EARLY MORNING, GETTING HIGH, AND THE FINAL BLOG ENTRY..........

Matt came stumbling into the room at about 5.30am, he'd not been to bed and was going straight to the airport. I wrapped myself in a blanket and followed him into the girls room to say our goodbyes.

Matt was flying to Perth, buying a camper van and driving around Australia, we would be crossing paths again around xmas in Sydney. Nicky was also going to Perth but was only going to stay in Australia for about 3 months, so I probably won't be seeing her in Oz, but as I have found with Andy, and more so with my mate Grace, people tend to stay there a lot longer than they originally planned.

Handshakes and hugs later Matt and Nicky were disappearing into the lift, I gave them a wave and a yawn as the doors closed. Back to bed. I told Vanessa that I wanted to be up at 10am and we would go and do something fun, I wanted to do the tiger brewery tour, but she wasn't so keen. That's what happens when you're up all night drinking whiskey.

11.30am and I get up. I wake Vanessa and put some clothes in the wash and check out. I don't think we left the hostel until about 1pm, so i had about 5 hours of my last day left. We went back to a place called Clarke Quay, which is where the Clinic bar is, thanks to Sibley's photos I'd seen this before, a bar with a hospital theme, and may have been the scene for Gazza's infamous dentists chair incident. Anyway that doesn't matter because it wasn't open. I got a text from my mate Kathryn's sister who lives there inviting me out for Chinese, but as I was leaving at 6 I had to turn her down. She instead told me about a bar in the Swissotel, near Raffles. it's on the 71st floor and the views of the city are amazing. So me and Vanessa went for a drink and an Asia BBQ. It was higher than the singapore 'london eye' that I went on, and the beers were cheaper than the bars we'd been drinking in the previous nights. So it was an afternoon well spent.

(at this point you should realise that that part of the entry refers to the 'Getting High' part of the title. I'm sure my mother is breathing a sigh of relief!)

We strolled through the park in the rain, walked past the registry of Marriages, there was a queue and I told Vanessa that I thought it was a bit too soon for all that, she was visibly devastated. We had quite a good chat though as we walked for a couple of hours. She was born in Brazil, one set of grandparents were Japanese, One great grandfather was Italian, she had a bit of American in there as well, and a Welsh uncle. This was through marriage though so didn't count. Turns out that she's just broken up with her boyfriend and just up sticks and ran off around the world for a few months. A bit drastic I thought, ahem...........

Didn't leave the hostel for the airport until about 7pm. Vanessa was by herself so she came to the airport to see me off. I think this was the first time I've gone to an Airport with a girl and I've been the one leaving. She was going back to London on Sunday, to try and find a job and a place to live, so if anyone knows of a spare room going.....

We had a sandwich and said our goodbyes, again getting myself a facebook friend in the process, and a possible tour guide for Japan at some point, or at the very least a drinking buddy for London. She waved to me as I disappeared round the corner, I don't think she was looking forward to being by herself for the next 2 nights, but she's an attractive girl, she'll find someone to kick around with.

I got to the gate, 25 minutes before it closed, perfectly timed I thought. I phoned my mate Alex in Brisbane, he'd offered to pick me up from the airport when I landed, but hadn't heard from him since the 13th of May. Best leave it until about midnight his time to remind him that I'm coming in at about 7am the next day, I thought. Turns out he hadn't forgotten and has got a party on the Saturday night, result. I tried to phone my parents but they were both out, probably working and dog walking.

So I passed through security, got on the plane and here I am. I was amused to find that in my choice of programmes that I could watch were The Michelangelo Code (produced by ZCZ films – my last employer), or The Art of the Heist (produced by Electric Sky Productions, my second to last employer). I watched the Extras Christmas Special, (Susan can you apologise to Waldermar for me!) I think I work in the wrong type of programming.

So as I write this I'm just under 2 hours from Brisbane, I've over the middle of Australia, and I'm wondering how on earth I got here.

The past 6 weeks have blown me away to be honest. I'm going to try and not be the person that my mate Anna warned me about, the kind of person who only ever talks about traveling, but it's going to be hard. I've seen and done some incredible things, had some rough times and some of the best times of my life. Met some amazing people, many of whom I'll probably never see again, but will always keep in contact with and remember. I think more than anything I've grown as a person, I think my travels have given me a better perspective of the world. I had a drink with my Dad a couple of days before I left and he said to me that he hoped that going away would help me realise how fortunate I was. I can honestly say now that I do, and I don't think that I will take the opportunities that I've been given for granted. Now there's a massive part of me that wants to give something back, I think I've been pretty selfish in my life so far, well not really selfish, but I don't think I've really done enough, or thought enough about other people, and it's time I grew up and did something for someone else. The only problem is that the only way I can think of doing this is to teach English. I wouldn't have a problem with this but I've made so many teacher's lives a misery that it's going to come back and bite me on the arse, but I guess that's karma.

But who knows maybe I'll love Australia so much that I'll never come back to Asia, I guess that you never know what's round the corner.

And so here draws an end to this blog. I've tried to document everyday that I've been away so far, but I'm going to be in Australia for a year, and I can't be bothered to write 365 entries, so maybe I'll do one a week, one one every 2 weeks, but I'm hoping to just get a job as soon as so it's won't be half as entertaining.

So with 90 minutes of my flight left I'll sign off, I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have writing it. And I'll leave you with one final heart felt comment;

there is one universal truth I that have found through my travels; no matter where you go in the world, not matter what nationality, race, religion, creed or colour, regardless of social status or wealth, no one, but no one, likes the French.

Thanks for reading, now get back to work.

Rob.