28/01/07 Chill out Sunday - damn its weigh day

We really are starting to become too chilled out. Today we walked up to Surry Hills and went to find a cafe that we could sit outside and chill and watch the world go by. We ate pizzas, this was of course after we got ourselves weighed. Simon has lost 1 kilo (2lbs) impressive, i have put on 100g (piddle all) damn. So we had pizza and cream cakes to celebrate.

New regime this week, as we will both be getting up really early, and our days will now be different and will perhaps have more of a routine to them, which means that we may start to go out more and admire the countryside, which i think we are becoming blasey about.

Im just sat on our balcony writing this. Simon is in the bedroom lay on the bed playing the DS. Its nice cos I can sit here and chat to him, he moans when i interupt though :-)

House thoughts:
Current thinking is now we are better of sharing a flat then we dont have to buy furniture, but i do want our own ensuite as i want to sit in the bath and read my book in peace. With a bit of furniture in it this bedroom would be perfect.

26/01/07 Aussie Day and Aussie Eve and houses

Aussie Day in Aussie is a bank holiday so everyone is off work. Its a day of massive celebration, and its a day of getting drunk. We have just been out with Nik and Joesphine today. We went to a pub in Watson Bay, it was really good, we ate outside and had an amazing view of the whole city and the bridge. Nik picked us up today in his convertible, but because of joesphine we didnt have the roof down, but i hinted later on in the day about it and we drove back with it down. This was great. We (I) have decided that we should buy a convertible :-).

Being driven around today was really good as we go to see the different beaches and really got to appreciate the place. Me and Simon both agree that today was a turning point for us on appreciating how beautiful Sydney is especially after our night out last night, which consisted of us going into the city to Hard Rock Cafe, which was fine. We then walked further up and met Gustavo after he finished work in the city. It was about 2 oclock when we finished in the bar drinking, and then we spent the next hour walking trying to find a taxi. It reminded me of Manchester, and the reason why was because it was hammering down with rain, and i mean rain. I was moaning in the taxi that it was like being in England.

Simon will claim that after me and Gustavo trying to get a taxi and being unsuccessful for an hour, he was clever enough to eventually find a taxi, thats not true. I ordered him to go and get a taxi across the road as i sat down, and he dawdled across the road and missed the taxi but fortunatly 2 taxis came along straight away afterwards.

Update on house situation: Not good
I start work tomorrow in the 'Crows Nest' Area. Its possible though after a couple of weeks i will be working from home however i suspect i will be there a couple of days a week at least. Sooooooo. We want to get somewhere to live for say a 6 month lease. The problem is that as well as the rent being ridiculously high everywhere, we want(ed) to live in North Sydney, the places are unfurnished, and there is such a huge demand that even when you put in an application form the landlord will then decide from all the applicants whether he wants you. Its jsut to much hassle. Having looked at some apartments in North Sydney we have now started to think that if its not Manly, then we dont want to live in North Sydney as its not very exciting. We also think that the friends we have made are really from either living in Manly or living in Waterloo and therefore the only friends we are making are people we live with, therefore perhaps if we got a 2 bedroomed apartment we could rent the 2nd room out to someone. However we just dont know what to do. We also spoke to Joesphine and she said Scott and Ingrid dont want 2 people in the appartment with them so thats that option out. (Joeshone is moving out and moving in with Nik). However Niks place does seem to have a room up for rent, therefore that could be a possibility. We have until 16th Feb to decide what to do before Daniel comes home and wants his room back.

Little Comments about different things

In no particular order i have little comments to make about little things.

