G'day Mate!

Can I firstly apologise for the delay in e-mailing to say that I've arrived safe and well and loving Brisbane!

The flight was LOOOOOOOOOOONG but bearable, even with no alcohol. WE got on the plane and before we took off the captain came accross the intercom and said "before we take off, we would like this plane to be blessed" then they all starting chanting this flaming prayer thing, me and Chris just looked at each other like WTF?! Was a little scary have to say but it seemed to work as we touched down in Brisbane without a hitch.

Finally after a 26 hour flight, we arrived at our hostel at about 10.30pm only to find out that they had given our room away which we had pre paid for and were fully booked for that night! So about 30 minutes later and ALOT of phoning around we finally found a hostel with 2 spare beds but we would have to share with another 2 guys, since it was only for one night we thought yeah ok. We arrived at the hostel in the back of no where and OH MY GOD - what a dump! It was like walking into the slums in India!! Anyway checked in and got shown to our room and there lying on on of the beds was some Korean guy with no pants on! Eugh!! First impressions not so good but hey it's a hostel not the hilton!! So after a rubbish nights sleep due to their version of air conditioning - a fan that spun around constant making some sort of engine noise, we got up at 5am and walked around. We hadn't got far when we saw a pair of trainers tied together hanging on a line in the street, now if you've ever seen Ross Kemp on Gangs on Sky One you'll know that that's what gang members do when one of their members has been killed there - needless to say we were on the 1st bus out of there!! So back in Brisbane, we finally got to check into the room we had originally paid for which is actually pretty decent. Hostels really nice too. Can't complain here! Has roof top terrace with amazing views of the city, movie room, bar etc.

This week has been pretty boring but busy, we haven't had time to go to the beach yet as we've been setting up bank accounts, should have seen Chris' face when the guy asked if we wanted a joint one too, lol, after some discussion he agreed!! SCORE!! We've been flat hunting and job hunting and it's a lot difficult to find a job than you'd think!! Been to view a couple of flats and have applied for one of them and it's absolutely amazing, I love it. We'll know tomorrow whether we get it or not so fingers crossed.

Been to the Botanical Gardens and well it beats Hawick park i'll tell you, really pretty. Saw a possum in a tree there and according to Chris it had a huge set of balls on it (Excuse the language David, Neil and Alec)!! Haven't done much else as we thought it best to get all the boring stuff out the way the first week so then we don't have to worry about anything and can then start having some fun in the city! Haven't been out on the lash yet as jet-lag is killing us at the moment, we've been awake between 2am and 5am since we got here and unable to get back to sleep so by the time 6pm comes we're falling asleep. We managed to stay up to 9pm last night by sitting on the roof top with a few beers and some crisps and didn't wake up til 6.30am - getting good!!

Anyways sorry I don't have much goss yet but hopefully will in the next e-mail as we'll have done more touristy things and i'm sure there'll be a few nights on the town - stories will be edited of course!! I hear you've been having some snow recently so just to let you know that it's been 35 degrees here and soooooo flaming hot!! Been quite cold yesterday and today though, temperature dropped to 26-28 degrees!! :)

Well that's all for now folks! Speak to you later!!

Missing you all.

Love Sarah xx