Dear All,

Well this is my last posting while i am here in australia and for a change it is late...again!

Its been a pretty hectic week, with me desperately trying to sort everything out and then work as much as i can to get as much money possible... i seem to be speding quite alot at the moment so need to make up for it! On my day off last week, i decided that it was about time that my ridiculously matted and dead hair got a little bit of attention, so i went to a rather pricy salon and got it cut. However the hairdresser quite obviously did not undertand when i said..."i would like to keep as much of the length as possible" as the first chop was 8 inches, and after that well i had to keep on going! So having nearly died from heart failure i went and cheared my self up by buying some very expensive sunnies!!!

On tuesday my friend Tim and I went to Rottnest which is an island just of perth and the ferry leaves from where i work, so i thought it silly to not go! We rented bikes and had an amazing day, cycling 17km...my legs and bum were SOOOOO bruised!! It was reallly windy but lovely and sunny, but the flies were absolutly terrible, it seemed everyone except us had got the right idea and were wearing fly nets so we just had to keep moving in order for us not to be killed by them! It was a great day, seeing quokas which are indigineous, small rat like wallaby things... which scared the hell out of me as i had no idea about them and one just decided to jump up onto the table as we were having lunch, which left me screaming warning everyone about the huge overgrown rat on the table...very funny! I also ran over a snake, which i thought to be a twig making me scream even more as it jumped up at me and i just threw my legs in the air!

I finished my work at the burger bar last thursday, which has been great but i was very happy about stopping two jobs and now it really feels like its winding down until i come back. On Friday the boys and i met up with Chris collier and his parents and my great aunt Roolie who is visiting from Marlborough for a couple of months. It was great to see them all and like the good big cousin Chris is he twisted my arm (well not really needing much twisting) to come out with him, and by the time i left it was time for me to go to work... not a good idea!! Then last night Sam and i went out, it was an early night, but we knew the DJ so needless to say free drinks=very drunk people!! ... again good night though!!!

Anyway to all of you who are in the UK i will see you very soon, thanks for reading my blog, and i will be continuing it when i start my next adventure!!!

Lots of love xxx

Hello all,

Well my penultimate week and i have been drastically trying to collect as much money as possible to go back with, as usual but with 10 times more haste! must confess that although i have been saving up all my money and have been working extremely hard i did have a bit of a spending spree this week, which was justified by the VERY weak £ and the fact that i am not going to be able to afford clothes in england for the next year so am forward planning as my dollars mean nothing at the moment!

I was working over the weekend so on Saturday i just worked and then had an early night so i was able to work on sunday as well. After work on sunday i went to my friend Annika's house which is right on the beach in a town called cotteslowe in Perth. It was the most amazing house i have ever seen, all very modern, with pool and a hot tub and i think 7 bedrooms... amazing... oh and it had 2 floors (for those of you who have been to Perth you will understand that most of the houses are just 1 floor!). Anyway i went there for dinner and then we went "pub crawling" to a few of the pub/night clubs on the water front. It was great fun and we were actually back at a very normal hour of 11, we felt like little girls who had been given a curfew! It was great to see her and great fun too!

On Monday my friend/work colleague Tim and I went shopping. I didnt buy anything on my list and Tim was very good at justifying me buying the clothes at what i thought to be ridiculous prices! He was there by my side converting everything into pounds to make me feel better about spending $60 on a top! This was again great fun... i havent been shopping in ages, and looks like i havent lost my touch for it!

Other than that i have just been working trying to save as much money as i possibly can while i am still here,i have to go shopping again before i leave and i have decided to do all my xmas shopping here as well...although i think it is a maximum of $10 per person as we are all quite broke and strapped for cash these days..but i think everyone will realise i am a travelling student in debt, as opposed to a rich world traveller!

So the ticket is booked and i am back in the UK on the 15th... i am very excited but i have had a great time here... its so close but So far all at the same time! I kind of just want to go back now as i feel that im already really done, im wrapping up at work and all these other boring things, and its all down hill from here. From now on (with the exception of shopping for the necessities!) i am just going to be working working working and trying not to spend any more money (haha...like that will actually happen!) and so there is nothing really from what i can see in the next couple of weeks to really look forward too!! But im nearly there!