1. Diet - Bad, me and Simon have both put on half a kilo each
2. The weather is hot hot hot.
3. We went into Town yesterday and found Hard Rock Cafe, i bought 2 more pins and i had a cocktail. I also had a Nandos, Simon was good and had a salad, but i had my usual.
4. When i got back i wrote an email to Nandos complaining that the pitta bread is poo in Australia. I received a reply back saying yes they agree and are changing the pitta bread. I did write though to try and get free vouchers, but didnt get any.
5. Supermarkets stay open on Sunday evenings, so Simon, me and Gustavo went at 9oclock at night and walked back to the apartment with the shopping trolley - classy.
6. Gustavo told us that the guy who used to live in our room had the best job in the world - A Playboy Cameraman. Some of his work is even on the Brazilian Website
7. I went to Coogee Beach today, this was a nice beach, its like Bondi Beach but smaller. Im feeling burnt though. my nose in particular. I feel bad here because the suncream is generally factor 30 and i sit there with 4 or nothing.
8. We were double booked on Sat night, Gustavo (Simons new best bud) asked us to go out and Joesphine the Swedish girl we lived with invited us out for a meal. We are going our with her and Nik on Friday for Australia Day for Picnic
9. She also told us via txt that she was moving out and her room is for rent if we want to take her room. It will mean living with Scotty and Ingrid. There has confused us, so this week we are going to look at some flats in Manly or Mosman and then will discuss this with her on Friday. There is some big pros and cons to this.
10. Somebody asked me what our view of the Aussies was and to be honest we dont have a view as our 'friends' seem to be either: Brazilian, German, Slovakian (well we say hi to them), Swedish and a Kiwi. Scotty is the only Aussie we know and hes a nice fella but we dont know him very well.
11. How do you breathe when you swim? I cant get it right

Friday Lunch at the pub, Aussie style

At our current location we have the choice of 1 pub, and lots of resturants to eat at. So, it was friday lunchtime and Andrea, myself and Gustavo went for a pub lunch. The pub's alright, nothing special but it has a nice local atmosphere. The food was good too, $10 (£4) got you a really big meal. The best thing was the waitress though, she was very attractive and wearing a very mini, frilly, see through skirt and with her high heels too that was her outfit ! Her boobs we're definately out for the lads. There's not more i can say about it really, Gustavo's eyes never left her chest. She came over to take the order for the drinks and Andrea was ordering for us. Andrea's eye's never left her chest, she just spoke to the boobs. :D I worry sometimes about Andrea ;)

Anyway, we're really looking forward to our next lunch as Gustavo says there's a different girl each Friday.

Poached Egg and my weight

Mums present finally arrived for Christmas yesterday which included a selection box, some maltesers and some sweets. I decided for my diet it was better to ram them all into 1 1/2 day instead of over a week. So i did, i reckon ive ate 6 bars of chocolates and lots of sweets, so feeling a little sick. But Frederick the German guy complemented me today as he said had i tried joggin in the park, to which i burst out laughing (i think i was eatin a curly wurly at the time) and said i dont jog, im unfit and he said really, oh you surprise me i didnt think that. He was generally really surprised that i wasnt a keep fit freak. Not sure what i had done this week to make him think i was, perhaps its my posh flip flops Simon bought me for Christmas and me walking around with my swimming goggles and nose clip.

Oooo the other thing is that i learnt how to make poached eggs the other day:
http://www.b3ta.com/features/howtopoachanegg/
I tried the last option, after checking the forums about this feature and the general consensus was that 4 minutes is the perfect time. My god its good. Simon was so impressed that we had them for tea tonight as well and he agrees a perfect way of making poached eggs.

Weight and Manly Party and Waterloooooo

Well, i got weighed and i didnt like what i saw so i went to a different chemist and used their scales instead and i really liked these ones. The first set said i hadnt lost any weight and was about the same, the 2nd set said i had lost about 5lbs. I liked these hahahahha.

Seriously though, i then went for a 3rd set, and these were a little better as i had to pay to get weighed on these. These said i was 67.8. So really i havent lost any weight but i feel like i have so i believe in my mind that i have its just that the scales are different. Until i find the same set to weigh myself on every week i believe its going to be inconsistant.

But this week i will be good.

We went to Joesphines Birthday Party on Sunday. Simon has been ill with a really sore throat so he was less talkative then normal, however we had a good time. We were able to sit on the balcony and managed to burn ourselves. We have noticed that because of the Skin Cancer scares here the guys had factor 30 on and wear caps, where us and the Swedes seem to just sit there and be willing to get burnt.

