Day Nineteen – Melbourne – Surprises and Angry Neighbours

Finally I had a great breakfast. It was so good to have a proper hotel breakfast so I went to town on a good vegetarian fry up. We spent most of the day wondering around town checking out all of the Christmas decorations. It’s pretty safe to say that Australians don’t really know how to do Christmas. Federation square had domes of polystyrene to make ‘snow’ but it was just quite pathetic.

The afternoon was spent doing some shopping and I managed to get my secret Santa present. My dad got himself a haircut so my mum and I treated ourselves to a manicure. It’s definitely nice to be spoilt a little bit after three years as a student and now travelling. Everything is always on a shoestring.

My parents were still jet lagged and he huge breakfast meant that we weren’t too hungry so we had a small meal in the hotel and then waited in anticipation for the boys and girls to arrive. I hid in the cupboard and waited. Everyone came in to have champagne and after a little while I jumped out of the cupboard and surprised Ed and Angie. Ed didn’t have too much of a reaction but Angie jumped out of her skin screaming which was a great reaction to make. We cracked open the champagne and started to catch up. Not before too long a knock at the door came and a very aggressive man told us to be quiet and that there should not be more than two people to a room. So reluctantly we moved the part downstairs.

Catching up was good and it was so nice to have the boys around. After polishing off three bottles of champagne we all went to sleep and I slept happily.

Day Sixteen – Townsville – Happiness is Both Alone and Together

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I spent the day by myself today with a car. I had to get up early to take Emily to work and to go to my doctors appointment so it meant that I had a perfect fresh start to have a full day. This is definitely something I needed after all the lazy days.

After my appointment finished I went to the rock pool for a good swim. It felt so good to have some proper exercise and to just swim up and down like I’m used to and I know I’m good at. After this I drove up to Castle Hill overlooking Townsville. I climbed over the railings and down to a rock outcrop far away from the path. I sat there for two hours by myself and looking at the phot above you’ll know why. I could sit there all day.

I had to leave this gorgeous view to go meet Matthew for lunch. We went back to the place we had cocktails the other night for a greasy pulled pork sandwich. It was good, I really like the hipsterisms in Townsville. I just didn’t expect them to had made it here and I like it. I think out of all of the fads there have been, emo, punk etc, hipsters is the best. We may have to agree to disagree.

After lunch I headed over to the aquarium and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Aquariums are some of my most favourite places in the world. I sat for a good hour watching this one fish. He had so much character and he seemed so happy and lively, he was very entertaining. I could definitely relate to him and I think he liked me to. Just before I left I checked out the turtle hospital where they bring in sick turtles and nurse them back to health before releasing them into the wild again. It made my heart break. There were turtles who had swallowed plastic bags which makes them float and if they float they can’t dive down to collect food so they start to starve to death. Other turtles had been hit by boats cracking their shell. A turtle shell is connected to their spine so it’s like a boat hitting you in your back and snapping your spine, paralysing you. It was nice to see people doing something for these turtles but there was only enough room for ten turtles in the hospital. There must be so many other turtles who are also being affected by man made issues. I just wanted to write about this here to raise a little extra awareness around the world.

We went out for dinner tonight as it was my last no to in Townsville. We went down to a surfbar on the seafront where it was nice to here the sea waves as we ate. Another one of my favourite places is the sea at night, it’s so calming and romantic and reminiscent of good times in my youth. After dinner we headed to the new chocolate shop which had opened in town. The queue was pretty massive but we waited anyway getting plenty of free chocolate samples. I bought some chocolates for us and for myself I bought a small pot of liquid chocolate. Why not indulge?

We then went home to nurse out chocolate comas and had a little play on Emily’s new PS3 playing buzz. I was much better at it than I expected to be.
Today was an absolutely quality day. I loved every minute of it, packing it full and exploring as much as I could in Townsville and ending it happy and safe with my family. Let’s hope there are plenty more of these days in the next week.

Day Fifteen – Townsville – Look After Your Body and Mind

Latest start this whole trip. So ashamed… 12pm rise. But hey ho. I spent the day running errands. I went to the doctor for a check up just cause you should ey. I didn’t have a car so it was a 50min round trip in 38 degree heat. Not too bad and I needed to stretch my legs and clear my lungs after all the stress I’ve been putting my body through.

After the doctors I took a walk around town just because I really needed to sweat more… After that I came home and took a well earned dip in the pool trying to work on my Queensland tan while I can.

I really wanted to let Matthew and Emily know how greatful I am to them for looking after me so I walked down to woollies to pick up some groceries. I could Matt and Em stuffed mushrooms on toast with salad (amazing, tasty, if I do say so myself) and for dessert I rustled up a Mary Berry lemon pot. It was a nice way to show the guys how happy I was but also gave me a chance to something I love; cooking.

We spent the rest of the evening lounging around and enjoying the company of family. It’s funny how quickly I’ve reverted back from the crazy Cairns backpacker lifestyle into a nice sophisticated family lifestyle. It’s intriguing how quickly we can adapt and change and how life just drags us down paths. I think it’s so important to find the strength to protect yourself and pull yourself away from these paths to find new ones. Otherwise we will spend our whole lives floating down the same rivers. I’m having an amazing time here in Townsville but I’m going to be glad to move on because I know there are just as amazing things in other places.

Day Thirteen – Townsville – Family Celebrations

I felt worse this morning that I have for the whole trip probably because I let the sleep catch up with me instead of keeping on going but I think my body probably needed it. We went of for breakfast with some of Matt and Emily’s friends, Linda, Adrian, Fee and Daisy.

After breakfast we went for an ice cream on the sea front before shopping for a few different things: some Christmas decorations, Christmas presents, fancy dress. When we got back we sat by the pool, I sat in the sun for maximum 20mins without cream and nearly burned just proving how crazy the sun is here. I enjoyed a good swim, jumping in and messing around with Matt.

After the swim we cleaned up and went for a curry which was damn good but I felt so full cause I’ve just started eating a lot where in Cairns I hardly ate anything. We then went for cocktails, which were incredible espresso martinis which woke me up and got me drunk at the same time, perfect. Emily was a bit tired and needed to not have a hangover so she can study so she went home and we ended up doing a bit of s pub crawl. From my impressions of Townsville I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of young, pretty people here and the city is trying to capture hipsterisms and isn’t doing too badly. I definitely look at it and feel like it’s somewhere I could easily live.

We had a great time, Adrian joined us and we just chilled messing around before heading to the Mad Cow for a great night of dancing.