S: So while Lauren and Co. left for England, we got to house sit with a glorious pool and Molly the Boxer (Who is very cute by the way!) So for the first few days we started to job hunt, now we had already decided that we would not do the same jobs as we had done at home because we both wanted a break. The first weekend we headed back to Brisbane and went to the Market as James wanted to buy a phone case he had seen whilst there previously. We walked around the botanical gardens which were pretty amazing and saw some giant monitor lizards. The next day we headed to Surfers Paradise for a walk around, have lunch and to scope out job potentials. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot about, but on the way back we stopped at the local Chinese Restaurant and I got a job waitressing on the spot. Things were starting to look up.

J: I had my first bath in 5 months which was nice, which soaked all the dirt to get out of my skin. So while Sam went off working I applied to be a guinea pig as a medical trial participant. It was for a new drug to help children and elderly with breathing problems, I had never been in a human trial before and I was applying to be the first person to take the drug and see what happened. I went along and attended the pre-screen which was a lot of questions but all seemed good, and I felt good that I could be giving back to the world and help advance medical science, it had nothing to do with the pay check! But I got accepted and had my dates to go in. It was a 3 day/2 night trial.
So while I was doing some job hunting, laying in the sun and dipping in the pool, Sam went off and aren't the crust for the table, but I was good and cooked every meal.
Molly was getting used to our habits of walking daily and food in the morning so she would wake us up with moaning and trying to lick us until she was fed or knackered from a walk. We made a day trip to Burleigh Heads beach which was very windy so no sun baking that day, it had squeaky sand (from the high silicone content) which I couldn't help but make squeak on every foot step.
Then we found out the area had a drive in cinema at Yatala. Neither of us had been to one before and it was all exciting, we watched 2 films, the one I picked was great then Sam's choice was so bad she fell asleep! But it was a good experience.

S: So I was on my third shift and I swear my feet thought I was killing them. I had massive blisters and walking in shoes was agony but I carried on and somehow the owners and guys seemed to like me. Being English got you more tips apparently!! As I was still looking for a job, I eventually found one in Mount Tambourine in a beautiful quaint café. Now anything Nursing, not a problem but the first day of trying to make a proper coffee (I hasten to add, it is actually a skill) I had screaming milk. Now those that know me, know that I don't like to fail so I was reading the manual and practicing like mad. I can actually make a reasonable cup of coffee these days. Not quite a Barista yet though. James was trying hard to find a job and ringing up everyone he can find. We eventually needed a break from trying to job hunt and visited Spring Brook Mountain, it was gorgeous. It is defiantly a place to visit, we saw waterfalls, and went to the best lookout over the whole of the Gold Coast, which was pretty amazing and you could see the top of the volcano. We had lunch, and went to visit the Oldest Trees called Antarctic Beech; it was pretty cool to think they were 5000 years old. Now I would classify myself and James as seasoned travellers, so we find ourselves in yet another petrol pickle!! James was literally rolling down the hills in neutral praying to get to the petrol station - thankfully we made it just in time with zero remaining km on the clock. Not sure how we would have got out of this one in the middle of nowhere.

J: So finally Lauren, Mat, Scarlet and Iris get back from Matt and Nikki's wedding in England.
We then had 5:30am wake up calls from Scarlett, she would peek through the shutters and then slam them shut and loudly whisper that we were awake lol. But she did introduce me to Weetabix and honey! Much better than sugar on them.
After cooking the guys a couple meals and keeping the house tidy we then asked to stay for Xmas also which they were happy about.... Or lied well lol.
I had spoken to Mat about SUP boarding and we went to the local creek to rent some and play about. It's was great fun getting out on the water and both Lauren and Mat loved it.
We went to Wet and Wild, which is a large water park with some great rides. On one you were required to wear a back brace, you step into a tube standing upright, then after a 3-2-1 countdown the floor drops away from you and you shoot round a loop, we loved this one but Lauren was rather nervous..... We convinced her it was fine and when she got into the tube the bloke clearly saw she was scared and played about with the countdown much to my amusement and not to Laurens lol.

Then it was time for my trial, I would like to pretend it was hard work taking one tablet, urinating into jars and eating 5 meals a day, while having a games and cinema room available.... But I would be fibbing, as the hardest bit was lying still while they took the near 100 ECG tests on my heart. All the nurses where lovely and I just earnt the same as Sam would in a month!

S: We brought Scarlett some sinkies for the pool, now bear in mind she is only three but she quickly learnt with some encouragement to go the bottom of the pool and pick all three of them up at once. She is brilliant in the pool and for a three year old, she has some amazing swimming skills. Which James loved, and they both loved doing cannonballs and making the biggest waves possible lol. One thing we did learn about Scarlett is that she loves to be naked about 90% of the time lol. I think the only time she ever got dressed was when we were going out.
I then ended up working mon to fri and doing two shifts a week at the Chinese, so it's a busy time for me, and then James received a phone call from one of the painters he had been calling and he's got a day's work - it was fantastic and he earnt the equivalent in one day as me working 3 days. Although he has been a mystery shopper too, I think he has secretly enjoyed it especially as he had to test drive a brand new Volvo and then they would have let him test drive an Aston Martin!! He obviously portrayed having enough money to buy these cars - if only they looked at the bank account lol. Now whilst I was working in the coffee shop I had a visitor from the UK. Jerene was on holiday in Australia and had made the time to pop in and have a coffee. It was a brilliant surprise and so lovely to see her - shame I had to work, but I did give her and her aunt lots of freebies.

