'To pick one apple you must use two hands.' Frances O'connell 1988 - 2010

I’m writing this on a rainy Wednesday afternoon from a little town called Stanthorpe two to three hours south west of Brisbane. I’ve been here for just over three weeks now, although it feels like about three years! I’ve been wanting to blog about Stanthorpe since I arrived as it has been such a bizarre experience, but we have been working so hard, that every night when we get home from work I barely have the energy to shower and eat never mind anything else. Days off have been fairly non-existent too, we just did thirteen days straight without any days off; it nearly killed us. We are only off this afternoon as it has been pouring with rain and apples bruise more easily when they are wet so we can’t pick, thankfully!

So I met up with Frances in Sydney and the day after Mardi Gras we were chatting on the phone about where we were going to go or what we were going to do, and being the organised people that we are we booked a flight up to the Gold Coast for the following afternoon, that was about as far as our planning went! When we arrived at the Gold Coast, having successfully managed to find a bus to the tourist mecca of Surfers Paradise, despite my having written down the bus numbers in the wrong order; we set about finding a place to rest our heads that night. We were actually really lucky in finding an extremely nice hostel that was a bit further off of the beaten track and a bit smaller than most, but that actually gave it a really nice alternative vibe.

We were at the Gold Coast for four days and I had intended on taking Frances to one of the four theme parks, to see the fantastic beach at Surfers and do lots of fun touristy things; but unfortunately the weather forecast wasn’t in on my plan and didn’t co-operate and it rained pretty much constantly from the moment we arrived. The four days pretty much passed us by in a haze of wine, a bit more wine, and some more wine interspersed with occasional dancing, eating, badly played pool and making lots of new friends.

Given that I was extremely hesitant about my first hostel experience due mostly to the films Hostel part one and two, I was pleasantly surprised. We met some fantastic people, had lots of fun and I generally didn’t have one bad thing to say about the experience. Except that maybe my bed could have been a little comfier, but for $25 a night (about £14) you can’t complain!

On the day we were suffering from the least severe of our collection of hangovers we started making some enquiries about fruit picking; having brought lots of wine, we thought that it would probably be a good idea to replenish our bank accounts. We spent several hours making phone calls and sending emails with no joy; Frances did seem to think that my preference for phoning the places with the heated pools was hindering our success somewhat. But even after I was forced in to being less fussy, everywhere was either already fully staffed, had had their season delayed due to the excessive rain or were only offering Banana picking, and Frances has this theory about spiders in Banana’s and was keen to avoid anything to do with Banana’s (this theory even extends to Banana’s in supermarkets…odd girl she is.)

We got the train back up to Brisbane the following weekend where some of my extra lovely super generous friends were kind enough to put Frances and I up for a couple of nights. Kat picked us up from train station despite being sick, which we were super appreciative of as the weather had still not decided to show Frances its usual sunny self. We settled ourselves down at Kat’s with the internet and several phones ready for a full day of job hunting, and the very first phone call I made brought us success; a job! We were to pick apples for $36 a bin in a place called Stanthorpe starting Tuesday. It seemed absolutely ideal, as it was easy for us to travel to from Brisbane, and $36 for a bin of apples, we thought we would be raking in the cash, as surely it would be really easy to fill up a bin of apples, after all, how big could a bin possibly be? Oh how wrong we were. The only other slight issue we were informed was that the local working hostel was full, so as the farmer really needed workers he had been kind enough to say that we could live in his cottage on the farm until a space came up at the hostel. Rent was only going to be $30 a week for the cottage; we were even happier thinking we had had a right result!

So we spent a lovely night with Kat eating take away and watching a film, the perfect remedy to our insane week at the Gold Coast and headed to the Salvation Army the next morning to bag ourselves some bargain fruit picking clothes! Frances got her first look at Brisbane city as Kat gave us a lift over to Kathryn’s house. (Kat and Kathryn gets confusing I know!)

It was nice to be back at Kathryn’s house, albeit briefly, I’ve gotten pretty fond of living there. We headed out to help Sarah celebrate her birthday, which involved free drinks on the house from the bar we were in; although sadly Frances and I were still feeling a little too worse for wear after the Gold Cost to take advantage of this to the full extent that we usually would have!

So on Tuesday morning Kathryn was kind enough to give us a lift to the Transit Centre so we could catch our coach out to Stanthorpe; and this is where Frances and I began to discover than when left to fend for ourselves we generally fail on epic proportions.

Our first task was to find a locker in which to leave our stuff whilst we went and did some last minute shopping, and after ten minutes of struggling to lift our extremely heavy cases in to the very top row of lockers we spoke to the very amused man at the coach desk who told us we could have just left our luggage with him, free of charge. Mistake one of many yet to come.

I was pretty confident of the way down to the shopping centre near the transit centre having been lost in the general area several times before, but Frances wanted to be sure about where we could buy some gardening gloves as we thought they might be a handy thing to have for apple picking. Frances being Frances walked straight up to the first passer by she saw, who happened to be a middle aged builder, and said and I quote

‘Excuse me; do you know where I can buy some gardening gloves?’

I’ve never seen somebody look so bewildered (and slightly frightened) in my life!

Heading down to the shopping centre I managed to equal up our tally of ridiculousness by walking in to a spiders

web, complete with nasty looking spider right in front of a group of workmen; who were most amused at my spider dance (you know the spider dance you do when there’s a spider on you and you’re trying to get it off?) whilst Frances did an Oscar winning performance of pretending she wasn’t with me. My situation was exacerbated by my pull along hand luggage case (I’m my fathers daughter and wasn’t willing to leave my laptop in a locker!) deciding it no longer wanted to be a pull along case and I therefore had to carry the extremely heavy awkward shaped case in my arms for the rest of our walk. We should have realised by this point that our trip was only going to get more ridiculous with every step we took.

So after a very pretty coach ride through the Queensland countryside which included one of the best sunsets I have ever seen and a very eerie experience of driving through the clouds at dusk we arrived at our destination. Although my paranoia about everyone being out to steal the organs of backpackers was kicked back in to life when the coach driver told us it was our stop, took our bags off the coach and drove off leaving us most bewildered looking around the pitch black country lane surrounded by nothing but trees and darkness. Eventually as our eyes adjusted we spotted lights through the trees, which thankfully, belonged to that of the local hostel, who we had arranged would give us a lift to our cottage.

We met Fabian, one of the brothers who run the hostel, who was kind enough to give us a lift to Woolworths so we could get some food (we were STARVING) and we bled him for information about the picking on the way; he warned us that it was hard work and that the supervisors could be a bit mean, but he did so in such a cheerful way we were feeling pretty positive about the experience!

Then we arrived at the ‘Cottage’ which shall be hereafter referred to as THE SHACK. So we have arrived in the pitch dark, after driving along a bumpy dirt track for quite some time, and as utterly kind and lovely as Fabian is they have since admitted to us that they hate taking people to the shack so he took off pretty much as soon as we had unloaded our bags. Before we had even found a light the first thing to hit us upon opening the door was the smell. Its pretty indescribable but it was some sort of mix of rat faeces, rot, decay, damp, urine and death all mixed in to the kind of stench that catches you at the back of the throat and makes your eyes water. Turning the light on was no real help at all and in hindsight candle light may have been better so we didn’t have to see the details of our surroundings.

The Guided Tour of the Shack

Turning right from the front door you enter the kitchen, which was our favourite room of the house, and also Roger the Rat’s favourite room as he chose to live under the fridge and left us droppings in the sink and on the table. We had a rickety little table, which bless the guys that run our hostel they had tried to make it look homely with the addition of a red checked table cloth. We had a fridge, which was the rustiest thing I’ve ever seen, and still had tape marks around it where someone had clearly dumped it and then it had been rescued and put in the shack. We had a sink, albeit we had been warned about the possibility of mosquito larvae in the tank water so we boiled all water that we used. We also tried to spend as little time as possible standing anywhere near the sink, as there was a smell so bad coming up from the drain that one whiff of it was enough to make you dizzy and nauseous, I would still rather not know the source of the smell. We had one plug point shared between a kettle, a toaster, and one hob ring, which took half an hour to boil a pan of water (and that’s after it had been boiled in the kettle first!) but as far as modern amenities go in a shack we were pretty appreciative of them.

