Spring Carnival Week - Sunday 10th November 2013

This week was spring carnival week and on Tuesday it was the biggest race meet of the Australian calendar, the Melbourne Cup, which meant a public holiday just for Victoria – yes a day off work!!! It was weird having a public holiday on the Tuesday though and really threw me, and I’m sure many others, off the working week. Monday was very quiet in work because of this holiday and I had a fairly easy day, especially with lunch time beers with Cian and Brad – the weather was pretty good after all! In the evening it was date night number 2 with Darcy although it was my treat this time. It was recommended we go to Chin Chins, what we were told was an amazing Thai restaurant. We got there early to put our names down because as we were warned there was a two hour wait for a table (this place must be bloody good) which gave us time to do the other part of the date which Darcy didn’t know about, Chill On Ice Bar. As expected, Darc was a bit like a little excited kid for this, especially once we were all kitted up in our gloves and big coats. Although fairly small, it was pretty cool in there and so so cold! We both had a cocktail out of an ice glass which tasted really good and had some of the professional pictures taken (annoyingly they banned you from using your own camera – boring I know!).

We had an allocated time of around 30 minutes in the ice bar but around this time we both started to freeze a little and decided it was time to warm back up again in the nice Melbourne evening. We headed back to Chin Chin’s and went downstairs in Go Go Bar for a drink and within 15 minutes our table was ready. The food was absolutely amazing and 1 million percent worth the nearly 2 hour wait and bill that come at the end of it (not the cheapest of places), and you could say they had 2 very satisfied customers who will definitely be returning. Overall it was a really lovely evening, which was followed by a good day on the Tuesday – Melbourne Cup day. The weather was once again beautiful and starting to look like summer’s approaching, so we decided to head down to St Kilda to have brunch on the beach front before chilling on the beach. After a good time of tanning (or burning in Darc’s fair skinned case) we got ice cream and headed to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub to put on a quick bet and watch the Melbourne Cup race – race of all races. Much to Darcy’s disgust I won which I was very glad about, because even though it wasn’t enough to make me a millionaire it meant I broke even and gained 7 bucks – winner! In the evening I met up with Barry for dinner, a family friend from the UK, and it was a lovely evening and really nice to see a friendly face from home.

The rest of the working week was fairly quiet, especially with the day off in the middle of the week. James had now finished his testing so that was no longer keeping me busy and generally in terms of testing it had died down (uni was now finished and as most of the students are participants for the research, they seemed to have a bit of a hold on testing). I did manage to get involved in a couple of other studies however, analysing blood using a radiometer – a machine I hadn’t used before and seemed to analyse and report back on all the possible components and values of blood, and observing the study of one of the girls upstairs who was looking at brain activity when doing dual tasks of walking and turning left and right in response to a signal. She also said there was a possibility to be a participant too which would be good! The week finished as every other, with a Friday seminar followed by a drink in the bar, although I only stayed for one drink this week as I was heading to Darcy’s to hang out with Tilka and Jack for the evening.

In the week I entered Melbourne’s 14km city2sea run so I decided on Saturday morning to get up and do a nice 10km run. Considering this was the longest distance I had run in a while, I actually ran pretty well and quickly and it was an enjoyable run. In the afternoon I decided to do a bit of a window shopping down Collins street and then at Southwarf DFO (factory outlet). I spotted some absolutely gorgeous and killer heels but after an expensive Monday for date night, I knew I shouldn’t be buying anything so left empty handed and still thinking about the shoes! Darc picked me up on his way home from work and cooked me dinner in the evening. It was a very shit evening though if I’m honest, receiving bad news from back home which made miss home a lot and feel quite homesick. It was a good thing Darc came over though because he was an absolute star and even tried cheering me up buying my favourite lindt chocolates (little did he know) and a bottle of wine! It was safe to say I had little sleep last night and was very tired, missing home and still feeling like shit this morning. So ….. I went back to DFO and brought the shoes (they did have 30% off and were really nice and I only have one pair of heels I actually wear) and a lot of other stuff too (so much for not spending any money) and then spent the afternoon and evening curled on the sofa watching Bridget Jones.

