I fancy myself as quite the amateur photographer and I've had a great time using my little pink fujifilm camera throughout '08!

I've also had the privelege of travelling a fair bit this year with my job, so I've compiled a few of my favorite photos from around the country in this album.

Some of the places snapped are:
- Fraser Island
- Gold Coast
- Whitsundays
- Melbourne/Brissie/Perth offices
- Eagle bay beach, Dunsborough
- Ngigli Caves
- Busselton Beach

One of the most beautiful beaches in Oz I've seen would have to be Whitehaven beach, Qld - but the beaches down south of WA are pretty strong competitors! Needless to say, I'm a few shades darker now than I was at the start of the year, with a shockin bathers tan to top it off!

I had to go on an audit for 3 weeks to Hunter Valley Coal in NSW - but I got to fly to Brissie on the weekends and catch up with my best bud Spadz :)

On one of the weekends we caught up with Nash who was down with his bumkpin buddies. It was his birthday so we went all out and introduced his mates to Sake-sake bombs! Lyndon reckoned he could FEEL himself getting drunk while he was still skulling the beer down.

The next weekend we went to Fraser Island... my favorite would have to be the beautiful lake we went to. We also did a spot of rainforest walking, a trek through a desert to another lake and had a look at a cool shipwreck. Cheers for organising it na!

Us girls somehow managed to get our shyt together and organise a trip to China to visit our good friend Christine who was studying in Shang hai for 6 months.

We spent half the trip in Shanghai which consisted of shopping, eating, drinking, shopping, eating, eating horse sashimi (EWW! this was ads and chris.. i only eat sashimi of the SEAFOOD variety), drinking, spewing, shopping, drinking, drinking, eating.

Then we took an overnight train to Beijing! The train was actually pretty clean and cosy. We got a bit peckish during the journey and thought it would be awesome to order some room service! So we pressed the button on the wall with a bell picture next to it and waited for the person to take our order. When the dude came along we started pointing at the menu trying to order some dumpling noodle soup.. the man stared at us as if we were morons, with a sort of disgusted look on his face as if we'd invited him into our room and farted at him. He walked off without saying a word O_O when he left with leafed through the pamphlet in our room and realised the 'bell button' is to be used for Emergencies ONLY. ahhaaaahaha

Beijing was wonderful and historic. We visisted:
- The Forbidden City (where Emperors and Empresses used to live)
- Summer Palace (the Emperor's holiday house back in the day)
- The Olympic Stadium (birds nest!)
- The Great Wall of China! (Magical.. built a few years BC but it's an amazing 6,000k's long. It was quite steep at parts when we climbed it and it was a pretty warm day... i was whinging a fair bit but finally shut up when i had 80yr old women overtaking me. oh the shame!)
- Temple of Heaven

Had a great time in China.... was so great to have a girls trip with my beautiful ladies..! can't wait to have the next one :) xoxoxo

Back in perth for my next stint of the grad program. Thanks esther luv for the balloons for my welcome back bbq :) there are also photos from Josie's engagement party at the Raffles, my first audit at Ravensthorpe with Nat and our visit to South Africa and the very exciting business class flight :D

For my farewell party we had a night of fluoro frivolity to cheer me up a bit about my impending move. Best dressed for the night would probably be Ian in his sleeping-bag material one-piece jumpsuit. Apparently it didn't breathe very well! which is unfortunate given the amount Ian was dancing around all night, haha.

Big props to everyone who dressed up for the occasion, you all looked stunning :)

I had a great time and it was the perfect way to farewell my beautiful friends and the cute 'n cosy town i called home for 2007.

lots of love! xxxxxooooxx

A collection of photos from my last days in Emerald :~)

Showcased are: my artistic skills depicting the Commercial Department in Simpsons form, my farewell dinner at the Capricornian, the view driving home from site, the palm trees I love on the main drag, Hospital road! WWF at Scott's apartment, Camel Races 2008 where Ian took out first place and the stunning sky from my street, Bridgeman street.

Loved my time in Emerald, to all my friends still there, i miss you all dearly! hugs! xoxo

Louise, Jess and I went up to Cairns for a bit of a scuba dive and a look around. We did 2 intro dives each, our first ever and i gotta say I was kinda shitting my pants. It's a surreal feeling, breathing underwater. It makes a weird noise which sounds like that Darth Vadar fella from Star Wars.

We went on the cable ski ride and saw a gorgeous waterfall.

In our spare time we scoured the local boutiques and bought some cutting edge couture for my upcoming farewell party.

It was Jess' 25th birthday on the 20th of March so we had a little cake to celebrate - Happy birthday dude!

We made the trek to Rocky for the St Patty's Day races. I saw a horse stack it and the vet man came out and I think they might've put the horse down so that wasn't really nice :(

We kicked on to the local pubs afterwards and had a few.

During brekkie the next day, Ian won himself a free slap of Jess' face by guessing correctly whether the mug or glass held more liquid. I can't remember which one held more anymore?! whaddya reckon? actually now that i think about it i think the mug won :)

Nash held a bumpkin bash to break in his "new" Moranbah house, fondly known by it's predecessors as Studio 54.

Highlights of the night were Goon of Fortune and the usual drunken homo-wrestling sessions instigated by Pommy Dan.

The Perthies came over to Queensland for a jam packed weekend on Steven & Ads' turf. It began with a boozey night at Family where Ads wrote herself off early in the night. She marked her territory on yet another Brisbane street. Bloody oath I reckon it'd be easier to count the streets in the Valley she HASN'T puked on.

There were a few sore heads the next day but we got up early to train it to the Gold Coast. Wet 'n Wild was a blast but I gotta admit, I chickened out when it came to the ass-chaffing-wtf-that's-almost-a-vertical-drop slide.. but I conquered my fears and went on all the other ones. At night we went to the schmancy Il Centro for dinner, followed by the Lychee bar and Mass.. which is like a dirtier R&B version of the Church.

Sunday we went to dim sum followed by Mt Coot-tha.. by then I was truly buggered and slept on the plane all the way back to Emerald. CHEERS and HUGS for having us Ads & Steven!