A very British parcel

A few months back I was emailed about the Us and Aus campaign, where I'd be paired with a blogger in the UK and we could send each other a parcel full of gifts. We were given a budget and told we'd be paired with a blogger at random and then would have a few weeks to shop and send the gifts. Now, there's a lot of UK bloggers so imagine my surprise when I was told I was paired with Catherine. I sent her a little list of things I missed from home and a few weeks later (thanks for the speedy service Aus post) my parcel arrived...

I lasted a whole ten seconds from finding the parcel to sprawling the contents across my bed. 

Inside I found a gorgeous piece of wrapping paper (used as a background) which I'm going to frame for our guest room,  some postcards, a key ring, some chocolate and some Cath Kidston goodies.

If you've not tried Oreo dairy milk or Charbonnel & Walker Champagne truffles before you've not lived. I am a major chocoholic but Cadbury's out here just isn't the same, and we can't get galaxy. 

I used to buy myself the truffles when I was celebrating something...you know like passing an exam, getting a new job, a birthday, fridays...

The two lifestyle brands I miss most from the UK are Cath Kidston & Jack Wills so I was really happy to unwrap these gifts. The makeup bag is the perfect size for when I go away to work. Lux also bought this gorgeous little business card holder, which is so much more practical than having them laying in the bottle of my handbag amongst the receipts like they did before.

I'm so happy I was involved in the campaign & it was such a great opportunity to send a friend something awesome in the mail (check out what I sent Catherine). Make sure you check out the Aus Travel Us and Aus map  which compares UK cities with their Australian counterparts.

What would your ideal gift from abroad be?

xo

This post has been written in collaboration with Aus travel, all views are my own.

A winter escape at pullman resort bunker bay

Last weekend we decided to jump in the car and head south for a winter escape at Pullman resort Bunker Bay. Nestled just outside Dunsborough (around 3 hours from Perth) on the edges of Bunker Bay's beach this 5 star resort offers one of the most luxurious stays in the Margaret River region. 

We checked in with the incredibly attentive and friendly staff then went to find our villa, we were allocated 412 which was right by the main resort, but still a stones throw to the beach.  The villas were beautiful and full of useful little extras such as an iPod dock and dishwasher. There's also a small hob and microwave, if you wish to cook.

A huge king size bed, ours was pretty firm, I'm not sure if they all are though- and of course that's a real personal preference.

The bathroom was incredible and featured a bath which I (at 5ft 10) could almost lay out in.

We then decided to take a wonder around the grounds and see just what the resort has to offer...

The large, heated infinity pool was an absolute winner for us and thanks to the rain we had it mainly to ourselves! 

 If you're into surfing, theres a small break to the far right of the bay.

Sadly the weather was against us all weekend, but it was obvious how beautiful the bay is in summer, I can totally imagine spending a long weekend here surfing, paddle boarding and sunbathing in the warmer months. 

That evening we head up to one of the resorts restaurants for dinner..

Which was beautiful, and again the staff were brilliant, so friendly and helpful- especially with my dietary requirements (just a heads up, theres only one vegetarian option in the main restaurant)! I went for a home made pizza, which was amazing, and Dan had the Turkish roll, again amazing. We had a few drinks and watched the fire roar before calling it a night.

After dinner we head back and I promptly took myself to the bathroom, a winter escape wouldn't be right without a long relaxing soak in the bath..

The staff had kindly left me some complimentary wine (and were sweet enough to swap the red for white when I jokingly said I'm more of a white wine girl) and a pamper box filled with body scrubs and masks, I'd also packed my favourite LUSH bath bomb (the comforter), which made for the perfect girls pamper night whilst Dan watched the formula one. I soaked until the water went cold and by the end I felt oh so relaxed. To top it off, I got to squish into a big king size bed and snooze till I woke up the next morning. 

It goes without saying that the first thing I did when I woke up was head straight to the pool, they also have a beautiful little 24 hour gym and had I packed my trainers I'd probably have squeezed in a pre-breakfast workout. After working up an appetite we head up for a buffet breakfast.

I haven't taken photos of the buffet because I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a buffet looks like. The buffet breakfast at Pullman resort bunker bay was great, a huge variety from a cooked breakfast, through to fruit salads, pancakes, muffins and meats and cheese. 

If you're headed to Pullman Resort Bunker Bay I would totally recommend booking a trip to their Vie day spa, there's a huge array of treatments available but don't be silly like me- make sure you book well in advance! 

We had an incredible stay at Bunker Bay and can't wait to head back in summer to laze about on the beach all day. We paid the usual rate for our room, however were given complimentary breakfast and I was gifted my pamper package also. 

xo

This post has been written in collaboration with sets on the Pullman resort, all views are my own.

What's it really like moving to Australia?

