Christmas WOOOOO YEA!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yes as always, I love Christmas.  Granted Crimbo in Australia is totally different compared to Guernsey, short days, cold weather, the christmas mission, dinner with my family and everyone round to my flat for lots of celebratory drinks.  Thankfully though I do have family in Australia, and in what feels like and most probably is the most coldest town in Australia, Warrnambool.  Its great, family christmas dinner, kinda wish I was back home though.  But anyhoo.

Staying Warrnambool for the next 10ish days, they are kind enough to let me stay with them and it saves me a whole lot of money compared to living in a hostel in Melbourne during holiday season.  The main benefit for me, I have about a week of full time theory work for my dive courses, and staying in a quiet calm house with stable internet beats a noisey busy hostel any time.  So excited, 50 days in thailand, living in a beachside hut scubadiving every day.  Bring it on!!  Looking forward to seeing my dad in Thailand, I will get to see him for a few days and then he leaves for home.  Just hoping he doesn't buy me a lady boy for Christmas!

Well I will update you all before I shoot off.

Miss you all xx

What a busy harvest!!

2 months have gone by so fast, and with that I realise I havn't exactly been keeping up my end of the bargain with the regular-ish updates.  So, as my last (short) post states, I have been a very busy chap.  In the past 8 weeks I have worked 730 hours, with the past week or two being relatively slow weeks due to bad weather.  So what have I been doing?  I suppose I better tell you :D

To start with it was mostly maintenance days, 

repairing and preparing the header (combine harvester) and chaser bin for the months to come, and with machinery this big, it takes a long time to get them ready.  An example, an oil change on you car, will probably take about 5 litres of oil and one small oil filter.  On the header, it has 4 oil filters, a precleaner and requires 49 litres of oil.  And that was just for the engine, there is also the hydraulics, pneumatics and about 20 different belts and chains to replace and so much more.  But anyway, once the work started, it was all systems go.  I started off by driving the chaser bin which is a large tractor towing an even larger trailer, which my trailer carried over 25 tons of wheat.  The task of the chaser bin is to drive alongside the header(s), allowing them to unload their wheat whilst they still harvest, then race to the silos and unload before the headers fill up.  You have to be a bit mad to do this job, not la la loopy mad, but its either full throttle or go home.  Even when fully loaded, you have to drive as fast as you can to unload in time, driving over rough terrain and bog holes with 25tons behind you going over 40mph in something taller than 2 land rovers parked on top of each other, tis fun :D

After a month or so, we started going to harvest jobs where they already had there own chaserbin, so we didnt need to take ours.  And with the main header operator getting tired of the job, he just drove the chaser bin back to the home sheds and I took over the header.  This was great, as initially it was just me and him going to the jobs, living in hotels, but now this was my show.  I had the invoice book, header, ute, work credit card and a list of jobs to go to.  For a month, I was my boss.  Organise trucks for transport, look after and maintain the machine, work my own hours, it was great.  Even the boss was really pleased with how it was going.  Every now and then he would call to ask how it was going, and every time he was happy.  But now it has come to the end, cant find any more jobs, as with how poor the weather is, a lot of farmers have lost their crops due to severe rain and hail, so now we are packing up.  Tim (my boss), has been so impressed with how well I have be doing, he desperately wants me to come back next year, and do the header from day one.  Even talks of him sponsoring me for a permanent visa.  Its tough for an average joe like me to get a permanent visa, its a different story if your a doctor or really rich.  Only way I can get a permanent is to either marry an aussie girl or part own a business.  So Tim has offered to sign over the lease for the header in to my name, go 50/50 with me on the payments and splits on the profits.  Which is a great deal for me, and also for him, but its a huge step, so I will take the year to think about it and decide next harvest what I would like to do.

