Great Ocean Road Baby!

So our GOR trip wasn't as well thought out as it could have been! It consisted of 5 of us, 1 car, plenty of bags and laugh after laugh!

So Mims was chief cook, daddy Matt was in charge of the route planning, Lou was games coordinator, Lara was smart enough to know information on each of the stops and that left me to be in charge of packing ('I can find room for anything!') and I was also resident wildlife expert!

So on the first day we got in the car (I may have been late!), went to pick Lara up and hit the road!!

After a while in the car we stopped at a beach for a quick sunbathe and swim. And I managed to get the hugest splinter stuck in my finger!! That was not fun at all!

Then it was the most important time of all...BBQ time! I was promoted to head chef and it was hot dogs all round! And cheese because we're classy people!

After racing to the campsite (and almost being killed by driving off the side of the cliff!) in record time we found that they were full, so we had no option but to pull up on the side of the road and set up "camp".

Camp consisted of a two person tent (which was mouldy may I add!) and the car. So me and the Jones' squished into the tent while Matt and Lara slept in the car.

Needless to say it was a horrendous nights sleep! When any of us rolled over the whole tent pulled to that side. It was freezing! There was no room and it was very uncomfortable! I think we had an hours sleep between us!

After a dawn walk on the beach we headed to the 12 Apostles. Boy was it worth waiting for! It was slightly hazy but that added to the awesomeness of it! The photos do not do it justice at all!

After the Apostles we head to see London bridge. Lots of photos were taken and we even found a small outlook to go to that was empty! Hello lots of tourist photos!

As we drove onwards we noticed a sign for a nature reserve...so thought "We've got a few hours.to kill, why not go do a walk!"

And what a walk it was! We got lost, came face-to-face with a brown snake (!), saw koalas, wallabies, emus, got charged by a bastard emu and broke in my awesome $3 army print flip flops! Best buy!

Chuck in a scrummy Mexican meal, musical tunes, One O'clock (the giant hill at one O'Clock), ring of fire and lots of games of "Name some types of..."

What a hilarious couple of days! Needless to say after the first night of 'camping' none of us wanted to stay for a second night! It was nice to go back to a bed at the end of that!

Love me
xx

Drunken Melbourne Antics

So whilst I'm laying on the sofa, wrapped in my duvet and watching Harry Potter (very rock and roll!) I thought I'd recap on some of my more memorable nights out in Melbs!

It all started with Neighbours night...here I won a $30 bar tab which started the night off nicely! It was a barrel of laughs! Pictures with giant dogs, listening to 'mad' Libby Kennedy and then listening to Dr Kennedys band! Lots of dancing around and picture taking. I was also introduced to Passion Pop for the first time. Now I'm not too posh for Passion Pop! Berry flavoured is what I prefer....classy bird!

There were a couple of festivals Whist I was in Melbourne...White Night is the one that stands out. Drinking with my "sisters" in our room and dancing to the likes of Spice Girls, Steps and Vengaboys! Once down in the bar they were asking for donations for shots...which means we had to take advantage and do $1.00 shots! Amazing! Then we went out, listened to some music, walked Mims home, had free Jeager Bombs and then me and Lou went back out again. White Night is a festival that runs from 7pm to 7am the next day. At 3am we were dancing 70s style in Fed square! Amazing!

St Paddys Night with Lou and Mims....dear oh dear! I don't know how many time we heard "I've lost my camera" (mummy Scarlett jumped into action...putting up post-its around the hostel!) but I made sure I took lots of photos for us...especially when we ended up at The Pit! Eurgh the pit. After having one drink squeezed into PJ's with 15000 other people we went back to Urban and then stumbled across to the pit. What messes we are!

I've had so many immense nights out with the Jones'! One of the more sober ones was the Ice Bar. We went in and abused those cameras! Haha bloody tourists!

