March/April: Cake & Circus...& The Great Ocean Road

  

Mid March saw me start work at a busy cafe in Crows Nest, 'Kurtosch' – it sells the yummiest selection of cakes and cheesecakes. It's definitely not a dream job, and steals most of my evenings from me which is annoying, but it will pay the bills for now!

My circus life has seen some exciting developments – great news for Chinese Pole – the first rubber coated poles Sydney has ever seen went up at Aerialise, and I have a fab pole partner to train with. So it's a lot easier to train...I just have to find the time!

And secondly - achieving my first catch in Flying Trapeze! First with friends and colleagues and then a class of paying customers...admittedly only two people were good enough to hit the position, but it was still good practice getting in to the locks, and what a buzz! My thighs are now permanently bruised from practicing but I love it :)

Me and Will - my first ever catch! 22.03.14

 Me and Kat

...and with a real-life customer!

The Easter holidays was a fantastic fortnight for me. Flying Trapeze was on everyday and I went in to 'work' each morning on the train with a smile on my face thinking how lucky I was to get paid to hang upside down and have fun. It reminded me that this is what I'm looking for. Although either side of Easter I caught myself wondering whether the financial insecurities and cafe work are worth it, when I've only got steady weekend circus work which could be done alongside a 'normal' job. But in the end I decided that this is my year out of the office; and even if I change jobs it's important that I'm working a casual one so that I can keep looking for and take any circus opportunities that come my way.

My 'uniform' :)

Over the Easter weekend I took a small break from circus to fly down to Melbourne, visit my old friend Dani and take a trip along the Great Ocean Road. Luckily for me, Dani has a car and was happy to drive! It doesn't take long before you're out of Melbourne and already driving alongside some spectacular scenery.

Dani casually asked me as we drove past a little place called Aireys Inlet and a small lighthouse whether we had 'Round the Twist' in the UK at which I got inordinately excited, insisted on a stop and lots of photos!

Next we drove through Lorne, Apollo Bay and then up inland to find our very glamourous motel in Lavers Hill (which consists of the motel, one pub and one cafe!). The next day we took a break from driving to go to Otway Treetop Adventures where you can walk high up through the trees.

 Then we drove onwards to the Twelve Apostles...although there are only seven of them now because of erosion!

I wasn't sure I could tell exactly why this next rock formation was specifically 'London' Bridge, but it was definitely a bridge! A little further down, Gibson's Steps allow you to get right down to beach level and access the beautiful coastline – just a shame it wasn't hot and sunny!

That evening we drove back to our motel via Melba Gully where we waited amongst the trees until after dark for the glow-worms to come out. And after a slightly false start (Is it dark enough yet? Is that one? Or is it a leaf?) we found zillions and zillions of them! Shining like constellations in the earth. It was amazing and so beautiful. A very cool experience! Sadly that was all we had time for (alhough not so sad to leave our motel!) - we drove back to Melbourne on the Monday – but I had a brilliant and refreshing trip, and came back ready to tackle Sydney and new challenges again.