Advanced scuba course

Yesterday I completed the first half of my advanced scuba PADI course. There was an underwater navigation dive using landmarks and a compass, a buoyancy control dive teaching how to optimally control your buoyancy in the water and lastly a much belated night dive.

The night dive was by far the best I've done so far. It's an incredible experience to observe the underwater world at night, it is truly like exploring an alien landscape. The marine life behaves quite differently at night compared to in the day, many of the fish are quite fearless and will come close enough to reach out and touch as they are attracted by the torchlight. At one point our instructor signalled to kneel on the sea bed at about 7m depth and turned off all the torches. In the pitch black we could see thousands of tiny green flashes of light every time a hand or arm moved in the water - phosphorescence generated by the plankton. It was beautiful, then when the lights went on again we were surprised to see a little port jackson shark swimming right between us. It was about 50cm long and very cute, it came right up to me and did whatever the shark equivalent of sniffing is. At one point I saw a little octopus scuttling along the rocks on its tentacles. I hung upside down in the water column for a while just watching it.

The entire dive was an incredible experience, I can't wait for the next one.

Christmas with the family

So my family finally made it out on Thursday 23rd, pretty lucky considering the snow situation at Heathrow. Christmas eve and christmas day were spent mostly in the pool and around the bbq.

Yesterday we went to a beach called Burns beach that apparently was good for snorkeling and it did not disappoint. Joe, Josh and I spent most of the day snorkeling there. Along with countless fish and underwater rock gardens we also saw a huge stingray (at least 1.5m across) and an octopus. Apparently the octopuses here can be quite aggressive if you stray too close, darting at you and wrapping their tentacles around whilst biting with their powerful beaks. Luckily we kept our distance and this octopus retreated into its hole in the rocks.

Today we went to another beach called Mullaloo a bit south of Burns beach. The snorkeling here wasn't as good but there were some great views on the beach itself ;-). The middle of the day was almost too hot even for me at a toasty 43 degrees. Then we went up to Burns beach later in the day and snorkeled some more. Actually the name is rather unfortunate because after two days on the beach I am somewhat sunburned as well as being very tanned. Tomorrow we are going to spend an easy day in Freo out of the sun. My advanced scuba dive course starts tomorrow and finishes Friday so I have that to look forward to as well. Not sure what I'm doing for New Year's yet exactly but it will involve going out somewhere in Perth and it will be awesome.

Laters.

Last night I went out on a bender in Perth with some guys I met. It was awesome, the bars are expensive but they all decided that because I was english and knew the Queen personally I had to be bought lots of drinks so it was great. I stayed in a tiny little cheap hostel that was about 50 billion degrees and woke up covered in sweat and dehydrated. Luckily after a couple of litres of water and a huge fry up I managed to escape a hangover.

In the afternoon I got the train into Freo and met up with some guys from the hostel - we went cliff jumping again, it was sweet. My family are due to arrive this evening, and my friends from home are skyping me tomorrow morning. I am very excited.

EDIT: Also, totally forgot to mention I have a job sorted for after christmas doing fieldwork, $250 a day BOOYAH.

Rain

It rained for most of today and the temperature dropped to an icy 21 degrees. Apparently it's due to a cyclone in the north and is pretty freak weather for this time of year. I did not sign up for this, I want my money back Australia.

U2

Yesterday Evan got us cheap tickets to go see U2. They played loads of their old stuff and it was AWESOME.

Today I am back at Ians and sadly although I was expecting to see my family this evening the snow has prevented them from leaving until thursday. Sad times.

An end to my romp in Freo

Tonight is my last night in Freo. The last two have been great, I worked Thursday and Friday for Matty then blew a lot of it last night but it was awesome.

Today I am going to make a pilgrimmage to the statue of Bon Scott. Then tomorrow my family is coming to Oz which I am very excited about.

Laters.

Cliff jumping

Last night I played drinking games with the guys from the hostel until about 2am, then today we got the bus to Point Walter on the Swan river. There are some awesome cliffs there and we spent the afternoon jumping from at least ten meters into the water. The climbing there was great as well, the rocks were almost perfect for scrambling on and there were a lot of climbers there. I took some photos, here they are:

Freo is awesome

So, update on the last couple of days.

