It was the best of times, it was the shittiest of times...

Hey there

Despite my obvious lack of frequency when updating this blog, I certainly do think a lot about what I would like to post. Since my last post I wanted to write and post photos of an amazing concert experience I had when I went to see Simon and Garfunkel while they were here in Melbourne at the end of June. I was also incredibly lucky to see them at a secret gig of sorts near where my folks live in the Yarra Valley. I have been a fan since I dug out one of their albums from my parents' old record collection. All in all, I have credited this as being among my happiest memories.

But all of this seems pretty distant in my memory as recently my friend Penny was diagnosed as terminally ill with primary liver cancer, and passed away last Sunday morning (23 August). Her funeral was yesterday. She was only 29, with her 30th birthday not until 27 November.

I have been reflecting on the memories I shared with Penny, and there were many wonderful memories indeed. I don't know if I realised how much of my life was entwined with hers, and see how we grew from teenagers to adults together.

I visited her in Japan in 2003, and Vancouver in 2005, both places she was living and teaching English, and now consider how fortunate I am to have had these unique experiences with her.

This photo was taken on a teacup-style ride at Tokyo DisneySea and is shows her capacity for humour and enjoyment. We laughed our heads off together so many times.

She was an amazing person, and when we first became friends I couldn't believe it. My closest friends now were actually all in the year above me at school, so I was in a position to admire them as the 'cool' kids while growing up. But Penny was special by anyone's standards. Funny as hell, bright, and with a self belief that allowed her to march to the beat of her own drum and carry the rest of us along for the ride. She was creative and so much fun.

There are so many things and so much to say. I'm sure I'll share funny anecdotes as they come to me, but for now I will just say that I miss her, and can't believe that she's actually gone.

Big love to you hombre.
Tracy

Playing with photos

Hey again folks

Just a quicky this time (especially seeing as I just wrote the last entry about 10 minutes ago), but I wanted to try playing with inserting images. I've got a pretty new phone and have been taking some photos. Here are a couple:

This is a photo of a rainbow projected onto my wall at work. There is some kind of magic prism formed through my window every now and again, when the sun is just right, and I couldn't resist taking a photo.

This one was taken sneakily while driving (don't worry, my eyes were on the road). It was just too beautiful to ignore.

So there we go, new frontiers have been crossed (speaking of new frontiers, I saw the new Star Trek film last night - crackingly good I say!) and a new world of possibilities has been opened.

Cheers
Tracy

This Magic Moment

Hi there uber-cyber folks!

I promised I would be a neglectful correspondent, and neglectful I have proven to be. My intention is to write often but must confess to being a tad lazy when it comes to writing posts as I don't spend a lot of time on the computer at home. Working on one all day tends to be enough, and TV or reading tend to be my evening mistresses when I'm actually at home, but I think the benefits of keeping a blog will be their own reward.

It is strange to read the entries of myself from over a year before and very interesting for me to note how certain things happen in cycles. There was an entry where my parents were overseas, and indeed they are again as I speak. I also spoke about helping students write their applications for our State Training Awards, and again I have just completed this process. Sure, many other things have happened in the past year but I suppose my reflection on this is that it is amazing how fast time flies, and the positive to be drawn is that time needs to be seized otherwise I'll be sitting here again in a year, still in the job I don't like, not sure what to do about finishing my study and feeling a bit melancholy about that prospect. I hope that by this time next year I will have all kinds of different things to report. I hope to be working in the field that I'm interested in (something life coaching-esque, though perhaps in a broader sense as well as an on an individual basis). I make myself a promise here and now that I will not be sitting here with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders, telling you all about how I've just worked on the Victorian Training Awards applications, and still don't know what to do about uni. Well, I can't promise about the blanket part for they're entirely too delicious. But that's another post entirely.

On a completely different note, I love downloading songs. I know people who download tonnes of albums but for me it is about collecting songs. I keep a note in my phone containing a list of songs that I want to add to my collection. Sometimes I know the name and artist (eg. Love is All by The Rapture) and other times it is a description of where I heard it, thus helping me find the song (eg. song from Queer as Folk episode where Ted is in Babylon and runs into his old junkie friends). Some of these are harder to find, but therein lies the appeal in collecting. When I did finally find Cherish by The Association or Don't Give Up Now by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, my happiness was great. This post is named in honour of the song This Magic Moment by The Drifters which was playing when I started type-type-typing away.

Okeydokes, if I want a faithful following of humble and lovin' folks I suppose these ultra-long posts aren't going to win any friends. Mental note: take some photos and brighten this thing up!

Peace kids.

Tracy