Current Mood: Tired & Cool

… my baby beside me at the wheel.  Well sometimes anyway!  We’re heading down the Great Ocean Road at the moment in our hired Subaru Outback (Blue, 4WD, Steering Wheel and a big boot!).  Having some really great times on a shoe string budget as we are trying to save as much money as possible before we head over to Perth and the west coast. 

We headed out of Melbourne serenaded by the horns of irate locals, pissed at the tourists swinging u-turns in the middle of busy city streets, trying desperately hard to negotiate the many one-way streets and other hazards (like trams) in order to get ourselves out of the hustle and bustle to the quieter outskirts.  These aussies haven’t really got the whole moterway thing down yet, the highways are like short dual-carriage ways that are badly signposted and held up by a the numerous traffic lighted crossroads!  Grrrr… 

First stop was Philip Island and after a short detour out to the east when we should of been going south (I swear the girls were holding the map the wrong way) we eventually got to the island.  This was so ‘quaint’ I guess, with loads of little houses dotted down tree strewn roads intersected by the odd shop or cafe.  We stayed at the YHA on Phillip Island which was like your grandmas house, with flower power wallpaper, clashing carpet and beige!  Yum…  A couple of nights here was easily enough, but the island did have its quirky charms and tourist spots – the first of these being the ‘World Famous Penguin Parade’ which is a natural attraction where you pay $17 to sit on the beach and watch these cute little tikes make their way up the beach.  Weird to see Penguins on the sand rather than ice, but these aren’t ordinary penguins, no no no…  These are the Philip Island Little Penguins, stanging a measly 30cm tall, they are small in stature but big in heart.

We were there in chick season so every single day one of the parents wanders out into the ocean before dawn to go fishing all day.  They swim about and catch little tiny fish, swallowing them so they can regurgitate them later for their chicks (nice eh!) and then just before dusk they all meet up in their hundrends (a kinda penguin posse if you like) so they are safe from predators in the water just off the coast.  Around 9pm every night (yes, they must have watches!) the first little brave penguin (the Fonze of the group), ventures up onto the sands to check the coast is clear.  Apart from the 3500 people sitting on stands and a stadium it is, so he signals to the other dudes that they can come on shore.  So in groups of between 10 and 20 they all emerge from the ocean (you do get the occasional loner, who you can’t help but will on – go little fella) and wander up past you to their dens…  So after about an hour and 1500 little tiny waddlers making their way over the sands you get up and follow them with the aid of boardwalks up the dunes to their man made dens.  You got to feel sorry for the ones that have been given the dens at the top – it’s miles in human strides!  But they do it – will power!!! 

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So apart from that I had to do a man thing, spending three months solely in the company of women can drive a man to distraction, so I took them to Philip Island Circuit where they do the Moto GP and World Superbikes - you probably won’t find this very interesting though, so I’ll skip it (the circuit is lovely though with flowing bends and spectacular vistas!) and just say the oil in the museum smelt good.

After Philip Island we headed down the Great Ocean Road to a place called Lorne, a really lovely seaside town, for a couple of nights – the highlight here being the boogy boards and the trampoling!  So much fun…

I’ll put more about the Great Ocean Road when we get to either the Grampians or Adelaide.  But so far it has been excellent fun.  Stay in contact and mail me! 

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Current Mood: Cool

Emma and I have been to see one of the best shows I have seen in ages, not that I frequently attend the theatre, but I needed to emphasize how much I enjoyed this show.

We arrived at the theatre and took our seats in row ‘R’, so not next to the stage, but not too far away to see either.  The lights lowered and the little dude in the seat next to us adjusted to see over the mammoth head that had just sat down in the chair in front of him.  On stage came a few child monks running around and doing somersaults, backflips and then, most impressively flips using just their heads first forwards and then backwards.

Then it was the turn of the adults and in amongst a lot of “Hai Yaa’s” and other Bruce Lee noises they dazzled us with their flexability, will power, concentration and combinations of kick’s and punches that Van Damme could only dream of.  These guys could make mince meat out of anyone!

Some of the things they did had the audience looking away and letting out little yelps of “don’t do that, you’ll die”.  Firstly a guy chopped mangos and melons using a meat cleaver against his stomach, then another one laid back on some swords with a bed of nails on his stomach while another bloke laid on the reverse side bed of nails and then they had a breeze block broken against their stomachs!  The only mark – a few tiny cuts on the bottom guys back where he was on the swords…  Next up was breaking Iron bars on their heads, these were checked first by any audience members that wanted to – freakin’ crazy.  BUT…  When the guy was supported up on 5 spears (one on each leg, each arm and then one against his stomach) and another one did a handstand on two fingers – that was the highlight – and I so really recommend going to see them.

