Miss you Melbourne

to stop him from moving,and when he started to cry she smacked him until he stopped.  I have never been so happy to get off a bus in my life!!!!  I then got on a very comfy train and read/slept/looked at the scenery for 7 hours until the train got to Melbourne.

I arrive quite late, so found my hostel which was actually a guest house and was really nice and clean and quiet and was 2 seconds away from the nearest train station which was amazing.  I stayed in an area called South Yarra. 

On Saturday, I went for a run, and after chatting to a guy who was also staying in the guest house wandered into the city through the botanical gardens and along the river.  That night I got back, had some food and crashed out as I spent about 6 hours walking. I saw so much, I cant really be arsed to list to all now.  I really loved the mix of modern and old architecture - (well as old as Melbourne is! about 3 minutes!!) with the use of glass in the new, and sandstone (I think) with the old.  Classical and sleek modern next to each other.

Sunday I met up with 2 guys who were in Milo's year at school.    I thought Murray had said 10am in his text, so got up to go and meet him and Stevo then, so when I sent him a message just to make sure I was in the right place, he said I was, but weren't we meeting at 1pm??  I double checked his message and yes, he had put 1.00 which I had read at 10.0.  So good, got up reasonable early (for me) just to find out I was 3 hours early.  I then walked down to St. Kilda which is where Ramsey Street is, but didn't get that far.  I spent a few minutes at he beach and then had to turn around to walk back and meet Murray and Stevo. We went for lunch and then Stevo left and Murray and myself went for an amazing hot chocolate.

Monday was up at 6am, yuk yuk fucking yuk to go on a Great Ocean Road day.  It was amazing and I'm glad I went, just found getting up a bit of a shock to the system, especially when I jumped into the shower and the hot water hadn't come through!!  I was amazed at how the landscape reminded me of the country side at home especially as we went past lots of dairy herds.  (Claudia I tried to take some pics of the really cute fluffy cows, but we were going too fast).  I saw the 12, or rather 10 Apostles.  2 have crumbled into the ocean.  A rock thing called London Bridge, except the bridge bit fell into the ocean a couple of years ago, so really they should rename it.  What else did we see?  Went for a little walk in some Rain Forrest, and spent a lot of the time in the mini bus going from a to b.  But panic not, have loads of photos!! (about 1500 so far).

Tuesday I got up fairly early to go and look at the Queen Victoria Market and laughed quite a lot because they call lean mince, 'diet mince' and yes, took a photo.  The size of the steaks were also fucking ENORMOUS!!  And yes, got a photo. (Crouch, you would have been in meat heaven!).  I then went to the Batman Hill Hotel - yes, they have a few streets and a park names after Batman, and unfortunately don't have any pics.... to be picked up to go to Phillip Island via a little animal park thing with Koalas, Kangaroos, etc.  They also had Tasmanian Devils and I was VERY disappointed to see they looked nothing like the cartoon!!!!  We also went to a nice beach and watched some fucking idiotic people surfing, it was fucking cold and the ocean was even colder.  And no, you stupid people, of course I didn't go in!  Everyone else put their feet in and spent about half an hour complaining because they couldn't feel their feet. I laughed smugly because I was nice and warm and dry!  At sunset the penguins come up onto the beach to their burrows and they are fucking funny.  They are terrified about crossing the beach, fair enough I suppose being that small, and they get together in groups in the hope that if they get attacked by a predator, it will go for another one in the group and then waddle over the sand to their burrows.  They also duck about every 5 seconds as they think something is after them, so it takes them a while to cross the sand.  After that it was pizza time and then got back at about 9.45pm.

Wednesday, or yesterday it was time to leave. My flight wasn't until 6pm so I went into the city to go on the free city tram tour.  On reflection it was a bit of a waste of time because it went everywhere I walked on my mammoth city walk, but hey ho.  I then went and met Murray for a quick lunch, and had my healthiest one to date.  Pancakes with banana, chocolate source and vanilla ice cream.. Yum yum yum.  When I get home, I'm going to eat bananas more as I've realised on this trip  that I actually really like them, and they don't cost 15quid a kilo either!! 
On the flight over to NZ I was sat next to two South African men on a business trip - they make something to do with smelting and sugar mills or something.  Anyways, had a nice time chatting with them and they have defo sold SA as my next trip destination, and they have said they will point me in the direction of the non rip off places etc and I and whoever I'm with can stay with them too, so I will defo take them up on that at some point.

So my lovely ones, can't believe I've only got about 2 and a bit weeks left, where has the time gone??

So Australia was fab, oh I forgot to tell you about Melbourne and maccy D's, KFC etc.  THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!!!  On the Great Ocean Day trip thing, we stopped on the way back for a quick food break if you wanted to eat, I waited until getting back to the guest house because the town we stopped in had a Maccy D's, KFC, Chinese takeaway and a Subway.  That was it.  I was shocked.  No wonder Australia is getting so fat. So on that happy note, I might go and get some cake or something, as I can't really do anything in Christchurch as there isn't anything safe and standing!

Lots of love to you all,
XXX

So long Sydney. C'ya Canberra

Well,

 

I'm currently in Melbourne and have only half an hour left on the internet - $6 for an hour!  And the computer is soooo slow so am going to have to speed type to let you know what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks.  Have also got a bit of a post hot chocolate sugar rush (amazing, proper hot chocolate 60% melted chocolate) and have gone into a bit of a food coma.

