…hello..?…anybody

It is a big day in the world of Kit. Today I signed up to Tumblr AND got a Twitter account. And suddenly I am one of the cool kidz. Although trying to navigate Twitter (and failing miserably) certainly doesn’t leave me feeling cool. I thought these social media do-dah’s were supposed to be easy. Why is it that Margaret Fulton can use the bloody site and I cannot?? 

Maybe she is paying someone to do it for her. There are jobs out there where people just write Twitter updates all day long. And who said y gen kids can’t have their cake and eat it too?? 

Pretending to be an adult...

Very soon I shall twenty five, own an apartment with three bedrooms, have a husband...
To be honest, lately I have been feeling somewhat old.

In August I plan to host a party to celebrate buying a house, getting engaged and turning 25. Surely with the overdose of adult I have recently been injected with, it is within my rights to have a mid life crisis? Or maybe I will compensate by adopting a baby voice and dragging a rag behind me for comfort? Any way you cut the cake, I have become a fully fledged adult. Even as I write this though, it just doesn't feel real. I always though that all these elements would feel huge and completely overwhelming, but strangely enough, they don't.

To be fair to my ‘situation’ though, it kind of suits me. I don’t think anyone will surprised when I say I am rather drawn to conversations of a domestic kind and I actually get excited about trips to Woolworths. I spent almost 20 minutes yesterday drooling over the baking implements on display. I walked out with a pizza tray and a baking dish, an entire $8 well spent. I cannot tell you the glow that I was releasing, I think I even managed to stop the rain and force a bit of sunshine into the gloomy world of Sydney for a moment!

On another grown up note...I am officially an employed writer! I really don’t think that it is fair of you to press me for more information than just that. It is, in no way, important that I mention that I write uninspiring words for the world of suits and photocopiers. The fact that I am tender writer should have no bearing on the respect I felt shining on me when you discovered my writer status!

Well, I have better things to do than sit here and write to you lot...
Snuggle into bed and read for instance...whilst I pretend to do uni work (don't tell JJ, he still thinks that I am a good student).

Cupcakes and interesting writers...

These are the two big highlights of my day. Oh and that my mate and I both decided that we wanted a vego pizza for dinner, which has since been devoured along with an entire garlic bread! What pigs we are! It is 7:59pm and I would go to bed cause of excessive tiredness but the promise of a cupcake and a cup of tea is helping to prop my eyes open. I got home, after volunteering at the Sydney Writers festival, cold and desperately tired only to find these darling little cupcakes waiting patiently on the kitchen table. So once I have purged (don't know if that is even the right word!) myself of this blog I can go and eat a cupcake. Which kind of gives me less incentive to write anything of significant length.

Anyway, today's other highlight was in making a connection with one Jon Doust (a guest writer at the Sydney Writers Festival) who took a liking to me and gave me his card along with the words 'stay in touch'! Brilliant (okay, so the words are not the most inspiring ever said to me...but they come from an actual writer...I know what you are thinking, Kit has finally lost it. Yes. It is true!). That is literally the highlight of my week...it even supercedes the cupcake excitement. A proper published writer to add to my growing collection of friends and acquaintances who actually have published books. Ah, networking, what a brilliant concept...and now for the cupcakes...

Weddings...an overrated experience??

A year ago I wrote a little article in regards to the over hype that surrounds weddings and their preparations. I found this article yesterday and reading it, with all its cycnism, I was wondering how much of those feelings still existed within me. I had written:

"Why such a long engagement?" I asked of a colleague one day as she stood gossiping about her wedding preparations. It seems that I do not quite understand the etiquette of wedding preparations, a conversation which has consumed the entire female population of my office at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I am feminine enough to consider a conversation about bridesmaid's frocks to be 'interesting'. However, the thought of spending a year of my life agonising over what stationer to employ does not have me flushed with girly excitement. Perhaps my idea of what a wedding is really about is pre-historic?

Maybe it is just me, but will anybody with any sense really still be considering the design of the name cards or the colour of the napkins two years down the track? Surely the band and the food will play more on the memory.

I want a simple wedding; I want only one bridesmaid, I want a dress that I can get dirty in and I want a really great band. I want people to stumble away from my wedding with their shoes slung over one shoulder and their children over the other.

