Brisbane - Birthday

Not much to report from Brisbane as yet. We are still on the job hunt and I have now joined a temp agency for legal secretary work which I hope will provide me with a month of something.. anything!! Really need some money.

It was my birthday on the 15th, my first away from home, which was a bit weird but good in the end! It didn't really feel much like my birthday, just a day where everyone was supernice to me lol. We woke up at 8am after a terrible night's sleep (very noisy neighbours in the next dorm making a whole lot of noise at 3.30am) and got ready for our RSA course (RSA = Responsible Service of Alcohol). Here in Australia, in each state, you need to undertake training for your RSA if you want to work anywhere that sells alcohol. I've never worked in a bar so I was kind of hoping they'd go through some bar stuff but the whole 4 hrs was talking about the legislation (ok, I get it, this is important) and otherwise just reiterating that you cannot serve alcohol to minors or those already intoxicated. Four. Hours. Lord.

But anyway. It was an easy course in the end and we got our certificates. Sam and I would like to go to the outback (4-6hrs inland) to work in a pub so we did the course. It's only when I checked my phone later I had amessage from the temping agency, which is typical. I didn't really want to come all the way out here and do the same job I did back home but a job is a job and I need one to keep going. We'll see I end up doing (hopefully a bit of both!)

After our course we went to Nandos which, by the way, isn't a patch on the UK version :( It's in a food court and not a restuarant which was rubbish, the drinks are bottled and not refillable and its soooo expensive. £1.40 for a little tub of perinaise whereas its 50p back home. Just a small example of the expensiveness that is Australia! When Sam, Sam and I got back to our hostel, I nipped out of the room for a moment and came back to a cake with genuine 2 and 5 candles on it which has gone down v nicely! We napped for a while after the awful night's sleep and nearly didn't get up again to meet our friends for some birthday festivities later but I'm glad we didn't sleep my birthday away. We took a walk across town to the hostel they were staying in and sat on the roof where most of them drunk 'goon' (boxed wine) while I stuck to Lift (lemon Fanta) and played card games and listened to music. Nice and chilled out, the way I like it :)

Most of our friends have left today to move up the coast which is sad as we have met a great bunch of people and will miss hanging out with them on our travels but I'm sure that a meet up will be on the cards when we get home next year :)

Can't wait to hopefully get some work and earn some money so we can crack on with the rest of the coast. Brisbane is ok, and nice cos it reminds us of london, but even London gets old and is massively expensive (there is Louis Vitton and Chanel and a Tiffanys down the road from the hostel) so we are looking forward to moving on to somewhere different already.