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A flattering pic of the uber-traveller extraordinaire…

So, has the ice melted away from the pavements in the UK yet?  Has the frost departed from the grassy fields of home?  Are the birds singing in the tre…oh like I care.  Sorry for all of you that already know this, sorry for all of you that are sick of hearing this, sorry for all of you that believe this to be true, but… Australia is England, but much, much better.  And hotter, obviously.  I mean, my boss said the other day “ooh, getting colder now isn’t it?”, to which I replied (wearing a t-shirt) “a little, I suppose, but not all that much.  Why, how cold does it get in winter here in Melbourne?”.  Her response had me pissing my pants with laughter – “It can get as low as 16/17 degrees”.

– This is t-shirt weather in the UK.  Ridiculous.

  

I’m gonna miss Australia a lot, I know that already.  A friend of mine back home (Mr. Ditchfield come out, your time is up…) proclaimed Australia as being as amazing as it was – he visited 2 years ago and fell in love with the place – simply because you could afford a “better quality of life” out here than in England.  How right he was/is.  Things are sooo more relaxed over here – less hassle, less worries, more breathing space, more time to live your life to the full.  Oh, and beer is marginally cheaper too.

April has been a time of saying goodbyes to people that have chosen to move on from Melbourne and hello to new friends that have just begun their adventure here.  Routine takes over when you stop and pitch your tent anywhere, as I have discovered – many a wild night, many a sorry hangover, many a hard day’s work (yeah yeah, I can hear you all going “tft, yeah right, he works in a Deli for God’s sake…”), many a final drink or meal or hug with someone off to new pastures.  I could go on about Spring, a time for birth/re-birth, blah blah, biblical Easter references, blah blah… but I only have a couple of dollars left for the internet so I won’t.  Those older and wiser should already know all that anyway.  Which reminds me… Hi Mum & Dad! Sorry I haven’t been in touch much lately…!

   

Also – as I’m slowly finding out – the longer you put you backpack down for, the harder it is to pick up… generally speaking it weighs about twice as much as it did when you arrived.  I have a ton of stuff I need to post home, mainly clothes, and I have a list as long as my arm of tasks I need to fulfill before leaving Australian shores.  One of the main ones is Travel Insurance – I have solemnly discovered that I won’t be covered in the event of, well anything after about May 10th as I didn’t really consider I’d be away as long as this.  You gotta love all the hidden charges that crop up when you don’t expect it, eh?

Yes, it is me looking uber-cool/French, in case you were wondering.

In summary (?), I fly to New Zealand on May 11th for bungy-jumping/sky-diving/zorbing/glacier climbing madness for three weeks, then on to Fiji for relaxation/beautiful beaches/island-hopping madness.  In the meantime I have to say goodbye to my gorgeous girlfriend Hayley who leaves for the same adventurous mayhem before I do.  🙁  …

…but that’s travelling, and I know she’ll have a fantastic time, so I wish her all the very best. 🙂  xxx

J.

P.S. I will update this blog after I have been in New Zealand as short time, so stay tuned!

Tags: Australia, Random Stuff, Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 at 11:07 am and is filed under Australia, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.