stories and to learn from. My immediate supervisor has previously worked in the last four Olympics, managing athletes, while my colleague is a current two time (going for his third) World Champion Sailor. 

Oh and did I mention the location, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.   

 

 

But on the other note within a week of getting the job, I scored a room with a super groovy French lady only 1.4km from work, a 5 minute bike ride or a 15 minute walk. To add to that my gym, shops and church is in between. It's all worked out a dream. Life is bliss.

 

Events!

I love helping organise events: raising money for great causes, bringing joy and excitement to peoples lives, teaching and educating people of all ages.

The first of hopefully many Bunbury’s Amazing Race was organised by three friends and myself. To say it was a success would be an understatement, we raised over $15 000 for cancer council WA throughout the Amazing Race and charity auction.

Aaron, Nathan, Damien and Myself

 

The intense preparation, late nights and many messages were all worth it. Just this past weekend I volunteered at the Jazz by the Bay assisting in stage management. 

To be even luckier I will be starting my new full time job working in the sporting events industry in Fremantle, Perth! Stay tuned!

Bali Jaunt

I’m currently in zombie mode, clutching to the last bits of my holiday while slowly embracing the fact I’ll be back at work in t-minus 48 hours. But before then here’s the run down on my five-day jaunt with my best friend Kristie, to arguably the number one island of Indonesia’s 18,307 islands, Bali.

Our plan, or mainly mine was to simply relax by the pool, read the four books I had brought and be holiday smoochs. However, plans are only a guidance system right, what happened was a lot more.

 

Kristie set her alarm every morning. I’m not a morning person. This was not cool. But I’m a good person and was out of bed by nine each morning to grab brekky at the hotel. We stayed at the Ananta Hotel, Legian. I would definitely recommend it! Great staff. Nice mix of clientele, not only families or Aussies, but a great international mix. It made for some fun people watching in the mornings. To top the hotel off were the Tsunami warning signs, indicating to run up the stairs in cases of tsunami. Only in Bali.

The days saw us bartering with locals making a fair few enemies and limiting our friendships, to lying topless while being straddled by a back rubbing masseuses, falling into rice paddies and racing around the crazy streets on our little scooter.

A day trip out of the Denpasar region to Ubud, watching six-year olds stand up in ute trays speeding along the highway, drinking lewak poo coffee -- the coffee beans are actually from the animals excrement-- on the top of rice paddy mountains is unbeatable. However, not being a coffee drinker I couldn't appreciate it fully. Especially when I added a small glassful of cocoa and a sachet of sugar to it. I felt like I was committing the biggest sin.

Our day trip also included popping into silver jewellers to watch them create masterpieces in the middle of a bamboo house. I helped support the local economy by purchasing a small set of earrings for myself. 

Viewing, what I think, were greater pieces of art than in the Louvre in a local persons house. The colour, thickness and use of multiple medias was awe-inspiring some of the acrylics were five-centimetres thick. Our security guard guide explained that some of the art would take up to one year to complete as the drying process for each layer could take two months. Please note the photos below are a result of teamwork, Kristie distracting while I take a quick snap.  Spies in the making!
 
We visited the Ubud Monkey Forest, where I quickly divested myself of my water bottle as this seemed to be prime monkey bait. Cue the photo below.

There are those moments in one’s life where you know better than someone else. I had one of those moments at the Ubud market place. I saw this Chinese lady, ecstatic about her purchase of some harem pants. I asked her how much she got them for. She proudly replied, "a bargain $180 000IDR".

Oh sweet lord. I looked at Kristie, her eyes exploded, this was overkill. But this lady was so proud of herself and, well, why burst her bubble when she was more than willing to let go of her hard earned money so readily. So I said, “Awesome price.” And kept on walking, but in truth, she’d just paid three times their worth.