The next ‘room’ along from the kitchen was the so called bathroom. This room had its own particularly unique smell, and I’m pretty sure that more than ten minutes in there with the door closed would result in death. Apparently the maggots that we regularly had to dispose of from the bathroom floor were not bothered by the smell.

We had a bath with a shower, but the bath had a layer so thick of what can only be described as ‘skank’ and rust that once again it posed a risk of death or at best serious disease. The shower initially worked for the first two days, but then it gave up and decided to stop working. Over the next four days we began to smell so bad that I am absolutely telling the truth no exaggeration we literally had a permanent cloud of flies following us around; it was that bad! Eventually the farmer offered to take us for a shower at the home farm, which did literally consist of a shower head inside a tin shack, but it honestly was the best shower I’ve ever had in my entire life, and probably ever will have!

The next room was the lounge which consisted of several sofas again the hostel people had done their best to help us out and had covered them over with blankets, we opted for the ignorance is bliss tactic and had no desire to know what lay beneath the blankets! The lounge was home to the majority of the spiders webs of the shack, with each corner thick with webs, thankfully their owners decided not to make our acquaintance.

Attached to the lounge room was the bedroom; which consisted of two bunk beds, a single bed, and a stack of random furniture including sofa’s, beds and wardrobes piled up high taking up the majority of the space in the room. One of our shack mates, Katja, 28 from Finland, had arrived first and bagged the best bed, the one in the middle of the room which relieved her of the draft from the window that did not shut and safe distance away from the door to outside which did not lock. I decided that the next best option was to find the comfiest bed, I succeeded in my mission but this landed me the top bunk next to the window that did not shut, so I was permanently freezing cold, as Stanthorpe is not a warm place! Frances opted for the bed below me, I’m pretty sure just so that she got to thump me in the back to wake me up each morning.

Our other shack mate, Nova, 24, from Canada, who has become a very good friend of ours, opted for the bed closest to the door, possibly so that if it all got to much she could make a prompt escape.

But where is the toilet I hear you cry? Well it did exist, but it existed outside on the other side of the shack, so on our first night we didn’t even know it was there, and after that we still had the problem of the fact it was pitch dark outside, and none of us were willing to walk outside in the pitch dark in the middle of the nowhere in Australia. All I will say is none of us will ever look at a red bucket in quite the same way again!

I know this blog is possibly one of my longest so far, but there has just been so much that I want to share with you guys back home. I’ll try to make the next week of our lives in the shack as brief as possible.

The apple picking there isn’t too much to say about it, we hate it, its horrible in every way you can imagine, but its dollars in the bank and days ticked off for my visa extension. The so called ‘bins’ of apples turned out to be crates, crates which hold around 2000 apples and take between two and a half to three and a half hours to fill. We wear picking bags on our front which when full way around 20kg and leave us with permanent neck, shoulder and back ache, and probably permanent damage too! We regularly come across spiders hiding in the trees, unfortunately for me my first spider happened to be an oversized huntsman. Upon realising I was holding an apple with a big fat hairy obscenity on it (Frances and I have decided the only fitting way to refer to Australian Spider is as an obscenity) my first instinct was to of course drop said apple, which resulted in said apple and spider now being in my picking bag, which is of course attached to me. I then committed the girliest act of my life in flinging off my hat, throwing the picking bag over my head, screaming and running away. Frances mocked me until she found her own spider ten minutes later, and promptly sat down on the trailer and refused to pick for the rest of the day.

Now being week three we are sort of starting to get used to seeing them, but we still struggle, especially as they have jumping spiders here (yes they actually JUMP) , and we have seen red backs and white tips both of which are poisonous.

Walking home from work one day we spotted a red belly black snake, which in my opinion is a stunning creature and I was absolutely fascinated, Frances thought I was far too over excited, but I was happy. Walking home from work was always an interesting experience, including one evening when we spotted a turtle shell at the side of the road, naturally we went to investigate, and felt pretty sad for the poor little dead dried up turtle, as Frances said he looked like he had died in pain! We also saw the biggest, fattest, ugliest most evil looking ants crawling on the shell, so we decided to leave fairly rapidly, although as I was to discover, not rapidly enough!

When we got home I sat down and took off my shoes and began to take off my sock and immediately felt a searing pain in my lower leg, which then shot electric shock type pains to the tips of my toes and towards my hip, whilst I was reeling from the shock of the pain the whole thing repeated itself just above my knee. I threw my sock across the room and half hopped half ran in to the kitchen where Frances was to inform her I was in agony and needed a doctor, laugh at my overreaction if you will, but you have no idea how much pain I was in!

As I lifted my trouser leg up we watched my leg redden and start to swell, and the pain did not ease at all it stayed intensely painful for at least ten to fifteen minutes but for what felt like hours. Frances did her very best lets be calm about this act and I agreed to go change in to my pyjama’s and lay down and see if the pain eased at all.

We searched the floor and my shoes and socks but could not find the offending creature, so we had no idea what it was that had bitten me. I have to admit the amount of pain I was in I didn’t feel that my shack mates were taking what could be my imminent death from the venom of some sort of Australian creature coursing round my body seriously enough; so whilst awaiting help from the texts I sent to Kathryn and Lynelle asking for advice too, I phoned Jesse the other brother who runs the hostel. He was very good and got me to explain the type of pain and what the bites looked like and went to make some phone calls about what it could be. He got back to me and said that from the description of the pain it sounded like the bite of a bull ant, but that he was happy to take me to hospital to be sure, to be honest I really did want to go to hospital, but I was so tired that I couldn’t face going back out again so I said I would let him know in the morning how I was, if I was still alive by then!

So the next morning I woke up, and the pains had eased and I appeared to still be alive so I went for a walk outside to the outside toilet to get changed in to my work clothes. Whilst pulling my trousers up I could not believe my bad luck that I felt that same awful pain, again! Somehow I managed to resist the urge to run screaming out of the toilet with my trousers round my ankles. Upon going back in the shack and telling Katja and Nova (Frances was in the bathroom of death) that I’d been bitten again we began to turn my trousers inside out. When I caught my first glimpse of the leg of a creature I was too terrified to look and had to cover my eyes. In hindsight I wish I had been braver as I had to listen to Nova shout;

‘Oh my god guys it’s a MASSIVE spider.’

Shortly followed by Katja’s addition of;

‘No its not it’s a Scorpion, look at its massive pincers!’

At which point I was slowly but surely falling in to a state of utter panic and was ready to retire to my death bed when Frances came and joined in with;

‘Look at the size of its head!’

Thankfully Frances then noticing my gradual descent in to hysteria resumed some sort of calm and order to the situation and took a closer look and decided it actually was the biggest, ugliest, fattest, meanest most evil looking ant in the world, commonly known as a bull ant. It was only at this point that I plucked up the bravery to take a look, and I have to admit I almost wish I hadn’t it was the ugliest looking thing I had ever seen, and it felt so horrible to know that it had been that thing that had bitten me. But the knowledge that it wasn’t a spider was the biggest relief. It still really really hurt, and I had big swollen welts where the bites were for several days, but it was good to know that I wasn’t going to drop dead any second.

There’s still so much more I want to tell you, but having hit 3000 words I feel I really should stop writing now, so I will write again soon to tell you more about the apples, the hostel we are now staying in (Which I LOVE) and all of our other Stanthorpe adventures.

So until the next rainy afternoon, I hope you enjoyed reading this, if any of you actually succeeded in making in to the end! Next time you bite in to an apple think of the poor abused over worked tired sore backpacker who probably picked it for you, blood, sweat and tears goes in to every apple picked I can assure you!

Lots of Love

Liza xXx <3>

(I’d say and Frances too, but I’m waiting for her to come home from the pub sloshed any minute now.)

Better Late Than Never?

