Thursday 28 July 2016

July Update

Another month and another update! I won't bore you all with the standard sentence but please keep reading to see how I have been tracking.

Work
+ Work has still been slightly frustrating however I have entered holiday mode and nothing phases me too much anymore!

+ This month has been challenging on my interpersonal skills. I have presented to senior stakeholders and in a 20 person meeting full of important people, I provided some input without stuttering! It was fabulous.

+ When I get back from my holiday I will become a more active job-hunter.

Online Life
+ I have revamped the layout of my blog ever so slightly! I have now included a drop down navigation. Originally I had wanted a multi-level drop down for my travel rather than separating it into different continents but alas after 3 hours of tutorials I couldn't figure it out. I think it still works currently. My previous travels page was getting too long, too detailed and just very blah.


+ Learning CSS and HTML was quite weird; it was a definite throwback to 15 year old Natalie who used to code / modify her Livejournal layouts. There was a point in my life where I could code (a very basic) layout. In fact I made a website from scratch as my major project for Year 12 Software Design & Development.

+ As part of this clean out, I also reviewed my old content (I have been blogging here for 5 years now!) and it is quite amusing to see how I used to write. I believe that I write quite conversationally now, however it was much more casual back then! What is even more interesting is how my content has changed. My blog has inevitably shifted from a random collection of my thoughts to become more centred around travel (domestically and internationally). These update posts are essentially the only personal posts that I write these days.

+ I still need to tidy up my tags which is a little out of control. I remember back in the good ol' LJ days that this was a horrible task and alas, I don't think this current state of tag-affairs is any better. But it needs to be done as I haven't reviewed it ... ever.

+ I have been on-and-off with my blog again. This may not be apparent as I schedule the vast majority of my posts (including this post!), but in the past I used to write at least one post a week. These days I am lucky if this happens every three weeks.

+ In fact, for quite a few weeks I was "struggling" to keep up with my blogs that I read. Life has been a little busy (keep reading) and I haven't had the chance to keep in touch with everyone. My bloglovin feed is currently under control again; hopefully it stays like that.

Life
+ In the month of July, I went on this binge-dating phase. I am thinking about writing a separate post about this but in a nutshell, I went on an absurd number of dates in a reasonably short period of time.

+ Due to the above, I did not venture outside of Sydney. Not once which is unprecedented! I will still be able to meet the #take12trips challenge as I am ahead by one trip.

+ Song favourites: Trace Adkins "I Can't Outrun You"; Birdy "Wings; Darius Rucker "If I Told You"

Travel itchy feet rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Sunday 17 July 2016

Bouddi National Park & Wisemans Ferry

I had rented the car for the entire length of the long weekend and thus headed up north to the Central Coast for a day trip. Bouddi National Park had been on my radar for well over 7 months now however it required a car to get there and it wasn't a high priority for me. But alas I made the drive up since it was reasonably close!

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Friday 8 July 2016

Hill End

I mentioned that I had wanted to visit Hill End during my Easter road trip, however due to time constraints I didn't end up going. As I was roughly in the area, I decided to head there on my second and last day.

I woke up to the valley completely surrounded in fog and it was just breathtaking. Stupidly, I had forgotten to remove my camera battery from my camera and in the -4 degree temperatures overnight, it had drained completely. D'oh! I moved the battery to my pocket on my shirt to warm it up and eventually had the battery partly restored which is why I still have photos!

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Tuesday 5 July 2016

Glen Davis Shale Oil Works

The Glen Davis Shale Oil Works closed in 1952 and can now only be accessed via a tour that is run every Saturday at 2pm by a local. It is on private property hence the need for a tour and honestly, I really didn't mind paying the $15 as it does go back to the very small community.

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Sunday 3 July 2016

Capertee Valley

Over the Queen's Birthday long weekend I had plans originally to drive to New England region of NSW and drive "aimlessly" around Tamworth and the surrounding towns. However, I ended up only having two days (intention to return to Sydney on Sunday night) and it wasn't feasible to make the drive there and back. Instead, I did a quick google search and discovered Capertee Valley.

In the past 12 months, I have driven on the same road through the Blue Mountains three times and all three times it has been very overcast despite being sunny in Sydney. I left a little later than what I would have liked due to the opening hours of the car rental place. There were also quite a few cars cruising at 80kmph on a 100kmph stretch of road which was a little frustrating. But soon enough I reached the roads that I love to drive on; 100kmph country roads with minimal / no cars on it. It is just so peaceful and the epitome of a road trip.

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