Talk about time going by quickly another two months have pretty much gone and a lot has happened in that time. The majority of the time I have spent down in the Southern Highlands with a few trips to Sydney for both work and pleasure. The work side of things I deliver firewood to one of the pubs in Paddington as well as oiling the odd table in pub, and the pleasure going to watch the Waratahs play in the members enclosure at the Allianz stadium. It would seem I only do members tickets and the SCG! I also caught up with the friendly face of Ed Mitchell whilst I was in Sydney on one of the days! The work on the farm has been steady Graham has been back at work for a few weeks now he is steady on his leg but a lot better than he was! We have weaned a lot of cattle that are being trucked out to Oz and Chris soon. It was a long day as we put 250 head of cattle through the yard drenching and needling all of them, safe to say I earnt my beer at the end of that day. As the temperature has dropped off and the wind picked up we have been tidying a lot of fallen branches in the paddocks and having some fires to help keep warm/tidy up! We have amassed a large pile of firewood to keep the houses and the pubs stocked up. The fire in the house has been lit for a good few weeks now and it is a blessing to be able to walk into a warm kitchen!

Whilst the majority of my time was down in the Southern Highlands I took the opportunity to join a Rugby team in the area. There is a local side called Bowral blacks that I have played six games for so far it has been great fun. Joining a Rugby team has been a great decision as it has lead to meeting a lot of great new people as well as giving me something to do besides work. The social side is great too.

I have also turned a year older and wiser, for my Birthday I was in Sydney and went to Hugh and Alice's house in Watsons bay for a meal and I even had a birthday cake! The friday I went for a meal in Bowral with some of the Rugby boys. The weekend we had a break from rugby and a group of us took to the golf course for a 9 hole game which turned into carnage. Golf, alcohol and golf carts is a dangerous but fantastic way to spend an afternoon! After golf we ventured out which was a very drunken affair to say the least…

State of Origin is also going on at the minute and NSW have won for the first time in 8 years which is good going. For those who don't know it is NSW vs Queensland in a 3 game tournament, it is a huge spectacle and great to watch as although it is rugby league its a exciting all the same. We have had a lot of Chinese visitors come as well, Alice and I have the whole procedure down to a fine art now. They come to the farm go for a walk feed the animals and take lots of pictures and we try our best to make them feel welcome and before you know it they are heading back to Sydney. We have also had a few groups of Japanese schoolboys too. It is all a learning curve as they all seem to come from cities and are taken back by the open space so it must be a big difference for them. The Japanese boys are fascinated by the stars they can see at night obviously living in a huge city they can't experience it because of all of the light pollution!

I have also managed to finish my 88 days of regional work so I can now start the process of applying for my second year visa. Once all of the paperwork is done I will have another year to venture round in to different parts of Australia.