The Indonesian people are very friendly in general, they teach their children from the start how to harass serve foreigners. Today it was a pleasure. We had three little girls- all called 'Maddy' offer to be our tour guides through  rice paddy hills for $10 000 $1AUD each.  A tough bargain! We countered with $5000 IDR, roughly $0.50 AUD each.

That was the best $1.50 I have ever spent. The girls were such characters trying to show us where to go, leading the charge up hills and muddy paths that, well, are quite dangerous. 

Another fabulous change that has occurred in Bali’s continual growth is the new Beachwalk shopping centre. This has a Zara, Topshop, Victoria Secret and many other UK shops. But oh what bliss, we don't have these shops in Western Australia yet, so I went a bit wild. We also went wild at the Game Arcade we found on the top level, going crazy with shooting games, basketball shots, dancing comps and best of all the $1.60 photobooths!

   

 

I can hardly cover everything else that went on, but one thing worth mentioning was the He She show we saw at the beach Shack on Garlic Lane. My hats of the guy girls, that’s crazy stuff! We saw a Nicky Minaj, Pink and an Indian snake dancer amongst others. 

The funniest moment was being simply me being impatient on the moped, or as I like to call it “Channelling my inner Balinese”.  I drove the moped up on the footpath and almost ran over a group of tourists. They were fine! I yelled, “Excuse me, excuse me!” And we passed a dozen cars. The best thing was Kristie got it all on video. 

We had night out, visiting some of the local town hotspots worth mentioning are the Bounty and its foam party and Sky Garden. Fun was had! We had these three girls, two Malaysian and one Mongolian who joined us, they were crazy except the Mongolian, she kept bowing and placing to her hands together to apologize for her friends behaviour. Nothing wrong in having a little fun!

Well, who can complain? Morning massages, yummy food on every corner and a shining sun.



You just have to remember to drink only bottled water, drive fast, go to legitimate money changers and always halve the asking price, then halve it again and offer that as your first bid in dealing with the stall holders. 

Photo credit to Kristie for many of the amazing shots!

Welcome to the jungle blog

What a day! I have learnt so much more about coding in the last six hours than I possibly could in a week of reading a my coding book!

It's almost a year since my last post, which is really pathetic, and I don't have a good enough excuse to even bother typing one so I won't. H
owever here's what you've missed.

• Hit up the land of the long white cloud //New Zealand// Spent some quality time with my family 
•  Graduated Curtin University //Bachelor Degree of Commerce // Double major Public Relations and Management 
• Weekend getaway to Singapore to stockpile the // H&M Zara Topshop wardrobe 
• Founded Atlas Public Relations // A PR consultancy currently working on Bunbury's Amazing Race 
• Worked with the amazing events team at the City of Bunbury // Kidsfest and Christmas Carnival

If I had to sum up my current situation in a twitter post it would be: Six month strategic regrouping to plan my next five year action plan. On that note I'm off to Bali next week for some well-desired R&R.

As life goes on shizz keeps happening!

And we're off again!

Yes, it's been five five months roughly since my last 'blog', but I've got a feeling that this shizz is about to start getting real again!

 So after being home since the 1st of Feb I've absolutely indulged in hanging with the family, chilling out, actually learning something at uni unlike the english uni, which to be honest was an absolute joke.

Now I've got three weeks left of uni, two weeks til I find out if I've got an interview over in Canberra for a graduate job next year! Fingers crossed, I desperately want to move over east! Friends, friends and opportunities! But one more semester to go afterwards, then I'll have that flipping gold plated piece of paper with my name stamped on it and the words bachelor of  commerce attached to it!

Off to New Zealand for the July uni holidays with the little brother! Should a delight, got to hang out with the gramps before he eventually carks it! Love him to death.... lolling at my pun :) 

Plus kick in a bit of skiing or snow boarding whatever takes the fancy in Queenstown!

So hopefully there'll be a few more regular updates... Oh an I made the decision if I don't get any of the graduate jobs i applied for, Canada has my name written all over it! So there for at least two years, do the typical Aussie thing and work at a sky lodge and travel whenever! So really it's a win win, grow up or keep being a gypsy :) 

We shall see which one prevails huh?

