Day 105

A lazy day with a walk down to Brookside. It’s the first time I’ve braved Teralba park since the magpie attack..... and you’ll all be pleased to know that I remain unharmed!

Day 106

Finally, the approach of exams 3 weeks away has motivated me to crack on with some work. I spent the whole day going through forensics lectures (still not motivated enough to tackle vertebrate biology :p) for Brad to come back and tease me about getting up late and not leaving the house at all. I admit taht me sitting at the laptop, miming along to the glee soundtrack whilst reading about really depressing mental health cases isn’t quite as taxing as couriering dishwashers for 12 hours... but it’s progress, right? :P

Day 107

Today’s lecture was about fingerprinting evidence – it was amazing, though some of the excuses defence lawyers come up with are terrible! Everyone is so career focussed out here, it got me thinking about possibly doing a masters in forensics.... London South Bank Uni and UCLAN both offer great courses  Thinking about being back at uni in England seems crazy though! Apparently, there were snow showers in Nottingham today; In Brisbane, it was 27oC!!! Mmmm, might start looking at masters out here :P

Day 108

During today’s molecular biology practical, I innocently asked Marion whether I could throw the cDNA stock solutions away, not wanting to be caught happily pouring it away when they’re needed for next week or the staff wanted to reuse them due to being mega expensive. Marion confirmed that I could indeed throw them away but followed me up the aisle to my workbench to give a lecture about wastage in the department, moaning about how this RT-PCR practical doesn’t get the attention it deserves, asking for my agreement that this one procedure underpins the whole course. To be honest, because there has been problems setting up this practical, I’d thought it was cancelled.... and wasn’t too upset about it :P

Day 109

All week, I have been bombarded my the two student guild parties, slagging each other off, urging me to vote, pushing so many flyers on me that I could start my own recycling plant. Now finally – FINALLY – it’s over. I can now walk from one end of campus to the other, no longer needing to worry about my visa being revoked for assaulting a flyer-filled marquee :P

Day 110

Eugh. I had to get ridiculously early for me 5.55am. Just no. I can cope with an early start for a day trip or a holiday but today was definitely not a treat. Vertebrate Biology had planned a morning field trip ip to SERF. When I first heard that acronym, I pictured blue waves, a golden beach and maybe a few palm trees. However, Samford Ecological Research Facility is essentially a protected swamp! A swamp filled with empty or leaking pitfall traps, which made for an exciting data set :P Disappointed with our trappings of centipedes and spiders (lacking backbones so not even eligible for our report), AB, the lecturer, has us hunting for a piece of corrugated tin all morning.... because 1 year ago, he found 3 snakes under it. Well, that was 1 year ago.... so of course the snakes had changed residence; in fact, the piece of tin itself had even been relocated, though AB wouldn’t admit that until we had search the entire southern paddock. Of course, there was the group of girls who read the dress code of waterproofs and trainers to mean hotpants and brand new sandals... so they provided some great observations of vertebrate behaviour ;)

When we finally trudged back through to the car park, (our hopes soaring that we were going back home), I was faced with my biggest fear = RATS. They were in plastic bags, but they were there. Dangerously close, staring at me and HUGE (even b***** than Swindon’s super rats on their diet of McDonalds). So with a look of horror on my face, we all watched the phD students take ear clippings for DNA analysis when AB realised one had escaped its bag and was currently awol in the back of the truck. The truck that had to drive us all home.... thankfully, the phD students seemed to find it hilarious and after a very relaxed 5 minutes standing around, recaptured it. Our final torturous act was to release the rats back into the forest and because I had followed the dress code in my hiking boots and full waterproofs, I was selected for this wonderful moment. Thankfully, my bush rat was a more eager than others, shooting straight out the bag, and running/hopping like a frog forwards (rather than at me).

After all that, I was covered with ticks and had to write up the practical, when we caught exactly zero reptiles...

Day 111

Skyped home today, talking about arrangements for my grandad’s funeral and my final wishlist for my next parcel  Apparently, Kate asked whether Grandma poisoned Grandad..... She’d been learning about berries at nursery that day, although with Grandma’s cooking, it’s a wonder it hasn’t happened... :P Once reassured that he hadn’t eaten the wrong berries, she said that he must have been ill because he used to smoke. This is coming from a 3 year old!

