life is beautiful around the world

Only just got back and planning next years trip - oh yes!

2010-07-20T15:24:00.000+02:00

So, I'm over my short period of self indulgence and feel its time to move on and start thinking about my next trip. I've yet to actually find employment and therefore any money to fund this trip, but I'm trying to ignore that irrelevant piece of information and look at fun things to spend said non-existent money on instead.

The plan so far is to go to Thailand for 6 weeks. Explore the main parts of Thailand itself for three weeks, and then head down to the islands and chill and party for the next three weeks. Sounds like a plan to me!

We'll land in Bangkok and then head up to the northern areas - Chiang Mai and Lampang, and its around here we'll spend a good portion of our time as my friend Hannah has yet to really see these places (And I've not seen any of it!)

I'm really tempted to jump the border and also do a little bit of exploring in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Not sure how realistic this is as obviously we're gonna have a set amount of time to do things in, but hopefully we'll manage somehow!

Last but most definitely not least, we'll be heading down to the islands of Ko Samet, Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Samui and Ko Tao for beautiful beaches and partypartyparty :D We'll most definitely be timing our trip to go to an infamous Ko Pha Ngan Full Moon Party - and can I say I'm a little excited about this already?!

Needless to say.. I can't wait. Its a good way away yet, but fortunately that gives me time to somehow find that earlier mentioned fundage - wahey!

(images in this post = not mine)

2010-07-16T02:56:00.002+02:00

Suddenly it feels like Australia is a million miles away, was a million years ago.

Makes me sad. I miss it so much.

I don't want to be one of those really irritating people who just dwells on the past and doesn't let go, but I really do wish I could just flyyyy away and go back.

(I'll shortly be over this period of feeling sorry for myself, please bear with me)

2010-07-14T22:49:00.003+02:00

So, I'm now home from Australia. Soon there will be epic post on my traumatic and *long* journey home.

I'm already well on the way to planning my next trip - me and my friend Hannah are looking at going to Thailand next year, with potential side steps to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

So thats a long time away, for now I'm going to leave you with two lovely tunic / dresses that I've found since returning, I WANT and can not afford. Sobs.

(£55.50 of unaffordable loveliness)

June 18th - 21st

2010-06-27T06:53:00.002+02:00

Aaah, Friday the 18th. The evening of the Sugar Cane Fire. Was really cool actually. At some point during the afternoon, Jacki came round to everyone and asked if we wanted to go and see a sugar cane fire later that evening - everyone in the hostel had been wanting to see one for ageees, so of course later on that night we all bundled into two of the minibus van things and went to see one.

(Cassie at the Cane Fire)

Theres not an awful lot to describe about it, other than it was pretty damn cool! When we got there they were spraying the sugar cane - they spray everything around the area they're going to burn with water so that it doesn't catch fire with the rest of it. Then, they lit several small sections of the area on fire, and as it started to burn they set more and more bits on fire until the result was an epic fire (which people commenting on my facebook thought was a bonfire at first, hehe). Its over so quickly - one minute the fire was tiny, then it just caught and was HUUUGE and then all of a sudden it was over. Capiche. Finito! Very cool thing to see though. Unfortunately we were on the side that was being lit, so we didn't get to see the swarms of wildlife that apparently normally rush out in an attempt not to get burnt to a crisp - i.e pigs, snakes, and assorted other small vermin type creatures. I'm not sure whether its a good or a bad thing we were on the other side, eh? Haha :D I managed to get some semi decent photos, as well as a really nice group shot of everyone who went, aka most of the hostel. Its awesome :)

(Kev, Gem + Gerard at the Cane Fire - they even brought refreshments!)

So the next evening (being Saturday 19th) everyone was chilling in the kitc1hen, good times. Becky and Justin ever so kindly donated multiple beers to myself, which of course went to my head instantaneously - good times. At some point throughout the beer drinking we all decided we were gonna head on out on the town (well.. Ayr...) and go to the Queens Hotel (+club on a Saturday) which is where a lot of the girls normally headed on a Saturday night anyway. I hadn't been since getting to Ayr due to the lack of funds but already being rather tipsy before heading off meant that I really didn't care :D

(Group shot of everyone who came to watch the Cane Fire - I love this photo!)

We definitely had an awesome night. Gemma took her camera and so at some point I'll be stealing pics from her. At first it was just me, Gem and Becky - Justin, Tomas and Hayden had forgotten to bring their IDs and had to walk back to the hostel, but they soon returned, and not long after them came the whole Lazy Lizard Crew :) Good times, good times. Becky bought me a couple more drinks in the pub too, I feel bad I never got the chance to pay back her generosity - hopefully karma will sort her out!
Sunday was amusing purely for the amount of hungover people that were wandering around the place, luckily I'd managed to avoid such a fate :D

(My lovely self at the Cane Fire)

Monday was the day of my epic trip to Townsville to sell my beloved SLR - sob sob! I got the lovely $15 Premier bus at 12:30pm and was on my way. It took an hour to get from Ayr to Townsville, and when I got there I proceeded to wander around and explore. I knew vaguely where the Cash Converters place was so I headed off in that direction, only to get confused half the way there and turn back. And then walk back on myself once more - oh dear!! Eventually I just gave up and got the bus, which was $2.60 and got taken to where I needed to be, albeit like 3 hours later! Probably a good thing too, it wasn't really walking distance and by this point my feet were hurting lots - I then also tripped up getting *onto* the bus, and my foot *still* hurts from that - ouchies!

(Crazy smoke clouds and fire)

However, all was not to be. When I finally made it to the Cash Converters, the blokey told me that they couldn't take my camera, because it was english. Mofos! Because it had an english power cord they couldn't take it, and then to add insult to injury, he added that all they would have offered me for my beautiful camera was $150 - after recovering from the shock of it all, I sold him my spare lense for $25 and went on my way, camera still in possession - $150?! What an INSULT. Poor camera. Just as well it *is* English!

(Lovely sunset while waited for the Cane Fire)

What followed was a mad dash to deposit money into my bank account before it closed at 4pm, and then another epic walk to find an internet cafe where I could book my Greyhound bus home for the evening - $30. Ouch. Made it to one in the end, booked coach and then proceeded to get another bus to the ferry terminal where the Greyhound buses picked people up - not at the same place as the Premier buses, noooo, that'd be far too easy, eh?

So anyway there was muchos time to be killed so I did so by reading one of the Dan Brown books I now have on my laptop - while we're on the subject, the new one is pretty shit - The Lost Symbol? Nowhere near as good as Angels and Demons / Da Vinci Code. IMO, anyway.

Overall - I had a reasonably ok day in Townsville, despite having no money for food and so being pretty damn hungry, and also the fact I spent $50 getting there and back and only *made* $25 - so it didn't work out the way I'd intended, but I can always say I've been to Townsville, the name sake of the town where the Powerpuff Girls live. Oh yes.

June 8th - 17th

2010-06-18T02:58:00.003+02:00

It comes to something when I think I look strange when my hair is down, and straight. Its become the norm to just whack it up in a clip and not really bother with it, so today when I looked in the mirror it was weird. And thats weird in itself! I don't like it!

Todays my first day off for a while, but unfortunately the work I was doing (and not getting sacked from) has now stopped - bah! Since the last blog I've worked at two different farms, getting sacked from one (zucchini picking really is just not my thing) and then the other not needing us anymore - sad times! I also lost the cleaning job because I had farm work, so now I have no work at all and I think its definitely time to move on from Ayr!

(Zucchinis - these things are PURE EVIL)

So on Friday and Saturday I was working at Booth Farm - it was a bit of a last resort really, I really didn't want to go there. A lot of people here have been there and come back with horror stories, and most people get sacked pretty quick - the checkers there are bastards really and don't give you much of a shot to get into things. So I did two hours on Friday and two hours on Saturday and then wasn't asked back for Sunday - no surprise really, I knew I had done shit so it didn't bug me like it did when I got sacked from Corrick!

(Round yellow squash - wish this job had lasted longer!)

Saturday night we were surprised to find another farm had rung up and asked for 10 people for the next day, and I was one of those! So another early morning start, and we drove for an hour to get to McShanes Farm in Dalbeg, an hour away from the hostel. Luckily we were picking squash though, not zucchini!! I think the fact I was so relieved not to be picking zucchinis really helped, I managed to go quite fast and did not get sacked! Whoopee! We did 6 hours on our first day, was damn hard on the back but I was just so happy to have work it didn't feel so bad :) And then they kept asking us back - on our 2nd and 3rd days we did 5 hours, and then yesterday we only did 3 and a half hours due to machine breakdown and people picking the wrong lanes and all kinds of problems. Was good though. Bit of a shame really - the farm lady still wants some people to go out and help but because its so far away we can't really go unless she wants the crew of 10 or it won't cover the petrol costs, which makes it pretty pointless. And also, I don't know when we get paid for it - what a pain! But it'll be about $285, all goood :D

So now once again I'm unemployed with no prospects, woohoo! I think I'm gonna leave Ayr next Wednesday now unless something comes up. I was planning on leaving yesterday but then we had work, and now I've gone past my weekly rent day - if I leave before next Wednesday I'll just get charged the nightly rent which is expensive and so I might as well stay until next week - gives me time to make a bit of a plan and get stuff sorted. Need to make a visit to Townsville to sell my camera, so gotta get the bus there and back, or persuade someone here with a car that they really want to take a day trip in that direction - might be easier than it sounds :D

Today I am relaxing and doing feck all for the first time in a while! I've done nothing all morning and don't plan on doing a great deal this afternoon - tomorrow can be my sort out day, and hopefully I'll have got paid a little money too so can go on the (reasonably speedy) internet instead of resorting to McDonalds yet again!

(Images in this post = not taken by me!)

May 13th - June 7th

2010-06-07T06:37:00.002+02:00

So its a month later at Lazy Lizard Lodge and to be honest, not a lot to show for it! Work is very thin on the ground so theres only about ten people working out of the fifty or so here. People here are awesome though, have met some really nice girls and thank god or I've got no idea what I would have done! One of the girls is Kerry and she is amaaaazing, I'm so glad she is here or I think I would have had some serious problems. She also lives just outside Camberley - she was the first person I met in Australia that I could actually tell I lived in Bracknell and not Reading, because she knew where it was! (Since then about 5 people have rocked up who know where Bracknell is, but thats totally not the point)

First week here really didn't involve doing a lot - I had some problems with my eyes and contact lenses so spent quite a while wandering around with no contact lenses in, absolutely blind and so couldn't really do a lot, apart from talk to people and read.

Second week was equally as rubbish because I was ill with some unknown ailment?! I spent the best part of the week laid up in bed because I had a fever and headrushes so couldn't move much. I was about to go to the doctors in desperation and use my travel insurance when finally I started feeling better, thank god! Such a bad week, I felt so rough I couldn't even read or anything because everything just HURT. Good thing it went away by itself though, I probably wouldn't have been able to manage the agro of travel insurance claiming! It taught me a valuable lesson - I went and signed up for a medicare card, which means I get free treatments in public hospitals all over Australia. Wish I'd known this before!

(Group shot at Motocross)

So for the last two weeks its been a little bit more eventful but not really. Most days consist of sunbathing, walking to town and reading a lot. And by a lot, I mean A LOT. I've probably read my way through a library of books, have run out now. And thats after reading some of them twice, eep!

