After arriving late at night, I managed to get to sleep by 3:30am, unfortunately for me it turned out I was sharing a room with some people who were working so their alarms went off at various times starting at 5:30 and finishing at 7:30. This wasn't exactly the ideal start to life back in Perth but to be honest I didn't actually feel that tired anyway, surprisingly. I came back to Perth in the hope of finding a high paying job or getting a 2nd year visa. Of course, after seeing Lauraine go home there was now a big part of me that just wanted to be at home with her but I'd always dreamed of trying this. After about 11 months without working it was hard to get excited about getting a job if I'm honest but with the bank balance now nearly running on empty I didn't have much of a choice. It was time to face reality. It felt really strange being back on my own as we had shared such good memories together here. In typical Wickham style though, I was soon making new friends as I chatted to all the people that were staying here. 

I spent the first few days settling in and going into the city a few times to complete jobs which needed doing, including getting myself an Australian mobile phone, fixing my iphone and getting a long awaited and very overdue hair cut! I also paid a visit to the man who is possibly one of my favourite people in the whole of Australia, the self service check out guy in Coles Central! If ever there's a time you're feeling a bit low, you just need to go to Coles to buy something as he is the happiest man I think you will ever see! He makes everyone smile with his, "Step right up!", "Cards and cash this way", "Right this way sir/madam", "Have a great day" in his game show style voice . How I'd love to have his enthusiasm when I'm 60 odd, even now probably if I'm honest!! 

Once these jobs were done, for the next 2 weeks I spent hours, day after day on the computer updating my CV and scrolling through Internet sites applying for suitable jobs. It turned out to be way more stressful than I had imagined as it was very difficult to know which jobs to apply for - I had wanted to do my rural work so I could apply for a 2nd year visa but I also needed to earn as much money as possible as I was skint! This meant either finding the right welding job or doing virtually unpaid work on a farm which I just couldn't afford to do. Also, it was difficult applying for jobs when I had no idea where the places were I was applying for - most of them turned out to be between 2 and 15 hours drive away. With no transport, no tools, no safety gear, no in date certificates and on a working holiday visa, I was really up against it. 

Nevertheless, several jobs kept popping up which I though I was perfect for but like most of the other people job hunting in the hostel, I kept getting overlooked anyway . Jobs which I had already applied for were even popping up again the week after, which just shows how most companies don't like to use travellers or people on working holiday visas. The hostel computer was always busy as several people constantly hunted for different jobs with only a few people getting low paid bar jobs or charity fundraising work.

Whilst all the hard boring days were grinding away at me and the weather switched regularly between pouring rain or beautiful sunshine, I still managed to have some fun. Some of us would go out running if it was sunny and I would use an outdoor gym in the park to work out as I needed to start getting back into shape. It was lovely spending an hour down the park in the morning before the dreaded job hunt continued. This had to stop in the end though because of a small cut on my ankle which I had got surfing in Bali over a month before as it had got infected and wouldn't heal. Not only did it stop me running, it also cost me $100 in medical fees! So the $10 surfboard proved much more costly than I'd ever expected! 

There were a few familiar faces around though which was nice as Justin had just returned from Melbourne and Becca was still staying in the area . I then made new friends with people from England, Ireland, Wales, Italy, Germany, America, Canada and Holland. We really had a mixed crowd here this time but everyone was really nice. There were a couple of nights we went out to the clubs: we went to the city for Keifer's leaving do and the following week we went to the Hip-Y club on the Tuesday night just because you get a free bus there, free entry, 2 free drinks and a free BBQ. What more do you want hey? It was worth going just to experience the bus though, as we had expected a taxi but it turned out to be a full sized coach with flashing disco lights and pumping music, it was a proper party bus! On top of that, we then won 2 bottles of cheap champagne and 10 cans of beer in the raffle as hardly anyone else actually entered. We had a really fun night and I taught everyone the dance routine Roman had taught us in Queenstown, which they all found hilarious! The next night we went up to Mustangs bar. This was the bar where I had my birthday party in February but I couldn't actually remember what it looked like . It was very busy but they had a brilliant band on. Even I really enjoyed them and I'm not usually a fan of places with live bands like that. On a Saturday night, I went to Fremantle to meet up with our old friends, Charlotte and Craig, as Luke and Claire had come down for the weekend from their farm work. It was great to see them all again and catch up as so much had happened since we were here with them 2 months ago. We went out for some beers and food where I had an amazing curry. Although I had a lovely night, it was such a shame Lauraine wasn't here with us and she was missed by everyone, especially me!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, several of us starting getting calls for jobs in a big change of fortunes. Just as I had practically started to give up and decided on going back home, a company rang me to go for a weld test. Although this was good news, it had come just as I started looking at flights and it made me pretty nervous as I hadn't done a weld test for a very long time and they can be very tricky . The company were 30 minutes south of Perth so I got the train and a taxi down on the first day. Fortunately, I passed my test so I started the work next day! Of course going into work again was a big shock to the system and I was really feeling quite homesick by now. So to say I didn't really enjoy my first day is a bit of an understatement. I was getting hardly any sleep because of people snoring in my dorm and with getting up at 5:45am, I decided it was going to be tough to been in these dorms, work and live out of a bag like this as my stuff was everywhere. I really had hit a point of being sick of living in messy dorms, living out of a bag and eating rubbish. This was making me more homesick than I had ever been.

