Birthday and Camping

So I am now 21 and a proper adult (sort of).

I had such a lovely birthday. Me and Ryan want out to an amazing indian restaurant in West End the night before. It was so delicious. And so exciting to be in a proper restaurant, it's been so long! So that was a nice pre-birthday evening. Then on my birthday I woke up to cards and presents. I had a little cake and some champagne with gold in it from my parents, some lovely jewels from Tess, a bumble bee toothbrush holder from Ryan's parents and a volcano making kit, Mr Topsy Turvey book and AMAZING SWAROVSKI JEWELLERY from Ryan. He bought me an earings and necklace set with little pink gems inside hearts. I love them! :D.

For lunch me and Ryan went to Nando's before meeting Hwaran and Sayo at the modern art museum (GOMA). We made a birthday cake out of lego, played in a room full of balloons and went down the slide. I really think that everyone should get the chance to play in a room full of balloons on their birthday, if not every day. I think life would be better with a balloon room.

Anyways, after GOMA we went to Max Brenner's an amazing chocolate shop in South Bank where we met Lizzie. We had to cue for half an hour but it was so deelicious! I had a banana chocolate milkshake and it was so good. Hwaran and Sayo even got chocolate pizza which they gave me a slice of. It had chocolate sauce with marshmellow, white chocolate and crunchy yummy things as topping. It was so sickly! I couldn't even manage to finish my 1 slice. I don't know how Hwaran and Sayo managed to eat the rest of the pizza! We then headed back, I skyped my family again as now it was my Dad's birthday as well (yes, we have the same birthday). Then people started to arrive for predrinks. We all got a little squiffy before heading out to the valley. We went to a club called The Met where me, Sayo and Katia managed to cue jump and get in for free because it was my birthday. Unfortunately not everyone could get in due to flipflops/ID that wasn't accepted. It was a good night though, Sayo and Katia introduced me to Tequila Sunrise which was so good and so unexpected as I never thought I liked tequila. We ended up staying out all night until the first train in the morning and got home around 4.30am.

It was a wonderful 21st. So far I like being 21, and am not at all keen on getting any older than this!

So, last weekend I went camping to Girraween National Park with QUEST. It was so much fun. The park is inland, up in the mountains and was stunning. It's in the granite belt and there are absolutely huge rocks everywhere. When we arrived we had a talk from a park ranger, set up our tents and then headed out for a wander. We went to granite arch where 1 huge rock is balanced upon 2 other huge rocks and then were heading back when for some reason we decided to go up the pyramid. The path went up 100s of steps before finishing where the huge rock ascent started. We had to scramble up a ridiculously steep rock to get to the top of it. I was literally going up on all fours it was so steep. The view was pretty amazing though and I was glad I made the effort to get right to the top. I was so scared to go back down though. I hadn't expected to be going on such a trek so only had daps on with next to no grip. Going down was scary! I did make it though :)

That evening we ate BBQ chicken, roasted marshmellows and drank a lot of goon. Everyone was so friendly and it didn't matter at all that I hadn't known anyone going. That is one of the things I love about QUEST. Everyone is an international student and wanting to make friends. So everyone talks to each other and it doesn't matter if you don't know anyone already.

The next day we went on a huge hike. First we went to the sphinx and the turtle. Rocks that supposedly look like their namesakes but I couldn't see it at all. Then we went to Castle Rock on the way back. The view was so amazing from up their. You could even see the sphinx and turtle where we had been earlier. They actually looked a lot further than I thought. It's so crazy that most of these walks are even allowed though. You literally are on a stupidly steep rock with no barrier and a sheer drop off the edge. In the UK I think they would definitely have something to say about it. Health and Safety and all that. I guess Aussies are credited enough to be trusted not to fall off a rock though.

The evening brought more goon and barbequed food. Somehow I managed to lose my bowl and cutlery although managed to find the cutlery in the grass in the morning! There is supposed to be a bird that steals blue things so I think perhaps that he may have made off with my bowl. We had to pack up our tents in the morning and head back to civilisation. We stopped for a walk in the rainforest en route. We somehow managed to pick a one way walk though and ended up walking a couple of k back along the highway. We must have been so funny to see, we even ran part of the way. Anyone passing would have just seen a huge line of people jogging along the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere. Rather amusing I imagine.

I was pretty sad to head back, especially as I had an assignment due monday that I had hardly started. That at least is handed in now, and I have no more classes until the 3rd May. Camping was so good, if a little cold at night. The first night I hardly slept at all because I couldn't warm up. It was nice to have a warm shower and a cosy bed when I got home.

Now it is midsemester so I am mostly doing nothing, but trying to get at least a little work done. It is a nice change from these last few weeks which have been crazily busy!

I tried to put some photos in but it didn't seem to like it. There's plenty on fb though if you did want a peek.

Hope you are all well,

love Claire xxx

2 Days

This week has been the most stressful week. I've been at uni all day for the last 3 days, had 3 pracs, a massive report to do and now today I have an oral presentation but have woken up with a sore throat :s. I can not wait for it to be saturday!

But at the weekend I did go to Byron Bay which was lovely as always. We stayed at the same campsite we were in for christmas which felt kind of strange. It felt like we were going travelling again. I really liked being back sleeping in the van. I hope I don't have to wait too long before I get the chance to go travelling again. When my student loan comes through I'm going to book a trip to Ayre's rock. I think it's going to be the last place I go before coming home. Which is now less than 3 months away. So I will be seeing you all quite soon :)

It seems strange that everyone at home is breaking up for easter though. If I was in Edinburgh I would only have exams left to do but here I havn't even got to midsemester and feel like I only just started back. I think it was definately worth it for the 3 month summer holiday though :)

Missing you all lots. It'll be very strange to be having my birthday without you all!

xxxxx