So unless we find another job today or tomorrow, I have 2 days of driving the header back to the homestead, then I am finished.  Plans, hmm, not sure.  Ideally find a job for 2 weeks, but that will probably be impossible.  So will stay with Tim for a few days, then head to Melbourne and try to live a cheap life in a hostel for a few weeks.  As I'm flying out of Melbourne, I will just book one hostel for the entire time I will be there and get comfy.  Will most likely be X-Base St Kilda, which I have stayed a few times and had so much fun there.  I tried to get a hostel in Sydney for new years, all the hostels require a minimum of a 10 day booking, and with the cheapest place I could find at $55 per night, I wasn't going to pay $550 for new years!

Money wise I have done well, I figured out I would need $10,000 to pay for all my training, accommodation, travel and living costs.  Once I get my last wage from Tim which should be in a few days, I will have saved over $14,500, which for me is a hugely amazing achievement.  For those of you who know me, I don't save money well, never have.  And to have managed to save this amount is a big personal goal, and will mean that I can enjoy my time in Thailand diving and doing all these courses, and not worry about whether I am within my budget.  Obviously I will still be very careful, as I have worked so hard for this money, dont want to just waste it away.

Looking forward to getting away from these small towns, and get back in to the city and enjoy my backpacker life.  Although I will be trying to save money I'm excited to start hanging around other backpackers, enjoying the odd bag of goon, eating pasta, and spending my days lazing around St Kilda.  Hopefully will be visiting some family too, so it will be good to see them too.

Will update you again soon, a lot sooner than last time :p

Ryan xx

You cant even comprehend how amazing a lightning storm is until you have been over here, it is just out of this world!

Busy busy, o wait, I got my VISA!!!

Woohoo, it's official, I have my 2nd visa and will be in Australia for another year. Funny thing is now that I know I will be here for another year, I booked my flights to thailand. Let me run you through my current plan:
•Carry on harvest work until new year
•New year in Sydney
•Fly to Thailand 6th Jan to see dad and get my Divemaster scuba license
•Return to Cairns 26th Feb
•Start my instructor internship
•Qualified by May and working full time on dive boats
•Get my long term visa (hopefully)

Sorry for the lack of updates on here, work is going great, but oh so busy. Since I have started work, I have averaged 101 hours per week. Good for my bank acount, bad for everything else. As I am a contractor, I move to different farms all the time, so my laptop is back in Roma (with my boss). So I am writing this on my IPhone.

Have to keep this short and sweet as it has taken me long enough to type this on my phone. Everything is going good, just very very busy. Will give a better update when I have both time and my laptop.

Ryan x

Decisions decisions, what to do......

Ok, so being honest, Australia freaking rocks.  Adding to that, the most fun I have had over here has to be either in Cairns diving or my last job working on the cattle station in Ardbrin.  Currently sitting in my dorm room in Bris-Vegas (Brisbane), here for a few days until my bus transfer to Roma for the next job.  With these days, I have been hibernating in my dorm room saving money and reflecting on all the people I met and things I have done. Love scuba diving.  

In the last week, after topping up my phone with some serious credit, called all my family back home, had been a long time.  Was great to hear everyone's voices, and they too were equally happy to hear from me (I hope), although most commented on my new aussie based accent, dam.  But after subsiding my feelings of missing people back home, and taking in comments from people back home and my feelings, maybe going back to Guernsey isn't what I want.  Well, on a permanent basis, definitely want to go home and see everyone again at least for a little bit.  But what if I were to stay here, get sponsored, would I be happier here than Guernsey?  Thankfully, I still have a long time to mull over this decision.

So what am I doing now, back to the farms I go, but no mutilation of cows this time.  Just like last year, my task for 3-4 months is operating a combine harvester.  Unlike last year where my harvester was only 36' wide, 12 years old and kept catching fire, this year my harvester is 48' wide and only 2 years old.  Hopefully be arriving in Roma (inland from Brisbane) on Friday evening, and will start working this weekend.  Good thing about this job is that I will be heading a contractor team, heading south as the season progresses, ending near Sydney.  Sydney for me is going to be perfect for 2 reasons, new years fireworks and cheap international flights to Thailand for dive training.

Time to go grab some dinner me thinks.  Missing you all, and hope everything back in Guernsey-land (or wherever you are reading this from) is going well.
 
