Today is the last day of 2012.
What a year it has been for me.
From continuing my travels for another 12 months, meeting
who I thought was the love of my life and the subsequent breakup, visiting my
mums grave for the first time since her passing, catching up with family
members I haven’t seen in years including meeting my new nephew for the first
time, visiting home after 14 months and seeing all my friends again, saying
goodbye after 7 weeks, the giving away of every single thing I own (including
my mums furniture) and then my final goodbye to Australia for an unknown amount
of time-it has been an amazing year of highs and lows. Throw into the mix all the UNBELIEVABLE
people I have met, counties I have seen and the way, last 12 months has shaped
me and led me to the realisation that I wanted to move to Africa and be part of
a bigger picture. What that picture is,
remains to be seen. I am moving to a
continent where I only know a handful of people. I am leaving a home I love, friends I LOVE,
family I have just reconnected with and a life I know and will miss. Yes 2012 has been a great year but I believe
that 2013 will be an even greater year for me.
It will be challenging and hopefully a satisfying year-I would like to
give back to a world that has been good to me over my travels and I hope that I
will find my ‘home’ somewhere on the great continent of Africa. It still hasn’t sunk in yet, the magnitude of
what I am doing, and it probably won’t until I land in Kenya on the 21st
January.
The thing that surprised me the most was my
resilience. 2012 made me a stronger
person than what I gave myself credit for.
With the very public breakup of Zeme and I and the support that I got
from all my friends and from people that I haven’t heard from in a long time
was very humbling to say the least and I am truly grateful to everyone I have
in my life. To the people who read my
blog, the people who send messages, the people that do the simple task of
liking a photo on Facebook and for all the virtual shoulders I got comfort
from-I could not have got through this without you all. Just like the passing of my mum and the
process of my divorce-you guys have always been there for me and I am
lucky. After all my travelling I have a
new appreciation for the world we live in and just how lucky we have it. Things that don’t kill us make us stronger
and I take comfort in the fact that Happiness will always Follow Sadness, no
matter what and I have friends by my side all over the world that are there for
me. For this I am grateful. 2012 has taught me a lot of things.
All that being said, as I did last year I have to go
through my travel highlights of the year that was.
Seeing the moon through a 40,000USD telescope in La Serena,
Chile-amazing
The spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate,
Argentina
The stunning city of Buenos Aires - we got 10 wonderful
nights in this city
Telling the world about Zeme becoming my boyfriend in
Pucon
The stunning Torres Del Paine National Park
The thundering Iguassu Falls with the helicopter ride and
the amazing Bird Park
The scenic city of Rio de Janeiro
Rio Carnival 2012 was incredible
Getting 'inked' in Addis Ababa with Zeme
The grand castles of Camelot in Gondar
The rock strewn churches of Lalibela-amazing structures
Hand feeding a Colobus Monkey in Awassa
Hand feeding wild hyenas in Harar
Hacking through the Brazilian Amazon jungle
Seeing the disappointing Angel Falls-Venezuela but the
National Park was AMAZING
Speed boating over Lake Maracaibo the largest lake
in South America-Venezuela
Spending the day in the flood plains of Los Llanos and
seeing Kappa Barra’s
The stunning Tayrona National Park and beaches-Colombia
The historic and beachside town of Cartagena-Colombia
Holding the amazing creature called a Sloth
The longest truck day of the trip from Cartagena to
Bucaramanga of 18.5 hours-Colombia
2 nights on a Colombian coffee plantation
The Saturday Otavalo Markets-Ecuador
Crossing of the ‘real Equator’ line-Ecuador
The conclusion of my 5 month Tucan South American
overland trip
My incredible 4 days on Easter Island-the Moai are awe
inspiring
The pure white beaches on the Caribbean Island of
Barbados
An African sunset-no matter what country you are in
Meeting and making life ling friends- this a top MMM
The beautiful city of Ottawa-Canada and visiting The
Canadian Mint and holding a 15kg gold bar
Getting some cottage time with my Contiki Scandi gals xx
Seeing a Cirque du Soleil show in Montreal where the show
was created and started
The stunning French-Canadian city of Quebec
The city of Chicago was amazing and a cocktail from the
95th floor-I LOVE Chicago
