We Are Famers: Diary 1

We are farmers! dum de dum da dum dum dum....

Howdy ya'll. Another blog all up in ya facceee! As i previously stated - i will be posting a blog every month of my week by week diary. I got a feeling ill have a lot to say for the first couple weeks, then the next few might get a bit samey. But all i can do is speak from the heart and be truely honest blog fans....

WEEK 1:

So, week 1 - ive already explained our first impressions of our new place. We came here and settled in pretty well. The welsh guy, Sam, who we share a cabin with was going pub. So he offered to pick us up some Strongbows from the bottle shop. We sat around having a few drinks, and meeting the people we were gonna be living amoungst and working with. Most of the Brits here work at the same farm we are - Mackays. Apparently its a really good farm to work for. Some of the other farms in the area treat people like poo. So we were lucky. The guys here seemed really cool. We even met a guy from Edgeware. So that was a bit of a shocker. Small world blog fans...

We woke up for work the next day at 5am. We were told we were doing "stringing" on our first day. We thought we were employed to do kerosening, but whatever... Stringing is basically tieing the banana trees back to a tree behind them, so they dont fall in heavy weather etc. Its not so bad for a first job.... It didnt feel like a farm. It felt more like a jungle. There were spiders EVERYWHAH. But I started to get a bit used to them... Kinda.. I just gotta watch out for the dangerous ones.

It rained a lot the first week. The mud here is like a red clay, and our clothes got really shitty and our feet got really wet. Even in wellies. Showers become a chour at the end of the day. Takes a good 30mins of scrubbing to get even remotely clean. The showers and toilets are outside, so Cat has to run the gauntlet of frogs in the evening. Shes scared of them and asks me to scare them off... Some times i do... but some times i dont blog fans ;)

We stayed working together outside in the paddocks all week. Its rare for girls to stay outside. They usually have the sorting jobs in the shed. I started to eat bananas that had fallen whilst working. I dont even like bananas. But sometimes when your damp, tierd and hungry, and you see the perfect banana, glowing golden like it was grown in the garden of edan. You just gotta appreciate it and munch that bad boy down.

At the end of the week we had a little party and some drinks. You gotta do it. Not much else to do here. The party got shut down by Dhillon the owner. So i stayed up drinking on my own and watched Chelsea beat Newcastle 3-0. Good first week.

WEEK 2:

At the beginning of week 2, I was mostly humping. But enough about my personal life blog fans!.... ha, only joking. "Humping" is when the bananas get cut off the trees and you gotta carry them on your shoulders to the truck. It wasnt easy. The bananas were heavy and hard. My shoulders were brusied, but everyone said youll get used to it eventually. Cat started off in the shed with the other girls sorting. We both then moved on to doing some weeding half way through the week. I met the big boss guy, and he seemed to hate me straight away. I think there's something about my body language and look, that makes all authority figures hate me. It was all a misunderstanding though. I was doing what i was asked to do, so... sekkle ya batty... That same guy later took me and Cat aside to start the kerosening. Thats where we inject tree stumps with kerosene to stop them growing. When he was walking us through it, it got stupidly innuendous... "Stick it in, pull it half way out, then squirt". "Stick it deep, right in the middle." "Squirt as much as you can." "Watch it doesnt squirt in your face or eyes." Haha.... I so wanted to scream THATS WHAT SHEEEE SAAAAIIDDD!! But couldnt as it was the grumpy boss man. Cat made it worse by saying "Its all in the wrist action really isnt it".... Classic Cat...

Pumping that kerosene all day gave me some messed up dreams. I have about 20 a night. I must be coming home high. We might be doing this permanently now for a long time. So i could see it as im getting paid to get high.

Still no spider bites, and i aint seen a snake. I think people need to make less fuss of spiders and snakes in Oz, and focus on the real problem - flies. Aaghhh so many!! Every lunch time they just gang rape every hole in your body. Mozzie bites too. Our legs look like Nic-Naks. But its a way of life here. Cats not coping with the seclusion as well as me. She cant chill. Always trying to make plans for the evenings and weekends. She wants to buy a car so we can drive places. But im just here to get our 2nd year visa and save money. So keep posted on car news blog fans.... We had a leaving party for a girl called Clare. We had a big bonfire - a lot of talking, drinking and smoking.... A big Fijian guy called Izzy held my hand, and told me im a lovely man....

