is it really Christmastime?

hello my friends! my facebook has been bombarded with pics of all the snow you've gotten at home and, i'm not going to lie, i am very glad that i'm not there to experience it in person! haha we have had our own share of rain and cloudy days in the last week or so, but i'd definitely take rain over snow any day! :)

everything has been good here, just working a lot, going to the beach and i even bought a pink fishing rod and went fishing one time. i caught a fish and decided to bring it home to eat it. it was a pretty intense experience and i don't think i'll be going fishing again any time soon lol it is good to know that if i need to, i can survive in the wild by fishing hahaha i'm not sure what type of fish it was that i caught, but it had teeth! it was so crazy lol

bottling is over now, and we are just relabelling some boxes, but the work will go until at least december 10th so i will get my regional work done! yessss!!!! i was so happy when i found that out! only 32 more days until my trip and i'm really stoked for it! i booked my bus ticket to and from perth so that's all set. renewed the registration on my car for another three months, now all i need to do it buy a new camera. everything is working out really well and it makes me sooooooooo happy!!!

bry is leaving for hawaii on monday which is sad, but i know she will have a fab time and i'm so excited for her! we are getting a new roommate for the time she is away. her name is sarah and she is also 23 and from canada (from BC) so i'm excited to meet her and not be alone for the whole time that bry is away! beach buddy yeaaaahhh :) 

also, i just found out yesterday that margaret river has a roller derby team!!! they are called the "cabernet savages" SO AWESOME! i really loved the time i spent practicing with the rollergettes in toronto, so i am definitely going to check out their next practice and hopefully get joined up! bob gnarly is making a comeback folks!!!!

basically just loving life over here, working, counting down the days until my trip! i put up a few christmas decorations because i really can't grasp that it is december soon and that its that time of year when i'm wearing shorts and going to the beach! haha i got one of those gel window stickers that i put up outside and this poor dragonfly got stuck in it and it was such a struggle to free him i was getting so worked up about it lol but i managed to free him in the end and he flew away :)

also, one day last week we both didn't work, bryanna and i drove to dunsborough because it was yucky out and we had brunch at samudra which was such a beautiful treat! i had hot chocolate, tofu scramble and we split a peppermint slice and a piece of caramel pecan pie for dessert (all vegan and gluten free YUMMM) on the way home in town we saw a wicked amazingly cool VW campervan in that lovely turquoise colour i love SO much! i posed with it 

other than that, not much to update on. i've been reading a lot and have rented the first season of how i met your mother to rewatch and o.m.g it is soooo funny! i laugh so hard my neighbours must think i'm nuts :) i'm getting pretty tan which is nice, i feel like i look so much more healthy with a tan haha 

i sent out those postcards to mum about a week ago so hopefully they will get there soon and then she can send them on the canadian part of their journey! hope everything is great with everyone at home, enjoy the snow and STAY WARM! 

missing everyone lots <33

beach out

peace out xoxoxo

red, red wine....

hello my friends! today i have a day off, and it's been really lovely so far. my friend hetta is leaving for her next leg of her adventure. last night was her going away party which was super fun, and today we went to a cute little coffee shop in town and chatted :) now i'm just hanging out at the library currently loving life. i tried to send some post cards home, but it costs $2.60 per card and i have almost 30 soooo that won't be happening. i'm going to send them home to canada in one envelope and then see if my mum can re-post them from there. i think that's a much better idea haha 

so the last few weeks have been fun! i finally STOOD UP ON MY SURFBOARD!!!!!! i went to redgate beach by myself one sunny sunday and was out in the water for about 2 hours and i just did it! it was so fun. this weekend past i went again and stood up for even longer. that beach is seriously so fun and i have a blast every time i go out, even if i just ride the waves in on my stomach. but each time i go i stand up a few more times! yay improvements :)

how big the wave felt:

how big it actually was: 

but it was big enough for me! seriously so fun. also, i made the rookie mistake of leaving a brand new bar of wax in the trunk on my wetsuit.... of course it melted all over and now it looks like a bird took a huge poop down the back of my wetsuit LOL! i got most of it off, but it is sort of in the fabric... don't really know how to get it out but whateverrrr

this past week, there was no bottling because they were preparing for a big cabernet tasting event at cape mentelle. they asked me if i wanted to help by washing glasses and i said of course. it was me and two other people and within a week we had washed and polished almost 1800 glasses! let me tell you about this event, it is so cool! cape mentelle chooses 20 cabernet wines from around the world and the people attending do a blind tasting and rate which ones they like the best. the bottles ranged from about $80 all the way through to $2500 or $4000 i forget. there were 85 people coming, and each person had 20 glasses plus glasses for the dinner and a ton of spares in case any of them broke! it was quite the job, my hands got super pruny and i broke a few glasses here and there but the event happened on saturday and it seemed like everyone had a great time! i was working behind the scenes doing dishes, eating olives and had a glass of champagne. not a bad gig! then on monday, we washed all the glasses again and put them back in the boxes. it was a nice change from bottling for a bit and great to have some work that week! the cape mentelle cab ended up coming in 2nd so that is super! i basically never want to wash another glass again in my life lol but it was good fun :)

last week was my little Daisy's birthday, and my mum sent me these pics from when she was a wee kitten. 

such a darling!

cuddling with her brothers and sisters

i miss her a ton - happy birthday daisy <3 this past weekend, i also saw a miniature horse in town for a store's birthday celebration and he was wearing a red party hat. i got to feed him a carrot and pretty much almost cried because it was the cutest thing ever! it made my whole day :) 

other than that, i'm just reading heaps and i rented the first season of csi from the library.. serious cheesy business, and i love it! 

51 more days until i leave for Cairns, and only 28 more days until i've completed my three months of regional work! ahhhh seriously so excited! i can't wait to come back, i'm obsessed with aus. i'm basically just in quite good spirits, other than the fact that my "waterproof" camera wasn't so waterproof after all and now i need to buy a new one :( but that will be my christmas gift to myself. imagine, christmas on the beach.... it's going to be weird but i think i'll be able to deal with it ;) 

steve is doing alright, i even went for a cruise last night and his lights didn't turn off on the way there or the way back! improvements. he makes a few weird noises, but he still gets me around town, to work and to the beach which is all i need! 

everything is seriously great, i'm so happy, the only thing that would be better is if everyone were here to share it with me! love you guys tons!!!!!!

stay warm over there in the snow ;)

<3 soph