So after a wee bit of disapointment in St.Kilda, what has the city offered us in terms of places to go and people to see?!

Well in all honesty, not really a great deal – comparatively speaking (didn’t spell that right, did I) Sydney is Australias London, with the Opera House like Parliment and Sydney Harbour Bridge like London Bridge etc. You know that there are plenty of sights for the tourist to gawp at, chat about and snap up… Now if I compare Melbourne to anywhere in England it would have to be Merseyside – they are both home to businesses, both are near the coast, both have large shopping malls and both are home to cheesy soaps. But, unlike Brooky, I used to watch and love Neighbours, until they lost the stas like Beth and Brad – then it all went a little silly.

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But, dig a little deeper and below the surface you will find little gems that make parts of Melbourne really enjoyable. Em and I spent a day of total wandering yesterday, starting off with an hour and a half webcam chat to the folks – really cool to see them again, moving around and larking about, obviously having enjoyed a few glasses of wine between them. My dog (bless ‘im) is looking well, bigger and full of the joys of winter – no matter what the weather is like there – shame there was no mic at the internet place, else I’d of really confused him.

Then it was onto the gym in St.Kilda which I loved, costing $25 for a months membership – that’s 10 quid!!

Walking out of the gym we were greeted by a glorious day of total deep blue sky, so we stopped off at the botanical gardens where we picked up a real cuppa tea, tea leaves and all, tried to read those left in the bottom – which jus told me not to shake the tea strainer in the future.

After a long walk around the gardens where the stereotype of the chinese constantly taking photosproved strangely true! We made our way along the yarra river to the Olympic Park where we met up with a lovely fence barring our entrance to anywhere decent. Next stop Melbourne Open where we enquired about tickets to see Murray vs Nadal – All sold out and a massive queue of punters who were prepared to kill in order to secure a cancellation ticket.

Moving on we trekked into the city to pick up our tickets for “Shaolin Monks – Legends of Kung-Fu” at one of the theatres and headed back to the hostel where I cooked yet another diamond Barbeque! Yum Yum…

Current Mood: Esctatic & Flirtatious

Ello everybody, Paul and I have today stuck a load more pictures up going all the way back to Sydney – including such fun as the Minus 5 Bar, Pauls Birthday and much much more!!  Enjoy…

Why do Australians wear cork hats?  I’ll tell you, because of the fecking flies!!!  You walk out onto the street hear in Melbourne and you end up covered in the things, always wiping your face or flicking your hat around – Lucy has been likened to someone with Tourrettes, letting out small but loud torrents of unrepeatable obsenities (well we all are, but Luce is the loudest :-) ).

So far I haven’t been overly impressed with Melbourne’s St.Kilda, our quick glimpse at the beach was filled with images of condoms, broken glass, fag butts and washing machines??  Weird place!

Still tomorrow we are heading inland to the CBD of Melbourne, already had a couple of days there and really like it – so much to do and see with the diverse range of cafe’s, bars and restaurants being complimented by the shops, street sellers and beggers.

We had our first real night out the other day when we went to ‘Neighbours Night’ at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow Pub.  Where we got to meet Toadie, Paul Robinson and some woman whom I’d never heard of – Janelle Timmons?  Really good night out and even though my preconception was they were going to be a bunch of assholes they actually turned out alright – Toadie was the joker of the bunch and was constantly getting asked why he was so fat…  He even had t-shirts printed up with his reply on them, autographed and ready to make the organisers even more money when people snatched them up.

We all got our pictures taken with them and then returned to drinking our Magners – how nice it was to drink something truly English…  Although it was quite expensive!!  Still I have another kidney, so I won’t miss the other one.

Right, time to go and pack up the backpack ready for the early move.  Wahoo – we’re outta here!  I’ll post more about Melbourne and stick some pictures on when I get somewhere a little better!

Current Mood: Mischievous & Playful

Canberra…  But it really shouldn’t be, this place is duller than a labour party broadcast!  We arrived here fresh from our adventures in Sydney yesterday, but have already booked our ticket out of here for tomorrow.

So, I’ll say a little bit about Sydney – when I arrived there I was a little bit underwhelmed with the place, it was like a hot London in my eyes with nothing really to do!  But…  Stay a few days in this city and you begin to get your bearings, you start to see the things you missed when you walk around lost – its like a giant onion, you peel back each layer you get something fresh and new.

For my birthday, Emma really went all out with arranging the day for me.  It was definately a surprise as I had lost track of which day it actually was, so when I was woken at 8 in the morning by my Mum calling me to be the first to wish me happy birthday I was a little taken aback!  Em didn’t waste anytime when she saw my eyes were awake and while still half asleep I opened cards that she had been carrying with her ever since we left England.

