Hey guys! I know i havent updated this in like a month so im going to do a few days at a time to try and catch up! Hope you are all well and enjoying things at home (mwahahahahaha!!!). So im starting where I left off so that you dont miss anything - It says on the map that Im in Upper Swan, Perth. were for the point of this story im still in Queenland, unless stated otherwise but the Swan valley in Perth is where I am right now.

Ok so 13th October - the boys went to Australia zoo - me and lauradecided against this as we had already been to the zoo in singapore. The rest of us decided to stay back and chill out and do some washing etc - god knows we needed to wash some clothes!Laura and Sian stayed in bed cos they weren't feeling well - katie and I came to the conclussion that they were hungover anfter the pint and glass of wine that they had!! Those that weren't too ill went for a wader into town and saw somemore of Brisbane and then went for a splash in the pool. All of us (apart from Jay and Dan) decided to go to the waterpark the next day (sunday). Jay was off to get his stitches out from the elephant attack and dan didnt fancy going so that was that.

Sunday 14th - we went to the water park and it was fab!! the slides are so different compared to the ones that we have at home - immense!! We spent the whome day there -left at half 5. When we got back to the hostel, me and Will decided to go for more of a wander to investigate where we were cos the chances of ending up back there were fairly slim! so off we tottled around the Perth estuary and walked all the way up to storey Bridge, over it and then back again!we were out for about 4 hours! had teh biggest blisters on y foot from my new flipflops. by the time we got back - most of the others were in bed but those that were still up filled us in on all the stories that they had been cooking up about a 'romantic walk' that we'd been on! mum - dont worry it wasn't! we just chatted -HONEST!!! had to pack when we got to bed cos we were leaving ealry the next day.

October 15th - So after getting up and grabbing some breakie, we left the hostel at 9am to opn a bank account and then travel to the training ranch. Took 3 hours to get there on the bus. We stopped in a petrol station on the way and katie and I decided to be big kids and play in the kiddie park - I fell off this wobbly square thing and rolled around laughing for a while! We got to the ranch and met Matt (the trainer guy), Dorris (the chef and house keeper type person) and Georgie (this bimbo that was as blonde as blonde can be - seriously it was insane - she asked Jay who'd from Leeds if 'when you speak, can you like here your own accent?!' in all seriousness!!! I mean really!?!) We had lunch and then Matt took us to get suited and booted and hated for the training and our prospective jobs. We then went up to the rnach so we could meet the ponies and give them their tea. We all came back, had tea and then were in bed earlyish cos we were shattered. had a bit of a play fight with Jay and ended up busting his newly unstiched wound (after stu joined in)- i'm determined to blame him after I spent the rest of the night in tears after ruining the whole thing for Jay.

October 16th - In the morning, we split into groups and I went horse riding with the boys in the moring and then motor bike riding in the afternoon. the morning was fun - learnt how to tack up western and ride western. rode a little bay mare called Molly who was ace - had a bit of a gallop around where Chris fell off - sooooo funny - it was almost in slow motion! hehe. had lunch then went on the bikes - fell off like a million times! I now have a million scars and was bruised to pieces all down my legs from falling off that much! I now the queen of getting my bike out of serious situaitiions!! We then finished up, and went home to have tea and a shower and get cleaned up!

October 17th - the main thing that really annoyed me was that Rance (the other trainner) was always there bright and early looking very happy with himself -too chirpy for first thing in the morning!! this day around we went on the 4 wheel drive and learnt to change tyres and tie knotts to tie things down in the back of the ute! after we had lunch we went out on the quad bikes which was fab. we had to take a couple of bikes as well as there wasn't enough quads to go around. Laura ended up hitting her face on the quad when racing though a ditch that was called a "WOAH BOY" which is because you squeal WOAHHH BOY as you go over it! hehe. Not long after this I followed lauras shinning example and flew over an ant hill and ended up crashing head first (lit!) into a tree - the bike was smashed in the front and luckily I only came off with a bit of a lump and seriously bruised ego! after getting the bike back and copping a fair bit of grief for smashing up a quad, we went back and had tea. I was offered a job quad biking! HAHAHA laura hadn't been offered one but didnt really fancy being qusad biking around after my disastorous efforts!

October 18th - the morinign of a nightmare - NO MORE COCO POPS!!!!!! disaster!! had to eat this horrible carboard substitute - not nice at all! Tractor driving in the mornign - all those lesson from Dave and Craig were very handy. We did some fence fixing skills and then had lunch. Chainsaw work in the afternoon and then learnt how to fix fences a bit more - luckily, no one was hurt during the chainsaw accident which was a relief. Had to apply for jobs in the evening, Laura was going to be off to a ranch cleaning and making sarnies! and I was going for a job in Perth - on the other side of auz!!!

October 19th - after eating cardboard again, we went to the ranch to begin mustering - OH MY GOD WAS SOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUNNNN!!!!!!!! I rode Molly again and she was fab, twisting and turning chasing cows etc! we had to like keep them in a group by boxing them in - was so hard but once we got it, we got it. the people on the bikes and quads had to heard them up and then those on the horses had to keep them together - was a huge team success! We sorted out the cows and put them all in the pen - including the bulls - scary! After lunch we had to seperate them off and then were allowed to castrate one of them and then inject, tag and brand the other calves. I branded one - it was not impressed! not sure I would be either after being seperated from my mum (after being only 3 months old), getting trapped in a cage thing, thrown on the ground and then a big hot poker stuck on me. We had to chase them around this tiny pen with only the safety of a blue plastic tube - oh so safe!! lol. after putting the cows back, we went to the local for a few drinks and then home for a shower and a BBQ. I got offered the job in perthy and was to be tehre asap. Jack decided to eternalise this moment by branding himself with a J with his own poker that he had fashioned himself out of a bit of wire - im thinking the word NUTTER comes to mind!!! went to bed a little tipsy (what a suprise I hear you cry!!)

October 20th - We were all up at 8 to finish packing amd have brakie (more cardboard!). was nice to have a lie in even thou we all woke up at half 5 out of habit! So we all went off to Gympie on the bus to catch a Greyhound to get back to Brisbane so we could catch a flight/bus/train/night in the hostel. We had emotional goodbyes as we were all getting split onto 2 buses - laura had me in tears the biatch! so tears and hugs later we were on our way - only to find out that we were all going to be stopping at the same petrol station 20 mins later! so we hadto go through the same process all over again!. Had a good journey to the airpost - some gorgeous views and then had 4 hours to waste before my flight. So wasted 2 of it with Jack, stuart and Dan who were off on a flight 2 hours before me and then the rest with Sian and Chris who were getting on a flight 30 mins before me so at least I wasn't a loner for 4 hours! When I was on the plane managed to catch a bit of sleep and watch the rest of Die hard 4 which was good cos I only got the 1st half on the way from Singapore to brisbane. Perth is 2 hours behind Brisbane which sucked so I was on 1am time and it was only 11 pm. Manged to get a taxi to Swan Valley - where Eleta and James lived which is where I would be staying in my own flat on their property. They showed me the flat and got me setteled before off to bed!

Speaking of which, I'm shattered!! I'm off to bed now - will update the rest of the last month tomorro!

love you all xxxx