Surprises are the Best Invention EVER......

Its the day before my Christmas festivites begin and I am sitting at my desk trying to find some new music to listen to. I find loads by the way. There is a knock on my door and my housemate comes in with a massive, and I mean massive, bunch of lillies. "kayleigh, these were left outside for you" - who would send me flowers in Australia. ....






Yep they are from Gary.





There is a card and everything telling my how long until he arrives in Australia. It was the nicest surprise I could of got what with a long week and the Christmas Cheer depleating from my emotions the closer Christmas Day gets. These Lovely flowers are now sitting in my room, the buds still closed and when I get back after my Christmas Holidays they will be in full bloom. ooooooo i Cannot wait.

And...its Christmas Eve tomorrow. It def does not feel like it. I have my presents and I have to pack them to take to Bondi where I am spending Christmas. I also have to pack for my Ocean Drive which commenses on Christmas day evening. I cannnot wait for all these adventures. Christmas is going to be strange thou, sunny (hopefully) no turkey sit down dinner, no family except my BFAM, and no crappy weather that makes you stay inside all day long. I hope its a good day thou, last year I had a hangover and this year could quite possibly follow suit....we shall see......BRING ON THE FESTIVITES

Canberra, Christmas Cards, Wollongong and Walking.....

Its getting near Christmas, I have recieved a couple of presents from Gary and I have even recieved some Christmas Cards!!!! Mostly from Gary's family, my parents and a couple of friends from uni - I love them. Thanks so much guys - means a lot to me.

So, its getting to Christmas and I do not feel festive, it must be the lack of cold weather coz it def isnt from lack of rain. It has been peeing it down all week here and I was worried that my "tan" would look the same as when I left but its all ok, the sun came out today and is apparently going to come out tomorrow.

Last weekend I headed to Canberra, I knew what I was getting myself in for so I was not disappointed but I was not aware of how much I would have to walk. Canberra consists of one main street with an awesome shopping centre and then a lot of museums.HOWEVER - the musuems just happen to be placed at opposite sides of this main street to trying to fit everything in in two days take either a lot of enery - or lots of taxis! I took the option of walking on the first day and taxis on the second. It was good fun. My fave place was the War Memorial. So quiet and reflective and I just thought that it was so interesting to look at and see all about the different wars.

This weekend I headed to Wollongong to check out a comedy show called Spicks and Specks - I think its similar to the UK Never Mind the Buzzcocks and I have not laughed that much in a long time. Fantabulous. Wollongong is not bad either, nice little seaside town. A bit far from Sydney but still the kind of place I could see myself living. Beaches, Shops, Bars and Relaxing - what more would you want.

Today me and my housemate did a 10KM walk from our house to Manly on the Senic Route which was a lovely walk followed by lunch in Manly, a coffee on the beach and then a beer by the pool. I had the most amazing day to day and after Friday - I get to do it every day that I dont have anything else planned.

3 Days left of work, then Wayne Brady on Saturday and then tis allllllllll PLAY from there xx

My Tree is Decorated in Festive Spirit

Just to let you all know.....this is now what my tree looks like

I had to haul all the decorations from the mall on the bus along with this weeks food shopping - crazy. Anyway, ENJOY I know I will. I just need to get presents to put underneath them.

Christmas Time in the Summer

Heya peeps, (all three of you that read this!!)

So....although it will seem obvious because my pics are up on both facebook and flickr - i put up my christmas tree on friday, unfortunatly being the unorganised people that we are, we had no actual christmas decorations so we had to make do with the stuff in the house. Me and Laurana contributed some things from our room to make a lovely tree with a Manly Sea Eagle Scarf, a fascinator, a flower and a Christmas Koala - I have to say the tree looks lovely though not quite Christmassy. I will be off to day to get some real decorations no fear and by the end of the day our tree will have lights and tinsel!!!!

We also didnt have an angel - so Bob the Builder stepped up and agreed to be tied to the top of the tree for us....

Canberra weekend update to follow..xx

Countdown to Christmas!

So....i got two parcels in the post this morning.

One from my grandparents via my mum and one from my boyfriend.

Guess what they were.................YEP Advent Calenders. I mean here they don't seem to be that big a thing i havent seen any in normal shops only speciality shops and then they are priced around $12 and thats so not worth it. but its all good coz now i have two calenders.

I got one Kinder one from the grandparents, which included a lovely aussie christmas card,the first one of the year :0) and a metoyou one from gary...lots of chocolate for me to eat in my countdown for christmas.

Although this year my countdown to christmas is a little different. Instead of counting down to family time, coldness and a long day of eating food i am counting down to a BBQ with friends, sunshine and beaches AND a flight to melbourne to start my ocean road drive with the BFAM (brother from another mother)

Unfortunately with it being Dec 2nd, i have less than 2 weeks to finish my doctorate application yet i am still on this blog telling you about my day - oh dear i better get writing......