On Thursday night Coco busted out a couple of these wooden box drum things that you sit on and hit with your hands to make a cool sound. Then someone else got a Didgeridoo and two other guys brought their guitars out and we started to play some crap. At first I was pretty hesitant and bad on the drums but after a few beers I loosened up and bit and started whaling away. I'm sure my timing was lousy but I ended up jamming with this one guy on guitar for about an hour, I'd pick a beat and he'd strum some chords, then I'd modify the beat to match him and it all just flowed so well. I've never done that before, it was a great feeling. My hands were so swollen after I'd finished from whacking the thing but I definitely wanna do it again.

On Friday I went out to some bars, then this morning I did another scuba dive. One of the women there had a camera and I asked her to take a photo of me at the bottom of the sea, hopefully she will remember to email it and I'll put it up somewhere. I looked up at one point during the dive after staring at the stuff on the bottom for a while and almost shat myself as I was surrounded by hundreds of silver fish about two feet long each circling slowly in a sort of cylindrical wall around me at a range of about a metre. They looked pretty mean although they are of course totally harmless and are just inquisitive about the divers.

My next dive is on Tuesday and it's a night dive. I am very excited.

So last night the dive was cancelled due to poor visibility. Boo. Not really surprising though as it had been windy all day and the waves kicked up a whole bunch of sediment and crap from the bottom. Not a problem really, there's a day dive on Saturday and the night dive has been rescheduled to next tuesday.

Instead I went into Perth to have a drink with Evan. Bon Jovi were playing in the Subiaco Oval so we sat outside and listened and got drunk. Actually I don't remember coming home but I woke up in the right bed so I guess it worked out pretty well.

I left all my stuff at the scuba shop including my towel so I couldn't have a shower until I got it back. I managed to stagger there this morning and found it all neatly piled with a note on top saying "Sam, little bird you forget all your stuff!! Your frenchy instructor" It made me laugh. They must think I'm a complete disgrace at the dive shop, I always seem to be leaving my stuff there or forgetting shit or being generally absent minded.

I might do some snorkelling today. Laters.

scuba scuba scuba

I spent today diving off a boat in two places around Rottnest island off the coast of Perth. I am now a qualified open water scuba diver (woo!).

Diving is freakin' AWESOME. I saw a whole ton of reef fish, brightly coloured nudibranches, countless soft and hard corals, some shoals of schooling herring and once a big ray flapping off in the distance. The visibility was amazing, our first dive was 18 metres and you could see all the way to the bottom from the surface. It's like entering another world down there, all you can hear are your own bubbles and some faint background sea noise as you float serenely past all the reef wildlife. Some larger damselfish and some small schooling shoals were attracted to us and swam with us for the duration of the first dive. They come close enough for you to reach out and touch them as they swim with you. I guess it gives them security from predators when they hang around divers because the divers are so big nothing is gonna bother them really.

I get a free dive on wednesday because I did the course and it's a night dive - all the shop staff go and a whole bunch of other guys, it's kind of a diving club. I can't wait to dive at night, that's gonna be amazing. I think I want to do the advanced scuba course so I can do deep dives (up to 40 metres) and wreck dives. There are a few wrecks on the Bell Park wreck trail in Rockingham, I know there is a downed plane wreck there too so I'd love to go and explore that. There is an advanced scuba course on the 30th of December so I'll have to wait til then, I look forward to it though.

I can't really describe what it's like to be a tourist in the underwater world, you have to do it for yourself to understand it. It's like going into space or something, it really is a penetration into a totally alien world with it's own unique sounds and feel. This is something I have dreamed of for such a long time, I hope I get a lot of opportunities to do it again.

I spent about 3 hours at the bottom of a pool today practising technique and safety procedures for scuba diving. I am in a very small group with only two other guys who are pretty competent so we can get through it all really fast. Our instructor is this really cute and super enthusiastic french chick so that's awesome as well :-). Half the time I find myself just listening to her accent rather than what she's actually saying.

Diving is much more complicated than you might think - the risks of both decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis are much more real than you might expect and you have to use a dive computer or dive tables to calculate how long you can stay under at certain depths without having to stop to decompress on the way up. Also due to the fact you're breathing compressed air, if you come up too fast while holding your breath your lungs can rupture so the number one rule when scuba diving is never to hold your breath. Breathing underwater is an awesome experience, I can't wait to try it out in the real ocean tomorrow.

