How About An Update?

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Life in the Tropics

Hello Hello family, friends and anyone who has somehow found this page in the middle of the internet. If you don't know me then no doubt the following blog may be a little dissapointing (and indeed that could be the case even if you do know me) unless you just fancy hearing about an English backpacker's perspective on living in Cairns after spending the last year living in Melbourne and in that case you have come to the right place, which would be a pretty huge conincidence but then if traveling and living abroad for over two years now has taught me anything, and I like to think it must have, its that crazy stuff happens every day!

Right, didnt intend on starting my first blog in about 6 months with such an extraneous introduction but now that I've typed it it seems a shame to hit delete so many times so anyway...

So, where am I, what am I doing? The answer is I am in Cairns (Far North East Australia, Queensland) and I am working in a bar! I've been here now for about 5 weeks after finally leaving Melbounre in Feburary after living there for just over the last year. For anyone I saw and spoke to over Xmas you may possibly remember that was not my plan at all and in fact I had been due to stay in Melbounre for at least the next 3 months before heading West (to Western Austrlia) to hopefully do some traveling up the coast, however once returning I very quickly had a change of heart.

I basically realised that as great a time as I had been having in Melbourne it would be really cool to live and hopefully work somewhere else for a while while I have the chance. I had been thinking of heading Airlie Beach, a small tourist town further south in Queensland and the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands however after chatting with a mate of mine who had lived in Cairns before I reached teh decicion that it would be better to come here, a much larger but still completely tourist/backpacker orientated city (Although thats the Australian definition of a city, the population is probably only about 70,000) as it would be more fun and probably easier to find a job. I did indeed find a job almost straight away in a really nice cocktail bar here right on the water front although as it turns out jobs are pretty hartd to come by at this time of the year in Cairns so I did get pretty lucky although the fact I've been working full time in hospitality in Australia for the last year and a half stood me in pretty good stead.

So thats where I am, living in Cairns, in the tropics in summer. Its usually about 30degrees each day and havent worn jeans or a hoody since I arrived although we do get a fair bit of rain and the occasional mental lighting storm (which is actually pretty cool) Generally the weather has been very nice though but when it rains is really rains and we have been on cyclone working for the last week but thats past now I think! I am loving it here, just living in a hostel again, now just in a room of 2 other people who are also working here which is great. Met some really cool people though my job and just trying to save up as much as I can before I head to the West Coast with 3 friends of mine, Gary, Jason and Adele.

Guess its pretty cool really as I met those guys over 18months ago now when we first arrived in Sydney and we first talked about driving up the west coast way back last june, before I was even due to stay for a second year. Jason has since been back in Sweden and is now in Asia and is flying back here to travel with us, Gary will be back in Wales before we leave so will be flying straight back into Perth, Adele will be flying over from Melbourne and of course I will be heading all the way across the country (which to put the scale of Australia in some perspective is about 5 hour flight) from Cairns so its gonna be a wicked reunion and really quite a beautiful microcosm of traveling and the backpackers lifestyle in general. Anyway, no doubt I wil write about that in the months to follow...

So there I am, I'm out of Melbourne and living in Cairns. Leaving Melbourne was pretty tricky and did have quite an emotional goodbye as after being there for so long I really did have a life there I guess and was sad to move out of my flat and say goodbye to my flat mates as well as some of teh guys from my old job and hostel but I couldnt be happier to have made the decision as its all working out as well as I could have hoped for. As for my future plans, my visa will expire on 1st of September so like it or not that will be the absolute latsest I will have to return although I think it may be a little bit before that but no flights are booked yet. Am still looking at getting a ticket to Glasto and working out where I can watch the world cup, lifes important things!

Anyway, thanks for reading, especially if you don't know me and have still stuck though to this point. But then I guess also especially if you do know me and after all this time are still reading what I have to say. So basically thanks to you all.

Much love and will speak soon,

Andy x

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