Leaving The Shire!

After a really quick June month full of goodbyes, presents and well wishes the 4th of July has finally come! The day I become a man. The day Joshua goes down under! To the freakishly large area of Australia, home to Crocodile Dundee as well as sharks, red-back spiders and lots of other venomous creatures. If this didn’t make me grow up no where would!
I have to say i’m not the most organised person in the world but with a lot of help from the staff at Southampton and my family, I have achieved the impossible. Everything seemed to be in order before I arrived at the Airport, however little did I know I had over-packed my bag by 5 whole kilos over my 20 kilo allowance. I said goodbye to my Pennyboard, and my pull-up bar, and warm jumpers I had (that my mum told me I definitely wouldn’t need) and I eventually got it down to the required limit. Once I had checked my suitcase in I hugged my family and I waved we parted ways, with my mother and sister crying as their beautiful son/brother walked off to hopefully find his departure area, feeling incredibly majestic and manly as if I was an actor in one of those movies with cool music and explosions going off in the background. This was it, sink or swim Joshie boy! Sink or swim.

I arrived at my departure area with my gym bag full of all my necessary bits and bobs; my passport, money, flight ticket etc etc and when the time came, I passed through the airport security part with flying colours as per usual and waited for my flight to come up on the board. During this time I praised myself for remembering to change some of English pounds into Australian, before sadly passing through the duty free zone as I had no room in my luggage for anything. After an hour and a half my plane to Hong Kong began to board (on my way to Australia we stopped in Hong Kong for 7.5 hours before the connecting flight to Aussie land) , so I got on and found my seat. Luckily I quite enjoy plane rides, especially as I was able to watch various films and attempt to nap through the 12/13-ish hour flight. The food on my ‘Cathay Pacific’ flight was amazing! I know you’re probably wondering how amazing aeroplane food can be, but this was so good! I had the option of things such as terriaki chicken and noodles, really nice scones with butter and jam, free drinks (including the alcoholic bevvys 😉 ) and even some apple crumble!
After a lot of films and a few hours here and their probably dribbling asleep in my chair, we finally descended into Hong Kong airport. My goodness it was beautiful! So mountainous as if I was landing somewhere in the film Avatar! It was crazy! Part of me wanted to forget about where ever I was going and explore around there ( which was impossible even with my 7.5 hour wait as I clearly didn’t have a visa to allow me to leave the airport). As you can see there is a picture of what I could see below, although my phone’s camera isn’t the greatest.

It was actually breath taking already at this point.
During my time waiting I persisted to walk around various (very expensive) shops such as Armani Exchange, Prada, Gucci, Louis V and countless others, making me think that I was currently in a very privileged area. I also took myself up the escalator to the food section and had my first encounter with ‘Popeyes’, a nice fast food place where I got some yummy strips of chicken, with a coke and some seasoned fries alongside a side order of mashed potato with gravy! As weird as that sounds it was surprisingly a nice experience I’m happy to say.

Once forever had come and gone and I had practically entered into life as a senior citizen, it was finally time to get onto the plane to my destination. By this point I was getting pretty tired as I hadn’t really slept too well in the upright plane chairs from the previous flight, but i was still nonetheless full of excitement at being on what was, and still is, the biggest adventure of my life! I went through the usual airport routine and soon I was in my window seat on my flight from Hong Kong to Perth in Western Australia! There was a lovely lady sat next to me who I was successful in making friends with so we chatted for a length of time about Australia (as she was returning home there) and whether or not it was probable that my family and friends would come to hear of my death as a result of a bite of some venomous or giant razor toothed animal/insect during my stay. As expected, she assured me that such worries were overblown and unrealistic, so I felt slightly more at ease.

Anyway, that was before and this is now! I’m finally in Perth Australia and guess what mum? It is raining like I have never seen before and I am genuinely shivering with cold. I know I know, how is it cold enough in Australia at the beginning of July, raining icey cold water from a cloudy sky? Turns out it’s actually Australian winter for the first part of my stay here. Thanks to my 20kg allowance and my removal of my warm jumpers I am sat outside the airport, shivering and waiting for a bus to take into town, and then another to the house I am staying in temporarily in Mount Lawley, 31 Gill Street.

Update: I passed through the city and after getting off and feeling a bit bewildered I found my way to the next bus stop through the center of the city, which very new and beautiful also, up to mount lawley, and haul my broken wheeled suitcase and hand luggage to the house.
After moving in and meeting my 3 new housemates, an irish guy called Steven who was really funny, and a couple who owned the house named Jacks and David who were also nice, I moved my stuff into my room and after a long day, I finally get to take a nap (at 3pm aus time).
I’m off to sleep now but await my next post. It’s been incredible so far and I’ve only done the travelling part! God bless! x