Rollin with the homies + Sean gets the snip

So our first week with the Aussie’s!!! They are so annoying and fluffy lol (Jokes….We love you guys already and guess what, we’re staying mwhahaha ).

We had a jam packed weekend with Kylee & Ian going to La Devilles Pad
[read post ‘we went to he’ll and back]
we took our second trip to the cinema this time in Belmont. We went to watch ‘The is the End’ with Seth Rogen, James Franco and pretty much the rest of the cast from ‘Knocked Up’. It was hilarious and full of boy humour but nothing a girl couldn’t appreciate. Funny one liners and the ending… well let’s say you wouldn’t guess if you tried.

After the movies we went for late night hot chocolate at San Churros (can u believe this coffee shop is open till 1-2am!! We need this in Birmingham) me and sean shared churros with mini chocolates, melted chocolate and strawberries at $20 it was totes worth it.

Also this week:
Me and sean got our hair cut! I needed one badly, being away from my products and straighteners is finally effecting me and I hardly use them back in the UK so if your a grooming goddess and think you’d be ok backpacking without them, think again. My blonde ends went dry and my roots well greasy and flat…time for the chop. Sean needed a spruce up and he had never been to the hairdressers so he wasn’t sure what to ask for awww.

I had looked at other salons in Perth but the prices were bit much and all the salons charge separately so you pay for wash, cut and a blow dry and costs from $50-120 but I found a cheap salon called Salon Express, which is similar to Supercuts in the UK.

It cost me $40 (for the amount I had cut off) for my long hair to be taken to a short Bob with layers and a fringe and Sean had a short back and sides which looked good and cost $20 but I think my hairdresser went a bit crazy with the layers and when I asked for a blunt fringe she went choppy crazy. It was ok in terms of quickness and price though and you don’t need to book.

X x

Perth Snaps

This gallery contains 9 photos.

We went to hell and back!

Well as the name suggests we did go to hell and we liked it. Invited out by our new housemates, we left the hostel and after a little trek we found the place….The Devilles Pad. We saw the outside and were like ‘where have they brought us?’ Haha. Walked through the doors to be welcomed by a $10 entrance fee (think we arrived just after free entry). We opened the doors to come face to face with some freaky animatronic gargoyles…pretty cool. Then as we entered the bar floor it was like we had just walked on the set of ‘from dusk til dawn’, all I needed was sexy George Clooney to step out (dreamy).

Try and picture the decor, private booths looked like caves with dramatic flames everywhere and demon lady statues surrounding the dance floor with a volcano, where some crazy hippy chick straight from Scooby doo was bopping. The music that night was really good, playing songs that would no doubt be found in most of Quentin Tarantinos movies. The cocktails were holla expensive from $12 – $20 ouch! But they were tasty and came with a few surprises in them ( I can only imagine our friend Jess would have loved it there). They had a Las Vegas style dance troop called ‘The Sinnerettes’ and a burlesque act from the UK who wasn’t all that great and go go dancers in cages, who I swear must have red bull in their vain’s due to the fact they were dancing non stop for about 5 hours – you go-go girls!

I would really like to go back if my wallet allows, especially if they have a fancy dress night so I can show you guys some awesome photos!!!

Shopping and Culture. Leederville, Mt Lawley, Northbridge and more

Leederville not the biggest suburb but nice place to meet for a coffee or quick mooch. Funky gifts and vintage clothing. Checkout Urban Depot and Atlas Divine.

Harbour Town grab a bargain! Discounted stores and food court. Checkout converse store and Typo. Bought some conserve trainers for $50.

Mt Lawley similar to Leederville but more. Cool boutique shops and cafes. Checkout Daily Planet.

Northbridge take a stroll down William St. Hostels, bars, shops and more. Checkout The Butcher Shop, San Churros, La Cholita, Periscope, The Moon.

