working holiday

There's not really a lot of interesting stuff to report I'm afraid, but thought I'd send a post anyway!

I've been in Australia for a month now - crazy! I've paid a month's rent at the hostel, which takes me up until mid October, and then from then on I'm hoping to travel down the East Coast for at least a month, spending all my money again! I've got two jobs now, yes TWO! It's hardcore. Infact I actually had a burn out on Thursday, it was my only day off in the week and I'd decided to go to Cairns for the day to volunteer at a print house, helping to curate some aboriginal work and edition some prints. Good experience for the CV hey! I got up and tried to hide the pending migraine with some paracetamol and caffeine, but finally I admitted to myself just as the bus was arriving, that really, I wasn't fit for a day of printing and that from past experience with migraines, today was a day for BED.

And so it was, I spent a lovely day, doing absolutely nothing but sleeeep and lounge in my bunk, in a quiet dorm room while the others were out at work. Bliss. I popped out to the supermarket to buy some chocolate (my Dad swears this cures his headaches!?!) and happily ate that too. I'm going to see if I can do the volunteer day next week, or when the school holidays are over here when hopefully I am less busy!

Then it was back to work on Friday. My routine at the moment is as follows: leave the hostel at 7.15am to walk to work on the beach (lovely!!) starting work at a holiday resort at 8am. Finishing work there at approx 3pm each day. Walking home along the beach (a good wind down, sometimes run in for a dip in the sea too!) then have a couple of hours to myself, put a different uniform on and start waitressing at Mango Jam, a funky pizza restaurant in town. Run round again for at least four hours waiting on tables until I get back to the hostel, crash out, then up again in the morning. Needless to say, I don't do the job in the hostel anymore for free accomodation, so that's one thing less to do! I do get some really good tips from the restaurant though - it's such a busy place with a high turn over of guests, but the best thing is that they are happy eaters! Woo! I can kiss goodbye to all those horrible waitressing jobs I've done in the past where the food is terrible and there are endless complaints! Also the staff are sociable - I went along one night for some drinks after service as two of them were leaving. I tried a legendary Mango Daiquiri courtesy of the manager...mmm!

I am enjoying staying in the hostel here, we've had some really nice group nights. A guy called Camarle was leaving so we had two feasts over a few days - the best one was pancake night! He is an amazing cook, and made the best pancakes with strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, nuts etc in them, loads of choc sauce...oh they were amazing but very filling. There's also been a toga night, a Pimps 'n' Hos night, Hawaiian night...all good fun. There is also a free bbq every Sunday, and I get free breakfast here, so saving some pennies here and there.

The German girls have now left me! Two of them moved out into an apartment in town for a bit of luxury after living in hostels for a long time, two of them have gone on the Greyhound bus down the East Coast and the other girl has embarked on a road trip to Ayres Rock and Alice Springs (to which I was invited, but I'm not in a hurry to go just yet, plus I need to work!). A new German girl came into the room though (another one, there are Germans EVERYWHERE I swear) who I've been getting on with very well, she's called Annika. Anyone remember that amazing programme Challenge Annika by the way? Well, we've been hanging out together a lot anyway, yesterday was her 21st birthday infact, so in between both of our shifts, we managed to go out for some lunch, go shopping, have some Mango Jam staff pizzas (75% discount) for tea and go out for some drinks . I'm packing a lot in really! We both keep telling ourselves it will all be worth it in the end, when we travel down the East Coast and party and sunbathe and throw ourselves out of a plane! Two new girls moved in yesterday, both from Paris, and one of them earns her accomodation by singing and playing the guitar in the bar every Sunday (easy life hey - I had to clean the blimmin dorm rooms 5 days a week for mine!!).

So that's about all really from me. I'm working and will continue doing that for a few weeks yet. Still liking Port Douglas and the sunny weather. Getting excited about Christmas on the beach too!

Bye for now!

So long, Sarah!

So the time has finally come - I'm now without travel buddies, doing the whole independent travel thing toute seule. Curly girl (aka Sarah) departed these sands yesterday to fly back to Nottingham. A real end to an era for me now and I was sad to wave goodbye as I got on my bus to Port Douglas a few days ago. Hope she gets back in one piece..I'm sure the remaining bras she owned were the first thing she packed before leaving! Not forgetting of course her beloved rubix cube, which she bought whilst away with the challenge to complete it (and successfully mastered, record time 3.5 minutes!). So ta ra duck, say hello to Nottingham for me, tell my brother to stop drinking so much and good luck with the lights!!

So, what have I been doing. I spent about 10 nights in Cairns before finally getting the hell out of there...it really wasn't that great a place for me, but I did enjoy hanging out with Jon and Sarah, our various nights out and the occasional barbeque and the great day on the Great Barrier Reef. It was also a good time to be in Cairns as there was an arts festival going on, so there were several street performers each night and lots of art exhibitions and installations to keep me happy!

The three of us went on a trip to visit Cape Tribulation, which isn't too far from Cairns but the tour involved a few stops at a zoo where we saw some crocodiles, one very shy dingo and a cassowary bird, and some walks through parts of the rainforest and a river boat tour on the Daintree. Nice. Cape Tribulation was very quiet and secluded with a lovely beach - hooray a beach! Cairns did not actually have one, just a nice but (sadly) man-made "lagoon", basically a huge and busy swimming pool. So we enjoyed a spot of sunbathing at beautiful Cape Tribulation, thankful of the peace and quiet. We couldn't go for a swim in the water though due to stingers and crocs this time of year - eek! Two nights were spent here, not doing a lot which I enjoyed, but I think Jon and Sarah were grateful to return to Cairns, whereas I didn't want to go back in a hurry so I stopped overnight at Port Douglas by myself, catching up with them a day later.
Port Douglas is great! A small coastal town with lots of expensive restaurants, which apparently attracts celebrities on holiday (not that I have seen any yet!). There's also Four Mile Beach which is lovely and this time, you can swim in it! I liked Port Douglas so much that I decided to collect my rucksack from Cairns and head straight back. Jon is on his way to Sydney so we're probably going to meet up again in November and head to Perth, can't wait!

Since being in Port Douglas I have been working in the hostel I am staying at, doing five days a week housekeeping shifts in return for seven nights free accomodation and breakfast. Nice to be saving some money. I'm in the process of sorting out a paid job at a holiday resort down the road, so soon I should start topping up the funds. I can breathe a sigh of relief again!

I'm sharing a dorm room with five German girls, so I'm loving listening to them twitter on. Last night I learnt a few new phrases to add to my current list of "hi how are you?" "excuse me how do I get to the church" and "he's a horny pig". I can now say "weather's good yes" plus a good selection of swear words (I would list these but I'm told my Grandmother reads these blogs). I believe last night I was taught me how to say "I'm a hussy" in Italian, which would have been great to remember but due to excessive 'wodka' consumption this was not stored in the memory bank!! Ach nein.

So ja, ich bin in Port Douglas, ich habe les nouvelles amies, ich trinke beaucoup mais je suis heureuse. Think I'll reste ici for a while. Oh and I have a slight tan, bien!

Ciao!