I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by Alan Hoekman http://www.alanhoekman.com who writes a blog about ‘The Lighter Side of Life”; he aims to give readers a reason to smile when he writes; and he sure did make me smile. He has a natural writing style and I admire his career switch from interrogator to happy story writer; humour is interlaced perfectly in his prose. Keep making us laugh Alan; and thank you for nominating me! The Liebster Award is handed out to new and upcoming blogs with less than 200 followers. Each nominee is to help promote other new blogs by answering 11 questions and then nominating 11 other nominees.

1. What do you blog about?

I write about my travels all over the world, from local camping trips, to interstate hot air ballooning to overseas cruising on the Doubtful sound in New Zealand, most recently. I also love to take great photos and include them in my blog. Sadly I have lost all my immediate family to Cancer, so I also write about overcoming grief, and I love to find ingenious ways to reflect on their lives, weaving my memories into my posts. Plus I recently decided to give up drinking, which has been a massive catalyst for change for me; so stories about my sobriety are also included.

2. Can you give 11 random facts about yourself?  

1. I am a typical Saggitarian sporty, outgoing and gregarious. 2. I love to play all sports including swimming, tennis, yoga and recently started playing more squash. 3. I am single and have no children. 4. I am an orphan and have no immediate family, but I do have a great step Mum and some cool aunts and uncles and fabulous friends. 5. I love photography and most mornings go photo jogging; where I jog and snap, it’s great fun! 6. I Have driven across Australia twice but my goal is to circumnavigate all the way around and see all of our beautiful sites again. 7. I love to go camping, and I love caravan parks. Always so friendly, in great locations near the beach or river and so affordable. 8. I lived in Guatemala for a year and loved the scenery, volcanoes, colourful materials, and awesome festivals like Day of the Dead where they fly kites to honour the dead. 9. I am a high school teacher and used to teach Dance, Sport, English and Health. Currently I like to teach relief which gives me lots of flexibility to travel. 10. I studied as an exchange student to UBC in Vancouver Canada when I was 19 and loved everything about Canada. I have returned many times since and will be going again in a few months time. 11. I love the beach and can swim in the water all year around, even when it’s iced cold, because I am crazy like a coconut!

3. What is something you’ve been loving lately?

I love photo jogging, it’s seriously my new fave thing, especially at dawn to catch sunrise photos. I am always anxious to get the best angle so I like to run into position for it each time. It’s a work out and a pleasure for me.

4. What is it you love most about blogging?

I love to express myself in writing. I realise I have always loved writing but have never published my work before. Blogging has given me the opportunity to share my ideas and reflections with a wider audience and I love that!

5. If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

I would really love to own my own home and have a big beautiful garden and a heated outdoor lap pool. Maybe throw in a really good looking husband, someone sporty who also likes travelling and wants to be adventurous and travel the globe like me. For my final wish I would like to publish my own travel photography and writing book, have book signings and give  talks about my message to inspire others to live their dreams and passions. I know through my life experience that life is so finite, and at the end of the day all we have are our memories and experiences. People tend to forget this, and I want to jog their memories and be a source of inspiration; I aim to lead by example.

6. Where does your blog inspiration come from? Mostly from the cool places I travel to all over the world, and from the daily encounters with other travellers and friends. I carry pen and paper everywhere and jot down multiple blog ideas in a day. Annoyingly I get lots of inspiration when I am swimming laps, by the time I have gotten out, I have forgotten my brilliant ideas. Ideas can be so slippery, you have to catch that inspiration when it magically appears. Write it down! That’s my motto!

7. What is one country in the world you would like to visit? Why? South America, to see the Galapagos Island, Brazil, Argentina and Chile and Peru. That question should have said which continent do you want to go to?!

8. If you have kids or pets? No children for me yet, I have been having too much fun living my own life. I used to have a cat but the disloyal little fur ball decided to take up residence with my neighbour recently, trust me not through lack of care, I loved her dearly. I guess it could sense my restlessness, makes life easy for me as I am a keen traveller and go away a lot. One day I would love to have a dog and cat that love each other. And some chickens, a duck and maybe a llama. Why not buy a farm house eh?

9. What do you do for a living? Your day job?  I am a high school relief teacher, and I really do love teaching teenagers. Told you I was crazy. I love the variety of subjects I teach; and my job keeps me on my toes, ready for any challenge. I am done by 3pm then can focus on my own passions again, like writing and photography.

10. What is something you do when you need to take time for yourself?

I love to go to the beach and swim in the ocean as much as I can. Then I sit on the sand and absorb the energising sun rays. The sea and salt air have a natural way of relaxing me and usually induce a good siesta but the time I am home.

11. Where do you see yourself in five years time? I would like to be earning a good income from my writing and photography. I aim to keep travelling the world to achieve great images and written articles. I would like to have published a few books, bought my own place, maybe got married and popped out a child or two. I know anything could happen in the next 5 years, I will keep visualising and hopefully materialising the life of my dreams.