Adventure?

Cairns

Last week I went on a little work trip to Cairns. Now work trips were pretty much the norm last year... but hey I was working full time then. I've never come across a casual job where you actually get to travel! I thought it was pretty cool... particularly as the only thing I had to do was count stuff as always. And we got to have some awesome buffets as well... I gorged myself on oysters and red wine! So this pic was taken at the motel we were staying at, which was a pretty ok one... with a decent pools and the famous (apparently) Cairns mudflats just opposite. Cairns was really really pretty... a little city tucked between a few mountains with lots of palm trees and easygoing locals.

I did manage to go out one night, with Meredith, my 42yo colleague. I think I should say a little about this particular colleague actually as I find her a really interesting and inspiring kind of lady. When you meet Meredith, like a lot of the other Lotons staff, she definately doesn't have the appearance of a well polished soccer mum. I would have put her at about 38, but she is a very young 42. Very young! So Meredith's story goes something like this.... From a very young age she wanted to be independant and more out of home. Her older sister had been enrolled in Girls Grammer from an early age, so she was forced to follow in her footsteps, although left GG at about 16. I really didn't pick her as a private school girl at all! So after leaving school she pretty much left town and went out to Mackay and other cities in Qld to work. Then she stumbled across the true love of her life, working on trawler boats. So for years she would go out on the boats, travelling around the whole of Australia working as a cook and deckhand. She also took a whole bunch of overseas trips, most notably to Borneo where she sailed by boat from Brunei to Sabah. Meredith also has 2 kids, one 14yo and one 11yo, to the same father although they were never married. They ended up separating a few years ago, but she has a boyfriend now and her ex helps out with looking after the kids a lot.

Now maybe this whole story doesn't really sound that special, but she just has a really fresh attitude to life, pretty much a take it as it comes, don't worry something will come along that is right for you and it always does. It makes me feel quite peaceful hearing these things from someone so much older... but in many ways so much younger!

I hope that I can retain the same kind of attitude towards life as I get older. Anyways, her is to Meredith, possibly one of my coolest colleages.

posted by Jess @ 6:37 PM