Ahhh, dying for a pee but at the computer in the library and thought it best to make the most of my time before it runs out - hopefully I won't be leaving a wet seat when I get up!
Mark and I have found a lovely new place in Swindon - a one bedroom house - and we plan to move in this weekend. Not a moment too soon really as he starts his Masters in about 3 weeks and I have been having to knock back offers of work as we're not in Swindon yet... Thankfully the processing of our application only took a week so there's been no immediate need for me to check out the backpacker places around Swindon (closet ones are in Bath, about 1/2 an hour train journey from where we'll be living)
I have a few interviews next week, but more exciting the possibility of work starting on Tuesday - I am still waiting to hear back from the agency. Sounds a bit daft really - when I'm working I wish I had more time off to myself and now I have all the time in the world I wish my days were taken up with work. Women eh? You never can please us! Mark has been great, making sure the rent on our temporary residence is paid, sorting out the rent and bond for our new place and generally looking after me. It's a bit of a new experience! And one I don't really mind having although it will be great to begin earning again and in a position to contribute financially to our lives. Being a 'kept woman' gets a little boring after a while... Maybe if we were hideously rich it would be a different story, but then I'd be a lady (no make that woman still...) of leisure, pursuing various dreams and whims....
Anyway, the pressure from my bladder is becoming unbearable and the time on this machine is almost up. Will update again shortly.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Ahh haa... so the fleas and other tales of the inflicted.
Our new room/temporary place of abode has been wicked. A really nice and friendly share house. Only problem was that as it was a store room before we tidied it up and moved in so there were fleas in the carpet. Seeing that I am ALWAYS the one who gets bitten the most (I must taste delicious to insects) Mark didn't mind too much. Meanwhile my ankles were ringed with lovely little red bite marks and random patches up my legs... After a few spray treatments of the carpets etc it seems to have been knocked on the head and my ankles have now begun to heal...
The first week back in Hastings meant catching up with a few mates here and frantically looking for work. On Friday night (a little while ago now) we decided to catch up with a friend of ours and bowled up to his place unannounced. Generally he wouldn't let us in if he didn't know we were coming, but we struck lucky and he answered the door. Fortunate for us/him it was his 40th the following day and he was in the mood for a little celebration. After touring a few bars etc he suggested we check out a new bar called 'XS' (classy I know) where they had caves out the back and 'women just come up and sit on your lap'. Me being me and not at all subtle asked if it was a strip club in a bit of an excited way. I've never been to a strip club before and only a few days before had been talking to Mark about the prospect of visiting one for a look-see. Said friend denied the strip club suggestion and said it was just a new place and he'd not spent much time there before... Hmm sounded slightly suspicious, but I was up for it anyway. A new experience...
So we headed off to 'XS' and paid the guy a tenner each to get in. Funnily enough, I had been almost right. It wasn't a strip club as the girls there were already near naked, walking about in their underwear and occasionally pole dancing. I tell you I have never seen a near naked gorgeous girl climb a pole so quickly before in my life - and then slide down it again like some sort of slow motion fireman.... Intermittently they came up to each of us and tried to get us to have a lap dance. I wasn't up for it as I like to take these things kinda slow - maybe on my next pole dancing club experience I'll go for a lap dance. But seeing that it was our mates birthday we bought him a dance and he got two girls for the price of one. Not bad....
Over all the place was so... ordered. I expected it to be far sleazier than it was. Sure there were the obligatory old guys (and young ones too...) oggling the girls, but not touching, rude or loud behaviour like you might get in your average pub in the city (or town) And all the girls were really nice natured. But then again I guess it is there job.
So that was my first strip/pole dancing/lap dancing club experience. After leaving there our mate got a little upset at us for getting him a lap dance as according to him 'It just leads to frustration, you're not allowed to touch and that's all you want to do'. Myself I can't understand the temptation, but then I ain't a guy.
Next day we headed to our local it was a bloody lovely day (one of the few we've had since I've been back) and proceeded to get reasonably pissed up. Got talking to this Scot guy who is a hod carrier and shaves his nuts. Apparently it stops him getting so sweaty. But he wasn't too keen to go into detail about it with me and he upped and left before I could ascertain if he shaved with an electric or normal razor...
Oh! Also have to mention for those few friends out there - I did try out my 30th b'day pressie on the plane, and it's a damn goody. Quieter than you'd expect and a lot quicker than a manual job. No need for further explanation I hope and I don't think this means I get included in any mile high club...
