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
Ryan xx
