Remember When....

I visited the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in 2009....

And then absolutely loved visiting the Mekong Delta - all by myself!!!

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Remember When.....

I went scuba diving in the Grand Turk, the Carribean. An unbelievable experience.

Some of the best diving I've done, even having dived Asia.



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Kate's On The Go Again

Well, today I finally made up my mind that I am going to be spending the next 8 weeks or so backpacking up around the northern part of Australia - first, starting up by taking a flight to Ayers Rock, and then its up into Darwin to Arhnem Land and Kakadu National Park, and then across to Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest, Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island and then back down the east coast of Australia back to Sydney, ready for a new semester at university. So, keep an eye out on KateOnTheBike in the next couple of weeks, when I "set sail".



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Remember When..

The first time I travelled to Asia was in March 2006, when I travelled to Krabi, Thailand. Little did I know, four years later, I'd be living in Singapore, Asia, just an hour away from this paradise.




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Remember When....

...I arrived in Vancouver, Canada, to do a stint at Whister, British Columbia. It was minus GOODNESS KNOWS WHAT... and I was freezing. Sadly, I only was able to stay in Canada for a couple of weeks, as I fell ill with a severe infection, depression and possible glandular fever (it ended up being just the infection and depression in the end). It was one of the saddest moments of my travels, leaving Whistler, Canada...

Remember When.....

...I've countlessly stayed, or passed through, good old London town. I hated it at first, but after a while, it grew on me....

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Remember When....

When I was up in Newcastle, Australia when the infamous Pasha Bulker ran aground up there in a huge storm.

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Remember When....

While we are on the topic of Scotland, when Owen took me to the famous Edinburgh Tattoo.

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Remember When....

When Kel and Rob came and visited Owen and I in Edinburgh, Scotland and we travelled up to the home to golf, St Andrews!

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Remember When....

When I first ate snails in Biarritz, in the Aquitaine région of France. Biarritz is still probably remains one of my most memorable destinations of my extensive travels to date.

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Remember When....

When my teenage dream came true and I went and saw Westlife at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland....when I was 27 (ok, it was a little more than just a teenage dream...its still going...)

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Remember When....

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Joy W and I entered the 2009 Katmandu Challenge - so much fun!

Remember When....

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.... I went to the Bahamas in July 2009, six weeks after fracturing my spine in a horse riding accident....

Remember When....

Baby Ellie was born in December 2007.

Baby Charlotte was born in November 2005.

Remember When....

.....Just before leaving for Singapore, I was fit, healthy and I had biceps that were bigger than the average male!
ha ha

Remember When....

Remember when...I was in Edinburgh and my hair was really long, with blonde streaks in it..maybe I'll do that again....

The "Remember When" Series

I've been so lucky in life, having been able to have the means to travel the world, see things that many people won't see in their lifetime. I thought that I would do a short series of "Remember Then" so that I can remind myself that there were plenty of good times in the past 10 years, rather than think of how tired I am after cramming a lifetime of experience into a decade.

My first "Remember When" is when I found myself, in 2005, travelling around Europe on my own (as usual) and I had incurred a terrible trip coming from La Spezia, Italy into Milan, Italy. On the train trip to Milan, I found two girls who were going a different way. So I decided that I would travel with them. I ended up in Gryon, France (on the Swiss Border).

When I left Cinque Terre, I was covered in approximately 45 mosquito bites. The night before I had paid an excessive 80 euros for a tiny room in Vernazza, Cinque Terre and one mosquito came included in the tariff. During the night, the mosquito had a field day all over the top half of my body, munching its way from my right arm, up to my right shoulder, across my back and down my left arm. I wasnt feeling very well when it came time to leave the Cinque Terre and the train ride up to Switzerland via Milan was miserable. Given that I was less than well, and tired after a bad nights sleep, i wearily climbed onto the train and closed my eyes, desperately wanting to be back in Australia with a big bottle of calamine lotion - and forgot to fill out my eurail pass for the day. As a result, I had the pleasure of dealing with a train guard who fined me 30 euros for not filling the pass out properly. I wasnt a happy camper.