J: Persistence pays off, I landed a job as a professional painter. I had to embellish my workings history with my bro-in-law but I had a full time job! I was working with the boss painting a care home and the first couple days involved water blasting and high-pressure spray painting, I had to work next to the boss, when he asked if I had done it before I could only answer; no, Ashley doesn't have one of them. He must have though Ash only has a paint brush! But Mike was really good taught me everything and after a week gave me a pay rise! But by the end of that week being mostly wet in tennis shoes and not having worn more than thongs (flip-flops out here) on my feet for 5 months my feet were not so happy and I had to buy a proper pair of workers boots. I felt like one of the crew with my work shirt on. But motivated to save money I worked 12 hour days and I was totally shattered when I got home. Good job there was a pool to relax in.
At the weekend we went SUP boarding again and Mat couldn't help himself on the way home, stopped at a board store and bought a SUP board, he was a natural negotiator and I hardly said a thing (but my few words took 30% off). Although the funniest moment in the board store was when we realised Scarlet was laying on the welcome mat flashing everything to the world!

S: We decided to visit SeaWorld as we had brought a pass for three of the parks around the area. It was cool, we got to see Emperor Penguins and Polar Bears, and touch Rays. We also went on a couple of rides, well you've got to let the inner child out occasionally
(J: Sam forgot to mention that on one of these rides my safety harness came open and I was merely holding myself in, just glad we didn't go upside down on that one). We also saw the Dolphin show there. I've decided to give up my coffee career and work with Dolphins instead, unfortunately I didn't have enough experience lol. I ended up getting a new job at café Raw, which is in Sanctuary Cove. Now this is a posh area as in everyone rides around in golf buggies and to say the least, there is a lot of plastic surgery going on. But I seemed to fit in ok, and as usual I'm nicknamed the POM (Prisoner of Mother England) and it's a lot better pay. James has just finished his two weeks post the medical trial and he hasn't been able to drink alcohol, caffeine or have any chocolate and he's been very quiet about that fact. And we have all supported him by eating and drinking his share lol. So he has his final bloods taken and we head to the nearest café and he has the biggest coffee going and we have to buy chocolate on the way back home from the trial lol. Now as James is working full time and for once working hard, he is actually tired in the evenings (Its brilliant for me…… I can finally go to bed and not have James still bouncing around lol).

J: At the weekend I cooked a big lamb roast for everyone. It was great to be cooking again. That weekend we took the SUP boards out to the mouth of the creek to the sea in the surf. Oh what a different experience! It was so much harder to stand but also so much fun, lots like surfing, Sam found it hard work but it was a good workout. Next I had the little task of planning someone's 30th birthday....

S: So I had my 30th birthday here, I had to go to work unfortunately but I had a good day and only served 4 customers who had their birthday on the same day. I got home and Lauren and Scarlett (with a little help from Iris) had decorated the whole house with balloons and banners and I had a lemon cheesecake with white chocolate topping for my cake - Yum. So I opened up my presents and I was lucky to receive a walk over Sydney Harbour Bridge from the guys back home. I was very spoilt and I even got another surprise that we were going away for the weekend. The week passed pretty quick and when Sat morning arrived I packed some wash stuff and clothes - apparently I needed them. We had a lovely breakfast and then boarded the boat to Straddie, an Island off the east coast. We arrived and had a couple of drinks. James said we are now going up in a sea plane, and as it was my birthday I was allowed to fly the plane over the surrounding area. It was brilliant and I loved every minute of it. We also went jet-skiing, and then on the way back James said he had paid for me to spend the night in the Sheraton. When we arrived in the room, I had champagne and a spa bath, ok I'll admit the man did good lol. Then Lauren and Mat met us in the evening and we went to Benihanas, a Teppanyaki restaurant where the chef cooked all your food in front of you and we all ended up trying to catch prawns being thrown at us lol. We had a brilliant night in Surfers and the next morning I had a long lay in and then the biggest breakfast ever in the Sheraton. So all in all I had an amazing weekend. We decided to go Christmas shopping on the way back, and it feels really strange to know that Christmas is just around the corner and it's really hot. I'm really looking forward to our first Aus Christmas. I even made a Christmas cake; fingers crossed it turns out ok??

