The last month, the last couple days, and finally, the flight(s)!

4 July

Heyyy how are we going? Apologies for the delay between first and second posts… I intended to give a lil update each week or so to see how I was going in the leadup to take off, but unfortunately life got in the way as it does. I thought I’d give a bit of a rundown of the last couple of weeks, what I’ve been up to, and catch you all up!

I’m also going to start putting together a gallery for each post so you can envision what I’m talking about a bit better. Enjoy!

Also this is absolutely bonkers, I am literally writing this at gate 53 of terminal 1 at Perth Airport. It’s officially Wednesday 3rd of July as of 2 minutes ago. Yes, I am deliriously tired and yes, I am completely emotionally drained, but still happy to be here. I thought if there was going to be a good chance to say goodbye to Perth for a while this would be it.

I had a little read through the previous post to see how I was feeling and yeah… not a very light start to the adventure was it? Keeping MIA honest and raw is so important to me, that although I would’ve loved to have begun with some serotonin, that unfortunately just wasn’t what I was feeling at the time.

Anyway, into my super speedy recap- I’ve got a flight to catch in 2 hrs after all.

When I think about the past month, it feels like I wrote the first piece 3 months ago and yesterday all at the same time. So much has happened, yet all I’ve really done is packed 2 suitcases and continuously freaked out.

A big highlight of the last month was actually not in Perth at all- after realising I wouldn’t be able to attend one of my best friend’s 21sts (unacceptable of course) we decided to shuffle work around and go down south to Margaret River for 3 nights. A little wintery getaway. This was exactly what I needed. And let me tell you, we had an absolute blast. Honestly the town is probably still recovering from our antics.

Lani picked me up on Tuesday the 18th of June at around 8:30am. Known for our absolutely elite side quests, it was only natural our first activity was going to my rabies vaccine appointment- riveting stuff. As to why I need a rabies vaccine, all shall be revealed in good time 😉

Heading south from there, we grabbed some brekkie and hit the road. The queue included a wonderful range of Abba, Dolly Parton, Fleetwood Mac, Lime Cordiale and Little Mix to keep us entertained. Honestly I think my Olivier-worthy performance of ‘Voulez-Vous’ was the whole reason we made it to Busselton in record time. A walk across the foreshore was compulsory, and though the wind was whipping us around, the sun was out and everyone was out and about. It was simply divine!

Continuing, we stopped in at one of Lani’s favourite spots in the area, Dunsborough. Ee spent some time wondering through boutiques, trying on dresses way too expensive to be breathing over, and grabbing a coffee. I would say all the dresses were way too expensive, however we did spot a gorgeous A-line lilac midi dress with the sweetest lace detailing. I simply couldn’t resist. To be fair, I don’t have anything similar, and it was on an amazing clearance. With the amount I worked the next week (more on that later) it paid for itself very quickly. We finished up our Dunsborough stop with an obligatory Coles & BWS shopping trip, which resulted in finding our new drink of choice- pre-mixed limoncello (yes, it is truly incredible).

Upon departing Dunsborough, we carried onto Margaret River, arriving in the late afternoon to our Airbnb. I was quite apprehensive about our Airbnb, as I had booked it impulsively one random Sunday afternoon. If it was shit, it was completely my fault. Luckily for me it was in an absolutely stunning location. Perched on the side of a small valley we had lovely hill views, lots of kangaroos, and a mist which settled around 6pm that evening. To both of our surprise, it turned out we wouldn’t actually have the whole place to ourselves- we would be staying with Ross, the owner of the property, and 2 Indonesian backpackers who worked in town. Fortunately, Ross turned out to be an absolute legend and we had some great chats over the coming days. We had a quite night in that night with a yummy charcuterie board.