Then it was time for my presents and I got some clip-on Koalas and a Kangaroo skin bookmark from Scatt, Smellies and a pedometer from Lucy and then a shit load of stuff from Emma.  Firstly I got smellies again (they’re telling me something!), then I had a postcard of my favourite image and a programme from an exhibition we went to, then I got a ticket to see ‘Open Season 3D’ at the IMAX in Darling Harbour which reports to be the biggest cinema screen in the world at 6 storeys high.  Well as you can imagine I was well chuffed, but even more so when she gave me a card with a confirmation that we were going to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb the next day! 

The IMAX was incredible and if anyone gets a chance to pay a visit to the screen in London then do it.  It’s way better than the normal screens, especially if the showing is in 3D.  Open Season the film is only so so, but the trailers for the other things made you jump, dodge out the way and make stupid little noises even though your brain knows its still only 2D and your just wearing a massive set of glasses.  The girls decided that they would never ever watch a horror in one of these screens as you would probably soil yourself.

Now onto the Bridge Climb and something we had chatted about the whole time we were in Sydney, but decided against it because of the cost – well, Em paid for me so I didn’t have to worry at all ;).  We trekked over to the office where we signed in and then waited in a little room with 10 other ‘climbers’ – Em and I discussed how fit the people that take you up and over the bridge must be and decided that their physique would be somewhere between Matthew McConaughey and Harrison Ford (in his Indy Jones days!) – were we surprised when ‘Cliff’ walked in, a dude so round that he had to wear a plane seat belt around his middle to tell himself which of him was his upper body and which was his lower body.  Then he opened his mouth, he would of seriously made Julian Clary sound like he was as butch as Arnie – “Well hello there climbers, and welcome to the wonderful Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb!!!” – Emma and I wet ourselves!

After he came over and gave us all a breathe test (checking for Alcohol, not halitosis) he sized us all up and handed us our Jump Suits – nice Grey and Blue numbers with the zip at the back.  Then we met our ’handler’ Tony - who actually was the size we thought they would be.  A quick run through of how the harness will work and a quick scenario where we climbed a pretend ladder and we were out on the bridge.

Walking out onto the catwalk was all well and good, it was when we went out over George street and up the first few ladders when I started to really enjoy it – the sense of scale is immense and a smile was raised quicker than a Lee Evans sketch.  We procedded along many gangways, walkways and ladders until we reached the base of the actual curve in the Bridge.  One of the ladies was getting a little nervous, so after a brief wait for her to catch her nerve we carried on up.  The skyline of Sydney was amazing and we kept stopping on the way up so that we could really appreciate it.  Tony took a few snaps of us and then we were in the middle of the bridge – here we learned that before they had video cameras up here a bunch of kids had climbed the bridge – with a shopping trolley – and left it smack bang in the middle of the arch (fair play I say!). 

So we made our way down and back into the office where we took off the Tom Jones jump suit and made our way to the photo desk, this was a bit of a mistake as they somehow convince you that all 4 photos are amazing and you should buy them all – which we did.  Oops, bank balance!

Anyway, that was my Birthday and the highlight for me of Sydney – thanks for the emails and comments they are all appreciated.  Keep em coming :) 

Current Mood: Esctatic

Just a thank you really to those people that emailed to wish me ‘Happy Birthday’ or send me cards or texts.  So that is – Mum/Dad, Trick, Charlie, Lizzie, Suzanne and Paul, Mandy and Roger, James, Abbie, Barbara, Tina and Louise & Louise!.  They were all a really nice surprise and I can’t believe you all remembered! 

Thanks a lot and I’ll fill you all in with what I’ve done for it soon…  Cheers all!!! :D

Current Mood: Tired

Well actually it gets down to minus 15 degrees, but that’s where we went last night with a few friends of ours from Horsham who we met up with here in Sydney.

Em and I went out on our own yesterday to have a chilled day doing nothing apart from relaxing and meeting a friend of ours (Laurie) from Horsham.  We met her at one of Sydneys big outdoor screens where the Cricket is being shown and after a catch up drink and a chat we decided that last night we would go to Minus 5 – this is a bar where everything is made of ice, including the bar, glasses, walls, seats, tables etc etc… 

We met them at 8pm and went into Minus 5, really nice place where you get 30 minutes to chill (literally) in this bar.  Any longer and I imagine you would get uncomfortable as even with gloves my hands started to go numb at the end.  It’s part of a bar called Lenin’s which is a vodka bar, so the choice of drinks you get in Minus5 all revolve around vodka – I had something called a Frostbite and then one called a Husky – which after drinking it I can see why, it was made of Absolut Pepper Vodka, Absolut Lychee Vodka, Ginger, Lemon and a load of other bits and bobs – it certainly warmed the pallet!