A few weeks have passed since all of that and Mark and I have now found a lovely little one bedroom house in Swindon which we hope to move into shortly - hopefully this weekend if everything goes well with our application.
I would like to stay and write more but my time on the computer has run out. Should be in work soon - being a kept woman gets a little boring after a while... Will catch up on the last few weeks and move etc when I am able.
Our new room/temporary place of abode has been wicked. A really nice and friendly share house. Only problem was that as it was a store room before we tidied it up and moved in so there were fleas in the carpet. Seeing that I am ALWAYS the one who gets bitten the most (I must taste delicious to insects) Mark didn't mind too much. Meanwhile my ankles were ringed with lovely little red bite marks and random patches up my legs... After a few spray treatments of the carpets etc it seems to have been knocked on the head and my ankles have now begun to heal...
The first week back in Hastings meant catching up with a few mates here and frantically looking for work. On Friday night (a little while ago now) we decided to catch up with a friend of ours and bowled up to his place unannounced. Generally he wouldn't let us in if he didn't know we were coming, but we struck lucky and he answered the door. Fortunate for us/him it was his 40th the following day and he was in the mood for a little celebration. After touring a few bars etc he suggested we check out a new bar called 'XS' (classy I know) where they had caves out the back and 'women just come up and sit on your lap'. Me being me and not at all subtle asked if it was a strip club in a bit of an excited way. I've never been to a strip club before and only a few days before had been talking to Mark about the prospect of visiting one for a look-see. Said friend denied the strip club suggestion and said it was just a new place and he'd not spent much time there before... Hmm sounded slightly suspicious, but I was up for it anyway. A new experience...
So we headed off to 'XS' and paid the guy a tenner each to get in. Funnily enough, I had been almost right. It wasn't a strip club as the girls there were already near naked, walking about in their underwear and occasionally pole dancing. I tell you I have never seen a near naked gorgeous girl climb a pole so quickly before in my life - and then slide down it again like some sort of slow motion fireman.... Intermittently they came up to each of us and tried to get us to have a lap dance. I wasn't up for it as I like to take these things kinda slow - maybe on my next pole dancing club experience I'll go for a lap dance. But seeing that it was our mates birthday we bought him a dance and he got two girls for the price of one. Not bad....
Over all the place was so... ordered. I expected it to be far sleazier than it was. Sure there were the obligatory old guys (and young ones too...) oggling the girls, but not touching, rude or loud behaviour like you might get in your average pub in the city (or town) And all the girls were really nice natured. But then again I guess it is there job.
So that was my first strip/pole dancing/lap dancing club experience. After leaving there our mate got a little upset at us for getting him a lap dance as according to him 'It just leads to frustration, you're not allowed to touch and that's all you want to do'. Myself I can't understand the temptation, but then I ain't a guy.
Next day we headed to our local it was a bloody lovely day (one of the few we've had since I've been back) and proceeded to get reasonably pissed up. Got talking to this Scot guy who is a hod carrier and shaves his nuts. Apparently it stops him getting so sweaty. But he wasn't too keen to go into detail about it with me and he upped and left before I could ascertain if he shaved with an electric or normal razor...
Oh! Also have to mention for those few friends out there - I did try out my 30th b'day pressie on the plane, and it's a damn goody. Quieter than you'd expect and a lot quicker than a manual job. No need for further explanation I hope and I don't think this means I get included in any mile high club...
A few weeks have passed since all of that and Mark and I have now found a lovely little one bedroom house in Swindon which we hope to move into shortly - hopefully this weekend if everything goes well with our application.
I would like to stay and write more but my time on the computer has run out. Should be in work soon - being a kept woman gets a little boring after a while... Will catch up on the last few weeks and move etc when I am able.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Instalment two should be able to bring me up to date....
So I landed in Heathrow about 2 weeks ago now. Not a bad flight aside from the army veteran sitting next to me. Apparently he'd fought in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Nice enough bloke, but a bit bloody annoying after a while. We chatted as the plane took off (taking off in planes is one of the highlights for me of going somewhere - I love that feeling of being pushed back in my chair from the whole speed thing....LOVELY. Also like turbulence, but that's a whole different thing..) and through dinner. While eating dinner I told him that I had some 'drugs' to make me sleep. And took them. Shortly after dinner I was snoozing - lovely as I never sleep properly on transport - what seemed to me moments after getting to sleep this bloke is poking me on the shoulder to wake me up, no, we hadn't arrived, there was still another 6 hours ahead, but he thought I should wake up for a drink of water. So I obediently drank it and went straight back to sleep. Same thing happened about 2 hours later and then on until we landed. So much for sleeping through your flight!