...I still want that. Perhaps now that I am engaged and have a wedding on the horizon, conversations of dresses, venues and colour schemes hold my interest for longer. And rather than being the polite nodder on the edge of the group listening with a slight sensation of boredom, I am the instigator of all talk regarding weddings. But still, as I flick through Cosmo Bride and the multitude of other bridal magazines, I find myself stifling a yawn as I thumb past pages of wedding stationary and doll like models wearing layers of lace and frills, looking like a princess bride from a disney picture.

Advertisement after advertisement shouts ways to make me thinner, more toned...less imperfect. I can have my teeth whitened for the big day, my tummy tucked and have false hair attached to make me look more like a celebrity walking down the red carpet. Although part of me is entranced by the sparkling white teeth idea, the other part of me (the me part and not the commercially influenced part) asks: What happened to having fun and letting your hair down at a wedding?

Must we all be polished and groomed to look like a barbie doll? Obviously I want to look my best for my special day but I want to look like me and not some airbrushed doll. And I think, or perhaps I am miss lead, my groom is marrying me for me...not for some tarted up version of me.

On a lighter note, I hope you liked the photos. I think that they are priceless!

Thought I would keep in touch...

I have been inspired to write. I keep reading my mate Hana's blog, she is so disciplined and writes whenever something even vaguely interesting happens in her life...which is surprisingly often. She has the added bonus of finding everything fabulous and different because she is living in Vancouver...not her city of birth. Anyway, she has inspired me to make more effort and write more. That, and the fact that I am now back at university trying to work through my postgraduate in writing, editing and publishing which kinda means that I should actually try to write on a regular basis, even if no one bothers to read this!

Typical Kit, when interesting things happen in my life I actually can't be bothered to write. And when I do think that sitting down to write would be fun I realise that the life that I currently inhabit is actually pretty dull and therefore I have less to write about. The plus for you guys is that the posts will be shorter, but the downside is that they are probably all going to be pretty boring!

Life is currently going swimmingly, yes people still use this phrase...or at least I do which will definitely make it the new cool phrase to use! It doesn't yet consist of a job but that will come...I am hoping that it might occur in the same way as it happened for Julie in 'Julia and Julie'. One day I am certain that I will have 67 voice messages on my phone (should probably invest in voice mail first) asking me to come work/write for them. In the meantime I am occupied searching out houses (or more likely apartments, cannot afford an entire house) to buy, venues for the wedding and 'studying' for uni. Today I had my first game back at soccer and boy did I realise that I am not as young as I used to be! I pretty much walked the game and watched the ball as it flew by me in both directions. I honestly had no motivation to chase after it...I was having one of those "What does it all mean?" moments. Chasing a ball seems a little inane, a new feeling for me. Perhaps it is a sign of too much individuality, to not chase the ball like the rest of the team I mean.

Well, that is about all I have in me. I am off to do my uni 'homework'...so strange to use this word again.

I write from fair Verona...

As I say, I write from fair Verona, the first blog from the new set of travels that we are making along our path towards home. We have four days left, only Venezia to go and then we find ourselves back in the United Kingdom to celebrate Christmas with my darling parentals who are joining us all the way up from the land down under.

In typical Kit fashion, the trip has not been without its hiccups...thanks again to food poisoning! This time I actually thought that I was dying and was considering having JJ take me to a lawyer to write up a will...just in case. It was horrendous! You do not need the gory details but you all have imaginations...so use them...

Um....I am pathetic, I actually wrote the above when I was in fair Verona, but now it is the end of Christmas day and I am sitting on the couch after having just sent two very jet-lagged parents to bed. As many of you are now aware...I am engaged to the darling Jono Carstairs (which means that I am soon to be Mrs Kathryn (aka Kit) Carstairs...KC...I rather like the sound of this. I have tried this name out LOTS since the proposal and had many sleepless nights planning the wedding in my head!). It was the most magical day of my life and must for a moment delve into the world of soppy and say that I am more in love with my man than ever. Nuff said, you all know that I am weak at the knees when it comes to him so you will all be able to imagine that I am living in la-la land now and walking around with a smile permantly plastered to my face. I think JJ is considering proposing more often...I am being that nice to him! Haha!

This blog was supposed to be about Italia but it has been a little overshadowed by the fact that I just accepted to stop being an individual solely living for me and be one half of a whole! A strange but very comforting feeling.