So I know it’s been forever since I last blogged, but I decided that I’d better get back on it before I head off in to the middle of nowhere just in case of Hostel / Wolf Creek type scenario’s!
So the last time I blogged was way back in November, and I’ve done so much since then it would be impossible to include everything in one post. I promise to try and be better at blogging from now on! But in the mean time I’ll try and catch up on some of the things I have done…

So early December Kathryn and I went up to Cairns… I don’t think I can find words to do it justice; it has to be one of the most stunning places on earth. We went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef; unfortunately we both had colds at the time so diving was out of the question. But to be honest the snorkeling was actually perfect because it meant Kathryn and I could swim off away from everyone else and just bob around in the quiet watching the reef go about its daily business. Strange as this may sound I felt very privileged to be sort of looking through the window as it were at this underwater world. It really was magical, the colours, the array of creatures from jelly fish to parrot fish (Kathryn’s favourite; she was swimming around stalking them for ages!) to the reef itself, it was an incredible experience. We were told that we may well see reef sharks but we didn’t, much to Kathryn’s disappointment, myself I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not! We packed so much in our short trip to Cairns; we also went up the Daintree rainforest, and Cape Tribulation which is a very well known spot. We kept an eye out for Crocodiles but sadly we didn’t see any, just several floating logs that looked incredibly lifelike when we were swimming in a freshwater hole in the rainforest! It was called Blue Hole… and they weren’t lying the water really was bright blue! I thought it was a beautiful temperature, so refreshing after the humidity of Cairns, but the two Aussie girls, Kathryn, and Lizzie who was so kind to let us stay with her and play tour guide, thought it was freezing. Think my kayaking back home has given me a good resistance to cold water!!! Cairns really is a beautiful spot, I’m hoping to go back there and spent a bit more time exploring and taking it all in.

Whilst I was still back in London Lynelle had told me about the sunrise views from Mount Tambourine, so she promised me a sunrise trip so we fitted it in my last couple of days in Brissy. The adventure had to commence at 0200 hours due to it being Summer and the sun getting up early! It was still dark after we arrived and found a good spot so we indulged in some Chai and Krispy Kremes whilst we waited. I don’t think I’ve ever made a conscious effort to go and watch the sun rise before, and it was absolutely stunning. The sky changed from blues and purples to reds and oranges and pinks, it was absolutely beautiful and well worth the lack of sleep! We had an awesome few days whilst Kathryn and Lynelle had a bit of time off of work, we had a bowling adventure followed by Pancake Manor; an old church converted in to a 24/7 pancake restaurant I kid you not! The seats are pews! The following day we had a Noosa trip (still my favourite place on earth!) where we lost track of time and swam for hours and hours. This was followed by Sizzlers; my favourite place to eat out here. All my favourite things in one day it was a pretty perfect day and a great way to bid Queensland farewell for a little while!

Over Christmas I went over to Western Australia, it was such a long journey to get down to Margaret River, but two planes, a bus and two coaches later my brother had a cold beer waiting for me and it was good to see the family again. I was just a little proud of myself too for having navigated my way to the other side of the country! Margaret River was pretty, but very windy! It was a shock to the system to be cold again after the Brisbane temperatures! Went with the family on a ‘Bush tucker tour’ which was being filmed for a Korean TV show, so somewhere out there there’s a Korean TV programme that we star in! My brother ate a witchety grub’s bum and seemed to think it wasn’t too bad…I stuck to the bush turkey and the assortments of berries and plants, some of which were actually really yummy! Margaret River is a big wine region so we went to lots of wineries, and I learnt how to pretend to know what I’m talking about with wine albeit I still don’t actually have a clue!

We headed back up to my brothers in Fremantle for Christmas… it was very strange putting the Christmas decorations up with the air con going full blast! Even stranger spending Christmas morning on the beach… but awesome. We had a full traditional Christmas dinner complete with Christmas pudding, most Aussie’s stick with salads which is a lot more sensible in the heat, but, my brother insisted we were traditional! We did lots of cool stuff over in W.A , wave rock was cool it’s basically a giant rock in the shape of a wave which has taken thousands of years to form that way, and made for some great cheesy photographs.
The Pinnacles are a sight to see, hundreds of vertical rocks scattered all around a big patch of desert; the aboriginals say it’s the fingers of teenagers, who were told not to go near the desert, trying to claw their way out of the sand. Scientists don’t really have a clue why they are there so I’m sticking with the aboriginal explanation! It’s a bit of a surreal and creepy kind of place so it seems fitting!

For our Christmas present my brother and sister-in-law took us on a dolphin watching trip which was spectacular, there was so many dolphins and they were not at all shy about coming close to the boat! It was fantastic to see a whole school of dolphins jumping and playing so close to us, ands what’s more the water was so clear we could even see them swimming under the water! After the dolphin trip we spent the rest of the day on Penguin Island, where we fed the wild King Skinks (big lizards) and saw lots of Penguins…yes they have Penguins in Australia! We also went on another boat trip to another close by Island to see Sea Lions!
There’s so much to include its hard putting it all in to one blog entry! We went to a wildlife park where I got to feed KANGAROO’S! I was so excited, they were super friendly and quite happy to be stroked, and they would even hold your hand whilst they were feeding out of your other hand! I would have been happy to stay there for days on end but unfortunately the keeper chucked me out, I was the last person to leave at the end of the day! We also got to get up close and personal with Koala’s and a Hairy Nosed Wombat. I love Australian wildlife!!!

One of my favourite days over in W.A was our trip to Rottnest Island which was absolutely stunning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such white sand or such blue water. We cycled around the Island, 24km if I remember rightly? It was hard work, such hard work as there were so many hills and I’m sure each one got increasingly steeper!! But every time you made it to the top of a hill you would have these fantastic views spread out in front of you and it would spur you on to keep going. Other than a few facilities on one side of the island and the cycle track the island is mostly undeveloped, which means there is nothing to spoil the natural beauty, and I so hope they always keep it that way as it really was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. The island is also home to ‘Quokka’s’ a small marsupial creature and they are so friendly and inquisitive they will come on over to say hello and see what you are up to! The island is also home to two kinds of snake… and I saw one!!! I was so excited that I did everything you should not do if you want to avoid being bitten, so instead of standing still and being quiet I jumped up and down and made a lot of noise…oops. Especially considering it turned out to be a ‘dugite’ which although a timid species they have one of the most poisonous venom's of all snakes!!! Lucky he decided not to bite the silly over excited English tourist. I think that he had a sense of humour as the spot he chose to sit at was right behind a ‘Warning, Venomous Snakes’ sign.
The last week I was in W.A they were having a heat wave with the temperatures hitting up to 43c and even 45c on one afternoon! The sun was so strong that it was genuinely uncomfortable to be in direct sunlight for very long at all. My folks and I spent the week in a villa with a pool, and we didn’t stray far from the pool at all, in fact only really as far as the BBQ!

After saying my farewells to the family I flew over to Sydney, having a fantastic flight as I flew overnight and had the entire emergency exit row to myself, so heaps of leg room PLUS room to lay down across all three seats. All flights should be that way! I was then adopted by the Veale family for a week, and had an absolutely lovely time with them. On the morning I arrived Jen took me to SUMMER BAY! They were filming at the time, so we were extra’s in the back of the shot! So look out for me!

Jen’s family took me out to show me Sydney city, which was a fantastic day. We caught a ferry in to the city, and as the ferry turns the corner in to Sydney harbour the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge suddenly appear in front of you…and it’s BREATHTAKING. It’s so strange to see something so iconic with your own eyes. I was pretty lost for words! We went for a walk up to the Opera House, and I didn’t know you can walk right up to the top and touch the sails. We had a quick look inside, we would have taken the tour but we had so much to do that will have to be on the list for next time! We took a mini train ride around their Botanical Gardens, where they had HUNDREDS of bats hanging from the trees, very random! From the Botanical Gardens you get the picture postcard perfect view of the Opera House in front of the Harbour Bridge, again breathtaking to see. Again I’m condensing such a packed day as this blog is getting pretty long, it’s kind of cool writing this all down actually and realising how much I’ve actually done! After the Opera House I was treated to lunch overlooking the harbour and then taken for a guided walk around the city by my adopted Sydney family. I swear Aussies are SO lovely. We then went up their version of centrepoint which is very different to ours! It’s almost like a big long pole with a bit stuck on the top, where you get fantastic 360o views of the city. It was a great way to see all the things we couldn’t fit in to one day, like their Hyde Park! Which is a lot smaller than our one!

