For those who haven\u2019t already guessed it, I won\u2019t be touching down in the sunny UK in August as planned. Something about this enormous red island has drawn me in and it won\u2019t let me go. I have a face tan for the first time in my life, which on its own is a huge point on the pro-Australia list.<\/p>\n
One of the main reasons we\u2019re staying put for longer is a lack of forward planning \u2013 we kind of accidentally forgot to save a single cent for travelling (which is what we were here for in the first place). Instead, we set up a home with our fluffy cat and delicious housemate, we observed the erection of an outdoor entertainment centre, I lived my usual rum-fuelled weekend lifestyle while Sean filled our home with gadgets and furnishings. Sydney is an awesome city, full of tiny bars and kind people and parks. After shuttling between houses spread across England for the last eight years, staying in one place and putting my suitcase into retirement is appealing, and Sydney seems like the ideal place to do so.<\/p>\n
My mind was pretty much made up \u2013 amazing job, lovely home, great weather (sometimes) \u2013 but Sean was ready to pack up and get back to his old lifestyle. He knows he could pick up work in pretty much any city and carry on where he left off, which is something I\u2019m massively jealous of. I know that once I\u2019m back I\u2019ll be straight into post-graduation-what-do-I-do-now no man\u2019s land. After hearing the struggles of finding a decent job in the UK, I\u2019m in no rush to leave my beloved position here, where my boss is one of the loveliest people I\u2019ve ever met and all the other employees are twelve-foot tall models.<\/p>\n
So how did we decide where to spend the next year of our lives? Easy. Which option made me cry the least? I don\u2019t mean to be such an emotional blackmailer, but the thought of abandoning our travel plans and heading back to England made me burst into big salty face-squishy tears. I\u2019m a brat, and I got my own way. Whoops.<\/p>\n
Australia doesn\u2019t make it easy to stay though \u2013 unless you can get a company to sponsor you (which is costly, lengthy, and complicated), you have to go and complete three months of \u201cAgricultural labour\u201d. 88 days of weeding, fruit picking, cattle herding, digging, building, or whatever you feel like doing. One thing that\u2019s for certain \u2013 it will be poorly paid (or voluntary), it will be rural, and you will get dirty.<\/p>\n
The cows on our farm are beautiful \u2013 jet black with neat schoolgirl fringes which tickle their long lashes. They are also bold and not too bright. Most mornings we open the door of our small self-contained bungalow to find at least one of these cows has escaped and is investigating the flower beds. I think there is a ringleader with these guys, and I\u2019ve named him Clive. He seems to be the cow who is nominated to test whether or not the electric fence is switched on, and is always first over causing havoc.<\/p>\n
The farm dog does NOT like cows, and will quite quickly alert you to their presence with her hysterical barking. She was advertised as a puppy\u2026 when we arrived we discovered a ten-month-old pile of fur, muscle and boundless energy who spends 23 hours a day running in frantic circles. Clover steals shoes, carries mice around like trophies and will punch her way through solid wooden doors in order to sit on your lap (she weighs about four stone)<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying I don\u2019t miss things back home, hell no. I miss my mum\u2019s cooking and the smell of her fresh laundry and playing with her beautiful red hair. I miss my dad\u2019s random hugs and our attempts to cook roast dinners and forcing him to watch my terrible television (which he secretly loves). I miss getting extortionately tipsy and falling down stairs with the girls from uni, baking extravagant cakes for no reason with Helena, and finishing Bryony\u2019s sentences for her on shopping trips. There are a lot of people I miss, but things<\/i> are better here.<\/p>\n
So, one month down and just 8 \u00bd weeks left to go on this enormous farm with panoramic views over the Coffs Coast.\u00a0 I won\u2019t promise to write another post while we\u2019re here, because unless you have a particular interest in weeding, there isn\u2019t much more to say.<\/p>\n
Note – This is the amalgamation of a dozen other half-blogs\/rambles, which is why it\u2019s long. And poor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For those who haven\u2019t already guessed it, I won\u2019t be touching down in the sunny UK in August as planned. Something about this enormous red island has drawn me in and it won\u2019t let me go. I have a face tan for the first time in my life, which on its own is a huge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.seansimpson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}