Anyway, off i go to work...again!

hope all is well! xxx

Dear All,

Again a very very late post... apologies to all who i know read this avidly!!

It has been once again a rather boring week in terms of things to comment on, i hav been working lots and lots, which is no change and i am actually writing this rather briefly so that i can make it to work this morning!

I am actually planning on coming back early, you will be surprised to hear this has nothing to do with homesickness but there are a few things in the UK that require my attention so am being pulled back. I havent changed my flight as yet but i think that i will be leaving on th 15th of November and therefore will be back on the 16th. Because of this i am really knuckling down and trying to work as much as possible so that i can get as much money as possible while i am here as we all know that as soon as i leave i will just start spending it! I havent told my boss yet, i thought i would book the flight first so i know exactly what date i am leaving... i cant imagine they are going to be too pleased as they already where a bit dubious about hiring someone hee only for 3 months... but its only 2 weeks earlier than the original departure date so it cant be that bad!?

Sam and I went out last night...another reason for the brief post, a bit of a heavy night ... and were having a great time with no cares what so ever when his mum, Gail called us and said that she was back!... I dont know if i have told you this but she went on holiday to Italy for 3 weeks and we all thought that he was back on sunday so the house was a mess there is nothing in the house... no loo paper, no milk, no bread all our rooms were a tip, and so it was a rather big surprsie to hear from her never the less see her when we got back!!! It only took the boys 10 minutes before she was shouting at them, (she wasnt particularly pleased with Josh's new tattoo that is all across his back!) so i think thats pretty good effort!

Anyway thats all to report here... hope you are all well and see you all soon!!
Rachel xxx

dear all,

another thursday gone by and this week seems to have flown past!

I have had a slightly more interesting week so a little bit more to comment on! I have had a crazy week of work with over 50 hours this week and i am certainly feeling it now, my feet hurt and all i want to do is sleep!!! On Saturday night we were taken out by my boss for dinner as it was the girl i am replacings last night and to send her off we went out for a verynice meal and some champagne!! It was great fun and although not everyonem from work could manage to make it the important and nicest people where there! The food was great and so was the wine... yes i was drinking wine as i have not got the tolerance for champagne! I then went out with my friend tim from work, (who is great fun) and we went to a club in freo called metros. It was great however very expensive and we ended up leaving at about 2 as i had work early the next morning!

On Sunday i was invited a work friends house for dinner with the girl who was leaving for dinner and drinks. It was great and her husband who is a french/mauritian chef cooked for us which was a great treat to have a VERY VERY nice meal, for free!! It was real good fun and we ended up doing karaoke... well when i say we i mean me as i was the only one who was shameless enough to get up and sing... i am oficially the grease soundtrack guru!

So all good stuff so far... however i now have no car. Sam (my elder cousin) who is not meant to be driving anyway... got the ignition barrell locked and it had to be towed, of course being a european car that it is the part has to be flown in from europe and the cost is $900... so neither of us can afford that so i am now carless! One one hand it is luck that it happened now and not earlier on as i only have 6 more weeks left, but it does make getting to work in the evening very difficult! At the moment i am taking it one step at a time and seeing if i can make it there other ways (for example tonight i am borrowing a car) and it may just mean i have to do less shifts a week, which is finem seing as i am only doing a few for a bit of extra cash a week anyway. If that proves more difficult than its worth then i will just have to quit that job and stick to the cafe work. Its annoying but no-ones fault and coudnt have been helped, apparantly this type of thing just happens to old cars, but as i said before neither sam or i have the ability to pay it at the moment.

Speedy was over from port headland, in transit from melbourn for a few days too which was great to see him and we went out for thai which was also good!! ... ive just noticed that all my ventures have something to do with food... hmmmm.... it was nice to see him and have been seeing quite a lot of him lately!