Roof top patios in Minneapolis
Sunbaking for a week in the Las Vegas sun-the brownest I
have EVER been with a great mate
A bike through Venice Beach-Los Angeles- that’s the way
they roll there
6 glorious weeks at home with my BEST friend,
God-daughters and friends
Seeing Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings hanging from
it
Visiting the National History Museum in London for the
Scott's Antarctic Exhibition
The seaside town of Brighton-England-so beautiful and the
BBQ we had on the beach
Seeing a 5,000 year old village on the island of
Orkney-Scotland
Visiting the most Westerly part of Scotland-The Butt of
Lewis-the wind was gale force
Seeing the Callendish Stones-Stornoway-Scotland-mini
Stonehenge to touch
The Isle of Skye was breath taking-a piece of heaven on
earth
Getting to tour inside Dunrobin Castle still owned by the
original family after hundreds of years
After 65 international flights the flight from hell on
Ethiopian Airlines from London to Addis Ababa
Reunited with Zeme again for 9 precious days-it was still
a good stay and worth a mention
The Blue Nile Falls in Ethiopia-in full flow with all the
rain and the dam was open
Officially 22 days behind in my blog and 11 days to
update while in Phuket-Thailand
Catching up with my best friends SA and Shelly and my
God-daughters in Phuket for a wedding
My fabulous 14 days in Sri Lanka as a whole and my
AMAZING group and tour leader
My introduction in the religion of Buddhism-it resonated
with me
My 2 day hike through Sri Lankan tea plantations was a
personal challenge for me
Climbing the ancient rock fortress of Sigiray-this was
also a personal challenge-and I DID IT
The beautiful beaches of Marissa-Sri Lanka
The beautiful beaches of Boracay in the
Philippines-stunning
Standing 1m away from the world’s smallest primate the
Tarsier-Cebu/Philippines
The entire country of Nepal
Getting my tattoo in Pokhara-the wheel of life and the
saying Happiness Always Follows Sadness
Getting a firsthand glance at the Himalaya Mountains and
Mt Everest on a scenic flight
Sunrise of the Himalaya’s at Pokhara
The ancient cities of Patan and Durban
The tourist area of Thamel-the vibe and the souvenirs are
like nowhere else-Nepal
My 5 weeks back home for my birthday and for Christmas
were precious
Attending the wedding of Paul and Liz in Brighton-great
to catch up with fellow SA travellers
…and even though it hasn’t happened yet, if I can’t be
home, then spending my New Year with Emma and Justin is the next best
thing……………..
What a year it has been.
So with all that said there was still one more day in
2012 to finish and I was in Scotland with precious friends I know and a group
of their friends I didn’t. I took Emma’s
advice and I did sleep till I couldn’t sleep anymore and I woke at 11am. Em’s parent’s house is massive. It is a 300 year old home that has a lot of
character and being on the 3rd floor I couldn’t hear a thing of what
was happening anywhere else. I just
hoped that I wasn’t the last one out of bed.
Not knowing the ‘Brit/Scot’ etiquette about coming to breakfast in your
PJ’s or not, I decided to have a shower and change before heading down. I would hate to rock up and they were all
dressed and I looked/ felt like Annie.
As it worked out I was the only one that was dressed, so I was glad I
erred on the side of caution anyway. My
timing was impeccable as bacon and eggs were being cooked and I had a plate in
front of me within 10 minutes of arriving and a steaming hot tea to wash it all
down with.
The good or bad thing about sleeping so late is that the
day just passes so quickly. I find it
more so when the sun goes down at 4pm, it always seems later than what it
is. Well I guess we had to rest up for
tonight’s shenanigans. Paps bother
Jamie, Jamie’s girlfriend Fiona and sister, Kirstie arrived just after 12 noon
and now the NYE gang was complete. There
were 19 of us including Emma’s mum Rosie and her dad Robert so I was guessing
it was going to be a great night and then later in the afternoon I found out
that we all had to don something out of the Inverawe dress up box and that
bought a tear to my eye as that is something that we would have done back
home. It is funny as I was given a pair
of Lady Ga Ga glasses for Christmas from SA which I had bought with me, the
merry-oke machine and also the nerd glasses-so I was well equipped for a bit of
fancy dress. I was told that I still had
to get something out of the box and I was lucky I was first in and grabbed a
Nepalese looking jacket that fit, as a lot of the clothes in there were from
Emma and her sister’s childhood when they were younger, it was all a size 6
wardrobe.
