Surfers: Coz i'm moving on up, you're moving on out!

Before I begin: please forgive the M People reference but it was in my head and I simply couldn't resist!

First two lessons that Australia had to teach me… covered. Now let’s move onto some of the more fun parts of my time here so far! As previously brushed upon – Becky was a mere 190km North from me. That’s a 2 - 2.5hour drive. In the UK, you’d probably think about that kind of distance as substantial… but in the vastness that is Australia, this suddenly became entirely commutable. Add cruise control into the mix and the journey was hardly a hassle at all.

Mixed up emotions + seemingly easy journey + promise of friendly face and fun results in the manic first 3 or 4 weeks that I was in Australia.

Week one – meet in Brissy
Week two – me to visit Sunny coast
Week three – Becky to visit Gold Coast

That’s the simplified version of the crazy amounts of driving I did anyways. Now Brisbane – some say a boring city… and it doesn’t help that we ended up there on a Sunday evening as my birthday was the Monday. But I still had an absolutely fantastic time for my birthday there – drama free. We drank, met new friends, ate maccas and went to bed. What more could I have possibly asked for?

The reggae live band performing at our hostel bar was a particular highlight for me. Well that and Becky having a little drunk panic while walking to the second bar as she realised we were following three strange men, through the middle of a city we didn’t know, at 11pm, passing a shady looking park, which would have been perfect for an unnoticed rape. Not sure whether I think she’s suspicious or I’m too trusting, but you’ll be glad to know these three particular guys were harmless.

My visit up to Sunny Coast was equally drama free. I spent a lot of time at Beckys place of work eating pizza and waiting for her to finish working – visited some nice tourist spots like waterfalls, where we took the first of what I hope is many topless shots from behind in Aus, and sea life centres, where we learnt about sealions and made friends with sharks, as well as picking up a yankee buddy along the way.

Now… onto Surfers Paradise. Not as drama free as the previous meet up spots, it’s safe to say. Much of the drama, I won’t go into. Frankly because I’m sure none of you really want to read the intimate details of what we got up to and because you never know who is going to stumble across this in the future… Better safe than sorry.

For those of you who attend university in the UK, we arrived in Surfers just as the Aussie equivalent of tour kicked off. Students from universities all across Australia were gathering in Surfers to compete at sports, followed by getting well and truly wrecked. We certainly met our fair share of interesting characters; from little boys lying about their age to guys trying to force kisses purely for wanting to dance on a podium as well as the resident Aussies of the area who looked after us (well, namely me) when we were no longer able to ourselves.

Many people you speak to find Surfers brash and tacky. For me, Surfers was the first place and first time in Australia that I really started to let go, move on and have some fun! The first night we went out was the last night I incessantly checked my phone for any response from the SG boy. It reminded me that there is a bigger pool of fish out there so to speak (none from that week that I intend to ‘hook’ to continue the metaphor). I mean, I’m not really in a position right now to be looking for marriage so… game on right?

As stupid as it is, Surfers will always have a place in my fondest memories for this reason. It represents moving on: realising that you can’t change or control someone else’s behaviour, only your reactions to it. So why lets those reactions keep you miserable while they’re clearly paying no attention? I don’t really want a lesson from this memory – but if there was going to be one, I guess that right there would be it.

Oh and it was the first time I really danced in ages. Just got tipsy and danced like it didn’t matter. And that is one of my greatest joys in life. Drunken dancing… actually scrap that, any dancing!

So a big thank you to the many new faces that helped me move on to the next stage of my emotional development at that point. Most of you won’t even know what you’ve done – I mean damn in a month or two, you won’t even know my name in all honesty. But I guess that’s exactly why it helped…