Well it's summer and me and patty are off on our travels.

Week One:
First stop - Shanghai. Arrived tuesday lunchtime, after a rather random flight. oh dear lord, the heat was bad but the humidity hit 100% - my hair has never been so curly. we wandered about then went to have a nap at 4pm, woke up at 7am oops.

We decided to wandered around the city after a traditional breakfast - there was soup, bean type dishes, platters of meat, etc - rather interesting, but will be sticking to toast in future!

One noticeable thing of Shanghai is the sudden influx of Pizza hut and KFC - everywhere you turn, there's at least three on the street. This has caused there to be NO chinese restaurants in Shanghai so we went to pizza hut, our sanctuary. Oh yeah, another thing - the love of cartoons, slightly scary. you even get 'Hello Kitty' credit cards!!

The attraction to white people is slightly scary - they use skin whitening products constantly and are in admiration of our pasty white skin (eventually, someone likes the 'pale' look). well after all the products, we walked in the street and people took photos of us. one man even stroked my arm on an escalator, i proceded to tell him to 'politely' get lost.

We went to the Bund (touristy bit) at night, very pretty - lights and stuff.

Other shanghai highlights - went on tour of city, river boat cruise, freckles and the heat.


Week Two:
We now travel on to OZ. Arrive at Pudong airport, 3 hours early (they advise such). To find out our flight is delayed 2 hours hence missin our connecting flight to perth. We book to go to perth on another plane but via adelaide. We arrive is sydney after a hellish flight (turbulence, patty fainted, i slept, i woke up, realised what happened, went to sleep, the plane dropped a few thousand feet, patty screamed, i woke up again). Sydney is chaotic - three hours to get through customs and immigration but we are now official 'working holiday visa holders'! We get on the million flights to perth and arrive, with luggage (thank god), 29 hours after starting out. Head to bed in our hostel - sleep for 15 hours.

First day in Perth, we go for breakfast/lunch and then job search. Head to a job centre and get a job, after two hours wait - quick workin i say!

Job - We are goin to a town (village!) called Brookton for 6 weeks. Workin in a pub, living in their hotel - should be ok, lets hope i survive (and have net access!)... xx

Ok..second day in perth - we generally hang about and go shopping - i'm sorry to say but the shop arent as good as home and the people arent exactly fashion concious, oh well.
But one specific shop we found was a british food shop - the delights purchased were irn-bru, strawberry bon bons and proper cadburys choc (they are about triple the price of home but so worth it!!) Went to see shrek tonight - the oldest, most retro cinema i have ever seen (think back to the good old abc times!)

Anyway, must pack...leave tomorrow morning, wish us luck! xx

I have internet!! Well arrived in Brookton: population 1000, one co-op, a deli/newsagents, two pubs, two petrol stations and about 500000 sheep!!

Slightly terrified upon arrival but everyone lovely and settled in well. Me and patty working different shifts but if/when we get time off together, we get the managers car and go to the surrounding areas (just as interesting as here!)

Thursday/Friday were busy nights and we had a 'shooters night' - lets just say most people were suffering on sat morning. the weekend was quiet until the sunday night bush party. We went to the hottest family in the county's farm to have a bonfire/drinks/bbq shindig: was going really well until someone threw a newly dead, newly skinned, still slimy sheep on me - it was the most horrific, disgusting experience of my life. There will be photos soon, yuck! This was followed by our return to the town (too scared to camp out) to a guys house to watch borat...he then proceeded to dress up

- Red heads have thick hair, but the least number of hairs per head, at an average of 90,000. The overall average is 100,000.

- People with red hair are more susceptible to pain, according to doctors. Research carried out in the US suggested that redheads need 20% more anaesthesia than people with other hair colour.

- Harvard dermatologist Madhu Pathak calls redheads "three-time losers" because their red pigment is an inadequate filter of sunlight and their skin is more susceptible to sunburn, skin cancer and wrinkling with age.

- Genetically Redhair is a recessive trait. Which means it can hide in genes and pop up several generations later. Two Redheads would most likely have a Redhaired child(RR). To have a Redheaded child both parents must carry the red hair gene. The Red hair pigment is called pheomelanin. The gene is melanocortin 1 receptor.

- Percentages of redheads in different countries range from single digits to a fraction of 1 per cent -- a recent estimate for France is 0.03 per cent of people. (A 1977 estimate for North America is 4 per cent) Redheads generally are more numerous in northern latitudes, but also turn up among Hungarians, Egyptians, Israelis and certain Nigerian tribes.

- “In Denmark it is an honour to have a redheaded child. In Corsica , if you pass one in the street you spit and turn around. In Poland , if you pass three red-heads you'll win the state lottery," claims Sylvia Stevez, the Parisian founder of Association Francaise des Rousses.

- There are two kinds of redhead, says Mary Spillane, managing director of British image consultants Colour Me Beautiful. There's "the autumn type with hazel eyes," and the Celtic type with translucent skin, light eyes and carrot top -- leprechaun redness "that people have trouble with."

- Redheads have been thought untrustworthy. As a 17th-century Frenchman observed, "Judas, it is said, was red-haired."

- Ginger superstitions include… “red hair is unlucky”, “it's lucky to rub your hand on a redhead's head”, “bees sting redheads more often”.

- Aging Redheads don't turn grey. First the hair turns a blondish color then white.

- The Egyptians regarded the colour as so unlucky that they had a ceremony in which they burned red-headed maidens alive to wipe out the tint, says author Claudie De Lys.

- Oxford researchers believe that all redheads inherited the gene from European Neanderthals. Based on rate of gene mutation, Oxford says the redhead gene appears to be much older than Cro-Magnon man in Europe . The accepted explanation is that the Celtic tribes had a strong remnant of Neanderthal blood caused by Cro-Magnon/Neanderthal interbreeding