The next day Rich took Jen and I on a walk up to the Home and Away lighthouse, check out the beginning of Home and Away and you will spot it. It was quite a walk, especially as were tight on time so we had to practically run up this giant hill/mini mountain. There were some fantastic views to be had though, and I was lucky enough that Rich shared some secret spots with me, where the views were incredible. It’s hard to describe check out my pictures but there is like this spit of land which has beaches on either side but is then surrounded by ocean…great views. I now call Rich monkey boy though as we did heaps of climbing up, down, over, in and round rocks and caves, I feared death on numerous occasions but thankfully Rich knew what he was doing and kept us alive, and I was proud of my war wounds so I didn’t mind! (I’ve actually ended up with a wicked scar on my shin, awesome souvenir!) We had dinner that night to celebrate Jen’s birthday at a wonderful restaurant right next to the summer bay surf club!!! I’m a geek I know…

We had a good night out in Sydney for Jen’s birthday celebrations the following day, where many pancakes were eaten, lots of new friends were made, much tequila was consumed and lots of Salsa was attempted!!! Rich took me for a tipsy late night full moon walk (whilst Jen and co were boring and got a taxi home!) and there was something very peaceful about the northern beaches of Sydney lit up by the moon and totally deserted as all the sane people were tucked up in beds at 4am. Rich took me to a look out where someone, definitely an Aussie, has carved two seats in the rock face complete with drinks holders! I had a slight disaster in that my favourite necklace decided to fall off and down a mini cliff, somehow, I’ve no idea how, Rich managed to find it! I’m indebted to him forever for that!

My last night in Sydney I met up with Rod from the stadium who happened to be in town, we had drinks at the Opera bar which is right next to the opera house and offers fantastic night time views of the harbour all lit up. Which blew my mind; I really did not want to leave! Sydney is a stunning city at night, on par with London I think, and that’s saying something!!! It was really really nice to catch up with a familiar face and accent too.

I was spoilt rotten by Jen’s family all week and I really cannot thank them enough for it, and if they’re not careful they will never get rid of their adopted English person!!!

Well this blog has gotten ridiculously long again…So I better stop now, and get to bed, as I planned to be asleep several hours ago! But I’ve covered nearly everything over the last few months, and I’ll blog again soon with all my updated Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney adventures!

Much love to all of you back home in the U.K I hope you haven’t frozen to death just yet. You can take some satisfaction from the fact that we are in Autumn now and you are in Spring! If any of my tame Australians are reading this… I hope you know how much I appreciate all of you guys, I have been so lucky to meet so very many wonderful people out here and I love you all dearly!

G’night! xXx

Who turned the heating up?

Who turned the heating up?

Technically this is an Australian spring… however Adelaide is sweltering in a record breaking heat wave, and Ipswich; inland from Brisbane, recorded temperatures this week of over 40˚C. When we had that European heat wave a few summers back scores of people were dying when the temperatures hit 40˚C! Let alone over and above.
However Australia is better designed for the heat, all the shops have air conditioning and the houses are cooler; all coming equipped with screen doors and windows so you can have everything open to try and create a draft without the wildlife getting in.

Talking of wildlife it’s been on the news this week that in Adelaide where it has been so ridiculously hot the Koala’s have been wondering in to houses to lay on the cool floors. If the indigenous creatures are struggling with the heat over there… it’s a good job as a legal alien in this country that I’m in the tropical Sunshine State where hot spells are generally broken with cool storms.
Although perhaps I shouldn’t be too pleased about that as the local paper this week came with a warning that the hot weather and heavy rain creates the ideal conditions for the Funnel Webb Spider; one of Australia’s most deadly. Apparently it’s mating season and the males, typically, are terrible with directions and get lost and wonder into houses.
Great! I have to admit I adapt to these possibilities by always wearing thongs (… I actually typed thongs there instead of flip flops... I’m being brain washed!) if I get up in the night. However all our light switches in this house are inside the rooms rather than outside them, and its one of my biggest fears that I’ll reach round the door to turn the light switch on and find something big and hairy instead of the switch. I may have to start carrying a flash light at all times just in case! Perhaps a can of insect spray just for the spiders too; I just discovered a few moments ago when a fairly standard English kind of size spider ran across my carpet that the insect spray is out. Not the best time to find this out I have to say!
Before either Kathryn W or Kathryn V kill me for the admittance that I’d of killed it if I could have… because I genuinely don’t know which spiders here are poisonous and which ones are not, I’m too scared of them to get close enough to catch them just in case! At least back home as much as I don’t like them I don’t have to be worried about whether they are going to fight back or not!
Before you all laugh at me, I’m not being as overdramatic as you would think, all of this week we have had a Redback spider; again one of the most deadly kinds, living in the light fitting in our lounge. Come to think of it that would explain why we are out of insect spray as we, and by we I mean my housemate Katrina because she’s braver than I am, have been trying to get rid of him. She succeeded just this morning (Thanks Katrina!) Again I know a few of you don’t like the idea of killing things, and I’d usually wholeheartedly agree, but if it’s a case of kill him before he kills us then I have to say I subscribe to the theory he just has to go!

Admittedly I’ve now managed to write half a page purely about spiders… but I’m not quite done yet. My friend Lynelle was arriving at Kathryn W’s place (I know it’s confusing that there’s two Kathryn’s; Kathryn Webb is the Kathryn I met back home, and Kathryn V is one of my new friends out here. I would refer to Kathryn Webb as English Kathryn seeing how I met her in England… But I’d fear her wrath if I did this so I’ll refrain!) and she wanted to play me a song on her car stereo, so I was leaning through the door of her little white car speaking to her when I see something out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was literally ‘No it can’t be…it’s too big!’ and upon leaning back out the window for a better look the moment I’d been fearing since my arrival was realised.
The biggest, fattest, ugliest, hairiest creature that you could imagine was casually sitting on Lynelle’s car, right by her door frame, making the grand distance between him (or her I guess!) and I approximately a grand total of two inches. I’ve never seen anything even remotely resembling that before in real life. I think they should be given a category of their own, kind of like how you have monkeys who are the smaller friendlier versions of gorilla’s; you should have spiders and another category for monster spiders!!!(I failed on coming up with an appropriately hideous sounding name, suggestions welcome!)
He was probably about the size of a side plate, although I didn’t hang around to take too close a look at him! He was fairly dark in colour, and so fat and hairy!!!
Needless to say I might have yelped a little bit and backed off fairly sharpish… much to the amusement of the numerous Aussie’s that happened to be in Kathryn’s front yard at that moment. Kathryn and Lynelle managed to encourage him to leave the premises with the aid of a broom… there’s no way I could have gotten that close to him! Although I have to say there was one or two yelps from the pair of them when he wasn’t cooperating, so they can’t mock me too much! I honestly had been dreading that experience since I arrived, so I guess its good that its over and done with now, I’m just hoping its not something I have to relive too often! (Excuse me whilst I go and check under my bed having written that!)

Like I said the temperature has been creeping up and up lately and as I write I’ve got the ceiling fan (oh how I love my ceiling fan, I have my bed positioned right underneath it!) going full blast and a pint of water on the go due to the fact I got burned today. Now before I get told off by my Grandparents who will be reading this, if I’m going out anywhere for the afternoon and it’s a sunny day I put sunscreen on. If I’m at the beach I repeatedly put sunscreen on! They have lots of adverts here about skin cancer, and those along with the older generation here that you see with skin that looks like leather have encouraged me to be sun smart. However this morning, it wasn’t even midday so I wasn’t being the stereotypical ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.’ All that I did was take a stroll down to the local bus stop to meet my friend Jen. It would have been no more than a forty minute round trip, probably more like half an hour. In that time I managed to get a sunburnt face, sunburnt shoulders and sunburnt chest. In half an hour!!! That’s how strong the sun is here. Or how much they lack an ozone layer I guess. Really quite frightening to think that if I did this much damage in half an hour what a day out in the sun without any protection would do to you.