I met one of Ingrids and Josephines friends, she was a Korea 34 year old girl. Me and Simon ended up sat outside chatting with her for a while and she started to tell us a little bit about her life which consisted of her splitting up from her boyfriend after 9 years as he had ran off with a women that he has been seeing who he has a 2 year old son with. She then told us how he was 59 and we gather absolutely minted. She now doesnt know what to do with her life.

Quick update on the flat in Waterloo, you will have read us raving about how big the flat is and how we have a really nice bedroom, what we have not mentioned is that as the flat just seems to have boys in it, and they are renting, its not the cleanest place. So currently we are being attacked by flies in the Kitchen probably because of the mouldy bread in the cupboard (reminds me of Porto). Simon has gone to get some Fly Paper. Also we have a new guy called Frederick who has just moved in. He is German and is in the same room as Gustavo. His brother is currently sleeping here as well, he goes home today though so there is 3 of them in one room which is amusing.

Life in Waterlooooooooo 12/01/2007

Life in Waterlooooooo is very calm. Im currently spending most of my days sunbathing and swimming. Ah its a nice life. Im getting through a lot of books at the moment as well. I am however swimming. I bought myself some googles and a nose clip, and i think i may have mastered this swimming underwater without holding my nose. It was definatly a big moment for me yesterday when i mastered this (this was without my nose clip) . One day i may even be able to dive, which will be a momentous occasion.

A weight update: Im 67 kilos (i was 68 kilos the other day). If i put this on the blog then i can keep check with myself about it, and bollock myself when it gets higher. I MUST NOT GO HIGHER THEN THIS. In fact perhaps i need to start a weight watchers campaign with everyone geeing me up and shouting at me when i put on weight. So expect regular updates.

Our address and we have some friends

Our new address is: 326/8 Lachlan Street, Waterloo, NSW 2017
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Lachlan+St,+nsw+2017,Australia&sll=-33.797979,148.691711&sspn=0.49757,0.925598&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=-33.900075,151.213224&spn=0.007765,0.021501&om=1
We should be here for about 3 weeks, and then who knows what will happen, we may come home or we may stay.

We got a txt today it was very exciting, it is our first social occasion since we have been here, Joesphine (the weird girl we lived with - all is forgiven now though) has invited us back over to Manly for her birthday party on Sunday, for wine and cakes. oooooo we are making some friends.

A new day, a new home

Well, we managed to move. It wasn't hard considering the hotel we were in before here. I mean we were practically running out of the place. Anyway, the place is in the Waterloo district of Sydney. We're on the 9th floor of an apartment complex and have almost panoramic views of Sydney. Like Manly, this is indeed another house share. Currently, we are sharing with two Slovakian guys, and a Brazillian chap call Gustavo. There is gonna be a German moving in on the weekend too. As you can tell this is a pretty big apartment, so big in fact that Andrea is pretending she is Rachael from Friends. The two Slovakian chaps share the same room, don't speak much English except for "hello" and "goodnight". They spend all their time in their room, the only reason we know that they're in is that they pop out to one of the balconies now and again for a cigarette.

Gustavo is a good chap. He is going to college here studying either English or Business Studies. It's summer holidays for him at the moment so he's holding down two cleaning jobs. The first is from 6 to 9 in the morning, the other is from 6 til 11 or 12 in the evening. Andrea thought the chap batted for the other side, but Gustavo dispelled that myth when he said that he went to a club after work yesterday 'cause they had a wet t-shirt contest. Due to his work hours, it's only in the afternoon that we see him around.

The complex itself has a nice gym, three pools, a jacutzy, sauna, spa ... all free too ! There are a load of shops, restaurants, takeaways too. The only problem with the place is that there seems to be a lot of Mosquitoes around and the past two days have seen Andrea and I get bitten to buggery!

We'll get some photos up of the place when we've taken them :) You never know you might see the Slovakians!

07/02/07 central wentworth hotel oh dear

Luckily this place was our stop gap before moving to Waterloo. This hotel is definatly the worse room we have stayed at in since leaving. In fact i think this was the worse place ever. We payed for the cheapest room they had which was a doulbe with no bathroom. so in fairness we got what we asked for.

