So it has been a while since my last blog, in fact I have been at my new home for more than two months now and I have yet to update you (although most likely you will have seen various photos and statuses I have posted via social media so will be in the loop regarding my life).

So what have I done? I'm living the country life in south Queensland, just north of Brisbane. Au pairing with a lovely family who live in a remote 'town'. I say 'town' because if you saw it and the 10 or so houses located here you wouldn't think it was one. In England, it would be called a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. And even though the nearest shops are a twenty minute drive away and we are surrounded by endless farm land, I absolutely love it. I've never been much of a city person but neither have I been a farm person but as I've found people change. And what you think you like and what you think you don't like aren't always so.

I will give a run down of the family: Michelle and Andrew (parents), Josh (18, lives in Brisbane), Jacob (16), Shiannah (11), Chloe (5, lives with her Mum), Ethan (3) and Elsie (1, turning 2 in a couple of days). As you can see, it's a large family! As au pair, my main responsibilities is looking after the two little ones on a daily basis and making sure J and Shiannah are okay before and after school. The youngest two are adorable, minus when they have their temper tantrums, and on a whole are pretty easy to look after. Yes it can be a little stressful when they play up and don't do as they're told, I've always been told it's the toughest job in the world (and I think that was by my Mum, I didn't think Matt and I were that bad, oops!).

We have lots of fun during the days, we play with the animals (more on those later), bounce on the trampoline, do arts and crafts including lots of play-dough, reading, racing toy cars big and small, swinging on the swing, hiding in the cubby house and baking! I have become a domestic goddess! We bake lots of cakes and biscuits, my proudest moment when I successfully made cherry bakewells my all time favourite sweet treat! But I've also been doing cooking in the evenings and making lots of things from scratch including showing the family the wonders of Yorkshire puddings! I really enjoy it, not that I didn't before but it always seemed easier to put something in the oven or get pre-made things you just have to heat up really, and the great thing is it tastes so much better! The family raise all their own meat as well so there's no shop bought stuff and you can taste the difference. Moving on to the animals...

Aside from them being future food, I adore the animals. The kids and I will go and spend time with them most days. We have sheep and twin baby lambs, piglets, chickens and chicks, a milk cow (not technically ours, the neighbour's - Mark), horses (down to 1 now as Ned was just sold), a Shetland pony and a puppy (or as I like to say, a monster). You get used to the idea of most of them being food and you see them live a good life unlike lots of shop bought meat, we've all heard those horror stories. I especially love being around the horses. Ned was the sweetest, but also most mischievous one. He was very gentle and would always come say hi when you popped over to his field. A bit of a menace to ride as he has far too much energy and gets carried away, one of the reasons he was sold as the kids aren't experienced enough to control him. We then took on Budd who belongs to a friend of Michelle's and he's much older and therefore slower. He still can be a bit naughty but not as much as Ned. He's very skinny and you can see he's not been looked after too well so we're trying to fatten him up and get him healthy again while he stays here. Marley is the Shetland and he's very naughty. But I have a huge soft spot for him. Unfortunately, when startled he kicked and got Ethan in the head which I felt awful about. We had to take him to the hospital but thankfully it was just a bad bruise, he was very lucky.

Honey, the puppy, is a terror. She bites everything in site, chases the chickens, eats peoples shoes, poos and wees in all the wrong places, escapes under the fence... Anything you wouldn't want a dog to do, she does. She's a jack Russell and even though they are known for being bitey I really thought she'd have grown out of it by now, especially after the amount of times she gets told off in a day! She has her moments where she's soppy and she is very cute but her looks are ridiculously deceiving. Never struggled to bond with an animal so much before, she's more hard work than the kids!

Some of my favourite things I've done since I've been here are going kayaking down the nearby creek, taking up running and long walks, riding the horse and going to the Ekka show in Brisbane. The Ekka is a very famous country show, the largest in Queensland, where farmers bring in their best specimens of animals to be showcased and win prizes. There's a large arena in the centre which has various things going on during the event. There's also lots of food stalls and rides to keep people entertained as well. In the evening, they had a sheep dog trial, monster trucks, various famous singers (that I hadn't heard of) and a spectacular firework and light display! It was a really good day out.

I like being out here because I get to experience things completely different from what I would at home, and there's no better way to do it than with a true Australian family. You don't feel as much like a tourist and you get caught up in the culture for real rather than viewing it from a distance. I think everyone should come out to the country as it's such a different way of life and you really appreciate everything so much more. Even going for walks, I feel so lucky and privileged to get to see the incredible views and take it all in, where I know others just don't appreciate it. We all need to take some time to go back to nature and not rely on the modern world.