(Motocross)

I managed to get two days of work, on Thursday and Friday, at a farm called Corrick Plains. Its a zucchini picking farm (courgette to you uneducated english out there :p) and god damn it was hard work. The plants are low down so you spend all day bent over, the farm was totally bogged out from the rain so we kept sinking in the mud, and you don't stop at all basically - you just have to keep on moving!! It was hard too because you don't get a bucket or anything to put the fruit in as you pick it, you have to balance it all up your left arm and keep piling it up, whilst cutting with your knife in your right hand. HARD. Seriously. After two days they said they didn't think I was trying hard enough, I say - if that wasn't hard enough then I was never gonna be able to try any harder! Any money is money though I guess, and I did 13 hours total which I should be getting paid for today - yay!

(Motocross)

Other than that the only interesting thing thats happened really was volunteering at a motocross rally which was yesterday. Good times! It was a long day, we started at about 8am and didn't finish until 4:30pm but it was ok I thought. I had a little bit of shade, or I might have had an entirely different opinion. I was basically a 'flaggie' on one of the jumps which meant I stood there and watched the bikes go past, and if there was an accident or one of them stopped and blocked the track I had to wave a flag to let the other bikes know. Wasn't bad work, shame we weren't getting paid for it! There were quite a few accidents and stuff as well, no real surprise with the speed some of those bikes were going! I was on a really good jump so I got some cool photos and things but later in the day it turned into a complete dust storm everytime the bikes went past and I couldn't even see them about five foot in front of me so it was pretty pointless me even standing there, but heeeey. Was scarily close as well - most of the categories that were racing didn't go *that* fast near my jump so it was ok but the top category went stupidly fast, and seriously at points I really thought the bikes were gonna veer off and just come crashing in to me - reflective vest and all, like that would have done bollocks! All in all was a good day though, good to get out of the hostel and do something different, and we got loads of free beer at the end of the day for our efforts - ch-ching! So last night I was slightly tipsy for the first time since we've got here - loooong time not to drink :p

(Kerry at Motocross)

At the moment I've got the cleaning job in the hostel which pays $200 a week, not so bad as it covers rent and food so I can survive for now, and its going up a bit as well cos they want me to do a few more hours so thats cool. But apparently in a few weeks time they won't need me anymore so who knows what I'm gonna do then, bleeeegh. I'm still at the top of the working list so if anything comes up I get first shot at it, but if its zucchinis again I don't know how well that'll work out - hopefully some other farms will open soon, theres supposed to be capsicums, melons and mangos starting this week so fingers crossed. I need another 42 days to get my second visa but to be honest at the moment its more about the money - feck the visa! Eeep....
I've barely taken any photos since being here because my small camera is still broken - thats another thing I can hopefully afford to send back home now! Yesterday was the first time I've really used my slr, was goood! Not a huge amount around here to see or take pictures of though to be honest, but with a small camera it doesn't matter - lugging my slr around all the time is a PAIN.

Finally.. in a week I will have been away from home for 5 months. That is MENTAL. Wtf?! Long time, long time.

(Oh also my phone broke - I don't know how. No I did not drop it in alcohol, or in fact drop it at all. Or damage it in any way. I just put it on charge one day and when I went back it was broken - phones just hate me. Anyway, so no phone at the moment but I do now actually have enough to send letters back home, so people should WRITE TO ME - address in previous post!)

April 30th - May 5th

2010-05-24T06:01:00.006+02:00

So on Friday 30th April we decided not to stay in Noosa for very long and head onwards and northwards in our epic search for work. We rung Harvest Line who basically said to head to Bowen so we started up north and figured we'd go through a couple of working towns on the way to see if we could find anything. We stopped in a little town called Gympie for lunch and then headed on to Bundaberg and Childers for work searching. Everywhere we went we were told we had a week to wait before any work started so in the end we decided to carry on to Bowen as thats where all of the Stanthorpe gang were headed. We searched for a free rest stop to crash for the evening and ended up at a place called Lake Munduran - when we turned down the road we thought it was a free place but turned out it was a paying campsite, but we rocked up in the dark and headed off really early in the morning to avoid spending any more moolah than necessary!

Headed to a little place called Rockhampton for breakfast, another delightfully unhealthy fast food meal! We decided to go to a National Park to kill a bit of time again without spending any money, but the one we ended up at was pretty shite! Byfield National Park, we went for a bit of a walk which was nice to just get out of the car and stretch legs a bit but there wasn't a huge amount to see and the flys were INSANELY irritating, still haven't got quite accustomed to them. Argh! Headed on up again after the National Park, we were planning on getting to Mackay but ended up finding a free rest stop about halfway between Rockhampton and Mackay on the Bruce Highway. Was a pretty decent rest stop as they go! Because it was bank holiday weekend (again!) there was loads of people there minding the rest stop, and they'd cooked a roast dinner and ended up donating the leftovers to us - we weren't gonna complain, we'd been living on sandwiches for about three days at that point!

Sunday morning we woke up and continued driving, heading upwards and onwards some more - we were umming and ahhing about whether to stop off at another National Park but ended up driving straight up to Airlie Beach which we'd heard good things about, and it definitely lived up to its reputation! I love that place with a passion. Theres barely anything to it, to be honest - a main highstreet, a few beaches (where you can't swim anyway because of stingers) and a man made lagoon, but the weather is normally lush and the lagoon is lush and its generally all round a pretty awesome place. Liked it lots!

For the first night we were there we stayed at Bush Village Backpackers, a relatively expensive little place where we had our own little cabin between the four of us - $29 each a night. We had our own kitchen and en suite bathroom though, it was worth it as it was a pretty awesome night. Two of the german guys who'd been at Stanthorpe came up to spend the evening with us and it turned into a night of extreme drunkeness and many card drinking games, nothing new there - seems to be all we ever do these days! I took extreme amounts of drunken pictures, they are hella amusing though they've yet to make their way onto facebook about a week and a half later, the perks of having no money - bah! We also got our free breakfast the next morning, very welcome - none of us were badly hungover as such but free food is always good either way!

Most of the rest of my time in Airlie is a bit of a blur, all we really did was sunbathe and swim at the lagoon and spend our evenings playing drinking games and cards. We spent the next three nights at Magnum Backpackers which is right in the middle of the high street, camping but it was a lot cheaper so we didn't mind - $11 each per night! Was an awesome few days, we met so many people from Stanthorpe who'd also ended up in Airlie Beach - at one point there was 15 of us from Blue Topaz all staying in Magnums, good good times! I think on our second or third day at Airlie my little camera got broken, was most unimpressed - damn thing! At some pioint when I actually have money I need to send it home to England to get it fixed, its still under guarantee and seeing as I never actually did anything to it, I want it fixed GOD DAMN!

(An epic collage of our time in Airlie Beach, mainly consisting of photos from our drunken night staying at Bush Village backpackers!

From top left clockwise:

Olly + Matt + Hagen in the hammock
Me making a stupid pose and Hagen + Fabian watching
Nicola doing.. something. Fabian in background.
Fabian + Olly trying to wake up Matt by putting speakers to his ears.
Olly + Matt + Fabian getting a bit stoned.
Fabians back blocking the view of the LAGOON. Epic place.

May 6th - 12th

2010-05-24T06:01:00.005+02:00

Eventually after about four days of sunbathing and not a lot else we decided we should probably move our asses onwards to Bowen - we were all skint and needed our work desperately. Little did we know that it wasn't gonna work out that way, bah! We headed up to Bowen, it only takes about an hour or so from Airlie Beach and headed to a campsite where two people we knew from Blue Topaz were staying - Leighann and Selim at Horseshoe Bay Resort. It was in an awesome location, literally thirty seconds from an amazing little enclosed beach where you could actually go in the water, and it was about $15 a night for a powered site. Not long after we'd arrived in Bowen, Jen and Ralph, also from Blue Topaz rocked up and stayed at the same place with us. BUT, Leighann and Selim had been hunting around that day and found out from most of the farmers that there was no work and wasn't likely to be any for three weeks - eeeep! We rung Harvest Line and they told us that the best thing to do was stay there and wait. The season in Bowen normally kicks off at the end of April and lasts until November but because of the cyclone and all the rain its been delayed this year, and still hasn't started! Argghh!

(My attempt at a somewhat 'arty' shot - Horseshoe Bay Caravan Park)

Anyway to put ourselves out of misery due to lack of work we decided to have a bit of an impromptu engagement party for Jen and Ralph, who'd got engaged at some point between leaving Stanthorpe and getting to Bowen! We all went shopping and bought loads of BBQ food, alcohol, cake and the works! Was an awesome bbq, only worked out to be about $2.50 each and then another guy we knew from Stanthorpe (Dan) came over to celebrate too! We were in the camp kitchen and got booted out of there around 21:30 due to grumpy residents of the caravan park, we weren't even making that much noise but psssht! Relocated ourselves down to the beach where we sat for many many hours until about 3am in the morning, drinking some more and chatting shit, listening to Ralph on the guitar and laughing at Matt and Oly jumping in the sea in the middle of the night - mental! Good times! At about 3am Ralph decided it'd be a good idea for us all to go back and make fish finger sandwiches, which at the time seemed like the best idea in the world to a bunch of drunken backpackers, but in hindsight... well! I went to bed before the fuss kicked off but basically everyone woke a load of people up and people kept complaining because we were too noisey - fair enough at 3am I guess! The next morning when we got up we were basically ejected from the caravan park in disgrace, eep - nothing to do with me, honest, but god it was funny. The woman who came over to see us was shaking on the tent that Matt and Oly were staying in, very violently and telling them to get up and it was just funny as - we didn't wanna stay there any longer anyway! Pssssht!

(Beautiful Horseshoe Bay beach)

Spent that day on the beach, doing not a lot as per usual - damn beach is just so nice! Selim had decided he was going to head on up to a place called Ayr to look for more work so Leighann moved all her stuff into our car, with the plan of travelling on with us, but then Selim changed his mind anyway - mental man! We also ran into some MORE people from Stanthorpe, a couple of canadian guys who we'd also seen in Brisbane. Just can't escape from the Stanthorpe Crew! We ended up staying in some dead end road for the evening - it led down to a beach and there was no sign saying no camping so we just parked up for the night and chilled out, as you do. Was fecking cold though, this beach wasn't enclosed and even though we were slightly off the beach it was SO windy! A bit later in the evening, after everyone had proceeded to get really drunk, a ranger appeared as if from nowhere to tell us all that camping was actually not allowed in this area, and the fine was $200 per person - arghhhh! We got away with it by pleading ignorance, after all there were no signs and he just said to make sure we left no mess and went early in the morning, which to be fair we'd planned to do anyway! The night continued in the same way, drink drink drink! Whoop whoop! I do believe at some point Leighann dropped her phone and killed it too, never a good thing.

(More Horseshoe Bay beach)

The next day we were once again on the lovely Horseshoe beach where Leighann ran into a guy that she'd met in Asia - its mental, such a small world. His name was Trent and he proceeded to feed her lots of alcohol and get her totally trashed, and then invite us all back to his hotel for a party. Apparently it'd been his birthday the week before or something, and he was living at this hotel and knew all the people so got away with it somehow - most places would not appreciate 8 backpackers rocking up and drinking all night by their pool, and sleeping in their car park. But it was a good night, I was absolutely TRASHED and don't recall an awful lot past 9pm to be honest, however what I do recall was good times! Jumped in the pool at some point even though it was freezing, most people had been pushed in over the course of the evening, Leighanns bikini broke at one point. Just a good night all round!! At some point in this evening Selim and Leighann had had an argument and he had disappeared off never to be seen again, so Leighann then officially became the 5th passenger in our already super packed up car! Other events of the evening include Matt and Olys phone being in Nics pocket when she was thrown in the pool, so totally being drowned - not good.