"Gin Friday, Gin Friday, Gin Friday...Woop Woop!" Now Gin Friday (later renamed to Gin everyday!) Was born by accident one evening when me and the work crew decided we hadn't quite drunk enough cleaning out the beer lines. So with the bottle of Bombay in Dre's bag, and some Solo from next door, off we went to the park just up the road...yes we are that classy. So it gets to about 4.30am and we've drunk all the gin. There are rats and bloody possums everywhere! When a set of headlights hit us from the front, as they get nearer and then go past us, we realise that it's a police car!! So we all filled Dre's lead and walk away...when from behind we suddenly hear "I wouldn't do that guys. Come on, turn around".
I was bricking it! After a short convo with the policemen we ce to find that they didn't want to arrest us for drinking in public (too much paperwork!) they just wanted us to be responsible and pick up our rubbish!

Pretty much every night with Dre is a good one! Like the night we went to Cookie, drank cocktails, drank our own gin and stole a pineapple! And then I threw the pineapple at someone in Maccas...after eating 3 quater pounders!

Alison's birthday was also a good one! She was being ambitious by aiming to go out for dinner! We started drinking a few at home...and just didn't stop! Shots of Bundy, shots of vodka, cider, wine and passion pop! We had to go out for more drink and to get Chinese, coz everyone loves chicken balls! Anyway after getting pretty drunk we headed out to a karaoke bar! Not a lot of singing, but lots of laughs! The cleaning up of the flat however was no laughing matter!

Dahling, who doesn't love a drag show! We went to see the 'Spag and Drag' show. We had an evening of laughs. 4 drag queens performing lots of tunes, dressing as the Spice Girls, wearing sequins, huge wigs and just generally being fabulous dahling! So 1 drag show and 7 glasses of wine later, we headed to the tram to dance the rest of the night away! The first bar we went to, we managed to skip the queue thanks to some very nice guys and off we went dancing! We tried these awesome vaporisers, like a long electronic cigarette, but no nicotine, just yummy flavours! After we had a few here, we left to go to a gay bar. I have never talked to spent people in my life! And me being me, I managed to find the only straight guy in the place! Awesome skills Scarlett! And also, I don't know what it is, but even the gay guys love my boobs! I was very popular that night!

The mornings after haven't been so great but I never learn and keep going back! Anyway those are just the top nights out since I've been in Melbourne and I've loved them all!!

Love me
xx

Wow...where has this year gone?!

This year is just flying by! After 7 months my time in Melbourne is coming to an end.
If someone had told me before.I came travelling that I would spend 5 months in a hostel I'd have said that they were crazy! However I spent 5 months working and living in Urban Central...and I wouldn't change a thing about that! And I'm now just finishing up 2 luxurious months in an awesome flat.
So much has happened in 7 months and I've been rather lazy and not blogged about it! Maybe I'll make some more detailed blogs in a but, but for now here's just a small selection of Melbourne highlights:

Trivia Night
Sunday Roasts at PJ O'Briens
Gin Friday....Gin Everyday!
Ice Bar
St Paddys Day
Naked For Satan
Drag Show
Great Ocean Road
Neighbours Tour
Eureka Tower
Neighbours Night
Crazy Random Drinking
Moomba
White Night
Penguins
The Pit
Queen Vic Market
Croft Institute
And Meeting The Most Amazing People!

I've made a lot of friends, some who'll be with with me for a long time (some who I'm actually an honorary family member of!)

But the time is coming to move onto the next adventure; 5 days in Tassie, then a Red Centre tour...very excited!!

Love Me
xx

Pub Life....

OK, so when people in Australia talk about Pubs they are not the same as a pub back home as we know it. In the city a pub looks like a restaurant and in the outback.....they look like the place where I'm about to get stabbed and buried never to be seen again!

 So back in November me and Maxine had the chance to go to this pub, we would work 20hours a week inn exchange for food and accommodation, any hours worked after this would be paid for. However, evidently, we didn't go and decided to waste our money on booze, food, bungee jumps and cuddling cute Koalas instead...a much better option if you ask me!

 However mid-way through January, when I was in Bundy, I decided to take this offer up. So my last night in Bundy with Sarah and James was spent stuffing ourselves with Chinese, taking about 5 hours to pack and then watching James chase the train the whole way down the platform...that crazy loon!

 The train ride was lush, I had a seat at the front of the carriage all by itself. I had a TV, a desk, a power socket, ample leg room and my trusty red pillow. I spent the night alternating between movies and sleeping. The journey in itself was a loooong one, I left Bundy at 10pm at night and didn't arrive at my destination until 4pm the next day.