Well next week is Ben's bday and i cant believe im not there for it, but have already sent the present like the good older sister i am... cant believe i was organised enough to do it, but apparantly i am!

anyway off to work... so thats all from me for now! Hope all is well with everyone... leave comments!!!

xxxx

hello everyone!!

again another late post.. very sory, i am slacking!!

well it has been a pretty boring week to report on again, i have been working really hard and therefore no time to do anything worth commenting or writing about!! The girl that i was hired to take over from is leaving on sunday so i have been working about 40 hours at the cafe and another 10 ontop of that for the burger bar. I have been given the shifts to open up at the cafeas well which means work starts at 7.30, which means getting up at 6... killer i know. It wouldnt be that bad if i wasnt working at the other place which means that i end up working from about 7.30-11 a few days of the week. It is lucky though that i am only working at the burger bar a few nights a week otherwise i would be far more tired than i am!

Other than work i really havent been doing much, i am enjoying work though which i guess is good... the work is pretty boring to be honest but the people are great and that makes up for it!

I am finally starting to feel like my trip is on the downward slope and i cant wait to get back where i dont have to be working the whole time and some friendly faces!

Well, that is all i can think of for now... but a quick congratulations to my grandma abbey and lee...

hope all is well... missing you all

rachel xx

Hi everyone, from a very tired Rachel...sorry about the late post...

well this week has been a good mix of wor and play! Since last thursday i have been working about 40 hours a week at both jobs, still both going very well, and i am enjoying them both... well as much as one could enjoy work! It is a good mix, as the cafe that i am working in seems to be quiet during the week, and getting slighlty busier on the weekends, but the burger bar seems to be booming in business and i am actually writing this haveing just come home from the cafe and abou to go off and work at the burger bar!

I was working all weekend, so not much going on then, however Josh, Sam and i did catch up with their dad, speedy and his partner Fran for dinner on sunday as he was in town, which was nice to do and was really great to see him! On monday Josh and I went to a huge festival in Perth called Park Life. It was an amazing day... the weather was amazing and seriously hot which was great and the day started at about 11 in the morning where we caught up with a few friends for drinks first. We got to the festival at about 2, and stayed there until about 12 that night. It was an amazing day with Dizzee rascal, plump DJ's, 2 Many DJ's, Goldfrapp (dont know how much that means to some of you?!) and many more and we were kept busy going to the different stages and moving our way through the crowd ofthey thought approx 20 000. It was an awesom day and i met loads of really nice people. Me and a friend also managed to blag our way into the VIP tent with our obvious wit and charm!! ... but ireally i think that they could just see we were meant to be VIP'S!!! ... I also met up with one of my dad's friends niece, annika, who was really nice and was great to meet her and we are planning to go out again, when i get some time off work!! I then had Tuesday off to recover, which was good planning on my side! However in the afternoon Gail (who im staying with) and i went to spend $250 each in a very expensive shop which we had won at a fashion event a couple of weeks ago. Although $250 sounds a lot it really isnt, well not here anyway! i managed to get 2 pieces of jewellery with $5 left over!!! ... oh well at least they are nice and they are sterling silver... so hey!

I am actually having quite a laid back week next week by the look of my rosta, as it is a girls last week at work and so they are giving her all the shifts, so i have next tuesday and saturday off which i will probably do nothing on as i need to save money and everything that requires me leaving the house seems to mean me spending huge amounts of money!!

Gail is off to Italy today for 20 days so, the boys and i are home alone and i have a strange feeling that i will be keeping them in towe and also cooking ot odd meal... i think i am being expected to clean and wash too... but thats just not going to happen so they may find themselves short of clothes for the next few weeks! ...But we are all working pretty hard at the moment, and Sam, the eldest is liek i am slightly strapped for cash at the moment too so i think we should be just fine!!

Anyway thats all for now as i am rushing off to work... will speak soon, hope everyoneis ok xxxx

well ... thursday again! This week has been sightly more eventful many of you will be glad to hear!!

