Happy Australia day!

I've finally managed to find somewhere with enough WiFi to let me sit down and write one of these things!

In reality I've had a pretty chilled week, with the a fair chunk of my time being spent watching films and reading so definitely no complaints from me. I have managed to mix it up a bit though with a few trips to the beach and to the river etc - such a tough life!

On Tuesday I managed to get to the WACA in time for the tour so I've already topped Monday. The tour guide was an ex-international umpire and so really knew his stuff - I have to say that it was one of the best tours I've been on to be fair to him and he was a really nice guy. After taking us round the stands and to the scoreboard etc we were allowed in the players changing rooms and umpire's box which I found all really interesting (can't imagine many of you guys would have found it interesting but I loved it!). We were then taken on to the pitch itself which I couldn't quite believe considering Andy's Bryant and Powney are still coming to terms with the fact that people are allowed to walk on Meopham Green's outfield - let alone an international standard pitch! All in all a really good day out and I couldn't quite believe it when I left the tour and saw that England were thrashing India in the cricket - touch.

The rest of the day was spent in the pub watching the England game, again - such a tough life!

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was mainly relaxation. On Wednesday I hit Cottesloe beach and spent all day relaxing in the 33 degree heat (the tan is starting to come along nicely) and Thursday I went down and relaxed by Swan River for the day with a book - Gone Girl (8/10 - strongly recommend although I haven't finished it yet, probably would have been a 9/10 if someone hadn't given me spoilers!)

Wednesday night also saw the first live sport action of the holiday. I made the 2 minute walk to the ridiculously shaped Perth Arena and watched my first ever game of competitive Basketball - it was weird. I've never attended a game like Basketball which actively encouraged the crowd to go against the opposition. Music was played throughout (whether the game itself was being played or not) and there were ridiculous amounts of cheerleaders and entertainers. It was a really good night out and I strongly recommend going to one if you ever have the opportunity.

Friday to Sunday was heavily cricket orientated, I wouldn't have it any other way. Friday was a bar day where I woke up early just to watch the England/Australia game. Wished I hadn't by the end of the day after losing a fair bit of money and by watching us throw a game away which we should have won ridiculously easily after the first 35 overs.

Saturday I got the ridiculously cheap train ($2 for a half hour journey) to Claremont to watch a game of local cricket. The Western Suburbs were playing a team with a stupid name that sounded something like Kangaroo. After speaking to a couple of guys down there I found out that they play over two weekends, so one team bowls for 80 overs on one Saturday and then the other team comes back the week after to try and chase it down. I genuinely couldn't believe that these people were willing to field for 80 overs every other week in this heat, I got burnt enough just being on the sidelines.

This brings me to yesterday, the day I moved hostels. Whilst the old one might be nicer with its facilities and have a comfier bed, the new one appeals to me much more. The 30 somethings in the old hostel have been replaced with people in their early 20's here and comes equipped with a couple of table tennis tables, a pool table and a projector - much more my scene to say the least.

I also managed to watch my first ever Big Bash game yesterday which was amazing. Everything from the atmosphere to the cricket was great, especially with the Scorchers being the underdogs and then winning with an Englishman leading the way. I also got to see Kevin Pietersen bat which is always nice and means I'll have to make a trip to a bar on Wednesday to watch the final - damn.

The next few days I'm planning on playing it by ear. It's meant to get pretty hot (even hotter than it already is) and so I imagine a few trips to the beach are going to have to happen. As I mentioned today is Australia day, I'm not actually sure what the celebration is actually in aid of but I have a feeling its to mark the day it was founded as opposed to it's independence. They've done a fair bit of advertising for it though and there's meant to be some decent fireworks down by the river tonight which I shall check out.

Finally, they played this video yesterday at the cricket and I loved it so thought you should see it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMdbVHPmCW0

The Journey

Australia is hot #fact

After a 12 hour journey to Singapore, followed by a 10 hour layover and another 5 hour flight with just an hours sleep, I arrived at my hostel at 2am to find it was closed - just my luck, luckily for me there was a police station opposite that pointed me in the direction of a 24/7 hostel about half an hour away. I got into bed at 3 and didn't stir until I was awoken at 11 by a member of staff that told me that my check-out was at 11... It was 10:55. They were all fine about my lateness and after a pretty hectic first 10 hours or so in Australia, I arrived at my actual hostel by 11:30 sweating buckets in the 35 degree heat and a decent sized backpack. By 11:45 I was out for the count until about 4pm that day.