(Attempt at a sunsetty shot on HorseshoeBay beach)

Being dirty smelly backpackers staying in free places, by the next day none of us had had a shower since Horseshoe Bay (although we'd been in the sea + pools, we couldn't have smelt that bad!) so we went to some random playground area to wile away our morning and found a free shower - cold, but free! So we all got clean, and chilled out for the vast majority of the day doing not a lot, no real developments there either! We set off in hunt of another rest area to spend our night in but were unsuccessful, so in the end we just drove back to Airlie Beach in the hope we'd find somewhere to stay there. No rest areas, but we found a dead end residential street where we weren't too close to any houses and spent our evening there. Due to rain and noise constraints we spent our evening in Ralph and Jens campervan, nice and cramped with 7 of us in there! Once again was an evening of goon and drinking games, we played I Never for a while which was just bloody hilarious especially when everyone started getting mixed up, and then Leighann and Ralph started spilling their drinks and then we realised it was definitely bed time. 5 people sleeping in one car was definitely not a viable option so I slept in the front seat of the campervan - not particularly comfy but better than being uber cramped in the car, I guess! The other four slept in the car and the next day they weren't particularly impressed, so I probably came out of it the best, seeing as Ralph and Jen were sleeping in a bed of goon!

(Our dead-end road home for the night aka Kings Beach)

By this point in time, everyone electronics were either dead due to abuse or dead due to lack of power, and we were sick of no showers and no plugs so we headed back into Airlie the next day to look for somewhere to stay, as well as look once more for jobs and potential free accomodation! Not a lot was achieved as we were all vaguely zombified, but we found a place to stay for the night which only ended up costing us about $8.50 each because there were so many of us (and also we lied, and said there was one less of us than there was, haha). Was another good night, we managed to charge up all our stuff, have nice showers, eat half decent food (seriously by this point I really was utterly sick of sandwiches, practically all I'd eaten for about a week) and spent the evening playing drinking games once more with a few people we'd met there - Tom, Kate and Lewis. They taught us a few new games which were bloody hilarious, involving random poses and saying names of fruits without showing your teeth and god knows what else, I don't recall.

(Sunset at Kings Beach)

We woke up on the morning of Tuesday 11th May refreshed from a nice nights sleep and
with all intentions of finding jobs in Airlie Beach or at least free accomodation, but literally just as we rolled into the high street, the car BROKE DOWN. God damn. We were literally driving along and it just cut out. So I headed off to McDonalds to use the free wifi whilst Nic called the RACQ once more to check out the car. They were pretty quick and the guy came to the conclusion thsat one of the parts needed replacing, not good! He reckoned it was gonna cost about $700 - a figure that Nic was not hugely impressed over! However, whilst we were waiting for him, Leighann had made some phone calls and found out for us that work had started in Ayr - a little bit north of Bowen! She rung up a hostel and reserved us all places, and told them we'd be there in a day or two, and hopefully there will be work within a week! Thank feck, I have absolutely no money left - was in the process of advertising my SLR foir sale to fund my travels! Anyway so after that we wandered around for a bit and then got a totally pointless $13 to the garage where all they told us was that they would ring us once they'd had time to look at the car. We began on our 1 hour walk back into the town, about halfway they rung her - arghh! It was the computer that needed replacing, $350 - not quite so bad as $700! We carried on walking into town and went down to the lagoon for a bit - it wasn't really a sunny day but it was humid so we all got in to cool ourselves down and then Jen took Nicola back to the garage once it was done to pay and pick up the car. We then treated ourselves to Dominos pizza as it was cheap Tuesday, $5.90 for a medium pizza which was probably more than I'd eaten in two days, mwah!! So so so so good, probably the last pizza I'll have for a while!

(Cool night time photo of Olly and a hat)

We left Airlie about 5pm to drive up towards Ayr and hope to find a rest stop where we could crash for the evening - Jen and Ralph had managed to get free accomodation by handing out leaflets for a few hours for Magnums and so we didn't wanna head up to the backpackers in Ayr without them. We managed to find one about half an hour away from Ayr and crashed there for the night, another night of mad drinking games and cards, as you do. We've now started putting in elements of other games into other games, so we'll be in the middle of a game or even just talking and suddenly someone would make a really stupid pose and everyone would have to copy them, or everyone would have to get up and run around the bench in a manner not dissimilar to duck duck goose! Good good times, as always.

(The next day at Kings Beach - I LOVE this photo. I could even go as far as to say its my favourite that I took the whole time I was away)

This morning we woke up and got ready very slowly - because of this, Jen and Ralph managed to overtake us on the highway before we'd even left the rest area, even though they'd been 1hr and a half behind us! We all rocked into Ayr around the same time, my phone managed to direct us to the hostel, albeit not very well, and Jen and Ralph got there literally just after we pulled in. We all checked in and then headed off into the town where we've decided that the 5 of us in our car should shop together, at least until we've accumulated some work and some money, because it works out a lot cheaper. So we got $60 of food and that should last us about a week, fingers crossed. This hostel is called Lazy lizard Lodge and its pretty damn awesome - $140 a week. We're in a 4 bed dorm, they're segregated male and female and currently its only us three girls in our dorm. That $140 includes free linen changes every week, as well as free washing machines and use of a giant kitchen. There's also a pool table, air hockey and foosball table all for general use, and a TV and plenty of reading material - its just generally all round good! We've not done a lot since we got here but chill out, but Ralph already had a job for tomorrow - only two hours, but god damn better than nothing!

And so finally I am fully up to date (at time of writing) - when you're bumming around and staying in as many free places as possible its not really that easy to write blog posts, especially when the laptop is dead! However I do believe I'm staying here for the indefinite future, so the address I can currently be reached at is;

Sheri Hart,
20-22 Chippendale Street,
Ayr, Queensland,
4807, Australia.

Feel free to send me post! Any post whatsoever will be immensely appreciated, from anyone! <3

April 25th - 29th

2010-05-07T00:28:00.000+02:00

So at some point over the total drunken weekend in Brisbane we'd decided that Matt and Oli were gonna travel with us as we were all heading up to Bowen anyway. So we left Brisbane about 11am on Sunday morning (Anzac Day) and headed off to Bribie Island where we planned to spend a few hours just chilling out on the beach and then heading off to our intended destination, Glasshouse Mountains! Bribie was quite nice, it was good weather and we chilled out for a few hours but then when we got back to the car it wouldn't bloody START! Well, the enging was revving but it wouldnt' actually start *properly* Arghh.. luckily Nic had joined RACQ while we were in Redcliffe so we gave them a call and they came out about 40 minutes later, but couldn't start up the car unfortunately. He ended up towing it to the nearest RACQ garage, but because it was Anzac Day weekend nothing was open til Tuesday leaving us two days to kill in a place we never planne to stay in in the first place.. pssht! Also, because the car was in a secure lockup we had to grab as much as we could out of the car and cope without the rest!

(Burying Oli at Bribie Island)

Ended up staying at Robs for two nights - he was a diamond. We used all our camping crap and crashed out on the floor, after getting very very drunk on the Sunday night. I had a horrificly BAD HANGOVER on the Monday morning. We ended up spending all day on the beach which worked out pretty well, I slept off my hangover and finally got a bit of a tan on my legs whilst the other guys went swimming and stuff. Monday night everyone else drunk whilst I stayed sober, still wasn't feeling 100%. We played some more cards and had a bit more of an early night. Tuesday morning dawned and the garage finally opened! We headed off to get breakfast and some shopping whilst they sorted the car out. A nice bloke who worked in the garage gave us a lift down to the shopping precinct bit, and then picked us up again when we'd walked half the way home and he drove past! Thank god, it was a pretty immense walk. Anyway when we got back the car was fixed, woohoo! We then headed off to our next stop, Glasshouse Mountains (where we'd originally planned to rock up to on Sunday night, eep!)

(Me at the top of Mt Ngungun)

Got to the Glasshouse Mountains pretty quickly and headed off to Glasshouse Mountains Holiday Village, one we'd found in our Queensland Caravan Park Directory. Was dead cheap, $70 for 4 people for 2 nights - $8.75 a night! We then headed off to the Glasshouse Mountains themselves - first to the scenic lookout point, and then to Mt Ngungun which we proceeded to climb. God damn this mountain climbing thing - for a lot of the way up the path was pretty easy, but then we got to a point where it was dead steep and literally involved scrambling up parts! Me and Nic got stuck at one point but found another way round, and eventually got to the top and it was worth it - the view was epic! But then I found it ridiculously hard to go down, a lot harder than going up - I'm always scared I'm going to fall! So anyway it took me a while to get down, all the while with Nic holding my SLR and documenting the funniness with about 50 million pictures (which we later realised had been on a dodgy setting and so were all PITCH BLACK).

(Australia Zoo!)

Headed back to the caravan park for another night of mooching about and playing of card games, what we'd do without that pack of cards I'll never know! Tuesday was also mine and Nics first night of actually sleeping in the car - Matt and Oli used the tent that Anna and Ryo had donated to us, and me and Nic folded down the back seats of the car and crashed in there. Its not the most comfortable thing ever but it'll do, for the moment its so much cheaper than getting a caravan or a room and I have practically *no* money so cheap = good! We did also have rigged up curtains on the windows that Nics aunt had sorted out for us, but they all ended up failing miserably so now we have no curtains lol but feck it, we'll live.

(Kangaroooo!)

Wednesday dawned and we went off to AUSTRALIA ZOO, I've been looking forward to it for so long and it didn't disappoint! Amazingness, we got there for pretty much park opening time (9am) and stayed for most of the day. Normally the entry fee is $57 but we got in for $49 each thanks to Nic's RACQ membership - whoop! Its damn expensive but totally worth it. Inside the drinks and food are also really expensive too, luckily we'd brought a lunch with us.

(Koala Bear!!)

We managed to see about 99% of the park, or so it seemed, and a few of the shows too. One show was in the 'Crocoseum', where Steve Irwin used to do his crocodile shows, and featured loads of different animals like elephants and a ridiculous amount of birds, as well as crocodiles, obviously! Good fun! Another show we saw was the tiger one, and that was awesome. There was three tigers and three trainers, and they were messing around with toys and stuff in a swimming pool. One of the tigers was really playful and kept doing these immense jumps into the pool chasing after the toys, I tried to get photos but sadly think I failed! Bah! I think the tiger show was definitely one of my highlights of the zoo, but the whole place in general was pretty amazing. Seeing all those different kinds of animals (and trust me there is LOADS) is awesome, and they're not kept in piddly little cages or anything like that, they all have these vast habitats and its just generally amazing. It didn't hurt that we went on a really nice day, the weather was lovely! We also headed over to the Wildlife Hospital, which we'd paid $2 to pop in and have a sneak peek. You don't get to see a lot for the $2 but it goes directly towards the hospital itself so I thought it was worth it - we saw a turtle that had been operated on that morning, and a bunch of koalas who were recovering. You can pay to have proper full tours of the hospital too if you want to have a proper look around, but we weren't feeling that flush!

(Awesome jumping tiger in tiger show)

We also ran into those pesky canadians and the one english guy again from Stanthorpe, (Neil, Steve and Matt) who we also ran into in Byron Bay and then NOW we've seen them in Noosa as well! Damn people are blatantly following me and Nic. Argh.

