End of Exams

So usually finishing your exams at the end of Semester 2 (I've started out here halfway through the year as the academic year is different) is a huge relief and a good excuse for a huge party to start the summer with a bang. Well, not so much for me, as I didn't really have any exams... All of my Spanish tests were in class (there were quite a few though - oral, written, listening, grammar... you name it) and then everything else for Music was just presentations or hand-ins, all of which were over and done with before lectures even stopped for the exam period. There was one day when I had three exams on one day but.... meh.

So, here I am now all finished and ready to party and pretty much EVERYONE else is just beginning their exams. It's been quite fun to walk around gloating about my four month summer (when everyone else only has three) for these past few days but the novelty is waring off and people are really beginning to start to hate me.

Good news though, Harry's moved from the Hunter Valley and now lives at UNSW! He's got a very important new job with a famous race horse trainer just by Randwick Racecourse which is literally across the road, and whilst he was flat hunting, came and crashed at mine for a few days. By chance, a friend here called Em was going off travelling and was looking for someone to sub-let the room off her so that she wasn't paying rent for a room she wasn't using, so Harry has now moved in to her room and is living on campus with me! I have to move out of my room in a few weeks as my tenancy runs out on 26th November, but another girl in the same flat will be moving out then and also be wanting someone to sub-let her room, and so by the end of this month Harry and I will be living in the same flat. Good times ahead boys and girls, good times ahead....! Sadly though, Harry is on a bit of a bizarre schedule as his shifts are from 3am - 9am and then he has the rest of the day off except for having to go back to feed the horses at 2pm for an hour, and this obviously means he has to be in bed pretty early and can't come out much. I'll convince him soon enough though, but he's on best behaviour as it's his first week so I'm being tolerant at the moment. 

I'm keeping myself busy with work at the bar which is pretty hectic now as it's getting into the Summer season, and I've still got another 3 weeks of my internship. Also obviously doing my best to get that mythical bikini bod I know is hiding in there somewhere ready for Summer, but I sprained my ankle last night whilst running and so am now hobbling around like a cripple. I had a bit of a panic moment as I haven't sprained my ankle for years (I think the last time I did it was on the trampoline when I was about 12!?) and had no idea what I was meant to do as Mum/Sister Gil wasn't there to nurse me! I've managed to seek out some suitably sporty people though who have told me "Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate" and so I've been watching Breaking Bad with my foot up with a bag of peas feeling like a right tit. Oh well...

The weather hasn't really been that great for the past week but suddenly today was boiling and so I dragged Harry and some others down to Coogee for a beach day. We just lay and baked ourselves and soaked up some much needed post-exam vitamin D, but I've managed to burn my bum and so I can't sit down OR walk now, which is proving to be quite annoying. Also the woman in the pharmacy called me a 'silly pom' when I hobbled in to buy some aftersun and ibuprofen... bit embarrassing. I was meant to go out to a shisha bar this evening with a few friends but I had to bail as I wouldn't be able to do that lotus flower thing with you legs, which is obviously obligatory when smoking shisha, and so, what was the point!? (If I'm honest, the real reason is that I have also burnt the lower half (!?) of my face but I was wearing lip balm with SPF in it and it means that I now have a weird white line all the way round my lips.... BRILLIANT. I'm a mess. Hopefully it'll be gone by tomorrow....)
Halloween was an odd one this year. I thought I was going to have to work until midnight and wouldn't be able to join in with anything at all, but they let me go at 8pm as the bar wasn't busy. I rushed home, shoved on some black clothes, Halloweened the shit outta my face, grabbed some wine and ran to meet everyone in a friends flat. I was met with a 'What.... what are you!?' by most people, which was fair enough as everyone else's costumes were pretty impressive. Here are two of my faves....

Ailsa's freaky cat eyes

Stan and Thierry as Jesse and Heisenberg from Breaking Bag - good hey!?

Everyone got very drunk and most people traded bits of their costumes with other people, so by the end everyone was looking like a bizarre hybrid of some kind of meth-brewing-vampire-cat, or something equally as weird. I woke up in the morning wearing a vampire cape (yup, thats right, I slept in it) and there was a micro scooter in my room which definitely is not mine. Also, according to the photos on my phone, we went to Macdonalds at some point and Adam ordered a burger which had no burger in it!?

Look at his little face, bless. I've never seen someone look so shocked and upset over some bread. (Quite possibly one of the most hilarious moments EVER though.)
I have horrible images of myself zooming around Macdonalds on the scooter in the vampire cape, but lets just not think about that. I hope that didn't happen....