I am very happy to say that i now have a stable (ish) job at the cafe A Slice of Heaven. I have only had one shift there this week so far but it wasnt particularly hard work and great people work there.. well that i have met so far!! I am working there this weekend also and it will be alot busier as the market is open, and it is the market cafe!! I havent got that many shifts this week but hopefully in the next week or so i will be taking over from a girl who is leaving and works full time so more and more shifts will be becoming available!! Its pretty standard stuff to be honest, making coffees, running food out, working on the till... but its great to learn how to make and use the coffee machines as it seems that everywhere has them, and that is one of the things i was asked if i could do at every work interview. So i am a very happy girl!! I am hopefully still going to fit in a few shifts at the burger joint as well, am actually working a double shift today so thats a good mix of people and jobs!

I had a pretty easy weekend - again not wanting to spend money if i dont have to, alcohol and food really dont seem worth it at the moment when i am thinking of thailand and africa! Having said that i did go to one of the boys im staying withs friends 20th bday and that was pretty good - i wasnt there for long it was absolutly freezing and when the gas in the outside heater ran out that was my cue to leave!! I was also driving so wasnt drinking so unlike others i was not completly oblivious to the cold!!

Then on tuesday i went up to Mundaring, which is the countryside of Perth to stay with Phillipa and Johnothan, my aunt and uncle which was lovely. It is really nice to get away and just be out of the city for a few days and have nice home cooked meals and help with all the horses and farmy things!! So i can back this morning before work and i am now back in Perth! It was also surprisingly warm up there... well until today - but it was an amazing English spring / summers day and for me it was warm so it was probably pretty hot!! Everything looks so much nicer when it is warm and sunny at the moment everything just looks as though we might as well be in England!! But hopefully it will start getting warmer and sunnier as i think (hope) that summer is on the way!! At the moment i think we are in the middle of "April" showers and then by the time i am leaving it will be getting just how i like it!! ... oh well you cant have everything can you!?... No, hopefuly in a couple of weeks i will be off to the beach topping up my tanand getting my body welll prepared for the Jamaican christmas sun!! ... i may not have my life completly sorted out but i definately have my tanning schedule pretty clued up!!

Anyway for another week thats all ... keep in touch

xxx

Well, another week gone and really again nothing too interesting to report on. First the logistics, i am stil working at Flip Side the burgerplace, and am hopefully starting work at a cafe on the wharf on sunday full time so about 35-40 hours a week and then hopefully slot in 2 or 3 shifts at flip side a week. This new job - well i was offered a job at the Left Bank, which is a really busy bar/club and restarant and i am meant to be starting on Saturday night...but i have taken this other job instead. The pay is a little bit better and the hours arent until 3 in the morning and also i wouldnt have to take a course for responsible service of Alcohol, which is $145, ... about 2 shifts but hey also $145!! ... this new job probably isnt as sociable or as fun or as interesting work - but probably a lot easier and it just seemed to make sense!! So the next step is to phone the left bank and say i cant work there. I am glad that i seem to be on my way to having an actual plan and i really feel like i just need to settle with one job and stop jumping around!! So hopefully this will work out.

Anyway, since last Thursday what has happened....well i went out this weekend with my cousin (more or less) to Perth city and stayed with him at a friends, while he took me out and showed me the town!! It was a good weekend but very very long, luckily being the poor backpacker that i am he payed for all my drinks and what have you so hey cant complain too much huh! So that was an adventure and nice to be out of the house and on my own for a bit.

I have also been flocked with texts and emails from very surprised and excited people telling me that my Dad was on TV and they were watching Come dine with me and ... well there was my dad and my house!! .. they were very impressed that it was a legit show and actually one that was worth watching and even more surprised by the fact that i hadnt told everyone under the sun as i usually do... but yes my dad has been on Come Dine with me, and it is killing me that i cant see it!! I cant watch it through channel 4 as i am not in the Uk and no one has put it on youtube yet... if anyone knows where i can watch a clip of it then please email me!!! I would love to see it and im not sure if i can wait until i come back!

The weather here... yes i am talking about the weather - that is how much has gone on since the last week!... anyway is very very cold and rainy.. i drove to work today in the pouring rain and it killed me ... this is meant to be Australia and it is meant to be becoming summer... anyway i guess it is "April showers!".