WEEK 3:

Week 3 started strangely. Two new Welsh boys arrived, Ryan and Toby. We introduced ourselves and had the usual "Where you been, where you going" conversation. They had been staying in Melbourne for 2 months. We told them we stayed with some friends in St Kilda. They jokinly said "they aint the same friends as ours are they?" As a joke coz they were a couple from London as well. "What are your mates names?", "Oh these guys we know from home, Rob and Nancy". "No way!! Rob and Nancy!?" Fenton blog fans. It happened again... First we found out Andy (the aussie we met in brazil) lived in the same block as Rob and Nancy, and now this. Small world blog fans, small world...

Cats been flirting and making weekend plans with others. She managed to get the Italian boys we work with to take her to Cooktown for shopping. She stocked up on food and drink whilst i went for a little bike ride to the pub with Sam and Charlotte. Its only 10km away(!).... Was good though.

At work we continued with the kerosening. Walking around like The Ghostbusters with our proton packs on. Starting to get a bit sick of the kerosene smell, and our hands really hurt from the constant pumping of the handles. Its hard blog fans. Sometimes you get the kero on your face, then you walk through a thousand spider webs a minute that sick to your face, then your face does its best Niagra Falls impression from the sweat in the sun... DPMO!... Cats got sprayed in her face many times (and at work lol) But her skin is starting to go bad from it. Ive got white bumps on my legs too. Think its both from the kerosene burning, but u can only see mine over the dark tattooed areas of my leg.

One of our supervisors, Chris, made a comment about me and Cat having to keep up with a woman called Clare who we've been kerosening with a bit. He didnt mean much by it, but Cat took it to heart. I think he wants us at the top of our game as we're the main keroseners. But Cat then started to work like a mad man and got annoyed with me coz i wernt keeping up. But i know im going fast, and any faster i wont be doing it right. By friday i was going through them like Terminator, then i see Clare catching up with me... I wanted to turn round at her and shout "Oi! You go back and do that properly yeah!" Its like we were racing, and i was in the fastest car in the world, taking the corners perfectly. There's no way anyone could catch up unless theyve taken a short cut or cut corners... So whatever. Im gonna continue the way i am. Cats just scared coz shes heard about people on other farms being sacked...

Not much else has happened. Cat still wants to get a car. She thinks it will give us things to do on the weekends - and i just dont want the hassle. I just wanna work weekdays, relax weekends, and look forward to having fun after our farming is over. Time is flying fast so far. We're already a quarter of the way through! Starting to miss people from home now. Think routine and work does that to you more :p

WEEK 4:

If you havent noticed, i start my weekly diary from the weekends. Its friday, and im playing drinking games with beer, cider and fortified wine. I dont know what "fortified" means - but it should probably die.

Saturday was good. I got out of Lakeland for the first time since arriving. A German girl called Jessica took me, Cat and Charlotte to Cooktown just to get out and do a food shop. The town was nice. Really small, but compared to Lakeland i almost got a nose bleed from the metropolis. We went IGA and bought 2 vodkas, 2 wines, 2 Passion Pops, Captain Morgans, and a box of goon. Justin Case.... Later that day i watched the Chelsea v Everton game on my own with goon. Downed a cup of it and put it on my head when Terry scored the winner ;) On Sunday a load of us hiked a hill near where we live. Was pretty dangerous. Could of died by crocodile, spider, wild boar, snakes, or being molested by a crazy redneck. It was a bit like Blair Witch / Hills Have Eyes / Anaconda. Red Back spiders and snakes have been spotted at work recently too. So we had to be ninja about it... Spoiler alert - we survived...

Monday was back to work... Was shit... But we stayed at that Jess girls house just to see her place and she made T-Bone steak for us. Tuesday was even shitter than Monday. Things were going wrong all day, and Cat keeps rushing the job to make it even less enjoyable. Dunno why. This job is gonna be bigger than our 3 months. Its continuous. We cant win.... My kerosene gun was jamming a lot. I had some Akira Tetsuo, TekkenKinkreet Minotour, M. Bison physco power moments. Broke my kerosene gun and kicked a few trees... When i came back with a new and better gun, a wasp stung my eye. So there was no winning on that day. Wednesday i woke up to make toast. None of the toasters worked. After trying one in a different socket, i got it to turn on. I put the bread in and went to the toilet. All the boys ones were occupied, so i went in the girls. The light didnt turn on in there so i pissed all on their floor. When i got back to my toast, the toaster popped it out so hard, it landed straight on the filthy floor.... So i had no toast.

