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Grace's Adventures!
Wasn't expecting it to be this soon! I was very impressed that in N.P. campsite in the middle of the bush actually had flushing toilets and HOT showers - how amazing! The campsite in the morning was buzzing with bird life - it was so nice. We had a lazy day and drove a little way along the road before stopping at a place where they sold the most amazing hot chocolate and choccies in the world - all home made with loads of cocoa beans - it was very indulgent! We were the only ones there, sat in their little tea garden with massive king parrots in the trees right next to us feeding on seeds - it was so relaxing! We spoke to the guy there for ages, then drove up the road to the next town called Stanthorpe, which is famous for it's wine. We saw tons of wineries all up the road, and we found a really nice one where we sampled lots of different wines in a bar and cellar style area overlooking the vineyard as the sun was going down - it was lovely. Luckily we only had to drive a few metres down a track to our accommodation, which was on the winery itself! We had our own cabin again, and this one was pretty new and just so nice inside, and to top it off we had our own verandah overlooking the vineyard! We sat on the verandah and drank some wine, cooked some dinner and drank some more wine - what a tough life! I woke up in the night needing the loo and walked right into some (very unstable) shelves and broke 5 wine glasses! We also managed to burn the table through a plastic tablecloth as we fell asleep/passed out with candles on - oops! The next day we told the guy and he didn't really care!
Neither of us wanted to leave the next day, but we wanted to see the Glass House Mountains - just north of Brisbane, so we drove north, then east, then descended from our high altitude, and as we did it got so much hotter and much greener too. We saw the first lot of mountain ranges we explored and then before we knew it back into Brisbane and out the other side (took much longer than it sounds though!) We stopped for a cream tea (very English I know) then managed to make it up to the Glass House mountains area and up a lookout to see them just before the sun went down! We had to leg it up the hill to see them before it got dark though! What with it being hot again, there was mossies to attack us again, so we didn't spend a huge amount of time admiring what were probably the oddest mountains I have ever seen Such strange shapes just rising out of the ground - very bizarre and amazing (see the pics!). You could see across the forest one way and to a massive estuary and the sea the other. We were planning to stay in the N.P. campsite just off the highway, but there were raging bush fires exactly where it was! It was a dramatic sight, the devastation must have been huge! So we decided not to stay there! We drove further up to the Sunshine Coast and found a campsite in the first town up there called Caloundra. We were lucky to get in as they had just closed but were still there, and there was only one spot left! We had a really nice place to camp right next to a river and you could hear the waves crashing not so far away too. We had a great BBQ, got talking to a Scottish couple and sat out till midnight and weren't cold - hurrah!
On seeing the campsite the next day it was really nice and tons of lorikeets flying about! Andy treated me to a lovely brekkie of pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream! Caloundra was very touristy but not full of skyscrapers and tack like Surfers Paradise - it's quite a nice place. Then we had a walk by the sea on a boardwalk and stopped on the beach for a while - it was really nice. We had fun in the waves which were massive and we got dragged under a few times! After a nice relaxing day we headed back to the city of Brisbane - marking the end of our adventures together! L We had a lovely hostel to stay in called Bowen Terrace, which was a converted 'Queenslander', i.e. a typical Queensland style house which is wooden and built on stilts in order to make it cooler! So although all the downstairs had been renovated to make it livable in (most Queensland houses have a shed-like space underneath), it was pretty small as hostels go, and very homely. There was a lovely verandah overlooking the pool, nice decking outside and lots of tropical plants, and the room we had was brilliant - more like a guesthouse! That night we had to sort everything out coz all our stuff was together, but Andy was soon going to be getting the plane home! Then we went for another really late meal, which was a very exciting tapas thing!
Our last day together was spent souvenir shopping (for Andy anyway!), looking around the city, the Botanic Gardens (which aren't as impressive as most of the others I've seen, but still nice), and getting the city cat (river ferry) back to our hostel. We went back to the same Chinese restaurant we found at the beginning of our trip which was just as good as before!
It was so sad the next day going to the airport and having to say goodbye after spending 4 weeks solid together! I was really miserable the rest of the day after he left, but managed to motivate myself as I had to go back to being on my own whether I liked it or not! I moved into a single room in the hostel which was also very nice, but more than I would have liked to have paid for a weeks accommodation! But very good to get your own room in a hostel - such a rarity! I met a few people that evening and they seemed really nice, and thought I would like it there.
As soon as I could I went into the city and got sorted with the same childcare agency as I worked for in Melbourne, and they had me working the next day! The next week they didn't get me many hours so I decided to look for more/other work, but after spending 2 weeks unsuccessfully phoning jobs, handing my CV in everywhere, and having a horrible waitressing trial that was awful due to the fact the restaurant was completely dead, the boss was mean and arrogant, and the food was ridiculously pretentious, I started to feel a bit down, as jobs get snapped up so quickly here and no-one wants a temp (I even lied and said I would be here for a few months!) But then I was offered a job through a childcare centre I was working in at Toowong (cool name huh?) through the agency, as a casual member of staff employed by them instead of the agency. It didn't look good to start with as I only had a guaranteed 12 hours a week, but they have got me loads more work on top of that, and the last 2 weeks I have worked every day, but only half of them are actually full 8-hour days. Whenever there is no work I ring the agency and see if they can get me anything, so I'm doing alright now! I registered with another agency too but they haven't as yet given me anything, and I was unsuccessful with a rather posh hospitality agency I had an interview with - I really shouldn't try and do posh!!
