Are we losers?

It;s New Years Eve,

my husband and i only realised this this morning.

We had lots of plans of things we were going to do,

but we are both currently sitting in the same room

staring at our respective laptops with our headphones in.

Very Anti-social.

So i asked him...

'Are we losers?

shouldnt we up and about doing something cool?'

To which he replied that we had

-swum with turtles in the ocean yesterday

-driven a three day road trip (there and back)

-had a family reunion after a gap of 7 years with my aussie side 

relatives

-seen koalas and kangaroos

-swum in the ocean multiple times

-swum in the outdoor pool multiple times

-driven to some national parks

and much much more,

all in the last week

i guess that makes us a little bit cool...

I guess we are allowed a day to laze in our pj's

and go to bed early

even if it is new years eve...

(some more wedding piccys...just because)

What its like to be a mermaid....

The house we are staying in has its on private beach cove.

I hear the waves all day and all night long.

The sound of them against the shore soothes me.

Today as i walked hand in hand with my husband 

with my feet in the lapping waves

and the sand between my toes

and silently watching the white waves 

cresting against the rocks.

I thought to myself this is what it felt like

for Ariel as she walked on the sand with her man.

And i can tell you,

its a lovely feeling.

Boaty boaty...

This is a sweet video that

one of the crew on the boat made of our last little trips.

Check it out!!!!!

It's not so much where you're going, but more how you get there. from Grant Borthwick on Vimeo.

Nutcrackerless....

I was on facebook the other day

and it suddenly hit me looking at a lot of my friends posts,

that this year i am not doing Nutcracker.

They are all in the midst of the annually 

Tchaikovsky-Christmas-Fest

and this year,

for the first time in about 10years

i am Nutcracker free.

And how does that make me feel...

well....

it makes me feel just dandy actually.

it took me until nearly the end of the month to even notice!

and if i look back to this time last year the emotional 

pain i was going through

and the physical

  pain i was going through 

i just dont miss that at all.

I miss being in the theatre a bit with friends,

but i dont miss the politcs or pain.

In fact as i mentioned before

all i really miss is the physicality of it,

not the lifestyle at all.

last few nights i had real trouble sleeping,

i ended up watching this documentary

about the English National Ballet.

Its FANTASTIC!

it gives such a real insight into studio life.

thats the first part 

you can find the other two on youtube as well.

Sydney......

I managed to get out of the house the other day and finally go into Sydney!

 

We had a lovely day. We sat outside the Opera House

and had some drinks with a great view of both the Opera House and

the Bridge.

 

Still bummed that i havent managed to get tickets to watch the ballet,

but i guess i'll just have to come back here again sometime!

 

 

 

 

The Opera House is just next to the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Its a lovely walk with lots of exotic birds....

well i find them exotic...

i keep taking pictures of parrots and cockatoo's

that just fly around outside the house.

to the aussies its all just normal.

 

The gardens are a lovely walk, you dont feel like your in a big city

at all.

 



We then went to the National Library wherre they have an exhibt

on the Australian National Ballet as it is their

50th anniversary.

 

I enjoyed it, and even Tim didnt find it too painful.

 



 

I was planning on heading back into the city today,

but had to turn back.

I've got an infection at the moment

that i needed to go back to the hospital for yesterday.

 

I've spent most of this trip being ill....

its very depressing, one thing after another.

I've barely got to do or see anything.

 

At the hospital yesterday we did another scan on my lung and its still not

fully functioning.

Which is a huge bummer as now it really means we are going to have to buy

new flights home....

EXPENSIVE!!!

 

I was also  hoping to get some ballet classes in whilst we were here

Sydney looks like it has a bunch of awesome ballet classes,

but instead i've been confined to the bedroom.

 

Fingers crossed i'm going to feel well enough to

go to the Koala Sanctuary tomorrow!!!!!!

Official Wedding Photos!

 

 

 

Our wedding photos are coming in

and we LOOOVVVEEEE them!!!!!

 

 

AFter Christmas i'll share a few more!

 

 

thanks Meghan!!!

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Meghan-Giboin-Photography/158941444141191#!/pages/MeghanGiboin-Wedding-Photographer/133441603389617?fref=ts

 

(i think she might have a proper page but i dont know it!)

Breathless.....

Oz is awesome....

 

Well the little i've seen of it.

 

After a week of being here, staying at a friends house right on a beautiful beach,

i managed to hospitalise myself with a collapsed lung....

 

I woke up one morrning with a pain in my back,

thinking i'd pulled a muscle, but it quickly

sprread to my chest and difficultty breathing.

 

I thought i had had a heart attack!