Unfortunately the drive down and settling into a foreign area sent me into a bit of a panic… it was the first preview to what life would be like for the rest of the year, and it was very foreign. And very scary. All I wanted was the comfort of home. And whilst I had the reassurance I would, in fact, be home by the end of that week, it was the dread of knowing such reassurance wouldn’t be available in the UK. Of course Lani knew something was wrong. We ended up having a really great conversation over dinner, for most of which I was a blubbering mess. Although not pleasant in the moment, getting those emotions out and letting myself feel them was so helpful. I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the rest of the trip as much as I did if I had tried to conceal how I was feeling. And that wouldn’t have been fair to Lani or I. Being able to vent and ramble about what was going on in my head lifted a load off my shoulders I didn’t know I was holding.

It was a pretty early night that night, although we did discover a new obsession with watching Italian dudes on TikTok tier-ranking types of pasta. Who knew?

The next day, we got up nice and early at 7am and set off to Boranup Forest, easily my favourite spot in WA. After taking a while to find the start of the unmarked walk I had found on AllTrails, we began a beautifully peaceful walk through the engulfing trunks. We didn’t see another soul, and though we did get confused a few times on where the trail was headed, it was the perfect start to the day. When I go back down south it’ll be the first thing I do again. Only around 5km and mostly flat, it was perfect for me who stupidly forgot their hiking boots.

After a lovely start to the day we headed back to Ross’s for some brekky (coffee) and then headed into town for some explorations. Side note, everyone needs to go road tripping with Lani at least once in their lives; SHE BRINGS A WHOLE ASS COFFEE MACHINE WITH HER. And milk frother. Not joking, darling is a massive coffee snob. And I’m not being mean, the title is self-proclaimed. As much as I would be happy with an instant coffee iced latte, it did feel amazing to have this beautiful coffee lovingly prepared by bestie each morning- thanks love! Taking our coffees with us into town we stopped at Priceline (of course) for Lani to sample a variety of perfumes. If there’s 2 things that woman KNOWS, it’s coffee and perfume. None were up to her standards unfortunately, so we continued down past some of the cutest boutiques I’ve been to. A beautiful iridescent claw clip was too good to pass up for Lani, she even got one for her mum, and I was saved from spending may too much on a pair of sunnies. They were cute though. I also needed to grab a postcard- need to start building the souvenir collection after all.

No trip down south is complete without lunch at Swings and Roundabouts, so we stopped their for a leisurely lunch of delectable woodfired pizzas, olives, and lemon lime bitters. The weather held out for us as we ate outside enjoying the views and catching up. Needing a scenic drive for the way back we detoured to Gabriel’s Chocolate and Simmo’s Creamery to sample some desserts before arriving back to chat with Ross. The perfect way to end a long was of course with Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s never a catchup with Lani and Lauren without Pirates of the Caribbean. Simply not allowed.

Our second and last full day in the region was booked and busy- wine tour day! Leaving from near the town’s central post office, we were greeted by our wonderful tour guide, who, to my delight, graced us with a Scottish accent. We knew we were in for a good time when the 4 couples also on the tour were all on honeymoons- getting millennials drunk had just become the mission of the day. Although we began the day not massive wine enthusiasts, we loved visiting some of the smaller wineries in the area neither of us had been to before. This included stops at Brown Hill Estate, Jarvis Estate, CBCo, and Bettenays. I would highly recommend the tour, we booked it through Viator, it’s called ‘Margaret River Wine Tour: The Full Bottle’. We got along so well with the other couples. If we weren’t heading home the next day I wouldn’t be surprised if we made plans to see them again. Although the tour only finished around 5pm, we made sure to keep the evening free, which ended up being a great idea. After getting back to Ross’s, all we wanted to do was shower, eat and watch more Pirates of the Caribbean (duh).

The next day we knew we wanted to get going relatively early, and stopped briefly at Geographe Bay, which we both knew to be a lovely spot. Unfortunately, the karma bus hit us head-on. The carpark was being upgraded, sand transported, sideways rain and piercing winds. But we had already decided to go for a beach walk, and nothing would dare hinder this endeavour. Walking hinged forward to cover any ground at all, we could only giggle at the idiocy of the situation. We were windswept back into the car and required a hot coffee before any further driving could continue. Making a bee-line for Perth, we blasted ‘Touch’ by Little Mix on multiple occasions- this song I would argue became the anthem for the trip. And what a bop and a half.