(Epic crocodile)

Anyway so back to Wednesday, we headed home from the zoo and chilled out for a while, and then down to the kitchen for another night of card games and merriment. Its pretty awesome travelling with Matt and Oli, they're such a laugh and so chilled out!

Thursday morning came and we left the Glasshouse Mountains to travel to sunny Noosa! We've actually ended up in Noosa Heads rather than the main bit of Noosa itself but its all good. We're staying in Noosa River Caravan Park which literally is right on the river and theres also a little bit of beach, basically about a 30 second walk from where our car is parked - epic! Currently my eyes are playing up a bit again so I'm avoiding the water but tomorrow I think a dip will be necessary. The view is lovely and the water looks so blue! Anyway after we rocked up here we went into the town bit for a while, picked up some shopping and explored a little, and now we're back chilling out.

April 18th - 24th

2010-05-04T00:25:00.002+02:00

So our first night in Surfers Paradise we just chilled out in our nice apartment thing. The weather was pretty rubbish with rain anyway so we didn't want to venture outside, plus several nights of partying had knackered us all out!

The next day we explored the town a little bit whilst Anna and Ryo went off to find a backpack for Anna - they were heading off to Asia the next day and needed to get sorted! Me and Nic chilled out on a beach for a little bit - it was so windy that the sand kept blowing in our faces though, so we didn't stay too long. That night we went out to a club called Sin City with a tour group type thing from our hostel - we got in free and also got a free drink, not all bad! It was a random club though, the bar staff was all female and dressed in not a lot, they also danced on the bar occasionally (reminded us of Coyote Ugly) and the toilets were totally plush! Not bad as far as music went, though there were a lot of idiot blokes in there, but no real surprise! Was a good night, we met up with Joanie from Stanthorpe again and met a couple of her friends, but didn't stay out too late - probably home by about 1am after me and Nic went on our almost nightly hunt for drunk food! Yum yum..

The third day involved more chilling out - it was raining again in the morning so we didn't do anything much, but in the afternoon it cleared up so Me, Nic and Anna headed out to go to the Spit - the little bit of land that curls around Surfers. It was quite a nice walk, we found a little deserted beach and chilled out there for a while. Anna and Nic found a random little blue animal thing which to this day no one has been able to identify, straaaange! Went back to the apartments and made an epic dinner of rice and salad and bread and garlic bread and god knows what else, the other guys had prawns as well - yeeeugh! Later that night a few of Anna and Ryos friends came to visit from Brisbane - Andriss and Maria (I think?), two people Anna knew back in Estonia and the other was Peter, Andriss's boyfriend. Was a good night, we chatted to them for a bit in between packing up our stuff.

The next day me and Nic left Surfers to head to Redcliffe and go stay with her Aunt for a few days. Was weird to say goodbye to Anna and Ryo, we were only travelling with them for a few days but it felt like ages! Took us a few hours but we got to Redcliffe and we were staying with Pat and Malcolm, and they were both really nice. We ended up staying for two nights. The first night we went to Bingo which was damn amusing - reminded me of going with Aunty Jackie back in the day when I was like 15 or something and she had to pretend I was 18! Was really fun, me and Nicola split a set of books between us and we both won - however, I won $30 and she won $140!! God damn, wish I'd chosen the other half of the book! Was good though, because all four of us on the table won something (Pat, Nic, me and Nic's cousin Tracy) so quite a productive night! I was just happy I'd won back the money I'd spent to be honest, hehe!

The next day we just kinda mooched around for a while, was a nice lazy day. We went for a walk with Pat and went down to the seafront, chilled out in a nice little swimming park place they call the Lagoon - was really nice and warm even though it wasn't that warm of a day! We went over to Nic's cousin Tracys house for dinner where we had something called 'Silver Side Up' - I didn't know what it was before we ate it and I deliberately didn't ask knowing how picky I can be, it was actually pretty nice! We ended up playing on the nintendo wii a bit later on, was fun to go back on one, been a while! I played a bit of bowling and a bit of boxing, all good :) They were all so nice as well, was a good night.

The next day me and Nic were in no real rush to get to Brisbane so we went into the town for a while to do some random bits and bobs shopping and we were also gonna go to the cinema. We booked in our tickets to go and see 'The Hot Tub Time Machine' and then headed down the food court to get a subway, where we ran into Leighann and some other peoples from Stanthorpe. They'd stopped in Redcliffe to get some lunch, which was the most random thing ever as its not exactly on the way and its not a backpacker place either, it was totally the most random place you'd ever expect to run into people but it was nice to see them anyway :D We had to head back to the cinema which was bad timing as we didn't get to chat to Leighann and people for long, but we'll hopefully see them in Bowen soon anyway! The film was totally random, funny at times but was nice just to go to the cinema again - it also reminded us that the Eclipse film is out soon, July 1st, and I can't wait - mwah!!

Later on that day after figuring out where we were going to stay, we left for Brisbane. It didn't take us that long to actually get to the city itself, but when we were in the city we got COMPLETELY LOST. It had the most ridiculous one way system and hardly any signs and what signs it does have aren't clear at all! We had a map, but it was getting dark so I could barely see it and then to top it all off, the area of Brisbane where our hostel was (west end aka south of the bridge) wasn't shown on the map!! We ended up stopping and getting directions from a bloke in a garage and found our hostel eventually, but feck driving in Brisbane again - total utter nightmare!!

Anyway so that evening we went out to meet a couple of guys from Stanthorpe who we'd been chatting to on facebook and were staying in central Brisbane, at Base Backpackers. Took us bloody ages to find that too, we went walking and got lost for AGES so eventually Matt came and found us and took us to the hostel. We chilled out with them (Matt, Oli and Liam) for a bit and some of the guys they'd met, at the hostel on the cool rooftop area, and then everyone headed down to 'The Valley' aka Fortitude Valley aka the club capital of Brisbane. Was amaaaazing, we went to a club called The Beat which was $10 entry but well worth it, got there about 11pm and stayed until about 3am just dancing the night away! Had a good few drinks too, some lovely *ugh* shots and free food! Mwahaha.. seriously such an amazing night, its a supposed 'gay club' but its more of a mix really, theres a few rooms with definite gay vibes going on but downstairs was basically just like a normal club!

So around 3am me and Nic decided we were going to leave, and when we went outside Matt came out to ask us why we were leaving, and what he didn't realise is that in Brisbane they have a 3am lockout on all clubs - if you go outside after 3am, you can't get back in, to any of them! So because he'd stepped outside, he couldn't get back in, and so everyone ended up leaving at the same time and we all headed back to Base instead to chill out on the balcony. One of the security came at one point when the guys were smoking up and was asking me and Nic if we were actually staying there, but we told him we weren't and he was cool about it and let us stay for a while. We ended up getting back to our hostel around 6am - its awkward being in a dorm and rocking up home at 6am and trying not to wake anyone up, fecking difficult!

Woke up in the morning and had a nice breakfast at a cafe round the corner and then just mooched around for a while exploring Brisbane. We got lost again a little bit though we had a map this time, mwah! Went to the museum which was cool but we went in pretty late and it shut at 5pm so we didn't get to see too much, definitely something to check out again if I go back at any point! Had a nice dinner and then headed over to Base again - we were planning on saying goodbye to Liam, who was leaving that evening for a flight to Melbourne, but he'd already disappeared by the time we got there sowe just chilled out with the other guys instead. Was a fun night, after a few drinks we decided to go to the cinema but when we got there the film we wanted to see wasn't on anymore, so we went bowling instead! I played a game of bowling with no barriers, I'm proud of myself, even though I ended up losing.... whoops. Its that damn curve thing I have, no matter how I throw the ball it always ends up going to the left when it gets to the end of the lane, really annoying cos I don't even know how I'm doing it!! Anyway the velcro shoes were amazingly stylish and it was fun times, after that we headed back to Down Under Bar and drank some more. The bar shut at midnight due to it being Anzac Day the next day - everywhere closed at midnight so we went home via the most ANNOYING taxi ride ever - the bloke took us to the total wrong place then couldn't even find our hostel, then got annoyed when we wouldn't pay him the total amount that came up! What a piss take, taxis in Brisbane = SUCK.

I'd just like to say..

2010-04-22T15:25:00.000+02:00

...look at this EPIC tan line on my back!

I believe some sunbathing whilst lying on my front is in order.. eep!

Some of my favourite recent photos..

2010-04-22T03:45:00.004+02:00

So back in Stanthorpe I was complaining I never got to use my shiny Canon SLR and was even contemplating selling it whilst extremely broke, but I'm so glad I didn't. Since leaving I've been to loads of awesome places, two in particular where I've got some photos I really really love.

Girraween National Park (Stanthorpe, QLD - Bald Rock, The Pyramids)

Girraween was only about a twenty minute drive from where we were staying, but you needed a car to get there. Theres a camping area as well as a picnic area, all with public toilets. Kangaroos and Wallabies wander around really close to the picnic area, avoid the droppings but appreciate how close you can get to them - the animals that is, not the droppings ;)

There's plenty to see there, but the walk we chose was 'The Pyramids' - an epic walk of 417 damn steep steps to get up the mountain, and that wasn't even the top! It was well worth it though, the views were epic and I didn't even go all the way up. The climb itself is pretty steep and it took us around 30 minutes to get to the point where I stayed, it took my friends around another 20 minutes to climb to the very top of the mountain. I wore flip flops, but I'd definitely recommend something with decent grip as its not all steps and slipping down a mountain would definitely not be a highlight of any trip!
Some of my favourite photos below;

Cape Byron (Byron Bay NSW - The Lighthouse, Australias most easternly point)

There's a nice walk to take you up to the Lighthouse at Cape Byron, passing through the most Easternly point of the country on your way. It starts at Wategos Beach and heads up all the way to the Lighthouse. It took us around 30 minutes at a casual taking-our-time kind of pace. The views over the coast line are really amazing, and theres a good chance you'll see some ocean wildlife - we saw little mako sharks and also several pods of dolphins. From the top plateau itself where the lighthouse is, you can see for miles and miles around (or should I say kms and kms around?). The view is amazing and when we went up it was really clear. Its a really enjoyable way to kill a few hours whilst in Byron.

Some of my favourite photos below (I found it really hard to choose, eep!);

All of my photos are either at my Facebook Page or on my Flickr Account if you're not friends with me on Facebook - check them out, there is loads! :D

April 16th –18th

2010-04-18T10:32:00.005+02:00

So on Friday 16th April we got up relatively early and began the mahoosive task of packing everything up! Was really weird leaving, I've been in that place for 3 months (in 3 different rooms / caravans!) so it kinda felt a bit like a home away from home, albeit a weird one. We finally left around 11am after saying goodbye to everyone, gonna miss so many people from there!

We were heading to Byron Bay, but planned to stop off in Nimbin on the way just to mooch around and have a look. Took us a good four hours or so to get there, but it was a pretty random little town. The museum thing they have is pretty cool, its just a strange laidback little town though there didn't seem to be that much to do. Was nice just to go and see it though! After Nimbin we headed on to Byron, luckily Nic had already been before and knew a place to stay so we didn't have to drive around looking for anywhere. Arrived around 6pm and booked into the Glen Villa caravan park, quite a nice little place. We paid a bit more and got ourselves a little cottage thing between the 4 of us, we got a discounted rate because we were originally put into one where the kitchen was being refurbed, but then there was something wrong with the tap in the bathroom as well so we got moved into another one where the kitchen was all working too, for the same rate! Wahey, was an awesome little cottage actually. Total luxury after living in a room / caravan for three months!

