Bangkok - The City of Angels (?)

Arrived in Suvarnabhumi Airport safe and sound; followed the Thai/English signs to immigration/baggage collection (or what I thought it was). Ended up walking through the wrong entrance only to find myself being scanned and shipped up to departures to fly out of the airport that I just arrived into. My understanding of Thai just isn't quite what it used to be. Was able to get myself back down to immigration; joined the shortest queue (which took forever to move) and at this stage the passengers from my plane had long gone and I was eventually re-united with my pink duffel bag lying all on its lonesome on the floor by the carousel.

Staying in a place called Lat Krabang which is about 15 minutes taxi or 4 minutes in the Airport skytrain in a cheap, but really lovely family owned hotel who are just adorable. Big double bed, cable TV and a fridge stocked with free water, coke, noodles and coffee - what more could a girl ask for! And they have a free computer in the lobby, so decided to make use of it as I may not often get a chance to in the camp in Phuket.

This morning I decided to get up early and take a tour of Bangkok (known as the 'City of Angels/Siam City' or 'City of Scammers' more like) myself instead of taking a tour from these tour companies that charge a fortune for the same thing. Armed with a map and the following words of wisdom from Ritvic (the lovely owner of the hotel) in his broken English with a Thai accent which went something like this: "You take Skytrain/airport link purple line or Lad Krabang, change at Makkasan Road, walk 200 meteeerrr to MRT route, go to Siam...shopping, shopping, shopping...you like shopping? Then go to Hua Lamphong - China Town...wery big, nice bird nest soup - you like bird nest soup - you eat Thai? Afta you go to Templeee - lots of Templeee here - big Buddahhh, Grand Palace - you cross a rivaaaa - go to Pier 5...no ova pier...wery expensive - pirate people here, they charge 300 Baht..Pier 5 only 14 baht...much betta for tourist. Bless him, but I was getting confused at this stage so decided to figure it out myself.

So I caught a taxi up to the airport, jumped on the Airport Link to take me to Phyai Thai which is near the shopping area, but miles away from the toursity spots/temples I was looking for. Had several goes at getting a taxi for the right price cos here in Bangkok city, most taxi/tuk-tuk drivers just see you as a wallet/purse on legs and will try their best to screw you for a few extra Baht (don't blame them to be honest, I would probably do the same if I earned as little as they do).  Wanted to go to the Rattanakosin area near the Chao Phraya River where the Wat Po, Grand Palace and Big Buddah are (main tourist spots). First taxi driver in his 80's (thinkin an aul guy would be nice/honest) picked me up...got in, spoke a bit of Thai, told him where I wanted to go and aksed how much - he was chargin an arm and a leg and I asked him in Thai to turn on the meter (if they don't turn on the meter here, they charge whatever they like). The wee shite  came up with every excuse under the sun like 'big traffic jam, it costs more'. So I said no way, jumped out and caught another one. Got to Wat Po Temple - really stunning, took a few pictures and walked round to the Grand Palace.

Having visited Vietnam before and all the temples there, I totally forgot about the 'acceptable dress code' for the places around the Grand Palace and I rocked up in short, demin shorts with flip flops and a singlet. Realising my stupidity, I didn't even try to get into the Palace (as my nakedness would have offended the entire sacred ground and the Emerald Buddah would have cursed me) and saved myself the embarrassment of being turned away by some Thai soldier, feeling like a complete prostitute.

So off I wandered to the little market stalls across the street, opposite the Palace. Had done a tiny bit of research of Bangkok and a line in one of my notes read 'Never take a tuk-tuk from Grand Palace or Wat Po'. Obviously, I completely forgot about this and took a tuk-tuk right outside the Palace with the driver, who was a young lad, who spoke good English/very friendly said he'd take me to some temples that I told him I wanted to go to. It was really cheap - going for 40 Baht - which is the equivalent of 75p. Jumped into the tuk-tuk (which was one of my to-do things anyway) and whizzed round the streets and backstreets of Bangkok. Saw the temples that I wanted to go to and then the driver was going on about some price of petrol somewhere and that I could get cheap clothes/jewellery some place.

