Port Douglas

Ok, so after 8 days in Cairns my money situation started to get REALLY BAD! If I were to stay there for much longer I would have surely wasted all my cash on goon-fuelled nights out, and thats not the way to go when you are skint! I updated my shabby looking C.V. and booked a couple of nights in the YHA in Port Douglas, hoping that there would be a few more bartending positions going up there. After checking into the quirky but still fairly decent YHA I strolled into town and handed in my resume to just four different restaurants/cafes. I went for a snooze in the afternoon but not long after my head hit the pillow did my phone start ringing. A restaurant called La Cucina wanted me in for a bar trial that night, and I ended up closing the bar with a Scottish guy called Simon who was also travelling. Somehow, don't ask me how, I've been quite lucky with getting decent bar jobs since I've been over here!

Hopefully now I can actually start saving for several weeks before coasting down the eastern part of Australia. I know I was talking about fruit picking/harvest work to gain my 2nd year Visa so I could stay here another year, but to be honest I really can't be bothered with that kind of work so I'm just going to stay here until October, before doing New Zealand and Hong Kong before flying back home to see all you lovelies!!!

Port Douglas itself is pretty nice. Its a lot smaller than Cairns, with a population of just over 6,000. The locals say its cold here but its still warm at night and during the day I reckon it must hit the mid-20's to the 30's if the sun is out. The weather is a nightmare though, and I'm talking about the tropical rain! One minute it'll be as sunny as you like, and literally a few minutes later it'll start bucketing it down with torrential rain! There is a 4 mile long beach here though which I have yet to savour, every time I think about going it starts to rain! The surrounding area like most of Northern Queensland which I have seen so far is full of big green hills and great views.

The net cafe where I am has shitty computers, so it won't let me put a picture on my blog, but basically, THIS is my photo gallery with a few pictures of Port Douglas and its nice beach.

What else have I been up to?!... Watching a lot of tv! Including the usual World Cup games.... Australia losing to Italy in the World Cup? They may whinge about conceding a 'dubious' penalty within injury time of the second half, but they shouldn't have been a man up after the Italian's had a player sent off. The Socceroo's had their chances but failed to put them away, so its their own fault. Credit where credit is due though, they played fantastic football to get to the last-16, and I hope they do well in future tournaments, because its good for the country; They all watch wayyyy to much Aussie Rules Football (AFL) and Rugby!

England v Portugal? Jesus, we were lucky to qualify from the group stages. I'm undecided on this one!

Wow, the sun is out, time for some sunburn action!

Speak soon peeps.

x

P.S. Happy 24th to Katie P sorry I missed ya birthday hunny!

Cairns You Believe It....?!

(Sorry about that bad joke...!) Anyway, last Saturday I FINALLY got myself out of Sydney and landed in Cairns, which they call the gateway to the tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. Its a fairly small city, with suburbs that spread out a fair bit, its rammed full of touristy backpacker places. Most of the people walking around are travellers. Loads of hostels, crap bars and pubs, and a nice little front/esplanade next to the sea. The weather is so much nicer here than it is in Sydney, and although I've seen a bit of rain here, during the day its mostly warm and usually sunny, at night it gets a bit chilly, but its nothing to whinge about. There are some markets down by the Esplanade, selling the usual tourist stuff, hand-made jewellery, clothes and pictures and stuff. There is a fruit/veg market in the city too, and plenty of decent shops to get you by, as well as a few large shopping centres and plenty of little secluded ones too.

I'm staying in a trusty old YHA in central Cairns, and there is a decent crowd of people here, by that I mean that the place isn't overrun by English chavs, and there are a friendly bunch of Europeans and Asian peeps here. The hostel is living up to the YHA reputation it has; clean and good value for money, not noisy but not too quiet. There are loads of other hostels around, another main one being a fairly new place called 'Gilligan's' or something like that, its pretty huge and has a massive bar / club venue, which I went to on Saturday night....

....Ok, so I've got no money and no job, but it'd be rude not to go out on my first night in a new place! Because money was tight, half a bottle of Lime Finlandia vodka went down well at the hostel, then I didn't really need many drinks once I was out! It was a late late late night, the city was booming, and because its not really very big, everyone is out in the centre as all the bars and clubs are within comfortable walking distance of each other. It was busy in most of the places we went to, and I didn't spend much money, bonus! All the pubs and bars have got the World Cup showing too, so if the music took a turn for the worse (which usually happens in dirty backpacker bars!) then football was on hand to help the night from going off-key!