J: After a long hard week at work, Sam went to pour some coffees and I joined in with Laurens annual Xmas brunch with all her friends which was cool.
Me and Mat took Scarlett out on the SUP boards and there was a pro, walking now between the boards in the middle of the creek, and laying down at the front playing in the water.
Sam then had a Xmas party at her work which was a free bar, I picked her up and she introduced me to her boss 6 times, we had to stop on the journey home as she was feeling rough but she made it. That was her last shift at RAW so she was officially a bum again, I on the other hand worked up to Xmas eve as that was my work Xmas due and I really wanted to go. It was a day on the golf course, and an Aussie golf course is the best, a girl rides around in a cart selling cold beer! My boss had an open tab and everyone was having a great time, most people got a lot worse at golf but I hit a happy state after a while and I was hitting better than ever. Later we had a T-bone steak meal and it was an epic day! The next day I had some gaps in my memory about getting home but Sam kindly reminded me lol. We finished our Christmas shopping and keeping to our traditions made cheese straws and sausage rolls!
Then later we all went on a Hart tradition of walking around the local area to look at the Christmas lights, sounds great but Lauren was so keen we started before the sun had gone down, Mat and I were winding her up, we still needed sun screen, but we took some beers and quickly the sun dropped and the neighbourhood was fully of fairy lights. Although I did have to stop Mat walking into a Golden Orb spider, harmless he tells me but the size of it on your face would make you freak!

S: I helped Lauren prepare for Christmas Eve (our English style Xmas day), made more sausage rolls and cheese straws and we wrapped the presents. We visited Lauren and Mats friends; Krystle's and Sam's for brunch, everyone ended up back at Laurens with a 1 dollar water pistols we had brought as Christmas Eve presents for everyone, resulting in a massive water fight. Best dollar we had ever spent lol. We served up English style Christmas dinner it was delicious, it even felt like home until the heat hit you while wearing the classic paper cracker hats lol. We had a great Christmas Eve having a "few" drinks, although it wasn't quite our normal white Christmas at home.
We woke up the next day and it was Christmas, everyone was ready to open up their presents especially Scarlett. So what do you get a man that's travelling? Well I got him a paint by numbers, James is a little protective over the lines so no one else was allowed to help, including Scarlett much to her dismay. There were lots of presents, in that Scarlett spent most of the day opening. We brought traveller orientated gifts for each other and I got a new speaker to play music whilst we travel. James got singlet's and boardie's, a new one I think for him, having them as Xmas presents lol, but all useful. Dinner was great we had fillet steak, Moreton Bay Bugs and Prawns with salad. It was delicious and washed down with a little bubbly of course. Christmas night we played a few games of cards and then went to bed relatively early as I think we had partied hard Christmas eve.

J: Those Christmas days where amazing. Boxing Day we headed to Elephant Point to play in the surf, catching the sun on the beach is a little different to the cold bike ride to Justin's like our normal Boxing day tradition.
We had lunch out at Mount Tambourine and we went on the rainforest sky walk, it was a fun to walk through the forest and Mat slipped into his tour guide mode and taught us lots. Then we found the cantilever bridge, boys being boys we wobbled it to a point Scarlett couldn't stand without holding onto the sides.
On our last free day we headed to the local Movie World theme park, we had a rough start as the first 2 rides we queued for, broke down so 2 hours in and no rides but the afternoon picked up and we found some incredible rides including the Superman and Arkham Asylum rides. For the last ride we thought we would try and get on the Green Lantern Ride again for the 3rd time, we got to the front and an electric storm started, closing the ride as it could get struck..... I was game for the risk but Sam said it was time to go lol.
We spent New Year's Eve at Paradise Point, how nice does that sound, and it was beautiful. A creek heading out to sea, although we didn't go deep there as Mat said it has a lot of sharks in it! But we enjoyed the shallows, with the live music and BBQ on the beach. Then the evening had a large fireworks display on and it was impressive. And we even did a good deed of pushing a boat off the shore that had got too shallow with the tide change. New Year's Day was a sombre day as we started packing up and we got a map for Scarlett so she could follow our travels.

J: Although it was strange not to be moving on for the last two months, it was really sad moving on from the Hart house. We were rather settled and even the guys called it the Keeler Room and we got our own door sign!
But it was great spending so much time with Lauren again, and to meet the girls was amazing. Then I did wonder what Mat was going to be like, being happy to marry into the family he could have been crazy; but thankful he is an awesome guy and I had a great time meeting him, mostly because we enjoyed lots of beer and had lots of fun!
It was brilliant to see the area and the life style they have in Australia. It gave us a real insight to what working life in Australia is like. The only thing that made it easier was that we weren't going straight to England and we still had adventures to come!

S: So the last two months have flown by. It's been a fantastic experience and we have been so lucky to stay with Lauren, Mat, Scarlett and Iris. It was great to be part of the family and watch the girls grow up. One of the funniest moments was feeding Iris pumpkin, I have never seen pumpkin vanish that quick, she loved it. I really enjoyed my stay with the guys and they taught us lots about the country and Mat taught us some local lingo. (Which basically was shorten any word that you can lol) By working we were able to save for our travels to come, so thanks to the guys for letting us stay. And for having the best first Aussie Christmas ever. Cheers guys xx