Scotty Doesn't Know - Travel Songs

Not that this post is about EuroTrip and that song. This post is about songs that remind you of trips you've taken.

Rock-a-bye your bear - The Wiggles

This song was played ad nauseum on a trip between Queanbeyan, NSW and Narrabri, NSW in 1994 when I was 5-6yrs old and my brother 2-3yrs old. My family went to visit my great grandfather (my dad's maternal father). We stayed in a caravan park where there was a triple bunk bed. I remember we drove (about a 12-13hr drive) in a Toyota Camry and had the Wiggles tape on repeat.

 

 

Summer Sunshine - The Corrs

This song was playing on the inflight radio on China Airlines in 2004 when I travelled to Alberta, Canada with the Namadgi Redbacks Marching Band for the Calgary Stampede.

 

 

Paper Planes - M.I.A

This song was on the 'bus mix' when I was on a Topdeck trip in Europe in 2009. It was around the same time that Slumdog Millionaire was released.

 

 

How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20

Another 2009 Europe song. This was our 'trip song' - the first one we'd play on a drive day on the bus.

 

 

Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga

Japan 2012, was on my iPod playlist. Was pretty magical speeding through towns, cities, and fields on the shinkansen whilst this song was playing.

 

 

Sign - Flow

Japan 2012, another on my playlist.

 

 

Good Time - Owl City ft. Carlie Rae Jespen

New Zealand, 2012 - this was a song that my Topdeck group had to perform at the Marae near Rotorua, was pretty fun practising it on the bus.

 

 

Work Hard - David Guetta

Another New Zealand song, it was the trip song like Matchbox 20 was.



Been a long time....

Just realised last time I blogged was in March this year. I've been busy working - doing the on-call life and studying towards my masters' degree. At the moment I'm watching Looking for Alibrandi. I remember seeing it at the cinema with my mum when I was in year 6 (back in 2000) and thinking how things would be in 6yrs time when I was in yr12. While I didn't have any huge revelations in yr 12 (2006) a la Josie Alibrandi, it was a year that I grew up and began to understand the world a little better.

We always have times where we seek something, whether it be truth, knowledge, change, ourselves, others. I think that we are all like Josie sometimes.

I had the movie on VHS and now I don't have a VHS player to watch it with, so I got the DVD!

I liked reading Melina Marchetta's other novels - notably Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son.

In terms of travel... in 58 days I'm off to Japan with the boyfriend! I'm pretty excited, 21 days there with a week in Tokyo, then 4 nights each in Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kyoto before 2 nights in Tokyo then home again.

Songs about.... 1st edition

Every so often, I like to listen to music set around a theme. This first one is about parenthood - the highs and the lows.

Small Bump - Ed Sheeran (2012)

Wires - Athlete (2009)

Slipping through my fingers - Mamma Mia [Meryl Streep & Amanda Seyfried] (2008)

Father and Son - Cat Stevens [Yusuf Islam] (1970)

The Mom Song [William Tell Overture] - Anita Renfoe (2007)

Cat's in the Cradle - Ugly Kid Joe (1992)

Mama - Spice Girls (1996)

Mama's Song - Carrie Underwood (2010)

Gracie - Ben Folds (2005)

Still Fighting It - Ben Folds (2001)

Kooks - David Bowie (1971)

Little Green - Joni Mitchell (1971)

In my Daughter's eyes - Martina McBride (2003)

Dear 16-year-old Me

Dear 16-Year-Old Me,

Experience is worth a lot; even if things don't turn out the way you plan or expect. By 16 you have had many experiences: sex, overseas travel, exams, friendship-fallouts, fights, tears, enemies, best friends, love, hate, family, and boyfriends. Don't despair over the boyfriend thing, those hit-and-misses are all about that experience thing. The next one (and the next almost-four years of your life) will be a learning experience, even if it does leave you broken-hearted, dispirited, and a little lost. Trust me, it gets better and it leads you to something much greater than you think. I bet you cannot imagine that in 4-5 years time that you will be attending women in childbirth and witnessing the next generation taking their first breaths!

One thing you must remember, 16-year-old me, is that you are a young woman - one that shouldn't howl about the unfairness of things outside your control. That kind of tantrum is really only for toddlers, even if the teenage years are an extension of the boundary-pushing of the toddler ones. Embrace what you can control, and be calm and level-headed when things outside of that come into play. You are very resilient and - on occasions - wise.

That girl you're friends with, the one no one wants to be friends with will cause you a lot of trouble. A few friendships will end and your trust will completely be shattered at least for now. Remember MTV's Daria? You will be a feistier version of her, misanthropy non-withstanding. You will stop thinking of your former classmates as morons - well, most of them anyway.

Your best friend is still your best friend. Sure, you might not like her current friends and hate seeing her pushed around by them, but she will come into her own. You know you have a kindred spirit in her, your soul-sister, the pea-in-the-pod. No matter what, you will always have at least one friend and she is worth more than all the materialistic bullshit.

You will meet some more very dear friends through your future experiences. You can rely on them too.

Remember what I said about things getting better? That counts for the boyfriend-thing too. He is intelligent, mature, and off-beat. He satisfies all your intellectual curiosities as well as the physical ones. Well worth all the derision and the cretins found on internet dating sites.

Keep dreaming, keep your ground, and don't forsake your intelligence and wit. Also, people don't hate you as much as you think they do. Just stop worrying about what they think and focus on yourself. In the not-very-distant future you will be a uni graduate, working in a field that you have grown to love, and be embarking on graduate studies - everything you were dreaming of back when you were a child, just not in the area you expect! You have some very dear friends, and someone special just waiting for you to meet.

Love,
You-At-24-Years-of-Age.

Welcome 2013

Very busy end to 2012 and start to 2013! Got to see some awesome fireworks in Canberra as it is the 100th birthday this year. For me, 2013 will see me back at uni part time to start my Masters in Midwifery, a new role at work, and hopefully a year of consolidation (and not getting sick as much).

Anyways, something I forgot to post on the back of my post-NZ entry: the Topdeck Welly Shuffle! My tour group lending ourselves to some promotion and marketing whilst on the ferry from Wellington to Picton in NZ. True to form, Wellington was windy and cool as you can see from us all rugging up and things being blown around.