After that the week got better as it went along. Our hands hurt a lot now though. Can barely make a fist or grip anything. Also Cats got some sort of infected arm pit. We think its an ingrown hair.... Its butterz so i want nothing to do with it.

A load of us went out on Thursday for drinks down the local pub. 3 Italian boys we worked with were leaving the farm, and it got a bit messy. Everyone got drunk even though we had work at 6:30 the next day. Was good though. Got driven home by someone who was probably 40 times over the limit. But luckily theres not many things you can crash into in Lakeland.... So we survived again. Usually Fridays are half days and we finish at 12pm. But nearly everyone got sent home early coz they were drunk. Me and Cat however, had to stay on and finish our kerosening. FML....

ANYWAY... THATS ONE MONTH DONE!! It flew by! 2 more months and we're outta here with an extra year visa and some cash to spend. Cant wait to hit the east coast and blow my load.... and my money ;)

I remember my friend Shona telling me "Farm work will be the BEST AND WORST time you ever have in Australia"... I can confirm half of that statement is true blog fans... Just half...

So on that note - Stay sweet blogs fans. Pray for us, and please keep them shorts strapped and super tight!

Peace out Rabbiiiitttt...

Zoooooooopaaaaaaa....

We Are Farmers: Intro

Bloggy oggy wow, wicky icky wow wow!

Calling all civalized people! Farmer Bob is on the job! Im on a farm in the middle of NO WHERE right now. Its cray, like Andy Gray. But ive got an awesome idea to do 4 farming blogs, formatted as a week by week diary, just to give you an insight on this crazy life i be living. I think my last blog took you up to Adelaide. Seems a LONG time ago. But farming isnt handed to you on a silver plate with a christmas bow blog fans. So ill let you know how it went down.....

We needed farm work asap, to qualify for our 2nd year visa. We were aproaching our 9th month in Aus fast, and we needed to complete 3 months of farm work before one year was up. Our friends Shona, Gemma and Sara did their farm work in Tully. Its a good place to go as bananas grow there all year round, and they always need backpackers. So after ringing around various farms from all over the country we decided to go to Tully. To a workers accomodation called Hotel Tully. We got on a flight from Adelaide to Cairns, and when we arrived it was PISSING down! Aparently a cyclone was predicted and it felt like we were in it. We had to get a Greyhound bus from Cairns to Tully, and we waited under shelter. The bus driver arrived, then decided he needed a break, then came back.....over an HOUR later. We were gonna complain, but once we arrived in Tully we didnt care. We were warned Tully was tiny, and it def lived up to the hype. It had one supermarket, one main street, a couple charity shops, a couple hostels, and a big golden welly boot. The boot represented the fact Tully has the highest annual rain fall in Australia. And we were witnessing it first hand. We checked into our hostel and put our name on the waiting list for work. We were told that some people had been waiting a couple weeks for work, and we didnt have that long to wait. We had 2 weeks before our very latest starting date. SO, to cut a long story short - we asked about work at Banana Barracks (where our friends stayed). The woman there said there wasnt much on, I told her our friends recommended them to us, she took my name down, she got me a job the next day. I was pleased with this - (natually) so i went to get a load of clothes from a charity shop and some welly boots. Then i got more news from Paula (the woman at Banana Barracks) she said me AND Cat could get work, if we traveled to a place called Lakeland. Work for girls in Tully was even slower than the guys, so we took it. Paula warned us "If you think this is the middle of NO WHERE, you just wait..." So we made up our mind, and arranged our trip to Lakeland.

Before we left we were able to get a taste of Tully nightlife at the weekend. OMG shiz hit the fan blog fans. It went from a grandma's village to..... Magalauf. Was cray. Like Andy Gray. We went swimming in the local pool the next day to cure hangovers and got a bit upset we were leaving. But we knew we had to take this opporunity. We left later that day, in heavy rain (natually) The bus was late again, but this time coz some boom gate to the village didnt open. So a policeman escorted us to where the bus was. We went to Cairns and had one more evening with Nats who was starting her east coast trip from there. We had Chinese food... We love Chinese food, you know that its true. Plus a drink, then we said goodbye to Nats and got a few hours sleep before getting a little shuttle bus in the morning.