 So I was picked up and taken to the pub. Here I met my boss and my new roommate Sophie. It was a good start to pub life, we had Lasagne for dinner and then we went over to the boys house with a bottle of Bundy rum for a night of drinking. And drink we did. Turns out the boys make their own alcohol, so we had home brewed beer, rum and I think some other stuff as well. The night is a little hazy!

 And that's when pub life started to go down hill. Turns out the owner was bat-shit crazy and only got worse as the fortnight went on. She was clever enough to make sure you only worked 22 hours or so a week, so really you only got paid for 2 hours work...bitch. Anyways I don't really want to talk about her because she pisses me off! I have never until her, has a boss who I don't get on with. One night she even tried to teach me how to scoop ice cream...really bitch?! I just walked out of the kitchen, wrong but really?!?!?!

 Anyways apart from her I actually had fun at the pub. During my first week there Sophie's friend Lilli came to stay, they went out a couple of nights by themselves to the boys house because I had to work but then we had a few nights with all 3 of us. Cheese and wine night was a personal favourite, we each consumed a different bottle of wine, white, rose and red and then ate our body weight in cheese, brownies, sweets, crisps and crackers whilst watching girly films. A few more nights out at the boys and consuming a lot of Bundy rum!

 The pub was on the site of natural hot springs, which meant we got to use them whenever we wanted. We went swimming in the large outdoor pool then spent time swapping between each of the 3 heat pools. The middle heat pool, then the hottest one and the freezing one. We jumped in and out of the hot and cold pools which was lovely to relax in. Reading a book by myself whilst moving from pool to pool was pure heaven.

 So the pub was actually in the middle of nowhere. You drive over the top of a hill and look down onto the pub. The pub was on a crossroad with only about 5 other houses down the road near it and the nearest Woolworth's was an hours drive away. The nearest big town was a 2 hour drive...yep 2 freaking hours! It literally was in the middle of nowhere!

 One of the rare days off that me and Sophie had together was a beautiful sunny day that we spent at Milla Milla falls. This was the waterfall I had visited a few months before when doing the Cape Tribulation tour. This time round it was a lovely sunny day and the falls were full and pouring down. So we sunbathed, read, listened to music, ate homemade sausage rolls and swam through the falls.

 On another night me and the girls made a Mexican extravaganza at the boys house. We had fajitas, re-fried beans, homemade guacamole (which was amazing!) and cheesy nachos. It was beautiful! And a lot more rum was drunk!! During the day we swam and laid around a beautiful lake in the blazing sun....that was the last I saw my sun tan!

 any way one of my favourite nights was actually the last night at the boys house. A few days before they had shot a cow....yep that's right, shot a cow. So anyways the boys marinated cow steaks in a red wine and garlic jus. They then barbecued them and i ate 4....yep 4 steaks. As well as potatoes, and then lots of cheese! The steaks were amazing!! Freshly shot cow is lush! There were 2 fresh coconuts on the side of the porch which the boys thought would be ideal to drill through and make cocktails with, and they weren't half wrong. We mixed fresh coconut, lemonade and Bundy with a splash of vodka, outback cocktails!

 So anyways apart from me only lasting 2 weeks because of the bat shit crazy owner I actually had a good time. Lots of good food, alcohol, good company with the girls and boys, jumping in fresh lakes, springs, swimming in the stream at the bottom of our house, having a room of my own, drinking wine, beer and being in the middle of nowhere! This was also the place where I started watching Modern Family and watched almost all of How I met Your Mother....there was also hardly any signal. You had to balance your phone on the porch ledge and not move it. It was like being in a detox programme and I decided I can't live without technology!

 Also the locals at the pub are a little different to what you would normally find in Australia. They are nice people but they have lived all their lives in a outback bubble. They talked about cows like I knew what they were on about. And they had no idea about musicals....can you imagine a world where no-one knows about Les Miserables or Mamma Mia....I can and I lived there. That was not pleasant.