Anyway, that's my life right now. Lots of much more exciting things coming up soon, as Oli's coming out here for 3 weeks at the end of this month, then my family come out for Christmas and New Year, and then I'm going to hit up Indonesia and Asia for Feb/Jan with friends before uni starts again in March. Plus a few festivals thrown in their somewhere.

Love to all back home...!

B

Sound Sick

I got caught unawares this morning. I tumbled out of bed and went to my Electronic Music tutorial and for the first half an hour we listened and critiqued a few people's pieces that were played out to the tute. Then, for the next half an hour, our lecturer got us to play around on an interactive sound website. At first I wasn't really very interested but in my hungover state was quite happy to just faff about on a computer for a while. The piece is by a woman called Katharine Norman and is an interactive sound essay called 'Window'. This is what she has to say about it:

" Window is part of a new series I hope to make about place, and about how listening contributes to our sense of place. Making Place (2013) is a companion musical work for live interactive sound and image/text with piano(s). Made with Processing and puredata software, it was commissioned by duoDort and composed in 2012 with funds from Arts Council England and the Britten-Pears Foundation, and premiered at Sonoritis, Belfast in April 2013 (one piano version) and Falmouth University, May 2013 (two piano version). "

Here's a link to the piece. Have a play around if you fancy, it takes some time to get into it and you kind of have to understand about the logistics of sound editing, but it's interesting anyway. Obviously it's a sound piece, so listen with headphones for the best effect. Her whole project is about experimenting with sound and how it can define and make a place. For this piece, she recorded out of her bedroom window at different times of day to capture the soundscape she heard, and then collaged all the sounds together. You can move through the different times of day and play with EQing the different frequencies of the sound and in effect, make your own soundscape out of the one she has recorded. There's also some accompanying text to read as you move through the piece. I know this sounds all very artsy and kind of a load of BS, and that's how I felt at first, but then suddenly I really understood her piece. Katharine lives in Cambridge back home in the UK and so the sounds she hears, in particular the birdsong, is very weirdly familiar. There was one point in the piece where I managed to get it to sound exactly like our garden at home, by lowering the volume of the traffic and turning up the sounds of the birds, in particular that pigeon noise, and I cannot even tell you how weird it was to be sat in a lecture in Sydney, Australia, and suddenly be utterly convinced that I was back at home. It kinda freaked me out a bit and I just sat there listening to that one bit for ages. SO strange.

We all talked about it afterwards, and all the Australia's said that they enjoyed exploring the work, but that it didn't really do anything for them. Then the lecturer asked me how I felt and I told her about how nostalgic it made me feel and how I couldn't believe how much it reminded me of being at home. Suddenly everyone was looking at me and I felt all weird and sad and I nearly started to cry! Must be something to do with being hungover, you know that weird depressed feeling you sometimes get the next day? Yeah, well, that. I didn't think I was homesick at all but it's funny what can trigger it.

When she let us go I ran off pretty quick and am now snuggled back in bed with strawberries and listening to John Mayer, pretending to be in Skiathos/my kitchen and missing home a bit. I'll be fine later, we're all heading off to the beach this afternoon as the weather's nice and the surf's good, but right now I miss you, fam.

B

Moo, Da, Ella and Me on Ella's 18th

September Slump

We were warned about this. Whilst we were all dancing around happily in our shorts and walking around in bare feet, remarking on how fantastic the 32 degree heat and sunny weather was, and how we didn't mind the Australian winter one bit, they all warned us about the 'September Slump'. And did we believe them? 

Nope.

But as of the past few days, we sure as hell do. Now I know us Brits are always ones to rant about the weather, but this has been ridiculous. It all began with crazy gale force winds which were so strong that it meant that you didn't have to walk anywhere, you kinda just got blown along, and there was no need to actually go to the gym, just walking back and forth from lectures was enough resistance training thank you very much.

At first it was all warm and quite exciting, like the wind in Pocohontas (that bit when she sings that power ballad and dances through the air. No? Well here you go then...)

Moo, Ella and Maisie, this song reminds me so much of you guys for some reason!?

(Feel educated now? Good.) But then it got very cold and cloudy and then, this morning, IT STARTED TO RAIN. Not only is this just rain, it's torrential rain and it hasn't stopped all day. Mass panic and very obscure outfits have broken out across campus and attendance for all lectures has dropped by at least 10% as no one wants to walk anywhere!