Anyway ... really nothing else to report on, next thursday lets hope i will have a stable job and some good money coming in! Missing you all heaps and heaps xxxxxxx

Well... another week has gone by and it has been one of the longest however not mst eventful weeks!! ... I started the week working having taken two jobs, one at the gourmet burger place and the other at Sandrinos the Italian pizza bar and restaurant. The Burger place is great fun, everyone who works there are uni students and there are probably about 5 or 6 of us on at a time and it gets pretty busy, so time doesnt pass too slowly!! The owners are pretty young and they just open up and let us get on with our selves, a nice feeling of independence and trust is felt by them doing this, i get the feeling that the work ethic here is more of a family based in environment. I am doing this casually with a few shifts during the week, this week i have had 3 and it will probably go up to 5 when im running desperately out of money!! Sandrinos.... well as soon as i went there i had a bit of a dodgy feeling about the place, well more specifically the people... they werent very friendly and my boss was a little bit of a witch! Well i stuck it out with 4 shifts during the week. However they were all night shifts so i was leaving when everyon was coming back into the house at 4/5 and then coming in at about 10/11 at night... not very sociable... so to make a long story short, seeing as there were no day shifts availabe i have quit as of oday, and am back out looking more specifically for a mon-fri job 9-5 and i will then have some shifts at the burger plave too maybe 3 or 4 times a week! Even if the pay isnt as good as Sandrinos i wont be having to pay 7$ a night o parking which really meant i wasnt making that much money.
Im not sure about my status here - obviously i will be staying for now but i am not sure whether i will be coming back as late as i said, the life is great here - but i seem to be spending much more than i can afford to do - all in a days life of a student hey?!!?! But hopefully when i get this other job it will be fine. The boys im living with are pretty big party animals and i have realised that i just cant afford to go out as much of them, but i am still making sure that i get plent of play for the amount im working!! Perth really isnt that much of a "happening" place and like someone i know visited here said ... its a great place to come back to at 50 and retire but for students... not so great, so in one mind i am asking myself what is holding me here instead of going somewhere else or even back to the Uk, but i have kind of figured that if i can stick it out until november so another month maybe 2 then i will have made a bit more money and then i can come back... for now it would almost be a waste me leaving. As you may have noticed the homesickness started to really settle this week, especially as at the beginnign of the week i was ill and all you want to do when you are ill and bed ridden is to be at home where no one cares if you stay in your pyjamas all day... but i am better now and also feeling a little better - home sickness wise. I have made a deal with myself that i stay definately until October and we see how it goes from there.

My other 2nd cousin something removed is down from the north of the country this week so we are going out with him this weekend and then out for lunch on Sunday for his mum, phillipas birthday, so that is something to look forward to! ... At the moment i really am not doing much travelling so knowing what to write about is hard, if anything major has happened i try and jot it down as the week goes by but...well this is why im afraid the blog has not got amazing adventure stories just yet!!! if there is anything that you want to know about more then just leave a comment and i will do my best to let you know as much as i can!

The picture above is taken from a park in Perth looking over the city... just to give you an idea of where i am staying! I cant bput all my photos up buthave tried to choose a select few to sum up the weeks but hopefully wiht more exciting adventures due there will be more exciting photos to put up!!!