However despite the increase in temperatures, Australia’s answer to their heat wave problems would seem to be for me to arrange a trip to the coast. As it would seem that on 90% of the occasions I plan to go to the beach, the weather turns!
One of the things I love most about this country is the people (although you will never catch me admitting that to them!); its so easy to make friends here, and the people really do live up to their reputation of being laid back, chilled out and friendly as it gets.
So one of the friendly Aussies I’ve met since I’ve been here, Kathryn V and I had planned a beach trip last Friday, it was forecast to be a hot sunny day as are most of the days here.
However, when Friday rolled round, it decided to be dark and overcast. Id like to say I brought a bit of the English spirit with me, and we decided to press on, since when has a bit of bad weather deterred the English from going to the beach! It turned out that the dull weather in Brisbane city was due to smoke carried up on the wind from a bush fire in the state; we thought they over exaggerated the bush fires on Neighbours and Home and Away, in actual fact it would seem if anything they do the exact opposite.
However as we arrived at the Gold Coast and headed for the water a big black cloud decided to roll in; so we decided that swimming was perhaps off the cards and we would look for something else touristy to do.
Whilst we decided we indulged in some of the best cocktails I’ve ever had; Kathryn had some sort of cherry chocolate combination, and I had a kind of sour apple martini.

Now whilst we were sitting watching the world go by the phenomenon of the meter maids appeared. Now this is where it becomes clear how much more liberal Australia is compared to the good old traditional UK.
Now meter maids, if I’ve got the story right here, were born out of the public outcry at the installation of parking meters at the popular tourist Mecca of the Gold Coast in 1965. So in an effort to win the public opinion round, Meter Maids were introduced. These were young ladies dressed in gold bikinis and tiara’s who would wonder round feeding coins into expired parking meters. As you can imagine the scheme although controversial was highly successful and was even used a few year later as a marketing tool to repair the tourism industry after some freak weather driving the tourists away. The modern day version of the meter maids still wear the gold bikini, although in a more modern design, and are sponsored by various businesses.
I have to admit I really cannot see a British coastal town ever allowing someone to bring in bikini wearing girls to walk around their town doing nothing else all day but looking pretty!

Having assessed our touristy activity options; including a duck boat tour on an amphibious type vehicle like the one in London, we opted to try out Jet Boating. Thankfully in our favour whilst we waited for our allotted time the storm blew over and the sun came out, what we didn’t know then was just how grateful we were going to be for the presence of the sun after the boat ride!
As we signed our lives away on one of those standard waiver forms Kathryn casually asked our driver whether we would be best to change into boardies for the trip or whether we were okay to stay in dry clothes. He casually responded that you might occasionally get a little wet it all depended on the wind direction etc. Kathryn made the oh so good call that we changed, and thankfully persuaded me to make the last minute decision to leave my phone and camera behind! (I’m my father’s daughter; I hate having to trust someone I don’t know to look after my valuables!)

We got completely and utterly totally drenched. The guy driving our boat was completely insane but highly skilled. He was winding us up at first that it was his first day on the job, and he even made a phone call where he appeared to be asking for directions! But once he had taken us out of the harbour speed limit… we got a shock. The power the boat had was absolutely incredible, and paired with such a skilled driver, it made for quite an adrenalin rush. We would head at full speed straight towards one of the marker poles, i.e. a large metal role sticking out of the sea, and only at the very very last second would he turn the boat so as we skidded round it with an inch or two to spare.
There was a fair few sand bank island and he would get so close to them that the water below us was so shallow we would be quite sure the boat would get beached, yet we would somehow skim right on over the sand.
He’d take us so close to the various land banks around that the branches of the trees would skim the sides of the boat. Full credit to him as a driver, he really knew what he was doing.
He gave us warning of the first 360˚ spin that he did, however after that, it was up to us to hold on for our lives, and on one of the spins he must of timed it right with a wave that we got completely soaked through.
The ride doubled up as a facial as well given the amount of salt and water being thrown at our faces at such a speed we all got a free exfoliation! I was worried I was going to lose my sunglasses, and there was so much water on them anyway that seeing was a bit difficult!
The trip lasted an hour, but it seemed to go by a whole lot faster than that, it was an awesome adrenalin rush and something I’d definitely do again in a heartbeat. I have to admit along with my list of jobs I’d love to do, driving one of those for a living is now up there!

Given that we were already drenched we decided we may as well finish off the day with a dip in the sea, although the waves were so strong that a dip in the sea turned out more to be like a battering and dunking... not purely being dunked just by the waves either thanks Kathryn!

We also saw a couple doing a sand sculpture, and it really was a work of art. It was a dragon, what you would imagine to be life sized, made entirely out of sand. It was incredibly designed, with its scales marked out, a spiky tail, and even real fire in its nostrils! I’ll pop a picture up on facebook when I next upload pictures.

I keep a day by day diary of what I get up to so that I’ve got a record for myself of everything I’ve done, sometimes its hard to pick and choose what to blog about as if I wrote about everything these blogs would get even more ridiculously long than they already are! I can’t believe you guys read these and actually get through the entire length, good job you guys don’t have short attention spans!

Kathryn W, Sarah and some of their friends took me out to sample some of the more local night life in Cleveland which I think as far as I know is the biggest local town to here. I introduced Australia to my terrible pool skills, and attempted to defend Britain’s honour against a bunch of extremely unconvinced Australians! As much as I absolutely love it out here, and really wish that one of my parents was Aussie so that I could live here without the issue of trying to find a way to get a visa, I’m never going to admit that its superior to the UK! Both countries have their faults and advantages. For example there is very little history out here, where of course at home there is history, culture and architecture in abundance. So I do what I can to stick up for Britain; although I’m not sure I’ve changed the opinion of one single Australian yet. But it’s the though that counts right?!

The following day we had lunch out, a carb loaded meal being required to repair the damage done by the night before! Followed by the best dessert ever! Cold Rock Ice Creamery; we don’t have anything like it at home as far as I know. It’s your average Ice Creamery in that it has lots and lots of different flavours of ice cream, but it doesn’t end there. You then choose any kind of sweet, chocolate or fruit that you can imagine, and they mash it into your ice cream for you so that you can create any kind of ice cream that you like!!! It took us a long time to choose, there were so many options, the staff must get so fed up of people not being able to make up their minds. In the end I opted for coconut ice cream with a Bounty bar and Baileys ice cream with Maltesers. I’ve never had Baileys ice cream before; it was SO good! Definitely somewhere that I’ll be revisiting! They should bring it to London!

What else have I been up to this week, well like I said it has been getting so hot so I have been hiding from the sun a little and have yet to get rid of the cough I’ve had since I’ve been here so that’s written off a day or two where I’ve been feeling rough.

Have been fairly sociable this week though, visiting Lynelle for a Johnny Depp dvd fest; and looking forward to seeing his new film! Jen arrived up from Sydney for another Brisbane visit. Kathryn V and I indulged ourselves in some more luscious cocktails, and I saw a new part of Brisbane city they call the West End, which I think probably is best compared to somewhere a bit like Camden in London i.e. a little quirky and different. I saw possums whilst we were out there too! Should have taken a picture, will have to go back so I can! I also met a Welsh girl over here travelling whilst we were out that night, it was strange that a Cardiff accent could sound so homely! I may be meeting up with her in the New Years to do some farm work which allows us to extend our visa’s. I’ve got to make all sorts of decisions over Christmas about what I’m going to do about things like that, whether I want to stay for the full two years or come back for September 2010 to start University again etc etc. Putting off all of these decisions until Christmas time!

That reminds me of another thing, despite the fact this blog is getting far too long. Most of you who are aware of my terrible sense of direction will have experienced my tact of following the bus routes when we’re lost to find our way. That wouldn’t work out here! In the city the buses all have their own roads, either in tunnels or above the ground, that only the buses are allowed access too. I guess they have such a greater land mass than us that they can afford the space to do it. It’s very strange driving round these tunnels with only buses on them! But it’s great as of course it means that you don’t get stuck in traffic! I think years of use of the London underground have given me confidence to jump on a bus and hope I end up where I want too; I think I freaked my parents out the other night when I was on the phone to them and they overheard me asking the bus driver for directions as I clearly had absolutely no idea where I was. But I’ve pretty much got used to permanently not knowing where I am, and in a way I kind of like it, each trip is its own mini adventure! I’m always surprised if I actually end up where I intended to be; and I was being all proud of myself that I’d actually found my way on Wednesday night, until Kathryn V called me to ask where I was; and it turned out I wasn’t in the right place at all. Oops!