There is a lot of stuff going on at the hostel this weekend. It seems like a really great place, the staff are always organising good events for the people that stay here and yesterday there was free goulash for everyone. Everyone who is staying here is really friendly. I can't drink much this weekend cos I don't want to dive hungover but I will go to the events anyway and have a chat with some new people.

Staying here has given me the travel bug so badly, I just wanna up and disappear into Asia for six months or something. All in good time, I will stay here for long enough to make some good money and maybe then it will be time to jet off somewhere really exotic.

A stay in Freo

I am currently staying in a hostel called the old firestation in freo. It is quirky but cool, it even has a real fireman's pole which my bed is next to. The people here are really friendly, I stayed up last night playing drinking games with some french guys and a swede. I booked a scuba diving course for this weekend, I already passed the mandatory medical exam and I'm good to go. I have to get up early tomorrow cos it starts at 8. I am very excited and looking forward to spending at least a week here.

So the interview was for a fieldwork job as a geophysics offsider. They were happy for me to work but I wasn't convinced about the roster or the pay. The roster was four weeks on two weeks off which is a LONG time to be out in the bush for. Too long I think. Especially as they were only offering $225 a day. I'm hoping for something around $300 a day really.

If I change my mind they have work for me after christmas but I also have at least two or three other contacts that might be able to offer me better work after christmas anyway so I doubt I'll take it.

I got paid yesterday and I am already planning to spend some of it on an open water scuba diving course. It's four days and I start on thursday. If I like it (and I think I probably will) I might do the advanced scuba course as well. After that you can specialise in all sorts of things such as wreck or nitrox diving.They're situated in Fremantle so I'll just stay in a hostel there while I'm doing it. Maybe I'll get a part time bar job while I'm there as well. Should be pretty good fun.

Fremantle and work opportunities

Today I went down to Freo with Ian, Jenny and Josh for dinner. I had marinated kangaroo. The texture is kind of like beef but the taste is unique. It was pretty good. The nightlife in Freo is just... wow. Seeing as it doesnt drop below 30 in the evenings the dress code is very appropriate as well, guys you know what Im talking about ;-). I had a chat with one of Ians mates there, he has a nephew who is also over on a working holiday visa. I got his number, Ill see if he wants to get a beer soon or something. He also offered me a job doing field work so I will call him on monday about that.

I also have a job interview for something potentially very exciting on monday afternoon. Amazing what a couple of phone calls to the right people can get you. I wont say any more details right now in case it falls through but its looking good so far.

I am moving into Freo for a while after next week Ive decided. I need to get involved with some beach parties :-D

Scuba diving

So it turns out the guy I've been doing some pool work for, Matt, is a scuba diver and has two full sets of complete gear. He suggested we organise a trip down to the beach in a week or two, take a small barbeque and go scuba diving for an afternoon. I have wanted to do scuba diving for as long as I can remember and now this chance has been handed to me on a plate. I am SO EXCITED.

Also I went to the beach today after work and had a swim. There are some nice photos (I think) up on facebook. They are on my profile page if you want to have a look.

Yay weather

Another perfect day at 36 degrees today. Bring it on Australia I can't get enough of this sun.

I was gonna go down to the beach this afternoon but Matt needed me again so I did some more work for him. I saw a kangaroo hop across the road on my way back as well. I am really quite enjoying the pool work in the afternoon, it makes a nice change to the boring sampling stuff I do in the mornings.

Back to work again today, I am building up quite a bit of money already. I spent the morning doing the sampling work for Dave then this afternoon for a change I did some pool work for Ian's colleague Matt. Matt seems keen for me to continue doing this for the near future so I will be working two jobs this week.

I spoke to Dave and Ben (a geologist) recently. They are closely involved with a small geology company in Perth, I nagged them and they are going to arrange a meeting with the manager of this company who is a geophysicist. Hopefully he will have some useful stuff to tell me about going into geophysics in Western Australia, there might also be the possibility of field work with his company as well.

I went to a house party this weekend and drank rather too much. It was pretty good fun though and I met some new people. Evan is off to Irvine island to do field work this week so I am working by myself which is DEATHLY boring, at least I am not working for the whole day.

For the near future I am going to concentrate on earning a good bit of cash to be getting on with. There is a potentially lucrative job coming up painting a pool for one of Ian's clients which could also earn me a tidy amount which I could use to buy a car. The ute I have on loan from Dave is still running (barely) but when I finish my current job for him I will no longer have transport so a car is a necessity.

