One year down under!

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Well it’s only been 6 months since my last blog…. Let’s see how much of the last half a year I can remember!!

The last time I wrote I had just come back from travelling down the east coast with my family. When I returned I continued working as a kitchen hand in a local nursing home though I wasn’t getting nearly enough hours and needed to pick up some fruit picking work in order to extend my work visa. (By completing 12 weeks fruit picking in regional Australia my one year work visa can be extended to two years) luckily it was the right time of year to get some strawberry picking work in the local area and so a move north to the fruit picking capital of Bundaberg wasn’t necessary.
I started working at the “Yummy strawberry fields” opposite the incredibly tacky and touristy ettamogah pub. Whilst not as exhausting as cotton picking the job still involved 6 AM starts and 8 hours sitting in the sun. My boss was a complete bitch, whose rules included no talking and sucking up to her otherwise your job was done. She was on a huge power trip and anyone caught talking would receive a bollocking in front of everyone. Fortunately we were on an hourly rate, but to keep our jobs we had to continually pick six trays an hour. Sackable offences included talking, picking too slow and wearing low cut tops. I kept myself to myself and lost myself in my ipod everyday picking till my back ached and my fingers bled, therefore I was very surprised when at the end of one day I was callously told “not to worry about coming in the next day” Not worry??!! I had no job, no money in a foreign country and she told me not to worry about coming in the next day. Much to my disgust I cried - ok sobbed - at the news. I had worked my guts out sweltering in the sun and frozen to the bone through the hail storms for the last 8 weeks and this was the thanks I got. Added to the 2 weeks cotton picking I had endured, I was 2 weeks short of my 12 week target and Elaine knew this, it’s probably why she sacked me - either that or I’d shown a bit too much cleavage that day! The sad thing is, working there I met loads of really nice people who do this work full time year after year travelling around Australia moving with the seasons and picking all different types of fruit. How can they live this life, not knowing if tomorrow you’ll have a job and being spoken to like a piece of crap on a daily basis? I know I only did it for 10 weeks but I didn’t really enjoy the experience (can you tell??!) and I’ve never met anyone who did!
Anyway a stressful 2 weeks followed where I applied for every job going before finally being offered 2 in the same day! I am now waitressing in the beautiful Noosa next to the river and I’m loving it. It’s a new restaurant so business is a little slow at times though we were flat out over the summer/Christmas period. The wages are better and the tips are great! I am still with my gorgeous aussie boyfriend Scott and we are saving like crazy for our trip over to Europe later this year. I can’t believe I have been away from home for 15 months now, the last few months especially have flown and at times I forget I’m even in Australia because I’m just going about a normal routine, getting up, working, spending time with Scott and my friends. The usual! But then something will happen to remind me how lucky I am to be here, like when my best friend Amy came over from sunny Scotland. To see her enthusiasm for the place’s I now just considered ‘normal’ now refreshed my love for the place and made me appreciate it all over again.
Amy arrived at the start of December just when the weather was beginning to heat up, we vowed to swim in the ocean everyday and discovered it was the best hangover cure imaginable and amy promised me she would try it out at Aberdeen beach as soon as she got home. It was great having Amz over, my boss was very accommodating and gave me all the time off I wanted. We took the van camping to Rainbow beach in the north and down to Byron Bay in the south. We drank Queensland beers and had BBQ’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner whilst Amy tried to get a feel for Aussie life . And she did! Pretty much as soon as she got home she booked a flight back over in March and this time she’ll be accompanied by our other best mate Sarah. I can’t wait! I have a lot going on this month. Because I’ve been here a year now I have to leave!! How rude. Only for 24 hours though, then I’m allowed back. Thought I might as well make it worth the airfare so Scott and I are visiting Vanuatu for 5 days, we leave on Monday. Then when we get back we’re off to Sydney for a week before Sarah and Amy come over and we travel up to Airlie Beach. Then I’m off to New Zealand for a few weeks before I’m home to Scotland in June.

That’s all my new for now (I think!) Hope everyone had a merry merry Christmas and I look forward to seeing you all again in a few months!! x

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