After what had felt like a thousand years, I found myself with having only one day remaining until I left for Australia. I had no nerves, I'm not that kind of person. Being nervous causes worry and stress and anxiety. What's the point of that? Embrace everything that is different, as you never know if you will get it again.

I didn't sleep very well. I lay in bed thinking of all the different things I could do and I just didn't sleep throug excitement. When I wke in the morning I loaded my mums car as she had borrowed it to me, and left to pick her up. When I was a half mile away, I realised I had left my case at home. Fail.

I arrived at my mums, blasted the horn and she duely came out. She was fine, no tears. A far cry (no pun) from what my sister would be like. We drove to my sisters and picked her up. It took 2 minutes until she started crying. Bless.

When we arrived at work I saw no minibus and we were due to leave in 15 minutes. We were told to pack our passes in out suitcases, so this left me with no way to enter the building. Awesome. Luckily, I tailgated, an act punishable by death, however given the circumstances I took a risk. it was surreal seeing everybody there with their gear ready to go, some with family in the training centre, others like me had their family outside firmly away from everybody else! We all went out and everyone did their goodbyes, there were tears, my sister was sobbing, my mum was sound, I had no tears, it's only 6 months. If it was 6months in Rhyl, I probably would have cried. When we left, a woman started running after the bus and waving. I thought she was funny. Turns out it was Abbi Ford's nan. Bosh.

The journey to heathrow was actually very quick. When you think of London you automatically assume its hours away. We were there within 2 and a half, and that included some traffic for the snow blizzard we went through. When I saw heathrow I knew the adventure had begun. We did the regular stuff of checking in and getting boarding cards. We had already prebooked an executive lounge to chill in. It was the absolute dogs dangles. Free drinks, posh cheese on toast, and a snug room, which was basically a wacky warehouse for the wealthy. And here we were. Our mark was firmly stamped.
The plan was a monster. I mean huge. I had seen an a380 on tv, but nothing could prepare me for the size of it. I looked at the plane and was actually perplexed by the beauty of it. The engineering that went into the making of that plane is absolutely outstanding. You need to see the plane up close to appreciate just how incredible it is. I then found out they suffer with cracked wings. Hmm.

We were flying cattle class, which is the lowest class. It was superb. Comfy chairs, touchscreen entertainment systems with movies and music on demand. I watch transformers dark of the moon (for the 8th time ish) and her arse going up the stairs is still immense. One nil to the Brits right there. The food was good as well, but the rack on the air hostess was impeccable. Rewind a bit actually, how have I missed this?! There is a channel which you can watch which has a camera on the tail of the plane so you can watch the plan taking off. Awesome! I watched us take off, and it was ridiculous! It felt like we were doing 25mph where as we were close to 250mph. The plane was immense. We got to Singapore, after a mental on/off sleep, and had a wander around. Immediately I noticed the culture of the Singaporean people. So friendly, always smiling. They weren't fake smiles either. You could tell they were genuinely nice. You have people in the toilets who stay there permanently cleaning up. None of this checking it every hour and signing a sheet, someone is always in there. And they will do anything to help. They even wipe your arse for you. Ok I joke, but they probably would if you asked. My phone was dead at this stage, so no Internet there. There was free wifi but I'll be buggered if I could read the writing. So I used a pc that was donated from 1996 as it was a right knackered old thing. But it worked. So a old school steam controlled pc, saved me. Faith in the old. When we left to board our plane to Oz, I found a mobile recharging point. Just my luck. The plane to Oz was a Jetstar, nowhere near as good as the a380, but still good none the less. The arrival in oz was god, and we flew through customs. We were here. Finally after the months of waiting, excitement and build up, we were here. I nearly cried, but I told nobody.

We had Trez Steve and Jan waiting to pick us up, it was now nearly 6am and we had a little bus outside waiting for us. An Australian woman drove us to the apartments and after a little debrief, I got to my room. My little home for 6 months. I quickly unpacked, woke the boys up who I'm sharing with and did a little wee.

Our first day was a bit hectic as we had stuff that needed to be sorted, including our banks and medical things. So on the first day we ventured into Darwin on the bus. $2 for all travel for 3 hours. Mint. Public transport over here is brilliant, no fanning about, no overpricing. It's designed for the public, and it works. We got into the city, and went into ANZ, which is the bank I'm using. This would be my first real encounter with an Australian. I firmly believe that first impressions do count. And she did her country proud. You would think i  had known her for years, as she was really friendly, and for the 15 minutes I was with her sorting my account, we just chatted and laughed. She made my first experience with an Ozzy awesome. This was to be something that was repeated with the rest of our encounters.
The way people speak to you, the manners they use is stunning. Even little children, who can be forgiven for not displaying manners, are simply brilliant. Always smiling, waving at you and just generally being brilliant. The only miserable person was someone I came across in woolworths, and he had a cockney accent. Figures.

