This is going to be a long one I warn you! I'm currently in Coffs Harbour but want to tell you about my adventures in Cairns first. I can safely say that this past week is one that I won't forget quickly. I've had an amazing time but am now absolutely shattered! Monday started at 8:30 in the classroom, which felt suspiciously like being back at school again. We went round the class to do the obligatory introductions, finding out that there was a pretty big mix o...

My first two days in Cairns seem to have gone very quickly! Yesterday morning I went straight to the scuba diving company, as I hadn't actually paid them anything and wanted to make sure that I'd actually be doing it all as planned. In exchange for my hard earned pennies (or should that be multiple dollars?) I got given a very daunting, inch-thick manual, and got told that studying that, along with going to get a medical done was my homework for the weekend! I de...

So the time has come for me to move on! Whilst I did enjoy most of my time at Speculation, it was definitely time for a change. My last couple of weeks there were reasonably quiet, with the exception of last weekend, when Bruce and co had to go to Rocky again. I wasn't allowed to stay at Speccie by myself so instead I went to 'work' on another property just south of Jericho called Summerdell, owned by a lovely couple called Kim and Leanne. It turned out that I di...

This weekened Bruce and family were off to a wedding in Rockhampton, and so I had to choose what to do with a rare entire weekend to my self! Bruce suggested that I went to the Gemfields, an area where there are a few towns around an area rich in precious stones (hence the name...). Whoever named them didn't have too much imagination with the names of the towns - Emerald, Sapphire, Rubyvale etc etc. Anyway it sounded interesting but to be honest I just wanted to ...

There havn't been too many exciting events in the last couple of weeks to report (except for helping to butcher a cow, but I don't think most people would like to hear all the gory details from that) and so I thought I'd run you through a typical day for me. Wake up at 6am, grumble about how early it is. Get dressed and go have some breakfast. Get greeted by Bruce's booming-and-far-too-happy-for-this-early voice, saying something along the lines of 'EMILY! HOW A...