In the evening we went out - first to a pub nearby, the Railway Pub I think it was called? It had live music but we arrived quite late and only saw a little bit of it, but after a few drinks we then headed on to a nearby club/bar type thing called Cocomangas. Was pretty cool, reminded me of home - haven't been clubbing in so long! Music was alright as well. Don't remember what time we left but me and Nic split a super awesome dominos pizza on the way home! Was a good night although it kept raining, conveniently at all the times we had to go outside, so ended up with frizzy hair and wet feet but otherwise, good times!

Saturday we went for a bit of a walk to the most easternly point of Australia and Byron Lighthouse. Was a really nice warm day, the walk was uphill but had some really nice views and I got some more good pictures :) There were dolphins and little mako sharks in the water that we could see from some of the viewing platforms too, a bit far away for my crappy eyesight but it was cool nonetheless. After that we headed on to a bar to have a drink before wandering round the town for a bit and going to a masssssiiive Woolworths to buy some food and drink for dinner. Went home and had a nap and dinner and then we all headed out again! We were going to a place called Cheeky Monkeys, apparently known for being inhabited by extremely drunk people, well it turned out to be pretty damn true. We met up with a bunch of people from Stanthorpe - it was Joanies 21st birthday and she was pretty drunk by the time we got there at about 8:30! A couple of guys were there as well, Matt, Neil and Steve. Was a good night all in all, earlier in the day we'd been given wristbands so we got happy hour prices until midnight ($5.50 for a vodka, whoop) and we also got a bunch of vouchers when we went in for free champagne, which wasn't particularly pleasant but I'm not complaining when its free! However I spent WAYWAYWAY too much, ended up absolutely WANKERED and had a god awful hangover this morning, my first bad one since leaving England! I liked the place though, there was loads of random competitions and things going on. Steve and Neil won a $500 surfing trip to somewhere by acting out the most sexual positions they could in 30 seconds, I think they managed 9 - I recorded it on my camera, was so so funny! Also there was an amateur male strip show, apparently it was ladies night and that was really funny too, one of the guys was in a mankini - slightly disturbing but all good fun! And then after all that was over, everyone was dancing on the tables, was fun but I was rather scared I was gonna slip or fall off. Whoops. Anyway, we left at about 11pm although it felt like a million hours later, and me and Nic split another awesome Dominos pizza. BADBADBAD. But so so yummy!

So this morning I woke up with the previously mentioned GODAWFUL hangover, it was not nice!! Somehow in the course of the night I'd gone to sleep in one bed, moved into another and then woke up this morning on the sofa. Wtf. I don't even remember getting home last night, thats how I know I drunk FAR too much. However, even my bad hangovers here are nothing to rival the ones I had at home, thank god. Anyway I got up about 9am and had to pack, we had to check out by 10am and in my hungover daze I was moving rather slowly, but still made it in time to have some nutella on toast. Thank god, because I was about to get into a car and maybe might have been ill otherwise, eep! We then headed on from Byron Bay to Surfers Paradise, which is where we are now! It took maybe about two hours, and when we got here we had to find somewhere to stay. We checked a caravan park that someone I know had recommended which was $17 a night, but we've ended up in a hostel. Although its not really a hostel as such, at least not the bit we're in. Its $27 a night which is more than I really want to spend but its pretty nice. Its like a little mini apartment thing, we have two rooms, one for Ryo and Anna and one for me and Nic. Theres another room and then a communal living room / kitchen type area.

Not sure what we're doing this evening, I for one am definitely not drinking, my head still hurts! Would be nice to maybe have a quiet night in! Tomorrow we're gonna head to the beach and chill out, something I've not done for a while! Not sure how long we're staying here either, maybe a few nights and then moving onto Brisbane, then possibly Noosa! Whoop :)

April 13th – 15th

2010-04-18T10:31:00.000+02:00

Sooo, the night of Tuesday 13th April a group of us decided to head out to Stanthorpe town and go to the pub instead of the usual sitting in the kitchen area drinking. Was nice to have a bit of a change and also not have to worry about a 9:30pm curfew for lights out and noise down! There was 10 of us in the end, probably one of the biggest crowds Stanthorpe Central pub has ever seen on a Tuesday night! There was me, Nic and Leighann, Sandra and Jenny (swedish girls), Rosie and Sara (english girls) and Matt, Liam and Daniel (english boys). Was a good laugh, spent too much money, got too drunk - story of my life. I also reminded myself that tequila shots are pretty damn gross, especially with the salt and lemon. Yuuuuck. Got a taxi home and I ended up in the taxi with Sandra and Jenny who were both absolutely WASTED, and I'd thought I was drunk! They were absolutely hilarious though. Not long after we all got home, Sue came out and was yelling because we were all making too much noise, nothing new!

Wednesday dawned as the day Nic was going to buy her car - after everyone who was leaving had left, we went into town to wander round, walked up to the garage and sorted it all out. Her distant relative who works in the garage took us to the courthouse place so she could register it, and then we were all sorted. Its a really nice car actually, a 1993 Mitsubishi Magna - long enough to sleep in and to hold our ridiculous amounts of luggage, and its also a really nice sky blue colour, hence the (possible temporary) name for the car - Sky! Nic and Leighann proceeded to drink some more whilst I had a quite evening doing feck all, was k-nackered mate!

Thursday 15th April, now that we had a car and not a lot else to do, Nic, Leighann and me decided to go to one of the nearby national parks, Girraween. The night before Nic had spoken to two people from the campsite, Anna and Ryo and sorted that they were gonna leave and come in the car with us when we left on the Friday to go to Byron Bay, and they came with us to the park as well. They're really lovely, Anna is estonian and Ryo is japanese and they're both leaving Australia soon to travel Asia together, though Anna is coming back I think?

Anyway so we went to Girraween and climbed what is known as 'The Pyramids' - we were proper bombing it up and that damn thing is steep, needless to say I was remarkably out of breath by the time we got anywhere near the top! I didn't go quite to the top though the other guys did, I stayed a bit lower but I got some absolutely wicked photographs :) Made me happy! Glad I took my SLR, even if it was weighing me down whilst we went up (ha!). After that we went to see another thing which was called 'The Arches', some pretty cool stones that have worn away to make an arch. Had lunch after in a nice little picnic area, saw a kangaroo quite close up. Tiring day!

However, we headed on home and proceeded to eat dinner and then DRINK! Was our last night in the caravan park so of course we had to celebrate, a lot of other people were leaving to so it was a generally good evening :) Stayed in the kitchen til lights out and then went to sit by someones tent to chill out for a few more hours without fear of evil Sue! Was a good night, wasn't too drunk and we just sat there chatting random shit for a while. One of the guys (Ralph) was playing guitar, and after many requests he played Wonderwall for us, albeit with new amusing lyrics about how no one knows what the song is about, you definitely had to be there but it was hilarious. At one point I decided to record our conversation so used Nics camera and just filmed for about 15 minutes, it was pretty damn hilarious listening to it back the next day when we were all sober. My attempts at accents and speaking italian are pretty damn awful. Went to bed relatively late, Nic was wasted and my attempts to make her eat bread and drink water proved pretty unfruitful!

April 10th - 13th

2010-04-16T10:35:00.001+02:00

The past few days have gone pretty quick, we found out we were finishing all the work today (Tuesday) so we all got pretty excited and it feels like its gone quite fast. Today was quite bittersweet, we had a half day (finished at 10am) which was really nice but it was sad to say goodbye to all the pickers who we've been chatting to and its just gonna be weird! However, its gonna be super awesome to get out of here :D

Saturday and Sunday we were back at work as per usual, nothing new there. BORING. Saturday night there was another bush party, Sunday night was celebrations in the kitchen for one of the canadian guys birthdays. Didn't go the party because I was totally knackered out that night. Leighann didn't go to work on the Sunday because she was too hungover / tired from the night before and ended up being sacked, as did Steve (canadian guy with birthday) because he didn't go in either. Whoops? Anyway Sunday night was celebrations in the kitchen for his birthday - Leighann had organised a present for him which was basically an empty box of goon filled with total random stuff that everyone had donated, serious random. Like I contributed a glowstick and a mini compass, there was also a Zoo magazine, tomatoes, a rollie, weed, a beer, hair clips and seriously the most random stuff ever. Good fun though. After that I headed off, feeling particularly antisocial and spent an hour or so on the phone with Louise and Mum, before her voice nearly totally disappeared and then I think after that went to bed! Whoop.

Yesterday me and Nic had a talk about travelling together and things, we've picked up on little things that are starting to annoy eachother more about eachother so she wasn't sure about travelling together but we're going to take it as it goes as nothing is set in stone. We plan to leave on Friday and head to Byron Bay, and see how we go in eachothers company :) I think we'll be ok, I now know what I do that annoys her and so I can rein it in - ha! Anyway after we'd chatted we went to see a car, its a 1993 Mitsubishi Magna and its light blue, its a long car too so theres room in there for us to sleep if we want to save money on paying for a caravan or a room or anything. Awesomeness. She offered the guy $2000 and today he text her saying thats good. Theres still another $600 worth of extras to sort out though, giant pain in the ass! The fee just for registering the car in a new persons name is about $180 and then also about 4% of the price you pay for the car, but we can dodge that and write it down as only like $1000 or something so it'll be cheaper. And then theres insurance, which you don't actually have to have here in Australia but Nic wants it as she's had some crashes back home. And last of all, roadside cover with RACQ just so we feel a bit better in case of breakdown haha :)

Today was the last day of work, good fun was had by all as time went relatively quickly and then for the last half hour or so we all just wandered around and took stupid amounts of pictures and said goodbye to everyone and all that :) Have added some of them on facebook which is nice, a lot of them are travelling up the same way I plan to and also are going to work in some of the other little towns so will probably run into some of them again at some point or another!

Tonight I think we're all planning on heading into town to go the pub or something. Theres quite a few people leaving tomorrow and we want to celebrate the end of work and leaving and stuff without having to worry about Sue the crazy landlady and her 9:30pm curfew in the kitchen. Hopefully we'll be heading out later, more drunken times and photos and it shall be good fun as I'm back to my normal alcoholicy social self - woohoo :)

Tomorrow we're gonna head and sort out the car and buy a few bits for it, Thursday we're planning on going to one of the nearby National Parks (Girraween?) and then on Friday we are OUT OF HERE. Its weird, I can't wait to leave and to do some proper travelling but I am gonna miss Stanthorpe and I do think I'll come back here next year, even if only for the strawberry work because it was a damn easy way of making a couple thousand bucks! (Even if I did miss out on loads of it because of my damn eyes!!) But then who knows, I may like one of the other working towns a lot better - we'll see :D :D :D :D :D :D

Personally, I just can't wait to get to a beach. And with that note, I'll love and leave you. Ciao!

April 9th

2010-04-16T10:34:00.000+02:00

So its 9pm on Friday April 9th, and today I got my tragus pierced. That is about all.

Well no actually. We went on our group outing to town. Nicola got her lobes pierced again (3rd time) and her cartilage pierced. Rosie and Leighann got dermal implant things, mental craziness! Leighanns is right next to her eye as well, Rosie has one in her arm. They look cool but FECKING painful! Not for me thanks! Fecking like gouging skin out of her arm and everything, we have videos of both of them getting them done which I think will need to be online and linked on here soon! And I got my tragus done on my left ear, whoop.

