Getting up at 6.30am just to have a day at the beach shows true dedication to the sun! I got the train with Carol who was going to work at the time (the reason I got up early to go down there,it is much nicer having someone to talk to on the hour train journey!). After catching the train I got the tram down to St Kilda where I met Suzanna outside McDonalds. First stop obviously was to find her some breakfast which turned out to be a difficult task!! Food is so expensive over here, they have specials that are around $8 (£5ish) for a cheese toasty!! And that's a special!!! She ended up just buying an apple from Coles (a big supermarket chain).

We were on the beach for around 9.30am and it was nice and empty! The sun felt strong even then though, especially since I was wearing a black top. It made my back feel very hot! We sat there for a while just talking, Suzanne told me of a lovely experience she had had with a Finnish lad the day before attempting to chat her up whilst she was on the beach. It had apparently been very uncomfortable as there were a group of British people behind her watching as she dodged the kisses!!

As we had been sat for a while we sort of felt like we couldn't be bothered to get into our bikinis and sunbathe which is appalling really since all we had to do was take off our clothes and lie down! We decided to go and get some lunch and do sun lotions in the toilets before coming back down to the beach where we would get undressed straight away!! We once again had the mad search for food, trying to find anything remotely healthy for less than $10!! Luckily enough Suzanne had been given a packet of vouchers for food and drink places when she checked into her hostel (which is what I will be given when I check in on Friday night although I wont be able to use them as I am leaving at 6.30am Saturday morning!!). We used one that was a bogof offer in a restaurant that made burgers. You may think this doesn't sound very healthy but they were freshly made and I had a vegi one so it was a mushroom and pepper instead of a burger. That only cost us $5 which was really good compared to other places and it was quite a big burger!

Suzanne had been having problems with her eyes hurting and looked as if she had been crying loads which was really strange. Typically she had lost her sunglasses that day so had no way of covering her eyes or shield them from the sun which is what she thought the problem was. We head back to her hostel room to see if she could find them and decided whilst we were there to sun lotion up! She couldn't find them in the end so we head down to the shops to try and find her a new cheap pair, which we did.

When we head back down to the beach we met Suzanne's two friends who she had met on an OzIntro programme she had done when she first came to Australia. They were a really nice couple and have been together for 7 years I think it was!! Once again we all sat on the beach just having a chat; it was a really nice chilled day. Suzanne's eyes hadn't got any better though so we head to the chemist to see if we could get her any eyedrops. It turned out to be hayfever even though she has never had it before! It just shows how bad the hayfever is here at the moment. It's because all of the rain has made all the pollen grow quickly. I have had it quite badly too, a lovely runny nose and cough. She felt really bad with it and was actually struggling to see properly so we took her back to her hostel so she could go and lie down and close her eyes.

After that I began my long journey back to Sassafras. I didn't want to be back to early though as I had to wait until Russell finished work so that he could get me from the station at the other end. So I decided to get a few stops away from Flinders Street Station so that I could have a bit of exercise and kill some time. I had decided to get some flowers for Carol and the family a few days before just to say thank you for everything they have done for me! So I was counting on the stall still being there in the station entrance as it was the only place I knew I could get them from. It was thankfully and I bought them a lovely bunch which I thought were really pretty.

It turned out to be perfect timing for the train, and so began the long journey back to Belgrave station where Russell would meet me after work. I tried to sit on a two seater so that I could put the flowers on the chair next to me and I could read my book on the way back, but annoyingly a man came to sit there even though there were other seats available!!! So I had a lovely awkwardly squashed journey attempting to get to the bag at my feet whilst holding a big bunch of flowers!

The train got delayed due to signal failure so I was a bit worried about timing with Russell as I didn't want him to have to wait for too long; it had worked out perfectly with timing before as I would have got to the station at half past five, just when Russell would finish work. Funnily enough though Carol turned out to be on the same train as me so it turned out perfectly!

That night we began watching the series of Pride and Prejudice, much to Glenn's annoyance as he doesn't like it! I really enjoyed it and watched a couple of episodes before heading off to bed.

The next day I slept in a bit to catch up with the early start the day before. We were heading down to their beach house in the afternoon which was between rentals so we had to change sheets and things. The plan was to pick up Carol from work on the way down but it turned out she had a lot of work to finish off so couldn't make it. So it was just Russell, Glenn and me on a 2 hour drive down to the bottom of Port Phillip Bay to Point Lonsdale.

We got there and had a cuppa and some Tim Tams before starting. Russell sent Glenn and me off to have a walk along the beach. It was a really nice beach it was just a shame that the weather was horrible; very windy and cloudy. It was a very long walk, took at least an hour but was nice thinking I was getting even a tiny amount of activity into my day!! When we got back Russell had finished the garden and had started on the bedrooms so we gave him a hand putting the sheets on the beds and then head back home.

It was quite a late dinner that night, and afterwards we only had time to watched a couple more episodes of Pride and Prejudice and then I was off to bed!! I didn't have any plans for the Thursday as it said on the weather forecast that it wasn't going to be very nice so I thought I would use it as an opportunity to organise some things before I left Sassafras.

The weather turned out to be lovely and I got invited to the beach with Suzanne again but I couldn't get there!! I was a bit gutted but still got loads of things done. I organised everything that I want to do in Sydney and a few things up the east coast. I even found the cheapest sky dive and have decided to do it in New Zealand. 12,000ft drop for about £120 isnt bad at all!!! I also got all my last minute washing done and a lot of my packing. Stuart made dinner that night which was really nice and he also made a really tasty cheese cake!! I shall be having more today :p. Watched the final couple of episodes of Pride and Prejudice before having an early night since I don't think I will be getting a lot of sleep from now on. I had to say goodbye to Carol that night since she would be at work all day and Russell is taking me down to St Kilda in the afternoon. It was quite sad but we said we would keep in touch and I couldn't thank her enough for everything!

So that was my last night in a lovely single room for another three months!! I will miss it but other places will have good things about them too. I watched the last episode of Sherlock holmes this morning whilst talking to mum and lauren and also checking my emails. My heart literally went into overdrive when I saw that I had a UCAS notification. I only have Sheffield and York universities left to hear from and they were the most likely I would get into so it was soo nerve racking waiting for the page to load to see the decision. It took a while for it to register as the choice page had a list of all my unsuccessful applications but then I noticed that it was different and said unconditional!!! I actually could have screamed but the boys were in bed. Sheffield had finally accepted me and I found it at perfect timing as I was talking to mum! Excited wasn't the word really, I was shaking like crazy and Im soo happy! Even though I have an early start tomorrow (Saturday) morning with my bus trip this definitely needs a celebration so I am going out with Suzanne for a little while tonight!

Right now I am preparing all the last bits before I leave the Oldham's house. It's such a shame but I am really looking forward to this weekend because apparently we have a beach party and I will be climbing to the highest point in Australia and then on Monday I will be in Sydney!! Probably will be a while before my next blog as I can imagine I will be extremely busy and not have the internet so readily available as I do now. I will try my hardest to keep it updated though J Bye for now xxx