Ok, so I have officially been ABSOLUTEKY RUBBISH at this whole blog adventure, but that's just becausde 1) in most places, the internet connections were so bad that it was juts a real chore to even just attempt to do anything complicated and 2) surely, it's the sign that I am having an incredibly awesome time...

So here I am now, In Australia at last (I was normally meant to be there early December...), Asia is a now a beautiful memory, my pockets are empty, but my backpack and my head are full of beautiful pictures and memories...

Since the last entry, I returned to India to catch a flight to London to see Antoine, whom I was just missing too much, then I returned to Delhi (and got stuck about 36 hours in Dubai airport on the way because I managed to miss my connecting flight despite having over 4 hours to change...the joys of time difference and forgetting to set the "new" time on your watch...!) and flew to Bangkok via Hong Kong - where I stayed just under 24hrs...thank goodness, as it's an incredibly expensive shopping Mecca!-. There, I took a little bit of timeout to nurse a very very poorly tummy (delhi's revenge I think) before heading out to Chiang Mai, North Thailand, just before Christmas. I went trekking in the jungle with a great bunch of people - 3 Aussies, a Columbian girl living in LA and two Dutch guys. Joas - one of the Dutch guys - gave Kings of Leon's song "Your sex is on fire" a whole new twist (JOAS is on fire...), we celebrated Jarrod's birthday in style with a few Changs (the 1st oe tastes bad, the 2nd is ok, the 3rd starts getting good and the 4th upwards is downright amazing!!), washed in the (freezing cold) beautiful waterfalls, rode some elphants through the jungle, had their trunks and some of their snot all over ouselves, went on a bamboo raft and had the best time ever in the possibly the worse club ever on our return in Chiang Mai City. I danced with a girl who turned out to be a boy, Jarrodhad his pink lollipop (my bday gift to him) stolen by Ryan, two of the guys wnet back home early, we had our first ever Thai bucket and Monica, Joas and I only made it back to trhe hotel at about 6 in the morning...!

The next day, all of them had left and I embraced Chiang Mai and its amazingly beautiful temples, its delicious food and fabulously relaxing massages. It was a peaceful, very un-christmas-y Christmas (30 degrees, banana pancakesfor breakfast, no presents to open but lots of fake, shiny Christmas trees, stir fried seafood with coconut rice for Christmas lunch and a vist to the local temples instead of the Midnight Mass!. I also went up to Chiang Rai, the Golden Triangle, spent a few minutes in Laos and walked up to Myanmar border, saw some hot springs where I boiled a few quail eggs, stroked some baby tigers at the Tiger Kingdom and hiked up Wat Phat Doi Suthep's 309 steps! Loved Chiang MAi through and through and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Thailand.

That's all for today...there's a pool waiting outside, would be rude to say no!

Pert, friday 06/02/09

Just received an email from a friend in London with a link to a website that has stunning pictures of London...enjoy!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/more_of_london_from_above_at_n.html

Other than that,i am currently not at work because I hav flexi-hours...and I just took it a step further today by totally oversleeping and not hearing my alarm! Being paid by the hour, it just means I won't get paid today, but instead I am investigating the possibilities of getting some tuition work, so all is not lost. I am sitting in my dorm room listening to Barrbara, with the balcony door open, I can hear the noises from the pool outside, the sun is already very high and very hot...And I am happy. I have a job, maybe even two, australia is a fantastic place, there is so much, SO much to do here and the people are just incrdibly friendly, helpful and so laid back they're almost horizontal...You've gotta love it! Oh and I'll update you on the progress I am making with the Aussie lingo and accent, it's going pretty well so far, I've already purchasd and used my "stubby holder" (pronounce "stabby hawduh"), I regularly say "G'day maite" (pronounce "gudd-I might!") and I am off to the beach to swim with the local sharks pretty soon :)

Hope all is well with all of you back home, thinling of you often,

flo x x