The room was just this really old style room, with a view of a multi storey car park and the train track. The toilet and shower was right down the opposite end of the corridor. the kitchen and dinning room were oh memories of beckett park my uni campus come flooding back, and the tv lounge had this guy that we had seen before who was about 60 and wore a bright yellow cycling top. Nice. The room had a tiny tv but no remote. Now i think in order of priorities for what we like in a room it goes as this:
1. Clean - im getting old.
2. A tv that has a picture and a remote.
3. a view
4. a kettle

The bed sheets in fairness were clean, but thats about it.

In the evening we found a nandos restaurant which was excellent and then we watched tv in bed with the volume really really loud as we couldnt hear anything because of what was going on outside. We watched an english programme called Face, with Robert Carlisle in it.

At 9 in the morning we got up back into the clothese we had wore the day before a quick stop at the toilets and then we were out, no messing around.

Leaving Manly 7th January

We left Manly today, it was very sad. But tomorrow we move into a new place for another 3 weeks. Whilst the flat in Manly was a bit of a dump it had the most amazing views and it had the beach this new place is in a place called Waterloo and it is a brand new apartment complex. We are moving into a 3 bedroom flat which have some brazillians and some slavakia guys. But the best thing is that we have the big double bedroom which has its own private bathroom and its own balcony which has city views and the complex has 3 swiming pools and a gym. So whilst different to Manly it has its perks and even though we said we would try and get fit in Manly we are gonna try the swimming pools and gym instead and see if it works.

The reason we havent been writing much lately by the wy is because we are both really busy looking for work. Its all looing very postive at the moment which is good, however we are both finding it a little weird the thought of going back to work after having 2 months off.

More updates soon though.

New Years Eve

This post is one i dont think me or Simon seem to want to write about. I dont think neither of us can say we had a really good time it was just okay.

It was important for us to be in Sydney and see these famous fireworks that everyone has gone on about, but at the same time neither of us wanted to spend 12 hours sat in one place not being able to move, so we made the decision to get the last ferry from manly which left at 6 oclock and then see what happens when we got into Sydney.

We spent the evening walking around up and down the Rocks and discovered that we could buy bottles of drink and wait around. At 8 oclock we managed to sneak into an area that had a really good view of the bridge. So we stood there for about an hour as there was family fireworks at 9oclock. Needless to say there was fireworks but not on the bridge so we didnt particularly get to see them. Now we could have stood here for 3 hours and got a perfect view of the bridge but neither of us wanted to do this as it would have been boring so we went back on to the Rocks area and carried on drinking and in general watching people get more and more pissed. In particular there was one couple slow dancing to all the fast songs and they were really really hammered smooching all over each other. It was funny to watch because her dress kept slowly slowly moving down until it had fell of her boobs and it just looked like a bra and skirt. They kept us amused for half an hour anyway.

At 12 oclock we found an area on the rocks that you could see the bridge and yes the fireworks were good but i actually think we were to close to appreciate them, and neither of us were hugely impressed. As soon as they finished it was like no question lets get home on the next ferry.

I also think for me that because it wasnt New Years Eve at home yet that i didnt feel like it was New Years Eve.

27/12/06 Shell Beach

I wrote this whilst sat on the beach:

Coincedentally does instead have shells on it. Me and Simon are having a timeout day today both doing different things. Ive just been and exchanged my book 'devil wears prada' which is the book i bought in Heathrow because i hadnt seen the film and ended up watching twice on planes. I have to say for the me the film was better then the book.

Shell Beach is a little walk from manly beach but is more for kids and me because the sea is not as rough. Nothing changes from when i was younger. Icant dive, i cant put my nose under the water and i cant open my eyes. So whilst i would love to be able to surf i cant, im not a strong enough swimmer and i cant resolve the above problems.

