Its been such a long time since I updated this blog, a little over 3 months in fact! So prepare yourself for a long read!

I spent my last night in Asia in a delightful little city cottage in Kuala Lumpur and had lunch with the manager of the Malaysia branch from my last job. The Petronas Towers were a magnificient sight along with the Sky Tower. The ride to the airport was interesting, an old Peugeot 306 took me at a frenetic pace! Once boarding the plane, I soon realised not only would i be leaving another continent, but also an unbelievable culture and a completely different way of life that I cannot find the words to describe. Asia this is not the last you have seen of me!

After a relatively smooth 6 hour flight to Melbourne, I caught the connecting flight to Sydney. I booked a train ticket to the city centre and duly arrived at my hostel. To my amazement a 4 bed dorm with 3 stinky italian boys would set me $33 a night! I met up with Nicola who i haf met from a night out in London and she kindly took me around the sights. I went to the main beaches including Bondi, Darling Harbour, Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was a great opening few days to Australia!

After 4 days, i took my flight to Cairns. A beautiful but tiny city, I decided to relax here for a fortnight until Gav and Bev (who I met in Thailand) arrived. We rented a small Hyundai Getz and ventured north to Port Douglas, Cape Tribulations and the Tablelands. Near Port Douglas, we went to Mossman Gorge where we fed some rock wallabys! Whilst staying in a small place called Yungaburra we visited some amazing waterfalls and scenery. At night, 1000s of huge bats would take to the sky for a truly memorable sight.

Upon our return to Cairns, we picked up Katie and Ali (more people i met from Thailand!) and hired out a campervan! On our first day together we took a boat trip and snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef where i swam mext to a Barracuda!!

We drove through a few nice towns and camped at the beaches at night. We eventually arrived at Airlie Beach where we took our unbelievable sailing trip to the whitsundays. Never have i seen such white sand. I was fortunate to snorkel next to a giant sea turtle!

The next big adventure was to take place at the impressive Fraser Island, 3 days of driving around in a 4x4 on sand and on land! We saw dingoes and shooting stars (I spotted 9!).

We arrived in Brisbane where Gav was to make an early departure to fly back to Thailand. I met Annika from back home and had a spot of Kareoke!

The last few days in the campervan and we went to meet Tara for anight at her familys house (yet another Thai recruit!). We had an early Cjristmas meal and it was a wonderful night. We went to the Blue Mountains and took in the Wentworth Falls and the Three Sisters. Unbelievable sights! We said goodbye to our camper and the group was to split up to various hostels.

I met up with Nicola again and on Christmas Day 12 of us went to Bronte Beach! I cooked my first ever barbecue and met so many people who were in Christmas mode! Amongst them Italians, Argentinians, Germans and French! I walked to Coogee with Helen (another Thai meetup!) and met the rest of the gang! I also bumped into Adam who I used to work with back in Leicester!

In the lead upto the new year I took in more sights and met Ross from back home and we had some more barbecues! I could get used to this!

I met a girl called Jess at the Whitsundays and we had kept in touch, we met up again and decided to park ourselves in the queue for Macquiries Park at 2.30am ready for new year fireworks the next day!! After deciding we were crazy we watched Mission Impossible 4 at the Imax in Darling Harbour then joined the queue! Even at 2.30am there was at least 500 people in front of us! Was it worth the wait? You betcha!!!

During the day I randomly bumped into Lacy and Matt! I worked with Lacy 3 years ago! Small world! Later on a plane was writing in the sky. 3 lines came out... 1 "r u going to heaven?" 2 "how?" 3 "TRUST CHRIST" amazing!!! The fireworks was a spectacular event and there was so many Taiwanese i even learnt how to say happy new year "shing yai quai laa"!

After the new year dust settled, I took a flight to Melbourne! after a few days me Katie Ali and Holly (we met in.... Answers on a postcard) went to Mildura to do farmwork. What was to follow was nothing short of slavery and I soon scarpered back to Melbourne! I met a german lad called Finn and an american called Calvin, and along with Craig, a mancunian, we went to tge Australian Open!

I took a flight to Perth and met up with Phil. I got a job as a removals labourer and the worries of running out of money soon dissapeared! I also met up with Adam and Soph who I met in Laos and Wendy who I met in Thailand. Although not much going on in Perth, it has many great little suburbs and is a lovely place to live! I have unfunished business here as I am now in Darwin after taking yet another flight after work offered me a job here!