"Success Leaves Clues"

I absolutely love this photo! I found it on a website which I've been reading lately, called MarcandAngel.com. Sometime on the internet I stumbled on their site and took a few minutes to read some of the featured articles, mainly about life improvement.

 A few of my favorite articles on the site were 15 Ways To Live, and Not Merely Exist, which really goes with this photo, and my favourite: 12 Things Successful People Do Differently. More importantly, this article reminded me of a great book I just finished reading that I really want to tell people about! Before I left Byron Bay, I bought this book for my bus ride to Stanthorpe and over the last 2 months I've been reading it chapter, by chapter, applying the principles to my life.

When I think, "Am I really living?" I am inspired to live and love more in the moment while pushing endlessly towards my greatest dreams. What do you think of?

The book is written by Siimon Reynolds who suiting enough, is an Aussie, A High Achievement Expert and Coach as well as the Founder of $500 Million Dollar Company). The book is called  "Why People Fail: The 16 Obstacles To Success and How You Can Overcome Them". He also has a blog called SIICOACH where readers are can view tips on how to perform better and achieve more, faster, while still enjoying life.

When I read the book and seriously applied some of the tactics to my life, I felt their effectiveness. While reading it, and still afterwards, I have been using some of the techniques and have found myself inspired. Since then I have began planning and acheiving more goals and stepping out of my comfort zone even MORE then normal.  I wanted to share this book in case there's anyone out there like me who has a lot of dreams and wants to do A LOT in a short period of time, while still enjoying life.  To read reviews about it, click here.

Here are a few of my favourite quotes from the book:

"If you're not growing you're dying"

                                 "Clearly the future for anyone with a growth mindset is huge"

                    "We become how we breathe"

"There are two reasons why people dont persist with goals. The first is poor self-image. The second reason people dont persist is they believe there is something wrong with failure.
                                                     
                                                                 "Success leaves clues"

Boonoo Boonoo National Park, Australia

Boonoo Boonoo National Park (pronounced bunna-bunoo) is a national park on the  northern border of New South Wales. We heard about it from my hippy, landlord lady, Autumn. She said the nature there was amazing with a massive canyon and lots of swimming spots. Only a 40-minute drive from Thulimbah, Queensland led us on a dusty, bumpy ride into to the bush where the park is. The drive was wicked. Scenery was stellar. This is a place worth going, hands down. 

Transitioning from scorched and golden fields to the greenery of gum trees mountains, the further we drove into the bush the more beautiful it got. A path lead us from the parking lot down to look-off point immediately, an early pay-off. But it just kept getting better. After that, it was all forest, rolling mountains, swimming holes, rock canyons and waterfalls!  

Want to know more about Boonoo Boonoo National Park? Read reviews here

We stood beside a waterfall at the first look-out, staring into the valley ahead. Waterfalls in Australia, check! We kept on down the trail which led us to a miniature Grand Canyon of rocks( mind you it was still huge!) The rocks completely engulfed us, we were like ants. We scaled in between them and over them, around them and eventually got to a second waterfall which was gorgeous. The hike was fun especially with so many people rockin their flipflops. I busted my pair eventually. Oh well , they lasted me over 6 months, way to go Payless! Lucky for me, Paul had an extra pair of "pluggers" as he would say in his British accent. Id defintely recommend good walking shoes for this.

Boonoo Boonoo is worth the day trip but would also be great for camping!

Eventually we found a small beach and a good swimming spot, and the guys jumped in even though it was freezing! I took some photos of the plant-life up there, and practiced skipping rocks. Skipped my first one- ever! woo!

 It was really gorgeous up there, blooms of yellow and red, growing on rocks, cacti, and beautiful rock formations shaped from the strain of time and pressure. I didn't want to leave, it was so serene. We all wanted to camp up there on that beach but had no supplies. Maybe next time?

As the sun was just going down we scaled back down to get back to the path. As we all met in the parking lot we sat down at a picnic table and one of the backpackers that was with us rolled up a joint. I looked over when I heard her yelling. She pointed up to a cookaburra bird in a tree. It turns out this bird just swooped down and stole her joint. I thought that was pretty funny....!

Other Stories:
Cape Byron's Lighthouse 
Tea Tree Lake, Lennox Head, Australia
30 Things Ive Learned About Australia
Australian Working Holiday Visa

How To Play "THINGS" The Drinking Game

The town of Thulimbah literally disappears at night and is lost to the darkness. It's pretty much non-existent so on a Saturday night so you have to make the best of it! We find ways of occupying ourselves with tunes, some good Aussie beers, bonfires and occasionally the Canadian Club whiskey finds its way out of the freezer.. 