My husband thought i was being dramatic,

but after about 8 hours of nagging i finally got him to take me to the ER.

 

When the doctor came through to give us the diagnosis

of a pneumothorax both of us started laughing....

as Tim was sure i was just being a big baby!

 

Unfortunately we will have to wait to see

when i will be allowed to get on an airplane again....

my trip could be extended....

 

At any rate

I can give the Australian healthcare system 2 thumbs up!

 

So i've spent the last week in bed recovering,

its not quite healed but i got the all clear to start tourising again.

 

We headed into Sydney yesterday which was lovely.

I'm pretty bummed though that Swan Lake is playing at the Opera House

and the tickets were sold out months in advance.

The guy actually laughed at me when i tried to buy tickets

(i told him he was rude!)

 

Blogging is going to be slow and far between for the next little while,

seeing as i'm computerless.

 

 

(all pictures taken whilst i still had two working lungs)

 

 

 

Off to Oz....

Since having married my husband we have travelled a fair wee bit.

scotland,

ireland,

wales,

spain,

portugal,

lanzarote....

all in the last three months.

and now he has been called over to Australia for a month

so off we go!!!!

Thankfully not by boat.

Its been a bit strange going from along distance relationship

to spend every second of the day together.

I love spending every day with him....

there is no-one else i would i rather travel the world with.

no-one else i would sail across stormy waters for.

but then on the down side,

i dont really have anyone else to talk too...

which can be hard,

sometimes us girls need girls talk.

and my husband isnt always the best at that,

try as he might!

the other day i bumped into a woman in the laundrette

who i started up a conversation with.

turns out she was in a very similar situation to me,

following her fiancee around on a boat,

knowing nothing at all about boats.

It was nice to be able to talk and complain

and have mutual compassion for each other.

To feel on the same level of understanding about some things

 and just to be a listening

ear to each other.

It told me that i'm not the only one 

who has these kind of feelings.

that i'm not so crazy.

I not only jumped into a lifestyle that i know nothing about

but i also am learning how to be a more complete

person with my husband as my partner.

Sometimes the learning curve is steep

but most of the time we cruise along

loving every minute.

Oz here we come!!!!!!!

Ballerina on a boat....

One of the things i've been struggling with whilst on the boat is keeping fit.

Whilst i was dancing i never really thought about it...

well..because i was exercising for hours a day,

i didnt need to thinking about keeping fit,

i was fit!

now i need to pay more attention.

when we are sailing around it is nigh on impossible to

do any exercise.

so when we get off i make it a priority to see what i can do about it.

i like to look for local adult ballet classes,

mainly because ballet is still my chosen form of exercise...

but they are far and few inbetween.

when we were in Liverpool i found a good school

with a young ex-professional dancer trying to start up a 

few adult dance classes.

he was really good at all levels

(i went to his beginner and intermediate classes)

but other than that in most places i havent found anything.

i try and do a little ballet barre work out myself on occasion,

and boy oh boy!

am i unfit,

what would have been easy peasy for me a few months ago

is pretty tiring and dificult.

my body is already stiffening up

and my muscles relaxing.

i guess i've got to find other ways of exercising that entertain me.

I do the occasional pilates excercises,

which i enjoy and work my body in the way that i am used to,

but at the same time does nothing for my cardio.

When we were in Slovenia i jumped on the running machine at the hotel gym.

let me tell you this....

i've never been on a running machine in my life...

and i nearly died.

i lasted about 15mins at a fairly average pace before collapsing on the floor.

(but i always think dancers have crap stamina anyway

we do a lot of short bursts)

and i look for a swimming pool where ever i can to 

go for a swim,

as its a far easier way to keep up my stamina

(but that is also not easy to find when you are travelling around)

oh well...

its definitely interesting feeling how my body is changing.

its been used to being a dancer for the last 25 years or so...

so it is a big adaptation...

i'll keep you posted!!!!!

Boaty Blog.....

If any one has any remote interest the boat that i'm

sailing on has a boaty blog.

Lots of boat talk on it...

but also some pretty pictures and

occasional more up to date info than i've

been managing to give lately 

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/moksha/?xjMsgID=250122

i'm also on instagram

(i think user name rgiboin)

i take some pics there when i'm travelling around.

i leave tim to carry the camer 

Beach Babe!