Rocked up to this 'gem store' and then remembered the little note to myself telling me not to get a tuk-tuk from Grand Palace came back to me!  Read that these guys around this area can bring you to these so called 'gem stores' and stupid foreigners go in and buy fake gems and get ripped off. Also, I read that they get a commission from these shops, so if tourists just walk in, they get a nice wee wage. So, remembering what I had read, I decided to play him at his own game and was like,  'Nah, I'm not into gems, don't like them, so you can take me back to the Grand Palace now...and oh by the way, you're not going to rip me off/scam me cos I know what you get out of this place, thanks very much!'. He was like, 'Oh please, just go in and look, please'... I never budged..think he was raging - I could just see him nearly cry cos he wasn't getting his commission or petrol voucher or whatever it was. Apparently it's a big scam over here.

Anyway, he was nice and took me back. I got the cheapest ever ride around Bangkok (well over an hour), saw the things that I wanted all for 75p; so I think it was 1-0 to me, versus the scammers. Instead of paying 9 - 15 thousand Baht for an organised tour, I spent less than 1000 Baht; about the equivalent of a tenner for transport, entrance into the places and some lunch.

Bangkok isn't the shithole that some people had said to me before. I quite like the city. It reminds me a bit of Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam - westernised and more wealthier, with more cars than mopheads, but still the poverty in the side-streets. There are skyscrapers across the city with golden temples and images of the King everywhere. There are lots of market stalls with people selling everything from used shoes, old cassettes, to food, to Buddhist monks roaming the streets - you name it, it's all here (have yet to see the lady-boys yet, but think it was a bit too early in the day). There's lots to keep your senses busy.  People are very friendly here and if you try and speak Thai, you'll be greeted with more smiles, an answer in English and less chance of being scammed, as you show them you are trying.

I got to see a few things, but this place is so vast, I've only touched the surface. Fly out to Phuket tomorrow evening to my camp, so hope to go into town in the morning and see another couple of things and maybe take a wee visit and get a Thai massage - here's hoping it's not one of those other 'massage' places, knowing my luck! ;)

Thailand calling

The slave trade is nearing its end - soon the shackles will be released and I'll be on my way to my next destination. Only one more week to go. Last week, it was mulching time and picking weeds in a very long driveway for hours (with the tiniest of forks). There is a new invention called weed-killer, but it seems to be avoided here. It would get the job done in a quicker time, with less hassle/sweat in the midday sun. One of the neighbours came along at one stage, felt sorry for myself and another German, Ivonne, and gave us a few refreshing drinks (cider) over the fence. We hid behind the car, like two little school-kids not wanting to get caught; but of course, we were found out after we had disappeared into his office to have another couple!  After that, we had the weeds picked within 10 minutes...just goes to show you the benefits of having a drink in the afternoon.  But, all in all, the work hasn't been too bad and our hosts are lovely though.

Have had my last big weekend in Sydney with friends, celebrating Jamesy's 30th birthday, having food thrown down our mouths in a Japanese restaurant in the city and then  we all went off into the city centre to finish the night off. Have said my good-byes to most people - it keeps getting easier and easier everytime I have to leave. Gotta say - Australia has been fantastic. Have met so many wonderful people and had the best of laughs with them. So much better than boring New Zealand. If I ever decide to emigrate to a developed country, then it would be Australia and especially Sydney. You just can't get bored with this city - it's amazing and not once have I ever felt threatened or my safety in danger, nor have I witnessed brawls in/outside bars (unlike some crappy bars at home). People of all nationalities live side by side in harmony with each other and the Aussies have been so welcoming and friendly.  It's no wonder people are moving over here in their droves.

This time next week, I'll be somewhere in the skies, heading towards Bangkok, Thailand. My wee nephew Ethan (4) asked his mum, "Is auntie Mary going to Thailand to get some ties?!" - aww bless him. I can't wait to get there and this time I will be back on the road on my own again. Am really looking forward to the unknown, different culture/language, witnessing all these talked about lady-boys, chaos on the roads with mopheads, tuk-tuks, temples, Happy Buddhas everywhere and the sights and smells of SE Asia on every street corner. Think it may be a bit like Vietnam when I travelled there 3 years ago, but a bit more touristy. Got my Thai visa here in Sydney and have been able to learn a tiny bit of Thai to get me by, but no doubt the pronunciation will be completely wrong and I'll end up in Bangladesh or somewhere.

