The World According To Kara

By George they've done it again

2008-04-16T11:26:00.003+10:00

Ok Arwen, here you go.... another post. Alas tho, I still don't have a lot of time to post (looking back this may have been a silly comment).

First of all I'd like to report that someone has stolen my Hamburg mug again!! What is with these people? Do they think it is a joke to deprive me of my morning coffee?? You may say, just use another mug but I know exactly how much coffee, milk and sugar to use in my Hamburg mug to make my coffee just right..... *Sniffles*.

So, what have I been up to since the last time they stole my mug??

Well, I've been up to lots... lol. It might be easier to cover that in topics...

Dancing:
I survived Devil City Swing - which was amazing and is back up and running for its second year now! Woot! Bring on June!!
I taught, for the first time out of Tas, in Adelaide for Church City Blues - man that was so fun!
Chris and I taught a 15 min class 4 times and it must have gone well because they invited me back!
Headed to melbourne for mlx! A staple item in my calendar of events.
Back to Adelaide for the inaugral Camp Oz!
Melb - Blues Workshop that I taught with Dan Edgecombe.
...and I think that's it.

Other Random Travel:
Headed to Melb with mates to check out the Royal Crown Review! Man, these guys put on a phenomenal show!

Life:
what life... I am a PhD student... so other than dancing I really have no life.
My week consists of:
5 days a week = PhD
3 evenings a week = teaching dance
1 evening a week = social dancing
3 times a week = gym/swim....

So from here I am travelling a LOT more. I am headed to melb again this weekend to teach a big blues weekend called Sunrise Blues... eeep so excited!
Then next weekend I am off to Perth for Hullaballoo.
Then in June we've got Devil City in Hobart (man I hoping to make it to melb before that tho).
And in July I am off to Malaysia - more on that later.

So... that's my life in a nutshell...
Take care one and all!
kxxx

Long time....

2007-06-01T15:56:00.000+10:00

Why have I not posted in so long?? Well, this is why...

Will be back after the 25th June. :)

k xx

The Cup Hath Returneth

2007-02-19T09:15:00.000+11:00

Well, my cup is finally safe and sound and back in my custody. There are a few suspects but I think that the true kidnappers may be trying to throw me off the scent.

I received these pics via email.

Hmmm.... dodgy....

My Workmates' Idea of Fun...

2007-02-14T16:15:00.000+11:00

All day I have been trying to find my coffee mug. My workmates decided that they'd play a little game and send me pictures of the adventures my mug has been on...

First was the dishwasher...

and then my pigeon hole...

then the fridge....

then the microwave.....

and then filed away for safe keeping...

and lastly....

Will I ever find my mug?? Stay tuned...

I am going to die with excitement.... eep

2007-02-07T15:02:00.000+11:00

My oh my oh my!!

I have so many exciting things planned that I am just bubbling over with excitement!

First up: 7th April: I am off to the Southern Roots Festival!! I am so excited. The line up is huge. The Pixies are playing! The Pixies I tell you! The coolest part is that pre-sale tickets go on sale tomorrow but I've already booked my tickets!! Love having connections! Sweet!

Next: 18th - 25th April: I am off to Perth, WA for the first time ever. Why? Well, there is a lindy exchange on over that weekend. Check it out here: Hullabaloo. It is going to be the craziest! Those Perth Lindy hoppers are mad. Let alone all the other people coming from all across Australia (and maybe the world...).

Then: 25th - 29th April: Instead of coming straight home to Hobes I am staying in Melb for a couple of days. I think that The boy may be heading up to hang out in melb with me too cos we are going to Pink on the sat night. That'll be nice. We've never been somewhere together (besides Tas) so i am hoping that we'll get to chill and maybe go see some exhibitions together.

But wait there's more: 22nd - 24th June: News just a-hand... Hobart is having its very first lindy exchange!!! Devil City Swing!! The elves are hard at work and we'll be announcing details very very soon. Just remember that you saw it here. eep. This is going to involve a *lot* of work but I am very confident that we can do it and the Tassie scene needs it. We need to get the passion and fire back.

I think this is the last thing: Oct: I'm not sure if you remember but last year in Oct I went to CCB (Church City Blues) - Australia's first blues exchange! I had so much fun that I had planned on going back this year of course. Then I got an email from Josh asking me to teach this year!! WOOHOO!!! I am so incredibly pumped about it. The only thing I have to do now is a) find money for flights, b) book flights, c) remember how to teach dance ... it has been a while. Other than that... a breeze! Ahahaha.

Keep tuned and I'll update as I get to each and every one of these exciting events!

