05/02/13

BOOM! I am officially leaving Australia on the 1st May 2013. I went into Flight Centre with my spreadsheet of flight numbers, prices and dates told them to beat it, they could only do 1, but still. That's $20 in my pocket! I also logged my Tax Return, so I should get a nice cheeky sum back in the next 42 days. Hopefully before Melbourne! And now? Well, now I'm in Hobart's main park, sun beating down on my back nomming down a Domino's, why? Because it's tight ass tuesday and it was $5. Today is a good day. I'm going to go back to the farm and book the rest of the flights before the internet gets turned off at 5pm. Or... Or I could go back to the coffee shop I was in this morning, grab a coffee and do it all now? Yeh. Let's do that! Get to the coffee shop and order a regular cappuccino from the fit waitress, get brought over a large 'Sorry, I accidently made it large, I hope that's okay' Cheekyyyy! What is today?! Getting on with the bookings, I'm Officially going to Muscat. Officially going to Bangkok. Officially going to Phnom Penh. Officially going to Hanoi aaaaanddd I'm officially going to Bali! This is sweet. I hitchhiked home after the bookings and without any problems, back in 2 lifts. Both of them were 2 guys each car. The last 2 guys even giving me their numbers so I can let them know any time I want to go anywhere and if they're going the same way, easy lift! Get back to the loft and we all sat on the balcony enjoying a cold beer. Today. Was. Awesome.

07/02/13

Yesterday, because they turn the internet on during the day, I used the time wisely to book my flight from Bali to Europe. Frankfurt, Germany to be precise! I better get cracking on really learning my German! The cost of the flight had escalated dramatically since my brief check just two days before. This was reason enough to bite the bullet and book the flight. I had a choice, to fly with China Eastern Airways, for $580, and take a total journey time of 30hours, or... go with Malaysia airlines for $100 more and take only 17 hours. I've opted for the latter. My trip around Asia is exactly 100 days, from leaving Australia to leaving Bali, out of this, I spend 3 whole days either in Airports or in a plane. So I think I deserve the quickest route. When the guys finished work yesterday and we got our s*** together, we crammed into Ciara and Myler's car and went to the beach. It was about 7pm by the time we got there and it was still warm. Standard beach activities; frisby, football and dicking about in the clear sea. The sea, even at 7pm, was still quite warm. On the way back, Ciara hit a wallaby. On with today! Today was relatively uneventful, on the most part. However, one thing happened which changed my entire outlook on how my birthday is going to go down. I realised I had very little money for Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road and spending money up through the centre. UNTIL! Until I got a call from Peppermint Bay this afternoon. A pub I had asked for work in about 3 weeks ago. I'll be working there Saturday night after work and Sunday daytime. This has made me a bit more relaxed on the money front and will ensure I have a good birthday. The downside is the tax I pay, I won't get back, because I have already handed in my tax refund form. Ah well, a small price to pay for the security of knowing I'll be able to afford my trip around Asia. Oh yeh! Back to yesterday, I changed the foosball table, yeh, we have a foosball table. It had a 2,3,5,2 formation. Which is clearly wrong not only on table football, but also real football. So, I changed the end two poles around and took 2 players out to make a goal keeper and 2 defenders. Much better, now, after playing a few games, the ball gets stuck in the corners, so we made slopes out of cardboard and WALLA! We now have a fully functioning football table!

10/02/13

Wow, crazy couple of days! Yesterday I worked from 9:30 - 17:00 at Grandvewe backtoback with 17:00 - 02:00 at Peppermint bay. Cheeky 9 hour shift at a wedding which could be a TV series called 'My big fat bogan wedding'. "I don't want any of that fancy s***" Someone said as I walked around with a tray of champagne. "Got any stubbies?". Real classy folk. As I didn't know what time I was finishing last night, I didn't know whether to expect a break, but I got one. Fed too! As is standard with hospitality, any food they didn't serve we can have so I ate high quality food last night!

Just finished my second shift, thrown in again, but absolutely nailed it today. A busy Sunday and I was just on top form. I quote one of the guys saying "You're absolutely smashing it today!", and he wasn't refering to the glass I co-broke (It wasn't entirely my fault). At the end of the shift, Ben who runs the place told me he's put me down to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday 5pm - close and Sunday 11am - close. If this carries on with 4 shifts a week I will be well set for my birthday, plus the Great Ocean Road AND maybe have some left over for a bit of Asia! All this doesn't help how tired I am right now though. 4 more weeks of this will kill me for sure, but as always, I'm keeping one eye on the job and one eye on the future.

11/02/13

Today it was nice to be outside, really nice. Just doing odd jobs about the farm, including feeding the little lambs! They're not so little any more, but they're still cute. I used this opportunity to get a couple of pictures with them, so no doubt you will see them shortly or probably have already seen them. I made meatballs and spaghetti for dinner tonight, first time, made up the recipe and it was good. Missing something though, maybe a bit of pepper. Anyway, that's about it from today. Pretty happy to see that England beat Ireland too.

12/02/13

I don't normally work Tuesdays, but as I need Sunday off to work at peppermint bay, I'm swapping Sunday with Tuesday. So now, my week goes: Thursday - Saturday; Grandvewe then Peppermint bay, Sunday: Peppermint bay, Monday & Tuesday Grandvewe, Wednesday off. With this kind of rosta: 'Wednesday will be spent chillaxing' I thought, followed by 'Ah crap' when I looked in the mirror to see the length of my hair reaching an all time length whilst in Australia. Looks like tomorrow I'll be going into Hobart AGAIN! I completely forgot! It's pancake day! And yes, I had pancakes. Lots of pancakes. We had some at breakfast during coffee time, I had a giant pancake with cheese and beans for lunch (actually not as bad as it sounds!) and we had pancakes for dessert after dinner. It was a good day.

