Yikes

Oh My.

I kinda abandoned this thing and never came back.
well now i'm back in Adelaide and i have broadband so i have no excusses.
I'm not sure where to start or what direction to go in.
I thought i might do a catch up. lets see how it goes.

So Melbourne for the Grand Prix. I went for all 4 days and had a fantastic time. It was cold and rainy but strangly with enough sun to get burnt? The noise of the cars was thunderous. It was a fantastic race with LOTS of crashes and even when the cars were off the track they had some amazing V8 ute racing, it seemed very australian! After the race i walked along the track and watched michael schumachers ferrari be karted away on the back of a truck it was very smashed up. I did the british backpacker tradion of going to a neighbours night at the elephant and wheelbarrow. I met Steff, Boyd and Stuart, unfortunatly harold was sick and couldn't make it :( but i got my photo's taken with them and had a few beers.

I headed north to Echuca a small town on the murry river to pick grapes but unfortunatly work was scarse and I only stayed a week. Really nice town with the nicest backpackers i've stayed in it had an open fire and everything. I got my next grape picking job just outside Robinvale but it turned out the owners wern't very nice and when they punched a belgian backpacker and broke his glasses i thought it might be time to be moving on.

Back to South Australia for a short escape to the Clare valley for Liams birthday. Wonderful wineries were far too tempting and ended up buying a bottle in nearly every place. We stayed in a cool little cottage up on a hill with a fire and spa! Unfortunatly I was too hungover to stop in wineries in the barrossa so will have to save them up for another day.
Flew up to Brisbane then on to Townsville to visit friends backtracked down to Bundaberg and picked Tomatos for 3 weeks. Awsome backpackers Footprints. Flew up to Darwin (my Airmiles are pilling up) and spent 3 days camping in Kakadu national park, lots of pretty waterfalls. did many top end attrations including the deckchair cinema where a possum tried to eat my crisps. i also dicovered cold rock ice cream where they mash sweeties into your icecream. woderful in the humidity.

Took the Ghan Trian down to Adelaide via Alice springs and I did a 5 day tour of the rock and slept in swags at -4deg C i forgot it was the middle of the desert and would get cold at night! i was very happy with my beanie and water bottle filled with hot water i ignored all the howling dingos and slept happily through the night! really enjoyed the Red centre. back to Adelaide and worked in a coffee shop for 3 months and then landed a chem job in a lab. worked there for 5 months. Had a trip to Kangaroo island for my birthday and up to Brisbane for Christmas My mum flew out and surprised me. and over to Sydney for a wedding and trip into the blue mountains in February 07.

In May me and L went to Cambodia for 3 weeks our first proper O.s. holiday. It was a bit of a culture shock and very memorable. the temples the people the beaches adn the rain!

In September 07 I left Australia for New Zealand.
New Zealand was lovely I worked in a great Belgian Beer cafe in Auckland, which has the downside of tasty Belgian beer taking away all you wages! ah well fun times!
I bought a camper van called Karl and me and Liam traveled the south Island for 3 weeks over Christmas. It was great, i think my favorite memory was the Helicopter ride up to fox Glacier then hiking around till our toes went numb. We Zorbed, jetboated and jumped off a bridge in Queenstown. will have to go back with more time and money!

It was then time for a quick trip back in the UK (sorry to all the people i didn't get a chance to see, you'll just have to come here!) Mainly I was home in Shetland packing up stuff and visiting family old and new (so many new cousins while I've been away!). My mum sold the hotel Yesterday! HOooray!!! although it'll be really odd to go back to the bar and not have to collect glasses or just run to change a keg. So the most northerly hotel in the British Isles no longer belongs to my mum. she is happily retired and says she's going to sell all the clutter from her house on e-bay!

Me, mum, Chelsea (my niece) and my auntie Joan all flew out to Australia together.
Joan has family in Melbourne so we left her there and headed up to Brisbane to see my Brother his girlfriend and there 3month old Baby boy Oliver. Very cute.
Me and Chelsea went off on adventures leaving mum to hold her new grandson, First we went to Magnetic Island amazing peaceful backpackers attached to a wildlife park and wonderful beaches but unfortunately no swimming as it was stinger season and a boy had been stung. But we took a tour out to the reef and saw Coral and star fish, very cool. once back in Brisbane we went surfing, abseiling, wet and wild water park, Australia zoo had a fantastic time!

Now back in Ad working for a chemistry company and wondering what to do next?