An Ode to My Naughty Maine Coon

I've always been a cat person and have grown up with cats as pets amongst other animals all my life. My first cat that I grew up with was called Kitty - a black stray cat that my parents rescued before I was born. When I was about 12 I got Lily. Lily was a beautiful short hair domestic tortoiseshell cat who must of had a bit of Siamese in her. She was very intelligent and a real people cat. She would constantly chat away with you with bubbly meows and was happy to give and receive affection all the time. She quickly became 'my cat' even though she was a family pet and lived for about 20 years, a long and happy life and has been missed since. About a year or so after we got Lily we got second cat called Mog who was another short hair domestic silver tabby that was from a cat rescue place. Moggy ended up becoming my brother's cat and has a completely different personality to Lily, quiet and timid. She is still around today.

Being away from Australia and without the companion of a furry friend I decided to get a cat in September last year. I had been looking at cats for ages just longing for one and went to look at a Maine Coon kitten that I instantly feel in love with. The kitten was named by the breeder Dark Angel which didn't have the ring to it that I felt suited her so she remained nameless for a few days and somehow took a liking to 'Tinks' which is what I ended up calling her and seems to suit her perfectly.

My Dad has made the mistake of calling my cat Tinkerbell a couple of times and Tinks was not named Tinks for short for that. I guess Tinks is more like 'tinkering around' which is an understatement of my cat's personality.

You see Maine Coons have a reputation of needing constant mental stimulation and are curious about everything in the world which is why a lot of people refer to them as 'naughty Maine Coons'. They are not so naughty but very mischievous and can be quite clumsy at times (well my cat certainly can be). I am not sure if it is all Maine Coons or just mine but Tinks is very intelligent but doesn't seem to have a sense of danger which is why she is kept inside majority of the time and outside under supervision (she would probably hunt down a lot of small animals and birds). I've noticed this as her favourite past time is jumping after her toy on a rod...not just regular jumping but full on Matrix style. She loves jumping for her toy and doing back flips and other impressive moves. The only thing is she never watches where she is going and I will never forget the time when I was living in Newcastle when I was playing with her in the kitchen and she landed in our big garbage bin! Thankfully we had just emptied it!

Some other cool things she does is follow me everywhere around the house almost like a little dog, she can do a couple of tricks when treats are involved, comes when you call her and can fetch (but hasn't figured out to retrieve but I've met other Maine Coon owners who have cats that can) and pants like a dog when she plays.

Maine Coons have very distinct features also such as lynx tipped ears, a very bushy tail that is meant to be able to wrap around them to keep them warm (a survival trait for cold climates), they also have tuffs of fur under their feet, again to keep them warm. Another bonus is although my cat has fairly long hair she rarely sheds fur and when it does come out it comes out in tuffs that can easily be picked up (yay no more cat fur on clothes).

Tinks is a bundle of energy and there is never a dull moment with her. I feel so lucky to have this amazing cat as my friend and companion.

Wonderful Wales

When I was 18 when I thought of the age 31 it seemed really old. Being 31 now I feel like a big kid. After my short stint in Dumfries I took a locum position in Swansea then it hit me that even though I may not feel ancient but it's been quite a while since I left university. When I think about all of the experiences I've had since then it feels like a lifetime.

The first locum position I ever did in the UK was in Pontypridd which is a town north of Cardiff. I was still a 'city girl'. It was before I discovered my passion for traveling, white water and adventure. I remember thinking that I was working and living in the middle of nowhere. I remember going to Swansea to have a Sunday BBQ on the beach with a friend and then following that up with a roast dinner at her house. My thoughts of Swansea back then were, wow this place is so far from everything, what on earth do people do here it's so small etc etc.

I guess my first impressions of Swansea stayed with me all of these years because my initial thoughts of accepting a locum position here were, no way! One of my closest friends Chris from kayaking lives only 20 miles from Swansea and I wanted to be somewhere peaceful so I decided to give Swansea a chance. After all Wales is one of the best places in the UK for all types of outdoor sports!

Well I must say I was pretty shocked driving into Swansea this time. It's been about 7 years since I've been to Swansea and it was nothing like I remember it. I'm sure nothing has changed, it's just I've grown out of being a city girl and am more a rural type goer and a lover of peace and quiet and nature.

Swansea seemed huge to me this time!! I was so thankful I have satnav now because I would've got lost! The city centre has several large supermarkets, loads of retail parks, all the usual shops that are popular in the UK and the best gym (well it's really a huge leisure centre) that I've been to. Then you have the sea front which reminds me of being back in Melbourne. There's loads of biking trails, forests, parks, places to go hiking and best of all North Wales is only 3 hours away (sometimes less if you drive like Chris's friend Ros!).