I'm good at complaining eh? And I've only been back for 2 weeks... Ha ha ha
Anyway, the flight between Bangkok and Heathrow was quite, I had about 3 seats to myself. The hostesses were lovely gave me a pack of cards and entrance into some competition for a free flight to Thailand. Fingers crossed that's a winner. Noice one!
Met Mark at Heathrow. He was a little late, but then some things never change. From Heathrow we went straight to Swindon where we'll be moving to shortly. This is what it looks like around that part of England:
Anyway, Mark did his interview thing as you know and got offered a place on the spot. Wicked. So we stuck around there for about 6 days checking out things. Not just Swindon though, as to be honest, Swindon is really just another English country town with a college. But the surrounds is gorgeous. Bath is only a half hour away, so we headed there camping. Went into the roman bath thingy thinking we'd be able to have a dip there. (it was lovely and warm weather) But unfortunately for your £11 you just get to have a look at it all. So we turned tail and decided to wait until mid August when we've moved there and they've finished the renovating work. By then they'll have finished the thermal baths that they're building on the roof of the place and we will be able to go for a dip.
After two days in Bath we got itchy feet again and decided to go to Wales. I blindly chose the town on the coast of Wales called Barry. I wanted a beach and to call a town Barry seems pretty weird to me... As we crossed the bridge to Wales it began to rain and the further into Wales we got the harder it rained. It was pissing it down well hard by the time we got to Barry, and Barry was pretty boring and shit, so we decided to head for the hills instead - the Brecon Beacons to be precise.
Wales is absolutely gorgeous. We found a lovely little B&B above a pub only 4 miles out of Brecon and stayed there for two nights while we had a little look around the area. Brecon was/is a funny little town. Loads of men shouting in the pubs and streets. It's a strange sound that of yelling welsh men.
Also checked out the Usk reservoir on my birthday, which was stunning.
The picture doesn't do it much justice, but it was beautiful and I will go back to Wales again for another look around one day. Maybe the north of Wales next time.
All too soon it was time to head back home to Hastings. We stopped at Avebury on the way for a pint and a look around the standing stones there - again bloody beautiful, and loads of white horses cut into the hills in the area. Like this:
We eventually arrived back in Hastings around 7ish, picked up the rest of our gear from Jamie’s place and moved into another friend’s place who had offered Mark some studio space and a room. Lovely place, lots of natural light. But I think I have gotten fleas from it. Sorting it out now, but I'll leave that story and recent others for another time.
So I landed in Heathrow about 2 weeks ago now. Not a bad flight aside from the army veteran sitting next to me. Apparently he'd fought in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Nice enough bloke, but a bit bloody annoying after a while. We chatted as the plane took off (taking off in planes is one of the highlights for me of going somewhere - I love that feeling of being pushed back in my chair from the whole speed thing....LOVELY. Also like turbulence, but that's a whole different thing..) and through dinner. While eating dinner I told him that I had some 'drugs' to make me sleep. And took them. Shortly after dinner I was snoozing - lovely as I never sleep properly on transport - what seemed to me moments after getting to sleep this bloke is poking me on the shoulder to wake me up, no, we hadn't arrived, there was still another 6 hours ahead, but he thought I should wake up for a drink of water. So I obediently drank it and went straight back to sleep. Same thing happened about 2 hours later and then on until we landed. So much for sleeping through your flight!
I'm good at complaining eh? And I've only been back for 2 weeks... Ha ha ha
Anyway, the flight between Bangkok and Heathrow was quite, I had about 3 seats to myself. The hostesses were lovely gave me a pack of cards and entrance into some competition for a free flight to Thailand. Fingers crossed that's a winner. Noice one!
Met Mark at Heathrow. He was a little late, but then some things never change. From Heathrow we went straight to Swindon where we'll be moving to shortly. This is what it looks like around that part of England:
Anyway, Mark did his interview thing as you know and got offered a place on the spot. Wicked. So we stuck around there for about 6 days checking out things. Not just Swindon though, as to be honest, Swindon is really just another English country town with a college. But the surrounds is gorgeous. Bath is only a half hour away, so we headed there camping. Went into the roman bath thingy thinking we'd be able to have a dip there. (it was lovely and warm weather) But unfortunately for your £11 you just get to have a look at it all. So we turned tail and decided to wait until mid August when we've moved there and they've finished the renovating work. By then they'll have finished the thermal baths that they're building on the roof of the place and we will be able to go for a dip.