It hurt, but not that much. It sounds really mental but getting it done actually reminded me of getting my implant in my arm - it doesn't 'hurt' as such, just feels really uncomfortable! Theres a bit of pain when the needle goes through at first, but after that its just the uncomfortableness of putting the hoop through. Also, she couldn't get the ball into my hoop - it took bloody ages and it meant she kept having to yank the hoop around which didn't bloody help! To be honest though I think the bit that hurt the most was after she'd pierced it and she put pressure on it, apparently to 'help the swelling' but feck I would rather have the swelling, hurt like a MOFO. Piercing itself, I was looking online beforehand to see what people said about how much it hurt and most people said it hurt loads but seriously I really didn't think it did! Maybe because I was bricking it beforehand and then it hurt so much less than expected.

But anyway now its all fine, to be honest for most of the day I forgot I'd had it done, it only hurts when I forget and accidently touch it - like when I answered the phone and from habit went to press my other ear so I could hear better, that hurt too. DOH. Sleeping will probably not be fun, I tend to roll around in my sleep so hopefully my subconscious will remember that sleeping on left side will = PAIN and just won't. Fingers crossed. :D

I'm glad I got it done, I've wanted it for quite a while but never really bothered, but if I was gonna get anything pierced it was that so today I just went for it and it looks really cool and I <3 it muchly, $65 well spent!! (Yes I know I'm meant to be saving and all that, I'll consider it an early birthday present to self or something :D)

April 4th - 9th

2010-04-09T08:03:00.001+02:00

So I had Saturday off work due to a dodgy eye but it was seeming better on Sunday so I went back in, managed most of the day but then got 'sent home' around 1pm - not really sent home as I just went and sat in the car waiting for the other girls to finish, but either way. They thought I had conjunctivitis and they were rather worried I'd give it to them I think lol well either way at least they knew I wasn't faking!

Sunday night Rosie and Sara drove us up to the hospital, Nicola came with me as as most people well know I'm practically blind without my lenses and I wasn't wearing them cos they were making my eyes really sore. At this point they were ridiculously red as well, not good. Doctor nurse lady and doctor strange man said it was probably conjunctivitis too and gave me eye drops and eye ointment stuff, for free, which was odd. But I wasn't complaining.

Cue several days of boredom. I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off work for my eyes to recover. Tuesday I went back to the hospital for a checkup and then wandered around the town a little bit in my blind state to relieve myself of some boredom, but other than that I was ridiculously bored most of my time! The only thing I really could do was read, cos I could hold the book about an inch from my face, but even that gave me a headache after a while, blaaaah!

Either way, I went back to work yesterday (Thursday) because my eyes had gone back to their normal shade of white and they were fine. Wore my sunglasses all day to help with the dust, and although they got a bit irritated towards the end of the day they haven't gone red or anything and they don't hurt so all is well with the world. However, they've given us today as a day off which is just a giant pain in the ass for me, although everyone else is happy. I missed out on a bucketload of cash being off sick, so I just wanted to go back to work! BAH! Nevermind. Hopefully we're back tomorrow.

Anyway last night because we all had today off, everyone was in a good mood and there was a general drinking session down in the kitchen, nothing special there but it was good fun as always, and for once we didn't get booted out at the 9:30pm curfew which was damn strange. The owner normally comes down to tell everyone to shut up and get out but she didn't come down at all, not that we're complaining - me and Nic were in there until gone midnight with a couple of the guys, chatting shit and all that - was pretty damn fun. Although one of the guys kicked off at one of the others which was a bit eventful, amusing after everyone had calmed down but bloody hell he's irish and he gets a bit violent when drunk. Psssht.

Today is Friday, its really lovely and sunny and we're all heading into town. Couple of the girls want to get piercings, I want to get a tattoo but theres nowhere in Stanthorpe that does them! Definitely want to get another one while I'm out here though I don't know what of yet! Gonna upload all my ridiculously silly photos from last night and some from the last week and stuff, all brilliantly amusing :D We were using my SLR last night and I remembered how much better the image quality is, still counting down the days until we finally get out of here and I can find some interesting things to take pictures of! Whoop whoop :) Anyway this is all for now, off to town so spend my not-so hard-earned cash and all that ;) Who knows, maybe I'l end up with another hole in my ear or something!

April 3rd

2010-04-03T11:18:00.000+02:00

So just a quick update on my eye - I didn't end up going to work this morning because when I woke up it was still really sore and bloodshot, didn't want to risk putting my lens back in although I did later put one in my right eye so at least I can kind of half see now!

Have spent the day looking into stuff online to see if I can figure out whats wrong with it, although its now not sore anymore I basically can't go outside without my sunglasses on cos it just waters instantly and it looks like its 'photophobia' aka high sensitivity to light, quite often caused by irritation due to contact lenses so it sounds quite likely to be whats up with my eye! It doesn't say anything about cure or helping it to go away but I'm hoping that using eye drops and not wearing my lens should just sort it out, I probably can manage at work with only one lens in and I'll just have to wear my sunglasses all the time. I also need to buy new ones, the ones I have have a giant scratch on the right lense, conveniently the only one I can see out of at the moment - BAH. Anyway if it doesn't sort itself out I will go to the doctors or hospital at some point I guess, but arghhhhh... totally can not be bothered, plus don't have any way to get there at the moment!

Anyway so with my half sightedness today, I have started moving mine and Nicolas stuff into Leighanns caravan which is where we'll be living from now on, mwah! Tis a bit bigger than ours and navigating the caravan park is one of the only things I can do whilst half blind so all is well and all that. Have also watched lots of Sex and the City, munches on grapes, cheese, cucumber, tomatoes and drunk a lot of water. Not a bad day as all things go, if a little boring.

April 1st + 2nd

2010-04-03T11:17:00.000+02:00

So I'm currently attempting to write this with no contact lenses in, probably not the most intelligent idea but hey lets test my touch typing skills!

Yesterday was Thursday 1st April, was good and we had a 'half' day at work, which basically meant we did a 7 hour day instead of a 9. Half my ass! Either way it still felt good to leave that few hours early and get home and chill out, especially as we all knew we had today off work - whoop whoop!

So last night a couple of the spanish guys had planned a Bush Party, partly because we had today off and partly just because they could. And excuses to get drunk are always good :D

Anyway we got home, went to town with a few of the girls for a little bit and got vodka and goon, came home and got ready (wore my ugg boots, I knew they'd come in handy at some point!) and then we headed off around 8pm. T'was amusing, a convoy of about 9 cars and we just headed off to some random land somewhere that the spanish guys had found at some point. No idea where it actually was. Anyway, we got there and parked up, there was bloody loads of people and everyone was just chilling out, having a drink and all that. Was really nice because the lights in the caravan park kitchen go off at 9:30pm and although we didnt have any lights in the middle of the woods we did have a fire and no curfew so it was really cool. We had a sub and stuff so some decent loud music, nice warm camp fire and loads and loads of people to chat to as well as a million and one stupid photographs, as always.Highlights included Nicola and Leighann being incredibly drunk and making immense fools of themselves, lowlights included having to pee in the bushes on more than one occasion - can't say its anything I've ever particularly enjoyed!!!!

Anyway a lot of people were planning on crashing there for the night, but I headed back around midnight with the two girls I'd got a lift with as one of them doesn't drink so was still sober :) Came back and decided I wanted food, made a yummy cheese toastie and then decided I wanted noodles too. Proceededd to make the noodles, took the best part of half an hour (or so it felt) and then i went on to fall asleep whilst eating the noodles. How intelligent am I?!?! Anyway waking up this morning to half eaten noodles - not good!

BUT I also woke up with a lack of hangover which was massively impressive and very welcome. Nicola arrived back home around 8am. We had planned to do an immense amount of feck all, all day, but then we ended up getting a lift into town with her cousin, there was basically NOTHING open, being in a tiny town on a bank holiday but was nice to wander around for a bit, was a lovely day, so nice and warm :D :D . Went over to her cousins house, went on facebook for a few hours and attempted to upload photos - half worked and half went dodgy which was just bloody annoying but they were all very amusing to look at so all is good and well and that. But then since about 1pm my eye has been being really gay and watering constantly, couldn't really keep it open and when I got home I took out my lenses so haven't had them in for a few hours and my eye is still being really gay and watering, i'm a bit worried theres something up with it and I won't be able to work if its still like this tomorrow which is just bloody annoying!! So will see what its like in the morning I guess, otherwise I'm gonna have to try and sort something out, theres a doctors in the town but I totally can't be bothered with the agro of travel insurance and things so hoping it just sorts itself out!

March 19th - 31st

2010-04-01T07:56:00.003+02:00

So, the blogging side of things has been low priority for however long, I started my new job at the Strawberry farm and its tiring! We work more or less everyday unless it rains, starting at 6am and finishing 2/3pm depending on how many orders the farm has. The job itself is dead easy, but its out on the field all day in the (normally) mental hot sun and it just tires you out, added to the 5am wake ups and we've basically been coming home and vegging out, eating dinner and going to bed! Other than the several nights drinking of course.. just thought I'd mention those.

So the job itself is on a farm called 'Red Jewel', its a strawberry plant farm rather than an actual strawberry farm - they grow the plants and then sell them to other farms all over Australia, funnily enough its not exactly strawberry season in Stanthorpe at the moment, being winter and all. Though its still bloody hot for winter! Anyway, being as we're in Australia and everything is ridiculously un-politically-correct, they've hired koreans and vietnamese and a few japanese to pick the actual plants - theres about 200 of them. Then there is about 16 girls all from Blue Topaz Caravan Park who are the 'checkers' - we get assigned about 10 people at a time and we basically just walk up and down, grab a bundle and then sit down and check it for all sorts of various things like root length and how many leaves there are and stuff, if its good then its ok and if its bad the pickers get a cross on our sheet. I try not to give too many if I can help it because if they get too many they lose money, they're paid by the bundle and if they get over 3 crosses I think they lose like 20 cents a bundle which sucks when they're only paid about $1 for each one anyway! And then there are the guys, also from Blue Topaz who basically have the easiest job of all, sit on a tractor driving around all day and pick up the bundles from the pickers. So so so easy. Damn them.

The job itself is ridiculously easy, the only hard part is sitting in the sun when it gets to insane temperatures but for all intensive purposes I am being paid to sit in a field, count to 20 a million times a day and get a tan. And for $750 a week AFTER tax, I can handle that. Although that does involve 50+ hours as well, but hey - theres nothing else to do here anyway!

So, what else? Me and Nicola are getting along pretty damn well, its awesome to find someone who wants to do all the same stuff as me and we're looking into travelling together. We think after the strawberry work finishes we're going to buy a car / campervan together and then take a bit of an epic road trip which will take us all the way from sunny Stanthorpe, Queensland through Port Maquarie and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and then along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, Victoria. Can't wait, its been so long since I've been anywhere but Stanthorpe and I've yet to really do any proper travelling, so it'll be damn exciting to see new places and actually have a bit of fun! Just a shame that I can't drive as it means Nicola will have to do it all, she says she doesn't mind but it does limit us in how much we can drive per day. But that does mean stopping in more places, seeing more things, so theres a positive side to it all!

