Coming to the end of the road

Today is a fine day. I woke up this morning, had a bowl of Special K (the chocolate kind, to feed my addiction) and then proceeded to ram my garish purple bike into the back seat of Matt's car. For the past 3 weeks I have been temping at Greyhound Australia - a bus company - in their charters department. This means taking inbound calls, following up on requests for quotes, data-entry, etc. For me to get to work by 8:30 am, I have to wake up at 6, be out the door by 6:55, catch a ferry across the Brisbane River to get to Riverside Pier - then catch the CityCat at 7:18 for a 1/2 hour trip down the river to Brett's wharf. I then get off the CityCat and bike for 4 km to get to 595 Curtin Avenue in Eagle Farm where Greyhound is located. On top of my daily 3 hour commute to and from work, I also took a paycut! This should give you a clear indication of how badly I needed to get away from Pareto! Greyhound has its perks though! This weekend, they're lending me the Platinum Key to the Australia Zoo, so Matt and I get free entry and other such goodies. Also, Eric (my manager) is getting me 5000 km worth of Greyhound travel vouchers for my trip up to Cairns. I'm even going to do the 10 km Bridge to Brisbane charity marathon with the Charters Team, so am amped up for that on the 29th of August! On September 1st, I move out of my apartment in Kangaroo Point and into Matt's place in Cleveland. I will spend the month of September out there and then I'll fly to Sydney on the 1st of October to stay for 1 week before my flight back to Canada on the 7th! Time seems to be rushing past now, and every time I realize I'm leaving this beautiful place I've called home for almost a year, I am filled with a mingled sense of fear, sadness and longing. Fear of what's to come, sadness for what I'm leaving behind, and longing - for all the things I've had and will have to go without. On a lighter note, to finish off my adventure, I'm planning a trip to Cairns on the 2nd week in September. I will be doing a 5 day scuba trip, a tandem sky dive at 14000 feet, a bungee jump, white water rafting and a day trip out to the reef. I'll also be doing a trip on the skyrail up to a small village in the Daintree rainforest and possibly a two day camp up to the more northern parts of Cairns. It will be an amazing 2 weeks, and will be a perfect ending to an amazing year. Matt and I have long-term, solid plans for our relationship. We are going to do the whole long-distance thing, which is hard, but (in my opinion) well worth the effort. I am head over heels for him, and look forward to the life we will have together in Canada which will hopefully commence in February. I just think, if my grandparents could live apart for 2 years during the war, sending letters back and forth the entire time, then there's no reason we can't manage four months with the plethora of communication mediums we have available to us. Anyways, should get going as I have an 8 km bike ride ahead of me and want to get home before it gets dark. All my love to all my followers. xxxx Claire