Back To Reality, Back To Work - Sunday 3rd November 2013

No sooner was I back from my travels it was back to reality going straight back to work on the Friday. It was a little strange going back after 3 weeks away, but it was good to see everyone and they couldn’t believe how brown I was, which I must admit I did love to hear, I mean who doesn’t. It was a pretty quiet day with not too much to do, it was my first day back after all, but I had already arranged to be a participant in a study while I was away for the 2 Deutsch girls who were looking at decision making in netball and I had the first testing session in the afternoon. I didn’t have to do anything too strenuous, but I did get to wear some really cool glasses haha! They were eye tracking glasses which tracked my eye movement throughout the testing where I had to watch a netball game clip projected on the wall and then make a decision when the clip stopped as to who I was going to pass to by throwing the ball at the wall. There was about 15-20 clips in total.

After this I then had some training on the laptop, where again I watched netball clips of which the eye movement pattern of an elite player was highlighted and then I had to try and use a similar eye movement pattern in the following clips to decide who to throw the ball to. The testing only took an hour and after I had finished it was time to go to the weekly ISEAL seminar followed by a trip to the bar. Not a bad Friday to come back to really now is it? I had no plans arranged for the evening, which gave me a chance to do some washing and have a quiet and chilled night in with Darc. It also gave me a chance to FaceTime my little sister in Leeds as it was her 19^th birthday – second one on the trot to miss!

On Saturday I awoke to being well and truly back to reality because it was chucking it down with rain; 3 weeks of Queensland sunshine and I was not used to this! Again I had a quiet and chilled out day just unpacking and trying to sort and tidy everything but then in the evening I was once again going to see the amazing Queen B in her Mrs. Carter World Tour with Han at Rod Laver Arena. We were standing and managed to get so close to the front, about 5 people back! I thought she was stunning from pictures but seeing her that close and in the flesh - wow! Once again she did not disappoint and put on an amazing show!  I was pretty tired once it had finished and was aching like mad from standing for so long (the pain you have to put up with for getting close to the front) and after a short walk home I was well and truly ready for bed.

During this last week I have been slowly getting back into things at work. James had finished his training study while I was away and just had the last few post testing sessions to conduct which I helped out with, meaning a few early mornings. I also had another two sessions of being a participant for the Deutsch girls’ study, of which the testing involved the same as what I did last week. I was actually feeling pretty tired this week and could tell the sudden stop of adrenaline and all the early mornings from my trip were catching up on me and I made use of the weekend to catch up on some sleep, especially as I didn’t have much planned. The weather was pretty good on Saturday, so I spent the day sitting in the park near my apartment topping up my tan, but I would’ve rather have been topping up the tan at Derby Day – the start of the Spring Carnival races. Again today was a pretty chilled out day. After a good lie in me and Darc attempted to hit Chadstone shopping centre, however it was so busy there that after 20 minutes of driving round looking for a park we gave up and ended up heading to Highpoint which was also rammed – I mean it’s the beginning of November, surely people aren’t doing their Christmas shopping already!!! In the evening I had netball training with Altona netball club, a team I could potentially play for next season. The training was only an hour but it was pretty good and as much as I was not up to training at 5 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, I actually quite enjoyed it, but I did look forward to heading back to Darcy’s for a nice dinner cooked by Tilka and an early night!

For pictures of Beyoncé Mrs Carter World Tour Click Here - Beyoncé @ Rod Laver Arena

East Coast Adventure Day 5 ..... Mission Beach 14000 ft Skydive - Tuesday 8th October 2013

I awoke this morning a little nervy and scared about what I was going to be doing within the next few hours but also filled with excitement and adrenaline - it was a good feeling, plus nobody back home was aware about what I was going to embark on, which added to the feelings of excitement (I thought it was best noone knew to eliminate any worry - mum and nan inparticular). I didn't have too much time to sit around thinking about it this morning however, because I had to be packed and checked out before my 7.30 am pick up for my 14000 ft skydive - eeeeek!!!

