The Next Stage

So now that i have managed to stick out a job for over a week I can finally start planning the next stage of my trip!!
I had a bit of an impulse buy yesterday..I was just going down to the local markets for something to do for the morning and on the way i happened across some car dealerships, so I thought i would just pop in and have a look at some, without the intention of buying a car (plus i knew there properly wouldnt be any in my price range) However, the next thing i know i spot one that i like and the salesman comes over and starts talking to me, he then shows me a few cheaper cars round the back that had just come in that day. All of a sudden im test driving the first car that i saw, when we got back, to make it look like i knew what i was doing and talking about i wanted to know everything about the car and even went round checking the tires and asked to see under the bonet..now if there was something wrong with the engine then i wouldnt have had a clue, but least it meant i could watch his reaction when i asked and he didnt think anything of it so i guessed that it was ok. After a little bit of negotiation on the price i managed to knock of $250 and all of a sudden i know own my own car!!! I never made it to the market that day :) haha

However with the car i can now get started on what i want to do when i leave Perth at the end of Febuary. Originally i was going to use the greyhound bus pass that my parents brought me, to go up the north coast, but i think it would be better used to go up the south coast as there is more to see over there and i would prop meet more people. So now i am planning on driving up the east coast which then means i can stop where ever i want including monkey mia and shark bay, which are meant to be really good dive sites. All i need to do is buy a tent and some thing to cook on, for the times that i dont get to a hostel and have to stay at a camp site instead (which there are plenty of). 
I am happy now that i actually have a firm plan in mind as I started to waiver off course and didnt really know what i wanted to do anymore, which was kinda getting me down. But its all good now, and i just need to keep my job up and bring in the money!!

Here I Go Again

So its been a couple of weeks but thats because nothing interesting has been happening untill now.....
I finally got myself another job, I went along to the information meeting with Holly and we thought that it sounded ok and decided to give it a go. I was a little bit doubtfull as it involved selling antlers to random people who are going about doing their own thing around shopping centers and around the streets. However I gave it a shot. We had our first day doing this yesterday (Sunday the 11th) and after about 3 hours we had already decided it was a load of rubbish and we didnt really want to do it any more. What didnt help was the fact that we thought we could go around together and sell them but when we got there (i cant remember her name, so we shall call her the grumpy woman) the grumpy woman split us up and told us where we had to go...now before this i had a really good loop going on where ever i went i was actually selling alot, but the loop she put me on was rubbish and i sold 2 in an hour!! so this was stupid. Also the weather that day was really hot, so you can imagine walking around looking like a complete idiot with all these antlers up your arms and around your waist, which was so uncomfortable in the heat. Also Holly and me had to be up at 6 that morning as the bus want running to the train station on Sundays so we had an hours walk to the train station to start of with, a lovely 3 mile walk to start the morning off didnt seem all that bad, but when you add it to the other 7 or 8 miles of walking we did that day, as you can imagine, we were slightly fed up!! To add to my tiedness, i actually woke up at about 3 in the morning and then could not get back to sleep at all so i had actually been awake since 3 not 6. Good times :)
We decided to head back early as grumpy woman was annoying us, so off we went to get some lunch and then headed back to the base in Subiaco and counted up all the money when we got there. Now to get paid, we get 15% of what ever we raise each day...not much i hear you say...well you would be correct Holly and me both came away with $20 which meant that by the time we add in the travel and lunch we actually broke even, meaning it was a waste of a day!!! Hence the reason i have not gone back to that job today! 

But on the bright side of life, I am now in a house and i have a room to myself which is the best feeling ever! I dont have to worry about waking anyone else up if i come in late or if i have to be up early and i can actaully relax! I have a lovely see view from my bedroom and the house has a pool, its a 5 minute walk to the beach and a 5 minute walk to the shopping center and the bus stop. So all in all i am pretty happy with it at the moment. 

Right alot of you know what i am like with my sunglasses and the fact that i always loss them but somehow they always manage to come back to me! Well...last night a few of us went fishing down at the beach, and i was happily sat there and thought i would just lie back for a moment...forgetting i had my sunglasses on my head...and what happens, they fall off my head and go down inbetween the rocks and all the way down!!! I couldnt believe it, my nice, newish glasses and i have just dropped them down the rocks, it looked like i wouldnt be able to get them back and i was ready to give up (as this always happens) but then John, lovely John, comes along with his head torch and says that they havent gone down as far as i thought so he managed to jump down between the rocks and get them back for me. They do now have a few scrathes but nothing i cant cope with!! Just glad i got them back!