After leaving the bar we decided that Karioke would be a good idea so hit a place called RedBox – with 14 People we got our own room and for two hours blurted out such songs as “Hotel California”, “All That She Wants” and “Delilah”!.  A good crack indeed…

At 2:30am this morning we said goodbye to Loz, Big Ginge, Nat and Becs to make our way back to the hostel – the girls were visiting the Blue Mountains today so hopefully they aren’t too tired.  We may catch up with them again in Melbourne, but for now it’s just time to chill and conserve pennies.

Current Mood: Esctatic & Tired

We’re here in Sydney and apart from having to sell a major organ everytime that we have something to eat, or partake in an excursion it’s been alright.  The weather has cooled off dramatically since we came down from Cairns and I’m even going to have to buy a jumper and Jeans to keep myself warm in the evenings – shock horror!!!

Our hotel is really nice but a little way out of the hustle and bustle of City Central so we are relying on buses and taxis for us to move around.  Sydney is unlike London in terms of ease of moving around, buses are annoyingly infrequent and then you have no idea where they are heading but jump on anyway.  Taxi drivers are hard to flag down even when they are empty and displaying the ‘catch me’ light, then when you catch them they have no idea whatsoever of where you want to go!  But – hey, who cares!  We’re in Sydney and its cool (weather wise!)

For New Year we were booked onto a boat called the Jerry Bailey, with 9 of us it was going to be a good laugh – then we got told about the dress code, Scatt was not aware that there was one, until she checked the confirmation – then we were told it was cocktail dress!  So my cropped jeans, T-Shirt and trainers weren’t going to cut the mustard.  Blast…  Luckily for Chrimbo I was fortunate enough to get money from several people (you know who you are – thanks loads and loads!) So 30th/31st December was spent in a mad rush/panic to try and find myself some threads – thanks to the boys at Roger David I was properly sorted out by Lunch time on the 31st and although now skint think I did pretty well. 

Lucy was camping on the floor of our hotel that night as Scatt was in with Darren and the Gang, so she joined Emma and I in the hotel room to get changed.  We were all ready, suited and booted ready for our cab to pick us up at 5:15, but like I said earlier, they aren’t very reliable so come 5:25 we flagged on down and headed over to the Quay.  We first jumped into a bar to have a quick pint or two (actually a Schooner which is slightly smaller!) then the others came and met us – everyone actually looked quite good, which is a bit of a shock to the system after you have been backpacking for 2 months!

When the Jerry Bailey pulled up, we all mocked it a bit as it arrived at the quay with 2 giant, brand new Catamarans flagging it.  But once on board it was quite a cool little vessel.  What really did annoy us all was that some people obviously hadn’t read the dress code and turned up in Jeans, Trainers and T-Shirts – and they were let on!  So, all our money had gone a bit to waste – still we were enjoying ourselves.

Looks don’t count for everything you know and our little Jerry Bailey flew us out to a perfect spot in Sydney Harbour – we were at the front of all the other boats and had prime position for the show ahead.  The tit-bits and finger snacks stating making there way round the boat, all of us snapping it up like it was the first meal we have had since arriving in Oz and washing it down with a quick slurp of Tooheys!  The night was young so we were chilling and chatting until 9pm when the family fireworks started – now I’m not great with words so I won’t try and describe these, I was also on a rocking boat, so my pictures are also not that great, but holy sh*t were they good.  They went on for about 10-15 minutes and when they ended the whole boat erupted in clapping, whooping and every other appreciative sound you could imagine – bring on the new year ones!

Between the 9pm fireworks and the midnight ones a lot more drinking, festivities and dancing went on – with Scatt and Alison impressing everyone with their MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice impressions…  Em and I were upstairs and managed to get prime position on the boat for the 12 pm fireworks.

Right, this is even harder to describe considering I can’t even get my tongue round describing the ‘tame’ fireworks!  I guess simply WOW!  If you EVER get the oppurtunity to come to Sydney for the New Year, do it – they demolish everywhere else for sheer Firework enthusiasm and skill!  New York, London, Paris – everywhere could learn a lesson from these Aussies!  They had fireworks making hearts in the sky, fireworks that exploded and left trails all the way to the floor.  They went on for about 20-30 mins and just left everyone awestruck – the finale consisted of lighting the whole Harbour Bridge up and then sending about 100 rockets up into the sky together, everywhere you looked towards the bridge there were fireworks! Click HERE for a Low resolution Movie of them!

This is a New Year I will never, ever forget!

Also, it was a right treat to get to speak to our families and our friends Sarah and Steve at the end of the evening!  We hope you guys and everyone else reading this had a brilliant New Year, here’s to 2007!!!!!!! 

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