Paps had lined up with the neighbour to go clay shooting
at 2.30pm. Clay pigeon shooting, also
known as clay target shooting, and formally known as Inanimate Bird Shooting,
is the art of shooting at special flying targets, known as clay pigeons or clay
targets, with a shotgun or any type of firearm. The terminology commonly used by clay shooters often
relates to times past, when live-pigeon competitions were held. Although such
competitions were made illegal in the UK in 1921, a target is still called a
"target" or "bird", a hit is referred to as a
"hit" or "kill", a missed target might be described as a
"bird away" and the machine which projects the targets is known as a
"trap". It sounded very
British (Scottish) and something cool to do on New Year’s Eve. So we all rugged up, I was given a pair of
wellies to tackle the muddy ground, this was one job the Crocs were not up for,
and we headed out for a 15 minute walk to a clearing near one of the lochs of
the area. As there were so many of us
and we were going to be using live ammunition it was decided we would stand on
the grassy knoll, well the hill, where the clay targets were being shot from,
for our safety and then 2 people at a time would go down for their shots. The view from here was breath taking. Scotland never fails to impress me each time
I have come. This is my third trip and
it is just a piece of heaven on earth, cold, but heaven all the same. I was all keen at the start for the shoot,
but as the time ticked on, the light was going bad and figured I was actually
okay not having a go and letting people who really wanted to, go before
me. Freddie, the neighbour was down
there reloading the gun and giving advice and when it was a girl’s turn,
holding them upright as they fired. When
we were getting down to final numbers you could see a weather front moving in,
right before our eyes and before we knew it, small hail stones dropped from the
sky and that marked the end for half the group and we scaled down the now
slippery muddy knoll and headed back to the house.
Now it was time to get stuck into Hogmanay, New Year’s
Eve-Scottish style. Girl and I had a few
quiet vodka and Irn Bru’s (very Scottish) to get warmed up and then we went and
got ready to come back downstairs and to just enjoy the rest of the evening as
it unfolded. Dinner was to be served at
8.30pm and Emma had place settings for us all and what a great idea as it gave
me a chance to meet more of the group properly.
In Scotland, Hogmanay, with an accent hug-mə-nay, is
the Scots word for the last day of the year and
is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. New
Year's (Hogmanay)
is celebrated with several different customs, such as First-Footing,
which involves friends or family members going to each other's houses with a
gift of whisky and sometimes a lump of coal.
Edinburgh,
the Scottish capital, hosts one of the world's most famous New Year
celebrations. The celebration is focused on a major street party along Princes
Street. The cannon is fired at Edinburgh
Castle at the stroke of
midnight, followed by a large fireworks display. Edinburgh hosts a festival of
four or five days, beginning on 28 December, and lasting until New Year's Day
or January 2, which is also a bank
holiday in Scotland. Other
cities across Scotland, such as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Stirling have large organised celebrations too,
including fireworks at midnight. The Island
nations of Kiribati and Samoa are the first to welcome in the New
Year while Honolulu-Hawaii is among the last places to welcome the New Year. So it was strange to see all my Aussie mates
celebrating their New Year’s Eve a good 10 hours before me, seeing all their
status updates and pictures hit Facebook before we even had an alcoholic drink
in hand. The upside was I was able to
ring home and speak to everyone before they got to drunk and before the phone
lines got too congested. It was great to
hear all their voices!
Dinner was served at 8.30pm and we all wearing a piece of
fancy dress and I have to say we all looked magnificent. If I was to announce a winner I would have to
give the best dressed award to HT. He
donned Pap’s old rowing outfit that was skin tight and then to complete the
outfit he pulled on a pair of pants with a rather large ‘sock’ area-if you get
my drift and wore it ALL night. Now that
is dedication. Well done Huffy-you get
my vote and prize for the best dressed.
