Life in Cairns-March 2008-October 2008

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Gonna try and keep this one briefer as have 6 months to talk about and what a good 6 months!!!!!

Moved into the gorgeous house officially on wednesday 12th march.

First things first i spent a week or so job hunting, handed in resume to hundreds of places and didn't hear much back, was nice to be off the farm and back in the city, did a fair amount of shopping yayyyy n got to know my new house mates.

Turned out Sarah Drew a girl from uni was in Cairns so we met up a few times at the lagoon, went out and had a drunken night out at easter weekend and she came round my new house and saw it and was also there the day i got the job on the boat was nice to see her cos havent since uni.

Got a job on the boat one week after i'd moved into the house only job i really got offered so that was good as it was what i wanted to do.

Started working on the boat on the following monday but also got ill with my infected wisdom tooth which caused me loads of hassle for a couple of months

Worked on the boat for 3 months in that time had lots of nights out to the green ant with the spirit girls and little aussie bums also went beach etc and chilled out on my weeks off but i only had about 2 or 3 weeks off in 3 months and was ill for one of them.

Enjoyed spending some of my time off going on big bike rides all around the city, doing the red arrow walk/run, visiting and walking round the botanic gardens and the esplanade etc.

Had a nice day out to Palm Cove beach with Leah my friend/ the dive master hostess on the boat.

My house mate Carys won some free accomodation in Port Douglas so us girl house mates got to have a fine weekend away to Port Douglas where all we did was eat out and drink wine and sunbathe on the beach pretty perfect!!!!!

Decided to leave the boat as wasn't earning enough money and couldn't dive, needed a job which would earn me more money and be less and more practical hours.

Got a job at the coffee club and started on tuesday 17th June (amy's bday). The coffee club is a great job, more sociable hours get about 34-38 hours a week way less hours than the boat for the money, get a fairly good hourly pay, the people that work there are all really nice girls and the managers are cool as well, its a fast paced, busy, well organised job, i like it, earning more and easier than the boat.

Joined the gym in May but as was still working on the boat didnt really start getting into it until about june/july but finally got my fitness back a bit just need to loose some fat and weight now!!!!

Turns out also alisa flanagan from home came up to cairns so we met up quite a few times, she was in cairns for about a month so we did various fun things together, went to crystal cascades, the beach, the coffee club, the gym, the lagoon and to each others houses etc which was lovely.

Me and old mate (which is an aussie saying-old mate) anna my house mate treated ourselves to a new high flying adrenaline pumping early morning chilly activity-hot air ballooning over the atherton tablelands in far north queensland, an activity i've always wanted to sample and it was pleasantly calm and nice but maybe not worth paying to do it again once uve done it once you've done it.

July 12th & 13th was a weekend at Mareeba Rodeo with anna and the gang-gav her boyf, his house mate johnii, his friend drew and kerry. fun, different cool to see weekend away out in the country sort of area, never been to a rodeo so good chance, was good weather weekend so we camped over night there, was interesting and different n fun to watch the rodeo cool cool.

Spent a lot of my time in cairns working basicaly and going to the gym, much like normal life at home sort of plus the sun shining and lows of 19 at night lol not -2, also worked at a place called tribal travel doing the free internet thing, where i didnt get paid but got trips for my hours of work all good, earnt me and amy an ayers rock tour each worth $600 and got a load of discount etc on my travelling bits when i booked it all with them!!!!

Yet another fun day out-me and the coffee club english gals hired a car to drive from cairns up to cape trib via mossman gorge, daintree and stopping at port doug on the way back for lunch, nice day out didnt spend much time at cape trib tho we were more get a photo n go that day, good to spend time with some of the girls from new work outside of work.

Had quite a lot fo drunken nights out in Cairns mainly at the Woolshed, Rhino bar, gilligans, pj o briens, rattle n hum etc the standard backpacker places. Prob could have gone out more often but would have been wasting money getting drunk n putting more weight on plus got so drunk one night at ali's house i got scared to drink after that lol. The Coffee Club Girls (TCC) had a night out in town where we all made funny t-shirts to wear, me and anna had a few blinding ladies nights out and i spent her last ladies night out with her.

When Ali was in Cairns some of her friends from home people who i hadnt met in england but had heard of were staying with her so i met all of them, Emily one of the girls decided to stay in Cairns a bit longer when the others all left so she stayed at our house for a couple of weeks, funny how we'd never met at home and she is only from Sellindge and here we were on the other side of the world living together for a bit......its a small world!!!!!!

The end of June is the end of the tax year in oz, which meant i got to claim my tax back of what i'd earnt/paid so far!!!!!! yer so at the beginning of july or mid july i did my tax return online and managed to get back $2900!!!!!! was awesome, one day i booked loads of my travelling stuff and had basically spent all of my savings that i had saved and went to bed with about $50 to my name woke up and next day had $3500 in my account had been paid and got my tax back overnight so while i was asleep my account went up $3500 which was a good feeling, finally after working so many hours on the farm and the boat id got soemthing back from it!!!!!! I felt like a millionaire!!!!!! Decided to treat myself obviously!!!!!! Booked the rest of mine and amys travelling bits, went on a big shopping spree and bought loads of new stuff clothes shoes etc and saved $1000 so all in all felt like a new richer person in about 3 weeks!!!!!!