 So anyways after 2 weeks I left the pub. It was incredibly spontaneous for me. Anyone who knows me will know that I don't just get up and go. However on this occasion I did, I booked a flight Tuesday night and flew out from Cairns to Melbourne on Wednesday morning. Dad would have a heart attack doing that! So case packed, ticket in hand and hostel waiting I left for the next adventure in Melbourne.

Love Me
xx

Bundaberg

So after a drunken and messy New Year and travelling and spending money for 3 months, it was time to get back to reality and work. So me Sarah and James headed off for a farm just north of Brisbane. The hostel we were staying at was ominously called Cellblock. It's a themed hostel from an old police station and jail block. When we arrived everyone was in bed ready to work the next day, so naturally me and Sarah drank a free drink and talked to the few who were up trying to scope the place out. What we heard was not good news at all. We had been promised work on a tomato farm when we arrived and when James was to join us a few days later he was to be on watermelons. However that first night we found out that tomatoes had finished the week before and the lads that were on watermelons were getting 3 hours a day twice a week. Not very reassuring.

 However the next day we decided it was time to explore Bundy. First on the agenda was new underwear for me. Being clever I'd been using my cool bag as an extension of my suitcase and had packed all my clean undies in there. However someone else picked it up off of the bus the night before. Leaving me underwear-less! Thank God for bikini bottoms! We were expecting Bundy to be some derelict little town where the best shop was Woolworth's! So me and Sarah were pleasantly surprised to find a shopping mall! With a K-Mart, Supre, Factorie, Coles, Woolies and much more besides. So underwear was bought and then it was food time. One of my favourite things about Bundy was the three of us cooking every night. Except for eat out nights!

 Tuesday nights were cheap pizza night, a $5 pizza....yum! Pizza Hut pizza on a Tuesday night was a delight. By the end of Tuesday night there were pizza boxes everywhere!! Saturday was steak Saturday. I have never eaten as much steak as I have here, probably because half of Queensland is populated by cows! $6 for steak, chips, salad and sauce. Bloody bargain! And Bundy is where I started eating my meat pink instead of blackened to within an inch of its life. Another bargain about Bundy was Thursday cinema bargains. The cinema was around the corner from the hostel and only showed 2 films on rotation a week. So for $6 we could go see a film each week, compared to the $20 a usual Ozzie cinema costs! Needless to say all three of these were exploited on a weekly basis!

 So I got lucky and got put on a farm straight away. Which meant getting straight into the swing of 9pm bedtimes and 5am wake-up calls. So on my second day in Bundy I was up, dressed and ready to work by 5.30am. We drove to the farm (4 of us in total) and I was introduced to the Farmer, Mick, and signed all the appropriate paper work to make sure I'd get paid. The off to work I went. My job was weeding a ginger field. This feild was so big that when I stood at the top I couldn't see the other end! My job was to go up and down the rows and picks all of the weeds out. ALL OF THEM! This could take any where from an hour or less, to (one day) taking 7 hours per row!! However it was easy work, we were left to our own devices in the field and I spent all day with my iPod in my ears. We worked from 6am to 9am and then went back to the farmers hut for a break. Then 9.30 to 12pm we worked, then had a break and then continued to work until 2.30pm. Then it was home time! This meant jumping in the shower with a nail brush to scrub my entire body!! The amount of times I looked and thought "Wow! I have a great tan!" Then realised I was just dirty. After scrubbing my body I got to jump into the swimming pool with Sarah and James, chill for a few hours, before walking up to Woolies to get dinner. Carbonara, Steak sandwiches, Thai curry.....mmm food!

 All in all looking back on Bundy I have nothing but fond memories. Good company, good food, good nights and good pay. I saved a bomb the 2 weeks I was at Bundy! However due to a lot of circumstances I decided to move further up to the middle of nowhere, to a pub. Big mistake. More in my next post!

Love Me
xx

Christmas And New Year

Having my 21st, Christmas and New Year all in a 3 week consecutive period was something I was not looking forward too. However I got lucky.

 I have some distant family who live half hour out of Brisbane and they kindly had me and Maxine to stay over Christmas. And they couldn't have been more accommodating and lovely. From driving us to the shopping centre, taking us in at xmas and just basically being our family when we were away from everyone at this difficult time! We couldn't thank them enough. So for the first few days there we shopped, went to the beach and chilled out. We had the cutest caravan to stay in; and it was decorated with tinsel and mini Xmas trees. After weeks of only staying for a couple of nights in each place, it was nice to finally lay our stuff out and just chill, without worrying about it being in peoples way, being nicked or housekeeping chucking it.

