A city of port-a-cabins!

I'm in KIWI LAND! Wahoo! 

I arrived in Christchurch yesterday (at midnight) and had a super panic because my debit card wouldn't work and I didn't realise that NZ dollars weren't the same as Australian dollars so I had no currency.. Rookie error apparently. 

Luckily a nice airport lady showed me how to use the machine correctly (you have to press 'check' instead of 'savings'.. No idea the relevance of this but the outcome is that the machine gives me cash so I'll stick with it). ! 

I thought it was just too dark to see the giant city skyscrapers on my way to the hostel, but nope, when I woke up this morning I realised that I hadn't seen any because there arnt any!

The city and shops are all in shipping containers because the building were all destroyed by the earthquake. It's so strange! 

This is a gondola we went on this morning, you can see everything, the mountains, the very flat city and the sea. We also did some other general touristy stuff.. 

Cycle toured the city! 

And went the south island museum. 

Tomorrow I have a morning bus to Queenstown, which seems to be where the adventures at! I'm hoping to bungee jump (when in NZ..) mountain raft and maybe do some hiking in the mountains! 

Bit of a boring post but in all honesty, Christchurch is not so interesting in the midst of its post earthquake aftermath. I'll update with the Queenstown adventure!! 

I'm back!

Hello blog! I stopped blogging! Sorry! I have been too consistently drunk/hungover to type anything! Jokes! (Mum, Dad, worried relatives, just to clarify 'Jokes' means that that last sentence was not in any way true). 

In actually fact I have had exams, and am really getting stuck into the triathlon season over here! Here is a show off picture of me getting bronze at the one last week (The first of New South Wales' Sprint Series!)

As always the weather is beautiful, and now we've all finished uni we have ample time to chill out on the beaches, mid day, during the week, just like students should. 

Another noteworthy thing from last week is that we have discovered 'Dollar Dogs' night in town. As hot dogs usually cost around $647, this is night not to be missed. This is how many Dollar Dogs we ate.. 

Sydney has gone mad for Christmas. It seems crazy because their Christmas decorations are still based around a ridiculously wrapped-up-warm Santa, and lots of snow/snowflakes. Most Austrlaians have never seen a snowflake in their life, and in fact is currently about 30 degrees outside. I mean I've got used to all the place names that they've stolen from us (Liverpool, Newcastle, Surry Hills,KingsCross to name just a few), but they've made themselves look silly with the copied snowy Christmas. 

Some examples: 

 Floating Santa clauses in the harbour?!

A tree in the Queen Victoria Building - so big it takes up all three floors and is wedged in the centre so you cant look up. How they got it there I will never know. You can't see the tree in full, either you look at the bottom like in this photo. Or you take 3 ESCALATORS up to the top and look at the top poking up through the hole in the floor. 

 

Seems kind of ludicrous to me. And why does it have icicles Australia? 

This is Kellie and I enjoying 2 for 1 happy hour in Darling Harbour. After a day of shopping. Before I got my nails done. Oh I want to go home so bad! 

Tomorrow Kellie and I are heading to New Zealand for the week! Hopefully we are going to bungie jump whilst coasting around the national parks. I promise to keep my blog updated this time! 

I have made my Christmas cards as always, I didn't want to ruin the tradition! (See, I haven't totally forgotten everybody, I knew you were all thinking I had). Family, they are in the post, please be patient! 

We are also practically living on BBQs in this time of consistent muggishly warm evenings. 

P.s I went snorkelling and saw a load of turtles and a shark!! 

Before we went in the instructor showed us a list of 'very dangerous but never before seen in this area' animals/fish. When I saw the shark I was convinced it was from the list. I've never been so scared. I started swimming the opposite way, flapping my arms around and accidentally breathed in a load of water through my snorkel. Everybody panicked a lot. I had to get onto the boat for a minute. Not because the shark was in any way dangerous (turns out its the tamest shark there is), but because I nearly chocked to death and the inhaled water during my unnecessary moment of panic. 

Here's a turtle. 

Bye for now blog! 

Inception!

So, I arrived in the Gold Coast for Unigames on Sunday!! It is CRAZY. 