Italy, for the third time, was awesome...actually...you know what? I cannot be arsed to write about Italy except to say that we had a swell three weeks rollicking around in our little hire car that I named Fifi (I thought that it was a Fiat...but it was actually a citron...whoops!), being guided by Tom (the GPS...TomTom). We had some pretty awesome days and nights and caught up with many of my old friends from my past travels there. It was colder there than I have ever experienced but it was wonderful to see Venice totally covered in snow and ice. Unfortunately though the magical snow and ice caused us a little spot of bother when it came to returning to the UK...it took us 17 hours to get back (it should have been a 3 hour journey...max!). Insane.

Anyway, I am nodding off from too much food and wine and excitement from seeing my parents, so I will leave you. Sorry for being really shit and not really updating you on anything...but there is so much else going on that I am finding it hard to concentrate!

Merry Christmas and much love to all you wonderful people!
Love Kit

Homeward Bound

Well my dear friends, there is only so much excitement a girl can take and I think I am almost at overload! The year that has just passed me by has been a tremendous joy; full of fun, adventure, friends and new experiences. But now I begin the journey that takes me homeward, which is where I know that I belong. No one expected me to disappear forever, I am far too Australian and attached to my home, family and friends to be absent for too long!

This experience of travel has been much less bumpy along the way than my last sojourn. So many things have contributed to this; maturity, money, companionship…I think perhaps this was the real key. Sharing this journey with my lovely gentleman has made it all so much the sweeter. I feel that we come home as a more unified, solid couple than the day we departed (this could just be the natural result of time passing...or...it could be that you really need to learn to like and love the other when the companionship is so constant and when there is no other shoulder to rest upon). I think without each other this journey would not have lasted and certainly would not have been dotted with so many lovely trips throughout Europe and our new "homeland".

I have been a terrible correspondent over the last months and failed to update you all on the travel, work and the general experience of settling into our home. But there has been so much going on that finding the time to write just seemed an insignificant priority. I won’t bore you now with a detailed summary of the ups, down’s, in’s and out’s…just know that it has been fabulous, hard, interesting and wonderful. And that we come home fully satisfied with our lot!

I think a particular highlight for us was the house share, which despite saying we would leave; we remained in the entire time. It has been full of fabulous spontaneous support, friendship and fun. Just last night I helped decorate 100 cupcakes for a housemate to raise money for charity…before pasting the icing onto our own faces and posing for photos!

Work has been an interesting component to our lives over here. The recession was not a friend or ally when it came to finding work and finding work that we necessarily wanted! The experience for JJ was not what we had anticipated and was somewhat sporadic and unpredictable. And for me, well, as I sit pondering on my second last day of employment at TR, I can see what I will take away from it all. Working in this role has given me exposure across Europe (including a few cushy work trips to places like Oslo and Dublin) and the US and opened up a whole new insight into different cultures and workflows. It has been fascinating working with a multilingual team, listening to them dive in and out of the many different languages that they are ALL able to speak. Although this aspect has managed to make my feel ever so slightly inadequate! I am stoked to have been able to operate in a management role that has given me the autonomy to make decisions, implement changes, develop workflows and manage my time with out a hawk watching over me. Although TR is not where I ultimately see myself, it has certainly helped me to carve a clearer picture of the future that I do desire and it has equipped me with knowledge that will be priceless in moving forwards.

I leave London with some very happy memories, many new friends and new skills. I feel that I am on the brink; I could stay and become fully absorbed into the expat life, or return home to the comfort of a beautiful country, gorgeous friends and the best family I could ask for. Although the former is tempting, to disappear entirely into a different world, the latter is most definitely my preference!

I look forward to keeping you all updated on all the travels we have ahead of us and even more I cannot wait to swap stories with you in person! We still have so much ahead of us, but home is on the horizon; so see you soon!

PS. I have found a few travel quotes that I quite like and thought that I would share them with you, rather than being essentially about travel, they are about returning home after travel...

"As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own".
- Margaret Mead

"You may wonder, 'How can I leave it all behind if I am just coming back to it? How can I make a new beginning if I simply return to the old?' The answer lies in the return. You will not come back to the 'same old thing.' What you return to has changed because you have changed. Your perceptions will be altered. You will not incorporate into the same body, status, or world you left behind. The river has been flowing while you were gone. Now it does not look like the same river".
- Steven Foster

And finally a few words of wisdom from Mark Twain:
"We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can wow and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our untraveled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can't shake off. All our passengers are paying strict attention to this thing, with the end in view which I have mentioned. The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass".