Well, its my second day (or my first official full day) after landing safely at the airport yesterday. The little bus journey was a hoot - i dont know what i was expecting from the NOMADS hostel courtesy bus, but it definately wasnt what picked me up! it was a clapped out banger of a van, with scribblings all in the inside but somehow I thought it was just very cute and funny!!

I got to the hostel and the first thing i did was shower and put the suncream on, then went on what was described to me as a 'long walk' into Cairns itself but I figured I needed the walk. 20 mins later I was in the main but and where was the first place I visited? The hospital! Nope, Im not injured or ill but I wanted a bottle of water and came across a nice little cafe and so went in got my water and when I was paying read a sign 'Central Cairns Hospital' all proceeds from this waterfront cafe goes to the hospital. Good deed of the day ticked off!

I then went to Woolworths! Its a supermarket over here and its great, the size of a tesco but the price of a Waitrose! However according to the 'long term residents' in the hostel everything has soared since the cyclone hit. Good job Im never very hungry in the heat!

The harbour bit along Cairns is lovely and I went to a gym, the best gym I have been to - its on the waterfront and its free to use! I had a quick go on the cross trainer and stepper but then got too hot! No wonder people are so active down here, they also go loads of free classes, yoga, zumba etc all on the espinarge (ok i spelt that wrong but thats how it sounds when you say it!) unfortunately I missed the ones that day and they dont run on a Sunday, ah well, at least there is a free gym!

When I got back to the hostel I ended up going to bed at about 6pm I was so tired and I just thought, I need to sleep and fingers crossed I make it through the night. I am in a 4 bed dorm and at 10pm 3 people from Scandanavia came into the room, luckily they had just landed from New Zealand so they went straight to bed, I went back to sleep and woke up at 7.30am this morning.

I went back into Cairns today and had breakfast along the waterfront again. I finished my first book to - one about the Waco disaster in America - it was fascinating. A bit depressing so I am now on a hotel babylon - thats more like it a laugh at what people do in hotels!!

After breakfast I came back to the hostel and have chilled by the pool (its been about 30 degrees today). Im glad to say that finally my addiction to closer magazine has paid off! A group of Brits in the pool saw me reading it and started asking me loads of questions about Cheryl, Kerry and Co and I found myself going into great detail about what they have been getting up to. After the conversation I started to realise, if I could read books about the economy and remember such minor details I would be so much more clued up! I also figured I dont even know who the president of Australia is (I know its a woman, she did a speech while I was glued to the TV wanting to know about the ever changing natural disasters here) so I think reading about Politics too, and maybe finance could help...... ok im over that thought, I have swapped my closers for grazia magazine now! I am also very thankful of the sunbeds I had before I came, I feel almost native and one of the gang! Plus I havent burnt...yet! Although Australia doesnt seem to stock P20 (my suncream that you just put on once a day, its amazing) so I am trying to find something equally as good!

I have met a group of 4 irish people and we are going to have a few drinks in the hostel bar tonight which will be nice, I leave tomorrow to start my first trip - woohoo! So I am getting slightly giddy about that!

One thing I have noticed though is my spelling is really bad and I must rely on Microsoft to change my words round and correct spelling a lot more that what I realised, so if I do have lots of mistakes, forgive me- I am typing in a hurry!

Bye for now!