Ryan xx

 How cool are dolphins!! They were playing around Taka so cool.

              Awesome sunset on Taka  /  Me very excited about DIVING!!

 

Me n Maoko (another hostie), my Iphone made my face look out of shape

Me and Emilie 'horsing' around

 My new aussie map, I do get around

A whole lot of scuba diving!

Sorry for it being so dam long since I've updated this blog, but wow, busy much! 

For a change of pace I havn't been drinking much, if really at all, in this party based city Cairns.  Shocking.  Remember on one of my last posts, I spoke about living on board a dive boat for a few days diving the reef? Well, over the past 3ish weeks I have spent nearly all of it on board that boat working and diving.  Basically I make the beds and do the dishes, but get to dive up to 4 times a day for free and have all the board and food paid for, and its not that much work really.  Its great, infact it's amazing, basically living for free on the boat and diving everyday, problem is the food is waaay too good.  With 12 days left in Cairns, 10 of those will be spent on board at various spots on the great barrier reef, yay!

Good news, got a job sorted, starts on the 6th of October in Roma, one flight and a bus trip away from Cairns.  O yea, sold my car for $300 on top of what I paid for it, which is great.  The job is running a combine harvester, very similar to what I was operating last year in WA, but this time its a whole lot newer and in QLD.  Good thing is, $32 per hour and job finishes in February, and on new year the boss is flying us all out to Sydney for a week off.  So I am really looking forward to earning some real money.  My tax refund of $2000 will be in my account in 2 weeks, money from Paul (my old boss) of $3000 will be in my account next week and and I sold my car, so things are going well here.  

So with the money going well and lots of diving and work with Deep Sea Divers Den, they have offered me to do an Instructor internship.  I achieved my Rescue Diver certification, and after my job finishes in February I'm flying to Thailand to do my Divemaster, so much cheaper there than Australia.  And after I have done that, Deep Sea Divers Den will train me to become a dive instructor for free as long as I sign a contract to work for them for 6 months.  Obviously I havn't signed anything, as I don't have to agree to anything until February, but I would LOVE to be a dive instructor here, so much fun.  We'll see......

But anyway, on dry land for only today, so lots of washing and stuff to do before I ship out again tomorrow.

Speek to you all soon

Ryan x

Back to Cairns I go :D

Hooray, back to civilisation, and mobile signal!  Although my last job was so much fun, the station I was on didn't have any mobile signal, which made updating my blog and keeping in contact damn near impossible.  Needless to say, I headed straight back to Cairns after the job finished, time to do more scuba diving.  Leaving tomorrow, I am going back on the Oceanquest (same boat as last time) to do my Advanced course and maybe my Rescue Diver.  Also, I am working on the boat too.  Ok, so I don't actually get paid, but all I do is make beds and wash dishes. and I get to do 4-5 dives a day free.


My last job was exactly what I wanted to do over here, real cattle work.  Also, turns out I am getting pretty good at hunting pigs, but I won't be showing you any pictures or videos of that over the internet.  Well, except of those 2 cute little piglets, didn't have the heart to kill them.  Also, I have a mohawk, if you couldn't see in the photo, figured why not.

So for my main work here, I was processing over 3300 cattle.  Processing mean castrating, de horning, branding etc....  But, I made a video for you to see some of it, enjoy:

[VIDEO REMOVED DUE TO TERMS VIOLATION]

JUST A WARNING, Scenes in this video contain a lot of blood and also killing of a cow.  Its what I do out here.

Good news about Paul, my old boss I was suing, he made a settlement amount of $4000, so I took it.  Guernsey 1, stupid tight south australians 0!  Yes I am saving most of it, but going to spend some here in Cairns having a good time, as that is why I am here.  Looking for my next job, as it is coming in to the wheat harvest again, looking for work using a combine harvester, lots of fun.  I had an offer in WA, but not going all the way over there again, but I think I have a job near Brisbane starting in 4 weeks.  Leaves me with lots of time to get lots of dives behind me.