The Latest Addition

2007-01-24T15:06:00.000+11:00

E.T. No Phone Home

2007-01-24T10:40:00.001+11:00

As most of you probably know I ended up going to Port Moresby, PNG for just over a week during Jan.

I was very nervous about going for many reasons but Dad lives there so I didn't think I'd get in to too much trouble while I was there. Also, Mum came along so things were going to be ok. I hoped.

Mum and I left the security of our own homes at 4am to head to the airport. We had a flight to Melb and then one to Bris (same plane but we had to get off) and then an
international flight on Qantas/Air Niugini codeshare to Port Moresby (PoM). Seeing as the international flight was codeshare we couldn't book our seats but we could book our bags all the way from Hobart to PoM.

So, when we finally arrived in PoM we had to wait in a queue for ages. The system requires that you eventually make it to the front of the queue (with all other people needing visas) and give over your passport. You then pass through immigration to get some money changed then you come back, pay for your visa, get your passport back, pick up your bags and go through customs. Well that's how it is supposed to work anyway.

The only hitch that we had was that our bags didn't arrive. We got told that one of them was in melb (where'd the other one go??) and that it would be in PoM "tomorrow" - please call us to check. Mum and I are were stuck in a foreign humid and very hot country with only the clothes we had on (which incl jeans...). Cripes.

The other thing we found out is that PNG doesn't have any ties with any Aus phone networks so our roaming does nothing! No phone... So, I asked if I could borrow Dad's phone to send the boy a text to say that we were alive... oh yea.. no international texting either... double cripes!!

Dad picked us up from the airport and we had a bit of a squiz around but he had a meeting so he dropped us off at home after lunch and went to work. Home was lovely. It was a bit dirty and there were a few bugs around but it was nice. There was a big backyard and 2 scruffy looking dogs but it was fine.
There was also a great view when you looked past the big fence around the property with barbed wire. Dad also had 2 security guards that looked after the house at night (they must be able to see through the backs of their eyelids tho...). When it came to bed time, we all wandered upstairs and Dad locked us in or locked others out to be more precise. Being used to the freedom that was quite weird.

The next day was spent in the house waiting for the afternoon so we could find out about our bags... great ... apparently they went to Hong Kong and we'd have to wait til fri (it was wed...). Brillo! After a little argument with the man who blamed it entirely on Qantas (which to be fair it was their fault as the bags went from Melb to H.K.... random) we managed to get them to get our bags to PoM by thurs.

The bags arrived and mum and I went straight to the club to go for a swim. Lush!!

Seeing as Dad had to work all the time the week was spent in the house or at a restaurant eating. It just wasn't very safe to go wondering around and dad lived half way up a very steep hill so we couldn't really walk to or from home. Mind you, apparently you shouldn't even stop on the road up to Dad's cos you might get held up for your car and possessions. eep. We did however jam pack our weekend.

Randomly driving along the road one day I saw this sign. -> I just thought that was the most peculiar thing ever. Coffins...on sale??!! What the?? Where's Rove when you need him?? As you can see there was also a lot of graffiti. Just about every solid surface was tagged.

On sat we headed for Sogeri and the beginning of the Kokoda trail.

That was quite fascinating although the roads on the way left a lot to be desired. They were narrow and very pot-holey.

We stopped along the way to have a look at a lovely waterfall and then on the way back to check out the National War Memorial.

There was a rotunda at the top of the hill that had the names of all the people from the Allied forces that died in PNG. That was very moving. So many names, so many white headstones....

Sunday we headed for Hood Point, a little village about 1.5 hours along the coast from PoM. There is a beach there and we went for a swim and had a picnic. The water was so warm. It was actually colder out of the water than in. It was also really shallow. I went out pretty far and it was still not even up to my waist!! There were a bunch of kids from the village there and one little guy was quite fascinated with my camera. He was very cute. He'd run off and pose for me and then come back to check out the photo and then run off to pose again... and again... and again...

Wed saw us leaving PoM on a Fokker 100... (not quite the plane I imagined to do international travel in but it got us there) and arriving in the very civilised Bris. Phew!!!

The Best Ever New Year's Message...

2007-01-03T10:18:00.000+11:00

The lovely Miss Brown sent me this on new years day...

Today is international spaz day. Please send an encouraging message to a retarded friend, just as I've done. I don't care if you lick windows, interfere with farm animals, use your strong hand to wipe your arse, can't talk or occasionally shit yourself. You hang in there sunshine you're f***ing special.

I'd like to say thanks.

Ugh... back to work already??!!

2007-01-03T09:11:00.000+11:00

How can one week fly by so quickly? I feel like i have never left work and that that thing called xmas is just a distant memory. Having said that I did have a great break filled with ... well not much really and that was the plan.