So being in Lanzarote has got me trying out some 

water sports...

first up

SURFING!

i totally sucked at surfing...

but i had such a great time!

you could here me a mile away laughing so hard at how bad i was.

my husband went off and left me to fend for myself complete

with no no-how at all...

i kept getting passers-by either laughing at me or

 telling me that i was looking a bit dangerous!

in fact one of the main comments was,

'you know your not meant to surf in the sand?'

yeah..ok...

but it was pretty hard carrying the board around

and surfing in the sand means you have less distance to fall off.

not that i remotely got anywhere near standing up,

i basically body-boarded.

but 

yip!

great fun!

lots of sun

(which for some reason you cant see in 

the picture it looks like terrible weather!)

a pink board.

a great view

warm water

lots of not too difficult waves...

(apparently)

Tripping....

Slovenia was awesome!

it was like being in wonderland with all our favourite friends.

We got all fattened up,

eating at our favourite restaurants and

being cooked amazing meals by friends.

Its nice to be in a place where we 

know if we go in a restaurant its gonna be good food, 

because we've done all the tried and testing in advabce.

travelling around a lot its something you notice,

restaurants are hit and miss,

sometimes its nice to have a place you can go to 

and every thing is gonna be good.

In fact the whole trip was a bit like that....

i definitely feel like Ljubljana is my home away from home

And now....

we are in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands.

Sailing here was not the best of pleasures for me.

i got sick again on the first today,

and although i drugged up on sea sick meds after that and felt physically fine

I spent my birthday bobbing around on the ocean and for me

that was not fun at all....

booooo....

my poor husband doesnt quite get my 

dislike for the bobbing...but he tries.

Wedding : The ceremony

(click on photo to see it bigger and better)

The other day some one asked us how the wedding went....

'No Problems!'

Tim and i both declared in unison quite enthusiastically...

'we had a great time'

To which someone had to remind us that that wasnt quite the case....

The running of the service was as follows - 

I walk down the aisle to 

'The Swan' from Carnival of the Animals.

played as a cello solo  by my mums friend

(who no one had ever heard play the cello in advance...

but turns out it went smoothly)

Opening Hymn -

Morning has Broken

Two Readings 

Captain Corellis Mandolin

read by my Gangan

and a second reading by 

Tims brother 

(i picked one reading and tim picked the other)

Then a musical item -

Candle on the Water

(i've loved this song since i was about 4 years old, 

and had always declared that i wanted it played at my wedding

little did i know i would be marrying a sailor and honeymooning in a lighthouse

to make it all the  more apt)

played on the ukulele and sung by my sister and friend

Wedding Ceremony
(Rings and License signing)

Closing hymnI

The End!!!!!!



So i walk down the aisle....
i spent most of the time trying to avoid tripping over,
my dress was pretty long at the front as well as the back which made walking pretty tricky.

I was so excited.
Tim looked awesome in his kilt.
i think when i got to the top i told him that again and afain
'You look so goooooodddd!'
I really really wanted to kiss him,
i think i gave him a big hug instead.

Then we started with the opening hymn,
as everyone started singing tim leaned in and whispered to me that he had something to tell me.

'i know, i know'
i said,
'my sister forgot her ukulele'

'yeah, he said, 'and.....'

So it turns out his Best Man had forgotten to bring
the rings and the wedding license.
He realised this halfway through the boat journey...

My pre-wedding worries when organising were
 that we would forget some guests who might miss the boat...
never that the rings would be left behind!

So during the journey he had gone around the boat trying
to find some wedding rings that would fit on  us.
Turns out his Best Man wasnt a hundred percent useless
in that he remembered my ring size,
but Tim's finger was too big for any.
So i ended up putting a ring on his pinky finger.

When he told me this is the scene that went through my head...
exactly this!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhr7bb_with-this-ring_shortfilms

so i laughed myself through the ceremony.
whilst trying very hard to contain myself from giving him a kiss!!!

at the end people came up to us and asked why we were laughing,
as they hadnt know that there were any problems!

We had to sign our license later on,
(thankfully the Bishop was related to us and was a bit lax
on the rules!)

and we slipped our rings on later on after we got off the boat

ugly picture of both of us putting our rings on infront of the
ice cream stall! caught by one of our guests.

The top photo is our first official photograph from our awesome wedding photographer.
my sister Meghan

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MeghanGiboin-Wedding-Photographer/133441603389617?fref=ts..

This was directly after the ceremony and she was like,
'give him a kiss'
as you can see i'm practically eating him...
finally i could smooch him!

She was grossed out...
'stop! stop! stop!'

hehe!
it was great fun!

(hope wedding posts are not too boring i still have a few more to come...
i want to document everything!!!!!1)

Flying High....

EEEEEk!

So Captain Tim has some business to do in Slovenia

and i'm tagging along as baggage....eeeek!

More importantly we are going there by airplane...

woohoo...no sailing!

