A girl, a dog and a Bush Turkey.

3 days until I fly to Cairns and begin my ozzy adventure! It seems so close but I've still got so much to do. I have to work today and the next 2 days -I'm doing 7 hour shifts which I think are going to be hellish! But at least I will have that little bit extra to do things. I still need to clean my room and pack the last of my things up. It's going to be so strange not having a home for 3 months, every day is going to be different and exciting. I don't have much of a plan so it's exciting not to know where we're going to end up. So far the plan is:

26th November fly to Cairns

• Buy a Campervan
• Do a Dive Course
• Travel up to the Daintree Rainforest -go Jungle Surfing (zipwireing through the rainforest, it looks amazing!)
• Travel along the Coast

25th December

• Christmas on a beach somewhere! Possibly Byron Bay?

31st December

• Sydney for New Year's Eve
• Then travel along the coast to Melbourne (See the Little Penguins!) and do the Great Ocean Road

19th January

• Ryan's birthday
• Go to the Melbourne Tennis Open
• Then drive back to Brisbane, perhaps go to Canberra en route

25th/26th January ??

• Fly to New Zealand??

8th February

• Fly back??

10th February JAMIE arrive

• Brisbane
• Gold Coast
• Whitsundays
• Sydney -Jamie's BIRTHDAY

24th February Jamie go home

• Find somewhere to live

28th February

• Back to uni.

This plan seems very vague, but really I think that's what's good about it! Having a campervan will give us the freedom to go wherever we fancy and see more of Australia than if we travelled hostel to hostel via public transport. And I think it will end up saving us money (unless something goes drastically wrong) as we'll be able to sell it at the end. I really need to sort out booking flights though, especially to NZ as if I don't do it now I probably won't end up going :s. But it's on my lidt of things to do!

The only concerns I have at the moment are if we can't find a campervan and if it might be difficult to find a nice place to live right at the beginning of term - but it worked out alright this time...

Since exams I've been working and trying to sort everything out. I have managed to do some fun things though! On saturday me, Ryan, Guy and Rich went to movieworld and wet and wild again. I got to go on the Scooby Doo ride again and there was a new 4d film in movieworld. It was Journey to the Centre of the Earth. It wasn't quite as good as Shrek but I did think it looked like a film that I actually might like to watch. In Wet and Wild Guy and Rich went on the loop the loop ride 3 times! After very little consideration I decided that I definately did not want to put myself through that again! I did get to go on the surfer ride (which Ryan previously found horrific) and thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of being at the fair. We went on a few of the other rides I went on the really tall one thats up about a million steps that I didn't go down before. It was not as scary as it looks but does hurt your back a little. Guy and Rich were very funny on the blackhole ride as earlier in the day Ryan had found some balloons in his pocket, the guys took them and were challenged to blow them up during the ride. Which they did! The lifeguards were so confused, it was many lols!

Me, Ryan and Guy also went to the Fox on sunday for $3 steak, chips and salad which was rather nice seeing as I have realised that I now like steak. We then went to the Science Centre which is like Brisbane's version of Techniquest or @ Bristol. This was a lot of fun, although I did get beaten by a child for the speed I can throw. Most dissapointing. We built a bridge, made a tunnel maze on 3 sides of a stand, lifted each other and a fridge, froze our shadows and had our severed heads displayed on a fruit platter.

Another thing that some of you may already have heard about is the story of Jack the dog and the Bush Turkey. Personally I didn't find it all that amusing but everyone else seems to do so. I was walking Jack the collie dog in the field at the back of the RSPCA and had let him off his lead to have a run around. He disappeared into one of the hedges, then all of a sudden a Bush Turkey came running out chased by a rather speedy Jack. I panicked and was running around after them shouting at Jack which did NOTHING. He caught the turkey by the tail and managed to rip all his tail feathers out before the turkey managed to get away. And then the chase began again. It only ended when Jack slowed down because the turkey was IN HIS MOUTH and I was able to make him let it go. The poor turkey was a bit worse for wear though with his poor naked tail, and there were feathers everywhere!

With that I must go as it is nearly time for work.

MISS YOU ALL and I hope you like your birthday present Melanie, it was so good to skype! xxxxx

1 more day.

My last exam is tomorrow. I can not wait to be able to relax, do fun things and not feel guilty for it. It's at 5.45pm tomorrow, I have the whole day to revise but really I just want it to be out of the way. We're having a party tomorrow. Really it's about time, I don't know how we haven't got round to it. But it's good to have something to look forward to! Hopefully will be a good, good night.