My plans for Thailand? Well, I'll be spending 3 days in Bangkok, then I'm off to Phuket. The plan is to stay in Phuket for about 2 weeks and then after that, I haven't a clue. Decided it's better not to plan too much in advance, as you never really get to do all that you want to, so I'll go with the flow. Hope to get into Laos and Cambodia and would like to do a bit of volunteering here at some stage, so will figure that out closer to the time again, but if anyone knows of any good places to volunteer from their own experiences, feel free to email me.

So what's the torture in Phuket that I'll be doing? Well, I'm joining the local Buddhist monks high up in the mountain side, shaving my head and going to wear an orange dress for two weeks and sit like a Buddha humming and haaing in the lotus position. Nah, just joking - that would probably be an easy way out. I'm off to a type of camp in the 38 degree heat with 90 something percent humidity to do lots of training (trying to get back into some sort of fitness after the lack of it the last 7 months). It's in a place called Chalong and here I'll be getting up at dawn 6 days a week to do a daily boot camp fitness (which is apparently pretty gruelling) followed by yoga, running, mixed martial arts and a bit of Muay Thai for self-defence...nuts, I know. But I love all that sorta stuff and can't wait. I'll be living on the camp in a wee room, with my own bed, shared bathroom and wait for it...a fan...what luxury. No doubt, it'll be like a sauna and I'll be sweating bucket loads. Have been practising my 'wax-on, wax-off' techniques when I've been slaving away here painting and polishing - move over Karate Kid.

Apparently I've been told that there's a high threat of terrorism in Thailand. The most recent being 3 terrorist bomb explosions in Bangkok in mid February. Have checked the Travel Advice and obviously won't be visiting certain areas and have to exercise a high degree of caution...blah, blah, blah...will just be like home again. But check this out: I typed in travel advice to Northern Ireland on the Dept. of Foreign Affairs here in Australia and they have warned Aussies of a 'severe' threat of terrorist attacks and basically to stay away from N.I. as they could be caught up in violence - oh please - how ridiculous. So Bangkok should be safer than Belfast then!  Won't have a computer with me either (as I've been using Audrey's and she'll be taking it back as she's returning home again) so probably won't be online as much as I have been here in Oz and not sure what the internet situation is like in my camp, so if ya don't hear from me for a bit, don't be worrying...I'll be too busy with my karate chopping/Muay Thai techniques; but I'll try and update when I can.

Slave Labour

I can landscape garden now - check out my balded tree!

Ok, so one of the main reasons to be back down in Sydney was because of the promise of a paid job, with free accommodation, being treated "Like one of the family, you can have a free car and the room in the house is yours..don't worry, no more HelpX people if we've too many, we'll just turn them away and you'll both get a good wage" (our host, talking shite post Xmas 2011). Reality check end of Jan 2012 - our host again "There are 6 HelpXers at the minute, only place for you both is the shed for the next 4 weeks, we'll pay you, but will have to take 4 hours off you each day as you're getting a bed, oh and there's no car."

Now, these people are loaded; wife is a GP and he has his own business.  He's flying off to China in a few weeks - business class of course - cruises, the lot. When it comes to giving us a wage - well, it's less than the minimum wage over here in Oz. Most Aussies wouldn't get out of bed in the morning for it. In fact, working at the local KFC would probably pay us much more. Actually, maybe even cleaning the toilets with our tongues may earn more.

So what does our day consist of? Slavery and sweat, that's what! The first week was spent in the factory with the shampoo/conditioner products. Just think what a Chinese sweat shop may look like and you're pretty much there. We had 10, 000 gold and green shampoo bottles to fill. The song that was constantly ringing in my head was..'10, 000 green bottles sitting on a wall.' My job was to fill 250mls of shampoo by hand, pressing a foot pump to load the bottles and then passing them onto a small conveyor belt. Audrey had to place a lid on each bottle, tighten them and put them into a box. Talk about head melting - working like robots - I feel sorry for those Chinese people. If I ever see a green/gold shampoo bottle again, it'll be too soon. Sometimes the machine misbehaved or if I took my eye off the bottle for a split second I ended up spilling the contents everywhere. When this happened, the bottle in particular, was thrown to the nearest wall in anger, contents splattering everywhere. The wall was probably getting a good clean anyway, so there were no losers in the end.