If we stay here my goal is to be able to swim properly.

which leads me on to something i keep meaning to bring up.
You know everyone is so fit here. All the girls walk around in there bikinis or little shorts because they have really good physics(dont know how to spell) and its because there life style is healthy its not that they go about trying to be fit. Its quite disheartening to think that after travelling through america ive got here and all i can think about is. wow i need to get fit. My whole attitude is different because at home i would normally think i need to go on a diet but here its about the whole picture of trying to be fit and healthy.

My new years resolutions will have to be to learn to swim properly, learn to roller blade, and try and walk faster as a rule.

Andrea doesn't like cricket

It's official, Andrea doesn't like cricket. We were having a lazy afternoon in this lull between Christmas and the new year. We were watching TV(i hate to say it, but probably Dawson's Creek) and reading the paper. Yes, Andrea can multi-task very well, not like me at all. Anyway the front door made a noise, so Andrea went to check up on it and opened the door. She noticed something drop down from above(the ceiling not heaven), but couldn't see anything on the floor. She then closed the door and returned to the sofa for more TV and newspaper reading. After about 20 mins(!) she had finished reading the paper and put it down only to discover that a cricket was sat on her leg. This must of been the thing that fell down.

Now since coming to Australia (and the build up beforehand), Andrea has had the "fear" when it comes to bugs here. According to the world of Andrea, everything is poisonous and has great big fangs. Andrea screamed a little(well freaked out really) and demanded that i rescue her. I threw it out of the window where it flew off to find some other sucker to attach to.

Back to the cricket anyway. This thing was a bit freaky as it was like the picture on the link but massive. I think it was around 3 to 4 inches long, and the antennae coming out of it's head were as long as it's body.

Since then i've walked into a spiders web walking back from town, which spooked me a little too...

...I should really stop listening to Andrea on these matters ;) I mean what next, aussie ants the size of cars?!?!

Christmas Day in Manly

Christmas Day was definatly a different day here in Australia. I have to say waking up to Sunshine is strange. Sunshine was not forecasted for today so it was a pleasant surprise.

As Joesphine has disappeared to her boyfriends now, we have the flat to ourselves which we have managed to make a completely mess of as we have just dumped every thing everywhere. Simon and I are not tidy people and together we are even worse.

This year we set each other a budget to spend on each other, and we werent to go over it (though Simon did) and of course it cant be anything that wont fit in the suitcase (ignoring what i bought Simon as his main present :-))

I bought Simon:
Bodyboard
DS Game
A PC game (which is the wrong one so need to take it back) - which bought him a pair of running trainers instead.
Lots of Sweeties.
Twigglets
Pair of Flip Flops
Pair of googles
a bommerang
a keyring with a bomerang on it.
2 cds
a blowup globe

Simon bought me:
a pair of really posh comfy flip flops
a voucher to get a manicure and pedicure
a voucher to buy a bikini at Roxy ( i think im driving Simon mad moaning about the prices)
sim card storage thingy
chocolate bar
toblerone
a cd
more sweets

You see there is 1 big difference between me and Simon. Im a quantity person and Simon is a quality person. I buy him a cheap pair of flip flops he buys me a really posh pair.

Once we opened the pressies we peeled the veg (very english) and then instead of visiting the family etc. We went to the beach and attacked the enormous waves with Simons new Body board which (remembering im a quantity not a quality person), caused us both to rip our stomach as it rubbed on our bellys and when we left it out in the sun it started to get airpockets in it so that kind off changed the whole aerodynamics of the board in the sea as it wasnt smooth therefore didnt quite slide over the waves. Very good fun though.

Once we had finished on the beach we went back to the flat and Simon was head Chef and made us a beautiful Roast turkey dinner(very english) which considering he has never even made a roast before he did amazingly. We were able to eat this on the balcany looking out to the sea. We sat there with our Reindeer Hats on, my flashing earings, our Christmas napkins and our San Francisco/Hawaii place mats. It was really really nice.

After that we did the usual english thing of sitting on the sofa and moaning that we had eaten to much and didnt really move till it was time to ring home. Which completely frustrated me as the day i wanted to speak to everyone the connection was unbelievable poor. I hated that as it made me miss home but i also can apprecate what a great day we had and i wouldnt have changed it for the world.