I doubt I will have an opportunity to get to the beach this week due to the silly amount of work I have lined up but thats ok, I am going to take at least a week off after this work for Dave is done and probably go check out Freo for a bit so I'm looking forward to that.

I also have an Australian number for my mobile now, if anybody reading this needs it for any reason just email me.

Hot

I quit work early today because it was 39 degrees. That is a silly temperature. I'm going to the beach now instead.

Work work work

I worked for ten hours today. It was long but ok, it's not difficult work and it's good money.

Evan is going to a remote island to do geological work next week. He is being employed by a family friend to do it. I figured I'd get hold of his emplyer's number and give him a call to ask about it. I had a pretty productive conversation with him and got a bunch of different people to contact about similar sorts of work. Turns out you can be paid for two weeks on one week off to be a drilling offsider. It's hard, physical work (think hauling drilled cores out of holes and carrying them around all day) and long hours but the pay is outstanding and you get to see really remote parts of Australia which could be cool. Besides, I'll end up physically very fit as well as getting paid so it probably beats sitting in an office somewhere.

Also I am going to a house party in Perth this weekend. I only met the guy who invited me for an hour or so but he seems pretty sound so it should be good fun.

Random note: the radio stations here have a lot more variety than back home. There's a great classic rock one, some jazz stations, some random reggae that's quite cool and a bunch of others. Anyway I gotta get up at 5:30am for work tomorrow so I am going to bed now to get some sleep.

A day at work

I had my first day of my new job today. It's pretty much monkey work as I expected but the guy I'm working with (Evan) is awesome. He is a recent Music graduate from a uni in Perth and he's working off his student debt, he seems like a good laugh. I pretty much call my own working hours so I'm gonna blitz it this week and do long shifts to earn some money fast. A geophysicist called Ben is coming to check our progress on Thursday so I will have a chance to chat to him about something potentially a bit more serious in the mining industry. It pays to talk to everyone, you never know who could wind up setting you up with some decent work or knowing someone else that can.

I got lost on the way home and ended up driving around Perth for a while. It was ok though, I had a map and figured out where I was eventually. I also uploaded a few photos to facebook, check them out!

Day I'm losing count of days so I won't bother numbering them any more

On thursday one of the gear transmission socket joints in Ian's van broke. It's a Citroen, the guy at the garage said they always break and he'd replaced at least thirty of the things. French engineering at its finest I suppose. Anyway we had to get it the 50 kilometers to the garage without being able to get the car into any gear. We ended up towing it, Ian in Jenny's 4x4 and me in the Van with a bit of rope between. Being towed is not easy, it was the first time I'd done it and I was so stressed I was shaking by the end of it. Still we got there with no accidents and once it was fixed driving it back was a doddle now I didn't have to be towed ten feet behind another car.

Yesterday evening Ian's friend Steve came over and brought the most amazing lamb and beef steaks with him. I managed to actually help with the cooking without destroying the food and/or the kitchen and it was fucking tasty. A success all round I think. Also Josh is way too good at COD and needs to be taken down a couple of notches so anyone who is a bit of a beast at it should add popey747 as a friend on xbox live and pwn him as much as possible.

I have a job lined up for Monday. Something to do with mine sampling, I'm not exactly sure what it is I will be doing. The pay is good though and I get a company car (what were they thinking?! I wouldn't trust me with a company car...) so I'm quite looking forward to it. It's only temporary for about three weeks but hopefully there will be more work available if I want it. I am still thinking hard about moving into Freo for at least some of the summer. I want to learn how to scuba dive. If it's not too expensive I don't see why not. Also there is good dinghy sailing around Freo. I used to sail dinghys a lot when I was younger. That'd be something I'd like to get back into as well.

I took some photos of where I'm staying today. I'll probably get around to uploading them at some point later.

Day 9

This morning Jenny needed some help with the garden so I spent two hours digging up turf. It was hot and the flies were horrific but hey, it's physical exercise and I felt pretty pleased with myself when I'd finished.

In the afternoon I took the train into Fremantle to have a look around. The place seems to be a kind of Mecca for backpackers - bar/restaurant work is abundant and the minimum wage is $19.50 an hour. The hostels are everywhere and it costs between $20 and $25 a night to stay. That's about an hours work per night for accomodation which I think is pretty fantastic.

