Yay! My money transfer went through to Canada! I still have no idea how to make it work online but now I can start really paying down my credit card and consequently start saving for more travel!!

For those of you that don’t know I pretty much maxed out my credit card back in January-March of this year when there was no work in Maroochydore but I loved it so much I refused to leave. Hey I even did try so hard to find work with Emily, seriously we did everything we possibly could but I really think life was against us. So we ended up traveling around and putting everything on my credit card. It was a great time but now I’m paying the consequences.

Also, boo-urns, international banking sucks. $30 service fee to send the money at the bank and $10 to recieve it at my Canadian bank. What the hell? I’m not exactly made of money here.

Some days just plain suck. I don’t know why but that day was today. First there’s nothing to do at work. Really. Apparently there IS something that I’m there to do but not this week. This week I’m ‘helping the girls out’ except that they really don’t have much for me to do and I spend every day asking if there’s anything I can do about 20 times and then taking as long as I possibly can to do it. So I don’t have to ask what to do and find out..  nothing. I’m over it.

Then my drinks date…  totally flaked. Not even a call, not even a text, not even anything. Ok, so I was half thinking about flaking out myself because I was in such a crappy mood all day but in the end I wasn’t going to. I wanted to go have a drink. Instead I went and bought some hair dye.

Then I went to take the V-Line train home so I wouldn’t have to worry about bus connections. It was supposed to come at 6:03pm and I sat there waiting, and waiting, and waiting…  there was no train. I laughed at myself and the way everything always has to go wrong for me at the exact same time and then went and caught the Craigiborne line to Flagstaff and Sydenham to Sunshine and then sat waiting for the last bus home and didn’t get back until 7:30 at night.

I immediately grabbed some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (thanks mom!) and some goon and started drinking. I was bummed, I am bummed. Sometimes life is just a bitch. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, lucky number 13 my old Strawberry Farm boss used to call me. We all had a number, I was 13. It seemed to work well for me – maybe my luck will change.

I really need to have some fun.

I don’t want to jinx it but I have an interview at the airport next week! I am so excited. This is what I wanted. I mean sure it’s shift work and I’m only guaranteed 20 hours a week and I’m pushing wheelchairs around so you may not think this sounds like such an awesome job.

BUT this means I can get a car and can drive down to the beach for the day when I work nights and get to wear a uniform and don’t have to worry about buying clothes for work or the fact that I wear the same things every week and it will be a steady job so I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll be working next week or not.

Plus I love airports. Love ‘em. I love travelling and heck I don’t mind talking to the crazy old people on airplanes. I’ll gladly push your wheelchair around.

Drinks date is on for Thursday! And I got a package from home in the mail today, can’t wait to see what goodies await me! Life is good!

The pitfalls of having a job in the city of Melbourne when you live out in Derrimut is having to deal with the public transportation system. Getting to work is such a pain in the ass since the bus only comes every half an hour. My options for getting to work are catch the early bus that gets me to work 40 minutes early or travel in fear the we’ll miss the train and I’ll be late for work. I’ve decided not to care if I’m late for work and it’s mostly worked out ok for me.

Also getting home from work is a pain in the ass, not only to you have to fight the massess to get on a train home but you also have to worry about catching the bus from the station which also only leaves every 30 minutes. I can either catch the train right after work and arrive usually at the exact same time that the bus leaves and sit around for half an hour waiting for the next one or wander around the city and catch a slightly later train that will get me there with only 10 minutes to wait.

Have I mentioned that I hate waiting?

Basically never listen to what the ‘Trip Planner’ on Metlink Melbourne’s website says, the bus will never make the train connection and if it does the train is probably going to be late. Always plan to take the earlier train/bus if you’re on a tight schedule because chances are you’re gonna get screwed if you don’t.

Another reason to hate – Buses stop running to where I live at 7pm. How is a single gal like myself supposed to have a life?

On the positive I read recently that in Sydney you often end up paying 4 different fares to get from point A to point B since buses, trains, etc all have different fares. At least here you pay one fare for everything. Can’t complain about that.

Due to my recent boredom in Melbourne, I have decided to try my hand at Internet Dating. That’s right, internet dating. It’s just something that happens when I get bored in a new city and don’t know anybody. I mean, I had no real luck with it in Van but I did make an awesome friend through the internet and really what have I got to lose?

I’ve decided that when it comes to backpacking and boys it’s not a good idea to have just one that you like because, for me anyway, I just get way too into them which is not a good idea because I’m travelling. Also there is a boy here that while most likely being bad news I might kinda like, and I may have made out with him two Saturdays ago.. along with another guy. So I need a distraction. Enter Internet Boys.

There are a couple promising ones with whom I’m in the process of negotiating drinks dates. While I think it’s a totally legit platform to meet people (although you do get a lot of duds, but I guess it’s like trying to pick up people anywhere else they’re not all gonna suit your tastes) I’m still totally nervous about actually seting a date and giving my number out. I was looking forward to browsing through my old time favourite transformation blog The Making of a Cosmo Girl for some dating inspiration but alas! It’s not there anymore! So now I’m on my own.

I’m just looking forward to getting out and doing something besides watching TV every night this week.