The next few days were at the home working in the garden or a house that was to be rented out. Well, during these days we both became a landscape gardener, painter and decorator, cleaner, polyfilla person, window cleaner, spud picker, grub thrower to the chooks and cooks. First time ever using an electric saw - I had to trim back the bushes and shape them - well, they were trimmed back...balded more like with stumps growing out. It looks like autumn has arrived already after my handy work. 

The end of the week saw the both of us at the factory again. This time, it was the other one, which has lots of filling machines in boxes. Heavy wooden boxes, some looking like small coffins with machines in them, filled right up to near roof level. Floor space...there was none, because of all these wooden boxes. This time, we were Bob the Builder (in a feminine way, if that is ever possible?). Hammer, chisel, screwdriver, heavy duty gloves, crowbars to the ready.  Bang, bang, bang all day long, unscrewing the boxes and removing the sides, lifting heavy machinery, placing them in the correct area, filling a skip with excess wood, using a forklift truck (Auds had to use it to lift our boss up to try and unscrew a shelf at near ceiling level). Without prior training, he was lifted up alright, but there was one stage he nearly never made it down as the forklift had other ideas, jolting up and down. It was hilarious to watch.

Meanwhile, whilst we both work our asses off, our host/boss, stands and watches us, his belly getting bigger and bigger while we feed him 5 million rounds of bread and lobster paste for his lunch and make him several cups of tea. And at the end of the week it was pay-day (after asking at least 3 times for it)...yippee...well, not quite yippee, but I suppose it was better than nothing. They took the equivalent of $500 altogether off us for our accommodation (now this was a bed in a shed, not worth $5 and the food that we're eating). I have tuna and peas for lunch (costing $2 a day) and my own breakfast. Dinner is whatever leftovers from the previous night/week frozen in the freezer. Some days it's fresh though, but that's usually the weekend, when we're not there.

So yeah, I've had it with rich people - they do my head in - tight arsed bleep-bleeps (swear word being bleeped out there). Oh and the other millionaires from Queensland - they've had a complete breakdown since we left. To date there has been an attempted suicide with an overdose on tablets and wine, assault with a meat cleaver to the partner, assault of a mobile phone with a meat cleaver (which ended up in pieces), arrests, a night in the cells, an attempt to leave the country with the son, only to be stopped at immigration in the airport and now is in hiding from her partner who is mentally abusing her. And yes, being miles down the coast, we're both getting phone calls/Facebook messages asking for help from both parties. So that's another one to add to our ever growing list of jobs...trained shrinks. Whatever next. You couldn't believe this stuff, but it's actually happened - Audrey is my witness.

Two more weeks left of this slave labour and I'll just be ready to go to SE Asia. Have also booked a flight back to Peru at end of April to study Spanish and volunteer again in my favourite city of all - Cusco. Have loved Oz and especially Sydney, but there's just something about South America that's calling me back.

Some of the 10 000 green and gold shampoo bottles

Chinese sweatshop - here is my workstation

Looking really excited working with the conditioner

Auds in the fork-lift = danger!

How perfect is that to pack wood after breaking it down with a hammer/chisel - not bad for 2 girls!

Inside the factory

One More Angel in Heaven

Don’t really know how to begin this blog to be honest. Not sure if I should even be writing this, but I don’t care.  At the start of my travels I did place a warning saying that I would always write what my thoughts were at that particular moment. This blog is a change from the others. This one is for my beautiful aunt Anne who lost her very brave fight to cancer and who always followed me on my travels by reading my blogs, sending me emails commenting on my journey around the world and sending me text messages and even Skyping! So Anne, this one is for you. I can’t believe you’re gone, but I’ll blog to you, I suppose publicly, as it’s my way of saying good-bye, being miles away from home.  Others will get to swap stories with each other about you over the next few days, so here’s a bit of mine.

Over the last few years since your illness, it was a pleasure to be able to become closer to you.  Every week on days after work, I always looked forward to getting up to your house, to have long chats and clean that already clean house you had! Driving up that long lane of yours, hoping my wee car never got stuck in the ditch, going into your house to be greeted by the smell of a lovely wood-burn fire. The house was always boiling with your temperature thermometer reaching highs of over 26 degrees and that was sometimes in the middle of summer!!  People would be peeling off the layers of clothing, but you were so snug with the heat and would even add more layers onto yourself.