However, there is something special about backpacking. Even on your worst days, when you want to be home with family, life can take a turn for the better, with just a simple conversation with strangers. I was grumpy and annoyed when I climbed onto my second train for the day, in Milan, when I sat across from two American girls from Wisconsin. After talking to Ashley and Angie for a couple of hours, they convinced me to not go to Interlaken straight away, but to come along with them to a place on the Swiss/France border, called Gryon. Gryon ended up being the most beautiful mountain village, and with Angie and Ashley, I stayed up in amongst the Swiss Alps in the friendliest hostel (ie. Mountain Chalet) for two nights. My Mosquito Blues disappeared as I spent my days wandering around the Alpine villages and my nights sitting around a bonfire with twenty other backpackers, toasting marshmellows. In between that, we even visited thermal baths, where we all swam relaxed in heated pools and spas in the open air (3 degree temperatures outside the water) looking across the Swiss Alps. The fact that I was at my lowest, missing home, missing my family, and then meeting two strangers on a train, my journey took an extraordinary turn for the better. It was a fun three days all up, three days that may not have occured had I not met Ashley and Angie.

(above: looking out across the Swiss Alps)

Kathryn Adams Photography

My official photography collection is now up and running and can be found at the following address:

http://www.kathrynadamsphotography.com/

Thanks for everyone's patience - building a website that is designed to showcase your work is not easy! But with the help of Craig Stanford, this website would not have been possible!

Lollies!

One of the highlights of my Day Date was of course the trip to the lollyshop, a shopped tucked away from the main street which contains all of the different types of lollies - giving you wonderful memories of the years that you were a child, excitedly going off to the lollyshop to get your 50 cents worth of lollies. L and I loved looking at each of the lollies and pointing out which lollies we loved the most as children. We think the shop is far more appealing to adults that reminisce about the old times than the kids that come on in.

Rows and Rows of Lollies!!!!

Double Dips and Pop Rocks - two lollies which brought back wonderful memories as a child.

Delicious!

The Blue Mountains - Echo Point

On our Day Date, L and I went to Echo Point, which is probably one of the more touristy sides to the Blue Mountains, where the "famous" Three Sisters live.

(below: the Three Sisters, because of the three rocks sticking out from the cliff - I personally think there is a fourth small sister but UNESCO doesnt agree).

In short, the Blue Mountains are named as such because of the bluey haze that is seen around the moutains, created by the amount of eucalyptus oil that is in the air (the primary tree that is found in the Blue Mountains area is the Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree)).


There - a little bit of trivia for you and a bit of sight seeing around Sydney for my overseas readers.

MS Sydney to Gong

Well, event season is definitely under way for me and after the Trishave Womens Festival, next up was the MS Sydney to Wollongong, a 90km (or 56 miles) ride, all in the name of raising funds for Multiple Sclerosis last weekend.

I throughly enjoyed it and was overwhelmingly faster than I imagined I would be, coming past the finish banner at about 4 hours 20 mins (or a little more). Either way, it was a not only a great physical achievement for me but a mental achievement. While riding 9okms isn't SUCH a great feat, some of the hill climbs were tough and I couldn't believe how easy it was for me mentally to push through the pain and the burn of the legs. I am starting to realise that I am much stronger mentally, because I know in the run leg of the triathlon the other week, there were (just like on the hill climbs this weekend) plenty of opportunity for me to stop and take a rest. I chose not to, instead, powering on through using the training that I've been doing over the course of the last couple of months.



Next up for me is this weekend's "Fun Run" which is a 5km run around the University. It will be interesting because I've never done just a "run" as an activity so it sure will be interesting to see whether I can mentally push through some of the evil thoughts about running (its not my favourite leg of the triathlon).

All of this is to get me ready for the Big Event, being the 2010 Huskison Triathlon Festival, which happens on 20th - 21st November.

Oh, and then i've just signed up for another triathlon for the weekend of the 5th December... I couldnt help myself!

KotB

A Beautiful Surprise

If I could write a book on how men can best impress their girlfriends, I'd take a page out of L's book, who has started to make a habit of doing little things to surprise me when I least expect them (flowers, balloons, little cards, all the cute things us women absolutely love).

We went on a "day date" late last week and we had a wonderful day walking around Leura, a tourist town up in the Blue Moutains. It had been many many years since I'd been to Leura so it really felt as though I was having a wonderful holiday break. It was a perfect day out.

On the way back to the car, I noticed a gorgeous bag sitting on the console of the car. I raced to the car, knowing that it was a little surprise but little did I know that it would be two things that I had spotted in a gorgeous stationary shop that is up in Leura, called 'Elizabeth Rosa Fine Stationary". If you are ever up in Leura, visit this shop - it is simply beautiful. You can also visit them online at www.elizabethrosa.com and are located also in the city of Sydney for all you Sydneyites that read my blog.

He picked out a beautiful journal with my first letter embossed on it and on each page within.