I think I also managed to do more kayaking in the time I spent in Swansea than I have all year and finally got a lot of my confidence back on the river. I also met a lot of like minded people at the gym who have traveled around like myself doing seasonal work such as with bungee. Unfortunately with locum work you never have secure work and your contract can end with a blink of an eye which is what happened to me in Swansea. I wanted to stay in what I now call the best place in the UK I've ever lived in but as the area is pretty small (but large in my eyes) there are very few jobs in my profession around in Wales, even if you are prepared to commute an hour away which is exactly what I would be prepared to do to stay there.

I also found the perfect room in the perfect house with the best house mate I've ever lived with. I think a lot of the time when you rent a room in someone's house, unless you move into a house with people all at the same time it never feels like your own home. My housemate welcomed me with open arms and it felt like home straight away. It's nice when you come home from the gym and your housemate offers you leftovers from dinner and wants to chat away with you and vice versa. It was also great that I could do things like bake a cake and there would be someone else around who wouldn't hesitate to help you eat it! My cat took a liking to my housemate as much as I did and was always greeting her when she stepped in the door from work and she didn't mind when my cat was being a naughty Maine Coon.

When I was looking for more locum work I drove down to The Mumbles one morning before the rain hit (90% of the time I was in Swansea we had fantastic sunny days which felt like Spring). It's so pretty there with a lot of quaint shops and a path along the sea that reminds me of St Kilda back home. There were a lot of similarities to St Kilda such as when you look across the bay you could see Swansea and all of the buildings, there was a pier you could walk out to and buy ice-cream (I refrained but it is very unlikely I could do that in St Kilda with all of the gelati stores), and there were even boats lined up along the road like you would find in St Kilda. I can't remember the last time I have been to the seaside but it felt like my own little Australia in the UK.

Even though I'm near London now at least Wales isn't so far away. All of these photos are from The Mumbles. I wish I had some more photos, especially from the great weekends I had in North Wales but I will be back there for a weekend soon enough!

Cleaning Up Lightroom!

Ever since I dropped my computer in Voss it has never been the same - not that it was working fine before that. Quitting programs unexpectedly and telling me I have no space left.... new disco beats..... and other things that don't seem quite normal.

My photos are my life, they are my most prized possessions because they are my memories.

I've been backing up my photo collection and also decided to sort them out into a more user friendly order as things have got messy. Funny about saying how photos are memories because I totally forgot that I took a quick day trip to Edinburgh when I was locuming in Dumfries!

Here are some photos from Edinburgh.

Happy 2nd Birthday Dreadlocks!

On Saturday my dreads turned 24 months old. People without dreads might find it strange that I know exactly when my dreadlock's Birthday is, or the fact I even consider them to have a Birthday. Majority of people with dreads keep track of the age of their dreads for many reasons. For me they have become a part of who I am and each dread has changed over time (becoming thicker, misshaped, twisted or other funky lumps and bumps which I love because you can run your hands through your hair and know exactly which dread it is you're holding!)

I have put together a timeline of my dreads from when I first started them. Unfortunately I don't have that many photos of my hair so you can't see the major changes my dreads have gone through. A few interesting things I've done over the past year was 'tip dying' the ends of my dreads bright fushia pink (I've done it twice in the past - it's all washed out right now), sewing in little charms (yep you can sew them in like in arts and crafts). Some beads have fallen out and now my dreads are getting too thick to add new ones. Another cool thing is because my dreads have become longer I can now braid it back like you could with 'normal' hair - this has come in handy with work because you can 'hide' your dreads and not make them as obvious, although dreads are a lot more common these days and becoming more accepted.

October 2011 - Overnight trip on the Trisuli River in Nepal. My dreads were only a few days old.

November 2011. Orientation day at Coast Mountain Photography in Whistler. Dreads ~ 6+ weeks (Photo By James Allan)

Photo taken by Andrea Hunter during winter in Whistler 2011/2012

Typical Blue Bird day on Whistler Mountain - March 2012

Bungee jumping at Whistler Bungee during winter 2012

Photo boating on the Sjoa River in Norway during summer 2012.

Hiking in some 'backyard' mountains in Heidal with my best friend Erika - Sep 2012

Glacier trekking in Norway - June 2013

Mushroom picking with my friend Anna in Sweden - July 2013

Almost as if the dreads were never there (they are well hidden behind my bandana) - The Hauge, July 2013

The Middle of Nowhere: Dumfries

When I was in Copenhagen I was offered a locum contract in Dumfries. Where is Dumfries you may ask yourself. That was my initial question also! Dumfries is in a region known as Dumfries & Galloway in the South West of Scotland.

