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Published: December 1st 2008
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Firstly apologies to those who have been waiting for the Aussie update- we were waiting a little while until we had interesting stuff to talk about in a blog!
We arrived in Aus with very little hardship-the flight was ok although neither of us managed as much sleep as we would have liked-and were spoilt for choice with the in-flight movies which was quite frustrating when you know you should be sleeping but you are trying to cram in your 2nd film, Matt finally succumbed and watched Mamma Mia and LIKED it!!!
We made it through customs fairly easily with only a few random checks and cursory examinations of the soles of our walking boots for stray mud and natural debris! Very bizarre! Out into the Aussie sunshine with our first views of brilliant blue skies and endless boiling sunshine-blissful!!
We hopped on a train and headed for Ipswich station.. yes..Ipswich you did read it right-there are sooo many English-named places here..Windsor, Warwick, Richmond, Ipswich, Stafford, Brighton, Kingston, Sailsbury and so on! It is very bizarre when you look at the maps!! We got there no problem and were picked up by-at that point- a total stranger! Mums
friend Diana who very kindly put up with two large bodies and rucksacks for just over a week. She and her son John and Abbie the mad dog made us feel very welcome and the luxury of hot showers, a nice comfy bed and proper meals was un-explicably amazing after living out of rucksacks and tiny cold showers for the previous few weeks in Asia!
Our first afternoon was spent down at one of the creeks, a murky brown looking affair with tons of weeds (and not to mention the crocodiles and recently discovered BULL SHARKS-not that we saw{or felt} any thank goodness!!!) We met Diana's daughter Rachael and her boyfriend Jordan and their two gorgeous dogs Costa and Grace-whom Matt instantly wanted to keep for himself! Very relaxing just floating around the creek with a nice cold beer-perfect way to end a long flight and avoid the tiredness a bit longer!
However the glorious sunshine was a little short-lived and soon we had to retreat as the storm clouds rolled in..little did we know that majority of the following week would find us rained in at Diana's due to the worst flooding the area had seen in
Chubb Street
Our first home in Aus! years.. spectacular stormy scenery and fork lightening but not so great when you are trying to job-hunt!!
We did manage a few vaguely exciting feats such as poking the funnel-web spider in Diana's garden until it came almost to the surface of it's hole where we could get a closer look!(we didn't really hang around for much longer after that though!) We were suitably impressed at the true Aussie-style when John managed to cook a delicious meat pie FROM scratch just using his BBQ as the electiricty was out.. only in Aus!!
Luckily for us, as the job hunt wasn't proving too successful, someone spotted our ad on gumtree and contacted us about a job that did sound just too good to be true. We had a trial couple of hours and then a paid days trial and we are fully fledged team members of 'GOTCHA' the kids photographers. Currently we are based in the Brisbane area and basically we set up a tiny studio in shopping centres and spend our days persuading people to have their kids photographed.. sounds easy-not when you have been in the same place for 2 weeks and the same mums keep coming past!
But the money is fantastic, the commission is an added bonus and on top of that..we get 3 weeks christmas holiday and all being well after christmas we go on the road with a company car and a mobile studio and head up North along the coast to places like Townsville and Cairns. Bonus for us is that we wanted to see those places anyway and we will be getting paid and having our accommodation paid for whilst we see those things we wanted on our days off.
We are still learning the ropes at the moment with a view to eventually taking the photgraphs ourselves and not just being on the flooor selling, Matt has taken to the selling much better than me, i prefer being in the studio with the kids making them laugh for their pictures!!typically me!
So, our 3 weeks over Christmas you might ask..and where are we living!!!!?! We decided not to impose on Diana's hospitality any longer and began loooking for rental places in central brisbane, near the trains and buses we'd need to get us to work at the moment..after pricing up and scouring the internet we decided instead to opt for
a 'Hippie camper' campervan so that we could take our beds,bags and selves wherever, whenever!! We collected the lilac flowery beauty and have been out and about ever since! We have found some decent campsites for a relatively cheap rate, the most recent is 10mins from where we are working and has a swimming pool on-site! As well as millions of HUGE frogs and so we are told..possums! Oh and of course a billion moths,beetles and my old friends the mozzies (currently suffereing from another allergic reaction..this time with an arm the size of my calf!)
We are planning out a route for Christmas that involves travelling up and down the coast. We are first heading to Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise for a few days!! Then we are heading back towards Brisbane for our staff Christmas masquerade ball before cranking up some serious mileage and heading to Arlie beach and hopefully to a sail around the Whitsundays, Mackay, a trip to Fraser Island, Rainbow beach, tin can bay (to hopefully feed some wild dolphins) Noosa and Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's zoo to most of you) and then that should take us right up until work starts again! SO
if you are wondering where we intend to be for christmas..the most accurate information i can give you is 'in our campervan somewhere along the coast, probably north of Brisbane..!!!'
So that, for now brings us up-to-date, we are hoping to maybe catch some kind of sporting event at 'The Gabba' on one of our days off and other than that we intend to go where our flowery van takes us!!!
stay in touch.. the next update will be when something else interesting happens!!!
Ps. Aussie mobile numbers are now in use so do not try Uk ones.
Gemma 042082128 Matt 0450084302
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