After two days in Bath we got itchy feet again and decided to go to Wales. I blindly chose the town on the coast of Wales called Barry. I wanted a beach and to call a town Barry seems pretty weird to me... As we crossed the bridge to Wales it began to rain and the further into Wales we got the harder it rained. It was pissing it down well hard by the time we got to Barry, and Barry was pretty boring and shit, so we decided to head for the hills instead - the Brecon Beacons to be precise.
Wales is absolutely gorgeous. We found a lovely little B&B above a pub only 4 miles out of Brecon and stayed there for two nights while we had a little look around the area. Brecon was/is a funny little town. Loads of men shouting in the pubs and streets. It's a strange sound that of yelling welsh men.
Also checked out the Usk reservoir on my birthday, which was stunning.
The picture doesn't do it much justice, but it was beautiful and I will go back to Wales again for another look around one day. Maybe the north of Wales next time.All too soon it was time to head back home to Hastings. We stopped at Avebury on the way for a pint and a look around the standing stones there - again bloody beautiful, and loads of white horses cut into the hills in the area. Like this:
We eventually arrived back in Hastings around 7ish, picked up the rest of our gear from Jamie’s place and moved into another friend’s place who had offered Mark some studio space and a room. Lovely place, lots of natural light. But I think I have gotten fleas from it. Sorting it out now, but I'll leave that story and recent others for another time.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Ahh, it's been a while since my last blog and I'm a little backed up - sorry for the lapse in entries to whoever still bothers to read this! This will be a big one as there's a bit to catch up on.
Where do I start.... I guess with the whole immigration thing as that's where I left off with my last entry.
It seems so long ago now! Marks and my immigration appointment was on a Tuesday before I headed back to Aus so we jumped on the train in the morning and headed up to Croydon for the interview at 11am. After stressing about it on the 1.5 hour train journey there we finally arrived and were allowed into the first level of enquiry, reception, where we met a nice enough guy who asked to see our forms and supporting documentation. We complied and dumped reems of paper work into his little tray thing for him to sort through. He wasn't that impressed as it was in disaray, never the less he sorted through it and brought to our attention a 'missing period' of documentation of about 5 months which was when Mark was sent back to England from Australia and then I subsequently went travelling through SE Asia. I explained this to him and said that the lady on the enquires line for the IND had said our passport stamps would be enough to verify this period. He said that he didn't care 'what any lady on the phone said' and told us that we didn't have enough evidence and he wouldn't even send us to the next level where we were to pay £500 and then see a case manager as we would be rejected.
Steam started whistling from both our ears - how were we supposed to prove we were together as a couple when we were on different parts of the planet and in housing that had no bills etc in our names?? He told us that contrary to what it said on the forms we were suppose to show postcards, phone bills of calls and emails sent to each other during this time and we should go home and get these. Unfortunately this wasn't an option as there wasn't enough time... So we made another appointment for later on that same afternoon and headed off to an internet cafe in the hope of finding an email or two from the 'missing period'. Both of us not feeling very confident that it would work.
We first checked Marks account as he keeps EVERYTHING that's ever been sent to him. Unfortunately though he hadn't accessed his account for over a month and the people at hotmail had 'kindly' deleted all his old files. So without much hope we checked my email - I usually delete anything sent to me after I have replied to it. I searched all my folders with hope fading fast until tucked away at the bottom of my saved items I found one email from July 2004. I guess my filing wasn't that good! Or maybe it was...
So we printed that out thinking it wasn't enough but we'd have to give it a go anyway. Sat and had some lunch and sorted our paperwork into three seperate pile of Marks, mine and ours - all the time worrying that I wouldn't get my visa and that we'd be throwing away £500.
Back we went to reception where we met a different man. He flicked through the documents etc with hardly a glimps at it, stamped where he needed and gave us a big smile as we headed upstairs to pay our cash.
We laughed and joked with the payment guys, did some basic magic tricks with them and then waited to be called by the case worker - we had at least made it to the hard level.
The case worker asked for all the paper work again and began wading her way through it quite a bit slower than the reception guy. As she got to the email she stopped and was about to ask us something when the guy from reception downstairs walked past, saw us and said to her 'oh, I've seen this one, it's all ok'. She never asked what she was going to and finished by flicking through the rest of the stuff and saying 'You'll have your visa in about an hour and a half, you just need to wait over there' I asked if we needed to let her know our new address details as we were planning to move in September and she laughed saying 'You can if you want, but no one else does and we don't really need to know. When you come back in two years we will need the same sort of information so start collecting it now.'