For the first few days, we just pottered about, doing bits of shopping and getting used to the area, and the weather. Now, in the uk, if the sun even thinks about coming out, I'm too hot. Over here, the heat is wonderful. Yes, you do sweat a little but who cares. Your living in tropical weather. I bought one pair of jeans with me. They won't get used. Some food is expensive, some is cheap. Meat is cheap. Very cheap. 2kg silverside joint for $11. Yes please. Block of dairy milk, little one, $2. So no chocolate whilst I'm here. It's all good. But I did buy some sneaky vanilla coke. Hello childhood!

There is a bakery situated 2 minutes away from me. Back home, I am sure everyone has had a bacon and cheese sandwich. They are really nice. Ozzys do things one better. They get the dough, chuck in chopped bacon and cheese, then bake it. So the bread has cheese and bacon in. I can't describe how good it tastes. Go and make some yourself then thank me later. I have also had some kangaroo steaks. Heaven, absolute heaven. Everything over here is better, the meat is just crazy nice. Loads of flavour and so tender. Did I mention it was cheap?

On the second night, we all went to a sports bar. This is another affirmation of the Ozzy culture. We were chatting to an Ozzy called Rolf, nice guy in his 50s I would say. We spoke to him for a good few hours. Imagine being back home and that happening. It wouldn't. They don't have chavs over here, everyone gets on. We spoke to loads of people. But Rolf was epic. He was buying us drinks and he simply wouldn't let us say no. What a guy.

We went to the wave pool the other day as well. A $17m development in Darwin that has been built to encourage tourism. $8 to stay there all day riding waves, then chilling out under mini waterfalls. And getting burnt. We also had breakfast there, I had bacon beans and toast for about $10 but it's proper bacon, and doorstopper bread. You don't mind paying that when the people who take your order are friendly, unlike some student bum you would get back home. I can't describe the feeling of lying down in that sun, with 30 odd people who you know and get on with. It really is a massive privilege to be here. It's just completely out of this world.

We have bought mobiles as well, and we have been to the shop a few times, and the people working there are quality, again really friendly and just brilliant people.
You will have to forgive me as I'm telling you things, there is no specific order in which I'm writing, it's just as things come to me. Oh, I just thought, in the paper the other day there was a headline, "what a wanker" and it was a story of a man who was basically running around bashing himself off in people's gardens. The sentinel would never report that!!!

Another strange thing, the clothes driers are affixed to the walls, upside down. I don't know why.
I have spent a  Lot of time in the pool. just throwing a ball around with everyone and having banter. You can't put a price on that. Well, $22 for a mini afl ball. Courtesy of toothy. Actually it's $44 as the first one popped.
They have some quality cars over here as well, all big v8 monsters, with some mentally good registration plates. We seen one that said tt Audi, and some just say a name, like I saw ella on Toyota. Speaking of cars, I have found a purple pick up I want. $29k.

We went out into Darwin town last night. Here I discovered a few things. Firstly, ozzys  can't drink like us. Nowhere near. Secondly, they can't dance like us. We owned the dance floor last night. We represented the uk last night like you wouldn't believe. But, on a redeeming third, some of the females, well, Jesus Henry Christ. There has been a lot of good DNA matches between some people, as some of the women around here are absolutely stunning. And unlike the uk where you will get a girl who is stunning being stuck up and pompous, over here they aren't, they all smile. They don't do fake nails, and fake hair and fake tan. Even the girls who aren't tanned, they look stunning. Maybe the uk girls should take note that fake hair, fake nails, and fake tan is not a good look.

This morning we went to the famous parap markets. Held every Saturday between 8am and 2pm, they display some of the finest parap has to offer, also there is a lot of oriental stuff that comes out. Multiple food choices, bric a bric offerings and clothing stalls. But, the smell that comes from that place is amazing. I can't describe the smell of all the other foods. I can only try and describe it in my own messed up way. If you had a piece of paper, and you put dots of bright coloured paint on it, and then mixed them all together, you would get a mix of colours all bright and vivid intertwining on the paper. This is what the smells do, and its just incredible. There is stuff that I have missed, however as I write more, stuff will come flooding back. So don't panic, I will keep updating this. This is it for this little installments, I'm going to fire up the BBQ and smash some steak down me. But I will end on a cliffhanger.................................



A cyclone is coming!!!!!