#WordsOfWisdom

"Conflict is inevitable.

How we handle it determines whether a relationship will end up strengthened or strained."

~Renee Swope

Aussie Trip {Part 23} Home of the Croc Hunter

: : This girl was my travel buddy in Queensland : :
She drove me everywhere and we talked and laughed and watched movies and went places together. Love you Gracie <3

Mum

Happy Birthday, Mum!

#WordsOfWisdom

"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength -- carrying two days at once. 

It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time.

 Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

~Corrie ten Boom

Aussie Trip {Part 22} Showtime at the Crocoseum!

Figuring one of the main shows of the day should provide a fairly good introduction for our visit, we decided to do reference our maps and head for the Crocoseum. We found the contrast between Steve Irwin and these keepers humorous, if something of a shame. I would absolutely recommend going to the show if you're visiting the zoo, but better zoom lenses and faster shutter speeds would super helpful!

: : Hehe he doesn't look overly comfortable :P : :

: : Guys, he's ages away from you! : :

: : RUN! Hehe :P : :

: : So they had this screen playing old clips from Steve's TV show and such : :
BUT -- notice that little sign in the bottom left corner ;P ;P #daymade haha

#WordsOfWisdom

"Start by doing what's necessary; 

then do what's possible;

and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

~Francis of Assisi

Spring Equinox

And today we find out who all the nerds are ;P

Happy Spring guys! 

Aussie Trip {Part 21} Koalas & Crocs

Oh look, finally a new post! ;P

: : Now to train my cats to sit so lovely and still for portraits . . . ! : : 

: : Doesn't look like the most comfortable position to me?! : :

: : Wouldn't mind one of those in my backyard : :
So cute and cuddly-looking ;)

: : Oh hey, I managed to get in one of the shots! : :

: : "Never Smile at a Crocodile : :
I'm sure he's laughing at us. Just a fence between him and lunch. 

: : Needless to say, we didn't try out our fence-climbing skills : :

#WordsOfWisdom

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain.”

~Vivian Greene

New Month, New Goals

Welcome to September!

The calendar has flipped over another page and I'm beginning to see things pop up about a new season too; change is in the air and my blog isn't escaping it. If you enjoyed my {almost} daily posting through August then my apologies; if you couldn't keep up then now is your grand opportunity to catch up! ;P I wanted to knock out pile of photos -- getting them edited and posted, seeing as I have so many to catch up on; to that end daily posting was a major goal for August. Turns out I have more captures from Australia than I thought (which is great!), so I didn't get as far as I expected. All the editing and blogging actually took a lot of time, which may be due in large part to using my old, dying laptop for most of the month, (I finally replaced it last Friday!!) so in some ways it's a relief that the month is over!

The plan is to still post regularly and continue making progress through my photos, but I won't be posting daily this month since I need the time to focus on some other things. A few people are talking about Steptember; I want to get back into walking again but I think I'm going for Sleeptember first lol . . . I'm so tired right now. Here's hoping for some earlier nights to catch up. 

So my laptop. I think I've mentioned it a few times recently so if you've read a few of my posts you probably know something about it. Basically I bought a second-hand one several years ago and it served me pretty well without much upkeep for a fairly decent length of time. The battery died on it a while ago though, so it had to always be plugged in to the power; not particularly convenient, but I managed! Then it got to the point of only turning on when you tilted it back on a solid surface and pushed the battery in, and in the last few months it would randomly lose the internet connection and pick it up again. A few times I opened Task Manager to see what was going on and it would sit at 100% CPU for ages, even after I walked away. In the last couple weeks it presented even more problems that impacted it's use in the classes I teach as well, so I decided I had pushed it to the max and the benefits of a new one would outweigh the cost. 

I'm loving the speed of this new one, and finding my way around Windows 10 all right. I still have to buy Office for it, and I'm still setting things up as I go along. Had to change some of my passwords since I had them saved on my old system and couldn't remember what they were. ;P Guess I'm getting old lol. Oh and Xj I have a built in mic and webcam this time lol; one of these days we'll have to see how much better that is ;)

It's crazy to think that there are just three weeks of this term left! Guess I have a few things to work on to wrap it up, go away for the holidays, and then be ready for term 4. Private classes are booked one term at a time so nearing the end of each I have to sort out my bookings and schedule for the following one.

Think I'll wrap up here, it's already taken longer than expected to write this and my eyelids are drooping. Goodnight guys and thanks for reading. :)

Aussie Trip {Part 20} Australia Zoo!!

As much as I love animals, there are some I prefer to keep my distance from. Such as large reptiles. Regardless, I loved watching Steve Irwin on TV when I was little! I remember when his sudden death rocked the world; we never normally knew the faces on the magazines displayed in nearly every store, but even we were shocked and upset by the news. I'm not sure I ever really thought about visiting the focal point of the Irwins' work, but when Uncle Richard mentioned Australia Zoo as being an option for a good touristy type visit, I jumped at the chance! I haven't counted the exact number of photos I took, but they will be coming in several sets. ;)

We were a little unsure of the weather when we got up the day of our trip: overcast with light rain. On the way up we got caught in torrential rain -- we were on the phone to Uncle Richard at one point and couldn't hear him over the sound of the downpour! I think things were clearing by the time we arrived, and we ended up with clear skies and more typical Aussie weather lol.

: : Apparently these are known as water dragons : :
They were just about EVERYWHERE! When I first saw one wandering around I thought it must have escaped its enclosure somewhere :P

: : Looks a little stiff : :

: : Just casually wandering around on the path : :

: : HEADLINE NEWS: AUSSIE CROC ATTACKS JAGO DINO?! : :

: : Reckon I'd rather not come across one of these in the wild, even if they are just small ones! : :