I hear that the UK is being battered by storms and flooding at the moment. I hope you’re all okay! Doesn’t sound fun! They do get some fantastic storms out here with more lightening than I’ve probably seen in all my years at home put together in the one storm! My friend Lynelle has had several trees taken out on her land by lightening strikes; crazy!

I’ll speak to you all soon no doubt. It’s lovely that you’re all keeping in touch. I’m having heaps of fun out here but I do still miss all you guys back home! Thank goodness for the wonderful world of technology these days!

Lots of Love from the land down under!!

Liza xXxXx

P.s. if any of you actually get to the end of this blog, give yourselves a pat on the back, I think it’s the longest yet!!!

P.p.s somebody said Merry Christmas to me this week …whilst I was sitting on a bus in my sunglasses sweltering in the heat; it’s just impossible to feel Christmassy in the weather!

My first month on the other side of the world...

My first month on the other side of the world

I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks now mostly because of having some internet access I’ve been able to catch up with most of you, which has been great! I can’t say I’ve been too homesick, because I love it here. But I do miss the little things from home, mostly knowing my way around, where to go to get things done, and of course being able to catch up with all you guys back home!

Australia is still as beautiful as ever though. It really is an amazing place. I could see myself out here long term, which is why with every day that goes by my long term plan is becoming more and more focused on returning to the UK to study a vocation that will allow me to come back out here permanently. That’s not to say I don’t love London and the UK, I do, but they have an awesome lifestyle out here.

At the end of my last blog I mentioned I was going to Indy, which was a fantastic weekend. It’s called ‘SuperGP’ if we’re being absolutely correct as the Indy cars didn’t make it due to some sort of problem with them getting impounded in London. So those of you reading this from home would have been more likely to see them than us! The event is located at the Gold Coast, and they basically shut down an entire area of the city for the weekend turning the roads in to a racing track for V8’s. I was told its one of very few races in the world that actually takes place on ‘real’ roads as it were, rather than a racing track. The only ever car racing I’ve seen before was the Race of Champions at Wembley, and if I thought those cars were loud, V8’s were something else entirely! I accumulated many a blank photograph where by I attempted to take a picture of the cars going past but they go by so quickly capturing them in the frame was not an easy task at all! It was a very hot day, and what with all the dust that the cars create, any exposed skin was turned black with dust, not the best look!
The apartment we were staying at was absolutely beautiful. I think I would be safe to say it’s one of the most stunning places I have ever been fortunate enough to stay in, its only possible rivals would be the Sheraton in New York or the Conrad in Cairo. (Don’t I sound well travelled these days!)
Walking in to the apartment it seemed fairly ordinary until it opened out in to the living area; three of the walls were made up of floor to ceiling patio doors which look out over the Gold Coast. It was another crystal clear Australian day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, and with the coastline stretched out beneath us for literally as far as the eye can see, it was a view I don’t think I will ever forget. We had a balcony that wrapped itself around the entire apartment so from one side we had a view over the city, the middle the stunning view of the beach, and on the far side you could look out to sea and with the clarity of light in Australia we could see boats out for miles and miles. We were up o the 35th floor and I have to admit looking out from the balcony was fine, but looking down was another matter! The next building along from ours was the Q1 building, which I’m told is the tallest residential building in the world. It took me until the second day to be brave enough to lean far out enough from the balcony to be able to take a picture of its summit!
On the Saturday we only spent a short time at the track, Kathryn’s friend Sam has been going to Indy for years and she told us that the Sunday was the big day. So in the evening we went for a bit of a walk around the area, the Gold Coast is definitely very much the party town of Queensland.
On the Sunday we were up early in time to apply lots of sun cream and head down to the track. We spent most of the day there and I got a little bit of an education on V8 racing, although it’s not something I’ll ever be able to claim expertise in! Vauxhall is called Holden in Australia is one of the main things I remember from the day, quite why I have no idea. It wasn’t only V8 racing, they had other kinds of cars too and without a shadow of a doubt my favourite part of the day was what I *think* but I may be wrong was called an F1-11 plane. It’s a big jet, and forgive my lack of technicality here, somehow it ‘dumps’ its fuel and then sets it alight to perform its party trick they call a ‘dump and burn.’ Basically what that means is that this giant jet flies in over the gold coast, the sound it makes it utterly incredible, all of a sudden it lights up the sky with a stream of flames, and then it’s gone again before you’ve had time to blink. Its speed makes capturing it on camera absolutely impossible, I wish I had been able too! I was lucky to get to see it happen as apparently they are the only plane in the world to be able to do it and the fleet are being retired this year so it’s the last time it will happen. There was some lighter stunt aircraft about too, but it’s a little too far away for the red arrows to be present!
It was again a very hot day, and after being out in the midday sun, I didn’t mind at all when it stormed which cleared the air and provided some refreshing rain. It meant they had to stop the race for a while, and none of the Australians were too pleased about it raining; but I was happy that I got to cool down!

We headed back to the apartment early evening, stopping to have a glass of wine to ease our aching feet from so much walking and standing all day. The apartment which we were staying in had an indoor and outdoor pool, and Kathryn and I made use of the heated indoor pool to stretch our muscles after such a long day. We had it entirely to ourselves and I have to say swimming in our own pool after a long day is a lifestyle choice I could easily become accustomed too! A swim, Jacuzzi and Sauna later we were feeling revived and ready for the night life aspect of Indy. Like I said before the Gold Coast is definitely the party town of Australia with an entire strip made up of clubs and bars and even an Irish Pub! Six of us headed out for a night of drinks, dancing and pool and it was a lot of fun. We ended the night with a stroll on the beach and the water was just too inviting so we went for an enthusiastic paddle which ended up with me wearing very wet and very sandy jeans! I still can’t get the sand out of the pockets.

The next morning an extremely unpopular builder decided to start drilling at 8am in the neighbouring apartment which did not go down at all well with our tired eyes and sore heads. Although Kathryn and I did then spend most of the afternoon dozing on the beach, which as ways to recover from busy weekends go is a pretty good option!

A few of you have asked whether I took that job in the end or not. I decided not too as I wasn’t too keen on the manager, and it was a mostly commission based role, which given that I’m heading over to Perth for Christmas, by the time I’d set up a contacts base and started making enough sales to make the job worth while I’d of been leaving which seemed like a waste of time. I have been looking for other work, but with five weeks to go before I head over to Perth it’s becoming increasingly difficult. I could really do with just some short term waitressing but it’s proving a little difficult to come by. I’m still trying, but at the moment I’m not sure if anything will come up before Christmas. So in the mean time I’m really hoping my car insurance pay out comes through soon!!!

Over the last ten days I’ve been to the beach a couple of times, been on a couple of nights out, and watched a fair few films.
Living with the local bar manager has had its benefits with my house mates and I enjoying some champagne and strawberries on the house. We deserved it though after discovering a maggot infestation in our house which was not in the slightest bit pleasant!

Speaking of creatures at home last Wednesday we found all of us were home for the afternoon, which is a rare occurrence, so we were enjoying relaxing in the garden with a few drinks, until a rather large Orb spider decided to put in appearance, scaring my Irish house mate and I but the Australians not being the slightest bit bothered, even picking it up although it can bite! It didn’t disturb us as much as the news that there is a redback spider living in the corner of our garden though…the corner nearest the patio door in to the house!!! My dad suggested purchasing a CO2 fire extinguisher and freezing it to death… I reckon he is on to something!!!

I’m trying to be healthier this month due to an ever worsening cough so I’ve remembered that I can actually cook and have given up the student food diet… there’s only so much spaghetti and marmite toast one person can take!

I went to a water park last week called Wet n Wild. These used to be a Wet n Wild back home up North…the main difference with the Wet n Wild over here being is that its outside rather than inside! It was a really good day out; some of the rides are insane! They range from a very leisurely floating in a ring to water slides that go so fast you think you’re going to fall out! Definitely somewhere I want to go back too again! I’ve got a pass that allows me to go as many times as I like before June next year, so there will be a couple more trips I think.

