Miss Rachel

Katoomba, Blue Mountains = breath taking On Sunday 22nd November, 8 other aupairs and I aka European Flavour drove 2 hours to reach Katoomba a town in the mountains to hike and walk through nature. It is by far the hardest workout I have ever done (You can imagine me walking to the top of a flaming mountain, red faced and heaving with jelly legs after about 5 minutes), We had so much fun because as much as it was a struggle we felt we had earnt the views when we reached them. The first trail took us up to Echo Point which is a huge lookout point with toliets and a shop as well as a lunch area and (thank God) some seats. However as we sat to rest we soon noticed people in sandles ... read more

Sun, Sea and Sand! It has taken me about 2 weeks to get round to writing about this as it's been madness here. After about 2 weeks here we (Cherrie, Matt, Taylor, Harry, Jonte, Tilly, Shelly, Andrew, Lauren, Simeon, Abbey, Mitchel, Damo and Alysha) went to Manly for the weekend. We meet up with Andy and Kylie, Cherries friends and their 2 girls Grace and Chloe. The hotel (Novotel) was lovely, rooftop pool and amazing views of the beach. Luckly enough there was a Jazz festival on because of the long weekend which meant lots of stalls selling all sorts, jewellery, cloths, werid and wonderful food and different craft stall. They were all lined up along the beach so we took a nice slow walk along the beach and spent some money! There was also a ... read more

not so cute .. My first experience of just how farm-like this place is, not only did I stain my nice white pumps with green lamb poo!! I was covered in mud and God only knows what else when I got back. Needless to say I will be better dressed in 'farm' clothes next time. It didn't start great as Cherrie took some of the children up while I tried to pull together an outfit that was acceptable as 'rough clothes'. It ended with leggings, a strap top with another over the top and the only shoes I has which weren't stappy sandles or heels, I did look at myself in the mirror and didn't think I had gotten it spot on really. So armed with my not so great clothes, my phone and Gus the ... read more

the flight... So I am waiting for my flight from Hong Kong international to Sydney Kingsford :) I have just arrived from my 11 hour flight from Heathrow where my mum and sister were nearly arrested for taking photos of me going through security! What a family day out! Luckly I had films, music and TV to keep me going on the flight, but I by-passed a few meals! I was luck to arrive on that flight as my ticket said GATE 13, the board said GATE 13 and where do I go?...GATE 5 trying to go to Bangkok apparently! What a start, it all gets better from there right? I'm hoping to sleep on the next flight of 10hours as I will be meeting Cherrie and Taylor for our 3+ hours drive to their house ... read more

Preparations As this has happened so fast, most of my friends and family don't realise the stress which came with finding the right host family. So I originally joined an aupair website, (aupair-world.net) which you just create a profile about yourself, your likes, dislikes and what you expect and are looking for and then you are able to search for families, the idea is to look at the information they have and if you like them email them. It works both ways as families search for matching aupairs, you can decline families and they can decline you, but it has go be right for both of you so I didn't get offended I would rather that than be lead on. Once you have a response or if a family has emailed you, you are able to ... read more