Anyway, Toowong childcare center is good, and they pay me a little bit more than the agency too so that's a bonus! It's a really nice place, and I get on with all the staff. There are some nightmare kids, but you get that anywhere, but at least working there all the time you know their names and how to deal with them which is a bonus! I worked in a few random places with the agency, and it's much more difficult when you don't know the place, the staff, the kids, and you have to find your way there too! One place I have been in several times is the university kindergarten, which is the nicest place ever, and to get there I got a city cat (ferry) and had a lovely 40 minute cruise down the river which is so nice in the sunshine! So work is pretty good - I wouldn't do childcare full time at home though, under 5's are very needy! I've had enough of putting on hundreds of pairs of shoes, suncreaming hundreds of childrens' faces, and wiping hundreds of snotty noses! It is fun though, and not really like proper work most of the time.
I stayed in the hostel which was in a really nice inner city suburb called New Farm, with really funky bars and shops (never went to any though as no money!), for 2 weeks, and after week one ended up sharing a twin room (as it was cheaper) with a Scottish girl also working for select education. She seemed really nice and we had a laugh to start with then she started to do my head in - she would laugh for no reason and never had anything interesting to say, and gave me b****y looks now and then, so was glad to move out of there at the end of the week! Also, the guy who owned the hostel was always moaning, and always around in the day time so you felt like you had to make conversation! His wife was lovely though, but only there at the weekend! I met some other nice people there though, and it was such a nice place, but there was always new people coming and going, and although it was fun, constantly meeting people is a bit tiresome and not what you want every day when you want to relax! So I looked in the paper and the universities website for places to live for the next 6 weeks. I had a look at once place not far away in Fortitude Valley, but it was just horrendous! It was more of a boarding house than a share house, and it was on a busy three-lane road with big car garages everywhere. It was dark and dingy and dirty, no proper social area and the room was manky and had flies buzzing around - arrggh!! Not what I was after! I rang loads of places, but most were already taken or wanted people for longer than 6 weeks not surprisingly! Then I found a nice place with a couple and another boarder in a suburb called Chelmer, which is very nice indeed! It's a Queenslander house (yay - I love them!) with a nice back yard (garden), and very close to the train station and Toowong (where I'm working mostly), and close to a big shopping mall! I did well me thinks, and only $100 a week (not a cheap as Melbourne) but still good. And my landlord lets me use the net loads, hence why I am now completely up-to-date with my journal - yippie!
So that's everything you need to know about my work and my house, but I have managed to have fun too! Been to see the Da Vinci code which I thought was brilliant - probably wouldn't have understood it if I hadn't read the book though! Also been to a Buddha birthday festival in the south bank parklands over one weekend, which involved lots of kids doing Kung-Fu type displays, amazing acrobats and beautiful outfits and dancing - it was really good, as was the food! Also been to a Greek festival over another weekend, which was brilliant! Different performances of singing, music and dancing, olive eating and grape stomping competitions, cooking demonstrations, and I took part in and helped to break the world record for the longest Zorba dance (Greek dance where you all link shoulders and arms) - there was over 1700 of us all linked together in a spiral and we danced for 6 minutes - it was madness! Of course the food was great as well, which always makes things score highly on my list! I'm going to an Italian festival in New Farm park this Sunday as well - how multi-cultural am I?! Have also been down to New Farm park for a circus skills day and attempted to do the Diablo, something with sticks, and juggling. Also watched kids try and crack a whip - some of them did it, some of them just injured themselves! The last 3 Saturdays I met up with girls from the hostel I stayed in before and went to New Farm park for free self defence classes - there as only 4 of us and 2 instructors so it was really good and very useful stuff to know! I have a voucher for 4 free martial arts classes with the same guy in the city so may go to some of those too! Also going orienteering in the Botanic Gardens on Sunday, so plenty of stuff to keep me entertained! All this stuff is free as well except the Greek festival, which was only $5 each day - cities are good! Would you believe it though, its' now very cold at night - going down to about 8 degrees, which you can really feel in these Queenslanders with thin walls and no central heating! The weird thing is though it's still hot during the day, mostly about 24 degrees - madness! But this poor country needs rain - it's only rained about 4 times in the last 2 months can you believe it! Brisbane's dams are only at 30% and there are strict water regulations everywhere!
I'm also planning to go to a different botanic gardens and nature reserve not far from Toowong, and to the Queensland museum and art gallery before I leave in 3 weeks time (23rd). I then have 3weeks traveling up the coast to Cairns, where I plan to canoe on the Noosa Everglades (big river in a N.P.), 4x4 with a group round Fraser Island (big sand island with gorgeous lake), sail the Whitsunday Islands (tropical islands, snorkeling the barrier reef), stay on a cattle ranch, stay on Magnetic Island, go whale watching, visit the world heritage Daintree rainforest, and relax on the pristine beaches at Cape Tribulation, north of Cairns before I return home on 16th July - not long now! Then I can make you more jealous with more photos when I get home! This will probably be the final installment on the Gracie girl web as I will be back in 6 weeks! See most of you in the summer! Bye for now!
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