Uni has put us up in this lush hotel (I'm very surprised, Birmingham would have given us a few blankets and pointed us to a bus stop bench!).

There's been themed parties EVERY NIGHT, last night was childhood heroes. I did however see a guy dressed as a condom, and two as Nazis so I don't think that the theme was taken overly seriously.. At least I hope not! 

This is me post 10k. (I came 6th. Solid effort)

Anyway I feel rough today. 

  

I chilled on the beach and by the pool with the athletics cool kids.

The goon squad (who I miss terribly)  is currently in Byron Bay (a couple of hours away) and have rented MASSIVE HOUSE for mid sem break.. So.. 

I'm currently on a greyhound bus down to visit them!!! 

This is me and my new bezzie I just met - Roberta from Brazil. She just said a super sad goodbye to her pal she's being staying with and they cried so much that I cried too. 

Basically I'm on holiday in Oz for a year.. I went on holiday to Gold Coast for a week, and now from that holiday in going to Byron. To hopefully kayak with dolphins tomorrow. And to see my goonies. 

Peace out 

2 DAYS AND COUNTING. ARGHH!!!!!

WE HAVE JUST BOOKED SKYDIVING FOR THURSDAY MORNING!!!!!

(Today is Tuesday, so it's the day after tomorrow! I am so so so SCARED/EXCITED)

Saturday I had work from 5pm. But I had to be in town for an hour at lunch time, so I decided to stay in and sunbathe/read/gaze at the harbour from the grass in observatory park until my shift. 

I got half an hour into my lazy afternoon when I got a phone call, that with hindsight I should have ignored. It was work telling me that they were super busy with excited pre-marathon runners and please could I go in right now. EUGH. No more snoozing around for me. 

I worked all day sunday because it was Sydney Marathon and Half Marathon day. The runners went straight past our restaurant so we were super super super busy all day with families coming in post race to celebrate. 

The staff were loving chatting to everyone about what times they did blah blah blah. I HATED IT. I was too late to enter either of the races when I arrived in Sydney. I WAS SO JEALOUS OF THEM ALL. Telling me their times and how great it was and how beautiful running over the bridge is and how many spectators there were BLAH BLAH. PISS OFF. I DON'T CARE. I DIDN'T GET TO RUN DID I?! I WANT TO GO HOME AND SULK. 

Manly!

Yesterday I went to Manly on the ferry! 

(Sea levels have reduced again and the ferries are back in the harbour)

View from the ferry on the way back. 

One of my fave photos of my time here so far! I look at photos like this (taken mid-week, on a WINTERS day) and decide I'm never coming home. 

Don't worry though - then I look at my desktop background...

...and remember that I will deffo come home. Miss you guys. (Maybe I'll just come back for a month or so though, till I get depression and sunshine withdrawal symptoms and get straight back on a Sydney bound plane).

Goon Squad hit SOHO

This was last friday. I'd just finished '3 assignment and 2 exam week', so it was quite a 'big' night. Seeing as we are all still standing in a presentable line, managing to pose for a photo, I think it must have been taken near to the beginning.. 

Anyway. SOHO is super trashy, your feet stick to the floor, there are loads of creepy guys and it's really really dark - probably so you can't see all the paint peeling off the walls and stuff. PERFECT for a GS night out. 

Monsoon leads to 15m sea level rise!!

This Monday it rained ALL day! Like serious monsoon rain. I had plans to go to Manly on the Ferry (because I don't have class till 4pm on a Monday because I'm a student with an easy life). However, these plans got cancelled because it had rained so much that the sea level had rose 15m and the ferries were now running in land between Westfields and University, instead of going across the harbour to Manly. Ok maybe not, but still it was far too wet to venture out, so my adventure was postponed until tomorrow. 

I say it was too wet to go outside, however, it seemed that this rule only applied to normal people, which excluded Ailsa and Megan. These pair decided to go outside in minimal clothing, run around until they were wetter than if they jumped in a swimming pool (granted this only took about 0.06 seconds), and then come inside and get into Johns bed. He got pretty pissed off and said a load of funny things in a funny Australian accent like 'Whaaaarrrt thhhaaarrr haaaaiill' and 'Gaaauurrrds saaayke!'

