LifetimeLine

The Line and Time of Missy T.

Where have I been, and when did I go there?

Born in Hong Kong, 1980

Visited: -Macau

-Went round the world with my parents a few times (I can’t remember all the destinations!)

-America – road trips across the north, south, east and west; I mostly remember sweating in the car in Death Valley, visiting Disneyland and being the something-millionth customer and winning a Minnie Mouse doll, crying when Snoopy tried to hug me, coyotes running in front of the car in the mountains (I was disappointed that they didn’t look like Wile. E. Coyote), squirrels in one of our cabins, plastic chillis in a restaurant in the deep South, and puking on a hotel bed in Hawaii.

Moved to Perth, Western Australia in Jan 1988

I lived in a country town outside Perth for a while. I remember getting picked on for having a “black” Mum, and getting stopped by the police when in cars with her because they wanted to know why this white kid was with this black woman. Charming.

Moved to England, 1991 – 1999

The usual messy, lovely business of growing up.

Visited: -Munich, Germany, around 1994/1995 (my first taste of independent travel)

-Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachussetts, USA, around 1994/1995 (‘touring’ with a school group, performing a play about The Titanic, which had left from my home town of Southampton; stayed with a homestay family and explored a bit of Maine, too)

-North Wales, 1995 – a camping trip with a friend’s family around the larger towns and Snowdonia; I even climbed Snowdon.

– Paris, France, 1996 with an awesome school group

-Paris, France, 1997

-Paris, France, 1998 (for my 18th birthday; I went with a friend on an overnight bus, which was horrendous! But it was a kickass weekend…)

-Barcelona, Spain, 1998. I went with three lovely friends for a week to the infamous Lloret de Mar, where we tried to misbehave and generally stayed up 20 hours a day. We managed a bit of time in Barcelona, though, thank goodness!

-Perth, Australia, 1999. I took the ubiquitous ‘gap year’ and headed back to Australia for a year. I spent most of my time in Perth, but also took a bus across the Nullarbor (never again) and visited Adelaide (where a German lesbian with a mullet tried to rape me in my hostel bed), Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle.

Moved to Wales, September 1999 – June 2002

For my sins, I went to Wales for Uni. I escaped as much as humanly possible. I probably have Wales to thank for my complete inability to sit in one country for a significant amount of time…

Visited: -Hong Kong, 2000

-Perth, Western Australia, 2000 (to revisit old friends)

-Singapore, 2000 (and was pleasantly surprised)

-Venice, Padova, Verona, Florence and Pisa, Italy, 2001 (a runaway escape to take my mind off things after my Dad died)

-Paris, France, 2001 (an impromptu visit; my friend Ollie called me as I arrived at the airport in London after flying back from Italy; he asked me if I wanted to come and visit, so I hopped the first Eurostar from Waterloo. I spent a few days being chased through Paris by recently-arrived Algerians and watching Billy Connolly videos in the evenings with Ollie.)

-Thailand, July 2001, with two Uni friends on our way for a semester abroad in Australia. We visisted Bangkok, Phetchaburi, Chumporn, Koh Tao, Koh Samui, and a couple of other places that escape me now.

-Brisbane, July-November 2001. A semester as an exchange student ended up changing the path of my life, and sowed the seeds for a permanent move to Brisbane.

-New Zealand, November 2001. Mike and I hired a car and drive around the whole country for 3 weeks; one of the best long-term travelling adventures EVER. He was a great travelling companion, and we really managed to see a lot of the country.

-Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Australia, December 2001. By this time my mother was living in W.A., so on my way home to the UK I stopped to say hello (and goodbye).

-Singapore, December 2001. A week of sun before arriving in the cold winter of the UK.

-Munich, Germany; Bologna, Rome and Modena, Italy, 2002. I went to visit my lovely old friend Alex for my 22nd birthday, and we ended up taking a road trip through the Austrian Alps into Italy. We saw the Pope in Rome and ate the perfect pizza in Bologna.

Left Wales June 2002

On my way to my new home, I stopped in New York, Las Vegas (to see my fabulous family) and Los Angeles, USA, and then made a short pit stop in Sydney.

Arrived in Brisbane, 2002

While living here, I visited Perth a few times to see Mum, and Melbourne a few times to see my boyfriend’s family.

Visited: -New Zealand, May 2003 (Christchurch, Queenstown and Doubtful Sound)

-New Zealand, June 2004 (Dunedin, Queenstown, Milford Sound and Christchurch)

-Singapore, August 2004 (with Mum for her birthday)

-Hawaii, November 2004 (with Emma on a bargain flight)

-ROUND THE WORLD, NOV 2005-JAN 2006: Singapore, Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue), Italy (Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Potenza, Matera), Germany (Cologne, Monschau and Aachen, with a driving detour through Belgium!), England (to see old friends and family), New York, Toronto (more great family), Las Vegas (ditto), San Francisco, and New Zealand (Dunedin, to finally catch up with Marcus).