My dad took my grandmother on a whirl wind trip of Asia which meant that neither of them were around. My aunt came down from the Gold Coast for a while which was fun and stressful. The boy went up north to his folks which was unfortunate but understandable (he even checked with me that that was ok... aww how sweet). So it wound up being mum, my aunt and I for xmas.

My breaking piece of news is that I have finally quit the bottle-shop. For the first time in 5 years I didn't have to work on xmas day! I am a little sad but the crew is just not the same any more.

So... back to xmas day. We had our traditional champagne breakfast at mum's (woot!). We had quite a crowd this year. Even some visitors from the UK.

There was so much food: of course bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms done to perfection on the barbie (thanks to our neighbour for his most excellent chefery...), smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers on bread (in true aussie style), fruit platters, and so much more.

Due to being a bit excited that I didn't have to work and thus could really drink as much as I wanted, the afternoon was filled with nap time and then a quick visit around the rellies.

Xmas night saw us stuffing our faces even more but this time with crayfish...YUM!! To cap it off we watched a cute xmas film on the tele.

The rest of the week was spent trying to eat the leftover food in mum's fridge as well as consuming more food and wine at the Taste of Tasmania. The taste is great... well it used to be. Essentially, for those of you unfamiliar, it used to be a whole bunch of tastes of what Tasmania has to offer. The food, the wine, the beer, the performers... a little bit of everything. I think it has gotten a little big for its boots and each stall is trying to give you the biggest meal possible and it means that you just can't physically "taste" everything cos you get full after one plate. I mean it is still good food and GREAT wine but I think they could decrease the sizes of their taster plates. The performers, however, are still fantastic! From buskers to bands, from swing dancers to breakdancers... a showcase of all that Tassie has to offer all in the one venue over a whole week.

That brings me to New Years Eve. Now NYE is notoriously over organised and under enjoyed for me and this year(or last year) I decided that I really couldn't be bothered doing anything. The boy agreed. 2 friends of mine also agreed. So, the four of us sat in my lounge room playing Yahtzee (I scored 365 in one game and whooped them .... we're not talking about the other games...) and watched the tele. At 12 we headed outside to see if we could see the fireworks. Unfortunately there was too much cloud cover but we discovered that some renegade party at the end of our street was holding their own display. So, we stood in the middle of our street and watched our neighbours light some crackers. It was kinda neat.

That leaves mon... the first of the first oh-seven. I spent the whole day in my pj's on the couch with The boy watching Alias. I think we managed about 6 episodes! I love that he digs this show. I recently bought the box set so I could watch all the episodes and catch up before we get the next series on tele. The boy made the mistake of telling me he's never seen it before. Now, I was a bit sceptical... if he'd hated it (more likely scenario) then I would have had to watch 4 seasons by myself with him bagging me out about it. However, he loves it (less likely scenario)...can't get enough of it. Clever television he called it! That means a lot. YAY!!

So, here I am back at work. Although, I only have one week til I head to PNG... can I cope... I must! Soldier on!!

If you've got this far... Merry Xmas and Happy New Year! MWAH!!!

November 4 is . . . . . Waiting For The Barbarians Day

2006-12-06T14:41:00.000+11:00

birthday holidays

I thought that this was kinda neat (in a dorky kinda way)... So what holiday is on your birthday?

Take care all. :D

The very post CCB post....

2006-12-04T15:29:00.000+11:00

Man, I have been so slack with my posting lately but it seems like everyone has been... eep.

So I said at the beginning of oct about how awesome it was going to be and I gave you a brief on the burnie 10 (from which my knee is still sore). Anyhoo... I never actually gave you a rundown on how adelaide and CCB went ... HOW RUDE!!

Well, it was friggin awesome! We stayed with Pirate Pete in North Adelaide. His house was spectacular and right in the midst of everything we needed to do (class venues, bars and night time venues!). We went to a class on the first night we were there and met some of our soon-to-be dance partners and good friends. John and Meral taught us some killer moves that made us think a lot about connection. It was ace!

We all headed off to the pub after the class for some drinks (GO COOPERS PALE!!) and some chats. What a great start to our exchange!

We had a whole day to explore before CCB kicked off in the evening and Pirate Pete was kind enough to take us on a drive. We grab a scrumptious brekkie at a cafe in a market area and then the Tasmaniacs and Pirate Pete hit the road for some adventures! Cue hilbilly musak!

The first stop was the Marina. We wandered along the pier and took lots of photos of random dips and poses in readiness for the weekend and of course some of the magnificent scenery.