Anyway, I hope you liked the video, and will post updates of what I get up to here in Cairns when I can.

Ryan

Cairns, wonderful awesome Cairns!!

I have been here nearly 3 weeks now, nearly every cent I have has been spent, and I have had such an amazing time here!  Truly jaw dropping, leg twitching super dooper fun.  Even the days where I have been hungover or feeling lazy, spending them beside the lagoon sunbathing with some awesome mates I met here, just enjoying the sun and all that Australia has to offer.  Can life be better than this?  If yes, I don't believe it.  The problem with this, is that if I was to write about everything I have done and enjoyed here, this blog would be so long even I would get bored writing it.  So I will try and be brief.  

I can not stress enough, its not what you do, its who you do it with.  That saying was something I had heard 100's of times before I came over to Australia, but it never really made sense to me, until I became a backpacker.  Remember Andre and Martin?? They were in Cairns with me for 5-6 days, great guys, even just lazing about in the sun or walking around the night markets was a laugh.  While they were here, we did a couple of small hikes around the mountains around Cairns, and lots of poker, so much poker.  Every night they were here, we played poker drinking beer n goon until 3 in the morning then going out to spend the winnings.  

The night life in Cairns, is well, amazing fun, so much fun!  It's perfect for backpackers too, if you keep moving each hour to which ever pub or bar has the specials on, you can have a fairly cheap night.  Example, PJ's does $7 jugs (2pints a jug) 9-10 and Woolshed does 2for1 11-12.  All the bars are normally packed, which can be so much better, as everyone is just there to have a good time and dance, its hard to explain.

So bungy jumping is not as scary as I first though, less scary than skydiving.  OK, I will admit, the first jump was probably one of the scarist things I ever did, but what a rush!  I enjoyed it so much, I may have ended up doing it 5 times, 5 amazing adrenaline pumping times.  As you can split you jumps over 2 days, I ended up taking Meike the first day and on the second day Ams and Rae, but more on them later.  First jump was the normal swan dive, but then I went backwards and after that I ran off the roof.  My last 2 dives though were swan dives, but with a watery ending.  After asking them to "dunk me", they did just that, but maybe just a little too much.  Don't think that because you can do all these crazy ways of bungy jumping that they will be more fun, I enjoy the swan dive more because its all about the feeling, but running off the roof was fun :p  (Video below is same on my facebook).  Imagine a pendulum, with you on the end of a 45m piece of wire going at 120kph and when your at the bottom of the swing just only a few feet away from the floor.  I will upload a pic when I have them.

If you can, White Water Rafting is so much FUN!!!  Its not scarey or dangerous, it is just such a fun thing to do.  Meike was with me in the boat along with 5 others, on the great Tully River with grade 4 rapids (out of a range of 1-6).  We spent about 5 hours on the actual water, or in the water as we did fall in quite a few times, but the instructors are great and a good laugh.  A good thing was that after a rough patch of rapids, we would all wait at the end and watch the others going through to see who would fall in.  The lunch site was a small cove half way along the river, next to some amazing waterfalls.  Its difficult to explain how much fun rafting is, its something you just have to do, it's a team activity, as long as your with a load of people that is friendly and fun, you'll be laughing!

Scuba Diving, first thing I want to say is THANK YOU to Steve @ Donkey Divers.  How it worked was I did all the theory and first 5 dives with him, and I did my remaining 4 dives over here on the reef.  Don't bet me wrong, the guys and instructors on the boat I went on were freeking awesome, but not as good of a teacher as Steve.  I knew so much more and had developed such better skills and habits in comparison to others on my trip here, that I was surprised I was still doing the same course.  So once again, big shout out to Steve @ Donkey Divers, your doing a great job!!  

I spent 3 days with the guys at Deep Sea Divers Den, spending 2 nights on the Ocean Quest, and it has to have been 3 of the best days of my life so far.  5 dives a day, starting at 5:30 am and last one finishing at 9:30 pm, I even did my deep dive to 29.5m.  Ok, I have to admit, my first day wasn't great, as I was doing my last dives to get my Ocean Water Certificate, I had to join in with a group of 7 USA kids, who were a little annoying and clumbsy underwater.  When they left, Leonard became my new dive buddy, an Australian dude, quite a good diver.  I wont go in to each dive, but the Great Barrier Reef is truely a beautiful playground, whether it is day or night.  My 2 favourite dives was my last morning dive and my night dive. 