From hostel to castle

A lot has gone on since our last blog. So it’s about time to inform family, friends and followers of our goings on.
It’s been a time of change. After spending over a month living with family (thank you for having us) it was time to take this adventure to the next level and experience staying in a hostel and fending for ourselves. From now on we would have to keep an eye on our spending but not let it get in the way of us having fun!
We managed to have a look around some of the hostels around Perth to get an idea of what they were like. This week we’ll post an in depth post about the hostels we visited if you’re interested? Our first night was spent at Britannia on William St. $68 a night for a ‘no frills’ double room. It was basic but we didn’t spend much time in the hostel to have any complaints. That same night we ate at a cool Mexican stlye tapas bar in Northbridge called La Cholita. It was a quirky little place and reasonably priced, we shared 5 dishes and 2 drinks each which cost us $56.

The hostel was fully booked the following day but we fancied a change anyway.

We booked two nights at The Old Swan Barracks Hostel $80 per night for a double room. This time we were lucky enough to have a fridge and TV in our room. The communal areas were a lot better than the Brittania. 3 TV rooms, 2 kitchen areas and a large bar area with table tennis and pool tables.

We already knew that we couldn’t afford to stay in a hostel every night so we went to view a house we had seen on http://www.flatmates.com in Redcliffe. It was a nice new house, clean and fully furnished. We met the two occupants who seemed really down to earth and friendly. It was everthing we were looking for, the only downside was the location. I was still waiting to hear back from the interview I had in Pinjarra, in which case it would be too far to travel. At $250 per week including bills it was not that bad a price.
The following day we had another house to checkout although this time round, our expectations were high. Nice location just south of the Swan river $210 per week partly furnished room. We were in for a shock, I couldn’t make it sound any worse if I made it up. Firstly we got greeted by a neighbour who we were unaware would be showing us around. Her English wasn’t great and she couldn’t even get into the house. We tried the front door, back gate and side door yet within her mass of keys she didn’t have one that fit. Eventually she led us to her back garden and we squeezed through a gap in the fence. There was a lady hanging out her washing in back garden of the house we were viewing who then explained why we couldn’t get through the back gate. The big padlock on the gate rather than being used for its purpose was more of a decorative deterrent . The gate wasn’t locked it was broke! She showed us that they just lift the gate off the hinges. The room itself was no saving grace it was dark, gloomy and grotty. The whole house was basically a mess. It would not surprise me if one of the other tenants who was currently out shopping was a human sized cockroach. As cool as it sounds I firmly squeezed Ash’s hand as if it was code for ‘we’ve seen enough’.
We are now living in Redcliffe with two nice housemates and neither of them are human sized cockroaches, just two onesie wearing Australians.

Ash’s little burp of nothingness

I started to get back in to my reading since I came here, mainly when I am commuting to work mainly, I have to admit my commute to work is much more picturesque then in Stoke-on-Trent. I get a great view of Swan River whilst crossing the bridge via train and seeing the sun just peeking over the silhouette of Perth’s cityscape, stunning.

I have recently finished reading a travel book called Twitchiker, by Paul Smith, which my sister brought me to inspire me with the blog (has it helped? you tell me). It’s about the travels of a radio presenter from Newcastle who’s fed up of the mundane and decides to travel the world using social networking site Twitter to help him do it. He gets his Twitter followers to either buy him travel and/or accommodation until he reaches his destination, two of the main rules being; he can only accept help through Twitter and he has to get an offer within 3 days of arrivals or face failure. It’s a good read and made me want to try it out for myself for fun, a negative though was he does spend most of his time drinking and then complaining about said drinking, however the fact he was helping raise money for safe drinking water in Africa did cancel this out. Worth a read.

My next read is currently On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Set in the 1950s in America, about a guy called Sal, who travels the open road and meets upon his long-time beatnik friends, falling in and out of love with them. I’m enjoying it so far, although at first it was hard to get in to due to the way the writer “talks” in the book but I think that’s where the charm lies with this novel.

Work is going well, earned my first bonus this week. Woop. Working as a telemarketer isn’t the most thrilling jobs and you do end up leaving on a bit of a low, I do have to remind myself ‘you’re on holiday Ash!!’.

A typical phone conversation at work me me is:
Mrs Ling: “hello?”
Me: “hello there, is this Mrs Ling?”
Mrs Ling: “yes, who is calling?”
Me: “it’s Ash calling from pest control, how are you today?”
Mrs Ling: Silence
Me: “hello, Mrs Ling?”
Mrs Ling: “Im sorry I don’t speak English” (said perfectly)
Me: “you don’t speak English?” (Interesting)
Mrs Ling: “no….I go now. Bye” hangs up brilliant

If it’s not that then it’s “p**s off! Which is always my favourite. But there funding my diving and shark cage activities so :-p!

