Over the past almost three years I have kept this blog regularly updated, and will stop doing so until the end of the year.

After Jordan I went to Vienna, and then Spain, where I am now. I’ll be in the UK the week after next, off to Athens after Christmas, then somewhere a bit closer to the UK as I am flying from Heathrow to Melbourne. From Melbourne I’ll go to New Zealand where I’ll be staying for hopefully at least a year. The New Zealand visa is a bit of a tricky one for me to get due to needing medical examinations, and the time frame in which I will be able to get this done.

The past few months have been pretty full on; adapting to different cultures and being completely aware of my surroundings, over 17 countries since August, 18 if you count two minutes in a room on the North/South Korea border. It’s been a bit of a mixed bag, some parts I’ve really enjoyed – Egypt, Japan, temple hopping in Cambodia, eating in Vietnam, the Great Wall. There were parts I thought I was going to love but didn’t – being a tourist in Vietnam and noticing the downsides of countries that I do like. Also, dealing with constant back pain isn’t easy, and I missed out seeing a lot of Malaysia because of this. Now I’m just trying to chill, find some coffee and read my book instead of being a tourist, and sorting myself out until I land in New Zealand.

Yesterday I finished my last day of work – it really has been nice today not worrying or getting messages whilst I’m not there. I wasn’t going to go out after work, then I thought sod it and go for a couple. I ended up going to bed at 8am, woke up at a friends house wondering why there was a dog on me, then had the realisation that I had told the property manager of the flat that I live in that I’d show potential roommates around. To be honest, I don’t know what would have given the better impression – giving a tour of the place whilst absolutely trollied or turning up late.

Over the week I moved into a new flat; I’ve had it to myself for now but I will have to share the room. As far as sharehouses go, this one is probably the nicest one in the area as it is brand new so I’ll hopefully be happy here for the next couple of months at least.

Tomorrow I’m travelling to Japan and have very little prepared for it. Normally I leave everything until the last minute, but I’ve been non-stop at work so it’s hard to fit in buying and remembering stuff. I’ll post a couple of updates in Tokyo.

Last Friday I handed in my notice, and was asked if I could possibly work an extra few days. Haha no. Last Saturday was a bit of a drunken mess to celebrate, and Sunday I missed the last tram home from work so I ended up at the pub and Maccas on the way home and in bed an hour and a half before I had to be up for work. Definitely not my finest idea.

My last day is the Wednesday after next, chilling out on Thursday and then I’m at the airport on Friday night to land in Japan on Saturday morning. Can’t bloody wait. There’s also a Nando’s in the international terminal at the airport – it has definitely been too long since my last one

Over the last week or so, I moved out of the house share to a hostel as I was supposed to move in with someone who I did my farm work with. Over the first three days she decided that she hates it here and the weathers shit, despite spending three days in bed and she’s moving to Sydney. It’s pretty easy to guess how less than impressed I am – luckily the property manager of the house share said I can come back, and I’m viewing a flat with my own room tomorrow so I have somewhere to move to.

This coming week I have to work, but it’s going to be nice to count the days down.

It’s been almost a month. The finger has healed fine and I don’t really have much to show for it besides a dent in my thumb if you look closely.  Its taking some getting used to as I can feel what is now missing whilst putting pressure on it.

Japan has now been booked up; I’ve said heaps of times that I want to go. Over the last month I’ve been consistently pissed off with my job as it isn’t letting me enjoy Melbourne and my job role is actually something that I hadn’t fully agreed to. It’s not a story to put on the internet as I’m pretty sure that I am no longer in the good books, but it feels really satisfying to have said that I simply cannot be fucked anymore. Tomorrow I’m handing my notice in, my last day is on the 27th, then I have a late flight to Japan that week.

I’m staying in Japan for ten or so days, planning to hit up Tokyo for the best part of a week, then I think I’m going to Fuji early in the morning and leaving the next day to Kyoto, then back up to Tokyo to catch the flight back here.

Once again, I have sick note for work. And yes, it’s because I cut myself.

I was promoted at work a couple of weeks ago to run the kitchen at work; I kind of see it as the same job I had in London – just on a bigger scale, people to manage, and more shit to deal with. The next couple of weeks are going to be challenging, but if I can get my shit together and turn things around with a team behind me it’ll be great.

