On my way to Jindabyne! My bus was at 7am but I didn't know my way so I packed up the night before and checked out early in the morning saying goodbye to my roomates! I caught the tram and then the train to get to the bus station. I was supposed to be meeting the girls on the coach at 6.45 but they were running late and stuck in traffic....They cut it so close! The driver refused to wait and they arrived just before we drove off- I thought I was on my way alone for a moment there haha!

We had to stop off at Canberra for a night before we arrived at Jindabyne. The Capital of Australia! It was a very quiet capital city, nothing much to do. We checked into the YMCA hostel and then went to the cinema and then out for something to eat. An uneventful night but nice to say I've been to the Aussie capital even if it was for only one night...

The next morning we jumped back on the coach. It was the Australian Greyhound, similar to our National Express and I had a pass which allowed me to travel 3000km. I bought the pass in England which had made life a lot easier when booking the journey up the coast. After a total travel time of around 9hrs from Melbourne we arrived in Jindabyne. It was a small lakeside town with a population of 2000 people...during the ski season though it goes up to near 20,000! An incredible increase in population! We found a hostel and booked a dorm room for a few nights; we didn't know how long we were going to be staying there. Walking around town was nice, we met some nice people- Greg and John and went to LJ's pub/Hotel for something to eat. Chicken Snitzel and an all you can eat salad for just $10..not bad!!

Over the next few days we didn't do anything exciting except go down the the pub for the free wifi and to watch the abysmal performance of England in the Euros.. We tried to find more permenant accommodation; wasn't going well, and somewhere to work; again wasn't going well! I thought we were all out of luck but then we rang a ski lodge on the Perisher mountain...they were looking for two girls! Great for Robyn and Kay, not so good for me haha! The girls weren't going to take it so we could stick together which was lovely of them but I did feel really bad them doing that for me! I tried one last attempt at a lodge here in Jindabyne. We went up and spoke to the owners and funnily enough they were only looking for one guy haha! Coincidence?! We all went for interviews and all got the jobs. Food and accommodation included it seemed like the perfect job I was looking for. I moved in on tuesday saying goodbye for now to the girls and met the three other guys I would be working with. There was Kieran, Tim and Rob, they were OK but I wasn't sure if we would get on..not really my type of people I guess! Kieran wouldn't look me in the eye when he was speaking and when he did it was to boast about him playing pool, I thought that was strange but I always listened. Tim was a bit cocky but seemed nice enough, what I think Americans would call a "Jock" and Rob was a little crazy but the most down to earth. Probably going to be a long season! At the lodge we had to get up at 6am every morning for the breakfast shift, then service all the rooms and then at 5pm for the evening shift. It just involved serving food, cleaning rooms and bathrooms and then ski hire. Not exciting and at $400 a week not the best pay either (for Australia atleast). The days ticked by slowly but the sun was out during my breaks so a walk around the lake was nice. It was quite hot too, I'm suprised there was even any snow at all on the mountains...I guess Jindabyne is lower in altitude than I first thought, not complaining though, sitting in the sun reading my book were nice breaks from work.

If I'm honest getting outside was the best bit of my day. I didn't enjoy the work or the people really so it's probably not the best working environment haha. I spoke to the owners and let them know it wasn't really working for me, they understood and I left the lodge a few days later... It was a short stay in Jindabyne, maybe 4 weeks or so and I didn't even get to do any skiing haha! But a lift pass at $1700 a pop that wasn't really going to happen. Every experience there is has a lesson to learn...I guess I'm not meant to be a cleaner haha! Sorry Mum I still can't clean the house very well .

Well anyway I made $1200; better than a kick in the teeth..I think I'm going to work in Sydney, that soulld be a lot more to my liking!

See you in Sydney!

Nathan