The journey itself was full of decent films and I finally managed to watch 22 Jump Street so all was not bad. Suits series 4 was also part of the selection which was an absolute touch! As an 18 year-old the first thing I did when I hit Singapore airport at 9am was use the free WiFi - obviously and after the standard Facebook and Twitter checks I thought I'd Google what I could do in the airport to pass the time - the answer was everything. Ranging from sitting on sofa's watching Premier League highlights to swimming pools/spa's it really had everything, including English plug sockets and ridiculous amounts of fountains, pools and flowers. I couldn't have had a better airport to kill 10 hours in to be honest.

Another piece of luck was that they offered a free sightseeing tour if your layover is over 5 and a half hours. The first thing you notice when you get out of the air-conditioned airport is the humidity, the hoody and bobble hat came off within seconds in the 30 degree heat and unlike in Australia the heat just seems to stick to you - not nice. A cute old Asian woman gave a decent enough tour for an hour and a half with the main focus on the hotel with a boat on top - can't remember its name I was too tired and we also got about 20 minutes to walk about to enjoy the sights which was a nice way of breaking up the journey. Unfortunately as we travelled back to the airport I couldn't help but nod off. I felt awful for this poor tour guide and had to apologise sincerely at the end, which she duly accepted and told me how often this happens.

I found out that when you wake up at 4pm on a Saturday there isn't really much you can do with the rest of your day. After a few hours I thought I'd treat myself to some dinner and wandered into the town centre which, after running into a hen do, I found myself on a square surrounded by hundreds of people. There was a big screen showing funny cat video's and so I assumed that it was just a kind of warm up act before the main event - it took me 5 minutes to realise that the cats were the main event. I later googled it and it turns out that I have genuinely attended a cat festival along with hundreds of other people - the mind boggles.

By the time I got back people were starting to head to bed but luckily an Irishman had films on his phone and plugged it into the TV so I managed to watch American Sniper (6/10, not all its hyped up to be) as well as the football on my laptop. Won £70 on a £1 accumulator which was a result. This + jet lag meant that I didn't get to sleep till 6am and have been working on 4 hours sleep which should, eventually, allow me to get into a routine and maybe even start functioning properly, who knows?!

Yesterday was the first day I was actually a tourist - it only took me three days! I managed to walk up to King's Garden and Botanic Gardens which was huge. I was there for about 4 hours can't imagine I saw more than half of it. Its marginally higher than the rest of the city so showed some great views and lots of nice walkways etc. Its primary use is to remember soldiers who fought in WW2 and also features a few lakes and the like to appreciate women's role in society. Believe it or not I actually found it quite interesting and found that it was the ideal way to spend the day when jet-lagged.

Today was meant to be a day of exploration and a tour of one of the countries biggest and best stadiums, the WACA, however I took a wrong turning and found myself lost in the middle of Perth. I somehow managed to find myself in North, South, East and West Perth today - how I managed this is a mystery to me but it let me see more of the city that I expected so I can't complain. My trip also lead me to a really nice sports bar/bookies so Stan kept me company for a few hours while I watched the cricket (for those who don't know, Stan is an intrepid explorer/a toy tiger who has been to a large part of Asia and the majority of South America with my Aunt and Uncle and a fair bit of North America with my Brother so has seen more of the World than anyone I know) and chilled for the first time in a place that wasn't my hostel.

The next week or two is quite sport orientated - mainly cricket. Tomorrow I will actually have my tour at the WACA (hopefully) and will do a bit more exploring before some basketball later on in the week, followed by football in the early part of next week, followed by a couple of games of cricket to watch as well. Fingers crossed the Perth Scorchers win their last game and get a home semi-final in the Big Bash as that looks like a great day out.

It's been great to keep in touch with some of you and I hope that the incoming snow doesn't effect you all to much! Xo