We arrived in Turalba Workers Accomodation... Middle of NO WHERE!! Its basically a load of caravan type cabins, set in a field. But its cool! Me and Cat got our own room with wardrobe. We share our cabin with another nice couple (a welsh guy and essex girl) and theres our own fridge and we have a tv. We have foxtel tv with a lot of channels, a good kitchen, mini gym, and everything else is cool. Better than a dorm and sharing 2 hobs in a kitchen with 60 others like Tully. But as we're in the middle of NO WHERE, we have a tuck shop that we buy our goods from. The owners drive to the nearest town (Cooktown), which is a hour away, stock up, then re-sell to us for a little more. Lakelands "town centre" consists of a petrol pump and a cafe.... Yeah....

We had no signal on our optus phones here. So we had to get a new one. It was Cats idea. Believe it or not, i liked the feeling of being in the middle of NO WHERE, and just being in the zone. I know if i get on to facebook or had enough data for youtubing, i would loose a lot of time and precious sleep. Plus i have nothing much to say or post on facebook. Maybe a status saying "saw a banana today" or instagram a picture of...... bananas?....

Anyway, work has started well enough. I was originally planning to write part of the blog along with our first week diary of working. But I think this blog is long enough isn't it blog fans.

So keep posted for that diary of our first month. Working in the middle of NOOO WHERRREEE!!!..

Until then, keep them shorts tiiiiight!!!

Zooooopa!!

GOR Road Trip!!

bloggy bloggy bloggy!!

OI!! OI!! OI!!

yo yo yo blog fans!! I'm about to bring you right up to date with our movements and situation. Let you know the 411 on this ting! In Adelaide right now. Sweating in our air-con dorm. I last wrote about our visit to Melbourne. We took a car from there to here on The Great Ocean Road. Amazing time. So I'll tell ya all about it!

The road trip started with a bang.... Literally. That was the sound of an old guy reversing his car into ours. Literally about 3hrs after picking the car up!! We didn't even hit our first camp site. We were about 3 seconds from the site, and I saw a car stopped in the middle of the road. I stopped - He reversed - I beeped - He kept reversing - I beeped - He banged into us. I kept beeping.... Was one of those "had to laugh" moments as we were just talking about bad luck with hire companies, car insurance, and all that other satanic shiz! The girls didn't see the funny side. But luckily me and Cat have plenty of experience in this situation. Anyway, we paid for the first camp site. Was a bit expensive. But the next day after stopping into some of the information sites, we got a list of cheap and free sites to stay on for our next few stops. The Great Ocean Road begun, and it was amazing. It's probably the best thing I've done in Australia so far. The views you got, the waterfalls, and the walks we did were beautiful. Camping was fun. We saw loads of wild life. Was just a really good experience. 

On one of our first stops: "Have you ever, ever felt like this...." YES! We saw the lighthouse from Around The Twist! That show was epic. Much better than Neighbours! Probs the best show to ever come out of Oz. Apart from Summer Heights High - naturally.

Calamity Nats pitched her tent on a nest of bull ants one night. She got bit on the foot. If you don't know Nats, she always injures her feet in some way. This makes it funny. Tradition. 

Most nights we stayed in dark free camp sites that looked like a rapist murderers dream. We drank goon, and cooked Kanga Bangas on disposable BBQs. The stars at night were amazing! So bright....... So tight...... One day after walking back from a BBQ in the evening, we were talking and a family of kangaroos hopped right past us. We just stood there in a shocked silenced. I'm pretty sure that was the first time we all saw wild (alive) kangaroos. We also saw our first wild Koalas on road. We stopped off at this recommended area, and we saw one, awake, eating, literally in touching distance by our heads. He didnt mind us. People were feeding him and touching him. Then 6,000 Asian tourists came off a bus with their cameras and it was game over. Super funky fresh though.

Towards the back end of the trip we stopped off at the "12 Apostles". These are like big rocks that stand out of the sea. They're like the "post card" image of the Great Ocean Road. They were really cool. Also, Loch Ard Gorge, and The Bay Of Islands were stop offs just after it. Had a beautiful beach, and great scenery from the cliffs you can walk around.