Last Thursday I managed to sprain some of the joints in my neck (I don’t know how) which I worked with for five days (again, I don’t know how). On Tuesday morning I was tired to the point of not being able to hold a conversation for more than two minutes and was pumped for a day off, which I was told I looked like I needed one – there hasn’t been a day where I’ve not been at work for three weeks. I was at work, cutting a block of palm sugar which is pretty tough and cut the sugar as well as part of my thumb off. To be honest, it didn’t look or hurt that bad so I just had it bandaged up pretty well and worked on it for five hours before getting sent to the doctor. I even managed to make a plate of gnocchi which ended up on the instagram page during the time I was bandaged up. The thumb was pretty well bandaged up to stop the bleeding which took around a day, but have a sick note to reduce the amount of work I do which hasn’t exactly been abided to.

The next few weeks are going to be work heavy – it’s a good career opportunity that is in front of me, and in a while I’m going to see if I can get sponsorship. I’m working upwards of 50-hour weeks at the moment; it’s tough but if I work towards the goals that I’ve been set then I’m pretty sure that I can do a good job of it.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve not done a lot so it’s a short update.

Last week over my days off, one which I spent in bed, I went to the Aardmans Exhibition at the ACMI which was pretty good. There’s a few things that Aardmans have done that I’ve not really heard of, and have only really watched Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run – it’s quite interesting to see how they develop the characters. Since I started travelling, I’ve met some people from up north and I wonder what their accent reminds me of. It took me watching Chicken Run to realise that the accents remind me of the movie, so now every time I meet someone with that accent I struggle to keep a straight face because all I can think is “I don’t want to be put into a pie… I don’t like gravy…..”

I also really could not be bothered to cook one night last week so I went about 40 minutes out of my way to Queen Vic Night Market – there’s a lot of food there, and mulled wine, but for me it’s more of a place to stop by for some food on the way home from work.

Over this weeks days off I was intending to do something productive and touristy. One day I shit you not, I slept for 18 hours, and Thursday I managed to sprain some of the joints in my neck whilst doing nothing which I’m still recovering from. It’s not ideal to be recovering from that with work, especially with being advised to not move my neck. I also got a promotion this week at work after being there for three weeks which is great, just heaps more responsibility

I’m pretty much going back to working a lot. I’m now on my third week, love the job but I seriously struggle to get out of bed before midday now. As I have been working since February with no holiday, I feel as though I need to go to Bali or somewhere, lounge around and get sunburnt.

Other than work, on Wednesday I went shopping – I got paid so it’s nice to be able to buy some winter clothes. I’m definitely missing the weather, the people and just the shit that we got up to in Ayr but a lot better off down here, even if it feels like the joints in my knees are going to freeze over. Thursday, there were a couple of friends from Ayr who were visiting Melbourne, so it was nice to catch up with them over a $5 pizza, just like the Sundays up north.

Over my days off this coming week I’d quite like to do something productive, although it’s a bit hard to get up in the morning after five days straight of 7 to 12+ hours on my feet. I’m going to try and get into the habit of sleeping in when I start work late – midday/3pm and doing something on the days off, rather than having a repeat of this weeks. I’ll make it to the Aardmans/Wallace and Gromit expo over the next week, the Queen Vic Night Market and one or two other things. In a week or two I may go to Wilsons Prom – the most southern point in mainland Australia (I think) with the tour operators who I did the Great Ocean Road and Grampians with last year, just hoping the weather is good for it. I also want to make it to the Mornington Peninsular, meant to be one of the best hot springs in the world.

Since last Sunday I have worked every day besides Wednesday and it seems like the perfect career opportunity. It seems as though things have figured themselves out to get me into Melbourne at the time of this job opening – I could afford neither Bali or Japan after my farm work that took way too long and on the street that I’m living on one of the chefs in a restaurant directed me to the Facebook page of where I found my job. Hopefully this is a sign that I’m in the right place and things will work themselves out for the best here.

The new workplace I’m optimistic that I’ll enjoy my time and make some career progress – my trial shift involved me cooking steaks and I didn’t know I could cook them so bloody well. There’s a lot more responsibility for me as the job came with a promotion from my previous position in England; tomorrow I’m running dinner service.

Today was my “day off,” meaning that I covered a shift for someone that I know, then went back to the St Kilda area and went straight to work. I should have two days off in a row coming up so one day I’ll go to the market, see what ingredients I can get and see if I can get a dish on the specials at work. The other day off I should be meeting up with some friends who I haven’t seen in a while.