I went out on Saturday night to the Australian equivalent of Popstarz/Heaven after drinks at my friend Anna’s overlooking the Brisbane River which was really nice. Almost a bit like being at the Thames, In fact ended up in a long conversation with the two other British girls about English football teams and anthems, BHS, Tesco’s, Kickers and all things English that they don’t have out here! It was a good night out, lots of dancing; it’s easy to forget that I’m on an entirely different continent when out dancing in a club! I was told of a bus that goes all the way from the city right back to the suburb I’m living in all through the night which is great for getting back home. Much easier than getting back to Ruislip from Tottenham Court Road anyway!

Last night I went for dinner at my friend Lynelle’s house; being so far away from my home it’s always super appreciated to be welcomed into other people’s homes, and home cooked food is great! It’s nice to see that no matter how big the cultural differences are around the world, family still means family wherever I’ve been whether its here, Brunei, France, Egypt, Scotland; there’s always something homely about being invited to share dinner with a family.
Last night we went on a drive to a National Park, but unfortunately the weather conspired against us and due to a lot of rain and a lot of fog we decided getting out of the car was probably an invitation to get ourselves into a Wolf Creek scenario so we decided to play it safe for this time!

For this week like I said I’m trying to be healthy and fix my cough. I’ve got a beach trip planned for Friday, hoping that the weather picks up by then as it’s been pretty rainy the last few days. (Yes, it rains in Australia! Shocking I know!) Not sure what I’m going to get up to over the next few days, it would be great to get some work to fill up a couple of days and give me a cash injection but I’m not holding my breath for that to happen! If I wasn’t ten thousand miles away it would be quite nice to be able to pop home this week and visit everybody, but it’s not that easy to do from this far away!

I’m looking forward to seeing my brother and family at Christmas time, although I’m increasingly worried about the heat over in Perth, everybody tells me it’s almost unbearable in December!

Don’t forget to keep me updated on all the news from the UK. Like I said I miss you all heaps, you’re all welcome to pop over for dinner anytime you like! :-p

I hope all is well in England, I head the X factor is causing a stir this week but that the post is back up and running again!

Lots of Love from upside down

Liza xXx

P.s. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that its one of you lot who bagged that £90m Euromillions win!!!!

Week Two - Let's throw a snag on the barbie

Week Two – ‘Let’s throw a snag on the barbie’

It’s true. They say it. My housemate Dan was the first to utter the famous Aussie catch phrase. ‘Let’s throw a snag on the Barbie.’ I laughed. A lot. The smile was wiped off my face shortly afterwards when I met my first Huntsman spider, apparently it was a baby, I thanked my lucky stars he didn’t introduce his family.

I had my first night out painting the town red Aussie style, the Aussie’s have been awesome at playing tour guide and met up with another girl called Kathryn who showed Jen and I around the Valley (the equivalent of my usual stomping ground in London.) At one of the bar’s I got chatting to a women who had lived in London for five years and I enjoyed having someone to reminisce about home with. Kathryn invited us to see her friend’s band play who for a local band were pretty good; although I was sorely disappointed with the bar women’s statement that they didn’t serve rum, what kind of Australian bar doesn’t serve Bundy!?! I learned my newest favourite Australian word from Kathryn when she was talking about somewhere out in ‘Woop Woop’ (I’ve spelt that phonetically!) which I thought was another strange Australian place name but apparently means somewhere far away. Later on headed to ‘The Chalk’ which is a bit like the equivalent of Watford being a bit more local than the city; my housemates had blagged a private area and lots of dancing was done.

Lynelle took Jen and I out for dinner, after a week of catering for myself on a travelling budget (think marmite toast, marmite toast and a bit more marmite toast with the occasional bowl of cereal thrown in if I’m feeling particularly extravagant) it was outrageously good to have some proper food. I can’t remember what the restaurant was called but it’s a favourite of Lynelle’s and she ordered us dessert promising that we wouldn’t be disappointed. ‘Chocolate Corn Chips’* soon arrived which might not sound appetising but they were really good!

Now due to Lynelle being the most wonderfully random person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing I would be disappointed if an evening out in her company didn’t involve some sort of adventure and so she took us on a glow worm hunting expedition up to a place called Mount Tambourine. I think because of Australia being such a huge place (The UK would fit inside 31 times…) the locals are better accustomed to driving further distances to get to places than us Brits so after some extremely skilled hooning* on Lynelle’s behalf we found ourselves at the top of Mount Tambourine. Shortly later we were on a trail in the ‘bush’ as it were; to set the scene it was pitch black other than Lynelle’s torch, and pouring with rain so visibility was to put it mildy; poor. My fear of spiders went in to overdrive what with not being able to see much, and I felt pretty embarrassed when I stepped on a stick and screamed because I thought it was a snake. I felt embarrassed that was until Lynelle’s friend, an Aussie bloke, walked into a tree branch and thought he had a spider in his hair and jumped around screaming ‘Get it out, get it out’ at a pitch a six year old girl would be proud of.
Lynelle’s torch apparently wasn’t too fond of the rain and decided to quit providing light half way there but thankfully she fixed it or we would have been down to mobile phone light! I have to admit for me it was an experience that had every single one of my senses alert as could be as it was an environment totally alien to me. I’m perfectly comfortable walking around King’s Cross in the dark and taking the risk of muggers as it’s something I’m used too, but walking through the bush in the dark taking the risk of snakes and spiders had the adrenalin pumping for sure as it’s not something I’m at all used too. But that’s what this year is all about having new experiences and being in places that I would never normally find myself in so although I may have been a little ‘on edge’ as it were I was happy to be doing something totally different to anything I’d ever done before. Besides a little fear makes you feel very alive. The walk was well worth it too when we reached Lynelle’s destination, a waterfall and a whole stack of glow worms. I’ve never seen a glow worm before (although my Dad told me he saw them in France) and especially with a whole glow worm city they were a really awesome sight. Thanks Lynelle! The glow worm’s were literally everywhere even a couple on the floor so Lynelle’s friend managed to find one to pick up and made a very well played ‘E.T phone home’ impression with a glowing finger. Lynelle also briefly enjoyed a glowing nose.

Oh and I can’t forget to thank Jen for her ‘Welcome to Australia’ cake which was very well decorated with a beach scene and a little person surfing. Thanks Jen! We demolished the cake at a mini house gathering, where my Irish house mate decided to prove the fact that the Irish are bigger drinkers than the Australians. I had to defend the British honour by proving that pom’s* are just as capable of sculling* a beer as their Australian and Irish counterparts; an experience I wont be repeating as I headed to bed feeling less than fantastic shortly afterwards. The things I do for England!

On a random aside I’d been given various explanations as to where the term ‘pom’ originated from. Some told me it stood for ‘Property of her Majesty’ and some said it referred back to convict roots being an acronym for ‘Prisoner of her Majesty.’ I did a little research on the term earlier and it seems that nobody is actually entirely sure of the exact origin of the term but the Oxford English Dictionary thinks it most likely is a shortening of the term ‘Pomegranate’ which the Australians used to use to refer to immigrants. A little general knowledge for you all!

Tuesday morning Lynelle, Kathryn, Jen and I indulged ourselves at a popular Australian breakfast venue called ‘Coffee Club.’ They seem pretty big on going out for breakfast here. A cultural difference I’ve come across which I wasn’t expecting is that the word ‘ketchup’ means absolutely nothing to the Australians and if you ask for it you get a completey blank look; you have to ask for ‘tomato sauce’ instead. Australia it would seem doesn’t have the same love of ketchup as Britain anyway as every time I ask for it I get a strange look. Apparently they’ve never heard of the traditional Canadian breakfast of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup (and my own personal addition of ketchup too!) either so I think I convinced the waitress that the English are completely insane by the time I’d finished ordering.

Mid week the last 14 days of excessive amounts of sunshine, new people, fast food, drinking, partying and general being busy took its toll, that and I think I’m allergic to the dog, and I had to cancel my plans for that day and take to my sick bed for twenty four hours to recover. I was glad I’d decided to bring some of my DVD collection with me!