After the Great Ocean Road came to an end, we diverted up to The Grampians. Which is a national park made up of woods, mountains, and lots of wild life. It's kinda how you imagine Australia from back at home. Very dry and red, very Woof Creek. The Grampians are also my favourite thing ive done here, if you count it as a separate thing to the GOR. We hiked up to some really high cliff tops, and had awesome views. We also did a nature walk in the evening. Saw LOADS more kangaroos. And other animals. I got this sick photo of Natalie and Cat walking through a field, with a family of kangaroos hopping right past them. I'll be sure to put that on Facebook at some point. Other animals spotted includes: koalas, Lizards and Dragons, Snakes, Emu's, Seals, Penguins, Bats, Possums, Gidgee Stinks, Rabbits, Deer, Parrots, Echidna's and FLIES! Lots of bloody flies!! Arggh! We saw more or less every animal listed above in dead form too (mostly road kill) I'm pretty sure we saw a few dead Dingos. No alive ones though.

Eventually we arrived in Adelaide. We dropped off Silver Surfer (our car), to Thrifty and awaited the bad news. We basically had to pay the standard damage fee of $3466 - for a dented NUMBER PLATE..... Luckily we had insurance, but it was with an independent company, so we gotta wait for all the legal shiz, and the other driver might cover it, or I don't know. I just know I hate insurance and rental companies and they can all die in a fire....

We've only been in Adelaide a few days. And we're leaving now coz we've organised FARM WORK!! :D We're flying to Cairns to do 3 months in Tully to get our 2nd year visa and some cold hard cash! Natalie is going to Port Lincoln to do her shark dive. Then traveling down the east coast. Hopefully we'll see her in Cairns again on the weekend....... And then there was 2 I guess......

Whilst here though, we celebrated Australia Day. Saw Tim-O-Matic live (probably the campest rnb singer you'll ever see). Drank lots goon - naturally. Calamity Nats went to see a doctor about her ear. The doctor felt it was necessary to take her heart beat in her bra for it :p So he's been dubbed Andy McGrab. She loved it - naturally. We went to a museum, learned about the Red Titi and Hairy Saki monkies (amongst other cultural things) :p Smoked shisha, had dinner, and came home....

SO..... Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Queensland. 4th state within a month. Fingers crossed for the farm work. We'll let you know how that goes.

Until then....

  Keep your shorts tiiight!!

Zooooooooop!!! x

A Little Bit Of Melbourne

Well well well you cheeky little bloggers. Back for some more are ya??

I am currently writing this from the bottom of planet earth. Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia... In a tent, under 54 billion blistering stars. But if you've been keeping on the ball, you would know we visited Melbourne before we found ourselves here. So I'll just teeaaassseee you with the Great Ocean Road blog to come soon, and write about our time in good ol Melbs first.

Originally, when we booked our flight to Melbourne, we intended to stay at a hostel called The Pint On Punt. But our friends Rob and Nancy kindly offered to put us up for 5 days. Then we stayed at another friends, Brookers for the remaining 5. Cool beans right? Nancys and Robs place was a niiicee surprise. The building was very modern, and they had a nice little apartment. But the best thing was, they had a BBQ and seating area on their ROOF! Was amazing. Had great views and sunsets from up there. Could see all of St Kilda, the city, beach and the rollercoasters of Luna Park. So we BBQed there a lot -Naturally. We were also lucky enough to time our trip to bump into other friends like Diana, Jess, and Nick McEvoy in Melbs. We had another reunion with a Aussie friend we made in South America, called Andy. This is madness how this happened though. Andy basically saw through Facebook that I was coming to melbourne, and he told me he lived there, so we exchanged numbers. So when we arranged a day to meet he said "I'm free the next few days, where are you now?" I said I was on Brunswick St. "OK, well I'm in St Kilda at the moment. Maybe I'll see you in town later." I said ok, but we are staying in St Kilda any way. So maybe we'll meet him there. "where do you stay?" "Centre of St Kilda" "I live there too" "Where abouts? We're staying near the national theatre." "I live like 4 doors away from that dude" "No way! Have you heard of the so-and-so apartments" "yep.... I live there" ......Holy sweet potatoes blog fans!! can you imagine that!? We met on the boarder of Bolivia, and now he was sleeping one floor right above us every night. Fenton.

ANYWAY, we met up with Andy and everyone else too - naturally.......