Today is my Mum's birthday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM

It's also 4 months today since I arrived in Australia. One third of the year gone already. I think once I start traveling time is going to fly by. I'm really not looking forward to next semester though. I imagine it'll be a bit of a let down having to go back to work after such a long break of doing anything I want to. Hopefully I'll be able to worry a bit less about money though as I can go back to my job and not have to save everything I earn. And it'll be nice to live in a different part of the city.

I've been thinking alot about what I'm going to do in the life scheme of things (Massive procrastination). And my current plan is to volunteer at a hospital next semester -this will hopefully help me figure out if I actually want to be a doctor. And then when I get home do some voluntary work/ shadowing so I have something to write on my UCAS form and apply to graduate medicine. And then if I don't get in, I will most likely apply to do a PGCE. But I also like the idea of working for the World Health Organisation -I'm not sure in exactly what capacity but I like the idea of being involved in health promotion. I was also sort of considering trying to get some placement work next summer but I've come to the conclusion that it would be pretty pointless as I really cannot imagine myself working in a lab. I'm hoping that next semester I'll earn enough money to be able to buy a car when I get back and maybe enough money to not have to get a proper job over the summer -maybe just babysitting or something. Although I think this is going to be massively dependant on whatever the exchange rate is. But atm it looks like it'll work out well that way (although I am so poor while I'm here). But only if I don't end up spending all my money. Perhaps I should transfer it as I get it.

The weather is getting really hot lately. I even had to sleep with the fan on. I've resorted to revising on my bed as well. When I first moved in I really liked it that I had my own mini office, but the fan has hardly any effect in there so it is so sticky. It's strange though as the internet weather forecast only classes this weather as "mild". Warm appears to begin at 28 degrees so I dread to think what hot is. At least I won't be stuck inside for it and will hopefully be able to jump in the sea :D.

Sorry this post is a little mopey, exam time seems to do that to me -but only one more day. In happier news on Saturday it was Graham's birthday so I made him a VEGAN birthday cake which was surprisingly nice and cake-like. Although not quite as good as normal cake- perhaps because I'm used to the baking of my mum and Tess though. Hmmm.

LOTS OF LOVE

Claire

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Exams :(

I am feeling so bored of revision already and I still have 9 more days to go until it's all over! I had my first exam yesterday. It was 3 hours long with 8 essay questions on Microbes and Human Health. I think it went okay as half of the questions were exactly the same as the ones in past papers. 3 hours is a long time for an exam though -especially on a saturday! My other exams are this tuesday and the tuesday after and are only 1h30. But they are at 5.45pm -what a weird time. It seems so strange that firstly I had an exam on a Saturday and now I have evening exams to do. Very odd. We also get 10mins perusal time here which is different from at home.

So lately I havn't really been doing anything fun. I even forgot to go to the RSPCA on friday. I felt so awful but I was only really thinking about revision. I seem to have no idea what day it is now either -an exam on a Saturday has confused me! On wednesday it was Louisa's birthday though so we had drinks at home and then went to South Bank for some night swimming. It was really fun -not sure why we don't do that all the time really. I hid Guy's clothes in the bushes and he started to think that he hadn't actually brought any -rather amusing. We made her a chocolate cola cake which was yummy -didn't really taste like coke but was extremely moist.

Other than that I went to a few halloween parties last weekend. It was fun to dress up. Although the Australian's don't seem to really go for it as much. Me and Guy were getting the bus to a party and he had fake blood dripping from his head and I had a bloody bolt in my chest and the bus driver didn't want Guy to get on because he was bleeding and she thought he was going to be trouble! She didn't even know it was halloween. She let us on when she saw that mine was obviously fake though. We got to the party though and noone else was dressed up scarily. They were all dressed up randomly like people from Jersey Shore, "Canada", christmas etc... It was mostly American's there and really contrasted a party we'd been to a couple of nights before where it was mostly English people and everyone was dressed up scary. That was a fun night although it got shut down by the place. We ended up going back to some of the other girls house and jumping in the pool. But then had a long, cold walk home.

Ooh and I went to the zoo again but this time with my Biol2001 class. It was pretty good as we had talks from some of the keepers which they brought the animals along too. There was a koala, baby Tasmanian devils, a macaw (which was flying right over my head between the keepers -I felt like he was going to crash into me so kept on having to duck!), 2 baby Tasmanian devils and a baby alligator which I held! I've got some pics but havn't uploaded any later so will update these last 2 blogs with those at some point. I also stroked an echidna and saw a baby wombat! I fed the kangaroos and the elephants again as well. I really love this zoo!

Anyway, I suppose I really should do some revison. I have absolutely nothing exciting planned until after exams so it's going to be a boring 10 days! When I'm done will hopefully be going to Noosa for a few days and working a bit to try and make some money for travels before leaving on the 26th! Only 19 days to go before Cairns!!

Lots of love

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