Of course, doctor’s orders were telling you that you had to rest, not to be over-exerting yourself, taking it easy…but did you listen? Of course not!  A few times I’d drive up to find you out on that half a mile lane of  yours picking up thorns and branches that had dropped from the bushes in the middle of a cold autumnal day, just in case “it would puncture people’s tyres as they drove up the lane.” Other times, I’d be inspecting the carpet closely to see what exactly I was to hoover up, only to find that you’d already done it, but you’d never listen and hated sitting around even when you were in pain.  

Loved our wee chats together – loved hearing the stories of yesteryear, when you were younger with my mum, whereby I was able to go home and quiz her on a few random things. And I thought my mum was an innocent child!! You never forgot anyone’s birthday either, whether they were babies or grown-ups. Cards to most nephews and nieces stop when they are 18 – not you, you kept going and every year there was always a wee card in the post. Even 2 weeks ago for my birthday, up in Marie Curie, you gave my mum some money to put into my bank to buy something. Well, I’ve decided I know what to buy with it.  You always travelled the length and breadth of Northern Ireland with Norman or others to wee coffee shops – you just loved a coffee with a wee bit of pastry or cake on the side. Every time I’d see you, you would inform me of the new place you’d been to and how you rated the coffee. To be honest, I don’t think there was a coffee shop left in the north that you hadn’t been to – you were ready to branch out into the European sector! So I’ll be finding a decent coffee shop somewhere here in Sydney, and raise a cup and a wee bun to you.  Mum told me today that you have something for me to do when I return home and will only find out then…I look forward to it, whatever it may be.

 ‘School’s out for summer’ will always remind me of you as we both took to the dance-floor on your Wedding Day last year and boogied away to it. You never sat down that day either – up bopping around ‘til the late evening.  You were always a trooper and a brave one at that. You never gave up, you suffered in silence and fought the good fight until the end – no more suffering now. To those closest to Anne, I send my sympathies – you all know who you are – you are in my thoughts.

Maybe one day, we will see each other again.  It hasn’t registered properly yet that you’re gone.  Rest in peace and miss you loads – a wonderful aunt and a good friend.  Thanks for the memories xxx

Anne and me xx



Singing 'School's out for Summer'

Cafe latte



Found a French coffee shop in Sydney - ate a yummy apple turnover!

Who is the Patron Saint of sheds anyway?!

Down at our first HelpX again in Sydney and all I will write on this blog in capital letters is 'SHED'. Yes, our humble abode is that friggin shed again. Those of you who aren't familiar with it - go and have a look at one of my previous blogs/photos. Oh how we have fallen from grace-back down the ladder from the very top rung to the bottom! This time it's for FOUR WEEKS. Suppose it'll get me ready for the squalor that awaits me in Thailand.


Oh and please those of you that speak to me on Skype/Facebook-don't be mentioning it publicly on my wall as Jimbo will see it and could boot us out!!


This is hilarious-maybe I'll just rearrange my flights into Thailand for tomorrow. I'm so over this shed business. "Dear Holy, Patron Saint of wooden sheds, take me away from here now"...ok I've closed my eyes and tapped my red, ruby shoes like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz)...and it doesn't seem to have worked- the shed is still here and I'm still sitting on the lovely 'Welcome' step outside the door :)

The 'Welcome' sign outside the shed door

Chicken poo (looks like it had the dose of the runs judging by the above) which I'm always walking in - it's everywhere

Pathway to my humble abode - the shed is in the background (it's been painted since last time - yippeee!)

Slumdog millionaire



Brisbane Quayside



Botanic Gardens, Brisbane

Brisbane Quayside

Had a great time living the millionaires lifestyle but decided to travel onwards and upwards after about 10 days or so. Was great watching movies in an in-house cinema, going to my own private gym in the house and ducking and diving in and out of the pool after I'd finished my work.  But one thing I can say for definite, is that money doesn't buy happiness.  The host was lovely and had a fantastic time, but was unhappy with the goings on in her life, despite the wealth and fancy lifestyle around her.  I know some of you have told me you don't believe me that I was staying there even after the link I sent, but I will post up some pics when I get near a decent computer.