We also stopped off at the pub (it was after 12...) and had another taste of that lovely Coopers Pale Ale. Cheers! From the ocean we headed to the hills. There was a little case of carsickness but we all survived unscathed back at Pete's for a quick shower to get ready for the first night of the inaugural blues exchange in Australia! WAHHEY!

Oh my!! So many hot people doing so much hot dancing in one venue! Woof! I got to have some wicked dances and we hadn't even started the lessons yet! eep! I also got to catch up with Shell from perth/adelaide/edinburgh who I met in my os travels! RESULT!! (I totally mean that in an awesome way but needed to pop it in there just for you shell... mwah!)

We got kicked out of one venue at 12 and then moved on to another place. Some people went home, some went to the 24hr pancake parlour and others continued on via the Adelaide mall pigs for some more dance pics...

Mark and I were left to our own defenses at the after party and could only hang in there til about 3 but we swore that we'd make the most of the rest of the weekend. We couldn't go too hard on the first night.

After a wee sleep we headed to the classes which low and behold started on time - who da thunk it ey??!! We learnt the basic blues rythms and some other wicked stuff. The night saw some more awesome dancing which may or may not have included the chicken dance... eek... Alex made me do it. I swear! Mark and I had a moment when he discovered the art of weight transfer at 5am and then we decided to call it a night. However, Pirate Pete was so content dancing with one of the punters that Mark and I were left to have a little nap on the couch until he was ready to come home.

The next and last day of classes saw us learning more moves and technique-y stuff which was kinda cool. Then there was a big dinner just up the road from Pete's and a dance just around the corner. I had some of the most wicked dances this night!! Some great hippity hop bluesy numbers and a phenomenal lead dance with Meral!

The bar shut at 12 and we all headed back to Pete's for the after party. The team motto became "Not Our Problem" and it seemed to fix everyone's late night angst. The dancing contiued til 7am-ish and I had some of the best dances in my life at 5. Garr, purrrr. Skippy, Fi, Chris, Enken, Pete and Mark almost saw the whole night through (a la Singin' In The Rain) and I managed to keep my beady little eyes open til the plane home gently rocked me to sleep.

Ahh... adelaide.... how i miss the.

Oh my Goodness I am Going to Die of Excitement!!

2006-11-22T10:47:00.000+11:00

There are 7 hours left til I hop on a plane and go to this: MLX6. I am so excited. Can you imagine a bunch of people from all over the world congregating in the one place to speak the same language of swing dancing?

I am going to dance my arse off from thursday evening til the wee hours of monday morning. Last years mlx was so fun and this year I a) know more people b)dance better than I used to c)have more confidence in myself as a person and as a dancer and d)have better blues dancing skills! Look out Melbourne... Here I come!

I am so fidgity at work.. how am I supposed to sit here and pay attention to work when I get to have so much fun very very soon?

Tomorrow I plan to spend the day catching up with the cliche gal and visiting a few of the must see places (JB Hi-Fi, Toxic and Koko Black.... hells yea!).

From then on it'll be dance monkey dance!

PUMPED!!

eek.

Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy

2006-11-06T10:10:00.000+11:00

How wonderful!

On saturday I got thoroughly spoilt! It was awesome!

I got taken out for breakfast/lunch (so lets call it brunch) at Zum Cafe in salamanca. It was so what I needed! I haven't been there since it closed and re-opened. I had the Zum Big Breakfast! YUM!

[side note: On our way there we realised that the parents were about to meet. After a little freak out we realised that it was only half the parents and the good half at that... PHEW. ]

So after a succesful brunch where none of the parents embarrassed themselves, or us children, we headed off for a bit of a walk around the market and to the newsagents to grab a ticket in the 21 million draw (watch this space...). Just as we were about to leave I saw the most awesome pair of earrings ... Mission to buy a new pair of earrings on my birthday = successful!

Then it was home to clean-up and organise stuff for the afternoon bbq. The bbq was great fun. Lots of eating and drinking done by all.
Miss Kylie and her lovely friend Caz turned up with THE coolest cupcakes ever! Check em out ->
Kylie has this crazy notion that I'll like anything with red and spots or with cherries on it... wherever did she get that idea from....

After a while Bryce and Liv arrived with BUBBLES! WAHHEY! That made Peta and I giggle like school children! It was so fun!

As the cool night air settled in we started a fire in one of mum's copper pots (quite obviously with her permission...).Of course because we had the fire going we had to get marshmallows. (Note to readers... the most effective way of toasting marshmallows over a fire is to use a large garden fork as demonstrated by Duncan.... <-).
Bryce got a little adventurous and tried to toast some of the mudcake (shown above)...I think the mudcake won....