Today, as i walked past the bins on my way to lectures, instead of 2 crazy giant pigeons, I found about 52. Maybe the big flood brought a load of fish from the sea or something so there's loads of new snacks for them. Or the rubbish just hasn't been moved for about 17 weeks. 

Also this week I've acquired a Roosters sweat towel. 

And.. My AUSSIE RACE LISCENCE ARRIVED. Wahoooo. 

And.. When I was flicking through my diary I came across this! It's only about 11 weeks away!! So excited! 

Alex, Ailsa, Megan and I are going to STA travel tomorrow to book flights for Thailanf in January, which is also super exciting! 

Safe to say, this week has been 893593449763 times better than last week. I did survive last week though, as this is in fact me who is posting, and not Alex Gibb, who I shall leave my blog too should I die of stress during the next big assignment deadlines. So sorry if I worried anyone with my suicide threat last Wednesday, maybe I over exaggerated slightly.

Goodbye everyone.

I thought Birmingham was bad at coordinating our work load. Turns out it's not. Well it is, but UNSW is so bad it makes Birmingham look good. 

I think I'm going to commit suicide. At least I'll get to see George Alexander <3.

Or I'll put on some weight or get some more spots or something. Today was 30 degrees and I sat inside all day. 

I have 3 assignments and one exam. AND one is a group project. All due within in 3 days. I am a big fan of groups projects*.

*Biggest lie in the whole world. I hate them. Worse than those giant moths that when you accidentally squish them, their blood is all powdery and you're nearly sick. (And you only squished them because even though they're so gross you're trying to be nice and catch them and put them back outside, away from your wardrobe where they've taken to living because you haven't been in there for so long because all your clothes are on your floor/in your bed/at friends houses).

George Alexander is no more. Worst day ever.

Today, George Alexander, my pet gold fish, passed away. He was floating already when I woke up this morning, so I can only presume he passed away peacefully in his sleep. 

He kept me sane in times of double assignment deadlines, and never complained when I moaned about my group projects to him for hours on end. 

I don't understand why he died. I fed him every day except a few times when I forgot, and some weekends/tuesdays/fridays when I was too hungover. And I cleaned him out every week except when I had assignments. 

This was his funeral earlier. 

I will miss you George. I hope you are ok in fish heaven <3 

Stealing from a nursery!

So! 

What has happened this week? 

I went to hang at the cockpit for a bit on Thursday (after being at the beach all day I hoped someone might comment on my 'tan', which I thought was existent, but is apparently not), and found that they have another new toy. This week, instead of the usual Xbox game, or stolen road sign or bicycle wheel or whatever, it is a ball they have stolen from the nursery next door.

We had a goon squad outing to a Usyd college party on Wednesday. (John had suggested this as one his friends goes to the university of Sydney). We were all pretty drunk when we arrived (after finding a load of abandoned alcohol in a church on the wrong side of the campus where the taxi had dropped us off, after charging us almost double fair because we insisted on squeezing 4 onto the back seat). 

I know the abandoned alcohol sounds crazy, but like I said in a previous post, so much ridiculous stuff happens over here that now days all that it evoked was a 'oh look, some free alcohol. Let's have a pitt stop and drink it'. 

Anyway, as I was saying, we were all quite drunk. This resulted in us ending up in the WRONG COLLEGE and being escorted all the way to the proper one by a man in a toga, sporting a spear. Again, now a totally everyday occurrence.

After all this effort, Usyd lived up to its reputation of being dramatically inferior to UNSW, the party was not great and we swiftly moved on to World Bar. At the front of the queue, I was ushered in and given a stamp without being charged the entry fee. I was somewhat confused, but obviously wasn't going to complain. It was only when I was waiting for Ailsa and Alex to pay and get their stamps that I saw a guy demand an extra $10 from the bouncer, claiming he had been short changed, that I realised he had inadvertently paid my entry fee! Haha! He was quite insistent and the bouncer gave him his extra $10, so I got in for free! Score. 

I went to the cockpit today and found John naked in the living room.

It's now Saturday afternoon and I'm on my way to work. I've been napping this lunch time because I had quite a big morning. Let me explain. 

Most Australian men/boys sound exactly the same are impossible to tell apart.

