So folks, in my last blog I left you dozing off on the beach in Chile. Well wake up! I have quite an adventure to tell you about...
Now, I mentioned that my video application for the best job in the world was shown on GMTV. What I didn't tell you (because it was confidential information) is that I also received an email from Queensland Tourism telling me that I as being considered for the short list! Amazing (but not that surprising really - I mean, I am pretty short).
I now needed to take two psychometric tests to continue my application - not exactly the way I had envisaged spending my first day at the beach, but I was buzzing so much that I ran straight down to the nearest internet cafe, downed a Red Bull (there you go Red Bull girls - a bit of free advertising for you) and took the tests.
A couple of days later, I decided to travel up to Ecuador. I kissed Clare (the English girl I met in Oruro) goodbye and trundled to the bus stop alone. It was going to be a long journey (about 50 hours of buses on total), so I broke up my voyage with a dune buggy and sand boarding expedition on the sand dunes of Ica, Peru. Amazing fun - next time any of you decide to go snowboarding, count me in.
After a 17 hour bus ride to Lima spent cramming Spanish grammar, I had an hour to kill before submitting myself to another 17 hour journey to Piura, and popped into an internet cafe to pass the time. As I sat down I noticed the time: 18.59pm. At 5 hours behnd the UK, that made it 23.59 GMT - the exact time that the fina short list for the best job in the world was announced!
Eagerly, I surfed to the website (which took about 5 mins) and loaded the page (another 5 mins). The short list had been finalised, but the internet couldn't handle the stress and displayed just 50 boxes with red crosses in place of the pictures. I scanned through them, searching for a video from the UK and there it was; the only UK entry in the short list, looking back at me, taunting me to click. I pressed on the link and 3 mins later the video popped up.
It wasn't mine.
Not willing to accept failure quite so readily, I opened up my emails, desperate to find a little email from Queensland Tourism telling me to ignore the Peruvian internet.
Nothing.
It was 19.12 now... I had to acknowledge my fate. Yes, I had been considered for the short list, but not everyone could make it, and maybe the psychometric tests had revealed some psychotic behavioural traits in my personality...! Either way, I had to remind myself that I was just about to get on a bus to Ecuador - I was still a very lucky girl with everything to be happy for.
Disappointment subsiding, I began to close down the internet pages, when... there it was... a little girl, jumping for joy on a beach. But this wasn't any little girl. No, this was a very familiar little girl - it was me! Sarah Louise, United Kingdom.
How was this happening? Was it a mistake? A fault with the system that happened to load up my video from a database of 34,000 and display it in front of me in a cruel, freakish coincidence?
I couldn't wait for the answer... damn this slow internet! I clicked furiously at the tab for my hotmail account and eventually it gave way to my will and opened. There, at the top of the list in bold, unread writing were the words, those words, those beautiful words:
'Is this the email you've been waiting for...?'
Damn right it was! It's true! I've made it! I, Sarah Louise Lane of London, United Kingdom, have made it to the final 50 short list for the best job in the whole wide world! Life is amazing...
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