Imagine diving down to 10m in pitch black with a torch, not knowing which way to go, but then you see the first rays of the morning sun shine over this colourful reef.  As those beams of light land on the coral, all the fish awaken and appear out of the rocks, the giant clams open up and a huge sea turtle climbs out of its cave and pokes it's head out of it's shell.  My camera wouldn't work with such low levels of light, but this truly was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen!  I had so much fun, I will be coming back to Cairns to work for DSDD in 8 weeks time, live on Ocean Quest and work towards my divemaster qualification.

OK I really need to wrap this up, as I did what I hoped to not do, make my blog waaaaaay too long.  I leave Cairns on Friday, as I move to my next job on a cattle station which is over 600kms inland from Townsville, back to the outback I go.  Its mostly yard work, 6 weeks, $220 a day 6 days a week, time to make/save some money so I can come back to Cairns and then go to work for DDSD.  I will miss this place and all the awesome people I have met!  FYI apparently I won't have mobile signal except for when I drive in to town every now and then, so this may be the last time you hear from me for a while.

Today, I had my 3000th visitor to my blog, yes 3000.  No idea how, but awesome!

Anyhoo, I have made this long enough!  Missing you all like mad, but having an amazing time here.

Ryan xx

Airlie Beach & Cairns

Ooops, so it has been a while since I last blogged, sorry about that.  In my defence though, I have been having way way way too much fun here, and I havn't even done any of the scuba diving or the other fun adventure things here yet.  

My latest trip began in Brisbane, I stayed in the same hostel that I frist stayed in when I arrived in Australia.  It was a bit strange, because now when I was chatting to people, I was the one who had all the interesting stories, and knew so much of what to expect.  Whereas before I was jet lagged and unsure of what I am letting my self in for.  When I left, I picked up 2 other backpackers (Andre & Martin) who saw my ad online for a lift to Cairns, which was great as it saves me money of fuel.  The one big thing so far that I have learnt over here, that it is not the place but the people that makes a good time.  We first drove to Airlie Beach and had 2 of the most awesome nights out ever, for anyone who wants to visit Australia, you MUST go to Airlie Beach.  The nightlife is awesome, the backpackers and local friendly and party animals, drink is cheap and the hostels are really good.  PS, jenga is a whole lot more fun when drinking is involved.

Next step, Cairns, with only some dodgy driving from Andre, it was a pretty good drive.  The scenery around Cairns is beautiful, mountainous and green.  Something that I though was amazing to see, was half way to Cairns, we drove past some really massive bush fires, thankfully it was far away from any homes, but it was awesome to see it in real life.  After taking advice from other backpackers, I decided to stay at Gilligans, Cairns party hostel, it is nuts!  It has nearly 1000 beds, and a huge club attached to it which stays open until 3am.  As a hostel, it is very clean, with free dinners, really well laid out and really helpful staff.  Instead of going out drinking, I have been spending all my evening in the comunial kitchen playing poker all night with others.  I have won once, yay, which is funny as I rarely ever play it.  It is great though, we normally have about 8 players and loads of others come sit to chat and watch.  $10 buy in with re-buys allowed, I won the pot of $140 the other night, drinks were on me :D

Unfortunately the weather here is quite poor at the moment, warm but wet.  We went hiking yesterday, unfortunately it started raining an hour in to it, so we had to walk back in the rain for an hour, some awesome views though.  Starting to really loose some weight now which is great.  When I first arrived in Australia i weight 128kgs, which is an unbeliveable weight, stupidly heavy.  But now I am down to 112kgs, I am going to try to get down to 95kgs before I come home.  This may sound like a lot still, but I am developing more muscle mass with the work I have been doing, and to be honest, I don't want to be a skinny guy!!