After Thursday morning cycle, I was putting by drink bottle away and faffing around a bit with my bike, when I heard Tony (the BRAT who leads our MEDIUM PACED rides), say 'guys we're meeting at York Road gates on Saturday morning'. I registered this, but didn't bother looking up, as I said, I was faffing around.

 So, this morning, I turn up, having not had much sleep, but thinking I could just about tackle my MEDIUM PACED and MEDIUM DISTANCE ride, only to find that it wasn't in fact Tony who had spoken on Thursday, but the crazy fast man that leads the FAST GROUP out to waterfall and back (NEARLY A 100km TRIP). 

I almost died and will not be going with them again. 

$1.60 Strawberries

Also this week, strawberries are 3 packs for $5 in IGA! Just to put this into perspective, that's about $1.60 a pack which is one pound. So one pack of FaceWipes is 9x as expensive as strawberries. In the UK, strawberries are usually around double that of a pack of FaceWipes. And don't forget fuel is free. Crazy! 

Maybe they should start making strawberry scented face wipes instead of Aloe Vera or whatever they normally use and they'll be able to sell them for a more reasonable price.

Holiday mode!

Today (Thursday) I have been sat on my balcony, (in the 28 degree sunshine), reading a book. This book probably should have been one of several books I desperately NEED to read (within the next week) for my 'studies' - but instead I downloaded Lee Child's latest addition to the Jack Reacher series. 

The problem is I still feel as though I'm on holiday. By this I mean I feel like its acceptable for me to lounge around all day, eat out at every meal time (this has even included breakfast for the past few days), or sit and read a book for hours, instead of working, exercising or doing those essential things that everyone hates doing like washing bedding, taking out the bins (which are empty anyway because, as I said, I haven't even been cooking), or replying to important emails and letters.

 I think part of the problem is my incredibly close proximity to the beach. The Aussies keep telling me it's effect will wear off, but I have yet to see this happen. Currently it's allure is too strong, and so every time I have spare time (I say spare time, it's actually the time when I should be doing all of those tedious things listed above, so its not actually 'spare' at all), I head to the beach to doss around in my bikini, put on my shades and gaze at unsuspecting surfers all day. 

This was the beach on Thursday afternoon. 

Anyway, all of these things that I feel like its totally acceptable to do, as I'm in holiday mode, it's totally definitely not. The only outcomes will be negative. I will get chubby, probably smell a bit from continuously ignoring my laundry pile, and flunk all of my exams and have to work in mcDonalds or poundland back in the UK. 

Unless of course all this lounging on the beach turns me all tanned and blonde and I attract some amazingly hot Aussie man with a Bugatti or two and a house in the harbour, who wants to fly me back out here and just let me continue lounging around and reading my books. Come to think of it actually.. I'm kind of tempted to take this risk.

A blender full of goon.

Despite my three assignments and one exam that are looming in the (not very distant at all) future, this week has been EPIC!

Starting with Monday, Megan's sunday-dinner-on-a-monday went down a treat. It started off quite badly. I was evicted from the terraces 'communal' kitchen, before I had even begun cooking, for 'not booking three days in advance'!! How on earth am I supposed to know what master-chef ideas I am going to have three days in advance? What a ridiculous rule. I think it was created (by the lazy terraces staff) based on the sole idea that nobody would ever book three days in advance, and hence nobody would ever actually cook in there, and consequently there would be no hassle for them regarding keys/monitoring/cleaning etc. I can safely say their plan has worked. 

Ailsa chopping 78239863672 carrots

A DELICIOUS birthday meal! 

We also discovered that Coles, (like Asda, but with prices to make Waitrose seem like Tesco's own, and quality to make Aldi seem like Sainsbury's Finest), don't stock frozen yorkshires, and so we had to make them ourselves. What? You might ask. Yorkhires are easy to make! Well yes, I thought so too, but when you have to feed 21 students, and so you have to make 42 of them, and now you only have one oven, and.. you don't even have a muffin tray, it is kind of difficult. Nevertheless, we managed, and despite a few strange questions from the Australian percentage such as 'What are those mushroom shaped pastry things? They have gone all soggy in my gravy', everyone seemed to like them. They all disappeared, as did the rest of the food, and the consensus was that the meal was good! 