13/02/13

The realisation that it is 1 month until my birthday is apparently rather relevant to today's advancement in the next thing I'm excited for: Selina is coming to Melbourne for my birthday! 4 of us; Me, Lloren, Selina & Ben will be celebrating my birthday in style. I've been looking up apartments for a few days whilst we're there to enjoy it in style and they're not too badly priced. Some coming in cheaper than hostels! I did get my hair cut in Hobart, and now, I'm just chilling, planning to be in bed for 9, the double shift tomorrow will be an introduction for the next 4 days. Let the hell begin!

15/02/13

I didn't get any chance to write in here yesterday, and I'm now having to go downstairs to set up half an hour before anyone else so I can leave on time. Yesterday's coffee time we had cake and doughnuts because it was Ciara's birthday! That was a nice start to the day, afterwards it was on with stabbing blue cheese and making pinot paste, two jobs renound for how tedious they are. However, this soon passed and it was time to get to peppermint bay. I walked to Ann's place and picked up the bike she's letting me borrow and away I went, the 45minute walk now being cut to a 10minute bike ride, if that! When I arrived, I was given brief instruction on what I should focus on, and then it started. It was Valentines Day, so I'm assuming it was a bit busier than normal, but it was a manageable business. Although I didn't get out until 12ish, I preferred last night to Sunday and definitely to the function on Saturday night, but this might just be because I'm learning more and feeling more confident in knowing what I'm doing.

16/02/13

Well, things changed pretty rapidly regarding the apartment, Ben isn't certain he can get there until the 15th and Lloren already has a place in Melbourne, so it doesn't make sense for her to pay for 2 places to live for that week! So I'm going to get a 1 bedroom place, and as Selina leaves on the 15th (when Ben arrives) he can take her place! Sorted! However, if he does make it for my birthday or earlier, someone can just crash on the couch. Moving from that and the other thing that's happened 31 hours out of the last 48 hours; work. I have come to a conclusion that you can only be so tired before you plateu. I feel the same as I did yesterday. Granted, that's still pretty horrible but I only have today left this week of double shifts. Even in the time off (when I'm sleeping) I was dreaming about being at work and drifting in and out of sleep! They've asked me to be in at 15:30 today to help set up for the function which would be an extra couple of hours pay, but I don't know if Grandvewe will allow it. I'll have to ask at coffee time.

02:48

It's still the 16th in my mind, I should be tired, but my mind's just like 'Nah bro, you're fine' I think knowing roughly what time I was going to finish helped. The tiredness isn't seeming to affect me as much tonight, I started at 9 this morning setting up and working all day until 15:30 when I started at Peppermint and worked until 02:30, buuut because I left Grandvewe early to get to there on time, I have to start work at 9:00 tomorrow, my 'day off', to set up and work for an hour. Then, at 10am, walk to Peppermint Bay for my shift at 11am and finish at 5pm. I cycled to work today, but left my bike there because, let's face it, after that kind of day, I'm gunna accept a lift home.

17/02/13

4 hours sleep and I'm a f***ing machine. sure, I do feel tired. But f*** you tiredness, I'm smashing through this last peppermint bay shift followed by a well deserved beer this afternoon!

Done. I don't just mean that shift, I mean, I'm leaving. I can't do that again, those 4 days were hell and all things considered, I'll have enough money for Melbourne - Adelaide at least and that's all that matters. I've got to think about my well being and being this worn down isn't good.

18/02/13

After a sleep and a think, I am definitely quitting Peppermint Bay. This may sound bad but there isn't anything in my contract about notice, so providing I get paid on Wednesday; I'm out. It's god damn hot today. Cruising in at 29.c at the moment, apparently pushing 35 in Hobart. But less of the boring stuff. I booked the apartment for my Birthday week! We can only stay from the 10th - 15th, but after that we'll just move to a Hostel.

19/02/13

This is ridiculous. Yesterday, as I said it was around 30.c, we couldn't move yesterday evening as the loft was like an oven. It was 25.c when we were going to bed and it was like being back at Thala, a bed which felt 'not exactly dry'. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder and heavy rain. This morning. BOOM. Cold. It was 11.c. Really Tasmania? That's how you want to play this?

It started out as a terrible day, no milk, s*** butter and things not going my way. It ended with a pay slip from Peppermint Bay, A roast cooked by yours truly, and brownies for dessert. What a fantastic day.

20/02/13

What a whirlwind! I've quit Peppermint Bay and now, as I sit in a coffee shop in Hobart (again), I look ahead to more enjoyable times. The past 2 weeks have probably been the most I've planned since arriving in Australia and my god it feels good to be back to normal. I've realised it keeps me excited, constantly looking forward to something. People have said to me "If you keep planning, you can't live in the moment", I beg to differ. If I plan and organise, the times when I'm meant to enjoy myself, I can. I don't have to worry about what's happening next. With this in mind, and almost everything planned for the next 6 months, I just have to sit back and let the good times flow.

P.s, I've updated the map below with my itinerary, check it out, it's really something :)