I never thought I would be so excited about laundry

It was fun...........sometimes

I now think 6 hours sleep is brilliant. I can get ready in 15 minutes. Being able to wash my clothes is a luxury. My head is exploding with the sheer amount of knowledge that I have to memorise and make interesting in 30-40minute talks for each city and country that we visit (there are 42). I have no idea what day of the week it is, what county we are in or what language I should be (attempting) to speak. And its only week 2!!





We have seen and done some amazing things.

In Scotland: The magnificent Edinburgh. Loch Ness (unfortunatley did not see the monster therefore becoming rich and famous). A re-enactment of William Wallace - Braveheart - thanks Tony you are hilarious. My fellow guides downing shots (traditional scottish ones of course) and getting naked. A demonstration of how the Highlanders used to live and a visit to the place were they were wiped out in the horrific battle of Culloden.

Tricks at the Sacre Coeur

Notre Dame

In Paris: Notre Dame - magnificent. Sitting on the steps of the Sacre Couer eating lunch and then studying, listening to the buskers sing and play guitar and looking over Paris - inspirational. Riding bikes around Paris at night whizzing past the glittering Eiffel tower and then a boat cruise on the Seine. Walking the route of the night tour we do driving in to Paris - its over 15km, probably closer to 20km.

Driving in to Lauterbrunnen

Visited the beautiful capital city of Switzerland, Bern on the drive to the jaw droppingly beautiful Lauterbrunnen in the Swiss Alps.

Absolutely amazing.

Sneaky wine in Lake Como with Caitlyn

Found a fantastic back street cafe in Lake Como and had the owner bring us what she recommended along with some gorgeous red wine. Drove down into the sparking lights of Monaco and around the Formula 1 track.

Promenade des Anglais, Nice

Walked along the Promenade des Anglais - one of the most beautiful beaches - and through the narrow, twisting streets and food markets of the Old Town in Nice.


My life is amazing!!!

I'm still alive.................

The trainees

Well it is day 3 of training trip and i have not lost the will to live just yet......................although it might not take long!!! Everyone is great - lots of different personalities but we all have the love of travel in common and that makes it work. Day 1 we flew from London to Edinburgh (you will be pleased to hear it was a normal plane with NO PROPELLORS!!!) and had an afternoon of classroom training before beers and dinner at a pub - nice welcome!

Tash, me, Caitlyn and Teegan toga it up tartan style

Then found out we were going on a Haggis tour yesterday!!! We got to go on a normal tour with a proper red headed scottish kilt wearing guide named Tooooooooooony who was hilarious and told THE BEST rendition of the braveheart story at the William Wallace monument - if anyone wants to see Scotland then definately book on a HAGGIS tour - its brilliant! and Scotland is soooooooooooo beautiful, we are training for the next 2 days in Fort Augustus, located right on Loch Ness (have not seen the monster yet but intend to). The drive up here was stunning and we all planted a special cupcake tree (it will grow cupcakes) for the Trees For Life project before settling in to Morag's Lodge for our 3 nights here.

I found Nessie!

We have been given our iPaq's - HP version of iPhones and will be tested on them tomorrow morning...........eeeeeeeeeeeeekkk............anyone who knows me and technology..................

10 things I have learnt so far

1. When you ask for a beer in England, you get a pint unless you ask specifically for something smaller. WIN!

2. Mushy peas are the perfect side dish to accompany fish and chips (after consuming several of the above mentioned pints with the girls on a Saturday afternoon pub crawl in London) AND Stoke-on-Trent´s Wrights Pies (beef and mashed potato pie and onion gravy)mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

3.  Chicken curry is a perfectly acceptable breakfast food

4. According to Lufthansa, Manchester to Hamburg is a regional flight requiring a very small plane, which in turn required plane drugs AND beer for me to get on it (although it was not a propellor plane thank you god)

5. You can use Skype on your iphone

6. You need to unlock your iphone before leaving Australia, or you will lose all your music when you have borrow a friends computer to restore it in order to unlock it before you can use a UK sim card :-(

7. Czech beer is the world's best. I will need to maintain the validity of this comment by regularly sampling a wide range of beers from various parts of the world

8. In Germany you don´t need a fridge, you just keep your drinks on the balcony

9. Some people you can meet for just a few hours but talk to them like you have known them a lifetime

10.  What a chav looks like. ha ha ha ha

The adventure so far............

Started with a bit of drama at check in..........apparently the airline knew nothing about my 30kg luggage allowance..........but luckily smiling nicely and (pretending) being patient worked its charm and we had time for a champagne and to wait for KRISTOPHER who fell asleep and only JUST made it to say goodbye as the final call was being made!! Luckily i sat next to a nice indonesian girl who had to go home due to an expired student visa and no way of renewing it (will this be me in 2 years?!) who drank gin fizz's with me when the plane started to jump and down halfway over...........thank god for my plane drugs

My room at the Mandarin Oriental

I thought I had left the pears behind....

Magic 3 days in Kuala Lumpur - I treated myself to my favourite hotel in the world, the Mandarin Oriental and it was even better than I remember - gorgeous hotel but above all its the service, so nice to have 20 people say hello and smile everytime you walk past and to be called Miss Lynda :-)

Mmmm dead skin.......

I visited chinatown for some dvds, a fake gucci bag for my 500 pages of tour guide notes - who said backpacking cant be stylish - and to have my feet nibbled on by the little fish - SO ticklish at first but really fun and feet were so smooth after!

Nasi Goreng room service

Spent most of my time by the pool - its an infity pool on the third floor so you lay there on a sun lounge, being brought iced lemon water, moisturising spray (got sunburnt on my chest and one arm..........great look..........) and frozen grapes while gazing out at KLCC park and the buildings of KL.

Mandarin Oriental infinity pool with a 3rd floor view over Kuala Lumpur

There was a massive thunderstorm on the second afternoon, a good 45 minutes of thunder, lightning and rain - was cool! Then on my last day i managed to get a manicure, pedicure, facial and body scrub for around AU$70........probably the last of my luxury lifestyle for a while!

Unfortunatley flight to London was delayed and internet in airport was down so I had to entertain myself by drinking pints at the only bar i could find - then scored 2 seats for the flight so slept qutie nicely! Managed to get myself, 2 suitcases, handbag and 2 carry on bags on the undergruond and out through Kings Cross and in to a cab and arrived safely on Jess's doorstep at around 9am on Wednesday

We had a delicious lunch and bottle of red at Kettner's (very cool) and a few cocktails in the afternoon before meeting friends for vietnamese - i managed to stay awake till 10pm - epic effort for me!

Yesterday I caught about 100 trains while collecting my sim card, opening my bank account and finding my shade of OPI nailpolish so I can make my manicure last as long as possible.........all the important things!!

Then Jess and I may have accidentally drank a few too many beers at the Reebok sports bar in canary wharf (loving the fact that there is a bar at the gym), then the slug and lettuce and then mexican for dinner mmmmmmmm!

First proper night out in London tonight - bring it on!!