26 Things

Hi friends! Today is a day of new beginnings as I start the first day of my 26th year. I have looked back on a brilliant 25th year. It began with a vacay to the gorgeous South Pacific Island of Vanuatu, where I got engaged to the love of my life. We endured the floods of biblical proportions that swallowed Brisbane in the beginning of 2011. We spent the month of February with my beautiful parents as they joined in our adventures down under. In March we celebrated Dave's birthday and in April we traveled through New Zealand. In May we chilled out in Noosa and June saw us betting at the horse races. By July I was preparing for a new work venture in Papua New Guinea and spent all of August taking in this amazing new culture. September I was back home in Brisbane and loving the spring sunshine but by October I was sent back to Canada to work out of Vancouver for a month. I got to spend that beautiful fall with loved ones from back home and by the end of the month Dave and I were enjoying the beaches of Byron Bay together. To close out my final month in this first quarter century we set off for Sydney and Melbourne. Now I can finally say that I think I packed in as much good times as there was minutes in the day this past year!

To kick off my first day of being 26, I have come up with a list of 26 things about myself...some you may know and some may be new. Enjoy!

1.      I’m madly in love with the boy of my dreams, who I’ve been with for exactly 1/3 of my life. Well, I’ve loved him almost my whole life really, but it’s only been official for 8 and a half years. I still have a note written to my best friend in Grade 7, which I signed off as Tegan Dow. Somehow I knew that long ago that I was going to marry that boy someday.

2.      I share my birthday with my radiant twin sister, we are Sagittarius Wood Ox: Translation –They play hard, they work hard and, crucially for these Sagi girls, they have an inordinate amount of self belief - they just want to let the universe know that Sagi Wood Ox girl has arrived. I thank my lucky stars everyday for having such an amazing twin sis!! This year I am officially a whole day older.

3.      Friends and family are the single most important thing to me. I admire all of the wonderful people in my life and surround myself with the people who inspire me. My Grandma Ryan and my Grandma Mary are two of the most gorgeous women I look up to and I keep my Grandma Ruby in my heart always.

4.      My dream is to honeymoon in Europe – France, Spain, Italy, I could go on. I figure a two and a half year engagement warrants at least two and a half months of honeymoon vacay right?!

5.      I will be spending this Christmas on the beach in Thailand, then traveling to Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. Just the three musketeers  Me, Dave & Sabi. The last time the three of us had a night out together it ended in a free hotel room and minus one shoe...look out Asia.

6.      I’m a crazy dreamer and am constantly aspiring to new goals like climbing Everest base camp and learning to surf. We just bought a surf board...it’s actually our second one. The first one died a tragic death when Dave accidentally ran it right over in our juicy van a few years ago while on a road trip. Yep cracked the fins right off. Note: never store a surf board under the vehicle...err, I mean, it got snapped in two by a shark!!

7.      I need a creative outlet and love to blog...sometimes about nothing at all really. I have over 2000 views on my page since I started blogging over a year ago. I’d love to have more followers, so join up friends!

8.      I absolutely love our home in Australia and would never leave here if our family and friends weren’t so dang far away. Living in a hotel has its perks! Room service at your beck and call and you can never be locked out with a 24hr receptionist at your front door...not to mention the million dollar views and a gorgeous patio pool all to yourself as everyone else seems to be too busy working to enjoy!

9.      I love to budget and do a mini celebration dance in my head every time I save dolla bills. I’m queen of the daily deals!

10.  I am hugely competitive to a fault. I learned to play rugby this year and got sucked into a World Cup Rugby betting competition. I researched every single game (there were eight rounds of betting with up to eight games a round) and came out on top of the 26 participants from my office a couple months later and $400.00 richer...not because I care about Rugby but because I hate to lose. This is also why Monopoly is banned in our household...tragic ending, it’s true.

11.  I love to dance, even if it’s just a boogie in the kitchen. My favorite song of all time is Brown Eyed Girl, it’s our family anthem and we can’t deny the urge to cut a rug when the tune comes on. I guess it’s been programmed into our DNA since my mama used to blast it for all of us to dance to in the living room when we were kids.

12.  I love to sing, especially in the shower, but I’ve been told that the sound I hear and the sounds that everyone else hears are not the same?! Hmm.

13.  I am an aunty of 3 gorgeous girls and soon to be a new aunty to our first nephew, and my new birthday buddy! I can’t wait to spend more time with them when we move back to Canada.

14.  I get so excited with new books that I start them before finishing the last ones...I currently have 4 books on the go right now. I also hate to actually finish a book because I don’t want it to be over, so I usually leave a chapter or two for later. Such is the case with Ellen’s new book. I seriously love her, she makes me smile on a daily basis. When I walk into any book store I head straight to the self help/real life section and try to absorb as much info as I can, I get it from my mama.

15.  My favorite movie is the notebook...yes, I’m a hopeless romantic.

16.  I don't carry a cell phone...i have two, a blackberry in Canada and an Australian cell phone that I don't ever top up with credit so I don't bother to take it anywhere. I can only receive calls on it. This is strange for me because I lived on my smart phone in Canada, but something about our aussie lifestyle promotes simplicity and I love that.
 

17.  I’m trying to learn to play guitar...I’ve never had so much trouble picking up a new skill...ever.

18.  I love to travel...I’ve been to 8 countries so far and I’ve been on 11 flights in the past 14 weeks totaling approximately 25,000 miles. It’s only going to get better when we have 8 flights in 4 weeks over Christmas.

19.   I love school and sometimes wish I was still at university...maybe one day I’ll be back! Mostly I miss hanging out with our very best friends, the family we chose for ourselves, on a daily basis. And apparently six years of university has instilled an inherent need to research EVERYTHING to the max. I use spreadsheets and lists to compare and organize every aspect of my life.

20.  I love to dabble in photography and have been practicing taking photos every chance I get. Luckily I have such a handsome model to practice on.

21.  I still ask Dave or use a calculator to crunch quick math even though I got a 4.0 in engineering calculus. And I can’t spell to save my life.

22.  I haven’t owned a car in a year and four months...that’s 487 days of getting to where I need to be with my own two legs. I haven’t been brave enough to attempt driving on the other side of the road...did I mention I hate driving?

23.   Some of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had are held with a sleep talker. Last night I asked [sleeping] Dave to tell me something about myself (to be used in this list). He told me “you drive like Maggie!” Considering I haven’t driven in over a year and that I don’t personally know anyone named Maggie I asked him to explain. He said “You drive just like Maggie Simpson...you know the cartoon the Simpsons...like her!” Well, I’m glad that’s now out in the open.

24.   I am currently working as a Civil Engineer for a mining engineering consultancy in Brisbane designing tailings dams. Ironically, none of my projects are even in Australia, they are overseas in Fiji and PNG.

25.   I don’t miss the Canadian winter at all, and feel slightly ashamed for this. I am currently plotting out a plan to escape next year’s winter...that’s how much I despise it.

26.   I love to have fun...it’s my most favorite thing to do, ever! I love to laugh hard and love big. Life is for living!

 

Xo Tegs