The night was capped off with just the 2 of us sitting around the copper pot listening to music and chatting about nothing in particular. It was great!

Thanks to all of you who messaged, rang, turned up. MWAH!!

*all photos taken by Kylie*

How cool are MY friends

2006-11-03T13:02:00.000+11:00

I have had the craziest day - 8 participants without much of a break. At 10 this morning Georgie orders me to go to the tearoom. "But why"... "Just go" I get there and find my friends cooking pizzas and having a mini party complete with birthday cake for me!! Yup all for me! Candles and everything.

It was so ace!

Unfortunately I had to race back to clinics but not before I shoved a tim tam, some cheese and some creamed corn dip on a cracker in to my gob (not all at once...).

If this is how the day before is panning out - bring on tomorrow!!!

WAHHEY!!!

:D

Arse-k Me How The Burnie 10 Went.....

2006-10-17T09:39:00.000+11:00

Apart from the fact that I'm having troubles walking and going from sitting to standing because me bum muscles are so incredibly sore the Burnie 10 was ace!

Anna and I jogged at the beginning so we didn't get trampled and then we set about a good walking pace for the rest of the morning. We had the tunes pumping on the pod which was awesome!

At about the 2.5km mark we saw the front runners appear on the other side of the highway and we cheered them on in hope that they would go faster and that that would inspire us to go faster!

We caught Kylie's eye as she ran past us in the other direction and after that we were left to our own devices. Just us and the road - oh and the crazy people in front of us that we just had to beat to the finish line.

With about 2 km to go I think Anna thought I was nuts. I just got the hyperactives and started dancing. I totally blame it on the great 80s-ness that was blasting from the pod. I started skipping and clapping and just generally mucking about. So much so that one of the SES guys asked me if I wanted to do the entire race again ... I think not... well not til next year at least.

We rounded in to the home stretch and everyone got a bit excited. Anna and I ran a bit and then in a very action hero moment she threw her headphones at me at said "go for it". And go for it I did. I sprinted as fast as my legs could take me to get across the line in 1.5hrs. It was so awesome! I had so much adrenalin pumping threw me I was jumping about like a bag of mexican beans. I think the list of people thinking I was nuts started to grow... eep.

So, I had set myself a time of 2 hours and had pounced it in at 1 and a half. YES!!

There's nothing like knowing that your sore muscles are actually from something and that it was a 10km of something!

:D
go me!

Weekend Shenanigans

2006-10-09T17:11:00.000+11:00

What a weekend! It was one of the most "jam-packed with fun" weekends that I have had in ages.

Fri night started as per usual with drinks at the Duke after work and then continued at a friend's place for a combined birthday bash. That was wicked fun! Although my head and stomach didn't altogether agree on sat morning. Note to self: don't try to drink an 8pack of TED platinum in one go (I might add that I wasn't really successful - I think I only drank 6 but I hadn't had dinner...eep)

Sat was filled to the brim - firstly with work at the bottle-o (ugh! torture I tell you!)Then dancing with the sassy miss Narelle at the Tulip festival to one of the best bands ever! The Red Hot Roosters!!

Then afer collecting my car and having a bit of a disco nap, a few of the ladies and I headed out to Lewisham to the Lewi Tav to see Pete Cornelius and Phil Manning. A night of the blues! It was awesome. Just what my tired and hungover soul needed. It also doesn't hurt that one of them was a bit nice to look at. *blush*

Sunday, I decided, was the day to go and spend some quality time in Kmart with my usb sticks full of photos and get some developed.

It was so fun randomly selecting the photos from my trip that I wanted printed. I ended up with about 170 photos and it only cost me $40!! WOW! Why have I not done this before??

So now I have a stack of photos to look at and relive my trip through. It is so exciting! My friends are going to get so sick of me... aheheeheh!
Keep tuned and I'll put some of my faves up here... for now here's one from Capri....

...And 1,2,3,4

2006-10-04T11:13:00.000+11:00

So last night was my first ballet lesson since I was a little kid. It was so much fun. We learnt so much in one night - mostly about positioning and stuff. I learnt what first, second and third are (standing postions) and what the arm positions for first through fifth are. As well as some other stuff along the way.

Mum and I had a few giggles at each other in the beginning as we were trying to balance on demi-point in first while holding our arms away from our body with our hands head width apart (I can't remeber what exactly this is called but it is something that makes me thin of Barberanne...)

The amount of control you need over your body is just nuts. You think you are being so very graceful and then you get a glimpse in the mirror and blech it doesn't quite look as special as it feels.

