well hello everyone from noosa! We have just returned from the beach, where ricky decided to cover me in sand! I now have sand in places i should'nt have. so where did we leave off??....

I think last time we spoke, we had left surf camp for byron bay, then we were heading to surfers paradise sunday 15th feb. Surfers was nice, but to me it was like a mixture between florida and london borough of benidorm! Ricky loved it, because of the clubs and bars, and the boys were there, so he could go out with them too. We stayed in a nice hostel, had a twin room with a nice fan, which is a luxury travelling, or air conditioning! We went out with the hostel to 2 bars called drink and bedroom. The boys met up with us, soon the boys left to go elsewhere, me and ricky decided to go to a strip club....like you do!! lol it was free, so that was a bonus. mon 16th me and ricky stayed on the beach. Tues 17th we went to wet'n'wild water theme park, it was pants compared to the american one, but was a fun day out, it rained all day. Ricky loved it, he was forcing me on all the rides, said he loved seeing my little face pooing myself as we tip over the edge of these rides in little dingys!! shouting rickkkaaayyyy!! i hate you ya b*stard!!! We saw the best bloke EVER, he had these teeny little denim batty rider shorts on, with bad camel toe, and gold chains and the best strut ever, he was hysterical, looked like adam sandler in dont mess with the zohan, little things make my day! lol. weds 18th feb we checked out of the hostel and spent the day with dave keith phil, rose, anna and nikayla. we went to an indoor arcade, went on indoor bumpercars and into play quasar, it was quite funny. we got on the bus to our next stop Brisbane with the boys, and saw sophie arriving on the bus.

we arrived in Brisbane, staying at Bunk backpackers hostel, apart from the cockroaches we were impressed, we had aircon WAHHOOO which i have not experienced since my first month in Aus back in december..3 months away! jesus, cannot beleive it. The staff were helpful, and the room layout was pretty cool, each bunk bed was separated with a stud wall, which was nice to have privacy,except our bunkbed was next to the shower! so people would come round the corner and I'd be butt naked!!. The hostel was in an area called Fortitude Valley, and was next to chinatown....big mistake! we'll be eating chinese all the time! Once we had dumped our backpacks, we ventured into town to find the recruitment agency "travellers at work" aka TAW. we spent 5 hours in there, doing our CV's and applying for jobs, we had some dinner in chinatown, then went to the bar next to our hostel called birdie num nums, which was a cool bar, they had lanterns and bird cages with fake birds in everywhere, pretty good music too, ricky loved it lol. This is the night I lost my lovely samsung phone!! it was on my lap because I was txting Rachel, and I got up to go to the toilet, and kicked it across the packed dancefloor, we could not find it at all, so reported it to the reception...it was never found. I was quite upset, because the main photo was of me my mum and my nan, from my last meal with my family in england, it would have been nice if someone handed it in...a******s!! Shortly after, we got ready for bed. That night I woke Ricky up to tell him "Ricky If you wake up and I'm dead, I have been up all night, been bitten on the side of my 3rd toe on my left foot, if they wonder what caused it, its probably some spider or something" He replied with "what should I do with your backpack" CHARMING! haha. Thurs 19th Feb, we walked to the riverside, and bought an all day ticket on the rivercat, we did a cruise of the brisbane river, it was nice and warm, then the heavens opened, and there was fork lightening. we decided to go to the mall...I got 2 dresses, a new pants phone (after a struggle about not having my passport!) ricky got a new camera. We bumped into Laura and Justin, and a drink, then went our own ways, watched some salsa dancing in the streets, which was cool. We went the other way on the rivercat, it was kind of romantic, with the lights everywhere as now it was dark. it's strange how high rise buildings can be pretty at night time.

