House-Sitting in Summer Hill

This is Buffy.

She is a cat, not a vampire-slayer. That is to say, she does not appear to have the necessary physique to be very effective in the capacity of vampire-slayer. Having said that though, I have not seen any vampires in the immediate vicinity, so she may indeed be very effective in this capacity. Conversely, the lack of vampires may just be a coincidence.

Regardless, of her ability (or lack there of) to battle the vamps, she requires looking after, as her owners are travelling around the world in 80 days, and they, rather misguidedly, have left her and their house, in my somewhat trustworthy and responsible hands.

Buffy is a bit noisy at times, but she' s a bit cute and very affectionate, and she comes with a superb house in the Sydney suburb of Summer Hill, and a semi-naked guy.

Mild-Mannered Insurance Something-Something

I've decided to take the whole Daydream Island fiasco and the Winton Rejection as a sign. One great, glaring, garish in the fashion of neon 'Girls Girls Girls' signs all around the world. A sign that's stating starkly 'stay in Sydney'.

This time I'm following the signs, so as such, I have been seeking employment back in the good ol' CBD. I intend to return to my previous industry, Insurance, which is, I promise more interesting than it sounds.

So far, the job-hunt seems to be going well, with quite a few interviews, and with many more pre-interview interviews with recruitment agencies, but no one has hired me yet. Fingers crossed, I'll find something soon. I can then become the mild-mannered insurance something-something (insert job title here) by day, wild-eyed Turtlepacker, able to explore entire areas in a single bound, by night.

And on weekends.

Letters to Anne

I am a firm believer in credit where credit is due, so today, I sent this;

To the owners & staff at Anne Hostel,

I was very fortunate to stay in your hostel earlier this year, and just wished to convey to you what a great hostel you have and what a great experience I had there.

Recently, I participated in a youth forum for a large hostel organisation in Australia, where I was part of a focus group being used to determine what areas were the most important for young travellers when looking for a hostel. They asked about some of our good experiences and what we thought makes a great hostel. I found myself telling them all about yours, about the warm, welcoming nature of your common room and the cleanliness of your other facilities. I explained that what made your hostel so great that was whilst, it was in a good location for sight-seeing, it was also a relaxing place to unwind and spend a day doing nothing, except catching up on emails, as long term travellers such as myself sometimes need to do.

During my stay, I also blogged about your hostel.

Mostly, I just wished to impress on you what a wonderful time I had in your hostel, and to encourage you to keep up the good work.

Thank you

Little Girl Lost

Wistful about Winton

"Once a jolly Turtlepack camped by a billabong, under the shade of a coolabah tree..." are the appropriated lyrics of a dream that will not be.

A couple of weeks ago, I applied for a job. At that point in time I was still hopeful that I might be able to save faster for my next big trip if I secured myself another remote position, this time in outback Queensland, in the little rural town of Winton. While I was waiting to hear back about the role, I did a lot of research on Winton.

It turns out Winton is pretty exciting. Well, pretty exciting to an über geek like me at least, because Winton, you see, has dinosaurs. It has an enormous fossil site of a dinosaur stampede, which was studied to create the gallimimus stampede in Jurassic Park. Like I said, it's pretty exciting.

It also used to be one of Banjo Paterson's haunts, and it is said that the billabong under the shade of the coolabah tree is just outside Winton, where the ill-fated swaggie met his demise. See, it's really exciting.

If that wasn't already enough, on top of dinosaurs and suicidal swagman, there is also an opal quarry.

I could hardly contain my excitement, you probably think I'm being sarcastic. I'm not. I'm just a really big geek.

The job was at the cutest little old style pub too, and as you may have surmised I didn't get it, so I'm not going to Winton, at least not until I can go there on super über über geekie holiday.

Happy Wandering Woman-niversary!

My eleventh full month of travelling, finds me right back where I started. In Sydney, crashing with my father.

I know, it's sad.

Really sad.

Really, really sad.

I'm giving Emos a run for their money right now, and people should be starting to think about hiding the razor blades, but there is a ray of hope on the horizon. A bright shining, spear of light, stabbing out through the darkness. I started job-hunting again today, I've been given the all clear from the doctor, my first interview is tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

Did I ever tell you about the time I hunted Godzilla in Tokyo?