Tim and I definitely have a soft spot in our hearts for Slovenia.

Its a beautiful country

with a lot of friends and great people there.

Of course its also the place we met..... 

Lots of shiny memories..

In fact one of the things that we are quite

excited to do is go to the little pizza restaurant

near where Tim used to live.

We realised the other day that everytime we see 

Bolognaise Pizza on a menu we get very excited

and order it in eager anticipation.

Because we LOVE bolognaise pizza....

But...

EVERYTIME we are disappointed,

because the Bolognaise Pizza 

we have ordered just doesnt live up to the  

memories of the bolognaise pizza from that little pizzeria.

(which we dont even remember the name of!)

We were trying to figure it out the other day,

what was it that made that one so much better?

we hope our memories have not been 

tricking us all this time.

I look forward to seeing friends

and places and memories

and hope to make them more sparkly.

Wedding - ceremony venue

We had our wedding ceremony at Inchcom Island

Tim said if he was going to get married in Scotland it would be in a castle...

well technically it was an Abbey but it was just as groovy.

We did a lot of searching for the perfect place.

We ended up picking this one because it was not so far from my home

(in fact you can pretty much see my house from the island...

and i never even knew that it existed before hand!)

And also because it was on an Island...

and well you cant take my timothy away from water for too long.

It was kind of cool to have the whole island to ourselves as well.

it really felt like our own little haven!

To get there we had hired out the local ferry 

I went on a bit earlier and hid in the Captains Quarter with all my bridesmaids.

i remember just being so excited the whole way over.
i wonder if i was meant to have nerves or something....i was too busy enjoying myself.
from my little quarters i could hear all the guests enjoying themslevs,
including my little brothers singing along very loudly to the music
playlist we had picked for the journey.

All the wedding guests and Tim were piped onto the 

boat by Gary The Piper

he was pretty awesome, we found him on Gumtree.

at one point i asked him if he knew a tune that i liked, he didnt but i hummed it to him and then he managed to pick it up ant play it!)

He also piped the Star Wars theme tune, which was a favourite.

On arrival to the Island there were lots of seals out sunbathing.

Floating.....

 Dang!

Its pretty hard to keep up a blog when your floating on a boat with limited internet connection.

We've gone from the uk to spain and am currently in portugal

heading to the Canary Islands soon.

Here are some of my thoughts on sailing  and my current life in general- 

i do not like the motion of the ocean...

all the up and down, too and fro, side to side makes my head spin 

and my tummy churn.

I do not have sea legs...

they are definitely land lovers legs that like a firm foundation.

Cooking on a bumpy boat is tricky...

it can end up in pumpkin soup being spilled down the walls.

Pumpkin soup can look like vomit...

and make you want to wretch...

to create your very own pumpkin soup creation.

sailing in the wind, hail, lightening, rain and fog is not fun.

i can tell you this from experience.

In the last week (or two, i loose track of the days)

i have sailed on the Irish Sea,

the bay of biscay

and the atlantic ocean.

You can see awesome stars at night when on night watch

in the middle of the ocean.

Going to new locations is fun,

The arriving part is more fun than the travelling part

in my opinion.

i'd rather take a plane.

one of my first things to do when arriving in a new location

is to find my local church,

find my local adult ballet class

find my local swimming pool

most of these are pretty hard to find.

i'm feeling fairly unfit.

It is AWESOME spending every hour of everyday with my husband.

i was a bit apprehensive before i came on the boat

seeing as the last  2 years of our relationship were long distance,

but the more time i spend with him the more 

i enjoy it.

we've barely spent more than an hour or two apart since we've been married.

thats pretty weird right!

but great!!!!!!!

Castle hunting in wales.....

After Ireland we headed to the north of wales

to a little village called Hollyhead.

To be honest Hollyhead wasnt all that classy a place.

In fact we went to the cinema there and was a pretty funny experience.

i think we may have been the only people to visit it in a long time.

We got a grand tour of the whole establishment...

it may also have been the dirtiest cinema i've ever been in too...

But we did get a chance to hire a car and drive around north wales.

And boy oh boy was it beautiful.

Tim and i like to go see old castles and wales had a few corkers to offer.

We went and visited 3 casltes, all built in the same time period by Edward.

There are no castles like these in Scotland,

mainly because we didnt let Edward conquer us like the Welsh did....

there is a little movie called Braveheart all about it.

I totally suck and cant remember any of the names of any of the castles.

We got a bit peckish and drove by this beautiful little tea house that was on the side of a river.

and then we drove into the Snowdonian Mountain range to go to a copper mine

creepy little Chucky style mannequins