Canberra this weekend wooopwoooop i cant wait. xx

A weekend at home brings as much fun as a weekend away

This weekend I went....NOWHERE.

I had some friends come visit but the furthest I travelled was Bondi Beach. The weekend was actually really good fun. Nice and relaxed, had a day on the beach yesterday and the morning on the beach today with the sun shining and the surfers surfing....it was a great place to spend the day.

At Bondi the waves must of been about 6tf high and the surfers were out in their millions, I so could of spent an entire day sitting on the beach watching people catching waves, damn if I had a lens that zoomed in better I would of got some awesome shots. soon I will have the lens - very very soon.

So yeah not much to write now, this week I have to get my butt into gear and write my personal statement for my doctorate i only have three weeks left.

I also realised today that I only have three weeks left of this life here. in three weeks my life changes to that of a little traveller then three weeks after that my life changes to holiday mode. It's so weird that all these changes are happening in such a small amount of time and that when I get back to the UK my life it up in the air and I will be started from scratch - wow thats a lot of stuff to think about this week hey!!!

Wine Tasting and a Lovely Little Walk in Manly

So my travels this weekend took me about 2 hours north-west of sydney to the lovely area of Hunter Valley. Hunter Valley = wine tasting = 10 wineries and one brewery = drunken antics of epic proportions!!!

Again its lovely up there, we stayed at what can only be described as "rehab" it was called The Hunter Valley Retreat and well lets just say that our bungalow was called Success - there were others called Serenity, Prosperity etc well the list goes on and on

But it was a fantastic time, went with my housemates and my BFAM (brother from another mother) and we just had so much fun. I tasted A LOT of wine, some nice white wines, some not so nice white wines and a little bit of red wine though i am not a fan at all.

We went to one place with a guy who was really good at his job who had the identical mouth to johnny depp - as i said at the time a serious case of johnny depp mouth. hehe. so many quotes from that trip

"this place has copious amounts of quaint" me

"he has a serious case of johnny depp mouth" me

"kayleigh just wants some wood" Matt

just to mention a few. the only bad thing that was the weather...i mean how much does it rain over here in summer? if i wanted rain i would of stayed in the UK!!!!

BUT.........Today the sun was shining and the sky was blue so i took a walk to manly,

then i walked from manly to shelley beach where i sat and took some photos of some surfer dudes catching some waves -

man i really want a lens that zooms a bit more than my natural lens so i think that will be my christmas present to myself.

But the walk was lovely, i do love being by the shore/sea and so i think that may be a factor in my choice of where to live when i am older.....

A weekend in the mountain cures most illnesses

WOW, I have just come back from the most amazing place - the Blue Mountains. I had a wicked amazing time, took over 200 photos that are currently being uploaded (slowly) to my flickr and I just had the most fun.

The Blue Mountains are about an hour n half drive away from the city, a picturesque drive. We, me and Matt, headed to Wentworth Falls where a girl I had been introduced to was staying. The mountains are just full of all these little towns. The towns that have one street but a million houses surrounding. The towns that have shops that are run by the people that live there. Towns that have art and craft shops and bakeries and handmade trinkets. Just amazing.

While I was there I drove all over. (ok I didnt drive Dani did but I was an avid passenger) I saw the infamous three sisters, loads of water falls, I went on short strolls around the forests, I went on a train thing that scared the hell out of me, I walked under the canopy of trees on the mountain floor and I bought some lovely presents for myself!!! hehe. I always try and get some jewelry from places I have been and i thought that I would get myself a bracelet it was in the sale. soooo pretty.

I stayed at Danis and was made risotto - something I never had before because it usually has fish in it, it was lovely and I have decided that I like stuffed green olives but I do no like black olives!!!

Next week is the Hunter Valley Wine Country but this is not until I have headed to get some food shopping, I am running low on food!! and done 3 days at a work that I am undecided what I think about....

hope you all enjoy xoxoxox

Bad things come in threes??

They say bad things come in threes right - here is my three,

One - had a pretty dismal weekend away in Ettalong, if it wasnt for the company it could of been a whole lot worse!!! I have to say, sometime travel guides can get it sooo wrong!

Two - yet AGAIN I did not get paid on time and I had to ring up and talk to my manager again to get it sorted, thats not too bad but you know sometimes you just want it easy on the work front

and

Three - I am ill, thats right, my immune system finally gave up and boy did it give up. I have a cold of sorts, mixed in with a fever and a sore throat, a banging headache and sore muscles. Now I dont often get ill but when I get ill - I really go the whole way. So my days off have been a mixture of getting my hair cut (good thing) and lying in bed taking pills trying to get better. NOT fun at all.