I am slowly getting into the christmas mood now, I went and watched Auther Christmas the other day, for those of you who havent seen it i think you should! It is amazing!! I have even brought some christmas crackers for our christmas day at the beach :D looking forward to it now, cant believe it is only 2 weeks away!!

Think i might have bored you all enough now bye.

Back in Perth

So yet again i am back in Perth, as yet again Australia doesnt want me working over there! As you all know i moved to Margaret River where i would be working with Rosie's sister in a restaurant. I ended up having to go up nearly a week early as they needed staff for the weekend, so up i went and i was due to start working on the Wednesday evening. However about mid day on Wednesday a controled burning got out of control and became a big bush fire! closing off the road that i needed to go down in order to get to work, and also meaning alot of people had to be evacuated. Over the next few days we helped out where we could, by looking after other peoples dogs while they sorted them selfs out. By Friday we had heard that the Gnarabar had been damaged from the fires aswell, but they still werent letting people back to the homes as there was still a risk of the fire picking up again if the winds picked up, there was one point on the Friday that they thought they would have to evacuate the town of margaret river aswell, so we had all our stuff packed up in the car ready and waiting just in case. Thankfully this never happened. They werent going to let anyone back into the affected areas until Monday and considering that the restaurant would have to be fixed and cleaned up before they could reopen, i decided to call it quits as i hadnt even done a shift there yet, i felt a bit guitly about the decision but there was no point in me hanging around. So on Saturday i headed back up to Perth to Allie. Now this was a struggling in its self as it was a last minuite decision to head back up i had to find somewhere to live and quickly!! but no hostels in Perth had a room unless i was going to pay $80 for a private room, and there was no way i was going to do that. So i made a call to Hannah and Ken (my emergency contacts in Perth) and asked if they wouldnt mind me crashing with them for a couple of nights until monday when i was able to get a hostel room. Thankfully they were happy to help and i was finally glad i had somewhere to go i was getting a bit worried for a while! So Monday came along and i checked into my hostel, but even that was a bit of a cuffufel! I had booked a 3 bed single sex room, when i got there they had given my bed to someone else so they were going to have to put me in a 6 bed mixed dorm, but there was nothing mixed about it as i would be the only girl in there. Not only had they given my bed away they didnt actually have one set up for me, i had to wait whilst she went to make the bed, one good thing is that i got it for cheaper so i dont mind that much, the guys in my room seem alright, most of them in their 40's and above. I am hoping that the rest of the week and hopfully everything else will settle down and run a bit smoother for a while now, just for a bit so i can just relax a bit more, going to leave the job hunting for a little while now, and wait until ben gets out here friday night so we can look for somewhere to live and then i will find a job! But tomorrow i am finally going on this wine cruise that i have been trying to go on for 2 weeks now, 3rd time lucky i think!!

2 Weeks In

So i am about to start the next phase of my trip...employment!! I am currently wasting time as i am getting picked up at 4 and have nothing to do until then as i have done everything in Perth and i don't have enough time to go out of Perth otherwise i might have gone to the aquarium. But any way i will be on my way to Margarete river later on today which is about a 3 hour drive south from Perth. There i will be working with Rosie's sister in a restaurant/bar. Not sure what it is called at the moment or where it actually is, but i will soon find out! The pay seems to be rather good,:) so that will help.

I went to the hospital this morning to get my stitches out so least i look a bit more normal but i will have to cover the bruise up with makeup i think other wise i might get asked a lot of questions by the customers!! annoying i still have to come back to Perth at the beginning of December for a consultation but at the same time i will be able to meet Ben at the airport and spend the weekend with him, as long as i can get the time off work :D

Will let you know how the job is getting on soon.

So im one week in!

Like the title says i have now been here for one whole week and i am still enjoying it. 

Yesterday was going to be a day of getting drunk whilst cruising down the river to swan valley...a day of wine tasting and a lovely 3 course lunch. This all sounded amazing i booked it on monday and the boat was setting off at 9.45 in the morning and i would be gone for 7 hours. That all sounds lovely right..well here is what actually happened:

