Soup-rise

As I mentioned before, I'm back home for a stint over Christmas, and slightly beyond. I've got a job and am working managing a photography studio while I'm home (it's not as glamorous as it might sound), and am taking the day of work wednesday because my Christmas present from my brother is some sort of a surprise. 

I L-O-V-E surprises! Sometimes ... often... more than whatever it actually is. So all I know is i need a swimsuit, towel, and sense of adventure. My brother is a pilot/ likes engines, so I'm lead to the following conclusions:

#1.Parasailing

#2. Scuba diving (he recently got his master divers licence for scuba diving)

#3. Jet ski adventure

#4. Something lame and not nearly as bourgeois like a surfing lesson.
#5. skydiving into the ocean.

sooooo curious to see what it turns out to be!! They even tried to tell me today what it is (I've been told what to bring, that it's been paid for and can't be changed to another day, and that we're meeting at the beach). My family is RADICAL.

On another note, my parents (mostly Mum) are completely bonkers for Christmas tradition, and two of the biggest are baking way too many treats, and buying a new ornament each year to represent the year past. I have two this year; a camera, and a globe! The plan, cheesy as it may sound, is to mark a little 'x' on all 26 or so countries I've been to up to this point on my life and then breeze past it next year! I have this desire to get to 30 countries before I'm 30, so my bike ride through the middle east next year will be perfect as long as I can raise enough money for this amazing event. (http://followthewomen.chipin.com/follow-the-women)


I'd ideally like to donate some of my photography, and have a show while I'm in Australia and donate the proceeds to the event, but it's a lot of organisation which I'm finding a little hard to juggle with a job, family-time, Christmas, and catching up with friends I haven't seen in the last few years, but HAVE to do since I'm really passionate about this cause.