Currently its raining and it looks like we'll probably have the day off tomorrow which will be quite nice. Tempted to drink, lately I have been persuaded to drink goon as its much cheaper than vodka - its basically just boxed wine, but wine has never been a favourite or even a like of mine! However its not so bad mixed with lemonade and its only about $12 for 4 litres, whereas vodka is like $24 for 375ml - such a massive difference! We've had several drunken nights in the last week as people are starting to leave the caravan park as the season is over, so of course we had to say goodbye in the best way! Me and Nicola have learnt loads of drinking games and we need to write them all down before we forget the rules, hehe.

I'd also like to mention that my feet and about five inches of my lower legs are no longer WHITE, but merely light brown. The colour fades more and more the higher up my legs you go, but its a start. My feet are actually pretty brown to be fair, but nothing compared to my arms, which are mentally brown. My back is also quite a nice colour, or so I keep being told! We are going through mental amounts of sun cream too, bloody Australia and its insane UV rays!

So all in all, Stanthorpe is good though leaving in three weeks will be better, need to buy a car, need to plan our road trip and am looking forward to it all immensely :D I've nearly been gone from home for three months now, entirely mental and it feels like less but also longer in different ways, so strange. Missing everyone bundles but have made tonnes of new friends too :D

March 9th - 18th

2010-03-19T04:08:00.002+01:00

So, for the past week and a bit mostly not been doing too much, working and watching stuff, the usual. Not been a huge amount to blog about once again but then today I have had the most super amazing day so it meant I just had to write, especially seeing as the past few days have all been pretty awesome so things are going rather well in Sheri land :)

(Tractor from one day job at Capsicum farm with my little seat on the back!)

My last blog was just after the Apple and Grape Festival which finished on the 7th March, so now its the 18th and since then to be honest its once again been pretty much non-eventful. Working in the Bean shed, getting paid a semi decent amount sometimes as I've been doing quite a few hours there but still no more than 20 hours a week which really isn't enough seeing as all the work here will finish very soon, probably middle of April so whilst there is work I need to be getting more hours and saving more money pls!

(Little buggy I got to drive)

I don't remember an awful lot from last week to be honest, Friday I got the shopping bus and managed to finally get into town to pick up the money Dad had sent for me. Came in very handy because a few days before I had broken my phone, which is my main source of contact with everyone - I tend to use facebook and twitter on it quite a lot. Anyway I had to buy a new phone in Stanthorpe and ended up getting one which was $79, not too bad considering and I can still use facebook and stuff on it so all is well. Annoying though, that blackberry was nothing but trouble from the time I bought it and I don't think its worth claiming on the insurance because of excess and all that. New phone is ok and probably a bit more durable than the blackberry anyway so it'll do, I guess. Psssh. Saturday I think I worked, Sunday didn't really do anything other than hang in the kitchen for a bit, wasn't drinking though due to an extreme lack of alcohol!

(Me, Nicola, Chris, Tim)

So on Monday 15th I was up ridiculously early as I had the day off from the bean factory and had got a one day job on a capsicum (peppers) farm, had to be ready for 5:40am but ended up getting up about 4:30am to give my Mum and my Nan a ring as it was Mothers Day in England at the time, Sunday 14th and all that. Was nice to chat to them both, nice to talk to people every now and then. The work was pretty piss easy, I was helping the farmer planting new stuff for the winter which basically entailed sitting on a special seat on the back of the tractor and putting plants into a little machine as we drove along. Took a little while to get fast enough to cope but it was pretty damn easy, $105 for 6 hours of piss easy work, can't complain! Probably would have complained if it'd been raining but it was nice and sunny so all good. Also at some point I got to drive a little buggy thing, first by itself and then with a trailer on it, so although it wasn't a car or anything it was pretty damn cool and I was happy, I miss driving so much! I wish I had my licence, would make things so much easier out here.

(Random Italian guy whos name I do not recall, Nicola, Me)

So anyway later that evening I was drinking, also got a new roommate but didn't really meet her until Tuesday due to extreme drunkenness. I do believe our first introduction was me stumbling back into my room incredibly drunk with Leanne to fill up my vodka, and apologising for any noise I might make later in the evening coming back extremely hammered. Not the best first impression but never mind :D The evening is primarily a blur, I felt a bit shitty and so was drinking away my shitty feeling-ness haha ended up being carried back to my room at about 10pm by Stefano and Leanne, which has meant he has mocked me ever since, even whilst he's been utterly wasted drunk himself. Amusement!

(Me, Nicola, Chris)

Tuesday I woke up and felt like absolute trash. I'd been lucky and had a lie in, no work until 11am which meant I wasn't ill cos I got to sleep for the best part of 12 hours but when I got to work I felt so totally rotten, reminded me why drinking a whole 375ml bottle of vodka to myself within four hours is not the most intelligent idea I've ever had, and yet its one that seems to occur quite often? I wil never learn I'm sure. Anyway after lunch at work I felt better and then headed off home where I met Nicola my roommate. She's pretty awesome, a bit older than me but we seem to have hit it off really well, got a lot in common and all that, most importantly the fact we both like vodka very much. And that we wanted a caravan instead of a pissy little bunk house. That was definitely something we bonded over, also she is from Essex, nr Chelmsford so that was amusing.

(Nicola, Chris, Tim, Heidi)

Wednesday was St Patricks day! Nothing to be honest that I've ever really celebrated that much at home, not like I ever needed an excuse to get drunk then but here there is a couple of irish and also everyone else wanted to take advantage of the chance to get drunk / have a gathering down in Stanthorpe town - ha! Had work in the morning, about 10:30am til 3pm ish and then home to get ready for the evening. One of the guys had been chatting to a girl in the Irish pub in Stanthorpe so managed to score us a free courtesy bus into the town at about 17:30, was pretty good and we all just chilled in the pub for a good few hours. Have plenty of drunken photos of everyone, was in fact quite an awesome night. Me and Nicola bought a bottle of vodka between us to sneakily spike our drinks in the toilet to make life a lot cheaper, in the end if I think I spent about $35 including food and taxis which is definitely a damn cheap night out! (£20 maybe?) Actual briliant night, didn't get too drunk but got drunk enough to be giggly and far too talkative.

(Nicola in new caravan!)

So today dawned without a hangover, and so began one of the best days I've had haha. It makes my time sound shit when I say that but today has just had amazing luck! Woke up and went over to the reception, I can't remember why I went over but when I went over for the first time there was a cheque waiting for me for $105, score one. Then Sue told me that I'm starting a permanent full time job on Saturday, sorting strawberry plants with loads of the other girls, and also that she had a caravan for me and Nicola to move into if we liked. Score two and three! (Seriously, no one understands my longing for a caravan, I've been in that piddly bunk house for SIX WEEKS!). Anyway so we moved into the caravan, its small but its a caravan and thats all that matters. Went back to the office to find another cheque waiting for me, $270. Score four. I also then got invited to Nicolas cousins house for a home cooked roast dinner.. I've been waiting for this all day in seriousness, roast dinners are epic! Score five! And then loads of other little things like the fact we now have a toaster and a kettle, and we went to town and got these epic little wraps with chicken in them which are immense and so god damn yummy, and also the fact that Nicola has slight more cooking experience than myself and so when we go into town tomorrow to buy food we're gonna get stuff to make decent food, meaning I will no longer be living on noodles and rice, such a welcome change! With two of us we can split the cost of things like mince and chicken so not worry so much about the cost of the meat, and I think tomorrow we may be having spaghetti bolognese and therefore today has been well and truly awesome. Yes indeedy :)

(Caravan!)

Now I am off for my hopefully immense roast dinner, I'm sure it will be as seriously any roast dinner is better than noodles! (later) and now its 21:30 and we're back home, after a truly awesome dinner. Best food I've probably had since I left England, nothing beats a home cooked roast dinner. And then we had a fudge cake thing for desert, I really couldn't ask any more from today.. I don't think anything in the near future will be able to live up to today :p

(Caravan!)

Ooooh I was checking out skydives the other day and found one thats in Brisbane. I think I definitely wanna do one over Mission Beach on the East Coast cos so many people say its awesome for views and all that but think maybe I'll do one in Brisbane as well, its $275 and hopefully after this strawberry work I'll have the money to do that easy so fingers crossed, its so exciting to think about actually doing it :D :D :D :D :D :D

February 26th - March 8th

2010-03-08T04:11:00.001+01:00

Wow, so I haven't written anything for the best part of two weeks - I think I said before, time seems to fly in this place or maybe its just Australia in general. On Saturday I'll have been gone for two months and thats so weird!

So once again I haven't written because I haven't had much to write about. Today I haven't had work so I'm having to find ways to occupy my time again, and a blog was the perfect way to do so! So basically last week I worked a few more days at the Bean Sorting Shed (Bertinazzi). Because of the rain the work has been really sporadic and not always everyday, but the days we've done in the past week have been really long so it all equals out. The money I'm getting from there is basically covering my rent and my food shopping, but its not enough to save with, which is annoying. The working season here for backpackers only normally lasts until the end of March and sometimes into a bit of April - the rain will probably make it last a bit longer but not that much, so I need to get work sorted while I can!

So the 5th - 7th March was the Apple and Grape Festival here in Stanthorpe. They apparently have two big festivals a year, the A & G and also the Food & Wine festival. On Friday I was working at Bertinazzi but Saturday i had off and spent wandering the town with Pierre and Deborah - two french people I work with. It was pretty cool although drizzly and rainy all day - would have been nice to see some sun! The festival is a pretty big deal here in South Queensland and loads of people come from the big towns like Brisbane - amused me somewhat.

There was a free bus running from Blu Topaz to the town centre so we jumped on that around 12:30 and headed into town - wandered around for a while until the parade at 2pm. Parade was basically floats made by the different farms and school of the town and surrounding area, and a LOT of marching pipe bands - was odd! Felt like I should be in Scotland or something, every two minutes ther was a new marching band walking past with bagpipes from any town you could think of in the surrounding area. Was pretty cool to watch, we saw a few people we recognised, like the children of farmers we'd worked for and stuff.

After the parade we went for a bit of a wander and to try and get out of the rain. I've never really explored Stanthorpe before because when I go into town I normally have too much stuff to do and too much of a time limit, but I finally discovered where abouts the library and swimming pool are, not that I really have many intentions of going to either, because of the aforementioned time limit! Damn I wish I had a car.

at 4pm was the Celebrity Grape Crush, which basically was a bunch of 'celebrities' (well they might have been semi famous here, wouldn't have a clue) jumping up and down on grapes in a barrel and seeing who made the most juice from the grapes first. It was pretty entertaining, everyone got a bit messy cos they were just all basically throwing grapes at eachother and at some points the grapes came too near for comfort, i.e on my cardigan! Psssht! Good fun though.

After that we just kinda chilled again for a while, wasn't a lot else to do until about 5:50pm when there was a pizza eating competition sponsored by the Eagle Boys - the local pizza company who provide us with lovely pizza for really really cheap on Thursday nights... which I am really looking forward to at this point in time as I didn't have one last week. But anyway, pizza eating competition which consisted of many different rounds, some like girls vs boys, young vs old, families against other families. Was a really good laugh to watch, some of the people basically just inhaled the pizza, was mental!! Made me really want a pizza though, shame I had no money at the time!