The view from my apartment where I hid all afternoon

It's be horrible and Goose and I are miserable but weirdly nostalgic as we feel like we're back in Newcastle/Edinburgh again. I seriously don't understand how we deal with this weather on a day to day basis usually!? It looks like it's going to rain again tomorrow, but then the rest of the week picks up and goes back to sunshine.

Thank god for that.

B

Arts Week

So, the idea of having an 'Arts Week' at such a science-y university is almost ridiculous, but somehow they've managed to battle on and a few arty bits and bobs have been popping up all over campus this week.

The weather is blissful at the moment, as usual, and everyone seems to be in a particularly good mood. Goose, Jack and I sat together in between lectures in the main quad and lolled about in the sun.

After my lectures, I took some time out and sat on the Library Lawn to enjoy the weather and listened to a live band performing who were called "General Pants and The Privates". Right.... despite their questionable name they were actually quite good. Everyone was lying on the lawn and enjoying the harsh Australia Winter. NAAAT.

Heading back down on to lower campus, there are more fun arty things. The Brasser Steps had graffiti all up the walls...

The sundial in the Main Quad had a giant dreamcatcher hanging from it, and there was another live band - and even an arts and crafts tent...

On lower campus I found some frilly trees....

....and an eggplant?

Walking down the main walkway I also discovered some little market stalls, which I hovered around for ages and eventually bought a funky little sweatshirt.

There's also loads of other stuff going on, like film nights and art classes, and even some exhibition thing where you're meant to write an anonymous secret on a postcard and post it into one of the various letter poxes left around campus, and then they're all put up in an exhibition space for everyone to read. This is an idea copied form an artist who set up PostSecret as a community arts project, quite an interesting idea really. Some of the secrets on that site are pretty odd though.... turns out there are a lot of closet lesbian Grandmas in this world!

Anyway, lots of arty fun in the sun today. I'm feeling a bit tired though, I might go have a little snooze in the Eggplant...

B

One Month Milestone

So, as of about 7am this morning, I have officially been in Sydney for one whole month! 

Time has flown and so much has happened since I first got here. Its so funny to think back to my first shopping trip I made and all the muddles I got myself into trying to navigate myself around the city, and first meeting Goose! Although I am still learning stuff about this place every day, I feel pretty well settled and almost bordering on becoming a proper Sydney-Sider! But don't worry, I haven't picked up any Aussie-twang and my accent is, to quote my friend John, still "so very English".
Here's a little list of stuff I've had to get used to out here....

1. They don't do 1c and 2c, they just round everything up to the nearest 5c, and it's actually really common to see $100 notes!
2. $2 coins are smaller than $1, which is just annoying and backwards.
3. Both Americans and Australians have no idea what you mean when you say "Ah, I just couldn't be arsed/fucked" and "She was taking the piss", they just stare at you blankly like you have a mild case of tourettes.
4. EVERYONE says "How ya going?" instead of "How are you?".
5. There are no such things as pints here, everything is served in 'scunas', which is just a little bit smaller than a pint.
6. The green man noise when you're crossing the road is unnecessarily aggressive and gives me a heart attack every time.
7. Shoe sizes are all different, so a UK size 6 is an AU size 8.
8. I have to pay 20c/MG for my internet in halls. Say whaaaa!?
9. A swimming pool in a club is, like, totally normal.
10. Buses run all through the night.
11. Their Burger King is called Hungry Jack's.
12. I live on High Street, Kensington, and there are loads of other places named after placed in London, including a Hyde Park!
13. Everyone wears sports kit, all the time.
14. If you go down to Bondi, everyone is actually surfing and there are hundred of people in wetsuits  either in the sea, running around on the beach, or skateboarding along the shop fronts - every single one of them carrying a surfboard.
15. Everything is easier/quicker/cheaper/free/more funny/on the house if you tell someone that you're British.
16. All wildlife out here is four times bigger, more poisonous and scarier than anything in the UK.
17. Australian's don't tip, unless you're British...! *wink*
18. The price of make-up make it actually physically painful to buy it.

I have some fantastic friends here, who have now come to be know ironically-but-not-so-ironically-anymore as the "Goon Squad". The group is ever expanding and we are a very cosmopolitan group, as we have Brits, Scots, Asians, Americans and even some real Aussies. I love them all dearly and we have a lot of fun together - mainly the Aussies teaching us completely made up Australian slang and convincing us it is commonly used in everyday life. Their recent favourites have been 'turbo' and 'cash' (which apparently mean 'good') and that 'jimmies' and 'jiblets' are two different things (they're not, and yes, they are referring to their balls). We do get out own back though, as one of them, *cough* Josh *cough*, thought that 'ASOS' stood for 'Australian Shirts and Other Stuff' haha! He will never live that one down....

