Life Update: What the bloody hell is going on?

It's been a hot minute.

I feel like the only consistency in my blog at the moment, is how inconsistent it is.

And how often I promise that will change... and, well, then it doesn't.

I'm sad to say Alice's Antics has taken a bit of a back seat over the last few months. I've been writing for money, which means writing for leisure has become a bit of a thing of the past. I imagine this is how it feels to be an English Literature student who loves reading but only has time to ready set books.

Anyway, here I am. And I am ready to update you all on my life thus far.

It's been a WHIRLWIND, I can tell you that for free.

Grab a cuppa (or grab wine,  nobody is here to judge you), and settle in for this update on Alice's Antics.

So, at the end of August, as has been mentioned. I left my consistent writing job, and plunged into the world of freelancing.

I'll be honest, freelancing has, thus far, not been the light and carefree career path I thought it would.

Instead, it's writing around the clock. It's making ends meet and chasing up invoices and realising you have 25 days until your next payment schedule and $6 in the bank. And then finding work to make up for this.

It's spending money in coffee shops for the free wifi but spending more than you're making in the time you're there - admittedly, usually my fault for not being able to control the caffeine fiend within.

I'm actually going to write a whole blog post about this, because I have learnt a LOT over the last month - almost as much as the whole time I've spent in Australia -

Then, just over two weeks ago, my parents came out to visit me - and obviously, make the most of a reason to come to Australia because why would you not?

Over the last couple of weeks, we (somehow) spent around 13 hours in the car driving from Melbourne to Sydney, we caught up with family friends from 15 years ago, we've seen little penguins stumble over rocks at sunset to reach their burrows, we've watched a whale leap out of the Pacific ocean, and we've seen koalas and kangaroos chilling in their natural habitat.

I mean, we also had to run away from the grottiest Air Bnb in the world after turning up in Melbourne and finding filthy everything, rotting windows and mould growing up the shower curtain.

But it was a small price to pay for two of my favourite weeks in Australia.

That all came to an end yesterday morning, when my parents did the big drive back up to Sydney, and I caught a flight out to Cairns in Queensland.

And here, the new adventure awaits.

Over the next couple of months, I'll be driving with two guys and another girl, down the East Coast of Australia, back towards Melbourne.

Trust me when I say, there is literally no plan. We have a 4x4, I met these people on Facebook, and I will be camping for the first time in my whole life.

Currently, I am staying in the world's most gap-yarh hostel just outside of the centre of Cairns - but it comes complete with the ability to work in the sun whilst writing, and it's currently 28 degrees, so I'm absolutely not complaining.

The last few months of my life have been an utter whirlwind. I have changed my mind about my life so much, it was only on Friday that I officially knew I would be flying to Cairns (thanks to some invoices being paid).

In a lot of ways, I'm starting to miss the stability of "real life", of having a support system around you and knowing you have family and friends minutes away.

Again, there will be a whole blog post on this, but the last couple of months have also made me realise how much everyone else is on their own path and doing their own thing on their own clock and how actually, that is completely fine.

Whilst in England, almost all of my friends have moved out of home and are in London 9-5s, out here, the majority of the people I know live at home.

It's been a breath of fresh air realising there are people my age travelling the world, but also people my age buying shares in businesses.

Neither is wrong or right. We're in our twenties, now is the time to invest, now is the time to travel, now is the time to have $6 in the bank (cough cough), because we are able to bounce back.

It's refreshing, and it's taken me nearly 10 months of being away from home to realise that it's completely okay for me to be away from home.

I have blog posts planned about homesickness, about the lessons I've learnt freelancing so far and about my experiences of dating in Sydney (I don't tend to divulge my love life, but I'm seriously considering writing a book after these experiences).

Thank you for bearing with me and thank you for reading.

As per, I love you ALL.

Love, Alice x