A lot's happened in the last week, as you can probably tell I have left Byron Bay and moved on up to Queensland. I am now in the gorgeous (when the sun's out) city of Surfers Paradise and today it is living up to it's name. But I'm getting ahead of myself; I'll update you on the last week.

Byron Bay was awesome, the big group of us bonded so much over the first three days we were there. I was in an apartment with Laura, who is amazing and I was said to see her leave, Caroline, who turned out to be a bit wierd and bossy, and a great lad called Richard who was on the Oz Ex bus going South to Sydney so we just crossed paths for a few days. We chilled and surfed on the beautiful beach during the day and partied during the night, sometimes on the beach and sometimes in various clubs where we got free entry for being with the Oz Ex bus. Most of the group left on the Sunday so me and my new bff Jennika decided to move to a cheaper hostel which we christened 'The Hostel of Dreams' because it was pretty dire. The bathrooms were always dirty, the room was dark and stinky, the ceiling had tiles missing and the lockers smelt really bad!! We still had a lot of laughs though, it's all part of the fun.

On the job front Cheeky Monkeys wanted me to parade around the streets in a bikini handing out wristbands for free entry to the bar and after living on bread, pasta and noodles for weeks, I just didn't feel comfortable doing that! I'm just not the right sort of person to be able to do that. So I decided to head up to Brisbane to look for work there, spotting at the lovely Surfers Paradise on the way.

Jennika and I booked into a hostel recommended to us but when we arrived in Surfers they sent a driver to get us and it turns out the hostel is about half an hour drive ($20 taxi) from the city!!! The staff were rude, our room mate didn't speak English, there was about 10 people in the whole hostel and no atmosphere at all!!! Yeah it had a pool and jacuzzi, a wide screen dvd player, bar etc. like the website said but whoever took the photos is a genius because it was nothing like the place we went to. We quickly shorterned our booking to one night and booked in where two of the other Oz Ex girls were staying in the city centre. We christened our new hostel 'The ghost hostel' as it was dead. It rained all day so we couldn't do anything; we played Monopoly, watched a film, had a nap, had food, did a puzzle and went to bed - living the dream!!! However we woke up refreshed and checked into the other hostel which was a lot better. Luckily we were even put into the same room as our Oz Ex friends Cassie and Charlotte.

Last night we got free entry to a club called Vanity that's won lots of awards, it was ladies night so all women drank for free all night!! It was nice to drink vodka, which I definitely can't afford out here, instead of what they call 'Goon' cheap boxed wine $12 for 4.5l This morning we were rudely awoken at 8am by the fire alarm so all huddled on the street. We then decided that as we were already up we'd hit the beach for a bit of sunbaking. Finally after two days of rain the sun was out and I can see why they call this Surfers Paradise, the waves were incredible, literally knocking you over, the sun was out and it was in the 30's - beautiful! It looks a lot like Miami with the huge skyscrappers right on the beach front, we were told that once it gets past 3pm there's no sun on the beach because the buildings block it out! We're off on a bar crawl tonight, to hopefully meet some new friends, but I need to be up at 6.30am to Skype the family :) This time change means even earlier Skype dates but it's worth it :)

I have had a few down days and the job thing worries me sometimes but it's hard to stay down or worried here for long when I'm so free to do or go wherever I want and Jennika and I always find something funny to laugh about even in bad situations. I tell myself 'things could be worse, I could be sleeping on a bench in Johannesburg airport!!" and it makes me feel better.

I love you all and I do miss home more everyday but today I am loving life and, once again, living the dream, for how long my dwindling funds can only know but right now I'm good :) xxxxx