I got home on monday night and thought i would wait until rosie got home to start cooking dinner. When she got home we were just about to put dinner on, and i was playing with the dog, next thing i know, Buster (the dog)suddenly turns round and bites me on the chin! Took me a moment to realise what had actually just happened and then i realised blood was coming from my chin and mouth. So Rosie took me up to A&E (being a dog bite and all). Now their health service is just as crap and just as slow as ours. So by 10 oclock i had still to be actually seen, i had been taken out the waiting room and poor Rosie was still in there waiting. The doctor finally came round to me and told me that they wanted to keep me in over night (mainly because they were to busy to deal with me there and then). I was finally able to go and tell Rosie that she could go home. By about 12 i was given a bed, much to my liking as i was getting very tired. In the morning i was transfered to another ward where i had to wait until they had an actuall bed ready for me in a main ward. Got to go up to that bed by about 2.30 and had a shower and just as i got out the shower i was told they were ready for me in surgery. Originally they wanted to put me under general anisthetic, but because no one had given me a pregnacy test they wouldnt do it (apparently they dont believe anyone that your not pregnant and test everyone anyway, waste of time if you ask me) so eventually i got my lip looked at and whilst only being local anistihtic they cleaned up the blood, and i have now ended up with one stich in my cheek and one just on the inside of my lip!! All that waiting around and moving about for 20 minutes so they could clean it and put 2 stiches in!! brillient. i am now on a course of antibiotics and have to go back next tuesday to have the stiches taken out! But all is good, doesnt actually hurt, it is just a bit swollen and bruised, so there is no need to worry :D

So it wasnt quite the day of gettin drunk and going to swan valley that i had hoped but never mind.,














#
Now the job front, today i finally heard back from the job agency to say that i have a trial week at this country pub up in Gin Gin. only problem is that they want me up there tomorrow, so i had to phone them and say that i had been into hospital and i cant come up to next week because of my check up next tuesday..he didnt seem to happy about this as they wanted me to start this weekend.. so he said he will talk with the job agency and they will get back to me about that one. So now i have a job but it doesnt look like i will be getting that one anymore :( which kinda sucks. but we shall see, hopefully it will be ok. fingers crossed.

Other then that, i did have a very enjoyable visit to Perth zoo on monday! spent half the day there just wondering around and taking lots of photos.
Just got to decide what to do for the rest of the week now.

Bye xx

Im Here!!

Well after a long and grewling flight i have finally made it to Australia, cant believe it! 

The flight its self wasnt too bad, just soo long, didnt really know what to do with yourself by the time you got to the second flight! but i tell you what i am definatly flying with Emirates again, they are brillient, the food is amazing, the service is good and there is actually space between you and the chair infront of you! its brillient! cant fault them. 

When i eventually got to Perth airport, the plane landed about 15 minutes late any way, and then it took another hour for me to get through secrurity and everything else, so by the time i was in the taxi heading to the hostel it was 2.30, thankfully i got to the hostel just in time as just as i got there the guy was about to lock up as his shift was about to finish, so if i got there and the door was locked i would have know what to do!! 

The hostel im staying in for a couple of nights is alright, nothing special, it is big. but they have sorted everything out for me, so now all i need to do today is fill in a couple of forms, go to the bank, and apparently i need to go to the medicare centre to have a medical..interesting i was never told about this before..oh well this could be interesting. also over the next day or 2 i have my trip to rottness island, which im looking forward to now. 

But right now, i am going to go have my first look around Perth and see if i can get my self a new phone :D 

Talk to you all soon 
xx

5 Days Til I Fly Out!

So with only 5 days until i leave the country, i am now all set up with my Aussie bank account, and i transfered money into it today!! When i get there all i have to do is have a meeting with the bank so i can prove that it is me, then i can get to my money!! Woo, its really exciting! 

Been spending the last week saying good bye to everyone, but i need to find the time to make sure i pack and get the last few bits sorted, such as SUNCREAM!! i havent even thought about getting any of that yet, and an Australian plug adaptor! These are all the things that i should really be thinking about now, but i still feel like i have ages to go as it seems unreal that in 5 days i will be on the plane!


A couple of things that i have done are things like, cancelled my car insurance, only have one more day of driving left then my little baby is being handed over to my brother for the year! He better look after her, i want her in good condition when i get back!! And most importantly, i have told lloyds that i am going to Australia so i dont have to worry about my card being blocked when i get out there!

So It Begins!!

With only two weeks left until i fly out to Perth, i get my first email through which makes it all seem a little real. 

 I am signed up with a company called Australian Backpackers, who will pick me up from the airport, put me up in a hostel in Perth for 2 nights, and they will also set me up with an Australian sim card and bank account. I recieved an email from them today, as they need me to fill in a few forms so that when i arrive they will have my bank account set up and a bank card waiting for me in the hostel. They also told me that within the first few days i will have a meeting with the bank, and they will send me on a day trip to Rottness Island!! 

They also provide me with a permenant address so that i can receive post from anyone and they can forward it onto me where ever i am in the country. If you want to know the address it is as follows...

c/- Australian Backpackers Work and Travel 7432
2/220 William St
Woolloomooloo, NSW 2011