I used muscles that I haven't known about for a very very long time although I don't hurt this morning. I think that's probably because I went straight to swing dancing after the class. It was amazing, I was so in the mood for swing dancing after ballet. I just needed the freedom of movement I think.

It was also very interesting to see the different syles of teaching. Ballet was very much explained briefly while we watched. We gave it a razz and then the music was on. Then on to the next thing. Swing involved a lot more talking but more joking about but less music. Hmmm... I wonder if there is a dance form that combines all the awesomeness of both classes. Or maybe us swing dancers need to be quiet more often.....

No Backing Out Now........

2006-10-02T15:50:00.000+11:00

So, I've just registered and paid for the Burnie Ten.... Cripes.....

Am I crazy?

I'm taking bets on whether I can walk on the 16th........ anyone?

The Shoebox of Life

2006-10-02T09:33:00.000+11:00

Ok so in this case it is not a shoebox but a pooh and tigger lunch tin but it still contains all the old letters and stuff i have received over time...

I've just moved house and have been slowly unpacking stuff and yesterday while I was waiting for someone to come over i decided to attack the last box i have in my room. After ripping up all my old Telstra bills, i found my tin. The tin contains letters/cards/notes that boyfriends had given me pre,post and during our relationships. Man, we thought that we were so old when we were 19/20. So mature and ready for anything life would throw our way. Haha!!

There was some sense of comfort reading through letters from now exes. To know that someone loved me so much brought a warm smile to my face. Especially as we are still good friends. It did make me regret how things had ended but appreciate that we fought for our friendship and actually gained post relationship friendship. It really put life in perspective for me.

I really hope that I can let go of the anger and become friends again with the last guy. It'll just take time but here's hoping. How are you meant to deal with the anger? Do you see them and just hope that it goes away? Do you not see them and try to deal with it on your own in the vain hope that the next time you see them it'll be all ok? I'm not even sure if I'm angry with him or myself that's the problem.

Ahhh... life experience.... "you need the bad things to appreciate the good things"
:D

me.

Onward and Upward: There's a Reason For Everything

2006-09-27T10:17:00.000+10:00

Well, after a teeny tiny set back (refer to previous post) life is on the up again.

I'm starting Ballet for beginners in Oct. I am so excited about this. The reasons I wanna do Ballet:
1. Improve my Core and control over my centre
2. Become Graceful
3. Go furhter down the track of controlling every fibre of my being (ok just the muscles for now)
4. Change is as good as a holiday
5. Improve my swing dancing.

I'm doing the Burnie Ten on the 15th Oct. By doing I totally mean that I'm walking it. Reasons:
1. To prove to myself I can do it
2. To motivate myself to walk more
3. To accomplish an aim
4. To make myself hurt just a little bit (in a "wow I never knew I had these muscles" way)

I'm also back teaching swing dancing for the first time as a follow since I've been back, wait no I've taught a beginners class. This will be a block of intermediate classes tho on Swingout technique which is a little lacking in Hobart. I really hope to do some good. Reasons:
1. Teaching helps my dancing
2. I want everyone to improve for themselves
3. I want everyone to improve so I get the benefit on the dancefloor too
4. I love that lightbulb moment - its how I get my kicks

I'm also going to Adelaide for a blues exchange Church City Blues. I can't wait for this! I got so amped about blues dancing when I was overseas and haven't had a really good blues dance since I've been back really. There have been a few good ones but not really any amazing ones. YAY!!!

So, they are the things I have planned for Oct. Eek! How cool!
:D

k xxx

Why Explained

2006-09-25T15:38:00.000+10:00

Oh, I know why.................................................. cos men are poo

:P

Ahahahahahah! Oh well. Never mind. C'est La Vie.

Why??!!

2006-09-11T16:07:00.000+10:00

Why when you think everything is going ok does something happen to make it not go ok?

Why can you have so much conflict between head and heart?

Why can't I scream from the top of my lungs exactly when I want and need to?

Why do people say they'll do something and never actually do it?

Why do people say something and do something else?

Why are there no answers to these questions?

Why am I being so weird??!!

Wahhey!

2006-09-06T09:31:00.000+10:00

So that was my 3rd post... apparently its the hurdle.... I got over the hurdle on hump day! Phew!

If At First You Don't Succeed Go Back And Tell People About It

2006-09-06T09:18:00.000+10:00

I recently got a phone call from one of my old teachers asking me to come back to school and talk at assembly. "Just talk about what you do and how you got where you are".

I reluctantly agreed and when I thought about what I should I realsied that I'm probably not the right person for the job. I mean I failed classes, I wagged tutes and lectures, I ended up with my degree by default. Great! How is that meant to inspire the youth of today.

