I've been here a bit over a week now, and I'm still amazed by the fact that I'm really here.  I'm in fucking AUSTRALIA!  I'm on the plane right now heading from Perth to Exmouth, and I feel like pinching myself as I gaze out the window.  I've been here ten days, and each day has been one of the best ever.  And still I've barely touched on anything I'm going to experience here.  I have yet to snorkel, surf, and do anything in the outback.  I honestly don't know how I spent 30 years of my life barely leaving Canada.  Well actually I know the answer to that, MONEY, hahaha.  Being here though has also made me realize I have taken advantage of very little that Canada itself has to offer.  At the beginning of winter last year, I swore to myself I would go skiing.  I didn't.  I've been through the Rocky Mountains once, and that was over a decade ago.  I've never been to the east coast.  WTF.  So this is all going to change.  I'm going to get my licence when I get back (I'm thinking of getting my motorcycle license, as I believe you G1 comes with it automatically, so why not).  Once I have a car (or motorcycle, fuck yeah)  I have no excuse to not drive everywhere back home.  I also talked to Pudge about doing a road trip to the east coast, and he seemed genuinely excited about it, so looks like I'll be heading to Moncton and Halifax at some point this summer, fuck yes!

I already would love to extend my trip out here, but at least a couple of weeks.  BUT, if I do that, I can't apply for a working holiday visa to return here.  Turns out you can't apply once you turn 31 - but you can apply right up til your 31st birthday.  When I get home, that gives me 9 days to submit my visa application, then I can look at coming back here and actually working and living here.  Don't panic though my Canadian lovelies, as applying doesn't actually mean I'll do it - I just don't want to lose out on the chance, and once I turn 31 it's done.  I would LOVE to come back here for a year or two, I know it already.  But then it would get into the issues of what to do with my kitties.  I hate the fact that once I'm away from them, in another part of the world, I have to honestly admit there is a part of me that could be okay with leaving them behind.  WHAT.  Yes, I really said that.  But saying that makes another part of me panic and think WTF is wrong with you!  They could always come with me, but they'd be subject to 180 days of quarantine (although 150 could be done while still in Canada), and they'd have to have so many vet appts and vaccinations, it would cost me literally thousands of dollars to do so.  Plus I could never subject them to SIX MONTHS quarantine, that is just ludicrous.  I love them too much.  So leaving Canada permanently doesn't seem to be an option.... yet anyway.  We'll see what happens.

I'm definitely going to apply for the visa, and definitely going to move to Montreal in September.  I need to get the fuck out of Ottawa.  I love the handful of real, good friends I have there, but I'm sorry everyone, Ottawa really is a pit of laziness, drama, and non-motivation.  I need to be in a city where people enjoy being there, where you can walk outside on any day and actually make something happen.  So, once I get back, I'll begin French lessons, and hopefully by the end of the summer be bilingual enough that I can get a job in Montreal once I get there.  Purrhaps if I live in Montreal, I won't feel the need to move to a country I travel to, but I'll actually be happy enough just with the travelling.

I think Thailand is next on the agenda.  But what deters me from there is how close so many other amazing places are.  If I'm so close to Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam/Nepal/Japan (so sad about Japan right now), how can I not go there too?  That journey would have to be at least 3 months I think, unless I limit myself to one/two countries like I did this time, which would make 6 weeks sufficient.  I also NEED to come back to Oz though, so I can spend time in Tasmania, and head over to New Zealand as well.  So many places to go, so little time... I still want to go back to school September after next (2012 start date), and I really can't push that date back more than one year after that, or I'll be too damned old!  Fuck I hate being old enough that things like that actually become a concern - I can no longer think of having a child 'someday', because I have less than ten fertile years and even less that I'd actually want to start a family in, I really wouldn't want to become a mom after about 36 - so five years left?  Fuuuuuck.  And I want to start a business.  Hmmmm.  Purrhaps I'll leave the bakery until I'm old and grey, and I'll spend my years with my baby strapped to my chest (and the kitties following on leashes? hahaha) while I clamber all over mountains all over the world.  Who knows what time will bring.