Adjusting to life back home has been a strange old kettle of fish. In some ways it took no time at all to feel as though I’d never left and everything seemed so familiar so quickly. On the other hand, sharp contrasts between my life at home & my previous lifestyle were evident every single day. I’d forgotten how complicated having a real life is with all the little things that you have to organise and surround yourself with just to get by.

Max and Katie’s wedding was fantastic – the first time the whole family had been together for about 4 years; Max’s speech had everyone with a lump in their throats, the ceremony was fun & heartfelt and there was bad dancing all round at the reception.

Naomi’s 21st in Cardiff was great fun too; loads of people turned up; there was more bad dancing and plenty of drinking. However, it was a bit surreal to be drinking with one of her friends who I used to baby-sit for….. that made me feel my age!

In Leeds I have a great house, with 5 other housemates (3 girls & 3 guys) all of whom are Postgraduates (apart from James who works full time – bummer!) so we’re all in a similar situation – want to enjoy Uni life, but not 18 year old freshers who think they invented drinking! The nightlife here is brilliant – always something happening & so many bars & clubs you could never get bored.

I worked at the Film Festival here – loved having the chance to see independent films for free and hang out with other film geek types and rub shoulders with directors. I now work part time for the University in hospitality, which is so relaxed and also offers the odd “celebrity” encounter – Nell McAndrew, George Martin & several Hollyoaks / Emmerdale chancers to name but a few.

Uni work will be keeping me pretty busy over the Christmas break (although we don’t have to go back to school until 29th Jan!) and I have plans to spend time in London & Amsterdam after New Years, so a busy couple of months ahead. All that & my 30th Birthday on the horizon……I’ve double checked my birth certificate & it’s unfortunately true, so I am going to have to prepare myself for officially saying goodbye to my twenties. Will need several stiff drinks……. Several…..

After a nightmare-ish delayed flight where annoying Aussies chewed my ear off for the entire time, I returned to Brisbane and picked up my (bright orange!) hire car to take me up to Noosa, a sunny holiday town just a couple of hours up the coast.

Now, this is a place I could actually see myself living in - the combination of great weather, beautiful beaches, national park coastline & fine dining made me feel very special indeed. A good chill out few days after the extreme contrasts of outback camping & Darwin partying proved very good for both the body & soul. I also checked out Surfers Paradise during the last week & confirmed for myself that 1 day there was enough....

My last week in Brisbane unfortunately flew by - loads of stuff like cancelling bank accounts, buying gifts (mostly for myself!!) and saying goodbye to people took up all the time I had left. I can admit to a bit of the wet, salty stuff seeping from my eyes as I rode to the airport in the shuttle bus, watching the hostel that I spent the good part of 3 months living in disappearing into the distance and leaving some very special people behind. More than that, a goodbye to Australia and to the travelling lifestyle that I have loved for the last 3 years.

I had long been looking forward to Dubai as being a very different experience to the Westernised cultures of NZ & Oz. With just 4 days, and a lot of time put aside for jet-lag & hangovers, I pretty much just shopped, drank, ate & sunbathed. Mall of the Emirates, the largest of the shopping malls was suitably huge & impressive and boasted it's own real ski slope in the middle of the complex!

I stayed at Cathy (who I know from NZ) & Gavin's apartment - a lovely pad with 2 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms....(!) and a rooftop pool, which was needed as a relief from the 40 degree heat. I also caught up again with little sister Naomi, who by coincidence was visiting a friend in Dubai who works for Emirates airlines. We managed to have a couple of fun nights out; Dubai is surprisingly full of great bars & nightclubs, if you know where to find them and, less surpringly, full of ex-pats from Britian, NZ & Oz.

One of my favourite experiences was taking part in one of the famous Dubai "Brunches" which can run from 3 to 12 hours.... Ours was a more upmarket 3 hour affair in a posh hotel; we were greeted with a glass of Moet, which continued to be topped up after every sip right until the very end. We gorged ourselves on thai, english breakfast, arabian & indian food and indulged in the chocolate fountain and numerous artery-hardening desserts.

A great experience and fantastic to catch up with Cathy & Naomi; then, on the Sunday morning it was time to board another delayed flight and finally head home to England. The guy next to me on the plane was pretty cool and we took it in turns to order alcohol every half an hour, in order to get our money's worth from the flight. When Alistair fell asleep I continued to order 2 drinks - just in case he woke up & was thirsty, of course - but he remained sleeping for about 3 hours, and I couldn't let good Vodka & orange go to waste....

Walking into Heathrow arrivals was the one moment where I could happily have turned around & stepped straight back onto the plane; I had forgotten how overcrowded Britain is as a whole &, in particular, how crazy this airport really is.... Dad was easy to spot though, as he was one of about two white faces in the crowd!! Then it was back home to Leicester & the roast dinner I had been dreaming about for months....

Hangovers in tow, we left Alice Springs and continued into the Outback, on the Northward stretch to Darwin. The first night in a camp site at Tennant Creek will go down as one of the noisiest in history, where I contended with fighting Aboriginals, barking dogs, road trains and, the final straw, crap country music from one of the caravans. Of this list, the caravan was the easisest to fix, so I leapt out of the tent in my pyjamas, climbed up the fence and asked our neighbours to please turn the music down thank you very much.... (OK, maybe I wasn't that polite!)

The next 2 nights at rest stops were much more peaceful (for us at least - don't know if our fellow campers appreciated drunken dizzy sticks after midnight!). A fun day was spent at Katherine, doing tandem canoeing through the gorge. Anything done tandem stylie is always fun & this was no exception - both canoes doing their best to splash & capsize each other. We had to haul our canoes against the tide through no less than 3 sets of rapids over very slippy rocks and my shins are still a little dented as a result.

We did the usual stops along the way - Devils Marbles & the Daly Waters pub where, despite me having a spare key, we managed to lock ourselves out of the car! Help wasn't hard to find and we were pleased, yet slightly disturbed, when we discovered that we were able to open the door locks with a simple nail file.... hmmmm!

We reached Darwin on a Saturday and I was very excited about introducing my road trippers to the delights of Darwin nightlife. The city didn't disappoint and, over the next few days, we drank in all the usual haunts (Shenanigans, The Vic, Throb, etc...) and enjoyed it to the full. We visited the beach markets, shopped, sizzled on the beach and I met up with the Noonans crew for Scotch O'Clock one last time.

So the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and I said goodbye to Darwin and my fabulous road trip crew over a $1 dinner at the Vic (very fitting). And so begins my final week in Australia......