London Girl Travelling: Ten.

Ten is the number of full days I've been living in Brisbane for. 240 hours. Plus a few more! But you get the idea. Feels like I've been here much longer and I've not even started working yet. Time is going to fly by once I start working. So far, so good though. Not regretting my decision to flee the country and head to the other side of the world quite yet, although I obviously do miss everyone back home dearly!

Highlights since I last wrote...

Wed
* City Tour, done! Found out lots about Brisbane's history and some of the people who deserve some credit for what it is today.
* Wednesday Market - stumbled upon this market in one of the squares and it was a good job I'd eaten lunch already, otherwise I'd have bought and eaten everything! I shall be visiting again next week for lunch. I did however get myself a little juice, that turned out to be not so little - it was a beast! (see photo!)
* Multi-lingual/International Event = casual hang out at a beautiful rooftop bar with a bunch of randoms. You get to clip your country's flag on yourself and chat to people from all over the world, then a little later you pull a number from a 'hat' and sit at that table and get to know more people, then later pull a new number out etc. A bit like speed dating but with multiple people at each table, so if there's someone you'd rather not speak to.. no problem! Good thing about this event is that a girl I'd met previously was also there so I had someone to actually catch up with during the random chatting time!

Thurs
* City Botanical Gardens Tour - interesting, but a bit slow-paced. But so amazing that Brisbane has so many volunteers willing to run all these tours in the city! I later relaxed in a deck chair in the sun.
* My first Brisbane bus experience... I thought I was being clever by getting a different bus to the one I'd planned because it was leaving sooner and went to the same place, but turns out it stopped off in more places and took a tad bit longer. Live and learn, hey?
* House Viewing! Exciting part of the day.. Now in case you don't know, one of my lovely friends back in London is from Brisbane and his sister is here and her best friend has decided to rent out a room in her (bloody beautiful) house, soooo they organised a meet up and I met the owner of this house and we got on and I'm moving in on the 14th! Woop! More exciting, I get my own bathroom - happy days!

Fri
CHILLED. City beach, South Bank, beer garden, night market. Ooh and had fun talking to my English bank asking them to please let me have access to my money again!

Sat
Visited a friend (who used to work at my first school and who I met up with when she was visiting Madrid and I lived there). Got the train up to the Sunshine Coast and chilled on the beach a little, until it got too cold, then went for a stroll then I had the honour of attending my first Aussie BBQ - yum! Interesting fact: Dicky Beach and Bulcock Beach are real names of beaches up there.

Sun
* Train back to Brisbane.
* Explored a different part of the city: went for a walk North East through Roma Street Parklands - pretty - and then explored a bit of Paddington.
* Dinner at a pub, where my table eventually ended up completely taken over by what turned out to be a fairly famous guy and his friends who'd come to watch him in a charity comedy gig. (He later told me it was only meant to be him and the first friend he was with perched on the end of my table and apologised.)
* Comedy Gig in support of World Suicide Prevention - free but donations went to an organisation supporting mental health based in a University here. Really pleased I got told about this event though, as it was funny - phew! A nice way to spend a few hours. Mike Van Acker was funny and the fairly famous guy I mentioned earlier was Christopher Wayne from the Naked magicians (no, he wasn't naked) who mixed stand up with magic.

Today
* Lie in..
* Lunch at Melt Brothers - mmm, cheese!
* Later went to the post office to find out a standard stamp for England is $2.95 - not bad. Then discovered Big W (Think Wilko's meets Matalan) where I bought some new towels and a couple of shorts - not that exciting you might say. Why is she writing about towels and shorts? Well, my friend, I couldn't bring my nice towels with me in the move because they were culled in the tragic overweight suitcase incident of August 2017 so new fluffy towels are exciting and then, then, to have found shorts that are not comparable to hot pants is some kind of huge achievement in this day and age! So happy me!
* Popped to Woolies! (Not the Woolworths we know and miss I'm afraid.) Did my poor excuse of a food shop where my strategy is to buy food for meals that get me in and out of the cooking part of the hostel kitchen as quickly as possible! AKA fruit for breakfast and salads for lunch/dinner, haha.
* Caught the last of the afternoon sun while reading in King George Square
* Life Admin: Replied to emails, called Student Loans people, completed forms.