While in Brisbane I visited the Fair Work Ombudsmen to finalise my claim against my old boss.  We settled on an amount of $7895.50, but they said it could take about 6 months.  Within a couple of days of finalising my claim, yesterday Paul (my old boss) tried calling a couple of times.  I called some of the guys on the farm, and it sounds like he wants to settle outside of court, and he will incur a minimum of $100k in fines alone.  I havn't called him back yet, let him sweat a little, but will call him later on today.  Im not trying to be some money hungry monster, I just want what we agreed on before I started to work for him, I want what I worked hard for.

In the next 10 days I plan to acheive:

• Lose another 2-3kgs
• Bungy jump
• Minjin Swing
• White Water Rafting
• Hike some of the mountains around Cairns
• Win more poker
• Go on a 3 day scuba trip on the Great Barrier Reef
• Continue to have AN AWESOME TIME :D

But as always, I miss you all back home, and think of you all often.

Ryan xx

Frogs, nuff said

Oooops, didnt realise how long it has been since I last posted here.  Today has been the only day off I have had in the past 2-3 weeks, and I used it to work on the car and sleep in.

So I last wrote when I was in Byron Bay, one thing, Byron Bay rocks!  I did my scuba dive there, and wow! As in, WOW!  It was the best dive ever ever ever.  Went down to around 12 metres, and was surrounded by sharks, beautiful fish and crazy looking urchins n funny things.  There were hundreds of sharks, and they just didn't care about me, a lot were just sleeping on the bottom, was so awesome!!! Ahh!  Anyhoo, after taking some advice, I popped to a small town called Nimbin on the way out of Byron, HIPPIE TOWN.  Everyone was just outside, lazing around smoking weed, even the police were smoking it.  Nearly everyone I spoke to offered me some, and all the shops sell it or products with it in (eg cookies).  It was just unreal, no hang ups about it and no trouble, was just fascinating at how they get away with it.

Im at my new job, although I leave here next weekend.  It was only a 3-4 week job, but I am making the most of my time here, working my butt off.  In the first 11 days I worked 145 hours, buts it is ok, as I know I am leaving very soon.  Basically the reason I am here is to spread cow manure, 10000 tons of it.  I spread it all over the paddocks, then plow it in to the ground.  Once again, spending most of my time in a tractor, but I dont care, only here for another 7 days.  The house (may as well be a shed), is a bit run down, but once again, I realise I am only here for a little bit longer.  Also, my toilet always has frogs in it, which is a bit un-nerving when I need to sit on it, don't want the lil buggers jumping at me bum :p

Serviced the car, boy did it need it, also had to fix my leaky radiator.  Also made some DIY curtains for the windows, basically I just cut up an old bed sheet and jam it in the windows.  Ooo, and I fitted a mini fridge and adjusted the back seat to make it more comfy to sleep on.  Reason I am doing all this is beacuse next week I will be driving to Cairns, along the coast, over 2000kms.  Stopping off and Airlie Beach though for a few days, probably camp in my car, o yea picked up a mini gas stove too.  Car is all kitted out now, clean and serviced.  Meeting Meike, a friend I made on the training course, going to do some scuba diving, skydiving, bungee jump, paragliding and any other crazy fun thing I can find there.  But I am looking forward to the heat in Cairns, as here in Texas a few nights a go, it went down to -3*c, everything was frozen, it sucked!  I am not in Australia for -3*c!!!!!

Well, I best be doing my washing and then getting to bed, I hav.e work tomorrow

Bye all xxx

 Nimbin

 Nimbin High St

 Had to cross a river in the work ute, it broke down half way accross

 Driving along the Great Ocean Road, good times

 My car after I washed it

 A beach in Warnambool

 Me and Jamie, just chillin

 Me and my sh!t spreading tractor

Did a little burning the other night, purdy

Pros & Cons of travelling alone

Pro : If I want to move to another town or change job or do something different, I can, without thinking of anyone else.

