From binge drinking to biking.

Siobhan, my roommate and I have just turned the heating on! It seems as my Facebook is being filled with comments on Spring and since I have even watching summery catwalks autumn has most definitely started to descend on Southern Australia.  

In fairness I'm not too sure if it is a actually freezing (it's still 20 something) but as I have spent my last few months on or around the equator and I am for sure feeling the chill! 

It's may be cold now but my last few weeks in Melbourne have been red hot. It all started with me getting a job and the fun only ended, with my money, a few days before pay day. 

St Patricks day here was definitely one of my favourite Paddys in a long time! 

My new job celebrations went all weekend and seemlessly ran into the twins' 21st followed by St. Patricks Day on the Monday. It was messy... 

Between drinks I've had my first few shifts in my new job at Brickmakers too, it's been pretty sweet.

It's an upmarket kinda place. The sort of joint where people order their coffees all machiato, skinny and part esspresso with  milk on the side. It's the sort of place I would usually avoid like the plague but its actually been amazing to work in a new environment and with people who take their jobs as seriously as they take their coffee.  Everyone at Brickmakers has been so friendly. If I can get the hours I think this job is a keeper.

This week was the first week I got paid. It also seen me almost instantly poor again after a shopping spree I have been waiting months on. When I say spree I use the word in its loosest terms. I actually only bought super sensible things that I desperately needed. Things like socks, belts and sensible shoes. I hear you ask "what has happened to you?" but in fairness reality bit pretty hard when I realised I could no longer walk barefoot and wear wine stained and holey harems. 

I also bought this beauty!

Ooh and not forgetting some new running shoes to match. Essential! 

After the drinking and diet carnage of the past few weeks and now that I am probably the proudest owner of the most wonderful bike and runners in the world next week I have decided that I'm going to get healthy. 

For starters I plan to ride my bike everywhere if not il be walking. My previous personal trainer Jennie Hales would be proud as I have plans as the weeks starts to start eating clean once more.

I'm vegetarian and although I still eat very well in the way of bread, pasta, cheese and probably everything else meat free I think as of next week I also need to start thinking about my meals and the nutrients Im getting from them. I blatantly need more protein and I suspect my iron level is super low so high protein fish and veg along with supplements is going to be my first stop. 

As of next week I will be stopping my once again ludicrous consumption of coke zero and diet coke and here's the big one... 

Next week I'm stopping smoking! 

Yes it seems I can hardly afford food so affording cigarettes at $20 a packet is out of the question. That and cycling with a fag is probably not the best of looks.

This blog is starting to feel just like where it all started so many months before. 12 Hours To Travelling is challenging me once again! 

God love Siobhan. She's in for it with nicotine withdrawal and weary me... 

Wish me luck!!

Down Under Angels!

Its Saturday, my 4th day in Melbourne. Today I got up early, went for coffee with a friend from Thailand, visited a sweet little book shop for a bit, aimlessly wandered Elizabeth and Exibition Street and had a walk through Chinatown taking pictures of graffiti and so many great things along the way. 

I'm not usually a big fan of big cities of any kind but in this place I think I might have just sown the seeds for a love story. I'm happy, maybe even the happiest I have ever felt. It's possibly the stark contrast to Asia that's amazing me most. The fashion, the scene, its people, it's rush and the romance in the chaos of one of Melbourne's  busiest weekends is just that though. Amazing. 

By reading this you would think I was a small town boy that had never left the country before now but the truth is I have travelled many times and many times I've been underwhelmed. New York, London and Paris pale in comparison... So far anyway.

Leaving Bali and knowing my first time travels in Asia where over was hard. To me I was leaving the first true sense of freedom I have ever felt. I was leaving living on a whim, going and doing who and what I please and leaving some great friends along the way. 

I had an amazing final sunset with two particular good mates Mead and Elle. It was a relief after a hectic last day shopping for sensible clothes, getting my c.v finalised, packing and preening myself at the salon before I couldn't afford to be beautiful down under. It's a hard life! 