Sunday, I just lazed around, after all, it WAS Sunday! Watched the football on Sunday night. Japan and Croatia proved to be a good game, except for the severe lack of talent in front of goal. Then, the Soccerroos played Brazil! This was a pretty decent game, and I felt sorry for the Aussies going down 2-0, they played well, and if Harry Kewell and Viduka perhaps had any guts in front of goal, the Aussies would have secured another shock win. Oh well, on the form they are on, they should edge past the Croatian's... Anyway, enough football!

Today I took a walk down towards the seafront, there is no 'real' decent beach, but they've built a bit of a pool thing and put some sand around so its a good enough place to relax with a book and some tunage. I got a bit sunkissed which felt nice after experiencing the cold weather in Sydney. There are some 'open-kitchen/bbq' things there so you can have a BBQ which is pretty sweet.

Plans for this week include trying to find some harvest work, as I desperately need some cash, and harvest work will let me get my 2nd year working holiday visa. Also, I've got to alter my flights at the Qantas office, as I'm supposed to be flying from Cairns to Hong Kong, then from H.K. back to London in little under a months time... Although I miss you all loads and loads, I'm afraid I still have a fair bit to do out here!

Another thing I've done, is shave most of my hair off, because its a bit easier! Straightening and styling my hair isn't the thing to be doing when living in a hostel.

Big hello to my old flatmates in Sydney; Karine, Jess & Mark, and also Aslan the Shark. Please Aslan, look after them, and make sure they stay out of touble! Miss you guys! However Karine, I am not missing your sex talk thankyou very much!

There are some pictures, but this computer is about as ancient as the bible, so they are taking a while to upload. I should think that they'll creep up on my photo gallery as the week progesses.

Take care for now my lovelies,

Stevie.

Time to leave this cold-ass city!

My flights at 10.05 tomorrow morning, alls I can say is that I'm so glad I'm getting out of Sydney. I'll let you all know where I'm going when I get there!

Happy Birthday to the one and only Kelster as well. 25 years old eh bird!? You don't look a day over 24 ;o)

As for the World Cup....! How did England win after their shoddy performance against Trinidad & Tobago? Who cares, I was very drunk and the two goals that came late on in the game ensured a happy end to my last night out in Sydney.

More to come over the weekend, have a fun one peeps.

x

Pics From Christmas 2005 on Bondi Beach...

Remember when a couple of peeps who I met out here; Jenna & Fran, plus myself went to the beach on Christmas day and danced about getting drunk listening to some tunes?.... (Click here for that post..)

Well Jenna took some pictures that day, (I did too, but my disposable camera got wet when we waded into the sea!) and has kindly scanned them and sent me her copies, so here they are..

Me sporting a springy Santa hat, a very cool looking Jenna, and Fran, who didn't stop dancing all day! The mad woman!

Elsewhere in Stevie Land....

I Finished work a week ago, feels good but I'm running out of money!

Went out all weekend with my flatmates and a couple of their lovely friends from back home; Angela & Terri, who have since gone up to Brisbane and are about to embark on the rest of the east coast. Got very trashed each night, hopefully this has been my last weekend in Sydney.

Watched England's poor performance against Paraguay. Can England score without the help of an own goal? Can we beat Trinidad & Tobago, a team that somehow managed a draw against the usually reliable Sweden? Lets hope so. Because there are some smug Australian's running about the place since they surprisingly pasted Japan, and the Wallaby's also smashed our Rugby team at the weekend!

Bought a 2nd hand 20gb iPod but the battery dies after about 2 hours so I need to buy a new battery and replace that. Shoddy Apple products!

Took a trip to the cinema with Karine to watch the Da Vinci code, and I gotta say, I thought it was rubbish, a sub-standard conversion from the book, considering all the hype I thought it would be pretty good. Oh well...

Caught a bad cold from going out all weekend, so I'm feeling pretty rubbish at the moment. Very homesick at the moment too, and I'm not sure what to do with myself.

Finally, Happy Birthday to my Auntie Celia for tomorrow!

More to come later this week, I promise.

Love,

Steve O.