In Byron Bay now, after spending 2 days on the road, and what a drive, wow!  The Great Ocean Road is such a fantastic drive, I had far too much fun, I did not drive economically!  If you ever get to drive around Australia, seriously, it was the greatest strecth of road ever, its between Warrnambool and Melbourne.

Con : Seeing all these wonderful places, but not being able to share and discuss them with anyone else.

Here until Thursday, where I drive to my new job, in Texas.  No, I am not leaving Australia, just a small town due West of Byron Bay, although whenever I search for it, google always goes to Texas US, dam it! So easy to get a job, especially as I have lots of tractor experiance, I only called up this job from the list of many, as this was exactly what I wanted.  High wages, lots of hours, for 5 weeks.

Pro : So easy to get work when you don't have to look for a place that needs 2 people.

Had a lot of fun in Melbourne, but purely due to the people I met.  I feel that I'm not a very confident person, although other people think differently.  When I get to a new town/city/hostel, I have to be in a happy chatty mood so that I am comfortable enough to spark up random conversation.

Con : Your alone, must be comfortable in talking to stangers and making new friends, or it is tough!

Lots of nights out in the short time I was in Melbourne, what an awesome city, although in all honesty I didn't seee much other than the hostel dorm.  Well don't get me wrong, I did walk around andgo to a few recommended sight-seeing spots, and the Imax cinema, worlds 3rd largest cinema screen, and in 3D, was awesome.

Pro : If your too hungover or sick or lazy, you can spend a lazy day in, without worrying about anyone.  Otherway round, if you want to go do something, you can do it, no one to worry about

Frankly, my last boss tried to screw me over on my wages.  He's a clever guy, so he only gets backpackers, who normally don't research work laws and stand up for themselves.  He paid me $4ph less than the nation minimum wage, took money our, didn't pay me manditory overtime hours etc.  So basically I have logged a complaint with the government ombudsmen, I'm waiting to hear whats going to happen.

Con : It's a lot easier to be taken advantage of if you don't have backup, whether work wise or other things.

Thursday, I've got 2 scuba dives booked, fun way to spend the morning before I drive to my new job in the afternoon.  Highly rated dive spot, which is ripe with turtles, reefs, many exotic fish and small sharks.  So looking forward to it, will be awesome to get back under the water, such a wonderful thing to do.

Pro : You develope yourself as an individual, living and fending for yourself in a totally different country.  This isn't like home, work is hard, the bosses are even harder, wages can be poor, conditions harsh, and no mummy or daddy to rescue you.  If you can survive here, you'll make it back home.

I write this blog like this, as I want to let you know I am having a good time.  But sometimes I wish I had a friend here to travel with, but only sometimes.  It depends on what type of person you are, and what you want out of your experiance here.  I have found as I'm on my own I am more responsible with my money here, and building my confidence and skill set, but thats what I came here for, o and all the fun too :D

It's amazing what one person alone can achieve!

If anyone ever wants to ask me for advice or has general questions about travelling Australia, feel free to email me (firestorm445@hotmail.com)  I'll reply when I can.

Ryan x

 All the places I have visited

Oh how things can change!!

Prepare yourself for my rant, by golly!

Ok, so my birthday was pretty awesome, we all went out for a good meal and had fun, but isn't it funny how things can change so damn quick.

Right, as a backpacker, we are expected to work hard for low money and put up with any shit from our employers as we are 'casual labour'.  Which hasn't been too much of a problem, as I am work damn hard and I am quite happy with the long hours and wage I get for it.  Also, Paul (my current employer) seemed like a real decent guy who we have a good laugh together, albeit for his occasional temper tantrums which normally follow him coming to appologise for his over-reactions. 

So I have been here for 8ish weeks now, and things had been going well, work hard and get paid every other week.  I had found it weird why I had not been getting pay slips, but dismissed it as not a worry.  But 5 days a go, I asked Paul for my pay slips, which he handed to me on Wednesday and wow what a surprise.  We agreed a wages of $15ph over the phone, which is an average wage for a backpacker and I pay $30 per wage for electricity.  So when I looked at my pay slips I noticed I only got $14ph, I paid $130 per wage for rent & electricity and also 7 hours per week was taken from my wages.