It's also great to have Tally and Harry out here, as it's nice to see a familiar face from home now and then. At the moment, Tally is off travelling up the East Coast and Harry is working in the Hunter Valley, but I should see both of them in about 3 weeks though when they'll both head back into the city. The Maiden's have also been my saviours, Gus and Amber are honestly like my guardian angels! Anything I need and they will be right there to help me, and have said that I can come and escape and stay at theirs whenever I want. It's so nice to have the little back up out here, like a second family.

The weather out here is ridiculous. Every day is blissfully sunny and above 20 degrees, and the most we have to deal with is a bit of wind. If this is what the deepest darkest depths of Winter is like, I can't wait for summer! 

All of my courses are going well and I am not behind on my work... yet. Spanish is making me work hard but I'm definitely picking up everything more easily now. I've joined the gym (one of the personal trainer guys in there yesterday even said hi to me like I was a regular! Score!) and I have a well paid job which is helping me cash in some pennies so that I can save up to go travelling over the summer break. I also have just been offered an Internship with an independent music and arts magazine in Sydney called BRAG. I'll be starting on September the 10th doing 8hrs every Tuesday writing for their website and for their magazine. Exciting! I don't know too much about it all yet, but will update you once I start.

So, to sum this all up, life is going swimmingly and I am loving it out here. Not to say that I don't miss y'all back home, but, y'know... Australia's kinda fun, ok!?

B

Drunk and Disorderly Diana

So, at about 3.30pm Goose and I decided to nip to Coles (supermarket) and set off on our way up High Street. Halfway up the hill, we discovered a bike and two little feet poking out of the bush. These feet belonged to Diana, and poor Diana was not in a very good state. At first, we thought that she had fallen off her bike and hit her head and was badly concussed, but after getting a little closer we smelt the pungent smell of alcohol (definitely Goon), and realised that she was just, excuse my french, really fucking hammered. She had been quite sick and was obviously not feeling too well, and so we tidied up her hair with a complimentary hair tie and snapped into Mummy Mode.

We learnt her name, and asked if we could borrow her phone and managed to call her housemate, Carly. Carly said she couldn't come and get her because she was getting ready for a job interview, but we said we'd walk her home and she gave us the address. We stood Diana up and whilst I took her bike, Goose held her up by her backpack, and we set off on one of the most hilarious journey's I have ever had!

Diana soon perked up a bit and thanked us for rescuing her, and whilst she took to marching ("I'm going to march, it will sober me up!"), we tried to get her to tell us why she was so drunk. She didn't seem to really know the answer, or what she had been doing, but it was something to do with a sports event at UNSW (she was dressed in sports kit) and it was "all Harry's fault". We're guessing she'd had a match of some sort and then they'll all hit the Goon pretty hard, and then when she attempted to cycle home, the hill was a little too much for her and she fell off her bike and passed out in the hedge. She had no recollection of even getting on her bike, let alone falling off! 

We ambled along slowly, me trying to master walking-pace peddling, and Goose holding Diana back by her backpack like a toddler making sure she didn't step out into the road. Here's a little video we took so that we could add her on Facebook and name and shame her the next day....

Isn't she hilarious!? Definitely my favourite Aussie that I've met so far.

After many embarrassed thankyous, lots of laughter, repeated invites to a BBQ and declaritions that "Brits were awesome", we returned Diana to her house, and Carly, and left her to drink some water and have a much needed shower.

Despite the whole round trip to Coles and back taking nearly 3 hours (it should have been 1, tops!) Goose and I felt very proud of our good samaritan deed of the day and are thoroughly looking forward to hearing from Diana tomorrow!

B

¡He empezado mis clases de Español!

If you don't know what the above means, it means I have started my Spanish lectures....

AHH! ¡NO ME GUSTA! I haven't done Spanish for four years and I've kinda thrown myself in at the deep end. Despite this, I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it has been to pick it up again, but so far it's been ok as I understand all the grammar and stuff, it's just a case of trying to remember all the vocabulary which has fallen out of my brain. Constructing any form of vaguely interesting sentence other than "I have a cat" and "I like your skirt" is a very slow process at the moment but I've downloaded a handy little app which gives me a bit of sneaky help in lectures. I feel I'm getting along ok so far as other people in the lectures have been doing it for a whole semester already and they're not very good... but then again there are people who are whiz kids with the vocab which means they're miles ahead. I know all I need to do is get learning vocab to catch up, so hopefully I'll be alright in a few weeks. Miss Avila (for all those at Godolphin) you'd be proud of me! Look at how colourful and childish my textbook is though...