 Waking up on Christmas day to boiling heat and bright sunshine was bizarre....not like Xmas at all! My lovely family had sent out cards and presents for me to open and I loved them! Everything in there made me smile, from twiglets, to earrings, to torches and photos, ketchup and pens! So after opening these up and also opening my cards, we did the norm for an Xmas day; went to the beach! A bikini. On Christmas day. MENTAL! We had bacon and egg sandwiches by the beach and laid in the sun (a tan which has now long gone) until it was time to go back home so dinner could be prepared. I then spent the remainder of the day playing in the pool and stuffing myself silly! Food was amazing, cold meats, potato salad, salad, stuffing, mmmm! Then after having seconds and thirds it was time to dig into the chocolates! Usual Christmas behaviour! settling down on Christmas night to watch a film with everyone was soooo good. To be sat in a house with a family, after weeks of travelling was lovely.

 On boxing day it pissed it down! Which was our punishment for laughing at Sarah and James having shit weather on Xmas day. So we spent a majority of the day watching films, eating leftovers, chocolate and crisps. It was lush!

 The next day was spent watching The Hobbit....I had waited for weeks after Josh saw this and was finally going to go. Excited is an understatement! And it didn't disappoint, how they are going to cram 2 more films out of the book though is beyond me but hey ho!

 So the next day it was time to say goodbye to Gary, Emma, Curtis, Abi and Declan. We were off to Maxine's family for New Year. So that morning was spent packing, and in true Scarlett style it took forever! I get very easily distracted don't cha know! Look how long it's taken me to write and Xmas blog for goodness sake!

 So we went to Maxine's family where we spent a majority of the time chilling by the pool, playing pool, watching TV and thinking 'hmm we should go in the pool!'

 A day or 2 before New Years me and Maxine went out drinking...after lots of cherry vodka, we then hit the sambucca and more vodka!! Considering we went from one dead, dingy place to another we actually had a blast....however my body didn't thank me for it the next day. I haven't felt like that for a long time! Now I'm pale at the best of times but this was something else! It took all day to finally start to feel better, by which time Sarah had arrived to celebrate the New Year with us.

 New Years eve is usually family time in the evening. The day has been spent the last couple of years going to see friends, having a good catch up, a cuppa tea and eating! Then the fam and me all go to dinner in the evening and then I go and get merrily drunk!

 So this year we went to a house party dressed as geeks....which for me means shorts, low cut top, loads of make up and the now infamous tooth pout that I do so well! All in all it was a good night, I got to beat Sarah up with boxing gloves, drank a lot of free booze, danced and sang till I couldn't breathe any more!

 The next day was spent chilling, eating and enjoying being with each other coz this was when we left Maxine. On the 2nd of January me and Sarah boarded a bus for Bundaburg whilst Maxine stayed in Brisbane with Katie to work.

And then the next adventure began....

Love me
xx

Surfers Paradise

We were intending to only be in Surfer's for 4 days over the course of my birthday, however it turned into an 8 day smile fest!

15th Zorbing/Old Fashioned Photo's
16th Birthday/Movie World/Night Out
17th Sea World
18th Wet'N'Wild
19th Bar Crawl
20th Noodle Box
21st Flashy Beach Thing
22nd Leave For Xmas

