My first Ink

I don’t like needles, I don’t like the dentist. I do like pretty things, and nice pictures and art work and herein lies the quandary of getting a tattoo for me. Oh the dentist thing is largely about the sound of the drill…… ugh, talk about horrid.

During my birthday trip to NZ my friend managed to get a stunning tattoo on her wrist and I once again felt excited about the idea of getting a tattoo. I mean I paint, I like to be creative and yet the last canvas I have looked to decorate is my body. Its almost weird, how would I ever get into the eclectic hall of fame without a few random tattoos, especially if I want to keep both ears. I had hoped with some luck that the tattooist would be free to lay some beautiful creation on me but alas he was not.

Leaving NZ I felt some relief at having dodged the tattoo bullet as I have always been clear that I wanted a NZ Tattoo with meaning of home and drawn by someone who actually understands the Maori symbolism, Melbourne’s then safe, right? Wrong. It took approx 30 mins of hardcore Googling to stumble across Shane from Chapel Tattoo, a Kiwi boy specialising in tribal tattoos particularly Maori it was now all falling into place. Before I knew it I was sitting on the shiny red vinyl seats surrounding by framed artwork of Chapel Tattoo. Just hearing the buzz sound made my skin crawl and I got the pre-requisite to doing something scary hot flush. I can only imagine what I looked like sitting there with my guess handbag, velour tracksuit and bright red face. At this point I was only having a consultation but my loving partner probed the question of “what if they can do it now”, the reality was I would have to go with it, I don’t think I could handle the anticipation a second time. Dear god I could have to get it now not later!

A reprieve and a 3 week wait later appointment I left feeling a sense of achievement. The build up was horrible, I liken it to childbirth, you look around and see that many people have done it and survived but you really have no idea how painful its going to be until its too late. I comforted myself by thinking of all the people with tattoos and how if they could handle it surely I could. I started pinching myself hard to see if that hurt. I started having nightmares about 2 days out, nightmares of being there and unprepared. I know it all sounds ridiculous but I really hate needles that much, and this to me is a big fat scraping inking needle. Bad needle.

Fi talked to me about it a lot, did I really want to do this, was I really sure. I am really 30 so its not like I am a teenager who is getting this while I am off my face and trying to impress someone. I have genuinely been thinking about this for a really long time. Now or never really.

So, I’m in the room, I can see the needle coming for me, I brace, I breath, I sigh, it’s not so bad. I can handle this, it’s a lot better than I thought. Halfway through and it seemed fine, I started almost getting excited that I was able to sit through it all fine. Then it hurt, it felt like burning more than needles as if it was a hot poker iron instead. It did hurt, I am not afraid to be a wuss, I didn’t like the second half of the experience which had me thinking he was going over the same line again and again. In the end though I am left with a piece of art to resemble my family and my home, it was drawn just for me and put exactly where I wanted. I love it.

Bye Bye Blondie

So my nickname is Snow, my family have called me that for as long as I can remember and its so ingrained in our extended family and friends that my Uncle only just learnt my real name in the past 5 years. The snow is of course linked to the fine white hair that I was blessed with and the blonde that has become me the rest of my years. I've never not been blonde and my hair seemed to escape the wrath of my teenage years with only a few purple and blue wash-out episodes. Being chesty and blonde is something I own. It's a cliche but I own it with all my Hooters tshirt wearing might. So this challenge was a little bit of a mystery to me and how I would feel about looking different. From a complete vanity view I was of course wondering how much of what I believe makes me look nice be linked to the colour of my tresses. The new hair colour was a bit of a loss to me, I had always thought warm brown for winter was attractive but not really sure it would be vibrant enough for me to still feel like me. Leaving it to the professionals was the best bet and providing them carte blanche to do as they will had my colourist salivating. Thats how I ended up with Copper Hair, also known as ginger, gingher or plain fanta pants. You dont realise what you look like until you walk past a window or mirror, it's at these times when i double check and remember its me not Ronald Mcdonald walking along the street. In all honesty though I must admit its liberating, and exciting and mainly a pretty cool feeling to just be trying something different. I am not sure i rock the red and Fi is definitely missing her blondie but i have opened my eyes a little more and like getting a tattoo or piercing this colouring could be addictive. Next step, round two to try out a warmer brown but with the aim to be back as blonde kat by summer.

Huge amounts of debt is cool

So, originally when i first wrote "The 30" list i put in a few big ticket items that i really really hoped would happen but were a possible no go. The biggest of them all being buying a house....

So guess what.... I bought a house! well we did, but still I DID, same dif...

Some of you may be thinking this all happened a bit to quickly and nicely but after 8 months of looking and 5 lost auctions with interior design daydreams smashed on the sidelines i had almost but given up home.

That was of course until the shining star of being given a break in the Melbourne property market actually meant that I was able to find something, and even more, bid and win it. Well kinda. So the auction was yet another butterfly stomach day with the dread of having to walk away and start again still in my mouth. I allowed myself to wander the property beforehand and allow only the smallest of creative ideas to bloom away but mainly i tried to see the flaws so that if we lost out I would be able to remember why it wasnt "the one".

As beforementioned the gods were smiling and after a laborious negotiation of approximately an hour after the auction we got the golden handshake of congratulations. It was a sweaty tug of war between Fi and I, the realestate agent and the interstate owners but we managed to get what we think was a fair place and then out came the tape measure.

Anyway now all the exciting parts are of course back on track which is decorating the place! I am happy to report that there is space for the pole, albeit only to give up an allocated dining area (seriously who needs a dining table anyway? more trouble than they are worth). The walk in robe is probably one of my best happy places, and I am comfortable with sharing approximately 30% of it. :)

The rooftop is pretty spesh, with 360 views of the city to the beach, st kilda, the MCG and all inbetween It will be somewhere enjoyed A LOT. The only question is how to extend it and get a spa up there and a hawaiian themed bar with built in karaoke machine?.