I just made my flight and after a apotek visit that day I slept right through to 7am the next morning. I woke up as we touched down in Oz and through bleary eyes I grabbed my bags and set off for the sky bus. 

In Bali I had a fleeting meeting with one of my many 'angels' that I have been lucky enough to meet on my travels. My angels are those people that have helped me when I have been in trouble or otherwise I would have been completely lost. My Oz angel is a lovely Scottish girl called Ash, a girl I had met in one of my Indo hostels for no more than a few hours. After finding out she was living in Melbourne, the city I was planning to visit first, I gushed all my fears for the real world to her and in return she settled my nerves and gave me a few super helpful pointers. We exchanged emails and I thought that was that. 

Me being me I was going to travel on a whim. I hadn't planned anything. 

I had no accommodation booked, I didn't have a job, I hadn't contacted any Aussie friends and I hadn't even worked out how to get from the airport to the city. It seemed I was going to be lost in Oz until the day before I left Asia when I received a very special email. 

Ash's email was a god send! She had went out of her way and found me a place to stay at hers and she told me how to get into the city easy.

On arrival above the Turf pub in North Melbourne I found this... 

... welcoming me to "Melbs" and with yet more info welcoming me to the area! 

I have now settled right in. Everyone at the Turf are absolutely lovely! My room mates have been great and I've been a busy boy with their help to find a SIM card, bank account, the library, getting my responsible service of alcohol cert and my way about. 

Yesterday I finished off my landing list. The list I make in every country to get settled. It had just been a few days but that afternoon i found out that I had GOT A JOB!! 

I start on Tuesday and can't wait. Here's to a new chapter! It seems Australia isn't too bad after all.  

Countdown to reality. 10,9,8...

I can't quite believe I'm saying this but I now can't wait to go to Australia!

I know this coming from the man who said all along that he was so scared of "the real world"  is a little hypocritical but it's true. I have now been living on Sumbawa and working with its people through the Harapan Project for about 5 weeks and I think I now have all the answers I came looking for. 

I'm so glad my work here has reinforced my humanitarian and planetary ideas further. I initially thought there was a chance of me being let down with how an early days NGO works but I knew within the first few hours of medical aid and later children's education that The Harapan Project and the many locals it supports was a pretty amazing group of people and ideas. I think Harapan is going to be inspirational to me for a long time. 

I have to admit another of my questions was answered within a few hours too. I quickly realised my suspicions and found out I'm not a fan of children or at least a room full of the screaming sort . Pretty much from the offset it seemed a life of selfless work through childrens education was a definite no go. It was only on working further with these children and seeing their homes, their conditions, their environment and the family they lived lived with (or didn't) that I began to genuinely feel a life of humanitarian and environmentally led work may be for me.

Sumbawa has stunned and shocked me. It's beauty, isolation, culture and it's people are certainly both stunning and shocking in themselves but I was often shocked for the wrong reasons too. 

I was shocked to find people living on such a beautiful island to be seemingly so ignorant of and somewhat disrespectful to its charming assets. From beach to village and from jungle to mountains behind its very apparent that Sumbawa has a plastic waste problem. 

It seems everyone just litters and the few times they collect it they burn it! I mean who can blame people living a hand to mouth existence for not giving a shit but its shocking that the government hasn't already came up with a solution to this problem. 

Some of my thoughts and dreams are now a direct solution to this problem and many more issues surrounding this problem for all sorts of people around the world. I am thankful to Harapan for this.

The "real world" is a seemingly scary place and trying to find a job, house  and friends is hardly ever going to be fun or easy but I am excited for the challenge and further more ecstatic to start moulding my thoughts and dreams for the future into reality. 

Im leaving tomorrow so todays plan is to explore and see even more of this, the most beautiful place I've ever visited. 

Secret beach sunset anyone?