My parents, having never travelled internationally, asked for my help locating a cheap airfare for their flight to New Zealand in February. I wouldn’t call myself an expert but I did manage to score a $1200 round trip ticket to Australia last year. I guess it can be kind of a hassel, you can never tell where you’re gonna get the lowest price. Do you go with the travel agent or cheap flight search engine? Or check out the airlines yourself? Because there are a lot of them and it takes time to go through and check them all.

I usually start with Flightcentre because they have pretty low prices and can usually give you an idea of what the prices are going to be like. Then I check out a few of my favourite airlines and go from there. I find that when you check out the Airlines specifically you can often find web deals that you wouldn’t get through travel agents.

Mom and dad are in luck! Air New Zealand is having a seat sale for flights starting Feb 1, 2010. I flew Air New Zealand to Australia I was impressed, good food, good services, and the all important personal television sets in the seatback in front of me. Plus I got to stop over in Auckland which had some of the comfiest seats I’ve had a chance to doze on in an airport.

I also discover that when flying within New Zealand it’s best to book the flight on the local website, on the Canadian website it would cost my parents $300 each to fly down to Queenstown from Auckland. It seemed odd since I’d looked into flights from Christchurch to Queenstown for myself and it was only about $60. So I checked Jetstar and it was only $100 for the Auckland-Queenstown flight, that’s when I realize I was on AirNewZealand.ca so I checked out AirNewZealand.com.au and found the flight to be only $100 as well. Sneaky Air NZ, sneaky, but I guess you do what you gotta do. At least I could save my parents $200.

My tips for booking flights?

Check out the airlines yourself you can usually find better deals although it may be trickier if you have long connecting flights.

When booking flights within a country always use the local website.

All I wanted for the last little while was to live a normal life and here I am living a normal life in Melbourne and I’m bored out of my mind. I do pretty much nothing at work and I do pretty much nothing at home. Maybe it’s too normal. I just want to go out and be a fun single twentysomething. If my job was more permanent I’d try and find a place to live in the City because it’s just too hard where I’m living.

Giving my mom advice on buying flights to and within NZ today. Then I bought my ticket there. It’s exciting. I only hope I have enough money by the time I have to go. Can’t wait to see all my old NZ friends as well. We had some good times down in Queenstown back in the day.

So I’m trying to revamp my blog and Surfer Girl as a title just wasn’t working for me anymore because it’s really more of a travel/living abroad blog than having much to do with surfing.

I’ve been brainstorming ideas but to be honest I’ve never been good at naming things, as a kid I’d sit there for a good twenty minutes trying to think of a good name for my Final Fantasy characters. This name has got to be catchy and a good description of what I’m doing and it’s got to stick with the blog for the length of my travels, however long that might be.

Also my travel philosophy is along the lines of the following Dr. Who quote: You can’t just read the guide book. You’ve got to throw yourself in, eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers – or is that just me? Stop asking questions. Go and do it! -Dr Who, Series 1 Ep7

These are some of the ideas I’ve got so far so if you’re reading this please comment and let me know what you like or don’t like. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks heaps,

x Colleen

THE LIST:

a global life
experience the world
definitely not a guidebook
destination unknown
kissing strangers
misadventures on the road
drifter
visa run
colleen’s global adventure
girl expat
meet me in kathmandu
road to nowhere
sex on the beach
a nomadic life
a backpack called home
wander the planet
the happiest hobo
taking a junket
globetrotter
global girl
global express
stomp the planet

My 26th birthday has come and gone, life is good and I’m still on the road, well kind of on the road. I have some cashflow issues due to earlier this year when it was pretty much impossible to find a job no matter how hard we tried or where we drove to and my general feeling at the time that things would work out and why don’t I just charge it all on my credit card, and hey I know I’m broke but lets still road trip into the outback and drink all the time. Yeah those where good times, but it’s all catching up to me now.

After my experience in New Zealand when I was 18 out in the world for the first time and racking up thousands of dollars in debt through my wonderful parents who were kind enough to back my up in my time of major irresponsibility I had decided that I would be much more responsibile this trip when it came to money. That didn’t happen. Luckily I have Candice & Eden who let me stay at their house rent free while I get my shit sorted.

It’s funny looking at my life, I didn’t image that at 26 I’d be broke and crashing with a friend in Australia without a proper job. I’d always kind of pictured more for myself at this age, I guess I figured by 26 I’d have done all my travelling and adventure seeking and be settling down with a real job and a real house and maybe even a boyfriend.

Candice & Eden were trying to freak me out about being 26 on my birthday because they didn’t like it, Eden likes to insist that he’s still 25. After thinking about it I realize that I really don’t mind getting older, I like where I am right now (aside from the money issues) and I know where I want to go and I’m excited about it. Sometimes the thought of getting older is scary especially when friends start getting married and having babies and buying houses and you think about all the things that society expects you to have and to do by certain ages and sometimes it freaks me out and worries me and I wonder, will I ever get there?

My travelling life has been amazing, I’ve seen and done so many cool things, and met loads of awesome people but for all the good things it’s still hard a lot of the time. Like when you have to say goodbye to the awesome people, especially if it’s someone you’ve been hanging out with for a while or someone who you felt really close to. You have to make a lot of sacrifices for this life, the people at home who envy you don’t always realize that.

It’s kind of weird being back in Melbourne a year later. Working in the same office, living at the same place, taking the same buses at the same time. It’s kind of nice though.