I remember when we were planning to move to Australia I spent days scouring the internet for some honest blogs about what its really like moving from the UK to Australia, there weren't many so I thought now that we've been here 10 months I'd write my own.

Firstly, the whole process of moving to Australia is incredibly different for everyone and will vary massively depending on what visa you come on, if you have friends / family here already, where you move to..and so on and so forth. 

The weather. 

I guess the most obvious different between the UK and Perth (where we live) is the weather. Apart from a few weeks of the year Perth is generally hot, sunny and clear skied. However, Perth gets cold  in Winter, not quite as cold as England however, once you've had a Perth summer of 30 degrees plus for months straight, 10 degrees suddenly feels a lot colder. And add to the acclimatisation the fact that Perth homes are all single glazed, rarely have heating or double glazing. Thank goodness the blankets are only out for a short amount of time. I'm hoping it's pretty obvious that for the rest of the year it's warm, warmer, hot and painfully hot, this summer was 'cold' but we still experienced a day of 45c which was way too hot to get anything done in.

Houses & Rent.

Note :  houses. A massive percentage of homes, out of the city centres, are houses. Most houses are open plan, and alongside having bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas have activity rooms, cinema rooms and games rooms. It seems to be totally normal for a young couple to live in a 4 bedroom house out here, especially as first time buyers. Another little quirk is the lack of gardens, as block sizes are getting smaller (err hey australia, you're not running out of land any time soon) the houses are getting bigger, and the gardens are getting smaller. Oh and before you ask, no not everyone has a pool.

Work & Wages.

Ahh the Australian dream, hardly work and spend the rest of your time frolicking on the beach and messing around on boats. What a glorious misconception. Sadly the average Joe works just as much as they would back in the UK, if not more. A usual working week is 40 hours 8:30-4:30. Obviously a lot of non-desk jobs work a lot more, just like anywhere else in the world. Sadly it's not until you're cashed up (or the super savvy self employed type) that you get heaps of time off to play outside.

Wages are generally higher out here, and the cost of living is only slightly higher than the UK. For example, Dan and I both earn roughly the same as what we earnt in the UK in similar job roles. If you're clever money can go a lot further in Australia, however just like anywhere in the world you can blow your wages as quickly as you earn them. 

Finding a job in Australia is about as hard as in the UK, and most recruitment happens online. We were both extremely lucky to have landed good jobs within  a month of arriving in Australia, but we were both very motivated and determined to start work ASAP. I know of a few people who have really struggled to find non-professional roles in Australia.

Alcohol is expensive.

And by expensive I mean about on-par with London, expect to pay $10 for a pint of beer or cider in an average pub around the same for a glass of house wine or spirit and mixer. There is a distinct lack of good cider in Australia, although if you like the filthy sweet imports you'll be fine. 

Making friends. 

Making friends as a grown up is hard, like really hard. I am lucky enough to have met a few girls in Australia who are bloody brilliant and I owe a lot of that to the blogging community out here (which is awesome FYI). There are a lot of Facebook groups great for meeting other people in Perth, specifically 'Poms in Perth' which is a huge Facebook group for UK expats.  We've both been lucky enough to meet some awesome guys through work, which makes life so much easier too.

Leaving friends and family behind.

I guess the hardest part about making such a big move is leaving people (and dogs) behind. We put a lot of effort into setting up a more personal blog for friends and family to try and keep everyone up to date, but it would only get around 5 hits a week. We were promised Skype phone calls, texts, Facebook and whatsapp messages galore, but dyou know what? Hardly anyone stays in touch and thats hands down the worst thing about moving half way around the world. We have worked really hard with sending back birthday and christmas presents, and even sent a suitcase full of gifts back with mumma-bee but have only had thankyous from one person! Those who are, in my opinion, most guilty of not staying in touch are those who have access to the internet, have us added on social media and are themselves active on social media. I'm not naming names or pointing fingers, but my half blind nan somehow finds the time and effort to write a letter and get someone to take it to the post office for her each month. And a family member who juggles three kids, a full time high flying job and a crazy dog, manages to Skype us once a month (even to just leave a video message) and text us little bits of news...yet we have friends and family who haven't done as much as ask how we're settling in. How shit is that? 

But of course, we could spend our time trying to cling onto these relationships, but there's only two of us and there's plenty of friends and family. Thankfully, we both have a handful of amazing people in our lives (and each other, aww) who do stay in touch, who drop us the odd 'hows everything going?' on Facebook, or I'll get tweets from my Bournemouth blogging babes saying I'm missed ( I love you ladies!) and they're the best friends. What's hardest to stomach is they're not always the people you expect! 

I hope that's given you a little insight in to what it's really like living here in Australia, if you're hoping to move to Australia and would like more advice etc. feel free to email me :)

Have and of my readers moved far from home? Was it what you expected?

x