As soon as we were picked up, we were given a form to complete, where we basically signed our life away, agreeing to jump out of a plane, strapped to another person, who was attached to a parachute. This was the most nervous I was signing this form on the drive to the skydive base and was probably the worst writing I have ever done, shaking a little as I was completing it; but I think it was because I was actually thinking about what I was going to do and the fact I couldn't quite believe I was going to be doing something I'd only ever dreamt of or imagined.

When we arrived at the skydiving base we had to sit around for a little bit because a group had just left for their jump. The lounge area was nice to be chilling in and they had a dvd showing other peoples photos and videos of their skydive, but I'm sure part of the waiting around is just to try and add to the anticipation and emotions before jumping! While we were waiting we were shown a safety dvd which informed us of the position we had to take as we jumped out of plane and then for the free fall part of the jump and this was followed by more instructions from one of the guides - I mean they have to make it thorough, we are jumping out of a plane after all, not like there isn't any risk involved!!!

We were waiting around for about 40 minutes and then in the sky over the beach we started to see the previous group appear in the form of little dots and then one by one disappear down onto the beach. This was the cue for us to head down to start to get harnessed up and to meet the guy who was going to guide me to safety. In this time my excitement had increased by 80% and my nerves had decreased by 80%, surprisingly! I can honestly say I was really looking forward to the jump and mega excited for the feeling of free fall, I had no idea what I was about to experience but I knew it was going to be the best feeling in the world.

When I met my guide he got me into my harness but left it loose so it was comfortable in the car and plane and started doing some filming for the video of my skydive which I had already purchased. We then were put into a minibus and was driven to the airport, where waiting for us was a very small plane we were going to jump out of. It wasn't too far to the airport and I still wasn't feeling that nervous just so excited! At the airport my harness was tightened slightly before getting on the plane, but my guide told me he would do the final tightening on the plane when we were near our drop zone.

This was it now and I was buzzing! I climbed into this little plane which only held 20 of us and took my seat on the floor facing backwards, right by the shutter door which was more of less left open for take off. As we sped up down the run way I realised this was it, there was no turning back now and adrenaline was pumping through my body! It was strange being in such a small plane, but also part of the experience because it was by far the smallest plane I have ever been on!!!

We had a great view as we climbed further and further into the sky and it did seem like we were climbing for ages! My guide informed when we were just over half way and I was quite surprised because we already seemed to be really high and as though we were near to the drop zone. Again he filmed the journey up and some of the view so I can share that with you (if you watch the video). 

As we came 5000 ft from the drop zone the final adjustments were made to my harness, my goggles were put on, I was attached to the instructor and he went over with me again what I needed to do and the body positions I needed to take. I was looking at the red, orange and green lights on the back of the plane and as the orange light indicating we were 1000 ft from the drop zone lit up, the shutter was flung up and before long the green light came on. I was so excited!

It was all actions go as soon as the green light came on and before I knew it the girl infront of my sitting by the door was hanging over the edge of the plane and then disappeared! It was my turn - eeek!

Me and my tandem guide slide down slightly to the door and I immediately had my legs hanging out the side of the plane. As soon as they were out the strong wind and air resistance had pushed me down to the end of the door and 3 ... 2 ... 1 we were flung out of the side of the plane! There was none of this hanging me over the edge to make me a little anxious!

I haven't even got the words to describe the feeling of free falling from 14000 ft but I can say it was absolutely AWESOME and I can confirm it was the BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD!!! For those 30 seconds I was free falling my mind was completely shut off to anything and everything and I was totally absorbed into the amazing and indescribable feeling of falling!

When my guide pulled the tug to open the parachute we were pulled up slightly which actually hurt a little, ok a fair bit (you can see it in my face on the video) because the harness was pretty damn tight on my legs. At the same time of being relieved, I was quite gutted for the opening on the parachute because the free fall had finished, but on the rest on the long cruise down to the ground I got to admire the amazing view of the sea, rainforest and beautiful sandy beaches under another gorgeous Australian day! Life couldn't get any better than this!