So whilst I’m annoying people on the phone I like to doodle, 1: for the entertainment it offers me and 2: because you never know when your going to get that ‘lightbulb’ moment. I have kept all my little doodle papers with me so I can look back at them and cringe over what terrible drawing skills I had & how silly I was to ever think that idea would work in real life haha.

Check out these artists from WA! http://www.artistswa.com/
www.outregallery.com/

A day in the life of Sean 12/07/13

“Brrrrr, brrrrr! Brrrrr, brrrrr!” It was 8:30am and someone had kindly decided to call my mobile to wake me from my slumber. It was the recruitment agency telling me they have sorted an interview for me at 11am today. I was still in bed, with the pillow stuck to my face and they expected me to make a 2 hour and 40 minute journey to Pinjarra. After some debate we decided on 13:30. Time for a shower and a shave.
This is the first actual interview I’ve had since being in Australia. The company was looking for a CNC setter and operator to help with the running of their machines. I was fairly hopeful due to my previous experience in working with such machines.
To get there I had to board two different trains and catch a bus. I got there with 10 minutes to spare in which time I had a chat with the receptionist who was a fellow Pom. The interview was very laid back after a brief chat about past experience I was shown around the factory. Whereas I’m used to operating machines the size of a Fiat 500 these things were big enough to park a Jeep in with enough room left to swing a cat. It was bigger than my bedroom!
As a whole the interview was positive and he hinted towards a possible trial day. The only negatives were the fact that it was night shifts working 4 days on, 4 days off 6pm-6am is something I’d have to think about.
Leaving the interview I had just missed a bus and was sure the bus was full of people waving at me laughing as if they knew something I didn’t. I had no idea when the next bus was so I called Marie, a relative who informed me that I’d have to wait an hour for the next bus.
So there I was, waiting on the side of a dual carriageway with no sign of anything in either direction apart from the cars passing by, with their passengers looking smug. iPod equipped, I waited.
Eventually the bus arrived and boy was I in for a ride. The dude at the wheel was driving like Mad Max on heat, it didn’t help the fact that Iron Maiden “Run to the hills” began to blast its way out of my earphones. Every traffic light we stopped at I really thought he was about to run a red, but he’d firmly hit the brakes with the might of Thor. Every time the bus came to a halt I could feel my insides trying to squeeze between the gaps of my rib-cage. He nearly missed picking up one passenger, travelling 100m after the stop leaving flat spots on the tyres. It was as if he thought the poor kid needed some exercise in the form of a short jog.
Finally I arrived at the train station and Marie kindly offered to pick me up from one of the stops.

Accommodation

Been looking at various accommodation the past few days. Already discovering that Australia is more expensive than we first thought we also blindly presumed hostels would offer the cheapest accommodation. Not all is as it seems.

Accommodation Pricing $:

accommodation	price p/n	price p/w 2ppl
hostel dorm	25-30	350
hostel double	40-70	280
Hotel	80-200	560
house share	N/A	from 180

Based on 2 people it is actually cheaper for us to live in a furnished house or apartment than it is to stay in a hostel. Of course there are exceptions such as for house sharing or apartments you may be charged separately for any bills and in some cases have to pay a bond. But fear not, most include bills so just make sure you check before hand. As for the bond it only a deposit that you get back as long as you don’t damage the place where you stay or run away without paying the full rent. Only other thing to check is the terms of stay, some places ask that you stay for a minimum of 3 months.

At the moment we have been very very lucky to have relatives that have put us up. We are very grateful for their generosity but we do need to find accommodation within the next month. For one, I’m sure they would like their own space back but also so that we can experience fending for ourselves. Our only delay at the moment is where to move to as I could end up getting a job that takes 3 hours to get to depending on who out of the many jobs I have applied for will have me.

