Back to Australia!!!!!! Leaving on a jet plane......don't know when i'll be back again.....!!!!!!!!Australia day & getting a job!!!!!!

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So yes after my 3 months RTW trip I had definitely decided that I hadn’t done enough travelling and knew that I wanted to go back to Australia, so I went home for xmas, b’day and new year, worked for a few weeks and sold my car and booked a flight back to Australia!!!! As simple as that lol!!!!!

I flew back to Australia on Wednesday 23rd January 2008, Dad and Richard kindly took me up to the airport, felt quite funny the second time round!!! I knew what was ahead of me and how much fun it would be and how normal it would feel to be away!!!! Well this time I knew it would be quite different though as I had my working visa so I would have to work and not just travel travel travel and spend spend spend!!!! This would be more like real life, live and work in a different country, be able to rent a room and earn and maybe save money!!!! So I knew it would be very different but still wanted to do it. Felt so normal when they took me to the airport had a few tears when rich was the last person I’d see for quite some time and he said bye to me!!!!

My flights from London Heathrow to Cairns were fine, I flew with Japan Airlines via Tokyo, first flight was ok and I managed to sleep quite a bit, was pleased because at Tokyo airport I managed to find and buy the pink camera case for my new camera so that was cool, my second flight was also fine I sat next to a really nice south American/Australian woman who was very interesting-one of the things I love about travelling is the amazingly interesting people you meet, she was south American fled to aus when she was 19 with her husband and her children all do interesting stuff etc and she is a masseur so interesting!!!! So we had a nice chat on the plane!!!! Landed in Cairns about 4.50am got through customs ok and immigration, although they didn’t give me my paper version of my visa they just told me I had to go to the immigration place in Cairns and luckily all my bags arrived safely so almost exactly 4 months to the date after I arrived in cairns previously here I was back again!!!!

Got the shuttle bus from the airport to Gilligans, unfortunately couldn’t check into my room until 2pm so that was crap as had to wait about 9 hours before I could get my room and have a rest. I wandered about and did food shopping, had a look about the shops, phoned the harvest line about jobs, opened a bank account etc. Started feeling a bit random and shitty after a few hours was sooo tired and was starting to wonder if I’d done the right thing. But anyway once I got my room and met some people in my room and around the hostel I then had a few hours sleep and got up at about 6pm ready to go out!!!!

Met a really nice girl called Liz at the notice board in Gilligans so fri night my first night in oz we went out together!!! Had dinner together then got ready, we planned on a bit of a bar/pub crawl and just a few drinks but we got as far as bar number two and had already hit the shots and were pretty wasted!!!! So our quiet night went quite the opposite way!!!!!

Woke up early sat due to time differences etc so got up and sorted a few bits and bobs out and then about 1pm we went down to the lagoon to sunbathe with little John from my room as well. Spent the afternoon sunbathing and reading and then went back to room for a few hours sleep!!! Oh yer almost forgot it was AUSTRALIA day on this day!!!! Was a cool day to go back for!!!!! If I’d done my original travelling plan I would have arrived in aus around this time anyway. So sat night we HAD to go out as it was Australia day and everyone was going out, the whole day all the Australians had been partying. So although I was incredibly jet lagged n tired I got up and got ready, also arranged to go and meet Anna and Kylie the two English girls I met on manta ray in fiji!!!! They live in cairns and we’d kept in contact, so I got a taxi from gilligans to their house well Anna’s anyway. The house is lovely!!!! Was pretty mad to meet/see them again, both really nice though, we played drinking games and then got a taxi into town to go out, tonight I got as far as Gilligans and The Woolshed before about 2am I decided to give up as I had a pounding headache and was sooo tired so went to bed.

Sunday I still woke up early though, think everyone in my room was checking out and being noisy so I woke up and got up early again. By now I had made a few calls etc and had decided I would stick to my plan and go and try and do 3 months fruit picking somewhere to get some money quickly and so that I can stay in oz for 2 years, wanted to get it over and done with straight away, id arranged to move to a small place called Dimbulah about 1hour 30 mins from Cairns on Tuesday so I was happy I’d set up a bank account and arranged a fruit picking job already. Sunday afternoon about 10 of us had a bbq down at the lagoon which was lovely, Sunday night was the final of the mens Australian open tennis everyone was watching it but at about 8pm I completely fell asleep so slept 8-8 and finally caught up on some sleep.

Monday it was raining, I got up early to speak to family etc before I moved to the middle of no where!!!! Spent the day chilling out and getting ready to move to the middle of no where. Was quite weird because I’d only just arrived in Oz and I love cairns and only got to spend 4 days there but I had to stick to my plan and do what I said I was going to do the fruit picking so I could stay for longer!!!!

Tuesday I was then ready to move, checked out and had to wait around to get a bus to the place or 2/3rd of the way to the place, Kylie txt and rang me and we met up for a smoothie and amazingly she said she wanted to come to the fruit picking place as well!!!! When I met her in fiji she said she would need to do some fruit picking after xmas to get some money and as she hadn’t yet she wanted to come with me to do it!!!! Yayyyy some fun company to help me get through it!!! So anyway we decided her and her boyfriend would give me a lift to the farm as they live on the way in Karanda, so we stopped off at their house and dropped kylies boyf off and got to see her house then me and kylie set off to find the farm in the middle of no where!!!!! Which was in the middle of nowhere!!!!!

I knew Dimbulah was a way away from cairns and about half an hour away from a town called Mareeba but basically it is in the middle of nowhere. In the village there is like one shop, one pub, one chemist, one café and a few other little shops and that’s it…but close your eyes while you drive through it and you’d miss it all lol!!!! The farm was about a 5 min drive from all this excitement as well!!!! So we found the farm eventually just passed the village, we couldn’t believe how it was in the middle of nowhere so much nothing for miles and miles lol!!!! We were kind of laughing but I was secretly starting to crap myself!!!! What had I got in to lol!!!! Anyway we got to the farm and met Michael the farmer well one of the sons of the farmer and his wife. He seemed nice, showed me to where I’d be staying AND OH MY GOD!!!!! I couldn’t belive it it was like in the end of some old shed thing, we went in and I just never thought id be able to stay there in a million years!!!! There were two other girls living and staying there at the moment-Lena a German girl and Rebecca a Swedish girl, we went in and looked around-it stank, it was soooo dirty, like shit n crap and dust n rubbish all over the place, floor was minging with dirt and there was more cobwebs and spiders than ive ever seen in our barn at home!!!! I was basically going to be living in a shed!!!!!! I could hardly believe it, then kylie asked where the toilet was and they pointed to a shed!!!! The toilet and shower room were outside in a hut looking shed thing!!!! The toilet was discraceful!!!! More shit and dirt than anything in it I was discusted!!!! And I’m not the cleanest of the cleanest but this was vile!!!! Anyway so Kylie had to drop me here and go off and leave me and get back to her nice home and boyfriend and friends!!!! Here I was moving to a shed on a farm in the middle of nowhere where I didn’t know anyone!!!!

Kind of panicked for about an hour then thought right fuck it go for a walk and then start cleaning!!!! About 3 hours later I was just about happy to accept id sleep on the dirty stained half cleaned bed though that I basically out in the kitchen and living room bit lol!!!!

Well cut a long story short (bit late for that but anyway!!!!) few days later and it was actually ok!!!!!

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Comments

[Chloe]

Hi clar
Hi clar.. missing you loads lol,, lucky lol in aussie(living there) lol..x cnt wait to see you and you can take me nxt time lol. kidding..x rubbish weather here liken usual england lol..x am in lincolnshire now lol visiting family..x e-mail back lool...x luv chloo..x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx