The Six Month Mark

All of a sudden it has actually started to seem that I've been away from home for a long time. Being so far away from the people that you have known all your life is difficult and its easy to feel nostalgic (I even start to idealise Dover on a Saturday night...). Of course I then do say to myself 'Hang on a minute, I'm in Australia, having the time of my life!!' Would I really rather be despising the chavs of Dover in the Funky on a Saturday night?? Just so you know though mum, I do think of you and miss more than handouts, free meals and someone to pick up after me! It seems we even talk about home all the time, the people we miss, the events we are missing out on and most of all the food we can't wait to eat once we get home! Not a week goes by without someone lamenting the lack of roast dinners and most plan it as their first meal on arrival back home!

However, it really is quite concerning how living in a hostel without a tv, always forgetting to check the bbc and never buying a newspaper leaves you living in quite a bubble. It came to a head the other dfay when a random old hippy man asked for my opinion on the British Election and I didn't have a clue to what he was referring. I then discovered that we had had a new prime minister for the last three days... The only real source of information out here comes from free backpacker magazines TNT and BBM, which with headlines such as 'Gaga puts gag on shags' aren't really the high brow information I need to know! But actually its quite nice not to have to read all about unhappy people living unhappy lives moaning about the state of the world.

Even if I was taking a more active interest in the news here its pretty much all home-grown aussie bore anyway. At home I love my weekly fix of trash that Closer and Heat fulfill, but here you wouldn't believe the price of the mags- weekly trashy and monthly glossy. The cheapest is some pile of crap called 'Famous' setting you back $3.50 (2.20), but typically they're upwards of $5 and Cosmo is $9! They're pretty much full of about 5 famous aussies who are apparently taking over the world, but I bet you haven't heard of them! Lara Bingle (she made a sex tape that got stolen from her house in Bondi), Abbey someone (who went out with Ryan Philippe and is now seeing Josh Hartnett, b****), the one who is seeing Miley Cyrus and the one from Alice in Wonderland. That's pretty much it. The rest of the magazine focuses on Kim Kardashian's lovelife (who the hell is this girl???), Heid Montag's plastic surgery, Lilo's drug problems and Mischa Barton's fat thighs. Hardly any mention of Brits. I never though I'd miss Kerry Katona's bipolar of Jordan's outbursts, but its sad I do! Someone please send me a Heat magazine, tell me who the hell Justin Bieber is, what the hell Glee is and why I haven't heard any of the songs in the charts??!!!

Oh and send me some M&S biscuits whilst you're at it!