Bruises, scratches, sore muscles, backache, 5:30 am starts, nine hour days in the stifling heat, broken stems, up and down the ladder all day - welcome to pear picking! I have been picking pears close to Shepparton for just over three weeks now and it has been tough going. The money isn’t very good at all - we are paid by the bin and the bins are huge so it takes a long time to fill a bin - especially when the pears are quite small as well, which happens many ...

After spending one day in the nations capital Canberra, I jumped back on the greyhound bus and headed for Melbourne. The journey was going to last around ten hours - a long time for UK standards but just down the road for Aussies! Now, I'm sure I'm not the only one that does this when waiting for a bus, but just before you get on I always notice a couple of people you definitely don't want to sit next to. In this instance it was a fat woman and an alcoholic. I wa...

I left Sydney on the greyhound bus. The intention was originally to go straight to Melbourne, but as Canberra was pretty much on the way I decided that it was a perfect opportunity to visit the nation’s capital and spend a day looking around Canberra. Canberra is the capital of Australia. Back in the day Melbourne used to be the capital but I have been told that the reason Canberra was chosen as the capital city was to prevent arguments between Sydney and Melb...

I arrived in Sydney in the evening, catching a flight from Adelaide, the same day that New Zealand upset Australia in the Rugby League world cup final. I had decided in Adelaide not to book a hostel. "I'll find something when I get there" I thought. What hadn't entered into my mind was that it was the weekend and Sydney was very busy at this time of year, which I did expect, but not to the extent of struggling to find a bed for the night. I had caught t...

I made the decision to go to Adelaide the night before. It was a combination of factors. The humidity was getting ridiculous, the nightlife was far too good - which was bad for the bank balance and finally the job situation. I couldn’t seem to find a decent job in Darwin so I decided to give Adelaide a try. In true style I went for a couple of farewell drinks on my last night in Darwin, which turned into a few too many drinks. So many in-fact that I ended up mi...