But let's talk about the city! I LOVE Melbourne. I thought I would, and my predictions were confirmed. People always make the natural comparison to Sydney. Most people say they prefer Melbourne, and I see why. Sydney is a bit soulless compared to Melbourne. The people seemed more relaxed, friendly, social and cultured - So did the city. Melbourne kind of reminded me of some small areas in London I like, mixed with a small European city. Everyone says it, ut it is a great place for chilling in bars and cafes, live music, funky streets, shops, and parks. Apparently Melbourne was voted the best city in the world to live in 3 years in a row. And I think you just have to be thhere to see why..... Me, Cat, Nats, Rob, Nancy and Brooker all hired a bike and rode it down the beach front one day. That was one of many highlights. A few other things we done was penguin watching, outdoor cinema, night markets, drinking, and the Neighbours tour. I don't watch soaps. Barely watch tv period. But I went along like any good tourist should. I just smiled and took photos..... I fitted right in.

Some people say a downfall to Melbs is the weather. But we experienced some shit, let me tell you. Some people say "Oh it's cold and rainy in Melbourne." So we arrive, and it's 40+ degrees nearly every day for 10 days!! It was not fun riding packed trams in that, let me tell you! One day we decided to go to a swimming pool that was partly indoors, partly out. But even in the shade, the air was just HOT! Rob got sent home early from work every day for health and safety reasons. Ice lollies melted, baby's cried, and souls got raped to hell.

So..... That's my quick summary of our 10 days in Melbs. I cant write about EVERYTHING in detail. That was then, and this is now. But this was then, because im summitting this late. But now, will be then. When? Exactly....

But until then......

Keep them shorts tight.

Through the Window.

Zoop.

X

Leaving Sydney

Is it a bird!?

Is it a plane!?

......Well, yeah, it is a plane actually. Because we are at Sydney airport!

G'day blog fans. This is Robbie G6 reporting from Sydney airport, waiting for our flight to Melbourne. Turns out, we were kinda lucky to have a flight today. We got a text this morning saying "your flight has been cancelled". Not the best start. We got a bus to the airport anyway, and managed to get another flight. Just gotta wait AGES!!

Anyway, let's go back a bit. Last time I wrote, it was just before Christmas. Since then it's been an eventful, jam packed, bonza time we've been having. We visited our friend Felicity (who we met on our peru tour) twice. She's been the most amazing hospitable host. She cooked for us, we had pic-nics and bbqs, (kangaroo sausages and steaks) visited beaches, and kayaked down creeks. Was really nice to see her, and was really nice to get out the city for a while and do other things. We bought her some fine wine for her troubles, but we know she would much rather prefer a bottle of Passion Pop :)

Just before Christmas was upon us, we all took a day trip to Palm Beach (where Home & Away is filmed). Had a few drinks in the sun, with our Santa hats on, listening to Christmas songs :p Was a bit surreal, but so super smashing. Christmas eve we just got really drunk. We went to an Irish bar, took clothes pegs out and pegged people, and had a decent but strange night out - Christmas day we had bad weather. Rained more or less all day. But it was nice as we were hungover, and we all got to exchange presents, eat lots of food (Aussie Christmas style) and watch classic Christmas films.

A story that made everyone laugh, that I promised I'd write about - was when I almost crapped myself. I had diahhrea one night, conveniently when we had no toilet roll in the house..... (good start to any story) I ran to Cats room with my shorts down shouting "wheres the face wipes, where's the face wipes!" Cat was asleep and wouldn't wake up FOR SHIT! Literally!! I was bouncing her off the bed, punching her arse, shouting and screaming, and the only response i got was "I didnt take a photo" ..... "What!??" This really pissed me off. At the time, it was not funny, I promise you. Luckily, eventually, I found some novelty pound note tissues on the living room floor. But if I had to wait and scream any longer, I swear, I was gonna squat over Cats face!.....

On a lighter note.... NYE was nice! We went out in a big group of us. Nancy, Rob, and Brooker stayed at ours. We met a load of other friends up there. We went to a park, that was elevated on a hill, that over-looked the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. So we could all see the fireworks there. It was a bit crowded, but still cool. Cat actually got too drunk and went home before it even hit midnight. So.... karma?

The morning after, we got up and dragged ourselves out for the Field Day festival. My first ever proper outdoor festival surprisingly. Was really good! We had a lil playlist downloaded a while back, so we could recognise songs. Some of us were really hungover. But we soldiered through it. 