Preparing for Christmas in Manly

The blogs are getting more and more infrequent, i apologise but as our days consist of sunbathing, or job hunting or shopping we dont have to much to report at the moment. Anyway:

Its Christmas Eve now, and we are currently in between walking down the steep hill to the shops to get some food for tomorrow and wrapping each other pressies.

The weather is not great at the moment which is a shame therefore we have decided that whilst we will walk down to the beach and see whats happening we can have the traditional Christmas dinner which we are going to eat on our balcony.

So far me and Simon are sat here with our Reindeer headgear getting into the Christmas Groove. I might put my flashing earings on. :-)

Ive just re-decorated the tree (its one of the really cheap plastic trees). Scotty and Ingrid and Joesphine left it here and as Joesphine has disappeared to her boyfriends for Christmas, ive moved the tree and added a pink feather boa to the tree to add my pink touch to it :-). It has all the pressies around the bottom of it now.

Yesterday we were going to go for a walk but we ended up walking down to Manly Beach and never got any further. They were hosting a beach volleyball competition. They was about 10 courts (or whatever they are called) but it was really amusing because it was in fancy dress. The most amusing to us was 7 girls dressed up as the dancers from that aerobics video, ie in leatards bending over playing against the Karate boys. The girls were really bad, i think they just joined in for the fancy dress competition and were just posing and dancing. The other amusing one was the beach dudes dressed up in womens swimming cossies. These guys were really funny as they didnt take the competitiion seriously and were to buy kicin the ball, heading it, bending over in the cossies. Needless to say unlike the girls they got to the final (there was about 30 teams altogether) and lost with the last ball. But even in the final they were still messing around. At one point they climbed on top of each other and were trying to get the ball like that. Not once did they ever get serious. The winner of the fancy dress party was the Ninja Turtles with the chickens at a close 2nd. The only downside of this comp was that it rained on the final which made me and Simon feel more Christmasy.

Its a big weird seeing people sat on the beaches with Christmas hats on. Its a bit weird.
Ive also discovered that there is a serious lack of Christmas card shops. so i suspect buying cards is not a big thing here. Perhaps me and Simon should open a shop here.

Our 10mins of claim to fame.

Simons view of our 10mins:

Lets face it, for those of you who saw this, it was wet and cold ! I mean, we come all the way to Aussieland to do the gmtv christmas thingy hopes of sun and sand, and it rains on the day where we could prove it too you all.

Well, the whole event got off to a flying start when i bent down to get something out of my rucsack and some over enthusiastic pom accidently kicked me in the head whilst he was trying to hop over the fence. Anyway, it never hurt, although Andrea said that there was quite a "crack" sound.

There must of been about 60 brits turn up for this event, the producer said that if the sun was out then it's usually around 200. 60 was still a fair bit though when it comes to getting squashed, and most of the shots we we're blocked by 6 footers, so you would of only seen two bouncing heads at the begining. Due to the fact that there was just a small number of us they were scraping the barrel for different messages. The producer amused Andrea. She was the most tactless person we've ever met. She asked the audience if somebody had an ill family member and would they like to come up and have an interview to send a message. Some bloke stuck his hand up and it was almost a "Great!, come on up then" from the producer...sheesh! The presenter was a bit of a diva, the camera woman didn't stop eating, and the director was always trying to come up with christmas carols for us to sing. After we did one of the carols, the director indicated that the next link wouldn't be for another 50 mins, that was the cue for most of the audience to leave :) .. Not us die hard wannabies though! They then got everyone up and spread us out to make it look like there was loads of us. (did it work?) The producer asked for the people with signs to be at the front. Cue Andrea's Christmas sprout!
I'm not sure how we looked or anything like that 'cause we were on the otherside of the camera, our internet here is also too bad to look at the clip on their website too. Anyway, we had our moment of fame. For me personally, i'm glad they never interviewed us as we would of just jibbered our words and then really looked like a couple of planks :)

http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=23941&cachedarticleaction=streamingpopup&display=video

Andreas view of our 10mins:

Well i did it. I managed to get a picture of a sprout on tele. For all of you wondering what i am talking about. Its traditional on Christmas Day that i have 1 sprout on my plate and its traditional that i dont eat it. Mum (and Simon this year) try to hide it under other veg but i still manage to sniff it out and push it aside.