There was one more bit to achieve to satisfy the criteria of completing my skydive safely and that was a safe landing on the beach. We seemed to approach the beach pretty quickly and all of a sudden as we came into land, I had to lift my legs so the guide could get us to the ground with no broken bones. This also hurt a fair bit because again the harness was cutting into my legs but I didn't really care because it was 1 million percent worth it! Once I was on the ground I headed straight over to my guide, who seemed to be 10 meters away from me in two seconds (still bewilders me), to do the final bit of filming for my dvd and then I headed back to the skydiving base to get out of the harness!

I was feeling absolutely unbelievable and adrenaline was rushing through every single millimeter of my body. I just wanted to get straight back on the bus to go for another ago and I will 100% being doing a second skydive in my lifetime - nutter I know and who says it is once in a lifetime thing?!

Once we were out of the harness we were told it would be around a 45 minute wait for our video and photo dvd. That was no problem though because they put on a BBQ for us which was actually pretty good. As we were hanging around we saw the next group land and I was pretty jealous of them because I wished it was me landing for a second time!

Once I collected my dvd I was dropped back to my hostel where my mission was to immediately find a laptop to be able to watch it. I was still pumped full of adrenaline and I wanted to relive the best feeling in the world. I was able to use the hostel laptop and watched my video a couple of times and just could not stop smiling - it was awesome and a very good reflection of my dive. Even though I struggled to find the words to describe it, I think it does a pretty good job at filling in the rest.

To watch my skydiving video CLICK HERE - Skydiving Video

It wasn't long before I needed to head into town to catch my bus onto the next destination so I just chilled out at the hostel and took pictures of the really cute and beautiful little place where I had spent the last two nights. I would definitely recommend the Jackaroo Mission Beach hostel for anyone heading that way because although on first opinion I didn't like it, it was actually my favourite hostel because it was so different to the others and just had a really good chilled out vibe about it.

So now I am heading to my next location - Airlie Beach where I will step aboard a boat to sail around the Whitsundays. First though I have a nice, long, 9 hour coach until I arrive to Airlie Beach (around 11.30 pm tonight) so time to put some films and tv on to kill the time, oh and a quick phonecall home to tell them I'm alive from today's activity! This really is a trip of a lifetime and I'm not sure what I'm gunna do when all these adrenaline pumping activities comes to a hault!

Speak to you all soon xoxo

For more pictures of my skydive and of the Jackeroo Hostel Click Here - 8th October Mission Beach Day 5

East Coast Adventure Day 4 ..... Mission Beach Raging Thunder Xtreme Rafting On The Tully River - Monday 7th October 2013

Like every other day of my trip so far, this morning involved another early start and long bus journey to get to the next adventurous, sign my life away activity which today involved Xtreme White Water Rafting down the Tully River!

As soon as the bus pulled up in the middle of the rainforest towards the top end of the Tully River we were straight off and equipped with a helmet, life jacket and paddle - essential, life saving equipment, and also some beautiful florescent yellow trousers to protect us from and deter the very annoying marsh flies that bite (I mentioned them the other day) - which after the day of rafting, I would also consider essential and life saving considering how many of the bloody things there were! We then quickly got into a rafting team of 6, of which I was the only girl in ours and lead the way being the daredevil I am, jumping into the raft to take a front seat – the prime seat everyone wants to sit in because you get the brunt of the rapids!

When we first set off we had a little training session and safety briefing and our guide showed us the main tips and commands which we had to follow, the main being paddle and paddle hard (self explanatory), duck down (sitting off the edge in the raft holding on with paddles pointing upwards), paddles up (holding on to the rope around the edge of the raft, pushing the handle down in the boat so the paddle was in the air) and to the left or to the right (meaning jump to the other side of the raft to stop it from capsizing or in some cases make it capsize - we are on xtreme rafting after all!). My favorite command was duck down because it always meant a big rapid was coming up but jump to the other side was always fun too because it meant me usually had the raft on its edge and were close to capsizing (adrenaline junkie I know!).