The last week we had was pretty lazy in general. Me, Cat and Calamity Nats did a 4hr walk around Manly. Had amazing views there, but the weather wasn't best. We went on our last night out in Sydney on Monday night. Drank all the Christmas vodka Natalie got me for Christmas. The best part was the kebab and chips I had. OMG. Haven't done that in over a YEAR. we went on a walk on the beach til about 5:30am. Fitting ending to our Sydney chapter. 

So... Cat, Calamity Nats and I are about to board the plane now. We've left behind our Bondi family and friends. But it's time to move on. By the time this is actually posted we're probably already living it up in Melbs. Voted the number ONE best place to live in the world apparently. Challenge accepted. This thing is number one!

Have a super smashing time blog fans! Keep your shorts tight.... So tight. And if I don't see you through the week, I'll see you trough the windoooww....

Zoooooooooooopa! x

A Transitional Month

Oh my BLOGGGG!!!

Where have I been? What have i done? Who am i now?? I know it's been a long time coming blog fans. I've been working out, getting my index finger strong for some hardcore blogging! So I hope you're ready! Hope you're super excited! Coz hear comes a brand new bloggggg......

Believe it or not blog fans, I recently nearly wrote a blog and sent it out, but I never submitted it. I was gonna do a comparison between Sydney and London, as I've spent a decent amount of time here now and know the city really well. I just couldn't find a way of making it compelling to read. There was a lot of umming and ahhing on my opinions, some of it was obvious, most of it was bullshit, so I never really finished it :p

But anyway, I got a lot of other things to keep you in the loop with. It's December now, summer time, and shit has been hitting the fan lately. It's def gonna be a transitional month. Had my long time friend Nick McEvoy arriving, Jason leaving, Mark leaving, Nick leaving again, Cat leaving Scarys, I'm saying bye to my soccer kids forever, and soon we'll be saying bye to the house, Shona and Gemma, and all our other Sydney friends :( And all this in a short space of time.... Our plan is to spend christmas and new years in Sydney, and then move on to Melbourne for one week with Natalie, then drive the Great Ocean Road and camp together, then spend Australia day in Adelaide, and shark dive, etc. Then me and Cat will be trying to get farm work in late Jan / early Feb. Farm work will give us a decent amount of savings, hopefully. We need to get 3 months farming done or we will have to leave the country in May. We're not sure how long we'll be in Australia for, but we definitely won't have enough money or time to do the things we want to in Australia without starting our 2nd year here. So that's our short term future. I won't blabber on about any more, as things will change no doubt. 

But let's not talk too much about the future. Let's talk about what's happened recently, and what's going on in the present.  Meeting up with Nick was a blast from the past. Hadn't seen him in AGES. we caught up, spoke about school mates, who's had kids, who's married, who's in prison, etc. Spoke about people and things I totally forgot about. Like when we used to throw Pritt-Sticks up to stick on the ceiling at school, and they would all dangle there for weeks :D We've hung out a lot. Had a lot of drinks, A lot of them being on his 30th birthday. It's been good. He's left for Melbourne now. But we'll be sure to meet up when we get there. And I don't think I'll be the only one happy to see him again ;) wink wink.....

Also, Jason has left us :( His time came and went really quickly. I thought we was loving Sydney, and he really wanted to see Melbourne, and we were all excited about things to come. Then I got a text saying "I've booked a flight to Thailand". We tried to cram in things to do before he left, but he worked his last week as well. So he missed quite a lot. We tried to have a "boys night out". Ended up being a boys night in! Not because we were sober, but because we got so drunk we all passed out by about 9pm! Some how I lost my phone, even though I 100% didn't leave the house. And it is 100% not in the house. Believe me, I've looked. It's the biggest mystery this world has witnessed. Like Stone Henge x80. We did manage a night out at Ivy before he left. Everyone came out. But I think Jason was one of the soberest, as he was flying the next day. 

Not long after Jason, Marky B left us. Wasn't quite as surprising as Jason, as Mark was always talking about what he will do, eat, drink, see when he gets home. And he never said anything about what he's gonna do in Aus. I wasn't expecting him to stay and go farming with us. But I was hoping he would stay for Wet N Wild, feativals, Xmas, new years, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and Adelaide etc. I think Jason and Mark both left at one of the worst possible times. But everyones got their own plans i guess.....

Now I'm just getting on with my life with the girls. I can't complain. Still loving it here, and will be a bit sad to leave. Enjoyed Sydney life. Gonna be weird to spend Xmas together in the sun. It's SWELTERING here lately. Anything over 30 degrees ain't cool no more! Literally..... 