Haha! Everyone at UNSW is so science-y, so I look like a right muppet walking round campus with that bloody thing when everyone is carrying around their Mechatronics ('making robots') drawings and stuff...

All my Music lectures are good so far too, my favourite has to be Electronic Music, which I know sounds like a load of bullshit, but actually it's all about Sound Art and moulding your own sonic spectrum as a composer and stuff and is basically like an extension of a module I did last year in electroacoustic composition. The lecturer is teaching us loads of technical stuff in ProTools (the music software I use back home) which is really helpful as at the moment I kinda just bumble along with whatever I've worked out how to do. It'll mean I'm able to actually get the sound I want and hopefully be able to write some pretty funky stuff. Watch this space!

Our campus is really nice and spacious and green. Here's a little snap of the main quad...

Please note the blue skies and sunshine even though it's the middle of Winter! Hahahahhaaaa. Also, here's a pic of Goosey elegantly gliding down the Brasser Steps...

There are so many steps from the lower to the upper campus as the whole site is built on a hill. It takes about 20mins to get to the Library which is right at the top. Not good for me when I have to zip from one lecture in lower campus straight on to another in upper.... I think I'm going to have to just always be late for that one...

My timetable is good and bad at the same time.... the bad things are that I have five solid hours non stop on a Monday, and five more with only a one hour break on Wednesday, but then I have Tuesday completely off and only one or two hours on Thursday and Friday. My days are pretty full at the moment as I am still sorting out admin, like forms that I have to go and get signed to send back to Newcastle. The funniest and genuinely weirdest thing happened today actually... I was hunting round the music department to try and find the right person to sign my form, and this strange gangly man decided to take pity on me and help me find my way. He heard that I was British and told me that he'd been at York University doing Music, and that now he was a research student here. We chatted politely a bit on the way to the office about how I was finding it here so far blah blah, and he asked me what I played etc., and then when I found the person I was looking for we went our separate ways. I had to wait outside the office for a bit longer as I had to get more than one form signed, and he walked past again and gave me a funny little wave... then, next thing I know, five minutes later he was back was a whole flute sonata photocopied for me! He explained that whilst I was here I should try playing something Australian, as this was by an Australian composer, and then he did another funny little wave and scuttled off again. Ha! This other girl who was waiting at the office too asked me how I knew him, and when I said I didn't know him at all we both burst into hysterics. What a strange, but sweet, but still very strange, man... it honestly must have cost him a fortune to photocopy all those pages! They're A3 too, not the most practical of size.... bless 'im.

I ran straight to Goose after it happened and she thought it was hilarious. I guess I'm going to have to learn this flippin' thing then....

I've had a long busy day of lectures and I've got a cold at the moment so feeling a bit under the weather which just made the day drag by sooooooo ssslloooowwwlllyyyyyy. Also, being poorly in Australia is so expensive! $12 for Lemsip.... c'mon now!

Best be off to learn some Spanish vocab and/or this bizarre flute sonata.... pfftt....

B

Goose's Blog

This is Goose...

And this is her blog, which you should also follow....

http://goosegoestoinfinityandbeyond.blogspot.com.au

Leg Day

I have just had the most ridiculous day... we went out last night to Cargo Bar and I was woken this morning by a fire alarm which evacuated our whole block. Two fire engines rolled up, and all the firemen ran into the building to sus it out, and all it turned our to be was that the Asian (married!) couple who live a few apartments down on my floor had burnt their breakfast. We get fined a hefty sum if the fire brigade turn up, so that was a hell of an expensive breakfast for them...!

I was feeling a little fragile for most of the morning, so just chilled in the flat by myself as Isabelle went out to Coogee Beach with some friends. Once I was feeling a little bit fresher, I went to go see if Shomo and his flatmate Shaun were around. Turns out that the power in their apartment had gone so they came over to mine to charge their laptops and stuff. Then, Shomo suddenly remembered that I'd 'pinky-promised' to go to the gym with him today, and so, true to my promise, I donned my outrageous new trainers and followed the boys to the gym.