A close second was Jamie in his crochet top and vest, Pap’s of course in
his Cameroon cultural dress and Emily with her massive clown bow tie. High five to all and as we sat down for our
first course I felt I was amongst friends, even though I had only met them not
even 24 hours before and me being true to form, I must of felt comfortable, I
started taking a gazillion photos, and you know what-they didn’t mind. I think we were going to get along just
fine. It is amazing how Rosie can put a
dinner together for 19 and make it restaurant quality. We started with salmon terrine and crusty
bread and it was delicious, and this is coming from some-one who doesn’t even
like salmon. Main course was fresh
venison that was caught back in September and for desert were profiteroles with
fresh cream custard. All that for 19
people. Can you imagine? And it looked like it was done with no fuss
if you looked in the kitchen, but then I do know that there were many hands in
there at one stage-but what a great meal to line the stomach with.
The rest of the night was spent with a little ‘reeling’
which is Scottish for dancing and to me it looked like line dancing that you
used to do at school and then to get us into New Year’s we played charades till
just before midnight. We were divided
into 2 teams and my team went into the dining room to pick 5 movies or book
titles and our counterparts were doing the same in the other room. Once we had our picks we then took it in
turns deciding who from the other team would act out the titles and the games
began. There has to be a few special
mentions for the acting and that goes to Team Octopussy, Team Human Centipede that
finished off with a royal fart from Robert in Jamie’s face-priceless and I have
to say HT and I’s rendition of the movie Freddie got Fingered. It was hilarious to see us all up there and a
great way to keep all the spirits high as we were also consuming a great amount
of alcohol as well. We got the nod from
Robert with 10 minutes to go which gave us a chance to pop some bottles of
champagne, fill our glasses and get into the countdown from 10. Robert was all over the radio, with it glued
to his ear so as not to miss the countdown.
By this time we were all merry and it was nice to receive hugs and
kisses from people that I felt totally comfortable with. I am so lucky that they all accepted me into
their fold and it will be a night I will remember for a long time. The Hogmanay custom of singing "Auld
Lang Syne" has become common in many countries. "Auld Lang
Syne" is a traditional poem reinterpreted by Robert
Burns, which was later set to music. It is now common to sing this in a
circle of linked arms that are crossed over one another as the clock strikes midnight
for New Year's Day, though it is only intended that participants link arms at
the beginning of the final verse, co-ordinating with the lines of the song that
contain the lyrics to do so. Typically, it is only in Scotland this practice is
carried out correctly. I am a little hazy if we all linked arms-we could have,
but I do definitely remember singing the song with a small tear in my eye as I
thought of home.
From here we all moved outside to watch the fireworks
that had been organised earlier. This is
also a little blank for me and I am kind of glad as I know Paps was telling me
the next day that he was looking down the barrel of one of the crackers at one
point, blind as a fart, which is like an accident waiting to happen but I do
recall (after seeing the photos) having a puff on a cigar with Katie and
getting a few photos outside as we all enjoyed the fresh, really fresh air of
2013. The group started to thin out
after 1am. But for some of us the party
was just getting started and we got a great performance from Fi and Jamie doing
a dance for us, and with me laughing so hard my sides hurt, it was a great way
to bring in 2013. Some people had to
drive New Year’s Day (sucks to be them), so they were doing the smart thing and
heading to bed. For those that didn’t
have to drive well we just kicked on and before we knew it there were 6 of us
left at, get this, 6am. YES 6AM!!! It didn’t even feel that late and I do recall
that I still had a glass of something in hand.
So with some ‘proof’ photos, a hilarious video of Em and I it was time
for us to stagger to bed and get some sleep.
What a great way to see in 2013. If I couldn’t be home with my gang, this gang
was the next best thing that is for sure.
So a BIG shout out to all those who made the journey firstly to Inverawe
in the Scottish Highlands, secondly to Rosie and Robert for having us in their
home and their awesome hospitality and thirdly for giving me a great send off
as I head to Africa in 3 weeks. This
will always bring a smile to my face when I think of this night.
Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one…..
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.
WISHING YOU ALL A YEAR OF LOVE, SUCCESS AND GOOD HEALTH.