The gmtv link above has a cracking view of Simon, but i have to admit even i dont recognise myself in it. From what people have been saying though im more on the real tv then the internet :-) so i am actually more famous then Simon.

I reckon if me and Simon had been brave enough we could have got on the camera and sent a message but between the 2 of us we are just 2 shy.

If you watch the vid there is a family from Stroud as well which Simon later had a chat with which was funny. Come all the way to Sydney and Simon meets people from the next village. The women said she recognised Simon but he said to me it was because he has the signature Gardner forehead. :-)

17/12/2006 Sundays ahhhhhh

Okay its only a week before Christmas, if i was at home now i would be racing round trying to buy presents and stressing. Here in Sydney, our Sunday was spent leisurely getting up, walking down to the Botanical Gardens, and laying the towel out and watching the world go by. We took our books down but really they werent necessary. We could sit and admire the Opera House, Sydney Bridge, the big boats going past, the speed boats taking people on thrill rides, the parrots in the trees above us, the 3 weddings that were on in the park, the japanese with the tripods, or the 3 girls posing for pictures in christmas outfits. It was certainly entertaining.

As the weeks have progessed me and Simon have spent a lot of time together and we have learnt to understand each others little quirks. The noticable one at the moment is that Simon is really anal about which route to take to get somewhere and we have to backtrack exactly to get back to where we started. Im a bit more casual and willing to get lost, so whilst we have walked a number of times down to woolomoloo and the gardens one route Simon insists on walking back the same way. I finally convinced Simon to follow me today a differnt route back (i didnt want to climb some stairs if im truthful) he grudgingly followed me while we went up all these different roads mumbling behind me that he would like to get back to the room before dark and perhaps we need to turn round and start again. And did i get us back to the hotel, yep and there was no stairs. Simons has now got to learn that sometimes i know where i am going, its just sometimes i dont and get myself into a mess.

GMTV on Wednesday

Have a read of this:

http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=18024

We are going to go down to Mrs Maqueries Point on Wednesday evening which will be live on tele Wed morning in England so look out for us. You know quite well though it will be me trying to make a prat of my self and Simon walking off in the opposite direction because he is embarrassed.

and no i wont have a sprout with me. Im not prepared.

I don't like cricket

I love it really, but the Aussies heads are so large at the moment that Pom bashing will soon take over their national sport. Needless to say, i don't like cricket at the moment ;) That leads to another problem that might arise when we come to leaving our flat in Manly: it co-insides with when the cricket comes to Sydney. hrm.

Anyway, since Andrea's post we've done a lot of walking. We've pretty much walked round the city. The botanical gardens are our favourite at the moment, a lovely place to while away the hours in the sunshine with views of the harbour to boot. :) They also have parrots flying about and tonnes of really big bats :) Bondai beach (or Bonzai as Andrea keeps saying), is quite nice but there are other better beaches nearby. You just can't read a book when you're getting sand blasted from the winds that whip up there. I suppose it's better than getting really rained upon though ;) We also wandered round the opera house one day through circular quay and over to darling harbour. Bars and restaurants are littered across this stretch of the city but they are chock-a-block with Christmas doos.

On one of the days that it has rained here we went to Taronga Zoo. It's a pretty good zoo as it concentrates mainly on the stupidly named animals from around Australia... Dingos, Platypuses, wombats, possums, dugongs, chazwazzas. Of course the jewel in the crown is the Koala bear, an animal so slothlike that you almost fall asleep watching it :) We paid the extra to go into an enclosure with a couple of koalas and get our photo's taken with them. Also watched them getting fed. Animals really don't get much cuter than a koala bear :)

We also saw some wallabies "havin' it off" and a chimpanzee picking his bum and eating it...nice. When it came to the spider exhibit i clocked that we had already seen some of the spiders around the zoo...loose !