There was however, a large amount of goon consumption both before and during the meal, which seemed to somewhat heighten spirit levels. I do fear that this may have affected the general verdict slightly. 

Post dinner we (slowly and disorderly) made our way to Scubar. I reckon Megan had a good night, although I doubt she can remember most of it!

Here she is. This photo sums up her night I think.. A BIG BLUR. Also, this is not her hat, I don't know who's it is.

3am Maccys. Before a 5.45am cycle. (Also followed by a 5 hour mid day nap/full on sleep).

Megan also got a fish for her birthday (best birthday present in the world) from the rest of us girls.

Theodore the fish 

Wednesday was a slow, slightly boring day, but Ailsa and I got a free pizza at work, so it was all good. This is us sat outside our restaurant.

Not a bad view from the office..

Friday was the day of the much talked about 'EuroTrash party'. Everyone (besides Kellie, who for some reason decided to wear a top designed as an American flag), looked as if they were mid way through an Ibiza 'holiday'. 

The boys filling a jug (actually a blender) with goon. Featuring Seb's luminous nipple rings.

Seb, in a wig, being made to down the jug (blender) of goon.

Saturday was Marque night, somewhere I hadn't been before. It's a bit classier than the usual trashy places we end up at. It was a bit crazy - There were podium dancers, firemen spraying extinguishers everywhere, glitter falling from the ceiling and even these giant pink dancing teddy things.. 

Other things of note from the week are that the boys set a new background for my phone:

Stan, Jon and John (Kangaroo Hunter, Snake Killer and Tarantula Fight Instigator)

And Josh and I had a geography competition during a boring Sola class:

 

<-- England/Australia drawn by myself (A Brit)

<-- England/Australia drawn by Josh (An Aussie)

I also dropped a glass of expensive wine on myself/ an angry woman on my first proper shift at work, and it got deducted from my wages which I haven't even received yet. Good start.

I got a job! And it's Megan's belated birthday!

You will have all noticed one of the reoccurring themes underlying my (super interesting) blog, which is my distaste for the ludicrous price of everyday items over here. If you haven't then you obviously have NOT been reading often enough, please show more dedication. But to catch up you can refer to the post 'Free Fuel' and all will become clear. 

Anyway, my point is, I needed a job. So, I practiced my best english accent, (because as you all know, my natural (and horrid) nottinghamshire twang is not very english-sounding at all), and went into town to hand in my CV at some nice restaurants in the harbour. After maybe feeding the manager of Eastbank a small amount of misinformation - namely 'Yes, I have done waitressing before' and 'Yes, I can carry 3 plates' - I got slightly worried when he said 'Ok, great, sounds like you know what you're doing, trial shift tomorrow at 5pm'.

I arrived at 5pm, prepared for disaster. My family reading this will be amazed that I dared to even consider waitressing, as they all think I am the clumsiest member of the family, in fact, probably of any family.

But anyway, to cut a long story short, my trial shift went ok. Apparently my smiley, chatty attitude made up for the fact that I accidentally grated parmesan onto somebody's handbag, set all the water glasses upside down and could obviously not carry 3 plates, and.. I got the job!!!! I have some shifts at the weekend to get me going. 

http://www.eastbank.com.au/location.php

Today is Megans birthday! (It was supposed to be on Friday, but we cancelled it due to her having class all day and her being busy in the evening). So we are celebrating today! We are cooking a roast dinner (typical pommies) for the 21 GS members, and then we are going out to Scubar. I am in charge of the roast potatoes and the yorkshire pudding. This means that everyone will be eating quite a large portion of food cooked by me, and so there is a also a significant chance that we might not actually make it out to town.  

On another note, someone posted this photo of me and a couple of other BRAT ladies post-race yesterday. I am very sweaty and pulling a strange face, but I have just ran/cycled so please let me off.. 

I need to invest in some cycling/running shades I think!

Anyway, I will fill you all in tomorrow with the eventful mayhem that I am pretty sure tonight is going to turn into. I'm also positive Megan will end up with some kind of peer-instigated alcohol poisoning, however, hopefully there will be no poisoning of the food variety for the rest of the squad!