Thursday, September 25, 2008




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

Thursday, September 18, 2008


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

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

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

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

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