With that the visa process was done and we headed bak to the train station floating on clouds and hardly able to believe our good fortune.
So the following Saturday, or the one after I cannae remeber now, I flew out of England to Australia knowing that I was able to return without any hassle and leaving Mark behind working... After about 35 hours in transit I finally landed in Rockhampton, hung over and delerious from no sleep. I hardly recognised my own sister and nephews! From there I was whisked away to Dad's place in Yeppoon where Yvette and her family were staying while they finalised their new house and move from Victoria to Queensland.
Yeppoon:
I spent a week there in the sun catching up with my nephews (one of which I hadn't met before) sister and brother-in-law. The weather was perfect - about 25 degrees and sunshine every day. One the weekend we went to Great Kepple island
where we lazed about on the beach drinking beer and snorkling most of the day away. Bloody lovely it was!
Before I knew it, it was time to head south to Melbourne to catch up with friends and my brother. So I jumpped on a plane for my 3.5 hour flight south. I landed in Melbourne a little better for wear than when I arrived in Rocky and met up with a friend of mine - Julianne - who was kind enough to home my lovely dog Summah when I first left travelling. We headed back to hers and as I walked into her house I could hear the familiar bark of Summah. When she saw me she stopped dead still for about 30 seconds, and then sniffed me all over while her tail increased its wagging velocity. She remembered me!! After getting stuck into the red wine with Julianne we headed for bed and Summah snuck into my room and slept on the bed with me... Ahhhh.
The 3 weeks in Mebourne were a whirl wind of catching up with mates, sorting out the things I had stored at my brothers place for sending back to the UK, and some other stuff to be sent to my Dad's in Queesland. I didn't manage to see Dad while I was there as he went drinving accros to the other side of the country and then up the west coast to Darwin. Maybe we'll be in sync next time...
I had my hair chopped off at the salon I used to work at about 11 years ago (which was a strange experience), caught up with my best mate Jen and her partner and kids, spent some 'quality time' with my brother, sister-in-law and little sister, saw the Picasso and Dora Maar exhibition at the NGV and got pissed each night I was in Melbourne with a different friend... Time went so quickly. I tried to get another tattoo as well but wasn't able to find a good tattooist with a spare appointment when I had time. The world at my feet wil have to wait until I am again gainfully employed.
The last weekend I was there I decided to celebrate my 30th birthday early and invited all my old friends out to my old 'local' the Union Club Hotel in Fitzroy. After emailing them all and having found my old wig I decided that although it wasn't a dress up party, a wig wasn't so dressed up. So I went along with long dark curly locks. Probably not the best idea as my brother almost didn't recognise me (he though it was some strange chick waving at him when he arrived) and a few people turned up and then left before realising I was there.... Ach well.
So on the 24th of July I headed back to the UK. The return flight wasn't that bad aside from the annoying war veteran that kept waking me up between Melb and Bankok. But I'll have to leave that part of the story for a different time as I have run out of internet time.
Where do I start.... I guess with the whole immigration thing as that's where I left off with my last entry.
It seems so long ago now! Marks and my immigration appointment was on a Tuesday before I headed back to Aus so we jumped on the train in the morning and headed up to Croydon for the interview at 11am. After stressing about it on the 1.5 hour train journey there we finally arrived and were allowed into the first level of enquiry, reception, where we met a nice enough guy who asked to see our forms and supporting documentation. We complied and dumped reems of paper work into his little tray thing for him to sort through. He wasn't that impressed as it was in disaray, never the less he sorted through it and brought to our attention a 'missing period' of documentation of about 5 months which was when Mark was sent back to England from Australia and then I subsequently went travelling through SE Asia. I explained this to him and said that the lady on the enquires line for the IND had said our passport stamps would be enough to verify this period. He said that he didn't care 'what any lady on the phone said' and told us that we didn't have enough evidence and he wouldn't even send us to the next level where we were to pay £500 and then see a case manager as we would be rejected.
Steam started whistling from both our ears - how were we supposed to prove we were together as a couple when we were on different parts of the planet and in housing that had no bills etc in our names?? He told us that contrary to what it said on the forms we were suppose to show postcards, phone bills of calls and emails sent to each other during this time and we should go home and get these. Unfortunately this wasn't an option as there wasn't enough time... So we made another appointment for later on that same afternoon and headed off to an internet cafe in the hope of finding an email or two from the 'missing period'. Both of us not feeling very confident that it would work.