Moved to Canada, July 2006

En route from Brisbane to Canada, my boyfriend and I stopped in Los Angeles to see his Dad, Las Vegas to see my family, and then went to Toronto to catch up with more of my family before we settled in Montreal for a year.

Visited: -New York, USA, November 2006

-Les Iles De La Madeleine (QC ), March 2007

-New York, Boston and Portland (Maine), USA, March 2007

-Vancouver, Shuswap Lake, Banff, Jasper, Calgary and Edmonton, Canada, May 2007

-England, May-June 2007 (to see old friends again)

On our way home, we made the same ‘en route’ stops in reverse for family visits: Toronto, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Moved back to Brisbane, August 2007

Visited: -Sydney, March 2008

-Bangkok, Thailand, September 2008 (to see Phil)

-Vietnam, September 2008 (Hanoi, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue)

-Jordan, October 2008. Still one of my favourite places.

-Egypt, November 2008. Often intimidating, but awe-inspiring.

-Cologne, Germany, November 2008

-England, November 2008

-Jordan, November 2008 (not technically a visit – I was stuck in a hotel room in transit for a week; because of riots in Bangkok, I couldn’t get home!)

-Melbourne, March 2009

–MY FIRST TOURISTY VISIT TO THE UK. I finally decided to approach my old home as a tourist destination, and set out to see England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in one trip.

Visited: -ENGLAND: London, Stonehenge, parts of the West Country, Somerset and Glastonbury

-WALES: Cardiff and the Sciencentre. I spent one day there; I figured that having already lived in Wales for three long, rainy years, I could safely tick it off my list.

-SCOTLAND: Edinburgh, the Highlands, the Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, Loch Ness and everywhere in between! (Thanks, Ryan, for being as silly as me on that trip!)

-IRELAND: A circuit of Ireland, starting and ending in Dublin, and then a backtrack to Belfast to see some family.

-Perth, Western Australia, November 2009. A last-minute trip to say goodbye to a dear friend whose fight with Hodgkins Lymphoma was coming to an end. Never a sadder reason for a trip.

-Singapore, August 2010. A year of personal turmoil draws to an end with a week of total relaxation.

-Dubai, September 2010 (I spent two days there in a kickass 5-star hotel. It was 48 degrees outside and I barely left the hotel because I was enjoying it too much. D’oh!)

-Czech Republic, September 2010. Libor and Rene (two old-students-turned-friends) and I start in Prague and end up in beautiful Cesky Krumlov. Castles in between. Lovely.

-Cologne, Germany, September 2010. Another visit to Alex and Claudia; I always enjoy their company and am so happy to have the opportunity to visit them relatively often (if you can call once every two/three years ‘often’!).

-England, September-October 2010. Hanging out at old haunts with good friends never gets old.

-Paris, France, October 2010. My boyfriend and I indulge in an old cliche; he joins me in France for our anniversary.

-Morocco, October-November 2010. A three-week odyssey, starting in Casablanca and ending in Marrakech. Visited Rabat, Volubilis, Meknes, Fez, Midelt, the Sahara, Todra Gorge, Ait Benhaddou, the Atlas Mountains and Essaouira. Stunning.

-Sydney, Australia, April 2011. A trip to visit newborn twins. What an eye-opener!

-Sydney, Australia, November 2011. Family catch-ups and visa updates.

Left Brisbane mid-March 2012

-Las Vegas, USA and Toronto, Canada, March 2012. I hadn’t seen my family over there since 2007 so it was time to go!

-Cuba, April 2012. 3 weeks in one of the most amazing countries I have ever visited. I LOVED it there; I could even see myself living there!

-Philadelphia and Washington DC, USA, April 2012. Charlie and I ate our way around Philly, America’s capital and Lancaster County (Amish country), Pennsylvania in 10 days!

-New York, April-June 2012. I spent 2 months living in New York City, trying to get a taste of life as a local. This was the fulfilment of a long-held dream, and was every bit as exciting and amazing as I had hoped it would be.

-New England Road Trip, June 2012. Stopped at Providence, Rhode Island, then explored a few of the lighthouses and towns of Cape Cod, mainly around Provincetown and Hyannis. Made a day trip to Nantucket Island before heading on to Plymouth, Massachussetts, to see the infamous Plymouth Rock, then Boston for a few days. From Boston into Salem, then into Vermont before crossing the border into Canada.

Moved to Montreal, Canada, end of June 2012

-A return to our old home to see old friends and build a bit of a life again – just because we could!

…And that brings us up to present day! Wow… when I write it all down like that, it certainly looks like a lot!