The year that was: 2011.............continued

Let us continue:

April
April saw the birth of my nephew Eric David James Travers on the 10th April. He was very eager to come at 6 weeks early but he was just beautiful. He is another blessing in our lives and is such a happy, smiley little baby.

Just minutes after Eric was born. He is just adorable!!

 

 

 

The very Proud sister

I also completed my Competent Comunicator Manual for Toasmasters. This is the award you recieve for completing your first 10 speeches at Toastmasters. Took me 18 months to complete but I finally did!!!

May:
I competed in two Eisteddfod's: Burnie & Launceston. I didn't recieve any placings in the Launceston competition but I met some lovely people and it is always good to do some performing. In Burnie I took home Four First Places and a Second Place which was really nice. I also recieved a special memorial Trophy for being the 2011 Open Vocal Champion.

I also went & saw the local Choral Society Production of Urinetown. The show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2002 and took three home. For those who don't know, the Tony Awards are like the Academy Awards but for Theatre productions. It is the story of a ficticious town sometime in the future where people have to pay to go to the public toilet. If they are caught trying to cheat the system, they are arrested and sent to 'Urinetown', which is otherwise known as death. It is a great show and I would recommend it to anyone. My favourite song from the show was Run, Freedom, Run. There is an excellent clip of the Broadway cast performing this at the Tony Awards on You Tube if you are interested.

June:
My first semester Psychology subject came to an end. It was an enjoyable but tough subject and I deffinitely learnt a lot. I even came out with a HD for two of my assessments which was such a surprise cause the Psychology department is very tough on assesments. I ended up with a Credit overall for the semester so I was over the moon at that result!!!

July:
This was a pretty jam packed month. Firstly I competed in the Hobart Eisteddfod which was an experience. Once again no placings but I did learn a couple of things which was good.

My Mum, sister and I, along with a few family friends, headed to Sydney again for a women's conference called Time Out For Women. It was a fantastic day and it was wonderful to see sooooo many beautiful women from around Australia. The days program included many songs from one of my favourite Christian singers Hilary Weeks, and sessions with Brad Wilcox, Laurel Christiensen, Sherri Dew, and Virginia Pearce who all came from America to speak to us. We also were given these awesome Green & Purple Tote Bags which are so cute and which I use all the time. My favourite parts of the day were hearing Hilary Weeks sing and listening to Laurel Christiensen. I got to meet both of them at the end of the day and they are two of the most lovely and beautiful people I have had the pleasure of meeting. I got to meet Hilary in Salt Lake when we were there in 2009 and she was still the same person she was the first time I met her.

My sister Lisa and I with Hilary Weeks

with Laurel Christiensen

I also started my second semester of Psychology at UTas and the choir that I sing with, and am Assitant Choir Director for, sang as part of the Gospel Song for the annual local Jazz Festival held each year. It is always a fun sing and something the choir looks forward to every year.

I also joined the cast for Ulverstone Rep Society's Production of Blood Brothers. More about that later!!!

August:
At the beginning of August my Mum and I flew to Melbourne for the weekend to catch up with my best friend Melinda from New Zealand, who I studied with in New Zealand, along with her younger sister Louisa. We flew out on the Saturday morning from Launceston, spent the day shopping (of course!!), caught up with my friend for dinner at the Pankcake Parlour (one of my favourite restaurants and a must visit whenever we go to Melbourne), and ended the night seeing Love Never Dies. This was an Australian Premiere and Melbourne was the first city outside of London to have staged the show. Love Never Dies is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera and is set 10 years later on Coney Island in America. It isn't my favourite show, that title still goes to Wicked, but I loved the music and the costumes and even shed some tears at the end. It was so wonderful to catch up with Melinda again and to share some more memories. We also got to catch up with my Aunty Jenny, Uncle Bruce, my cousin Bianca and her Partner and little boy who is absolutely gorgeous!! We flew back home late Sunday afternoon and back to reality!!

My best friend and I with our favourite gown from the show!!!!

I also competed in the Devonport Eisteddfod. I went in both the Speech & Drama and Vocal sections. In the Speech & Drama I got three 1st places, one second place and one honourable mention and I recieved a special trophy for getting the highest score in two of the sections I competed in. In the Vocal I got 5 second places so it was quite a successful competition. I also learnt a lot again which is always good and it is nice for my family to be able to come and hear me sing. In the same competition Right on Cue competed in three sections where we got a first place with 98 and a second place with 93. The choir did really well and it was a great end to the competitions.

The middle of the year was another busy 5 months!! The final instalment will be posted soon.............