My job contract only ended up lasting 3 weeks which is just as well as it pretty much was in the middle of nowhere and my friend Chris from South Wales also states he is from the middle of nowhere but found Dumfries to be a lonely town.

Prior to what the British call 'summer' in the UK there was a tone of rain so when I arrived everything was a lush green and thriving. I was also thrilled to find a lot of similar plants that grow in Norway during the summer so I kept trying to believe that I was back in Norway instead.

One great thing, there is the 7 Stanes which is the home of many well known and world class mountain bike trails in Scotland. After being referred to by my friend in Copenhagen 'as a danger on the road' in reference to my cycling I was out to prove him wrong. Chris has got really into mountain biking over the past year and was keen to take me out on the trails for my first ever experience on a mountain bike.

Chris on the single track

Chris is very patient when it comes to taking people kayaking and luckily he was the same with me on a mountain bike. I was serious when I told him he could leave me behind and just do a few laps and I would meet him in the car park later if I ever made it back in one piece but he stayed with me the whole way and encouraged me. He even told me I did very well which I find hard to believe as the single track intimidated me a fair bit. I always find when I am so worried about an obstacle such as a tree that is where I end up going!

We had a good ride though and did 1 full lap of one of the blue trails and another lap on the blue taster trail which added up to a solid 2.5 hours of biking. My backside definately reminded me about my experience over the days to come!

We finished up our weekend with a BBQ in my backyard which was successful in the sense we managed to cook our food but unsuccessful in the sense that it took over 2 hours to cook due to us both having issues keeping the fire going! 

The BBQ... not so much to our plan

My cat Tinks putting herself in my bag when my contract ended in Dumfries

Amsterdam & it's Suprises

Amsterdam wasn’t as quant as I imagined it to be. Being July it was packed with tourists all over the city. This meant if you were planning on going to any of the museums there might be a long wait also. I arrived in Amsterdam with no plans (and I hadn't actually made plans to come to Amsterdam, it just happened!) and when I looked at brochures of things to do, there were so many options, but options that weren’t free. There are many things that I would of liked to do but narrowed the choices down to 2 muesuems: The Rijksmuseum & the Van Gough Museum.

Outside the Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum

Outside gardens of the Rijksmuseum. There were also many statues by Henry Moore in a free exhibition in the garden.

Both Museums were around 20 euros to get in. There are other places you can visit also such as the Stedelijk Museum, Rembrandhuis & Anne Frank Huis but it can all add up to a couple hundred euros if you did them all at once. After seeing 2 museums I'd had enough anyway. I read most of the plaques by the exhibits in the Rijksmuseum and it can easily take 3-4 hours to get through the entire Museum and you still feel as though you have rushed through. The good thing about this museum is that you get a lot of Dutch history and features many Dutch well known artists such as Rembrant and a couple of paintings by Van Gough.

I was a little let down by the Van Gough Museum. I expected a lot more of his most famous paintings. I think I would've seen more at the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne when they had a Van Gough exhibition there. If you take time to read about how he developed artistically it is interesting though. There are things I never knew about Van Gough such as his self made perspective grids he used to enlarge his sketches onto canvas. There was a lot more of his earlier work also before he was influenced by the Impressionists creating some of his most famous paintings.

Being alone with you travel can sometimes make you lazy. Sometimes when I am somewhere new alone I forget that there may also be people I’ve previously met there. I thought long and hard and remembered that Rob lived in Amsterdam – if he was traveling that was another question. Lucky Rob was in Amsterdam and keen to catch up at a coffee house.

I met Rob about 3 years ago with my ex boyfriend on a 3 day rafting trip on the Holy Ganga with my Indian Family Red Chilli Adventure. Rob was a client who had turned up to Rishikesh on his own and was looking for some adventure. Rob, Bjorn and I instantly got on like we had all know each other for some time.

The way you interact with people you barely know can be interesting. With Casper there was that traditional element of awkwardness when you are not quite sure what to talk about or what to do, but gets easier after time when you feel more comfortable around each other. Rob still is like that long lost friend that you don’t need a background story for, you are instantly chatting to about random events that may have no meaning but seem amuzing to yourselves. Sometimes it can feel like you are in an episode of Seinfield.

I have come to the conculsion that Rob is possibly a King or worshiped somehow in many villages around the world. I suggested he should right a book about his travels around the world and the hyposthesis I had come up with. Rob reckons he should go back to those places in search of statues of him, but I think that could be the sequel.

Rob also understands my theory about the Amsterdam Prositutes and we came up with a lot of silly ideas that kept us entertained. I want to know what it is like when a client sees one of these prostitues if they are really like ‘how are you, take off your clothes and what would you like today’, if they have proper shift scehdules, employee of the month etc.