Enjoy LIFE!

Remarkably it this has been the longest gap between posts since my departure from Australia. I don't know if it's laziness, or the inevitable that my adventure slowly drawing to a close that I don't want to discuss it. 

It is almost if I don't talk about it, it won't happen. How it is happening, so I'll fill you in on the past three weeks. 

First of a BIG MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! I hope you were all very blessed, as we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ! I was blessed enough to spend my Christmas with a loving Scottish family in their brand new old ginormous beach front view house in Salt coats. A strange name you think, well yes, salt because it use to be a fishing village and a large trading sport for salt, and coats because that’s an old Scottish word for cottages... The salt was sold from the cottages i.e. salt coats. 

It was lovely feats, where I recovered and embraced holy into their lovely family life! It was typical UK day: rainy and cold, however great because well that day it was around 42 degrees in Bunbury, W.A.... I think I prefer the cold. 

Catching my sixth ten hour bus trip home, I settled in  for a good sleep and the a busy day ahead as that night my best friend Kristie was arriving from Australia! Then the next day Melanie from Germany arrived. 

It has been so busy celebrating New years in London, exploring all the must see London attractions, resisting purchases that I know I have no weight allowance for.... oh the hard times in life!

It's been busy but fantastic.... A pity but Kristie seems to have caught a hopefully 24 hour bug... fingers crossed she'll feel better soon! Otherwise I'm preparing for exams next week, then packing up straight afterwards… Shipping out on the 21st of January to meet the family in Singapore. Before hitting up Bali and then finally landing in the red dirt of Australia… 

I have a feeling that this year is going to hopefully be a little more slow paced, with the simple joys of life...  I wan to soak up the sun, because I think my legs are almost translucent... Kick the brother’s butts into gear and do some super relationship counseling with God!

I've also been considering what I'm going to do once I finish university this year... SO many ideas churning around... I'm thinking of moving back to New Zealand for a little while to live with the Gramps and... Garner myself a graduate trainee position in the mines... move to Asia... or America... start again really. Does that make any sense at all? Or perhaps do the one-year teaching diploma and become a teacher.... Go to bible school?... Open up my own hostel or travel agency?

So many ideas, this year will be a full of planning working and simply enjoying life, because all things can sure change pretty darn fast...

Lots of love

Jayllee Elizabeth

Glasgow, Germany , Geeee

Its thattime again. heres whats been going down....

Well, it's 6am and I find myself siting at Stansted Airport waiting for my gate to be announced so I can fly to Frankfurt and visit German gal pal Melanie... How about I fill you in about Glasgow.

It was great, had a fabulous time doing absolutely nothing really, was able to spend time with Majellas lovely family, have a little sticky beck around Glasgow, but spent most of my time 40 minutes south of Glasgow in a small town called Saltcoats. A really cute old coastal town. The weather was fresh, just a tiny bit chilly and scattered rain!

Majellas nephew, Ben- such a darl, took me out on Saturday night which was fabulous. Meet a few of his mates and they were all jolly fellows, saw a couple of fights, and enjoyed sex on the beaches by the jugful! Cannot wait to go back there at the end of next week for Christmas!

[SKIP A FEW DAYS TO THE END OF MY TRIP IN GERMANY]

It's been another whirlwind visit, filled with laughs, drinks, ice skating, castles, shopping, Christmas markets, midday sleep in, movie marathons, a slightly burnt pavlova, the Hobbit and German food.

I was able to meet a tonne of Mel's university friends, they were so lovely. Their English was amazing, makes me feel extremely uneducated...

Marburg, which is about 40 minutes out of Frankfurt is a gorgeous little university town, with little old buildings and cute little pubs. It has a mix of old and brand spanking new buildings, a great public transport system which is free for all university students... Uni is also free... Why could I not have been born in Germany??

I'll leave you with a few photos...