LIFE UPDATE: Friends, Freelancing and Figuring Life Out

It's fair to say, my last life update post went pretty bloody well.

If I may say so myself.

This months life update involves a couple less life mistakes and a couple more YOU GO GIRL(s)!

Because your gal is now, officially, a freelance writer!

*round of applause here pls*

My plan, when I moved to Australia, was always to get a second job on top of au pairing. Au pairing is perfect for me right now, I absolutely love my host family, I love where I live and, to be honest, I love not paying the extortionate rent.

All in all, it's a pretty sweet deal.

But with 4 days a week only working outside of school hours, I'm left with a lot of time to myself. And to be honest, I always thought I'd end up working in a restaurant or a cafe out here and hadn't considered looking into much else.

But then I thought - why shouldn't I. Why shouldn't I try my hand at landing something a little more up my street than waiting tables. So, after a bit of gentle persuasion from those around me, I decided to apply to become a freelance writer in Australia.

And, well, now I am one.

Yup, alongside my blog, I'm currently writing content for Lost at E Minor and Techly, but am also sub-editing other contributors work too and basically just being an all rounder for the real-deal editors where I can.

The BEST part of all this, is that with a couple of well-known Aussie publications under my belt, alongside the experience I've gained in the UK and through my blog, I can literally take my job on the road whilst I'm here. I'm not limited by a desk or by 'office hours'. I can work weekends and late nights, and I can take on as much or as little as I want to, because I'm also au pairing right now too.

So, that's basically the dream.

I cannot even describe how lucky I feel to have landed on my feet here. Obviously travelling is so important, but if you're like me and unsure of when you'll be going back to a more traditional lifestyle, it's also great if you can keep your C.V. going whilst on the road. Gaps in employment for travel aren't uncommon at all, and a lot of employers look favourably upon it, but this means I do have the both of best worlds, and the best part is it doesn't even feel like work because I enjoy it so much. (Cringe - don't hate me for that).

If you read my blog post about making new friends, you might have found out that this month I threw caution to the wind, and after a gentle prod from my host-mum, decided to seek out some other backpackers/au pairs who might want a new pal, (spoiler: me).

So I ignored basically all stranger danger warnings ever taught to me as a child, and decided to write a Facebook post on a couple of backpacker groups, asking if anyone wanted to do something that weekend.

It turns out, there are a LOT of lonely people in Sydney.

Which was a big relief, and made me feel a whole lot less tragic.

Eventually, I created a little Facebook chat for some of the girls who messaged me, and well, things just grew from there. A 20+ person beach bbq and never-ending fb chat later, and it's safe to say I definitely made some new friends. It was honestly a fantastic decision, and to be honest, one I was really apprehensive about. It's just taught me sometimes you need to swallow your pride and admit you don't have to be satisfied with being alone.

Which brings me to my last little life update of the month - FIGURING LIFE OUT.

As most of you know, I came to Australia with little to no plan, except knowing I had to be in England for March 2019 because I'd be flying out to work in Southeast Asia from then for 6 months (more on that later).

So basically, the world was my oyster.

I knew I wanted to spend a full year in Australia because you only get one of these Working Holiday Visas in your whole life, so I'd be an idiot not to make the most of that. But I wasn't sure where I was heading or how long I'd be in one place for.

Well, I can officially say I'm going to be living in Sydney until September. Yup, another 6 months in my new favourite city in the world.

I made the decision based on a number of factors, including my new job, my au pair family, and my ability to save. But I am so happy in my decision. I have some time off over the winter here to travel to the places not on my actual 'route' - aka Uluru and Perth - but I'll be dedicating the last 6 weeks of my time in Australia to actually, properly 'backpacking'.

Anyway. I've rambled on for far too long in this blog post.

Make sure you're keeping an eye on my Youtube channel, I post weekly travel vlogs AND sit-down videos.

Sorry this is the longest blog post in the world, you're all caught up on my life now!

Love, Alice x