Anyway i miss everyone and hope all are well
lots of love rachel....xxxxx

Australia

Well...after much nagging by my father i have set up a blog where you can follow my gap year. Having been in Jamaica for 2 months (i dont count this as part of my gap year as i was just going home, but hey pretty cool place and loads of people go there on their gap year!!) Mum, Ben and I flew to Singapore en route to Sydney to start the first bit of my Gap Year and also our first family holiday in AGES!! We were only in Singapore for one night and 1 and half days so of course it was full steam ahead with shopping plans the most importnat port of call and then ofcourse eating the amazing food. Singapore can only be described as Surreal, there was really no feeling or soul to the place and i just felt like i was in a much warmer far more humid UK. The road signs, radio stations, TV stations were all in English not to mention I think we heard about 2 people not talking English...it was a little bit despressing to see the amount of Westernisation that had occured. In fact the best thing about Singapore was Changi airport - which is just amazing ... having used it for every case study at my A2 Geography course with Mr Howitt (my geo teacher) raving on about its technology etc. it really lived up to what i had heard! We then made our way after our very brief stay to Sydney. We stayed in Sydney for 4 days, in an amazing hotel, which had the view of Sydney Bridge and Opera house (if i can work out how to use this thing then their should be a picture of it somewhere!!). Sydney was amazing - a little like London but with a more beachy vibe- every 2nd shop was a surfers shop. Of course only being ther efor 4 days, we were pretty hectic trying to visit as much as possible. We visited Bondi Beach (no i did not go swimming - i do have some sense) however Ben did and ... well - he was adopted obviously!! It was amazing and the most incredible thing was - there was absolutly no rubbish - not in the sea or beach and having just come from Jamaica this was hugely obvious. We also went to Orlando at the opera house, which was... dissapointing - Orlando was being played by a woman who was obviously the understudies understudies cleaner, but hey the experience was great!! We then made our way to Perth to stay with my 2nd cousins (for all of you who know me and my family they might as well be aunts and uncles!!) which was - like Sydney .... FREEZING... now i know that Australia is very South, i am not that geographically inept but ITS MEANT TO BE WARM!!!! Anyway in my true fashion i did a bit of a cool runnings and wore about almost every item of clothing that was possible!!! We werent staying in Perth for long so we did the usual touristy stuff like go to the market in freemantle and go on site seeing tours with Johnathon who soon became our tour guide, going on roo hunts as i was desperate to see one!! (which i did!!)
We then made our way to Port Headland to visit Jonno (another 2nd cousin) or Speedy as he is known and his partner Fran. The best thing about Port HEadland was that it was WARM!!! there really was nothing to do there, well in the town as it literally is smaller than Lechlade and the only people who really live there are those working on the iron ore mines and noats etc. Speedy and Fran took us off to Karijini, an amazing national park where we went gorge walking and swimming (yes i swam ... but it was freezing to say the least!) in the most amazing settings (hopefully followed by a picture at some point) where i really appreciated my knowledge of geography, i took to lecturing whoever would listen about the geology formaitons and the amazing erosional powers that would have been needed to create such gorges - webby and howwy would have been proud!! We stayed in the near by TOm Price - a small community for the local miners and a few aboriginees where my cousin of some sort lives with his girlfriend, we went and watched his basket bal GRAND FINAL and the 5 of us made the huge crowd of 2 into 7 people - it was a record breaking number of spectators. When we got back to Port Headland we went on Speedys boat whale watching... i have never seen more amazing creatures, they are SOOOOOO big and also so amazingly graceful which was completly unexpected, we got so close to 2 of them that we were actually worried they would tip the boat over...AMAZING experience. The weather was perfect - warm (well for me which probably means it was pretty hot) and the water was like silk, not a ripple in sight ... beautiful.
We then made our way back to Perth, where i was dropped of at my 2nd cousin something removed house while mum got back to Jamaica to deal with the hurricane damage and Ben went back to school, (sorry momentary evil laugh!!). I am here until the 30th of November and having never met this family and never lived away from home like this you can imagine that i was somewhat scared, but excited. I have had 3 trials for jobs, one at the equivalent of the work i did on the flying Pig and i cannot seem to stop thinking that my destiny is to be with burgers...hmmm. Well i then have to today decide what jobs to do and for how long, i think that once i am working and have a routine back in my life that i will not find this experience so scary and nerve racking. It is hard to fit into a family that you have never met especially with 2 boys in the house too... i seem to be missing the obvious people more than i thought i would, my family and school (you dont realsie what you have until its gone... i would almost give this up to just go back to shcool and be told what to do!) and of course my bestest friend loo, but as i said it will be an amazing experience and i am sure that it will be far easier than i imagine!
While i am out here my email address is rachel@lechladetrout.co.uk (original i know) or r_small@hotmail.com please email me with news etc, for those of you who are my facebook friends i am checking that pretty regularly too...i would love to hear from you!!
With love,
Rachel