Hello there

Today is Saturday - just got back from doing my responsible service of alcohol - that was boring! Got it done and out of the way though, so I can work in bars all over Oz now. Just came back to the OzIntro office and have booked some exciting stuff to do over the next few weeks! Everything I've booked is open ended, so I just have to give the company a call a few days before I want to do what I've booked, and away we go!

I fly up to Cairns on Monday, and have booked a nice quiet hostel with a pool for the first three nights (with a free meal each evening which is good!). Want to go to an Aboriginal culture park thingy which looks good - learn how to play a didgeredoo and stuff like that! Will find out about that when I get there though.

I have booked to do a trip to Cape Tribulation, which is supposed to be beautiful - rainforest, beach, Great barrier reef, sunshine, white sand etc etc! So booked to have a trip around there, including a night rainforest walk - the majority of Oz wildlife is nocturnal - and a jungle surf. That's like zip lines through the rainforest. Exciting!

I have also booked to do my skydive on Mission Beach - the only place you can actually land on the beach in Oz. It's from 14,000 feet in the air, and you freefall 60 seconds and parachute over the beaches and great barrier reef.

I've booked an 8 day package for the Whitsunday and Fraser Islands. 3 days/2 nights on Whitsundays and 3 days/2 nights on Fraser with a coupla hostel nights in between. Food on the boat included and stuff like that.

Have also booked to do a dive course of magnetic island and dive the great barrier reef which should be amazing.

Will get all the details tomorrow when it's all booked through the companies. I get discount booking through OzIntro too which is good. Altogether those packages have cost me about 650 quid ($1100) which isn't bad really. Now I've got all the big things paid for so I don't have to worry about allowing for that.

A few other Ozintro-ers have booked on to some of the same things aswell so that's good. A lot of people have spent about $2000 (a grand in english money!) Might do a few weeks agricultural on the way down the coast, to get my second visa, and will get some extra cash too. We were also told the other day that working in McDonalds round here is really well paid! About 400 pounds a week!

Went to the Blue Mountains yesterday which was great fun, but it threw it down with rain ALL day, so we couldn't see any of the beautiful stuff we were supposed to see! So, defo wanna go back at some point. You'll see from my photos - it was so foggy and misty and cold and wet! Went on the world's steepest railway line, which was a bit wierd! It was practically vertical! We were really high up as well - about 1200 metres which is the same as ben nevis, so it woulda been amazing from the top! But we couldn't see anything.

Don't think I have anything else to say! Apart from it's been raining all day here, and is cold! Supposed to be sunny tomoro though - yay!

PS (7/9/08) forgot to say that when I was doing my RSA yesterday, that the girl next to me was from Solihull!