Went to the cable ski park one sunday morning with anna, gav n julian this was fun hadnt done this before so they make you go on ur knees at first i mastered this fine and then tried standing up but didnt have much time to practice before we had to go but would def do this again, one thing i love about oz is al the outside water sports you can do just on a sunday mornign get up and go up the road to do that i love it!!!!!!!

At the end of july/beginning of august carys and seb were away in asia for all of july and anna finished work ready to go home at beginning of august, we had perfect weather for about 3 weeks solid bright sunshine every single day and about 25 was lush, carys and seb returned from asia beginning of august and anna had to then leave the country to go home after being here for 2 years so this was sad we had a mexican leaving party and did various bits with her before she left but she's coming back as gav her boyf is aussie and she's managed to get sponsorship with an accountancy company!!!!!!

So after anna left at beginning of august i then had about 8 more weeks left in Cairns had reached a point where i was almost nearly bored as everything was so perfect n organised and had money and eveyrhting was going well so me and carys decided we had to spice it hut by statring an official man hunt for me lol!!!!! but didnt go to well as there is an offical shortage of men in australia it was even in the news and i ended up working all evenings so never went out looking just worked all night and then went to gym in the day and sunbathed even more!!!!!!

About a month or so before i was due to leave Cairns a group of us decided we wanted to walk up some famous pyramid mountain thing called Walsh's Pyramid, all the aussies are scared to do it and say how hard it is but 10 of us including a baby made it to the top and back down in 5 hours was tough going, id had about 5 hrs sleep due to finishing work late and we started at 6.30am but we did it!!!!!! after this we made it a little routine every sunday morning to get up and go on walks well it lasted for 4 weeks-the pyramid, cobbleloe dam, lake barrine and lake eacham and the blue arrow before the numbers were down to about 3 of us left and i ended up having to work sunday mornings and fracturing my toe. But these walks were inspiring i might pursue this one day when i retire lol and it was good to see more sights in oz and hang out with rossi and her baby etc.

In Cairns there is an aboriginal show place called Tjapukai or jabbbbapukeypukeypieeeeeeee as i called it before i could pronounce it, Carys and I wanted to go here so we went to the day show and the night show, its about the aboriginal tribe that are in this area and was vewry educational/creative i love shows like that.

Also ever since i moved to Cairns i had wanted to go on the SkyRail over to Kuranda and then back on the Scenic Train so we did this one day and had an exotic vietnamese lunch in Kuranda followed by fudge!!!!! Beautiful beautiful place cairns is and over the rainforest to kuranda is amazing!!!!!!

The last 5 weeks or so i also spent time making sure everything is done i need to do before leaving an address and free internet, sorting out banking and post and money and tax stuff etc blah blah blah.

I thought about the beginning of August that i was goign to get bored waiting to go to darwin etc but luckily carys had bought the whole collection of Sex and the City in asia for cheap so i watched every single episode of all 6 of the seasons and the movie, i love this show so much, cryed and laughed everyday for about 3 weeks watching it and when i fractured my toe i spent the whole weekend resting my toe watching it was perfect weekend lol!!!!!

Oh yer think i might have mentioned now i managed to fracture my toe.........i walked into the sofa and stubbed it very hard while watching sex and the city and trying to eat tuna salad..........the tuna salad went flying which did make me luagh but i knew id done more than just stubbed y toe, i left it a few days before realising how bad it was and getting it xrayed at the hosp, had fractured my 2nd lil toe on my right foot and it killed so had a weekend off work to rest it.

Having done 2 sky dives in NZ i had promised my self id do one more in oz onto the beach, carys and i got a cheap deal on a sky dive but not onto the beach but over cairns which is just as good. Only did 11,000 ft so my lowest one but was still soooo good, 3rd time think id still do it again, although i was more nervous for this one than the first but love it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Festival Cairns is on for a month in Cairns aug-sept and on sept 20th is the last day and there was a cool light parade/fireworks over the port so this was a lovely ending to my months in cairns!!!!!

Also went to Fitzroy island for a day with the baby brigade..........6 adults and 4 babies.........mmmm they're hard work yer...........but the island was lovely spent the day sunbathing, swimming, snorkelling and eating and all this is about £20 from cairns.....god how im gonna miss this!!!!!!!

So last week of work went pretty quik, started packing, didnt have tome for gym but did few bits outside so all good.

Saturday 27th Septmber was Carys's 30th and therefore we put on a surpirsed party!!!! Night out to the casino!!!! Tamarind asian restaurant and then in the casino gambling and then out drinking and dancing very much fun!!!!!!

Last couple of days had numerous leaving dooos-went out onthe mon night with coffee club gals, went to the coffee club for last coffee on the tues and had a bbq at home with the housemates, also went round town n said hi and bye to everyone i know and gave out thank you cards to places ive worked and the gym etc.

Leaving Cairns on Wed 1st Oct to fly to Darwin at 1pm!!!!!!!!

Well havent exactly managed to keep it short but short considering its 6 months im talking about lol!!!!!

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