And because I can’t possibly give myself an evening to chill by myself, I stopped off at the local shops before heading home, saying bye to Lani, unpacking my bags and getting started on dinner. I was hosting! Tayla and Jess would be over any minute and I had a chef reputation to live up to. Luckily, everything ran smoothly, and by 6pm, everything was good to go. I was so excited to have Tayla and Jess over. We’re great friends from uni, a truly iconic trio. I introduce those girls to my family and other friends as ‘Lauren re-incarnated’. They’re literally Lauren 2.0 and Lauren 3.0. How we’re on the same wavelength on absolutely everything is just wild to me. I knew we would have fun and have fun we did. After a scrumptious entrée provided by Jess and Tayla, we got stuck into the pasta. We learned about Tayla’s co-dependence on copious amounts of salt, and Jess’s appropriate musical education of her nephew (he loves Brat). We finished the night off with a sing along, a chat, Tayla trying on my cowboy boots, and some yummy chocolate pudding, it was time to call it a night.

I was going to go into more about the next week of work, but I honestly can’t be bothered. Basically, it was stocktake, so fulltime for a week to get everything done. Nothing riveting, but great for the bank account 😉. Moving right along…

Other than my southern adventures, Saturday 29th of June 2024 will go down in herstory as one of the most fun nights I’ve had ever. I mean, Lauren throws a disco-themed going away party. Of course it’s gonna slap. And slap it did. I felt so cute in my lil pink dress, and Danica even drove up early during day so we could catchup properly before the grooves got properly underway. It was so amazing to have all my closest friends over for a lil boogie and properly say goodbye. I feel like I have so many tiny groups of friends. A couple people from uni, those I still catchup with from work, people I know from dancing, friends from school etc, so it was so cool to finally have all these people meet each other. I hope everyone got along! The highlight of the night has to be convincing Mum to do a tequila shot with me. She told me she’d never done a shot before, I truly don’t know how, but I made her promise me we’d do at least one shot together. Turns out I created a monster… she loved it! We did have lime after which I reckon helped, but every time I came back into the kitchen I’d find another poor soul she’d roped into doing another shot with. Proud daughter moment definitely.

Waking up only slightly hungover on Sunday was a very surreal feeling. I’d had it in my head that the party was kind of the last thing to do/organise before I leave. So it was crazy to think I had nothing left to do except leave. Sunday morning was lovely, we had a cooked breakfast and took the day slowly. In the afternoon we took Danica to the footy (her first game ever!) which, although it was probably the worst game we’d ever watched, it was heaps of fun to get to take her. She even managed to get a seat with us last minute, so all the stars aligned for that one.

Skipping to Monday and Tuesday, those days truly went by in a blur. It was a flurry of ticking off to-do lists, organising packing, buying some last minute things, and trying not to think about how many nights I had left in my own bed. I remember having a quiet moment to myself just sitting on my bed, both suitcases and backpack at the door ready to go. I tried to calm myself, let myself feel the emotions I needed to feel, and allow the excitement to overtake my fear. Of course I cried a lot, I had been keeping it in the last couple of days and just letting it all out was so cathartic. I wasn’t even that sad, it just felt really good and necessary to let out that final apprehension before I get the travel zoomies.

The drive to the airport was actually really chill, I played Folklore in the car (the soundtrack to my soul I had to) which calmed me down heaps, and although a bus driver at the airport yelled at us for pulling into the wrong spot (not fun) it was a good drive. I made sure to say goodbye to Mum and make her leave pretty much right as we got out of the car. I knew for a fact I would be a puddle on the floor if she came into the airport with us, so it was good to just get right through security without hesitating too much.

So pretty much that’s where we’re at. I’m about to board the plane to Kuala Lumpur, its 11pm right now so apologies if the coherence of this update has gone downhill, I need sleep! I’m hoping to keep updated with daily pieces, if not every couple of days, depending on what kind of reception we’re working with.

I’m so excited to get exploring, walking around and taking lots of pretty pictures. I can’t believe this article is the start of the next 7 months of fun!