Here’s a few useful websites for accommodation:

http://flatmates.com.au

http://www.realestate.com.au/rent

http://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/directory/accommodation/australia/

http://www.yha.com.au/hostels

http://reservations.bookhostels.com

http://gumtree.com.au

Our bucket list for WA

Well we have been here for  weeks now (wow that makes the 6 weeks holidays we had as kid’s seem like nothing). It still doesn’t feel like we are here mainly because we haven’t made our mark in WA just yet, well we do have another 3 months here unless we decide to move on to Melbourne earlier (it all depends on jobs and if we have done all we want to do here).
My job is going well, the extra cash helps pay for some of the stuff we really want to do before we leave.

We are hoping to take a weekend break down towards Margaret River to see some of the wineries, taking full advantage of the wine tasting/beer tasting (think movie: sideways) and see the beaches which are popular with the surfers (I’ll be doing some surfer watching for sure).
If anyone who is reading this has done the whole winery tour in Margaret River, let us know. We would love to hear some stories, reviews, tips etc. We might roadtrip down there sometime next month, be so cool to do some whale watching in Albany? whilst we are heading south between July-October and if possible take a drive to Lucky Bay which is meant to have the whitest sands and clear waters…it is that beautiful I’ve been told even wild kangaroos like to laze on the beach there (must see this to believe!)
http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Destination/Margaret_River/9009633

Another trip we are hoping to do whilst we are here is up north towards Exmouth and working our way south along the coast past Ningaloo Reef, Coral Bay and Monkey Mia. This is a popular tour destination for travellers due to the fact Ningaloo Reef is one of the few places you can actually swim close to whale sharks!! They migrate here between mid March to end of July so if we do want to do it we have to plan now, however all is not lost as you can also see manta rays, turtles, over 500 species of fish and stunning coral and being a marine enthusiast this is a trip of a lifetime and a good starting point for our PADI open water course. Monkey Mia is a popular beach due to the fact wild dolphins visit close to the shore and although you can’t really touch them as they are wild you can swim close by.

http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Destination/Ningaloo/9027248

Other stuff we want to check out are:
Rottnest Island (Rotto)- good for surfing, diving, riding bike around & sea lion/whale watching.
Rockingham- an island home to micro penguins (woop!)
Visit Little creatures brewery
Fishing excursion
Tattoo Expo (Guys from NY Ink will he there)
Roller derby!!!

A message to our friends who are keeping up with our blog, thanks for the messages and thoughts. We miss everyone heaps and wish you could all be here, experiencing this adventure too. We know a few people are coming over in the new year which is going to be awesome and we can’t wait but for now here is a picture of us so you don’t forget us haha x

Mandurah & Supanova Expo

Mandurah
Another weekend, another adventure. We got two trains down to Mandurah took us around 2 hours from just outside Perth. We walked along the boardwalk at Manjar Bay with an ice-cream in hand enjoying the scenery. We made a friend in the form of a pelican, never seen one up close before, it was massive. Beautiful bird though and very friendly, I think he wanted my ice-cream.

We decided to splash out on a 1 hour cruise aboard a ferry around the estuary. Sadly we didn’t spot any dolphin’s but saw some amazing houses each with their own yacht outside. There was plenty of birds around too: black swans, pelicans and cormorants.
As hunger called we headed to dolphin quay a large harbour with bars and restaurants dotted around. After browsing the menus we decided to eat at catch 22. We had a sharing platter for 2 consisting of octopus, crab, prawn, squid, mussels, oysters and salmon. It cost us $65 and was very tasty.

Supanova
Sunday we went to the annual pop culture exhibition at Claremont showgrounds, $25 each. It was a little disappointing. To see most of the famous stars such as Carrie Fischer, David Hasselhoff you had to pay extra for an autograph or photo ranging from $30 – $80. Me and Ash didn’t dress up but we expected to see loads of people dressed up impersonating their favourite characters but there was only a small handful that put effort into their costumes. Nonetheless we had a good day looking at all the memorabilia we couldn’t afford and I did manage to sneak a peek of The Hoff. There was a cool comic strip artist, who offered to put us in his next zombie comic as zombies. Very tempting but $100 each that could be better spent.
Ash was over the moon to see a couple dressed up as Louise and Bob from American tv animation ‘Bob’s Burger’s’ nice job guys!