We've got our "Sydney to do list". All of us have a few things we wanna cram in before we leave. Times gonna fly though. And I'm looking forward to life after Sydney and hitting the road again :)

Anyway. Think I'll leave it there for now blog fans! So much i could say, but ill stay sweet. Got a rough and rugged ride ahead of us. So on that note: keep your shorts tight!! And a merry christmas to you all! Zooooooop!! X

The Bondi Chapter

How many blog fans does it take to change a light bulb?

One

Because you're all soooo intelligent blog fans!! :D

So, I'm here, sitting in a bean bag, in our house, on Bondi beach, with my souf crew family. Can't complain really can I :) 

Been a while since you got an update. Sorry about that. So much to write about, so many stories to tell, but it's hard to find time to do this. Especially when you're always in company. But I'll give you a little low down on the important shizzle to make your mind sizzzllleee ;)

The last time I wrote, I was mostly talking about the arrival of Mark and Nats. But now the one and only Jason P has joined thee! Was a shock to see him stroll through our open front door in the morning, on his own, with no phone call before hand. But he quickly settled in, and felt like hes always been with us. I could be a personal tour guide of Sydney AGAIN. Still ain't got bored of it though. Especially when your showing someone new around. Did all the main city sites in one day. We've been to the beach, had bbqs, and some awesome nights out. No doubt. The 3 boys moved into a hostel for Jasons first week just around the corner from the girls, as we thought the house would be too crammed. But Mark and Jason stayed there 2 nights, and i stayed there once lol So was pretty pointless really. 

Anyway, I guess the plans of everyones trip has been the biggest headache and talking point here lately. Jason's loving Sydney a lot more than Mark, and he didn't wanna rush away from here too quickly. He has accounting experience and he can absolutely RAPE the system here in Sydney. He's been told he can expect to earn $35 an hour! So he can live it up here stupidly, and love life. I've recently done my White Card, which allows me to do construction work. I've been told a load of labouring work will be coming available now. Ive been having the dilemma of working here in Sydney with everyone or going off farming with Mark. They both have loads of pros and cons. The biggest thing standing between me going farming is the price of flights there, flights back, and the waiting around on the work list. I could be waiting for 2-3 weeks for work and get paid nothing. The bad points of STAYING is the fact construction work will be casual. So maybe only 2 days a week of work. I have to pay for public transport, and there's a lot of temptation in Sydney to spend cash on :p

Mark is still refusing to stay with us and work in Sydney. Even if me and Jason stayed, and got our own place with him. I think he wants to see a few bits of Australia and go home asap. 

I think the CURRENT situation is Mark and Jason might go off to travel a bit together, and I'll stay with the girls. I did have the attitude of "I'm here to have fun and enjoy myself." But now I NEED to make as much money as possible before Xmas now. We have all spoken about staying in Bondi until early Jan, going Melbourne together, seeing the city for a bit, then all doing a road trip across the Great Ocean Drive in a camper van or something, see Adelaide, and maybe go shark diving :) So want money for that. Cant wait to be on the road again. I think Cat and I will be looking into doing farm work after that to secure our 2nd year visa Justin Case. Jason might wanna stay longer in Melbourne whilst we're on a farm, and I think Mark might be gone before we even get to Melbourne. Which is a shame, but he doesn't want to work, or spend much money in Oz, so he might miss the best parts of the journey :( Not sure about the other girls yet. But hopefully we can do as much as possible with them. Making money and staying with them is my biggest 2 priorities at the moment.

That's as much as I know or can say at the moment. But things change EVERY DAY, so don't take everything as bible.

Cat had a lovely birthday at Taronga Zoo. Was probably the best zoo I have been to. Had amazing views, and you had to get a ferry and chair lift to the entrance, which went over the animals and you could see the city's skyline. We went to a really nice BYO Thai restaurant after the zoo to finish the day. Met up with the others who wernt at the zoo, ate good food, and got drunk :)

I'll try to keep you posted blog fans. We're loving life. We live on a beach in Sydney. Our neighbours are cool, young and sociable. Mostly Italian, Spanish and Brazilian. I'm gonna try to do a short London vs Sydney blog at some point soon. As I probably know this city even better than home now :/

Til then..... Keep your shorts tiiiight!

Zoooooooooop! xxx