Our team struggled a bit with the paddling initially, I'm not sure why, but we just didn't seem to get the consecutive rhythm or have the strength to build up a good pace, but after a bit of instruction and encouragement from our guide, it wasn't long before we picked it up and were well on our way. Going down the rapids was good fun and we started with a couple of grade 1 or 2 rapids (baby rapids) but very quickly we came across a grade 4 rapid (the biggest rapids we would come across). When we come up to these big and dangerous rapids we had to wait a bit sometimes because the guide of the rafts went to the banks to create a safety precaution if anything were to go wrong. It was good in ways because it meant we got to watch the other rafts go first and see how it was done (most of the time we went last) however on this first big rapid we ran into a bit of trouble and was close to needing the safety precaution haha! We went down the rapid fine but then went up and got wedged at an angle onto a rock, which caused the raft to start to capsize. It felt like we were stuck for ages and the guides on the bank were trying to throw us rope to grab because it was very much looking like we were all gunna fall out and if we had we'd have finished body rafting our way down the grade 4 rapids (or not finished it at all), but after a big scram we managed to get off the rock and make it safely down the rest of the rapid. It was a massive adrenaline rush and I was buzzing when we got to the bottom of the rapids and was actually glad we had got stuck on the rock.

The rest of the day rafting was so much fun with a good mix of the tamer grade 1 and 2 rapids and the more interesting and exciting grade 3 and 4 rapids. Because I was on the Xtreme Rafting trip I not only experienced adrenaline from the rapids but other daring activities aswell. At every opportunity when the water was calm and the raft was just drifting down the river, we could jump out and just float down the Tully which was nice and provided an opportunity to cool us down, especially as it was another very warm day. At one point down the Tully on one of the grade 1 rapids we were able to body surf down the rapids which was great fun being dunked and held under water along the way and it made what would’ve been a boring and tame rapid in the raft into a fun and exciting one – of which I went back for a second go! At another point further down the river we did a similar thing although this time we went off a single rapid/drop – like a slide, and was plunged down and held under water for around 10 seconds. Furthermore at several points down the rapids there was opportunity for rock jumping from around at least 10 meters, which was great fun but also pretty scary. One of the jumps involved climbing along to the end of a tree branch which was collapsed and over the river and that was probably the scariest jump because of the dangerous climb to the end of the branch, of which there was a great risk I would say of falling off – I still went for a second go though! Our rafting guide was the best one of the bunch and maximized our Xtreme rafting experience as he purposely capsized the raft on a couple of the rapids which was fun and also got us raft surfing where the raft was held in the rapids by the natural current. I was sitting in the front of the boat when he did this and was on the side which went into the rapid so I got the full effect of the rapid crashing on me which was awesome, although I nearly fell out in the process!

Map Of All The Rapids I Went Down

We were rafting for a total of around 4 hours, with a brief stop for lunch half way down, which I was pleased about because it gave me loads of time to make the most of my first white water rafting experience and I can say I had such a fun, adrenaline packed day. I was fairly tired after the day of rafting and had a quiet evening just chilling at the hostel, especially as tomorrow I am going to embark on my most daring and dangerous activity yet. Maybe I should say my bye’s and love you’s now just incase I don’t get to write tomorrows blog ;)

Until then, xoxo

East Coast Adventure Day 3 ..... Cairns Passions Of Paradise Great Barrier Reef Trip - Sunday 6th October 2013

Well one word to describe today – AMAZING! Not only have I seen one of the Seven Wonders of the World and been somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, but I also got to tick off one of my things to do before I die – snorkel and scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef!

Today was my last day in Cairns (not that I spent a day actually in Cairns) and I was up early once again to check out of Gilligan’s and get ready for another full day of adventure and once in a life time experiences (I mean sleep is overrated anyway and you have to make the most of the days while you’re travelling). It was another warm day and seemed a bit overcast at first heading to the Marina but by the time I had checked in and stepped aboard the Passions of Paradise Catamaran, the sun started to make an appearance for what seemed to look like and turned out to be a beautiful day on the Great Barrier Reef – now this is what Australia weather is about!