I also chatted to a couple of guys working in hostels and also to some backpackers around the place and apparently it comes alive in about three weeks time when summer starts to really hit. The hostels get packed out with travellers from all over the world as well as a lot of the young people who live around Perth. In the daytime people sleep/hang on the beach and surf, and at night there are beach parties and a whole load of bars and clubs in the town. I think I found where I wanna stay for the upcoming summer months. Should be a good place to meet some cool people. So I guess I'll see how the job hunt goes here for the next week or so and that will determine when I decide to get off my arse and move to Fremantle for a bit.

Besides who needs accomodation anyway when there is a beach available, it's 30 degrees at night and it doesn't rain? I can see myself spending some nights out under the stars :-D.

Day 8

So yesterday I printed off about 20 CVs and handed them in to various places in Mundaring. Who knows, it costs next to nothing and as the saying goes, if you throw enough shit at the wall something might stick. I also went into a mining recruitment office yesterday and gave them a CV, also one of Ian's clients is involved in mining recruitment, he was interested to receive one as well. Mum, I hope this is making you happy.

This morning I was out with Ian again working, I cleaned a pool for one of Matt's clients (Matt owns a pool shop and Ian does work for him sometimes) and got paid $60. Not bad for two hours work. Then I got a really bad stomache ache so that's why I'm at home right now.

It is cloudy today. What is going on with this weather? Australia is meant to be blue skies all the time god dammit, maybe I'll take it up with the immigration office and have a moan at them.

Also, my worst nightmare happened yesterday. This is starting to sound like a joke, but I promise it isn't. The rooster now goes down to the shed every night so I can sleep. This is fine. The problem is that one of the female chickens is obviously scizophrenic or demented or something and has now decided it is a cockerel and started crowing. I wish I was kidding. Because there are about 15 female chickens it is impossible to know which of the moronic, braindead fowl is responsible. Consequently I slept very badly last night from about 1am onwards. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Seriously, I know these feathered fuckers are supposed to be Josh's hobby or whatever but honestly if they keep me up for another two or three nights I will snap and I will be in there at 3am indiscriminately wringing the necks of everything with a beak. I can't take any more nights of that incessant bloody noise. I don't know what the solution is here. I swear they are taking the piss out of me and all having a right cocking laugh in that stupid hen hutch of theirs. What kind of a hen starts crowing for christ's sake?! And at 1am? Madness.

I do not know what the solution is here. Suggestions are welcome.

Sam

Day 7

I'm writing this at midday today just to make one very important point about Australia.

The flies. They are everywhere. You imagine your stereotypical Australian with his wide-brimmed hat and shorts on, continuously slapping flies away with one hand whilst shaking yours with the other. That's what it's like. I have never seen so many flies. They are everywhere. Whenever I leave the house I am continuously followed by a cloud of them. They don't bite, they just land on you until you slap them away. Apparently this is just the start of fly season as well. God help me.

Day 6

Today was cool. I went swimming this morning and went on a bike ride into Mundaring in the afternoon to put a work application in at a famous place called Little Caeser's Pizza's. It was very unfortunate that they weren't hiring because the place seemed to be entirely staffed by girls and most of them were pretty damn hot. I have to say the general standard of attractiveness for the girls here seems a lot higher than in the UK.

It rained yesterday for about five minutes. Apparently this is the first time in three weeks that it has rained. Most of the Australians I talked to about it were as surprised as I was. I didn't think it ever rained here.

I went into a pub to talk about applying for work there this afternoon. Apparently you need to complete an RSA which is a license to serve alcohol here. It is fully online and costs $75. What a fucking rip-off. Seems like it's pretty much a cash cow for the Australian government. I am going to print off a bunch of CVs and hand them into restaurants and bars around where we live. If they ask for an RSA I'll say I have one then fill one out if they offer me the job. I expect I'll have to get one at some point.

I'm also considering getting a forklift license. It costs $300 for the training course, work is everywhere and it pays $30 an hour. That's really good money. I'll see how it goes.

Day 4

I spent the day working with Ian again. We did some easy jobs in the morning then in the afternoon we dropped around his friend Steve's house to play with a little digger called a Dingo and move some ridiculously heavy stone statues that Steve had shipped over from Malaysia. It was pretty good fun. There are photos on facebook if you're interested. In the afternoon we did a few more jobs and called it a day at about five.

