With my options running out in terms of what i can do with my money left I decided to try my luck in Melbourne for a job and try couch surfing, (this is a website for travellers where people put online that they are willing to host travellers for a certain amount of days for free to help each other out, because in return your meant to let your house be available for people to do the same) I looked into this option but then I realised I had a friend who I met back in cairns whose name was Scott. I asked him if there was any chance I could crash at his while I tried to sort out a job which I'm forever grateful that he replied yes. Turns out he's about an hour south of the city but I didn't care.

We got the bus from Griffith at 2am and then a train at 6 to take us into Melbourne, the other people with me were friends who were also looking to get the hell out Griffith. Arriving in the city at about 10am I had a quick look around, it was a really nice looking city, very similar to Brisbane but on a bigger scale. I met up with tony who had been here for a few days, we went off to the Melbourne tennis open qualifiers with a few people since it was free, it was huge, about 19 tennis courts in all, it was very quiet though since no stars of tennis were playing but it was nice enough to chill and watch it.

Got the train down and got picked up from Scott in frankston, when I arrived at his house his parents were so welcoming, they set up a bed, cooked evening meals for me and washed all the dishes and washed my clothes, I wasn't use to being treat like this anymore which I thought would be unusual but I got used to it very quickly ill admit.

The next day Scott told me he was picking up a German girl from the station in the afternoon, she was coming down to help him learn German because his girlfriend is from Berlin and he could possibly be moving over there in the future, in turn he would show me and her the surrounding area of where he lived, he took us to portsea and Serranto, a couple nice beaches and sights to see. Later in the evening I attended my first proper Ozzie party, but with Scott being 27, all the people were older than me so it was a lot more laid back kind of party but still cool to knock around with a bunch of ozzies. I've picked up some of the lingo too, they say "arvo" for afternoon, "servo" for service station, and a general phrase for saying a lot of things is "heaps" oh and also his mate we went to the party with was called "jimmo" proper oz nickname.

On the Monday we checked out the new house Scott was going to move into with jimmo, unreal location, round the corner the bottle shop, take aways and train station, over the road the supermarket, and 20 metres from their house was the beach, the outside of the house looked grimy but inside it was nice, and for 140 a week it is well cheap! Cheaper than any hostel I've stayed in.

Tuesday I checked out Melbourne properly, i went up the eureka tower which was the tallest building in Melbourne, got some really good pics too, checked out the city properly but ended up getting lost for about an hour and a half. The rest of my time I spent a lot watching the tennis open on tv, chilled on the beach with Scott, watched a basketball match, and went to frankston festival.

During this time I was desperately searching for a job, but every job on gumtree asks you for like 2 years experience, even for being a kitchen hand! And at the same time about 300 people have checked the same job so the chances you would get it are slim to none. I was in the same position as a lot of people I knew on holiday visas out here, I can count 8 off the top of my head, all with virtually no money.

A guy from my hostel at Brisbane had told me he was looking to leave his job as nightshift at chill backpackers. I told him I would go for it,but it took about 10 days for him to hand his notice in since he was waiting to hear from a job back himself. I was stuck in limbo and this made me think more and more about going home, with money running out and not much going on with finding a job I was nearly resigned to heading back to England but finally I heard the good news!

So yesterday I heard that I can have the job and they want me back up Brisbane soon as possible to start the training, and now I'm back at chill. With not much money to my name, my oz bank account has 9 dollars and I've been living off what was left in my wallet since Griffith, but now I can look forward to finally earning a bit cash. But none of this would be possible and I probably would have been home if it wasn't for the Keayes family who helped me out massively.