We had around a 2 hour sail out of Cairns, past Port Douglas to the Great Barrier Reef and our first snorkel destination of the day. This gave us enough time to do all the boring stuff of filling out paperwork and having safety talks, whilst also leaving some time to sit on the boat and catch some rays (I think my first actual opportunity to tan since being in Aus!).

You could tell when we were approaching the reef as the colour of the ocean changed from a deep, dark blue showing the mysterious depths of the ocean to a beautiful bright, light and clear blue, showing the shallower waters filled with life and movement of the coral and sealife below. By the time the anchor had dropped near Paradise Reef, our first snorkel spot of the day, I was ready, raring and very much looking forward to jumping straight into the inviting sea to explore the large array of colourful fish and coral and other dangerous and killer animals (yes I was being a nutter and hoping to see a shark!). Being on the reef at the beginning of October I was a few weeks outside of stinger season (aka killer box jellyfish season) so declined the offer of a sexy stinger suit to wear in the water, as did most people and decided it was just a ploy for them to make more money (yes they came at an extra cost) and prevent me from getting a tan! Besides if they thought it was that dangerous they would’ve made it compulsory! I had signed up to do a scuba dive at this snorkel spot which I was pretty excited about because I had always said I wanted to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef and it was also going to be my first scuba diving experience and what better place to do it?! Luckily I was in the third and final dive group which meant I could have at least a 45 minute snorkel on the reef first before having to get kitted up for my dive. The snorkeling was awesome and the reef was amazing! I don’t think words can even begin to describe it and pictures certainly don’t do it justice (as with the pictures from the last two days, they can’t quite capture the awe and beauty of it). I was amazed at how I was just inches from the coral when snorkeling over it and I was trying to be so careful not to touch or kick it with my flippers, especially as it destroys it when this happens. Some of the colours of the coral and all the different types were so pretty and I loved how it moved as you swam by, especially the way the clams closed up when they felt the water moving above them. There were so many fish too swimming in and around the coral and they also had some beautiful colours. I can now see and understand why it is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World! After about a 45 minute snorkel I headed back to the boat to get prepared and kitted up for my dive. We had about 30 minutes down under the water and we went down to around 10 meters I think. I found it a lot of fun and didn’t have any problems at all with it! In terms of the reef and coral I didn’t find it too much different to the snorkeling but it was still good and cool to go deeper and continually swim without having snorkel issues, plus I got to see nemo – another tick of animals to see in Australia!

Two Different Shades Of Blue In The Ocean

Again The Colourful Ocean

By the time we had finished our dive and resurfaced, everyone was back on the boat, lunch was served and we were ready to head to our second snorkel destination of the day – Michaelmas Cay. There was another opportunity to do a second dive at this reef however I decided I would just enjoy the snorkel and thought if I want to dive again I’ll do it at a different location further down the coast at one of the reefs in the Whitsundays. This was another really good snorkel spot where I got to see even more coral and fish and I made the most of the long time we had to explore this beautiful underwater garden. At this snorkel spot there was also a pristine sand cay (Michaelmas and Upolu Cays and National Park) and I swam over to this and admired the fact that it was a beautiful day in North Eastern Australia and I was standing on a beach literally in the middle of the Coral Sea. I must admit I was a little gutted though because when we got back on the boat some of the other people had said they saw a shark and I wished I'd seen it but I guess I'll save that for next time haha!

Michaelmas and Upolu Cays and National Park

After an awesome day spent snorkeling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef (oh and tanning), it was time to make the long sail (2 hours 30 mins) back to Cairns. It was a very relaxing and chilled sail as the sun was still glaring down and the waters were fairly calm.

When we arrived back in Cairns I went for a little wander around the Esplanade which was nice and grabbed some dinner as I had a couple of hours to kill before my bus was due to depart to Mission Beach to head onto the next destination for the next part of my adventure. It wasn’t a long bus journey just an hour and a half and by the time I checked in and had been shown around the Jackaroo Hostel, Mission Beach it was time for a quick shower and then bed, ready for an action packed day tomorrow!

For more pictures of the Great Barrier Reef Click Here - 6th October Cairns Day 3