Sometimes it's hard to leave these people and places, as you tend to fill a bit of a void in their lives. Yes, you work for them but you also befriend them and on most occasions you end up giving them an extra ear to listen to with their problems, or a fun night out which they may not have had in ages, or just solely for the company of someone else to talk to. Some of the stories that you end up hearing...my God, I could write a book! On all of our HelpX, everyone has wanted us to stay longer as they grow a bond with you and they enjoy the company of having others around.

So off it was up to Brisbane for 3 days to meet friends. What a great wee city. Not as busy as Sydney - much slower pace of life without the rat-race.  I managed to meet up with cousins I never knew I had. A few months back my cousins came over to Ireland searching their family tree and called upon my parents house and they found out I was travelling up the east coast of Oz so we swapped emails and I finally got to meet them and try and fill in some holes in the family tree.
\
Mind you, I was pretty awful at it - I think Brian was wondering if I knew who anyone was in my family.  He would say..."So, what do you call the names of the children of your father's brothers and sisters?'... and I was like..'Emmm...not really sure, that person lives in Africa and has 2 or 3 kids, but I don't know their names'??? I mean, I think I met my uncle from Africa once when I was about 5, so that doesn't really count in my book - I completely baffled the poor man. I'm sure he wished I never got in contact. It was worse when he asked me the dates of birth and exact year of my brothers and sisters...I was sweating at this stage - think I gave him the wrong year for that too!! Talk about feeling like a complete tit at times, but I did enjoy listening to them, eating nice cake and getting to see another side of Brisbane for free.

So where am I now? Sydney, that's where. Plans to travel by bus/train further on up the coast were shelved as it's knackering doing the HelpX all the time and people want you to stay for up to 7 days at least, so I'd still be making my way up there in the year 2025.  Decided to fly back down again and join in the celebrations for Australia Day here in Sydney but if I get a chance will fly up to Cairns for a few days before I leave. Have paid work here also which starts on Monday, which is great, as Oz burns a huge hole in your pocket. If it hadn't been for HelpX I'd have had to leave here weeks ago. Have managed to make arrangements with the lovely Strongy and Stace  (who I met in S.America) to go to Uluru in mid-late February.

Have also booked my flights out of Sydney and into Bangkok, Thailand for 4th March. Even if I wanted to stay more in Oz, I couldn't as my 3 months visa is up and they'll be kicking me out of the country. Me, being me, booked the flights, had a look at the time I arrive in Bangkok and felt like slapping myself in the head. Arrive at midnight, so rather than try and find somewhere to stay (as I'll be by myself again on the road) I'll be slumming it up with the have-nots in the local airport - as long as it isn't like my airport sleep or lack of it in Santiago, then I shall be grand.

My plans?? Hope to spend about 3 days in the city of Bangkok - so far everyone is telling me it's a hole, so will then maybe try and find my way to Phuket. No idea how I'll get there, but will cross that bridge closer to the time. What will I be doing in Phuket?? Well, if I told you all you'd be thinking that it wouldn't be your idea of travel...more like torture, but is just right up my street, for those who know what I'm like. So you'll just have to wait and see!

Surfers Paradise, Queensland

The pool in the millionaires house I stayed in

Kitchen area

Jetty at the bottom of their garden

Boat



My new relatives I found from Brisbane - Judy, Brian and Joe Blaney with me!



Brisbane City from Mount Coogtha lookout

I took myself on a mangrove walk around the city - stunning!

The luck of the Irish has arrived

Jaysus, will some of ye quit pressuring me to update my blog. Those ones without Facebook, who only use emails - you know who you are ;) I mean, I'm so busy working and living the life of Riley right now, I have no time for plebians.

Ok, so no doubt some of you know that I'm now in a millionaires house. Everytime I say this, I feel like jumping up and down and screeching at the top of my voice, but, I'm actually in a plush house (dawhling).  Others are probably goin..yeah, yeah Mary, full of shite as per usual.  Well, I shit you not - I will send you a youtube link that the owner sent me.

