Some stuff about me...

Hey Guys, I said I would try and blog as often as possible so here we go for the second day in a row! I have been on the net for like 4 hours doing all the stuff Joh wants us to do, though this is prolly longer then is should take as I am using crappy dial but thank God am in the process for getting broadband YAY! So lets continue...

So I finished year 12 in 2005 and decided rather then go straight to uni I would take a Gap year (had planned on doing this since forever!). Beginning of April 2006 off I went flying straight into Glasgow Airport on the west coast of Scotland, I flew with my grandma who had been out staying with us for about 4 months and we were met by my aunty. We then drove over to the other side of the country (it's not really that big of a country!) to the capital city Edinburgh, which would be my home for the next 10 months.

The plan was to have fun and travel, but also to work so I could get that independant living allowance thing from Centrelink. Did take some time to get a job with me beginning to stress about running out of money and being quite home sick but after about a month I evetually found a job through the website Gumtree.com I highly recommend this site for all you budding travellers out there, has sections for most major cities and is aimed at Aussies, Kiwi's and Safa's; and under these sections you can look for jobs or put your CV up so potential employers can find it, you can find places to live through buying/letting or renting, you can buy and sell belongings and there are also groups on there so you can make friends with similar interests if you don't know anyone where you are! Brilliant site.

Anywho the job I applied for was a hotel maid (not the most stylish job, but I needed money) so after emailing through my CV my future boss replied asking me if I would consider taking up there office job as there receptionist was heading off very shortly. Now do you really think I would turn down that offer...clean toilets or answer phones! The next week I went off for an interview and they met me at the station as the place is about half an hour out of Edinburgh. It was a little daunting the interview but I just tried to be bubbly and happy and it worked lol! They asked me if I would like to have a trial two days later when they had a conference, which I ended up waiting at the dinner for the Famous Grouse conference (Famous Grouse is like the biggest whiskey producers in Scotland!).

Anywho I started out just working on the estate to see how this side of the business ran, then two weeks later started in the office, the job was only ment to be until the end of July maybe a bit into August. I answered phones, and emailed people and sent out lots of wedding brochures and did some other strange tasks, one day I had to collect a wedding cake from Edinburgh and bring it out with me on the train...that was scary!

I should probably explain what the company was cos it is very confusing as it isn't actually a hotel its a private house. Basically the Spurways who were my bosses had 4 companies run from this sporting estate. The estate had a Georgian Masion on it and 3 lodges and these were all let out for weddings and conferences and things like that, this side of the business was just known as Harburn House as that was the name of the masion/estate ( images on the side are of the House and the drive up to the House cos I think they are pretty!). Then there were two shotting companies which is how we were a sporting estate these were Harburn Shooting and Dykefoot Shooting.
Then the fourth company was actually more Mr Spurways side which was a Christmas Tree Farm, infact the largest in Britain. and I worked in the office which was like the hub for all of these companies as they all at peak season of the year. I ended up making the job last til Christmas lol considering it was only meant to be 2 months!


I worked with some really great people there and I had an awesome time, my bosses were brilliant and knew that I was on my gap year and if I wanted time off to go travelling they were fine with it.

During the year I went to Scotland (obviously), Ireland, England, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Germany, Brussels, Monaco and Sweden. Most of the countries I visited when I did a month long tour with Topdeck Tours which are exactly the same as Contiki, but better! I did the Grand European Tour was brilliant! If you go to my Flickr account and go to the set Europe 2006 you can see my photos from this tour, though I still have lots to put up, I'm just running out of my allowance for the month!

Soo...that was a little bit more info about me and what I got up to last year and what my job was about, maybe I will go more in depth on some of the other places I went to in another post!

Until next time, stay safe and have fun!