I also applied for a job at a local cafe called the dome. The application form was a complete joke, asking questions like "describe yourself in five words" and "complete the following sentence: my goal is to...". In a superhuman feat of self control I managed to avoid putting joke answers for all the questions and filled it in semi-seriously. Frankly if they don't hire me based on the beautiful piece of architectured writing that I eventually submitted they are complete morons.

We made pizzas tonight. I am about to go eat one. Speak later.

Sam

Third day

Today was pretty busy. I only slept four hours last night, not because of the rooster this time just due to general insomnia. I got bored around 3am and went into the house for a while. I hope I get over this jetlag soon, it's killing me.

Anyway I pretty much spent all of today doing pool jobs with Ian. In the afternoon there was some contracting work for his associate Matty who owns the pool shop. Matty paid me AU$20 per job and we got four jobs done so not a bad bit of pay. I made a chilli for everyone this evening.

This weekend I am going to look into finding a job locally. There is a coffee shop/cafe in Mundaring that looks ok, paying $16-$18 an hour (about ten pounds an hour). I could get better pay but it looks fun and the staff look alright from what I've seen so maybe I'll work there for a bit.

I am formulating a rough plan of what I might do in the upcoming months. I'm thinking about getting a regular job at least until christmas to build up a couple of thousand dollars, then maybe move into the city - Jenny mentioned Fremantle was also a good place and maybe find a flat to share or rent there. Anywhere I can easily go out to bars and clubs and meet like-minded people my age would be great. Another option is to sign up as a tradesman's assistant. Basically this involves being flown out to the mines two weeks out of every three and getting paid fantastic money to help out skilled workers like electricians or plumbers. This would be a really good way to make a lot of money very fast. I had a chat with one of Ian's clients yesterday who has a husband that manages some skilled tradesmen involved in gold mining and there might be some opportunities there, who knows. At the moment I don't have time and I'm too tired but I will look further into this stuff at the weekend.

That's it from me for now, speak later.

Second day (the revenge of the Rooster From Hell)

Hi everyone

So I've been figuring that instead of sending emails to everyone individually telling them what I'm up to it would be easier just to start a blog and hand out the link to whoever might be interested. It gives me more of an incentive to keep it up to date as well.

Anyway it's my second full day here and currently I am suffering from a severe lack of sleep. I didn't sleep more than an hour on the flight out, figuring I'd be so tired when I arrived in Oz that I'd sleep through the night despite the fact that it wasn't my usual time for sleeping. It was a good plan that would have worked well except for the NIGHTMARE COCKEREL. This thing is fucking retarded I swear. The first night I was here it started crowing at 1:30 am and did not stop all throughout the night. I was woken up by it about every two hours.

Whatever, I eventually got some sleep and actually felt pretty good the next morning. I went for a walk with Monty who is Josh and Jenny's dog. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was about 30 degrees and the walk was great. The weather is so fantastic here, I love it.

So anyway last night I got Josh (my fifteen year old cousin) to put the rooster in a little box where it couldn't stretch it's neck out properly and covered it with a towel in the hope it would shut up. It didn't prove the slightest hindrance to the bloody thing and like clockwork it started again last night at 1am and didn't stop all through the morning. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was taking revenge on me for putting it there in the first place. So I was pretty much a walking zombie for most of the day today. Tonight we have moved it down to the far end of the garden. Hopefully this will do the trick. If it doesn't I swear I will have to shoot the thing.

As for the day time I've been mostly out with my Uncle working on people's pools. I did find time to buy some sunglasses and boarding shorts though so now at least I can look like a real Australian. Oh also there was a bushfire today. The smoke was rising up in a huge pillar, it was about 20 kilometres away from the house. When the sun went behind the smoke everything went a weird red colour. Some of the ash landed on our car. Ian has a trailer with a thousand litre water tank and pump on standby all the time just in case we have to deal with a fire. Everything is so hot and dry, coupled with the wind and the fact that eucalyptus trees actually explode when they burn and I don't think you could design a more flammable country if you tried. Kind of shocks you when you realise this kind of thing is real and Australians have to deal with it all the time.

I am going to go to bed now, I will continue with this tomorrow.

Sam