It then dawned on me that here I am: a gal who almost failed maths stage 2 and now through her maths is doind a PhD.... weird.....

It got me thinking and I came up with this:

Hi, my name is Kara Martin. I started at collegiate in 1994 as a very nervous Grade7 student in Kilburn House. I left in 1999 as Kilburn House Captain back when Kilburn House was next to the PAC.

When I was little I wanted to be a princess but seeing as they didn’t offer those kinds of subjects at school and uni I have ended up as a PhD student. This is a bit of an insight in to how I got here.

School, for me, was a bit disheartening. I had quite good internal marks and I tried to study hard for my exams. I had thought I’d put in enough work but I didn’t leave with the results I had hoped for. I was an extremely disappointed leaver. I really wanted to do physiotherapy on the mainland but as my results were no where near good enough I enrolled in a science degree at the uni of Tas.

With physio in mind I decided to enroll in human biology, chemistry, zoology and maths of all things because I’d heard that the first year course in statistics was quite easy. I really hoped that I could get good enough marks to transfer to physio the next year.
Again things didn’t quite go to plan and I didn’t get the marks I needed and even failed human biology. I decided to give it one more shot and in second year I enrolled in biochemistry, zoology and maths (again not sure why but I had achieved fairly good marks in the first year course so why not). Again lack of study was my demise and I failed biochemistry. I took that as a sign that maybe I wasn’t meant to be a princess or a physiotherapist and did a few catch up subjects in economics to complete my degree. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in zoology and maths halfway through 2003.

Looking back on my degree I realized that I’d spent my uni life slogging my guts out to achieve mediocre marks in Zoology but had achieved really good marks in maths for a lot less work. Either my maths subjects were all really easy or perhaps I was actually good at it even if I do still count on my fingers.

To my absolute amazement I applied and was accepted in to Honours in maths at UTAS and after a year and a half of classes and writing an 80page book I came out with first class honours. Maybe I was on to something with this maths thing.

I really had no idea what I wanted to do next but thought that I may as well apply for a PhD scholarship. I knew that my uni marks weren’t that good but I was really hoping that my honours mark would get me through. I ended up applying at both UTAS and also at the Menzies Research Institute.

I got a call one day from the head of the statistics unit at the Menzies Research Institute Dr Leigh Blizzard asking me to come in for an interview. He told me what I had feared most. My honours mark was good but the rest of my uni marks weren’t good enough. Sorry no scholarship. Instead of just dismissing me with a better luck next time attitude Leigh responded to my enthusiasm and really believed in me and my ability. He suggested that I apply for a job at the Menzies. He told me that I wouldn’t get the job as they were looking for someone who already had a PhD but that I should apply anyway to show the Menzies that I was serious about studying there. Of course as predicted I didn’t get the job but the guy that did couldn’t start til 2006 and in the interim they were looking for someone on a casual basis to fill the spot.

Leigh and the Menzies decided to take a chance and employed me as a biostatistician. Now I should explain what exactly a statistician is but that is a long and boring story so instead I’m going to tell you about what I did while I was employed at the Menzies.

I got the chance to work on the Tasmanian Cancer Registry. They had noticed that the rates of lung cancer in females were increasing and they asked me to see if I could find out why.

The first thing I did was get all the data on lung cancer from 1978 to 2003 and I calculated the rates of lung cancer in the population each year for those years. I graphed the relationship between time and lung cancer rates and added a trend line to show that the rates of lung cancer in females were indeed rising. When I looked at the data on lung cancer rates in males I saw that the rates were decreasing. Why could that be? It was proposed that we look at the trends of smoking in males and females.

Just as I was getting in to it my time was up at the Menzies but my co-workers have since discovered that the rising rates of lung cancer in women are due to the rising numbers of women who smoke compared with 20 to 30 years ago. The scariest thing is that there doesn’t seem to be a fall in the smoking rates for females and Tassie has one of the highest number of female smokers in the country. Obviously the moral of that story is that smoking is bad for you nudge nudge wink wink. This is just a typical example of the things that I got to do while I was at the Menzies Centre.

One particular day that I was working away in my little cubicle I got asked if I wanted to go for a coffee with some colleagues. For once I decided that I would. Over coffee we chatted about what I was going to do when I finished up at the Menzies. I said that I had hoped to do a PhD but I needed to get a scholarship. One of my colleagues told me about a scholarship he was offering and asked if I was interested. I was. I applied and was finally accepted and after a bit of a holiday in Europe I started my PhD 3 months ago.