Well thats all my complaining done for the moment. Now for the good stuff, as I said I got my hair cut yesterday - check out the photo...................I got myself a fringe, I quite like it but I'll let you know how much I like it in a couple of days or so when I can't get it to look like it did the day at the hairdressers.

I also got my photos to start my sydney scrap book, it does seem as though I am going to need a seperate scrap book for my travels up the coast AND more pages in this scrap book. Apparently I take way to many photos.

This weekend is suppose to be the Blue Mountains visit, I hope that I am better for it or I will be very upset because I now dont have a free weekend until after Gary gets here, and thats only about 73 days...woooohooo I cant wait.

Right, back to the dreaded application form, the good thing about being ill is that you can get loads of stuff done (computer wise) from the comfort of your own bed.

Personal Statements - possibly the worst things to write

I am applying for my doctorate and was definately not prepared for the application process. I mean i was prepared to have to answer some tough questions about why i think i should be doing the course and what are my views on education and child development but i did not think i would have to put all these questions into one statement and sell myself as much as possible. i have been sitting in front of my laptop for about 3 hours - and i have written 100 words - thats it, 100 words thats all i can think of to explain that i am the person they want to invest their money in to do their course. that really does suck. also being in another country the other way i can communicate with people that can help me is through email and the damn time difference means i have to wait ages until i get a reply. sometimes i think it was a mistake to come out here for 6 months when i was suppose to be filling out this application because i can't get the help that i need really. but i suppose if i dont get it this year i will try again next year!! and the year after that n so on till they let me on the course. right now i have moaned about that i need to get back to my 100 words.....on the up side i got a parcel from my boyfriend today - i have to say getting post that isn't from the bank or a bill feels sooo great, especially if that parcel has presents in it!!! got some tic tacs - green ones are the best, and some lipbalm that tastes as good as it smells and a bracelet to wish me a safe travel, along with other things. it really brightened up my day. sometimes therefore it's good to be away

What I have done so far

This is mainly so i can go back over and read what i did on my travels as i havent actually written down what i have done since i have been here and making my scrapbook has become difficult...

arrived SF sept 16th,
17th - went to golden gate bridge, north bridge, union square with macys, etc.
18th - SHOPPING went to haight then downtown. lunch at the cheesecake factory over looking union square. late headed to San Jose
19th - Santa Cruz, headed to see Brie ally's friend and she had the most fantastic house. then we headed to the santa cruz centre, had a look around the town and made our own perfume. had dinner on the pier. yum yum
20th - renaissance faire, some drinks on the town
21st - boating on anderson dam with allys friends, i bruised my bum. had a manicure in the evening.
22nd - botanical and japanese garden, then to chinatown, i saw grace catherdral, sushi for lunch, alamo square and then twin peaks at night
23rd - ALCATRAZ - amazing day there, then headed to pier 39 and had the most amazing dinner near the piers.
24th - chilled and went to the beach for the sunset - amazing, then me and ally headed back to San Jose for the last couple of days.
25th - monteray aquarium and villiage, headed to the tea place for ally.
26th - my last day in SF we headed to the deYoung museum for a glass blowing exhibition, then headed to golden gate bridge coz the fog came in, got some amazing photos. fly to Sydney

28th - arrive sydney after a long wait in SF to get up in the air. living in bondi
29th - headed to bondi junction to look around at the many many shops
30th - headed to city had a look around
1st - headed to darling harbour, chinese friendship garden, paddy's market and chinatown 2nd - nothing really
3rd - circular quay and rocks
4th - rocks market with matt
5th - manly grand final for NFL
6th - bbq @ matts bank holiday weekend
8th - move into seaforth house
11th - night out in manly
12th - bbq for nat
18th - randwick
19th DeeWhy
20th - start work
23rd melbourne
25th - races @ melborne

thats kind of it so far. all other plans will be wrote about in more detail.

My First Blog

I tried another blog place but didnt like it very much so i thought i would use this one, so this was my first blog post......

I dont really know what to write so i thought i would write a bit about myself and why i am doing a blog.
I am from the UK and am currently travelling around australia. i live in seaforth near manly and until december and then after that i am going off to see the queensland coast and every city between sydney and cairns.
I wanted to come to australia to live and see how it is to live out here, which is what i am doing. but i also want to see as much of the country as possible. I had planned to come out for over a year but circumstances change don't they? and so my plans change and i am going back in february.I thought that i would write a blog so i can keep track of my feelings and thoughts while i am out here and it gives me a place to vent or gush however i want :-0my boyfriend is back in the UK, i kind of left him behind and i miss him terribly. i also miss all my friends i left behind. dont you just wish you could up and move everyone that you want to be with you to the country you want to live....if only it was that easy.