I dont have a membership yet, so Shomo snuck me in when the reception desk guys weren't looking, and then there I was. Hungover, standing in the weight section in my shiny new kicks with a famous bodybuilder... 

Shomo announced that it was 'Leg Day' and taught me how to squat and leg press etc. and told me that these exercises were the only way to get 'dat ass'... erm, right. Despite being openly laughed at by all the other guys in the gym, I was feeling pretty good afterwards and I also spent some time on the cross-trainer too as I can't run because of my shin splints and the cross-trainer involves no impact. I enjoyed having someone teach me how to do stuff properly, and even though it was a painful display of how weak I am, I didn't mind being in their weights section with Shomo as he could lift more that anyone by miles! At one point, Shaun and him loaded up with leg press with a RIDICULOUS amount of weight (genuinely the approximate weight of your average baby elephant) and then he did reps with it! I was in such disbelief that I had to document the moment....

HE LIFTED THAT WITH HIS LEGS!?!?!?!??!?!?!

Anyway, I am already feeling my legs seize up and highly doubt I will be able to walk tomorrow, but this is hopefully the beginning of a healthy new hobby. We'll see how long this lasts...

B

Orientation Day

At 9.30am this morning, all 900 of us international students gathered together in one huge auditorium for our Orientation Day. First off, we had a welcome performance from some Aboriginal dancers....

They got some girls up on stage to do the 'Ostrich Dance', and then got some guys up to learn to play the didgeridoo. Bit odd, and they got white paint all over the stage... I dunno... it was weird.

The lectures that followed were all about how to access all the online databases for our timetables and emails, and other stuff like signing up for the doctor, getting a bank account, travelling opportunities etc. This somehow managed to drag on for over 3hrs! Goose and I had a seriously numb bum by the end, though they redeemed themselves by sending us to a free bbq afterwards. After lunch, Goose and I headed out to do even more admin, like registering with the doctor, and managed to get thoroughly lost on campus again. 

I've also just been for my first run! I whapped on my snazzy new Nikes and headed out to Centennial Park with my iPod. I ran through a small suburban area and suddenly popped out by the edge of the park. It was so nice to get out and about and the park had a lake in and is apparently 300 acres!? I ran for about 45mins and then had to stop and head back because my shins were killing me. Apparently I now have shin splints!? After one run!? My friend Shomo who lives a few apartments down (and get this, he's a bodybuilder! If you don't believe me check out his fan page.... shocked!? I was! He doesn't quite look like that at the moment as he's 'bulking up' at the moment, but when he enters competitions he goes back to shiny mahogany man) said that it might just have something to do with the way I walk and that I may need to go see a Physio about it. Damn.

Heading off to watch a film in a friend's flat now, ciao!

B

Admin

I managed to get in touch with my cousin's friend Goose this morning and she messaged me back to tell me to meet her at the bank on campus as she was with a group of girls who were all doing the same thing. I arrived just as they were sitting down for their appointment and she pulled up a chair for me so I could do it with them. It was relatively easy to sort out getting a student account and he told us our card would arrive in the post in a few days.

After that, we went to go and get my student ID card sorted out... my picture is HORRENDOUS because I didn't really realise that I was having my picture taken when she told me to sit down on the little seat (I genuinely thought she was just asking me to have a seat whilst I waited) and then suddenly she was telling me to smile and Goose yelled "DON'T LAUGH!"and the result was this....

Haha! I could have killed her...

She is lovely though, thanks to Belle for getting us in touch! She's sorted me out and got me organised which I badly needed as I kinda felt I was just wondering around, not really achieving anything. One issue though, Goose doesn't do lifts, which means any time we go up to her or my room (6 or 7 floors!), we have to take the stairs...

We busied ourselves all day with all our admin tasks and then someone mentioned that there was free food for residents of The Village (the accommodation where Goose and the others live) in their common area, so I snuck in with them to their 'club house' type-thing and we sat down to some (questionable) curry. After that, one of Goose's friends, Ailsa, invited us all over to her flat for a few drinks with her Aussie flatmates. Chris, one of the Aussies, then took the opportunity to take us to our first 'Bottle-o'.

For those of you who don't know what a Bottle-o is, it's basically like a glorified off-licence, as Australian's don't sell booze in normal supermarkets. Most people invested in some 'Goon', which is 4 litres of wine for $5 or something ridiculous, which seems like a total bargain, until you wake up the next morning... Goose and I opted for gin and tonic though, we'll try Goon another day...!

I'm about to skype home and then I'm off to meet the others in Ailsa's flat, so had better go.

B