Of course, when I received it both myself and Auds near fell off the chair in excitement. Gone where the sheds of before, down with that sort of thing (from Father Ted, for those of you that are clueless), this time I bagged the millionaire. Well, not quite bagged it, but hit lucky with the HelpX once again and the god of millionaires shone down on us, because to be quite honest, I think it was time to meet/stay with one as we've met so many before!

But before I piss you all off, as I always do, I'll quickly fill you in on where I have been up to now. Obviously on my last 'Junior' blog (God I miss him already...no longer attached/dangling on my big, pink bag - there's a tag there left with nothingness - a void!! ha,ha) I told you I was in Crescent Head on a surfaris camp and gave you a link. Had a great 2 weeks there and did the usual things from cleaning dorms, preparation of food, sucking of spiders with hoovers, getting bitten loads by mozzies and had two friends in my mattress called Tim and Tom, the two fleas who loved to have a wee bite now and again, before I killed the wee b*stards with lots of fumigation. Effin dogs and cats/sandfleas or whatever - biting insects everywhere.

And the Aussies put up with this on a daily basis -you'd be chattin to em and then they'd say, "Have been bitten loads by fleas in my bedroom" as if it was nothing to them. Horrified I was, until the same happened to me and then you just have to get used to it. Poor Auds, if she keeps getting bitten anymore, will just turn into a large, pus filled cyst and end up hospitalised if she's not careful.  The local pharmacy in Crescent Head probably ran out of insect repellent as she's been practically living in a film of DEET for the last while, which unfortunately for her is not quite working. Night-time sees her dressed as an eskimo,with the sweat lashing off her - fear of being bitten once again and covered up just to make sure. Mornings in Crescent Head, were greeted with the workers asking each other how many bites they got the previous night/showing tiny red marks to larger ones all over the body. 4am was my wake-up, sorry scratch-up call. The bites drove me mad with itch at the same time, leaving me scratching and sleep deprived.

I had a great time. Before work I'd maybe go for a cycle down to the beach, then run barefoot in the sand, with the wind whistling in my ears and the water lapping up my legs - you can't feel the heat as much as there's a beautiful sea breeze preventing you from overheating and exploding with the humidity.  Met some lovely workers there, played the guitar at night times - teaching each other various chords, spent nigths with a few cold beers sitting in the sun in our wee workers house. Got to go surfing a few times when there were groups at the lodge.  It was a pretty chilled place alright. Gave us both a come-down from the madness of Sydney for a wee while.NYE was different - a band out on the lawn with everyone around. I got stuck with a guy who reared chooks (chickens)and he bored the hell out of me. I was informed of the diseases they can catch up to how to aerate the soil - thank God we went to the beach to see in 2012, otherwise a murder may have occurred on the grounds.

But after 2 weeks, my feet started to get itchy so it was time for a wee change. People called that place the 'black hole' as backpackers/workers always stayed for weeks/months on end and always went back. I won't be falling down the black hole - had fun but it was time to uproot for another adventure.

So out came the HelpX and typed in 'Surfers Paradise' and got a response from a lovely lady who was looking for people to help out around her house/garden and help with her 2 year old son, as she has very severe back pain. Emails passed to and fro deciding on the dates to arrive and then when that happened, the last email had a link of their house ($2.2 million) and what we'd be living in. Before I send you the youtube video so you can see for yourself I'll just add a couple of wee things. The couple are just lovely and originally from the UK and own their own business in the beauty industry, their wee son is just adorable and the area they live in is beautiful. Pool outside, sauna inside, their own jetty with a 30ft boat, which we'll be cruising on Sunday, have our private en-suite bedroom...the lot!!  So life has been hard the last few days - (not) - what a way to spend my birthday. In Queensland now and the weather resembles that of a fan-assisted oven and my feet sometimes feel as though they have elephantitis, as they keep swelling as it's so warm and humid.

Alright plebians, I must go now - heading off in the Jaguar later into a nice area of town for a few post-birthday drinks.  Within 6 hours of meeting us and chatting away, they've loved the craic. This HelpX is some life - you could never do this just backpacking - so much variation to everything.  Ok, tally-ho peeps, must go now, things to do!

Here is the youtube link I was sent for all you Doubting Thomas' out there. They were trying to sell their house and sortof made up their own video. The house is still up for sale, but this where you'll find our abode for the next week or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UmATKo9Cjg