I am doing my PhD at the Menzies Research Institute on a project called TASCOG, which stands for the Tasmanian Cognition and Gait study. The study as a whole is looking at the effect of ageing on our abilities such as walking, balancing, thinking, reasoning and physical activity. I’m investigating the relationship between walking and thinking and then relating that to falling over and the risk of falling over.

My part of the whole project looks specifically at gait initiation. That is how quickly you can start to walk. Every Friday I see up to six people aged between 60 and 85 and ask them to start walking as quickly as they can when a buzzer goes off. They have to do that when they are just standing still waiting for the sound. Then I ask them to count backwards in 3’s from a given number but to still start to walk as quickly as they can when they hear the buzzer. To show you what I mean I’ll get Mr Bester up here.

INSERT DEMO

Essentially the older you get the slower you react to the sound of the buzzer and it gets worse when you have to think about something else. In the case of counting backwards and a buzzer why does that really matter? What happens tho when for example if counting backwards to take your mind off walking is a cute guy walking down the street and the buzzer is a car horn or a cyclist telling you to get out of the way? Then it does matter how quickly you react. And if you can’t help but fall over during this process then you are definitely going to get squished. All in all I hope to help to decrease the number of older people who fall over and injure themselves.

So here I am 24 years old with a maths degree doing a PhD in a medical field on a project that involves walking. I work with doctors, neuropsychologists, other students and physiotherapists. Even though I haven’t reached my dream of being a princess yet I am studying in an area that involves physiotherapy. So no matter what goes awry there are many ways to achieve what you want from life. Be prepared to mould your ideas as life changes and take every opportunity you get given. Even if it is just coffee.

I'm quite happy with it. Success!!! It was a really bizarre feeling going back. I had to sing hymns and my school prayer. The one thing that really struck me tho was how small the place was. My school hall used to be the biggest scariest place on earth. It is now a little hall with a bunch of small faces staring up at you. Weird!

the art of sign language

2006-04-30T19:14:00.000+10:00

There is nothing like jumping on a plane to a country you know nothing about and also don't know any of the language. Good old Ryan air (Europe jetstar) landed me in Lubeck, an hour from Hamburg, late at night. The first I saw of Germany and for that matter continental Europe was some crazy guy's headlights coming at us from the wrong side of the road.... Oh wait... he's on the correct side...d for Europe.... ok cool, Phew!

I met up with Eva at the Hauptbanhof and we travelled to a mysterious location by train then bus.. somewhere called Altona. After a great cup of Indian Spiced Chai tea I headed for the futon I was to call my own for a week.

My first day exploring Hamburg started at the Landungsbrucken where I had a boat ride around the port. The tour was however all in German and consequently I didn't really understand a word of it but it was interesting nonetheless. I was then unleashed on Hamburg by myself and boy was that an interesting experience! So to give you some idea - I have never taken German, I know nothing of Germany and I just suddenly turned up in this country with a iealistic view of the english world.... Oh how I was mistaken! All in all I did really enjoy Hamburg and I got to know the suburb of Altona quite well in the end. I got to go dancing a few times and even once on the Reeperbahn... although not in any of the windows.... and Eva was the best. She and I just had a blast although I think she may be glad I've gone so she can now get some sleep at night.

One of my days in Hamburg I took a day trip to Berlin with Eva. Wow... talk about history and putting things in to perspective. This place is amazing! Even if there is a kiddie event with jumping castles and bad hip hop dances. We spent the day checking out gates and walls and my favourite place of all - the Gendarmenmarkt! Oh and I had my first Apfelstrudel!!!!

Things accomplished in Germany: use of a foreign lamguage; apfelstrufdel; pretzels; running in to some from home.

Germany got a 'tops' rating.

My First Blog

2006-04-14T09:51:00.000+10:00

Hi!!

This is my first blog! This is Borough, London. I'm sitting in the Frase, Ains, Anika, Paula and Ruth's house alone as they are all over the world. That film with Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan where she goes in to rehab is on tele and is being watched out of the corner of my eye. Its easter, officially good friday. Not sure what the day has planned. Maybe a trip to Argos. Catching up with Dave and a band of Aussies on sat night and catching up with Sarah for a roast on Easter Sunday.

I am just over 2 months in to my holiday and I have less than 2 months left. Mum comes over in less than 5 weeks and I am so excited to see her. There is someone I am very excited to see when I get home too but that will all be revealed in good time.

So far I have seen London, Scotland and Ireland. Yet to come are Germay, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Wales. Germany starts on wed. Heading to Hamburg to see those crazy Hamburgians from my workshop again. Then to Italy the next wed for another installment of travelling by myself.

Tis all for now... catch you next time...
k xxx