And then he picked out this gorgeous, stunning, beautiful, (how many other words can I use) French Crystal Paperweight with "K" embossed at the bottom of it.

Ladies, if your man isnt out there treating you to beautiful wonderful surprises, then trade them in for one that cares for you, looks after you, wants to make you happy because they love the look on your face when you open the wrapping.

Thank you, L, if you are reading this. I want the world to know that you are amazing and my world has changed because you have come into it.

Back Into Triathlons

I was in my first triathlon since the accident back in June 2009.

I came 9th out of 62 people, which is such a great personal achievement, because I was going in with expectations to better my initial time of last year.

I managed to do that, coming 9th this time as opposed to 18th. I swam slower than last year by a minute (which is obvious given I have been unable to swim long distances for the past 12 months because of my back injury) but I improved my bike leg by 9 seconds, and improved by run leg by a MASSIVE 1 min 20 secs. I am happy about improving the run leg, because I was so terrible at running before the injury. It shows that I am a far better runner now after the accident, despite carrying extra weight and an injury.

So the last time I did the race in February 2009, which was prior to the accident, I was at my fittest physically. I wouldnt say I am even close to being as fit as I was back then and I am carrying extra weight, but I think I did better this time around bceause I am far fitter mentally. I was able to push through the run leg even though I felt at times that I wanted to stop. While I was frustrated by not coming in strong on the swim leg, I know that I can improve on this with practice and patience.

So, not bad for the first triathlon!

(below: waiting at the start pontoon - i'm hidden in the crowd with a red cap, being the 30-40 age group)

(below: I am the person on the right, looking really focused! The "yellow caps" (the Under 30s) had started their race 5 mins earlier so their pack was already on their way up. In the end, we compete against everyone's times, in other words, I was racing against people as young as 13 and as old as 50).

(below: I am in the purple goggles. You can see I was quite late off the start, but that s because I don't like battling it out at the front, and I have confidence knowing that I can finish strong compared to others because I am more of a long distance swimmer than a sprinter. 10 metres into the swim and I was about 15th in the pack)

(below: here I am, second from the right. By now, I'd settled into a rhythm and was slowly carving up the rest of the red caps, who had sprinted and burnt out early).

(below: By the end of the 150 metres, I and three others had caught up with the back of the Yellow Cap pack.)

(below: me on the right, lumbering out of the water, catching my breath)

(below: 3rd out of the water in the red caps, heading into the transition area. I held back and let 2 red caps go ahead of me, because I knew that it didnt matter who was in front at this early stage in the race, so I am recorded as having come out of the water 3rd in my age group and 7th fastest swim leg overall out of 62 people - including the young ones under 30!)

(below: My favourite leg, of course, being the bike leg. I improved my bike leg by only 9 seconds from the year prior, but the reason is that I deliberately held back on the bike leg and rode it properly in a higher gear like proper triathletes do (using the leg muscles) instead of racing hard (using my cardio capacity) like I did last year. While it didnt benefit my bike leg time, the strategy came in handy for the run leg later on).

(below: coming into the transition area, ready to jump off the bike and into the run leg)

(below: coming into transition, feeling quite happy with myself so far)

(below: transitioning from the bike leg to the run leg is the hardest of all. If you havent kept your legs riding at an even cadence throughout the bike leg, there is a possibility that you can jump off the bike and try and run and find that your legs can turn to jelly. This is what happened the year prior, because I didnt know how to properly ride the bike leg. This time around, I knew I'd done the bike leg properly, so I didnt fear the changeover as much as I had feared it first time around).

(below: screeeeech. You can't ride into the transition area. You have to dismount at the line, and run with your bike back to your allocated spot).

(below: Run, Forrest!)

(below: In the transition area, taking the bike gear off and getting ready to do the run leg. I had come in 3rd on the bike leg, and still 7th overall).

(below: Heading out to run 1.2kms - a short run technically, but a heck of a long way when you're (1) unfit; (2) untrained; (3) tired from a swim and bike leg.)

(below: Here is a picture I love - me running out of the transition area with my mum cheering me on in the background. Great shot!)

(below: I hate running at the best of times, but this time around, I kept an even pace and felt okay).

(below: I finished my run leg 1 minute and 20 secs faster than last year, but I did get overtaken so I came in 13th overall on the run. But with my good times on the swim leg and the bike leg, I officially placed 9th overall, beating 50-something other people).

Very pleased with my result.

Thank you to my wonderful boyfriend, who was there on the day and who takes such great photos. <3

Thanks to Mum and Aunty J, for coming along and supporting me, as always.