Lately we've been getting into the drinking games. Like "Roxanne", the drinking game where you have to drink everytime Sting sings "Roxaaaaannne".
 Or "Things"!! The Best Drinking Game In The World.:)

How To Play "THINGS":
The great thing about this game is it is really fun to play with good friends but also with strangers. It adds a whole new element of humor to the game.

1)Start off passing around a sheet of paper and pen. Have each person write down several different sentences starting with things. for example: Things you see in the subway, things you should never say to a priest, things you miss about home, things you cant live without, things you love to hate etc. Make sure there is a good variety of questions

2) Then cut up strips of paper and hand them out to everyone, and give each person a pen. Make sure all of the pens are the same color. Put a hat in the middle of the table.

3) Elect one person to read out a question, for example: Things you see in the subway
 

4) The other people all write down an answer in block letters. It can be funny or serious, it can be true, it can be made up, and can even be made to imitate the answer that other plays might give. Then they should cold their paper strip/answer in half once and put it in the hat.

5) The point of the game is for the person reading the question to then draw out the answers, read them a loud and after everyone is done dying of laughter that person must try to guess which player said what. Some of the answers you get are hilarious! If the answers are correctly matched with the person who wrote them the writer has to drink. But if the question reader is wrong they will have to drink! This game is a blast, try it!

I asked one Estonian, one Brit, and one Canadian,
"What Do You See In The Subway?"

Featuring Stanthorpe

Stanthorpe is soooo boring. This is my opinion but I am entitled to it! I find myself wondering, "Why are the only interesting things in Stanthorpe related to alcohol?"

Is that a coincedence or a reflection of this place and the people who live here?

Passing Time With Backpackers & Rebel Pigeons

Australian sunsets are gorgeous

Thulimbah can get pretty boring, but as Ive heard an Aussie say:

 Only boring people get bored.

For me, when I'm not working it's just the simple things that make life delicious! Have a hot tea in the garden, do some yoga in the yard, snap some photos, whatever. To just enjoy nature the way it was intended, away from the noise of cities and chaos.

Still, sometimes I get restless out here! Even though I do feel great coming back to the country after a shopping day in the nearest town, Stanthorpe. (blah) The wildlife just out of the town is incredible, especially the variety of birds. Im not used to seeing wild cockatoos and rebel pigeons so I could sit outside just watching and listening to them forever. I love the colored parrots-except when they wake me up at 3 am..true say!

I have renamed the Crested Dove, The Rebel Pigeon

I've been in Thulimbah for almost two months now, but surprisingly the time has just flown by. I have been working for 6/ 8 weeks so maybe that's why, but there have been some good times here.

Out of restlessness my creative streak has been coming through, and Ive taken up photography and Ive been baking like mad!  Herb Bread, Foccacia, Banana bread, raisin scones, mango pie, shortbread cookies, chocolate macaroons, you name it! My new housemate Paul from England has even pitched in money for baking supplies so he can get in on it.

 Tonight is his 32nd birthday so me and the other housemates are having a celebration dinner for him that he doesn't know about yet. Tatsu and Yuki, our Japanese housemates are going to make Vegetable Tempura and I am going to make coconut cake topped with fresh strawberries from a local farm. Perhaps have a few drinks of Canadian Club too?

My own Pizza, Chocolate Macaroons, Veg Shephard's Pie, Scones & Red Veg Curry!

Rebel Pigeon Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org

Where The Hell Am I? Welcome to THULIMBAH, QLD

Greetings from Thulimbah..
Home of The Big Apple... Aka The Middle of Nowhere!

I wouldnt even consider "Thulimbah" a town, its more like..where a rail-crossing, a restaurant, store, campground and a few houses meet on the outskirts of Stanthorpe, another middle of nowhere place somewhere in the dusty part of Queensland. So far I have been here for almost two months, but somewhere in between working 12 hour days and dodgy internet connection My Roaming Backpack has been getting the back burner!

All I know is that the magical land of Thulimbah is off of the New England Highway in the middle of The Granite Belt, which is Queensland's grape, stone fruit and apple region. There are hundreds of acres of farm all around me and I am also on the summit of a mountain, which makes the weather here crazy! Ive seen it fluctuate from sunshine to hail in 5 minutes!

Its a quirky little place here.


Beside the house I'm renting is a caravan tourist park, called The Happy Apple. Its basically a mixture of backpacker berry-pickers from all over the world living in these massive tents, mixed in with Aussie people who live here all year long in their mobile homes. Its an interesting mix that's for sure! 

The owner of the park is Autumn, a really cool and creative hippy lady who keeps the area beautiful with her gardening and other small touches. She is also my neighbor and my landlord!  At the moment I am renting a 5 room house from her and sharing it with 4 other people, a couple from Japan, a guy from England and my friend Scott from Canada!

We all usually work during the week and then spend the weekends relaxing, having some drinks and a bonfire, and now that summer's here we are going out for hikes! Yeeeeaaah.