Well here's something I thought I'd never say; life is sweet.

Obviously I'm a bit worried about everything going wrong but then I haven't transformed into a new person, I've just travelled to the other side of the world which happens to be something I always wanted to do.

So I arrived in Kangaroo Island the Saturday before last and I had in my mind that I wanted to stay on the island for a while. I found out there was Wwoofing here (Willing workers on organic farms), a scheme whereby you do half a days work in return for board and keep. Although I was a bit nervous about joining as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to be a wwoofer because I wasn't sure how physical the work would be.

I joined in Adelaide and received a book with all the addresses of farms and farm-like places who want wwoofers. As I was a bit ill, I put off phoning for a few days but when I felt better, I phoned people with cafes on their farms as I thought the work would be less physical and I'd be more able to cope with it. However when I got round to phoning, they either didn't need anyone or already had help and (as you might've picked up by now) I'm not very good at planning, I started to worry a little bit (actually I didn't really worry because I'm in this new happy-go-lucky frame of mind and I thought, well I haven't even called all the people on KI and I can always hang out at the youth hostel a bit longer until something comes up. Especially as the hostel guy was letting me stay for free in return for doing a bit of weeding.)

Anyway I wasn't having much luck but I saw an ad on the jobs noticeboard in the hostel. I didn't know what it was but I phoned up and the person I spoke to was really friendly and said the lady who looks after the garden was on holiday so it was really good timing (and lucky for me especially as she'd put the notice up months maybe years ago)... She said she just needed to sort a few things out and so I called her the next day (after being wowed by the website) and we arranged I'd go on Wednesday (last week). I love the freedom of going to a hostel and just phoning up about work and going off and doing it. I thought I'd never be able to do something like that but now I can and I love it. It's so cool because if it works out you can stay and if it doesn't then you can leave. No pressure, just freedom.

Rachel (cool lovely lady who runs the retreat and teaches yoga) met me in Kingscote (the main town on KI). There's no public transport on the island except a shuttle bus which runs once a day and links in with the ferry, so I had to get that. It was pretty cool because we had to make a detour to pick up and drop off post! I love things like that.

Rachel and I stocked up in Kingscote as the retreat is 45 minutes away from the town. Or pretty much anywhere for that matter... It did stress me out a little bit but that's only when I think about its remoteness. When I'm doing my jobs and sitting on the beach, I don't think about it. Rachel said there wasn't any food at the retreat but to me there were more vegetables and cheeses and meats and general food than I'd ever seen anywhere in my whole life except in a supermarket. They'd had a cancellation after they'd bought all the food so my first job was to start munching my way through it. :)

I then watered the garden (I've never done so much gardening in my whole life, oh yes, I've never actually done any gardening in my life) and settled into my new house - The Stone House. I'm really lucky because all the backpacker accommodation is being used for storage so I get to hang out in a cool house, where I can breakfast looking over the beach and wallabies are waiting for me when I get home (although I think I'm getting kicked out this week). Sometimes I take my dinner up there and then I watch a dvd and dance around the house to eighties music, of which, to my excitement there is an extensive collection. I never realised before how much difference a good stereo makes, thinking gold wires and such like were just for geeks but having a great stereo is awesome - although I hope I haven't deafened any wallabies.

So here I am. I can't believe I've been here nearly a week and I'm loving it. The retreat has been closed and pretty much everyone has been away except me so I've had chilled out days doing work such as cleaning snorkels, weeding, watering, washing and then hanging out on the beach in the afternoon.

Over the weekend I helped out at a gallery/cafe up the hill which was really cool especially as Kate, who runs the cafe, takes in injured animals. She has a baby wallaby who lives in a beanie in her bedroom and baby kangaroo who I bottle-fed and who comes into the gallery at night because she gets scared.

People are back tomorrow so I think it will be a bit more hectic but I'm liking the lifestyle. It's so exciting that I can actually do some work AND do other things in the afternoon/evening without being too tired (although having said that I did fall asleep on the beach this afternoon but I've been sleeping pretty-much like a normal person (almost)). I'm also learning new skills and liking the way that the work I do actually makes a difference (in a practical sense) -watering the garden or making the guy who's mowing the lawn lunch. These things are important, I'm helping to keep the retreat running and that makes me feel good (that and all the great music).