Zorbing/Old Fashioned Photo's

 Zorbing was one of the things I still needed to cross off of my to-do in Australia list and it was worth doing! It was a very spontaneous decision, we'd only gone out to sort out my pill (don't worry James it's fine!) however ended up paying for zorbing and running for a bus. No bikini. No spare clothes. No towel.
 However me Sarah and James couldn't wait to jump into the giant inflatable ball and get rolled down a hill. We were lent some rather fetching shorts (triplets much?!) and marched up the hill. After laughing at Sarah getting stuck in the entrance to the ball (every time, what is wrong with you girl?) we had water chucked onto us and the countdown began. I have not laughed so hard in a long time! The 3 of us slipping and sliding about, trying to stand up, crashing into each other and ending up in some compromising positions!!
 We did this 3 times, which was not enough! We laughed continuously for the day! Thanks to the fact that James is a cheeky git we got some photos to remember the day by. I'm going to use the excuse that it's my birthday all the time, freebies!!! When getting vodka for the following night the guy gave me a free light up glass because it was my birthday!
 After we got home and dried up, the 5 of us dolled up and went out for a photo shoot, much to Katie's disgust!
 We went to have old fashioned photo's done. Having never done this before and being the drama queen I am I loved it!! Cue drama queen antics and everyone else laughing at my divaness! Whether they want to admit it or not, they all enjoyed it. We came away with even bigger smiles, some lovely photo's to remember it by and the memory of some sexy silk boxers under our costumes!!
 All in all it was a great first day in Surfers Paradise!

Birthday/Movie World/Night Out

 So this year was not only my first birthday away from home, but it was a big one...my 21st! The morning of my 21st I woke up to some lovely messages from family and friends which i decided to listen to and watch on the balcony. Bad move. Whilst looking at these, Katie and Maxine had snuck out to get Sarah and James, then snuck back in. The first I knew about them coming back into the room was when I was given a heart attack by a party popper being let off behind my back....starting my 21st by falling off the balcony?
 After opening my card and lovely prezzies from my amazing travel buddies, we got dressed to go to movie world!!! In the minibus on the way there, we were all kept entertained by trying to perfect my pout, this has been the source of endless entertainment ever since!!
 My movie world pass is not me with a party hat on, a giant cheesy grin and a birthday sticker on my boob.
 So we spent the day running round like loons, jumping on every ride we could, wearing superhero capes, eating ice-cream, laughing, taking photo's with everyone we could and just generally acting like big kids!!
  There's not much to be said about the night out apart from a lot of vodka was consumed!!

 Sea World

Me, Sarah and James got up the next day, shook our hangovers off and took the "short" walk to Sea World...an hour later and we're still walking!! However it was worth it, we saw penguins, sea lions, dolphins, spongebob, dinosaurs and the cutest polar bear ever!! It took all my effort not to adopt him and bring him home (Mum & Dad - I'm sure the dogs will share their beds!).
 We also rode the jet ski ride no fewer than 8 times in a row...coz that's just how we roll! Haha.
 All in all it was a really nice chilled day where we got to ooh and ahh over various animals, always a winner!

 Wet'N'Wild

 Today was the day we had been waiting for beautiful sunshine, and thankfully it didn't let us down! What better way to cool down than to go on water rides?!
Lot's of rides, swimming, wave pool, the threat of being tickled (again!), ice cream, subway sandwiches, Sarah being kicked in the face, people cheating at the mat race and loads more besides!!

Bar Crawl.

 Me, Sarah and James went out on a bar crawl...which started at 5.00pm. Naturally this meant that the vodka was opened at 3.00pm! We're so cool walking down the street with our orange fanta bottle topped up with vodka...chavs. Anyways, as we started drinking so early, by the time we got to the 5th bar (free drinks and pizza having been consumed!) we were buzzing and pretty much ready to go home, so down the street we went like a trio of loons, laughing and swaying...when we then realised it was only midnight...fail!! But we had a good night regardless.

Noodle Box.

 How we only found Noodle Box in Surfer's I will never know. But all you need to know is amazing noodles...end of!

Flashy Beach Thing.

 So me and Sarah went for a walk on our last night in Surfer's. As we walked by the beach we could see all these blue lights pinging in the air then falling back to earth again, so being the nosey cows we are we found out what they were and bought one! Who knew a bit of plastic and an elastic band could be so much fun! Cue a few hours of laughs and very sandy knees!! Haha

Leave for Xmas.

 Alas it was time to end our time in Surfer's and thus end our East coast adventure. The group had changed over the course of the previous 2 months but one thing that never changed was the fun we had. Can honestly say I wouldn't change a thing about it, and as I write this blog 2 months on I'm realising how lucky I was to meet a great group of people and miss them like crazy! Can't wait to see them again and do the next part of the adventure!

Love Me
xx