Mum also asked me whether I could write a piece to be read at the funeral; it’s such a shame I can’t read it myself but I know he would’ve liked that and it reduces the amount of time left for overly religious phrases or family drama.

I’m going to bed really early tonight as we’re helping out at Rockley Markets tomorrow with Brad, Rosemaree and Darcy. We’ll finally get to understand their stories of crazy customers!

Day 112

Today was probably one of my favourite days in Australia so far! When my alarm went off at 3.45am naturally I wanted to die but I hauled myself out and braved the surprisingly cold morning. 10 minutes later, me and Rachel were in the back of Rosemaree’s car with Darcy and his Eiffel tower in the passenger seat, following Brad in his Ute loaded with antiques. Once we’d set up, it got light really quickly and the markets were so busy! It was hilarious to see Brad in action, using his charm on everyone lol. Of his many sales techniques, my personal favourites were ‘C’mon, I need more customers to keep me in cornflakes this week,’ the one bowl for $10 or, for you, I can do the two for $20’, and ‘well, it is a very nice chip. Not jagged or coloured, but a nice chip. A tidy chip, that.’! Most Aussies answered back, enjoying the banter though I did recognise a fair few looks of confusion.... mirroring my own face, when unsure how Brad means something :P

Seeing as Brad had everything under control at the stall, we were able to have a look around, being teased by the man at the breakfast place... obviously, one look and he knew we were British grrr! We went to get change for a $50 note for Rosemaree, only for the guy not to take the money. Walking quickly back , Rosemaree couldn’t believe our freebie. 10 minutes later, we were sent to get Brad’s omelette... they made it all up fresh in front of us and once again didn’t ask for any money, depsit Rachel hovering with the bright yellow note clear in her hand. Returning, Rosemaree couldn’t believe our luck, beginning to suspect we were doing favours for the venders lol. When we gave Brad the good news, he paused frowning and I thought we were going to get a lecture on depriving fellow stalls of their income, saying we should have pressed the money further but he burst into such a proud grin, saying ‘Good on ya!’ :D Darcy, who’d been eating his way through every food stall and paying for it all of course, couldn’t believe it, saying ‘well, I’m just not as beautiful as you two, I suppose’ awwwww!

Darcy was so sweet to watch, especially when doing a double act with his dad! At one point, he was slagging off this customer. The customer had basically walked into the stall declaring that Xboxes were worthless now and impossible to sell, before walking out again. Of course, once Darcy had finished his little rant, the guy stepped out from behind the tree... all 6ft, 300 pounds of him! Darcy’s face was a picture :P
Rosemaree went to check out the fashion at other competing stalls, for her antennae to pick up some other English accents... and she immediately told them about her ‘two English girls’. It was so weird to hear fellow English accents! The two girls had been out here for 3 years but were going back in a month’s time, so were trying to flog all their primark gear for huge prices LOL. The 3 main things we learnt from their time here was 1. They hate the school uniform, wearing the same as 3 year olds and feeling like paedophiles in their long plaited skirts, men’s shoes, long white socks, blouse with elasticated band at bottom, clip-on tie and brown blazer. 2. Vegemite is ‘disgusting’ and 3. At summer, it’s so hot all they do is float in the pool or sit in their undies, rubbing ‘popsicles’ along their arms and forehead. We also had a Richard Branson deadringer though missed meeting Maria the transvestite and her lady/man friend, as they were down in Tasmania... next time lol

Once back from the markets, we were exhausted but I had to fight taking a nap... didn’t want to mess up my sleeping pattern like back at Lancaster! So wading through vertebrate biology with chocolate ‘biccies’ and diet coke, we made it to the evening... all ready for our X-factor showing! Brad’s patience with the program had finally disappeared, so he was sitting in the back room with Darcy, leaving just us gils to mercilessly ridicule everyone and everything in the program :D Such as Andrew’s sideways crab dance across the stage, the shortening of Mahogany to Mahog (just typical of Aussies!) and the many interpretations of rock week.... many flimsy offerings of soft rock, gentle rock and even ‘gay rock’ from Kyle’s guys. Altiyan was amazing... no longer being called a ‘crazy fruit loop who should be in a strait jacket’ but a true ‘rockstar’ :D Despite enough giggles to annoy Brad and Darcy and many more impressions from Rosemaree of the contestants, when it finished at 9.00, we all sighed with relief as we could collapse into our beds after a 17 hour day.