Laura becomes an Auntie

16th January

Soundtrack: Go Shoppin' (feat. Eek- A- Mouse)- Bran Van 3000

...a fabulous driving song, as introduced by my Dad!

The day Laura finally got the phone call! Welcome to the world Anneke Jane Miller!

Congratulations Clare and Greg!

We rented a car, and made our long trip up to Coffs Harbour and Surfers Paradise, whilst Hannah remains in Sydney with her new bar job. I like it here at Surfers Paradise, a lovely Majorcan style beach front, but framed by skyscrapers and a crazy night life! Today we spent the day by the pool, it's nice to have some sun again. The last week or 2 I haven't had a spot of sunshine due to laziness, being ill/ extremely dehydrated, and the pure hideous heat wave! 43 degrees makes breathing hard, never mind sunbathing.

In the evening we went down to the waters edge for a beverage or 3, and turned my Pub Quiz App into a drinking game. Then a few metres from us on the lake front some men turned up for band practise with a trumpet, guitars and bongos... I love moments like that. Coincidentally they were they live entertainment at the club we went to that evening!

I NEED SOME BONGOS!

On the drive up the coast we belted out music, had a sing along, and stopped off for a picnic. Tomorrow we drive to Byron Bay, a place I have only heard people rave about. Lets hope it doesn't disappoint!

Gleeeebe

Soundtrack: Ho hey- Lumineers

6th Jan

YES this place suits me. A street, tailored to fit me like a nice little dress. Glebe point road hosts a perfect combination of Parisian-style flats with balconies, book shops with wine courtyards at the back, markets and restaurants with front gardens. 

 We spent a good amount of time at Glebe Market on the Saturday morning, although the sun was too intense to be walking around in for too long...especially since loosing my hat on New Years Eve! Fried Brain! The rest of the day was spent walking through the botanical gardens, all 6 of us, and exploring the Sydney Opera house and Harbour Bridge. What a ' feel good' afternoon it was. The sky was deep blue without a cloud, there were live bands lining the streets, and the whole river embankment was bustling! Outdoor bars serving up ice buckets of champagne and Corona, a cruise ship ready to set sail, 
people in mexican hats; it was like London's South Bank on a Bank Holiday weekend and the hottest day of the year all at once. I love it when days just let off electric vibes.

It's been a lovely 4 days, despite being poorly for some off it ( most of it). MUST DRINK MORE WATER!

Next stop: Maze Hostel, Sydney Centre

Pie Face, Pie Face, Pie Face

Soundtrack: Florence and the Machine- Spectrum ( Calvin Harris Remix)

Sountrack: Joshua Radin- Paperweight

Boxing Day we checked into 'Wake Up' hostel, a very clean, trendy, city hostel with its own bouncers. A really nice hostel, but a hostel where condoms are given out along side our room key just puts me off a little. We dragged our post christmas sleepy selves down to the bar for a glass of their promoted 'free champagne' with a live band. It turns out it was unlimited free champagne.  7 champagnes later and the bar turned into a club and Hannah joined the live band as vocalist! Brilliant night, it's always the spontaneous ones that end up the best.

The next morning was far from brilliant, 5 hung over girls, 5 backpacks and another 7 bags,  and a couple of completely full buses... if the light at the end of the tunnel hadn't been Bondi Beach I would have sacked it all off! They say it's all about location, and I say the are completely right. Our week on Bondi beach has been fabulous, Me, Laura, Clare, Ray, Hannah and Becky Smart! Of course with 6 peoples luggage, not much of the interior of the house could be seen at any one point. I love Bondi, a busy town full of bars, shops and markets cradling a beach that improves your day simply by standing and looking at it. What a little treasure. 

Quote of the week- Becky  went to the shop and was also grabbing some biscuits and snacks for Hannah so rang her when she got there. Becky calls Hannah and simply says 'I'm infront of the biscuits!' Only to realise it was instead another Hannah she barely knows. God knows what she though, but she hung up probably thinking it was some dodgy dealings. 

New Years was a memorable day. 14 hours in a park reserving our view of the harbour bridge was spent trying to avoid the I tense sun, playing cards, drinking goon. The fireworks were amazing. I wish the were more events like New Year in Sydney that bring 5000 people and 1000 blankets together in one park for a day of carefree silliness. This blog seems to have involved a lot of pointless statistics. 8 in fact. 

The change in year doesn't mean anything much to me, as long as it stays as happy, healthy and carefree as the rest of them. 

Cheeeers to you all! Xxx

How Things Change

Soundtrack: ALT-J - Something Good

Finally we have been reunited with Clare and Laura,  back to a group of 5. The last month has been  interesting. I have come out the other end a slightly changed person. Eventful and challenging indeed, but am I glad I did it? Of course, everything is a learning curve. Me, Hannah and Ray make good functional trio, no arguments, just giggles. Highlights include; abusing the confessions box at the end of the world party, the dogs, the steak, the koala park, the rowing boat, pear cider, Kelly and Damien, the peacock's dance and collecting bugs from the wall and naming them (Pet & Gwen).

So here we are back to being travellers again, back to living out of our backpack, and it feels like home. I craved the travellers life style after a month without it, and missed the simplest of things; boxed wine and playing cards, our plastic cutlery, our McDonald's sachets salt and peppers, cooking in a communal kitchen and sleeping in a dorm with young strangers who become friends. 