A few days later Kathryn took me out to the local bar (one of my housemates is the manager; free drinks!) to meet some of her friends and afterwards we went for a drive up to Mount Coo-tha. Queensland is big on what they refer to as ‘look outs’ where they have created viewing platforms at vantage points around the city so as to have a view all the way across Brisbane and probably beyond. Mount Coo-tha is from what I’ve seen so far the most spectacular of these as you have a clear uninterrupted view as far as the eye can see and at night with the city being lit up it made for a quite fantastic scene. Strangely despite the number of lights Brisbane seems to suffer from less light pollution than London so there are more stars to be seen than back home. Of course none of the constellations are familiar to me, and I’m trying to find an Australian who can point out the famous Southern Cross constellation to me but I have yet to succeed.

Kathryn had the following day off of work so we went on another Wallaby finding expedition, with much success at a big estate near Mount Cotton where there was wallabies aplenty just hopping around people’s front gardens! We even saw a couple of joeys too. Kathryn thinks it funny how fascinated I am by the Wallabies, but they really have to be just the coolest creature ever! We also went to visit a friend of Kathryn’s who lives on a lot of land and often gets Wallabies in her back garden and we were lucky enough to see a few.
The constant battle that the Australians are up against with their climate does astound me; perhaps more so for me having grown up in suburbia rather than somewhere rural, but it seems to me they are constantly up against some sort of threat from nature. If it’s not the wildlife or tropical storms then it’s fire. I probably should have put two and two together and figured it out for myself but it just didn’t occur to me that they don’t have Bonfire night here. Admittedly I guess Bonfire night does have its roots in British history so perhaps it is just exclusive to Britain (anybody know?) but even if they wanted too they can’t have a firework night here because of the strict fire restrictions. The 5th of November just won’t be the same while I’m here! They have a fire risk code with different grades and depending on factors like the wind or humidity sometimes they are allowed to have fires and other times all fires are banned so as to try and avoid bush fires which are a very real and constant risk to those that live in and around bush land. Kathryn’s friend Sam was talking about their fire escape plan if there is a bush fire with the last resort being heading for the local stream. Also she was saying how they have controlled fires supervised by the fire brigade around their house to clear a certain distance between the house and the bush of trees and vegetation so that in the case of a bushfire it would be less likely for the house to be taken. I guess it’s the price Australia pays for its beautiful sunshine and beaches that Mother Nature throws so many other obstacles at them to be contended with. A perhaps slightly smaller problem for them than bush fires, Green Ants; one of them bit my toe and does it half sting!!! I was not impressed.

There was a big beach party at the weekend up at the Sunshine coast a couple of hours away from where I’m staying. I was invited by Carly who I met up with last week and her friends were kind enough to invite me to stay with them at one of the girl’s parent’s holiday home. Carly and I headed up Friday night, and those of you that are familiar with my navigational skills will be shocked that I actually succeeded in map reading successfully. There are fewer roads out here than in the UK so it’s easier! It was a beautiful house set right on the beach and from the veranda we could hear the waves crashing. Friday night was spent getting to know the girls and there was a pool party arranged as part of the weekend at the resort just down the road from where we were staying, but when we arrived it didn’t look so great and we decided that our own entertainment was better. Saturday morning we headed for the beach…which involved a one minute walk from the house to the beach! It was like having our own private beach too as there wasn’t another soul in sight. Carly works as a life saver (I think that’s what it’s called, the people that patrol beaches) so we went for a swim, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have as the current was so strong that it was almost impossible to walk against it never mind swim. I have to admit to being a little bit aware that a shark could swim up at any point, but really you just have to accept that it’s a risk but that you would be very unlucky for it to happen to you. Kathryn told me that sharks don’t like to be in the surf* so I’m sticking with that theory and so long as there is waves I’m happy!
In the afternoon we took the short drive up to Noosa, which as you might remember is my new favourite place in the world, and stopped off for some ice cream. The Australians do like their ice cream! We then went up to the National Park area and went for a walk which gives you fantastic views over the beaches at Noosa. As we were walking one of the girls Anna said that she spotted a dolphin, but none of us could see it, so we carried on. When we got to the look out we had been there for five minutes or so just taking in the spectacular views, when Anna was proved right, and another dolphin jumped! Then another, and another. There must have been a school of fish that they were chasing as it seemed like there was a whole pod of dolphins in the area. I was completely awe struck, I’ve only ever seen dolphins at Sea World before, and to see them in their natural habitat, especially a whole pod of them, was absolutely spectacular. The water at Noosa is so clear that not only can you see them when they jump you can see them under the water too. I tried to take pictures but it was difficult to catch them as they are so quick. If Noosa was my new favourite place on earth before seeing dolphins, I think it’s now my ambition in life to live there some day! I was surprised that several of the beach patrol team headed out on their boards and boats towards where the dolphins were, but the girls told me that if you get a pod of dolphins feeding like that then sometimes you will get a shark feeding too. So going swimming when you see a pod of dolphins might seem romantic, but perhaps not the best idea!
We climbed down some rocks to sit and watch for a bit longer, and sitting there in the sun, spotting dolphins, with a great group of girls, I totally understand how people come to this country and never want to leave it.

On the way out of the car park I spotted a Goanna* and I was shamefully touristy and got the girls to stop the car so I could take a picture of it! He actually let me get surprisingly close to him, I didn’t think he would! I do love the lizards, they have the tiny little cute ones that you get in Europe too, slightly bigger ones that come indoors as well, and then the Goanna’s which are pretty big. I have yet to see a snake, but I’m actually looking forward to it, so long as it’s not too close for comfort!

We headed back to the house late afternoon, and I’m still not used to the sunshine so I had a bit of a nap! Two of the girls cooked us dinner, which was quickly devoured; sun, sea and sand makes you hungry! Anna made us all a fruit punch, which she had to refill it went so quickly. The Saturday night was the main event of the weekend, a dance party at the surf club, so we headed down there and met some new people and did lots of dancing.

Sunday morning ten of us headed for breakfast at the Coffee Club; the intake of food was much appreciated as some of us were feeling the effects of the night before! Then we headed back home Sunday ‘arvo.’ Carly took us home the scenic route driving past the Glass House mountains, one of which looks like a big Gorilla! Got to say a massive thank you to Carly for the invite and for ride, Anna for being kind enough to invite me to stay and all of the girls for being so welcoming and friendly to me! One of the girls, Nic, was English, the first English person I’ve come across since I got here, and it was so strange because I could hear her English accent. Very strange to be able to hear your own accent!

I’m having a quiet week this week as I was promised three days work but it fell through so it’s back to the drawing board on trying to find work. Have had a couple of movie fest nights with my house mate Dan, and have enjoyed the American TV series I’m used to for a bit of homeliness, I got very over excited about NCIS being on and made Dan watch it with me!
It was slowly but surely killing me not having internet access so I’ve picked up a pay as you three internet dongle, but I’ve already had to recharge it twice so I’m going to have to cut down on Skype time, but it is so amazing to be able to have face to face conversations with you guys back home I get a bit carried away!

This weekend Kathryn has invited me to Indy with her, a car racing event at the Gold Coast, so I’m looking forward to that! Another weekend at the beach, I could so get used to this lifestyle! Might be heading up to the Sunshine Coast with Dan tomorrow so looking forward to that too.
Other plans in the pipeline are a trip to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin’s zoo), a trip up to Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef, breakfast up Mount Tamborine to watch the sun rise, and if I’m a very very lucky person a trip to Fraser Island; the largest Sand Island in the world. Also have a very exciting trip planned for next month with Dan; but I’ll update you on that sooner when it’s confirmed!

Still missing all of you back home loads, keep seeing things that I know you guys would love and wish you were here to share them with me! Like I said I’ve got internet access at home now but I’m going to have to be more careful with Skype as its costing me a lot of internet usage so email me and I will reply! Keep me updated on all the gossip from home! (Thanks Frances for doing a good job of this!)

I will keep my promise of postcards but I hear the Royal Mail are striking at the moment, so someone let me know when that gets sorted out!

Edel, Lisa, Ben, Suze & Gav I still expect to see you out here at some point!

Oodles of love to you all

Liza xXx


English Translations:
Corn Chips = Nacho’s
Hooning = Fast Driving
Sculling = Downing
Pom/Pommy – Australian term for a British Person
Surf = Waves
Goanna = Monitor Lizard