Fri 20th we had our "free" day, took the cat to the museum and art galleries, all the free stuff! some of the paintings were amazing, so realistic, some of the modern art was stupid! like a guy flinging his arms around to a 5ive song on a tv screen. there were cath & kim episodes you could watch, these were funny, and made me think of nadine, she loves cath & kim. after that we chilled out on a hillside, ricky fell asleep, and got bitten on the side of his face by a giant ant lol we shared a pizza, and a massive slab of chocolate cake each - I'm starting to resemble a baby whale....nicht gut!! Sat 21st, After trapsing around town running after the boys, we headed back to birdie num nums in the evening, ricky had the hump, we decided we would meet Hannah clarke, my friend i made in my first month in aus. Ricky was drunk, I was not, we went in a deafening club for a bit, saw hannah for 15 mins, I lost everyone in the club. Me and Ricky had a barny and we went to bed! The next day, after ignoring eachother, we sorted it out - it always goes wrong when we go on a night out together and alcohol is involved! lol. It was raning all day, so we watched Napoleon dynamite in the tv room before bed. Mon 23rd feb, woke up at 1pm!! whoops caught the cat to "streets beach" it's a man made beach lagoon right next to the art galleries, japanese gardens and brisbane river. It's very cool, but strange with all the high rise buildings behind it. we actually had a day of sun, which was nice, in brisbane it just seemed to be permanently muggy, never sunny. A funny thing happened, walking to the rivercat, a bloke came within 1 metre of me and just completely stacked it, and army rolled on the floor, ricky looked at me, laughed and rolled his eyes, - foster curse....everywhere i go things happen, he just missed falling into me by an inch! lol we bumped into justin laura and the boys at the beach. we stayed at the beach into the evening, burying cockroaches and crickets in the sand and doing impressions of nigerians lol. This evening, on return to our room, we found a blonde hairball and a dead cockroach together on our bed.... how odd. Tues 24th ricky got up at 7am to watch spurs on tv. we got the train to oxley, which is 15mins away for his interview with an estate agents. He didnt get the job, but by going for it, knows he is completely capable and could help to bring a real estate that, who is in the dark ages and didnt know what a cd rom was, into the future! lol it was a tiny town, with 8 shops or so, including a dog grooming shop! my perfect job! lol we had some lunch, then headed back, had chinese in chinatown in evening, then watched some tv. This evening, we headed back to our room, and there was a huge pile of sand in one place on our bed. Ricky said what's next a bloody horses head on our bed?! it was just plain weird! weds 25th feb last night at bunk, ended up in birdie num nums drinking pitchers of snake bite with 10 19 year olds who were having a birthday party, ricky wanted to carry on drinking, I said no we have to get the bus to Noosa at 6am!! glad I stopped him because he felt rough as it was that evening and travelling on the bus. so thurs 26th we got the bus at 6am, and headed a few hours to Noosa, where we are staying at Koala's beach resort. The boys got off the bus at Maloolabar, but we wer'nt going there, the girls said it was rubbish, and we want to whiz up the east coast now, because we need to settle somewhere and work after we end up in Cairns at the end of our east coast adventure! Noosa is lovely, its full of rick old people with nice houses!! We have booked the next few legs of our trip. We leave Noosa tomorrow (sat 28th feb) to head to Rainbow beach, where we are staying at frasers on rainbow for 2 nights, then we leave rainbow beach mon 2nd march, to head to hervey bay where we are booked into koalas resort for 2 nights, then we have our 3 day self drive 4x4 fraser island tour! which should be lots of fun!! there's meant to be wild dingo's everywhere and you camp on the beach under the stars. I'll take lots of photos! and get my bum in gear transferring my photos from facebook onto here!!! promise!

So far I am enjoying my trip, but am not that impressed with the east coast to be honest, it's very commercial, and a bit tacky in places. I hope to get to Western Aus after I have worked for a few months somewhere and saved some money up. I think me and ricky have decided we probably wont want to do another year in Aus, but would def like to see new zealand, fiji, and thailand if money permits, before coming home to reality!! aaagghh. But as with everything, anything could happen/make us change our minds. Aus is a lovely country, much nicer than England! for sure, but I have not been in a place yet where I have thought wow, I could live here, I love it. So we shall see what happens. So, I now have a new mobile number! its on facebook.

chat to you all soon! miss ya, Amy xxx