Anyway another exciting tick on the list.

On other updates you will be happy to know that BOTH tattoo consultation and hair appointment are booked....eeek.

Black Water Rafting - Waitomo Caves

So during the NZ trip i also got the opportunity to try out Black Water Rafting. The reason for this being a challenge is that I am not the best swimmer in the world. Or more clearly i can probably doggy paddle to save my life if i had to but generally i am pretty much the opposite of a water baby. (hence also needing to learn how to swim as a challenge). The other challenge is of course water, in the dark and small caves testing even the non-claustrophobic of us.

Anyway the first challenge was getting into the wet suits, they were wet from having been rinsed as well as really cold. It was actually only about 10 degrees at the time of our tour and then throw on these horribly cold inside out wetsuits and it was not a great start. If only the outfits included some gloves too.

We went to a "practice stream" and had to learn to jump backwards into the water and into our rings. I was freaking out at first as the tour guide was standing on a high platform and i was thinking we were going to have to jump off that and if so i was thinking i wouldn't be able to do it, thankfully we had to practice off a smaller height and it was all a'ok, until we landed in the ice cold freezing water. Definitely the literal version of jumping into the deep end.

Oh did i mention the jumping backwards practice was because there were two waterfalls that we had to jump off.... yup backwards. in the dark....

One of the hightlights of the black water rafting was that there were nice calm moments where you were just floating along looking at the glow worms, which of course arent glow worms but glowing maggot poo. yeah i know, bit of a let down to realise they arent cute worms.

Being partially on the birthday week tour meant a few things, one i got to wear a pair of old ugly togs over my wetsuit which was pretty funny really, gotta love a reason to dress up. But sadly i also had to take the jump off the waterfall first which was pretty scary and i wasnt the happiest chappy on that one. I had to sneak around a 25m deep hole and then jump into the unknown. Because no one was in there first it was dark. Pretty scary to be honest.

Anyway probably not the most exciting entry and i guess its probably evident that it wasnt the most fun i have had. It didnt have the adrenaline rush of the sky tower or the child like "wheeee" of the luge. All in all i am happy to have done it, but would i do it again... nope.

Leaping to my imminent death - aka Sky Tower Jump

I wouldn't have said i was scared of heights, the taller the better when it comes to roller coasters I say. However this isn't just height, this is 192m, with a sprawling panorama encompassing the tops of buildings, the harbour vista and a wind which is blowing like a gale at This height.

If I said this was the first time my mouth had gotten me into trouble I'd be lying, i found myself once again questioning what the fook I thought I was doing and how did i end up in this bright coloured jumpsuit?!

So i put the Sky Tower jump on my itinerary, and now i have navigated us all to the base of "the tower of doom". Time to put my money where my mouth is. To be honest from the bottom my resolve remained strong and i was still buoyed with the confidence of all that I have already put myself through during the start of the week. It was when i got into the ticket/visitor centre and got to see first hand via the multiple TV screens how high we were going to be as i saw the poor devil before me being prised off their centre of happiness and thrown into the air with gay abandon. Yes, Gay abandon...

My hands got sweaty, infact it was generally pretty hot all of a sudden and it wasnt until Fi said she would jump too that i felt comforted that we could both party in heaven together that i was able to slide my way over to the ticket booth and pay the lady and sign the sanity waiver.

I felt momentously better when i saw that we would be wearing all in one jumpsuits of Blue, Red and Yellow with massive lightening strikes across them. Surely in a getup like that I would be invincible.

Anyway i am self indulging. When i got to the top we took dibs on who was going to jump 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. Fi decided first was the only way to fly and ensure that she would be able to do it. I promptly chose second. Well my poor girl was taken into a glass room next to ours and put on the safety. If you could only see her face as she looked back at us all with an expression which screamed "what the fook am i doing" and "I dont want to do this anymore" mixed into one. Her walk down The Plank was made painstakingly slow as she dragged herself sideways inch by inch and interspersed with SOS looks. I want to tell you all that she pulled herself together and proudly leaped off the building but alas she decided going backwards off the building and letting go of the vice like grip only at the last minute was going to be her way.

Needless to say this did not fill me with courage, but it did confirm my resolve that I could do it. I managed to walk out fairly confidently and take the leap off the building on the first countdown (much to my own surprise). When I got to the bottom I felt completely weightless and the adrenaline had me 10ft tall and buzzing. I could see it in the eyes of all my friends as they landed at the bottom and it was fantastic to have shared that scare and exaltation with them all.

As Katie and I were speaking and trying to psych ourselves up to actually jump we both talked about how we wanted to be the type of people that could do things that scared us. Well we did it, so for that day, we were able to face a challenge and a fear and go with it anyway.

I was so proud of Fi, Katie, Amit, Tammy, Jill and myself.

Being 30

Ok so i have just turned 30 years old. Before i had this auspicious birthday i of course had a pre-mid life crisis and reflected on all I have done. So often I find myself as i am sure you have before too wondering about how fast these years have flown by and how much is still left on my to do list.

With that in mind I decided to coin the 30 Challenges for the year of my 30th and try and cross off a few lingering wishes and childhood ambitions. I also figure this will keep me from financing a sporty red convertible and chatting up young girls.

Anyway i have posted my incomplete list, yes there are but 27 challenges below and hope that you can all suggest the final three to make the list :)

I will be updating my blog regularly with my progress and letting you all know how its going so stay tuned kids!