Ok so since this next bit of the trip was kinda massive i thought i would split it up into different blogs! otherwise you know, boredom would set in and thats never good!

So, yesterday, after a gruelling 10 hour bus drive, we arrived at Airlie Beach - gateway to the Whitsundays. we had already booked our boat out there starting tuesday so until then it was time to chill and sort our lives out - which obviously meant washing, re-packing, buying a new camera in my case, and visiting the bar...for research...honest...:P as it happened though there was an oz experience deal at the bar that night especially for us so we didnt really have a choice - we HAD to go and have a few drinkies :P plus combined with this is was Will's last night with us as he was doing a different boat trip and would be leaving a day ahead of us - so we REALLT REALLY didnt have a choice!

however, the night did not go quite as i planned, you see earlier in the day my back had started to hurt a little - and most of you who know me know that i had to have a LOT of physio on my back not long ago after well, yawning and trapping a nerve in my neck (only me, right!) so this was definitly not a good thing. anyway i carried on regardless thinking it was just the sitting on the bus that was causing it and that it would go away. it didnt. about half an hour after dinner i retired to the room where i finally realised the extent of the stupid mind-numbing pain that was quickly circulating round my entire body that i remembered was probably caused by my immense bucking bronco activities of the previous night and yes, the votes were in - my back was in spasm...AGAIN. very bad times indeed. Well by the time sophie came back to the room i was flat out on the floor unable to move much and trying not to be trodden on by various drunk people passing through the room! now this is the thing i love about sophie, not only did she decide not to go out and to stay with me but she brought me a pillow and even came down onto the floor to lie next to me to watch tv! yes it was stupid and yes i was like an old granny but it was rather nice to have someone who had known me long enough to see all this stupidness before, with me to look after me :)

then enter Casper. Casper was a guy on our bus who i didnt really know at all but who seemed nice enough and who funnily enough had had a bit of a bad surfing accident a little while ago so knew the pain that i was in. it also happened that he had a lovely tube of deep heat at his disposal and handed that to soph to apply where nessesary lol - as it turned out it was a lot more productive for Casper to do it so, on the 15th May 2010 at around 9.30pm in a hostel in airlie beach, i was laid flat out on my back watching some cop show whilst a strange man named Casper gave me the rub down of all rub downs with some foul smelling cream in front of my friends and various other observers. man that guy can rub! it was certainly one of the more surreal moments of my trip - especially since i had become a bit of a tourist attraction with drunk people wanting to try and walk on my back or try various methods of torture on me to try and help!

i finally managed to get into bed after a second dose of, well, Casper, when 3 young men popped their head round the door mentioning they had heard there was an injured damsel in distress in there. obviously i identified myself by not being able to move and not even kidding - they sprang at me! apparently they were doctors - well med students - and decided it was nessesary to give me the once over! so the first one, a nice irish guy, asked where the pain was, spouted of the names of some muscles, asked me what i had taken, and then decided the only way to cure me was a cuddle. at which point he climbed onto the bed with me and settled in for the foreseable future! then the second guy came back in, slightly taller, could have actually passed as a doctor!, and did exactly the same thing, asked me questions, said some funny words and then offered me some of the greatest pain medication i have ever had! it was extra extra extra strength ibueprofen - and yes parents i did check the packaging and it WAS actually ibueprofen! he also pointed out that the other guy who was cuddling me was blatently going into private healthcare because NHS would never give THAT kind of service!

Finally the third guy returned and the whole process started again, except that this guy seemed a little less intoxicated and slightly more likely to help me so that was a good sign! he actually aided me in taking the previous 'doctors' pills by helping me sit up etc whilst the other guys continued to practise their bed side manner on me! so yes, that was my lovely experience of the airlie beach medical students - and what fine doctors they will become! stupid thing is that by the end of that ordeal i actually believed they were medical students (they actually were by the way!) and when anna and will rerturned later on in the evening, they even popped their heads round again just to check i was still alive :P

Monday was a pretty chilled day just because i was still having trouble moving but i managed to get to the pharmacy and pick up some heat patches which really did the trick (combined with the rest of the pills from the previous night!) and i spent the day shopping listening to mum shout at me down the phone for hurting my back again (although i was still proud of my bucking bronco talents!) and wondering around etc until it was time to cash in on our free pizza in phoenix bar in the evening - it was ridiculous, you buy 1 drink, thats 1 drink people! and you get half a large dominos pizza FREE!!! very good times! and then on the walk home we stopped by this place called cold rock which was an ice cream parlour, and since i had dedicated myself to trying EVERY different ice cream parlour in oz we HAD to have some...turns out it was the most immense ice cream process ever invented! you choose your ice cream, then you choose some toppings - but the toppings are anything from sprinkles to peanut butter to bountys to jelly beans - anything! then they actually crush the topping you choose and kind of mix it in to your ice cream! it was just incredible! see i told you adults can have fun with ice cream too!!

the evening was quite subdued - we got ready to go out, but then we kind of decided that we wanted to stay in and watch Glee on TV, then we needed snacks so me and sophie went on a snack run, and by 9pm we were huddled in duvets watched telly eating chocolate :P and yes i still had my going out stuff on! :P

and thats about it! my back is kinda better, but still really dodgy and tomorrow we go on the Clipper boat for 2 days - the infamous party boat of the Whitsundays! wish me luck!

xxx