Monday 22nd April - Saturday 12th July 2014

So our last morning in Canberra we headed to the botanical gardens and had a morning walk which was good. It was good seeing all the Australian fauna! We also spotted plenty of parrots squawking.

We also headed up to the Telstra tower for a good view of the city. It was a pretty good view, we didn't spend to long as we had our bus to catch!

We got some lunch and paid for Brenton to say thanks for everything! Before he dropped us off at the bus stop. The bus journey was long and we finally arrived in Melbourne at midnight and crawled into our bed before work tomorrow!

So we are glad that we have managed to go and see Canberra, it saves us from having to do it all before we leave Australia.

We both have finally got full time jobs, I am now working at Pacific Brands as admin banker, basically entering in the daily banking. I thought I was coming on to do some debt collecting but due to my 'wide background' I am now once again a data enterer! I also get to allocate said money against invoices. Highly exciting…! At least everyone here is pleasant even though they are all being laid off.

All their jobs are going to the Philippines, so it kind of sucks for them but they aren't being too bitter towards other members in the team. So that is good I guess.

Stu has got a job with AGL, a gas company, trying to keep customers on if they want to leave and give them a rate review. He seems to be enjoying it and it is full time, finally!

So we have now entered into phase 'save money for Canada!' We literally will be leaving in just over two months!? Where does the time go? We have paid off our first deposit for the Gap Year Canada program and we have sent off our CVs in May and should be hearing back about job interviews for July. Hopefully we both get the jobs we are after!

Stu has found us some new friends, he worked with a girl before he started his full time role doing reception work! So we have had lunch and dinner with Becky and her boyfriend Nick who come from Liverpool! We went to Little Italy, Lygon St, which was pretty awesome. If someone had dropped me here I would have thought I was in a European country. There was hundreds of Italian Restaurants, with tables outside and staff trying to get you to come in and eat. I loved it! There was also hundreds of gelato shops too! If Italy is like this then I will be going!

Stu also competed in a muay thai competition, he ended up drawing with the other opponent. It was two 1min30sec rounds, looked bloody tiring to be honest! But he seemed pleased and happy with himself!

We haven't been a hell of a lot seeing as every penny and cent is going towards our Canada funds. We have booked up all of our final hostels for our Australia trip and our activities we are wanting to do, swim with crocs in Darwin (in a cage do not panic people!), Australia zoo including getting to hold a koala and our car rentals for Brisbane and Tasmania.

We did go on the tram restaurant car on the bank holiday Monday. It was a three course meal all drinks and alcohol included, awesome! We met the tram and got on board the old tram, it felt like I had been sent back in time! The deco was something you would of seen out of a western movie! Very posh! We enjoyed our dips starters followed by our main of steak and chicken! It was extremely tasty, the best bit was dessert though. I think I could of had another three desserts! It was well worth the $80, it was a pity we had to go to work on Tuesday otherwise I would of drunken more!

We went down to St Kilda one Sunday to check out their famous cakes, I have never in my life seen cakes quite this big! It was an extremely hard choice trying to decide which one to choose! It was pretty chilly down St Kilda, winter has arrived in full force now! Being by the coast didn't help either! We had a walk along the pier and I grabbed a coffee to try and warm up!

We meet up with Mark and had a beer down one of the pubs before going back and spending some time with Mark and Chelsea at their house.

The last couple of weeks of June the weather has been pretty horrific, not quite as bad as the huge thunder storm people experienced at home. The wind has been blowing in full force, and when you live in the city the wind tunnels through the building creating an even bigger force! I have been quite worried I am going to be the next Mary Poppins! It has gotten a lot colder too, although last winter I had to wear my coat all the time, this year I think I am a little more adjusted to a Melbourne winter as I only need my jumper and scarf!

We went out for Chelsea's birthday on the Friday night, it's pretty handy living in the city as our apartment was right around the corner from the club. No pesky trams or hailing down taxi's for us! We went over to Mark and Chelsea's on the Saturday night as we were heading down to the Peninsula early Sunday. Well, we didn't go to bed until 2 am and work up at 6 am. It was pretty painful to say the least!

We headed to the Peninsula Spa for Chelsea's birthday as well, which was pretty awesome. There is a lot of natural springs, so we were enjoying the day hopping from on spa to the next. It was pretty chilly out too, so it was more like a dash than anything else!

The way home, I pretty much passed out, and we headed home pretty early before quickly eating dinner before going to bed at 7 pm!

Work has been getting pretty boring, I hate doing data entry just as a job. Plus some of the women have been so rude to me that I don't really care that Im leaving earlier than my contract is, I think they have gotten the hint that they have pissed me off as they have been unusually pleasant this week! I am literally counting down the working days.

We have gotten our times and date for our interviews for job in Canada, I got a reasonable time of 1:30 pm Banff time which is 5:30 am here in Melbourne, not too bad, at least after the interview I can go to work!

We have a very strict weight limit to stick with, we tried to see how much Eithad charge for an extra bag, apparently and extra 30 kg bag would cost us $2,000!!!!! What the hell?!!! It is cheaper for us to buy another seat home, dress the suit case up as a 'person' and sit it down in the seat! We have given it much thought and are planning to use our big suit case that mum brought over in January to put our stuff in that we aren't bring with us on our tour, our other new suitcase and put all of our clothes we aren't bring with us too. Leave these at Mark and Chelsea's. Go on tour with our rucksacks, come back to Melbourne re-pack, put our big rucksacks into the big suitcase, flat pack. We are going to weigh all four bags and see if these come under the 60 kg weight limit, if they do then awesome. If not we will buy a smaller suitcase so we can bring it on board with us on the plane and just have our clothes we need for Abu Dhabi. In total will only cost us $30 rather than $2,000! We were quite pleased about our idea to by pass Eithad's astonishing prices!

So we have been enjoying our last few months, been hanging out with Mark, Chelsea and Rowan. Alex came down from Mildura which was get to see him. We had a good night playing balderdash, which is also a good time! We also met up with Vinny from the farm which was great to see him!

We told work that we are leaving, not for the reasons we are leaving but that we are leaving! Our last day went way to slow for my liking!

Our last Friday we had all of our friends come to the pub and enjoy one last drink with them for a while.

Saturday we spent getting our bags together, we have pretty much done everything but just the final pieces finalised. We dropped our bags off at Mark and Chelsea's which I'm so grateful for!

I won't be taking my laptop with me on our tour through the outback as we are trying to keep weight down, I tell you what I am now an expert packer! So I will have to go back to old fashion pen and paper so I won't forget our amazing trip, and then I'll have to update my blog when we return to the UK! So I apologise for the delay!