After mentioning the prostitutes I do have to talk about my expectations of the Red Light District. I think that almost every major city would have their own version of Amsterdam's Red Light District but it's somewhere you would never go to visit willingly (well might appeal to some people) or make a night out of going there. In Melbourne, St Kilda is well known for the prostitutes and pimps standing along Grey Street, Inkerman Road etc. When we were younger whilst driving through there instead of playing 'yellow car' or 'punch buggy' it would more be like 'spot the prostitute'. Because it's 'Amsterdam' people from around the world go to the Red Light District everyday in large numbers. I've had many friends visit Amsterdam before coming back with stories and how they went to a live sex show featuring acts that were so bizarre it makes the next person curious enough to go to one of them. Many male friends who have been to Amsterdam also comment on how beautiful or hot the prostitutes are standing in the windows beaconing customers to come over for their services.

I guess all of these tales painted a picture in my mind that there would be tall glamourous women in designer lingerie standing in the windows looking fairly classy or the 'hot' prostitutes would be somehow kitted up in something like a pvc cop outfit. It is not like that at all.

The tourist map I had of Amsterdam was pretty poor that it was hard to navigate around the city. I was thinking I was in Niewmarkt and walked down a lane way and heard a banging noise, looked over and suddenly realised I was in the Red Light District when I saw a girl in a black bra and undies grinding up against the window in broad daylight. It wasn't very impressive, lots of girls looked like they had been dressed by Supre and seemed fairly bored, texting on their iphones. I felt sorry for the girls because some tourists will point and laugh or try to take photos even though it's prohibited.

I begged Rob to walk me through the district at night which he was reluctant to and it's totally different. The better looking ladies come out at night and clearly have had a lot of cosmetic surgery such as breast implants, botox and collagen. Each window is lit up by red lights, some have disco lights inside with music blaring out, girls dancing, blacklights with girls wearing coloured lingerie to glow etc.

Even though I joke about the Red Light District there is the serious side I wonder about. They say Amsterdam has been cleaned up a lot and that all girls are working legally etc. I have seen TV shows about girls from Eastern Europe being abducted, having their passports stolen and being forced into prostitution. It makes me wonder if this still happens or even if the girls are working legally, is it something they enjoy or was it their only option.

Here is an interesting video from YouTube that is part of an Anti-Trafficking campaign. You need to watch it until the end:



Funny how all the men react to the girls dancing and then you see how their faces change after the anti-trafficking statement when they have a chance to think about it.

I overheard from a tour group that this was one of the oldest houses in Amsterdam. It's now a small shop below but I thought the shutters on the windows were inspiring for the next ginger bread house I make for Christmas.

I also got to visit my friend and coworker from Coast Mountain Photography – Harry in The Hague very briefly. The Hague is where Harry grew up and lives now. Harry and I were paired up on the mountain a lot that winter and endured many cold days together at Harmony. When you work with someone all day over most of winter you get to know each other fairly well. 

Harry is now a barrister and loves his coffee therefore he simply had to take me to his favourite coffee (well cafe) place in The Hague. Don't get cafe's and coffee houses mixed up in Amsterdam (you might end up feeling embarrassed) as a coffee house will not serve you your chai latte with soy milk or whatever it is you want. Cafes will do that for you but coffee houses serve joints, space cake, weed and hash! 

Harry and I meeting for the first time since winter in Whistler 2011/2012. We thought our friend Colin in Whistler would be wishing is was with us!

The Hague

The Hague

The Hague

The Hague

The Hague

It can be nice to just be a tourist for a change but after a short while I felt tired of it and needed to relax which I managed to do with a girl Racheal I met in the hostel I was staying at. We both agreed that our ‘all girls’ hostel was very girly and not to our taste but it did grow on you after a while.

Vondelpark

Vondelpark

Racheal fascinated with all the ducks coming towards her in Vondelpark

I liked Amsterdam and will need to visit this ghetto, indie, artsy city again sometime. Next time I would like to see some more exhibitions and also come with friends so I can have a night out. If I compare Amsterdam to Copenhagen I do love Copenhagen more because of the culture and the parks are so much cleaner than in Amsterdam (lots of cigarette butts in the grass!). I would also not have the nerve or feel safe riding a bike around Amsterdam due to the mopeds, cars and people everywhere. Even though there are bike lanes there is still a lot of traffic cutting into the bike lanes and people walking across or along them. In Denmark people seem to respect the bike lanes and if they are not on a bike they stay off them.

After Amsterdam it was the end of my summer holidays and I drove straight to the ferry to get back to the UK for some more work. I do wish I could still be out kayaking and taking photos but as you grow up you feel as though you have a lot more responsibilities. In some time there will be more traveling and out there adventures but until then I will find new adventures to be had in the UK.