Cold.

Yesterday, at work, I was asked what I miss most about England. Now, I miss so much about England it is getting ridiculous, but I answered honestly by not saying the obvious answer being 'my family and friends' (though I miss you guys a lot, no doubt about that) but I answered...

...being cold.

I know. RIDICULOUS. But honestly, I most miss the sensation of being cold. The strange complex idea that if one was cold one would automatically think, 'oh I should put a jumper on' Anyone who knows me would most definitley know that I am not one of these fashion girls, who buy everything there is to buy in Cosmo, but I am a girl with a standard uniform of a hooded jumper and a comfy pair of jeans. I brought three hoodies with me in my twenty-six kilos of luggage. All personalised and loved to pieces by myself, and yet they are hanging up in the wardrobe crying out to me to be worn.

But I can't.

Because I'd melt.

Gah. Why the tropics? Why take an ordinary english lass out of her comfortable surroundings and through her in this hot, sticky, sweaty, humid environment? Why Darwin?

I ponder this, sitting with the pedestal fan blowing in my face as my skin peels from the sunburn I got last week, watching every single episode of Scrubs to distract myself from the fact that I haven't yet seen Matt Smith's debut as The Doctor in The Eleventh Hour...

...and then Lionel walks by, and everything is fine again.

:D

Even though I'm planning on someway to make a move down to Tasmania feasible for the both of us.

Mwahahaha. Little does he know.

On other news, the job hunt came to an end when I was offered one in a fish and chip shop over the road. So now I'm getting burnt and battered (not literally) by deep fat fryers for a living - and I come home smelling of chicken salt. Fun fun fun.

Curveball.

Life is funny, isn't it?

You think you have your life all planned out, for the time being, and then it throws you a curveball which you have to handle. For me it was take a gap year after A-levels, travel, see a little bit more of the world and then settle back in dreary England for a degree. However, on the gap year I met a man. Corny as it sounds. This man was gorgeous, Australian and ten years older then me.

Naturally, this romance, at first, was to be not much at all. But after I left Buchanan Downs Station (more details can be found on my previous travel blog here)we kept in contact through email and texting. I then met him in Darwin when he had a week off and met his family, and still was talking to him when I got back home to England and started university. This led to Lionel coming across to England just before Christmas and I think made us both realise that this was something we both still wanted to work on. Thus, the decision was made for me to move across to the land downunder for the forseeable future.

My visa lasts a year, so I'll be coming home next March no matter what.

But now, for the moment, I am currently residing in Lionel's mums old house until Saturday when we move into our own place. I don't have a job, but will begin to look when we've settled into the house.

It's so bizarre, as I think about it. I'm in Australia. I'm in Australia. I still have to pinch myself. Even when I'm sitting outside with my book and a bottle of water. Even when I have to turn on the air-conditioning. Even when Lionel is driving us round these wide and frankly oddly straight roads in his ute (aka, the teabag)

England, for me, is like a huge, comfy, battered leather armchair. With cups of tea and rain and cushions with the union jack. It's safe. It's secure. It's comforting. I love the batter armchair. Who doesn't?

But it has to be said that when I came out here the first time, away from England's comfort, it was exhilarting, liberating and completely and utterly terrifying. I have the same gut feeling now. I'm scared of what this might turn into. The possibility of actually becoming a resident in Aus ...too big for my brain to tolerate - but all the same, the thought that this will all be a bust? God, please no.

So, life threw me this curveball - one of excitement, one of terror, one of oppotunity. And I made a decision, to whack it straight back.

Now, whether I hit it or not is another question...

What I have learned from my few days in Australia so far is that if you are on the pursuit of happiness in your life - follow your heart, not your head.

It worked for me. :)