Christmas Eve

Life is perfect here at Amy's house in Newcastle. Sunshine, Christmas decorations,  films, beach, board games and $300 dollars worth of food and alcohol. There are NINE different types of cheeses in the fridge waiting to destroy our bikini bodies, and I cannot wait! Clare 
baked chocolate brownie and Hannah and Laura have baked politically incorrect 
gingerbread, the best kind. We have a naked Santa, an elf with extremely large tits, and a hitler gingerbread. Ah back to normality! 

Add caption

Christmas Eve BBQ

Life's good on the beach... even at Christmas! 

Time for a beer :)

It's the little things

It's those little things in life that make everything worth while!

Life in the Bush

Days of the week and month mean nothing at the moment, there's no single day where im familar with the day of the week. So far from home in every sense of the word, but so comfortable and happy in our new country life in Pappinbarra.
 Free food, and free accomodation in exchange for about 3 hours work a day, and also the odd paid job. Out in the bush, our daily routine is as follows: get up at 7, feed the horses Barney and Belle, do a couple of hours house keeping, lunch around 11, then we are free to do as we wish until its time to cook dinner. We usually end the day with a film or a couple of hours reading. I bought the first Twilight book 4 days ago and finished it last night.  Everything is so flexible here, 5 hours work one day means a day off the next. A full day to read, explore the local town or play with the dogs and sit in the sunshine (when the heat is bareable). I am so unbeleiveably grateful of how lovely our 'boss' is, I use the term boss but he is more 'owner of the house' and friend. Scott helped build this impressive house the last 10 years, a grand wooden design with more windows than wall built within 900 acres of land. He needs a hand getting it back to the palace it once was, and theres nothing more satifying than doing a good job for a good man.

Taz

Susie

The dogs need their own paragraph. Susie the mother, a shiny coated Rhodesian Ridgeback, a true lady. Willie, her checky pup with paws he is still growing in to. And Taz, loyal little Taz: no relation to the other two but the origional dog. She comes running to save you at one clap of your hands (those bulls can get pretty scary).

Willie

Me, Ray and Hannah are working well together, and I'm learning more about cooking than I did during my 3 years uni.  Tonight me and Hannah watched the Green Mile, whilst Ray got an early night, and Scott visited a neighbour. Its quite scary being alone in a house at night in the middle of nowhere surrounded by massive windows revealing darkness. The kookaburras sound like they are cackling, my imagination needs no encouraging. No doubt it is safer than any house in the city, especially with a river to get through, an electric fence and 3 dogs guarding the place.

Scott is planning a treat outing for us, perhaps lunch and a visit to the koala sanctuary. We are also invited to a local party, bowling with the neigbours, and our own Christmas before the real thing. This is one of those day-to-day things you get on with, without thinking much about anything excepct the task at hand, then on reflection, it becomes apparent just how lucky we are to have found this little gem of a job.

Me and Ray got stuck in a storm!

Hannah and Donald/Daisy

Mission to Magnetic

Soundtrack: Red Rabbits- The Shins

Our last night in Mission Beach after the skydive, we headed down to the local (and only) bar with our new friends. There was a live reggae singer who passed the microphone to Clare for a sing along, who then passed it to me. All of a sudden Jamaican rap spilled out of my mouth and appeared to rhyme! I was MCing for about ten minutes with a surprisingly impressed audience. I dont quite know how it happened, but it was fun! 'Mi shoe is broke, because some bloke, he lost his track and he stood on da back. I don't know what im saying, i'm talking shite, but according to you It sounds alright AIGHT!'

The following day (Saturday 18th), a four hour Greyhound bus and a ferry lead us to Magnetic Island, just off the coast of Townsville. Named so due to Captain Cooks failing compass upon discovery. He figured it had an unusal magnetic field, we won't tell him he just bought a faulty compass hey.

The place is heaven, but the heat is hell. We stayed at Bungalow Bay YHA, a hostel that stands out as my favourite so far, attached to a koala, bird and lizard sanctuary. We made friends with a lovely Irish girl named Maria, who also shared our cabin. Me, Clarem Laura, Maria, a couple of cockraoches and a token possum who climbed the outskirts. I woke up in the middle of the night staring into his eyes! There were cockatoo's flying about, kookaburras, toads, possums and wallabies. We held 5 variations of lizard, a crocodile, a turtle, cuddled a baby Koala and saw a Wombat.

The next morning Lau and Clare departed to start their farm job south of Sydney. It was quite strange being alone after all this time with company. I felt a little needy and vulnerable for about 10 minutes and then I loved it. Its really quite wonderful being left to your own devices, it feels completely free. I explored the beach, re organised my backpack, had a coffee, and chatted for a whole hour in the pool with a lovely new friend Susan from America. The rest of the day was spent melting in hammocks, and down at the beach. That evening was Bingo! I was joined by Essex Dan from my room, Monike, Susan and a few others. I won bingo twice, one round won by a dance-off due to a tie round. I think my forward rolls won the audience over. I drank my winnings with my new little social group, played ring of fire, star gazed on the beach, played on kids swings, (got stopped by the police...i think they were bored!) then ventured back by 1 in the morning. A lovely evening with lovely company, i was sad to leave.

Next stop- Port Macquarie.

I made a good friend on the place, we had a giggle. She was 10 month old but who cares, age isn't an issue right?

Time to meet up with Hannah and Ray and start work helping an Australian fella with his land and animals: an exciting and unpredictable prospect.

A new chapter :)