After nearly deciding on just quitting straight away and going home, I decided to give it a shot and stick it out. So I hired a car and moved to a hostel in Fremantle as the Wickham was full. The hostel wasn't great and I was now away from my new friends but it was much closer to work . I just wanted to earn as much money as I could now and go home. I went into work on Monday and actually didn't mind being there so I was glad I'd decided to stay. After work I picked up my new hire car and I had only been checked in my new hostel about 2 hours when I got a message saying that the job had been delayed as the client wanted to make changes so I wasn't needed until further notice, with no idea how long that would be. This news hit me hard as it was a real kick in the teeth especially as after talking myself out of booking a flight, I then paid $200 for a hostel and $200 for the hire car only hours before the message came through. This prompted me to make a possibly rash decision but it was what I felt was best: I was just going to quit and head home. I didn't want to be messed about and wait around here when I missed home a lot and had other job offers there already.

The stress of the whole situation was getting to me now as I didn't ever know if I was coming or going or what the best thing to do was. Things really weren't working out how I had hoped and it seemed luck really wasn't on my side at all. I made the extremely hard decision to leave Australia even though I really didn't want to but I knew deep down that my future plans with Lauraine were much more important than me hanging around here enjoying myself for a few months. We have big plans for next year and I needed to get saving for them. Over the next couple of days, I was kept busy getting ready to leave. I returned the car, luckily getting most of my money back but I lost all my money on the hostel as they didn't do refunds. I caught up with as many friends as I could: I met up with Ben and Andy from the Wickham, they had become good friends so I gave them a tour round Fremantle as they had never been there before. Craig and Charlotte came for dinner to meet one last time as they were about to leave for Cairns and travel the East Coast. Wardy and Laura were brilliant to me as I went round for dinner twice, with them treating me to an amazing curry and a roast dinner. This was the first proper roast dinner I'd had since I'd been away so it was amazing. We also went out and got quite drunk and had a brilliant Indian dinner. Wardy also showed me around the areas I hadn't seen north of Perth like Scarbrough and the Hillaries. They were both so good to me that, when it came to it, I really didn't want to leave as I had enjoyed seeing them so much. They are both such fantastic people who could see that I was struggling with the whole situation and I'm very grateful for how they helped me out. 

Of course my decision had been made as I had no work now but I did in England and my flight was booked so there was no changing my mind. After a great few days, it almost broke my heart getting on the plane knowing that this was me finally leaving Australia. Coming here I have fulfilled a life time dream of mine and we have had such an amazing time here, I just couldn't believe I was finally going to leave. The time to leave had come though as things hadn't worked out for me and, with me being apart from Lauraine, it was making things a lot harder than I had expected. Now I just wanted to look forward to seeing Lauraine, Izzy, my family and everyone at home again. Wardy dropped me at the airport and I headed off on a 25 hour journey to get home, stopping in Doha for an hour on the way. 

I can't really say how amazing Australia has been to us. We came away so excited and everything we expected has been exceeded. We really underestimated how incredible this country is. Although it hurts that my dream trip is over, I'm filled with memories that will make me smile forever and I've got a host of new friends who will hopefully be a part of our lives for years to come.There's no doubt in my mind at all that we will be back here because our friends here are too special to not visit and the place is too great to stay away. 

Australia we will be back!!!! I promise you that!