We first checked Marks account as he keeps EVERYTHING that's ever been sent to him. Unfortunately though he hadn't accessed his account for over a month and the people at hotmail had 'kindly' deleted all his old files. So without much hope we checked my email - I usually delete anything sent to me after I have replied to it. I searched all my folders with hope fading fast until tucked away at the bottom of my saved items I found one email from July 2004. I guess my filing wasn't that good! Or maybe it was...
So we printed that out thinking it wasn't enough but we'd have to give it a go anyway. Sat and had some lunch and sorted our paperwork into three seperate pile of Marks, mine and ours - all the time worrying that I wouldn't get my visa and that we'd be throwing away £500.
Back we went to reception where we met a different man. He flicked through the documents etc with hardly a glimps at it, stamped where he needed and gave us a big smile as we headed upstairs to pay our cash.
We laughed and joked with the payment guys, did some basic magic tricks with them and then waited to be called by the case worker - we had at least made it to the hard level.
The case worker asked for all the paper work again and began wading her way through it quite a bit slower than the reception guy. As she got to the email she stopped and was about to ask us something when the guy from reception downstairs walked past, saw us and said to her 'oh, I've seen this one, it's all ok'. She never asked what she was going to and finished by flicking through the rest of the stuff and saying 'You'll have your visa in about an hour and a half, you just need to wait over there' I asked if we needed to let her know our new address details as we were planning to move in September and she laughed saying 'You can if you want, but no one else does and we don't really need to know. When you come back in two years we will need the same sort of information so start collecting it now.'
With that the visa process was done and we headed bak to the train station floating on clouds and hardly able to believe our good fortune.
So the following Saturday, or the one after I cannae remeber now, I flew out of England to Australia knowing that I was able to return without any hassle and leaving Mark behind working... After about 35 hours in transit I finally landed in Rockhampton, hung over and delerious from no sleep. I hardly recognised my own sister and nephews! From there I was whisked away to Dad's place in Yeppoon where Yvette and her family were staying while they finalised their new house and move from Victoria to Queensland.
Yeppoon:
I spent a week there in the sun catching up with my nephews (one of which I hadn't met before) sister and brother-in-law. The weather was perfect - about 25 degrees and sunshine every day. One the weekend we went to Great Kepple island
where we lazed about on the beach drinking beer and snorkling most of the day away. Bloody lovely it was!Before I knew it, it was time to head south to Melbourne to catch up with friends and my brother. So I jumpped on a plane for my 3.5 hour flight south. I landed in Melbourne a little better for wear than when I arrived in Rocky and met up with a friend of mine - Julianne - who was kind enough to home my lovely dog Summah when I first left travelling. We headed back to hers and as I walked into her house I could hear the familiar bark of Summah. When she saw me she stopped dead still for about 30 seconds, and then sniffed me all over while her tail increased its wagging velocity. She remembered me!! After getting stuck into the red wine with Julianne we headed for bed and Summah snuck into my room and slept on the bed with me... Ahhhh.
The 3 weeks in Mebourne were a whirl wind of catching up with mates, sorting out the things I had stored at my brothers place for sending back to the UK, and some other stuff to be sent to my Dad's in Queesland. I didn't manage to see Dad while I was there as he went drinving accros to the other side of the country and then up the west coast to Darwin. Maybe we'll be in sync next time...
I had my hair chopped off at the salon I used to work at about 11 years ago (which was a strange experience), caught up with my best mate Jen and her partner and kids, spent some 'quality time' with my brother, sister-in-law and little sister, saw the Picasso and Dora Maar exhibition at the NGV and got pissed each night I was in Melbourne with a different friend... Time went so quickly. I tried to get another tattoo as well but wasn't able to find a good tattooist with a spare appointment when I had time. The world at my feet wil have to wait until I am again gainfully employed.
The last weekend I was there I decided to celebrate my 30th birthday early and invited all my old friends out to my old 'local' the Union Club Hotel in Fitzroy. After emailing them all and having found my old wig I decided that although it wasn't a dress up party, a wig wasn't so dressed up. So I went along with long dark curly locks. Probably not the best idea as my brother almost didn't recognise me (he though it was some strange chick waving at him when he arrived) and a few people turned up and then left before realising I was there.... Ach well.
So on the 24th of July I headed back to the UK. The return flight wasn't that bad aside from the annoying war veteran that kept waking me up between Melb and Bankok. But I'll have to leave that part of the story for a different time as I have run out of internet time.