Thursday came, and I had the evening to calm down and work out how much had been taken from me over the past 8 weeks, approximately $1950.  With this, I approached Paul and calmly asked him to explain to me what had happened.  I'll list his explanations:

• Lower wage - What he had to pay, so $13.50 to me and $1.50 to other taxes
• Paying rent - He forgot to tell me over the phone
• Taking hours - For insurance purposes we have to have a lunch hour (which we dont get by the way)
• Even if we 'work' a 14 hour shift, he doesn't think we actually work that long even though I work damn hard flat out all day, and if we don't we get yelled at.
• Plus a load of other little excuses he came up with

I said that I didn't think that was good enough, and he asked that we discuss this the next day.  I agreed, and I continued with my day.  Friday came, and Paul came to my house (workers house), and before I even got to say hello, he told me "we need to go our seperate ways".  Aparently he doesn't think I am doing a good enough job, even though every other day he likes to vent to me how annoyed he is with everyone else and that he gets me to teach others how to drive the equipment and do some cattle work.  Also he thinks it is very petty that I am chasing after him for such a small amount......... It isn't a small amount.

The thing is, I am going to ask him again polietly to pay me what he owes me, one last chance, otherwise I will seek legal help, just can not stand to lose that much money.  I have met backpackers who have told me storied of not being paid, and they gave me a couple of companies with whom to call.  Also after I heard about those other boss' not paying, I set my phone to record all phone calls, I wrote down in a book everything I do each and every day with times and who I worked with, and I also took photos of my time sheets.  Is it fair that I just want to be paid what we agreed on before I arrived here?

Could go in to a lot more detail, but don't want to bore you all. 

My plan now is that I will leave here on Tuesday in my car and drive to Melbourne, along the way maybe stop and meet some family over here, pending if they are free.  In Melbourne, pick up a few backpackers (ride sharing) and head up north somewhere along the Great Ocean Road.  Will be quite cheap and already have 2 people who want to come along.  All the mean time sort out a new job, hopefully somewhere a bit warmer.

Could go in to a lot more detail, but don't want to bore you all. 

Rant over............... lol :p

Its my BIRTHDAY :D

What rocks so much about today, is another day off work, woohoo!!!!!  Also, I am now 24, which isn't really a huge milestone, but one non the less.  Really nice to see messages from people on my Facebook, and I even got cards and a parcel from back home, which was great.  In all honesty, spent the entire day in just playing computer games, watching movies and nursing a hangover.  Went out last night with the people I work with for a meal, which was real nice of them, went to a place in Mount Gambier called Bull Frogs where I ate a crocodile starter and a kangaroo main.  Crocodile is actually really really nice, but kanagroo not so much, too dark and rich I find.  Just wanted to try something different to a big steak meal.

I'd like you all to meet Ruby:

One of the farm dogs here, who has taken a real liking for me, so I'm trying to teach her how to help move mobs of cattle.  So far, she has managed to learn bark and left, were still working on right.  She runs dam fast though, she'll run beside me at about 35+kph, but if I'm in a rush, she'll just ride on the back of my bike, good doggy!

Doing a lot more cattle work now, which is great.  The other guys prefer working in tractors all day long, rather than be in the yards trudging through mud and cow poo trying to work on really big dumb cattle, but I really enjoy it, so bored of sitting behind the wheel all day. 

I didn't expect to be needing to wear a jacket and thick clothing in Australia, dam it is cold, brrrrrr...........

All in all, its going well here soon.  Going to Cairns on the 25th of June for 3-4 weeks of fun, then back here until November, will be hot in Cairns, can't wait!

Hope you all have a real good Liberation Day xx

 Howard (aka Goggles)

 Taking Ruby for a run

The beach next to our farm, you can drive 100km either way along the coast.  On a low tide.

 

Me, Sarah, Louise, Jack and Hugo.  This was before Georgie came and Jack, Louise and Sarah left.