Ok, well this 30 minute 'after work drinks' event is ALL about ME
Please note: eating and drinking is optional. It is your choice if you stay 5 seconds or the entire event to claim the smiley. This event will provide you with 5 points towards the new GC.com souvenir.
Help me celebrate my recently achieved 10,000th cache find. This will also be an opportunity for you to share your own personal achievements/ milestones (on the night AND in your logs below), I am keen to hear all about them!!
I recognise this event is at a potentially 'awkward' time, so I don't expect many of you being able to make it, but THANK YOU for all of the lovely messages I have received so far regarding this milestone. Thanks CP for the social media post (which I didn't actually know about given that I don't do social media).
2018 has been a BIG year for me:
1) I attended the GeoWoodstock GIGA event in Ohio, USA in May 2018 with the lovely micaparamedic, Brad&Janet and a couple of other Aussie cachers - an amazing opportunity indeed.
2) I completed my Jasmer grid (at least one cache find in every month since May 2000) whilst in the USA and I even got to take a boat trip in Atlanta Georgia to assist in this task - a lot of planning and walking to these old caches, but awesome all the same.
3) Targeting challenge caches and specific D/Ts in the USA and Australia saw my D5/T5 cache finds quadrupled and a couple more Fizzy loops completed.
4) I reached the 10,000th cache find milestone in a little less than 3 years. Despite doing powertrails in France and the USA, these finds were not done in a 'leap-frog' style, so yep I stopped at every cache (either as driver, finder or stamper).
5) I have hosted more than 52 events this year (as I set this as my own personal goal for 2018)
6) I have met some AMAZING people across Australia and the world and feel privileged to call a number of them friends.
Enjoy a quick geo-catch up at:
The Earl of Leicester Hotel
85 Leicester St
Parkside
I intend to host this 'casual' event in the FRONT BAR without booking a specific area.
On: Wednesday 12th December 2018
Between: 5:40pm and 6:10pm
A little more about me and my caching 'career' LOL…..grab a cuppa, put your feet up and have a read - if you want to that is, no offence taken if this is a little TOO MUCH about me .... Well I did give you warning at the top of this listing that it was ALL about me: 
I've had a GC.com account since January 2015, yet it was only created as a colleague/friend at the time encouraged me to get one as he suggested this was a way I could see his regular travel pics and read about his caching escapades. I had no real interest in caching myself at that point.
Fast forward to the end of 2015, and I was sent a link and asked to solve a puzzle. It was actually a Brad&Janet puzzle which intrigued me so much that I spent hours solving it myself...the funny thing was I didn't even know what coordinates were so I had no idea if I had solved it properly. I actually had, woo hoo (insert happy dance) - this ended up being my very first find 
.
I literally made only a few more finds in 2015, and then I attended my first geocaching event and met Freddo and others on 31.12.15, just before I jumped on a plane to visit a friend in Queensland for NYE.
Whilst in Queensland I randomly looked at my GC.com account to see if there were any events on and was surprised to see there was one near me. I then attended "2016 Geocaching Event for Newbies" on 2 January 2016 near Gympie - I mean really, what are the chances of this event being on when I was in Qld already, AND I was actually a newbie who wanted to learn more?! AMAZING!!
At this event I ran into geocaching legends Liz and Bruce (not that I knew they were caching royalty at that time)....OMG, what an amazing chance meeting and one I will be forever grateful for. I was on about 5 cache finds at the time, and they were on millions (well it seemed that way). They and other experienced cachers then took me under their geocaching-wings and my total more than tripled whilst at that event.
I then had a 'thirst' for continuing on with this hobby called geocaching and one of the next events I attended was in Hahndorf, SA, during the TDU which was hosted by Brisal5. I was so nervous at attending an event and not knowing anyone that I accidently left the "D" out of GoodLook when signing the log.....Brian still teases me about that. He and Monika then took me out that night and my total just about doubled again. That night cache run was where I learnt about different cache hides, different cache types and saw what a well fitted out geo-mobile looked like.....drool!
I'd also heard that streaks with physical finds was something that would be easy for me to do when I first started caching, so I did (that streak ended up lasting over 500 days...and nearly turned me off of geocaching at the same time!). A massive thanks to CPwanderer and all of his encouragement which assisted me in maintaining this.....our sometimes nightly geocaching jaunts kept me going when my motivation was low.
In August 2016 I travelled to France with Liz and Bruce and the awesome Ozibags - another OMG moment! I ended up being the designated driver for the month as we meandered around country France, Spain and Andorra. We attended a Mega in France and attacked some of the power trails (no leap frogging, not that I am opposed to this, as that can be a great day out too). By the end of 2016 I had made more than 4250 finds for the year.
In 2017, I travelled to the USA several times, one of the trips was so I could experience the total solar eclipse and to attend the Ape Cache Mega (and find the newly replaced Ape cache – an amazing moment). Visiting the site of the “Original Stash” and attending HQ more than once were awesome moments for me. A 10+ day road trip with Freddo through Yellowstone National Park and beyond was spectacular - a wonderful and considerate travel buddy. His event in Jackson Hole, WY is still my #1, and one I'll never forget (insert OMG - literally LOL). I still wonder if Professor Freddo only asked me to join him as he knew I would become the 'bear food' as he had the ability to out run me whilst we walked around the park, hahahaha - the things we learnt about the American culture and how to protect yourself from bear attacks was crazy!
In 2017 I also set myself a personal goal to attend 100 events in 1 calendar year. This meant I was travelling back and forth to Victoria about every fortnight so I could attend enough events - AND catch up with my very special Victorian caching buddies. My international and interstate trips assisted in reaching and surpassing this goal.
As mentioned, in 2018, I attended my first Giga - GeoWoodstock, in Cincinnati Ohio. The lovely micaparamedic and I spent close to a month on a road trip around the USA and Canada targeting: as many states as we could; year 2000 placed caches, virtuals; webcams; challenge caches; earth caches; events; lab caches and other ‘randoms’ in our forever changing path. Gary and I hooked up with Brad&Janet and 2 other Aussie teams whilst in the USA, this made our adventures even richer given all of our differing strengths. A brilliant trip and opportunity, still pinching myself - so delighted!
In 2018 I also set another personal goal - to host 50 events in 1 calendar year.... man oh man, what a crazy thought! As a number of you can attest, we have celebrated “Bubble wrap Appreciation Day”, “Falafel Appreciation Day”, monthly Birthday Celebrations, regular breakfasts, GC.com Souvenir Information events, and many other themed events, where I often provided food/drink and themed activities. Thanks to all of you who have attended, it’s made them all great fun!
In 2019 I think I will just hibernate under a geo-rock and sleep, as I am mighty tired, but what a wonderful adventure so far, I genuinely feel very fortunate and grateful for the opportunity to join this diverse and wacky community.
A very special thanks goes to all of those cachers who have been so kind and supportive to me across this time.