After that we headed off to the pub to kill some time before the fireworks, not that we ever ended up watching them. Basically the entire caravan park was in this pub, and it was mental. We took up a considerable amount of space! I had completely forgotten to bring my I.D and so couldn't drink which was a giant pain, but lucky that they let me in the pub in the first place. Managed to sneak a few when the security weren't looking - beer. Oh yum. It tastes better when you realise a) you have no other option and b) its ridiculously cheap. Like Manor prices, the first time I've seen alcohol that cheap here in Aus! Anyway so we were in the pub for a good few hours when one of the other girls gave me a wristband cos she'd somehow ended up with two. Went and got myself a drink, was drinking and one of the security guards recognised me, god damn. And then asked me to leave the pub. Was pretty good timing to be fair as the free bus home was at 9:30pm and this was about 9:10pm, so it worked out pretty well. A couple of the other girls came out a bit laterand got the bus as well, so got home just before 10pm and chilled out in my room for a bit before going to bed.

Yesterday I had to get up early cos I'd got work on one of the stalls in the town. Was pretty amusing, was working on a stall called 'Wacky-Doo' and was a random junky stall, selling bubble guns and shock toys and little things called pop-pops which are those things you throw on the floor and they make the loud bang. Was a nice day, didn't have to do too much work, spent a large portion of it just standing next to the stall playing with the bubble gun. Keeps people like me easily amused, we sold loads of them. Got paid just over $100 for the day, cash in hand. Made me happy :)
So today we don't have work yet again due to rain, thank god as I was pretty damn tired and just wanted to sleep in, all good as I slept in til 11am. Kinda my own fault really as I was up until about 2am reading Breaking Dawn, that book is just so damn addictive, like all the Twilight ones. My parcel from mum turned up at some point last week and it was very awesome, ebooks (already reread the whole Twilight trilogy) and Doritos, as well as letters from peoples and photos and stuff :D Very good! I think I demolished the doritoes ridiculously quickly, they don't have chilli heatwave flavour over here and I miss it muchly :D Hoping she'll send me some more soon hehe!

So thats about all for now. Was going to use the internet in the office and upload all my blogs but funnily enough its not working, massive pain! Really annoyed actually as my phone broke last night, and I now can't really use it. The plastic bit covering the rollerball came off at some point last week and last night the whole rollerball thing fell apart. I managed to kind of put it back together so I can use it to press the button down but thats it. So I can use it to ring people and answer phone calls, but can't read texts or get online which basically cuts off my main source of contact with people. Really really annoyed about it.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So the plan for today is to watch some more Heroes, start reading Philip Pullmans 'Dark Materials' trilogy, maybe do some washing and tidy my room if I can be bothered (not so likely) and eat... noodles or rice. Not sure. Quite feel like some rice actually, but that'd mean buying a tin of overpriced veg of some kind from the office.. ooh, dilema. This is my life lmao. And weirdly enough, I'm loving it :D

How to find Agricultural Work

2010-02-27T04:11:00.001+01:00

So one of the girls on my twitter asked if I was gonna write about how you go about getting agricultural work in Australia, so here I go! Agricultural work is basically the work that counts towards getting your 2nd working holiday visa over here - you have to do three months worth before you can apply for visa no.2. Its available all over Australia although only work in certain postcodes counts, so if you're doing it to extend your visa make sure you check out that the work you're gonna be doing counts or you may end up wasting your time. The info on what postcodes and what kind of work counts is all available on the website. (www.immi.gov.au)

My first farm job was found on the noticeboard at Wakeup! Hostel in Sydney. They have a board where you can advertise things for sale, and job vacancies. Most of the vacancies are sales commision jobs, the type of job thats always available for backpackers in Sydney and don't tend to pay well! Occasionally a sign would go up advertising for farm style jobs - I saw a sign for backpackers wanted to pick tomatoes in Bundaberg whilst I was there, but I went for the farm job in Walcha. Its just a matter of ringing up the number advertised and generally its that easy. You've got to be careful though, sometimes the work isn't always guaranteed and even though you might ring up and they say to come along for the work, don't uproot yourself a million miles away without checking out the place first to make sure if other work is available! Because I'd rung for a specific farm job the work was guaranteed so I just jumped on a train and headed straight there :D

When I left the farm we went to stay at working accomodation (this particular place is Blue Topaz Caravan Park). The owner of the farm we were at arranged it all for us - very helpful as I wouldn't have had a clue where to go otherwise! Apparently these are all over the place in the main areas for farm work - its just a standard place to stay but they advertise that they have workers available to the nearby farms. Most people who stay in these places are there only for work, but they seem to be a bit cheaper than your standard accomodation too ($130 a week here compared to $210 in a hostel in Sydney). The work isn't always available all the time - for the first two weeks I was here I only got two days work. Its dead easy though, just let the people know when you get there that you want work and you'd get put on a list, depending how many people waiting / how much work there is at the time you'll get work in no time! At the moment I'm packing green beans in a shed, boring work but it pays so all is well :D Bear in mind that working accomodation tends to be pretty basic - there's not likely to be any air con or heating - sad face! You'll basically need all your own stuff, including kitchen utensils and bedding, or you can probably pay a deposit to borrow some from the accomodation. Here I paid $10 (refundable) for a kitchen pack, and $7 (non-refundable) for sheets, pillow and a quilt.

Also definitely bear in mind if you're staying at working accomodation or on a farm theres not likely to be that much to do! I've gone through a mllion hours of different TV programmes on my laptop and completed Super Mario on the snes, luckily stashed somewhere on my hard drive. They're often in the middle of nowhere and although they might sell some food and other bits at the actual place you're staying (working accomodation only), its likely to be really expensive so stock up beforehand on things to do and to eat!

The best way to find the right areas to go for farm work at certain times of the year is National Harvest Labour information service. They have a freephone number to ring where you can chat to people about any particular area and how much work there is at that area at the time, and where would be best to stay - like if there is any working accomodation in that area or something similar. They also have a little guide book which I picked up at a Ready Workforce office (more about them in a minute!) which details all the best farm areas all over Australia, what time of year has the most work, what crops are grown there and also names and numbers of places to stay and places to get work. Its a really handy book, and they make a new one each year so its always pretty up to date. Otherwise, most of the same info is all available on the website. (www.harvesttrail.gov.au - 1800 062 332)

Ready Workforce is a work agency which has offices in a lot of agricultural areas. They employ people for standard jobs but they also arrange agricultural work on a casual basis. You sign up with them and then they ring or text you when work is available. Its a first come first served thing, and you need to get in quick. The area I'm in at the moment has a lot more backpackers than jobs available right now and so you really have to reply straight away or you miss out. Some companies deal exclusively with this company so they do tend to have quite a lot of work available. You can also get the National Harvest info guides from the RW offices, and they also sell things like sun hats and give advice on how best to stay healthy in the sun whilst working!

The last place you can look for work is good old gumtree. Everything is available on gumtree, and to be honest when looking I didn't see much farm work but there was the occasional advertisement so its definitely worth checking out as there's hundreds of new advertisements placed on there every day and you never know what you might find. (www.gumtree.com.au)

February 18th - 25th

2010-02-25T04:10:00.001+01:00

So I've not wrote anything for just over a week. The original plan was to write something every day but theres only so many times I can write about how bored I am and how there is nothing to do in this place before I want to scratch my eyes out.
However, there has been merry merry progress in the boring land of Stanthorpe. I had two days of grape picking work last week, and then nothing until Tuesday this week.

But now I have a job in a packing shed, packing green beans. Its boring and monotonous and not a lot of fun but it pays and thats good enough for me :D We started on Tuesday and have had work everyday. Tomorrow we might have the day off, fingers crossed as I need to make a trip into town to pick up my bank card but then back to work on Saturday and hopefully for a good few days next week. The hours are pretty sporadic because the beans are affected by the rain so fingers crossed the rain gets lost and the work keeps coming! Literally all we do is stand and sort through beans on a conveyor belt, pulling them apart and removing bits of plants that happen to get stuck in with them. Surprisingly enough it really hurts your shoulders after a good few hours, we did 5 hours today with a 30 minute break and my shoulders were really killing by the end of it! Its pretty easy work as such, but just because its so continous it actually gets quite hard - there just isn't a break once the belts get started, unless the machines get jammed and then you get about a 30 second respite. Its alright though, its me and 5 french people - four girls and one guy. None of them really speak very good english, but then the machines are so loud that you can't really talk too much anyway, so music is the best option. Got really annoyed today, I put my spare mp3 on charge last night and then today when I left my room I realised I'd accidently left it on when I unplugged it at some point in the middle of the night and so it didn't have any battery! Not fun - the time goes SO much quicker when you have music.

Neil left on Tuesday to go to Alice Springs for a job picking lettuces. So now I'm alone in the bunk house room, though I'm sure someone else will be put in here soon. Was quite happy as he obviously couldn't be bothered to take everything with him, cos when I got home from wokr on the day he left there was a bunch of stuff like pasta and biscuits and peanut butter and sour skittles! Yay! There was a girl in here for one night whilst she waited for a room to share with her boyfriend, she seemed ok but I do get a bit paranoid about my laptop and things when I'm sharing with randoms especially as I'm not here for considerable parts of the day now! When in a hostel normally there is lockers but here I just have a cupboard with no lock - not good!

At some point last week I borrowed someones hard drive and got loads and loads of stuff copied onto my own hard drive to keep me entertained in the evenings and days of no work! One thing that comes in really invaluable is my external hard drive, I'm so glad I brought it with me - most people have them and its cool to swap programmes with everyone. If I hadn't then I think I might have died of boredom by now. Hard Drive is nearly full now though so I need to watch a bunch and delete it. At the moment I'm watching Desperate Housewives, I never really watched it on TV and I'm currently on season 2. Whoop? Apparently someone around here has the new episodes of Lost, need to find out who it is! Someone gave me the new episodes of Gossip Girl which was good, watched them already though. Gossip Girl & Lost = my two TV obsesssions I think. I need to see the new Lost eps, I don't want anything really good to happen and for someone to tell me before I get to see them!

I'm thinking I might stay here in Stanthorpe until the end of the season. I think thats the end of April? Its reasonably cheap here and that gives me plenty of time to get together some money. The people here are pretty cool and I'm more or less happy here so all is well and good in the land of Sheri at the moment!

The ridiculous amount of bites I had last week has gone down, thank god. I didn't have any new ones for a few days and then I ended up with about 13 on the back of my calf - ANNOYING. I don't know where they're all coming from, its IRRITATING. I took some antihistamines today cos apparently they stop the itching, it did for a while but I dunno if that was just psychological? But I've run out now anyway so maybe I should buy some more and some damn bite cream! I'm getting annoyed with having to use my perfume to stop the itching, it helps because of the alcohol but its a bloody waste.

Tomorrow I am going to buy a milkshake. Or 6. Because I have severe milkshake cravings and have done now for several days. I miss milk! In fact I miss other drinks in general, all I've had is water for over a week and its really getting pretty boring. Fizzy drinks and milkshake for me tomorrow pls :D I am also going to buy some credit, cos I haven't had any for the best part of a week and without credit I have no internet, and without any internet I get pretty damn bored. Watching programmes on my laptop is pretty boring after a while. Also Mum sent a parcel for me the other day so that should get here some time next week, contact lenses, ipod lead, doritos (I think?!) and she downloaded a bunch of books for me so I can read them on my laptop - will be nice to have something to read again! Can't wait for the parcel to get here! Things are all pretty good at the moment, happy happy joy joy! :D

2010-02-19T04:46:00.001+01:00

Hey all.

I'm currently in Stanthorpe, Queensland, on a caravan park with very slow and expensive net hence my lack of blogs! Fear not, I've been writing them and once I'm back to civilisation they'll all be on here, but for now... au revoir? Theres a lot of french people here hehe :)