 

So, Sydney.  Was there for 10 days including 2 in the Blue Mountains which were great, but a bit fucking chilly, and if I thought Brisbane was chilly, the Blue Mountains were like the arctic.  Bring on New Zealand!!!

 

Sydney was amazing and warm so did lots of walking around, took lots of pics of plants, buildings and the odd animal/bird or two.  I ate a lot, but also went running so hope the latter outweighed (ha ha ha) the former.  I arrived after a FREEZING 16 hour coach journey, I think I may have moaned about that already and the lovely Rob (worked with Crouch in cafe Nero for the  Edinburgh lot who get this) came and got me.  Hang on, this seems very familiar.  Have I already told you about this???  Am going to check the last email I sent as the last thing I want to do dear peeps is bore you! Ok, so have had a look and I only said a tiny bit about Newtown, or according to some very strange train man 'Newt'n'.  The day I arrived I was fairly tired, so after getting to Rob's and dumping my stuff, had a shower and then we headed out to Surrey Hills for some lunch and coffee and quite possibly cake.  I can't remember, but my eating of cake/banana bread defo came into it's own in Sydney.  Especially as the cafe across from Rob's did THE MOST AMAZING sticky date cake....it was fucking yummy, and I think I preferred it to their carrot cake.  Now I know you will be saying, noooo, you preferred something to carrot cake.  But it's true.  The sticky date pudding was to die for. Well maybe not actually, but you know what I mean.

 

So day one (Monday)was spent eating (a trend is about to begin) and then Rob had to go and give some stuff to his girlfriend so I stayed on the sofa and watched some hideously awful film with Mandy Moore in about some seriously religious school kids and one gets pregnant etc etc.  You know, standard American teen film.  I then watched and discovered to my delight, Zoo days and BABY ZOO DAYS!!!!  Rob was thrilled about this.  He got back and we went to the supermarket where I discovered yet another new joy.  Tim Tams.  He had the normal ones at home, so I chose dark chocolate and double layer ones.  After sampling them all (and I tried the white choc ones in the Blue Mountains as according to a guy I met there, they are the best.  He was wrong.) Rob and I came to the conclusion that the double layers ones are by far the superior.  When we got back he cooked - had Kangaroo for the first time and it was really yummy and we watched tv.  This is also going to become a running theme.

 

Tues, I went for a run.  Sydney park is also fucking hilly. Why can't the parks be placed on flat ground?!??!?!  and spent the rest of the afternoon pootling around Newtown and took about a million pics.  I also had all my pics to date transferred onto disk.  Bye bye $20 (especially when a new memory card is only $30 which I found out a few days later).

 

Wed I walked from Robs past the university and into the city via a suburb which was really nice, but can't remember the name.  Bugger.  Got an amazing hot choc on the way.  100% melted choc,. mmmm... and finally arrived at the fish market.  I got 4 oysters and 3 fucking enormous prawns for only $12, a complete bargain!!  I then carried on wondering around the coast line to Darling Harbour.  I then headed into town to the greyhound place to book my ticket to Canberra.  That evening I met up with my cousins uncle (her mother is my aunt by marriage, and David is my aunts brother.  Got it??  Good). and two daughters for sups.  Went to a really nice burger place somewhere.  I'm afraid I can't remember where.

 

Thurs, arrrggg, brain work!  Oh yes, Rob wasn't working, he works Mon-Wed and we went to Bondi beach, as every tourist has to.  Had a nice walk along the coast, went home via coffee somewhere.  I now have a really bad latte habit.  And yes, my diet of no dairy, caffeine, refined sugar is being ignored whilst I'm away.  Although have been asking for decaf when I've been able to engage brain.

 

Fri we went to Manly beach which was really lovely, and once again went for a walk and I saw a lizard which is called, shit, ummm, bugger, can't remember.  Anyways apparently I was lucky to see it.  And how could I forget?  We got the ferry to Manly which was really great to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and even luckier, I remembered that my camera has a black and white setting!!!  I also had a really good lunch of moule in something, can't remember what, but I can remember I was very impressed by them.  That night we went out for really good (and yes, before you ask, all the food I ate was good.  So maybe I should stop putting that as a precursor) sushi/Indonesian.  It was really fun because you order everything from a touch screen and I might have gone back the following night to eat too....

 

Now, I know you must be thinking by now, hang on, she's only been running once. The reason is because I started to develop a sore throat and not feeling too great.  I think it's because of how fucking artic the bus was that I got down from Brisbane, so decided not to go running as I didn't want to exhaust myself and encourage the lurgy to take a hold of me.

 

On Saturday I went for breakfast with a 2 childhood friend's (and the eldests wife!!!) and their mother.  Was really great to see them.  I saw the briefly when I was in Sydney on my gap year 7 years ago and it's so strange because in my head we are still between the ages of 4 and 11.  Obviously not any more.  I then headed into town as we were evicted from Robs that night due to the flat above being sprayed for bugs or something, so we couldn't be there.  As I was being picked up at 7.20 the next morning (yuk, fucking yuk) to go to the Blue Mountain's I said I would go and stay at a hostel in the city where I had the worst nights sleep EVER. Not from people being noisy in the hostel, but from the noise of people on the street.  I spent the afternoon wondering around the city and went to the Botanical gardens where my battery dies after about 10 mins which was fucking annoying.  That happened because I'd had my camera plugged into a comp for about an hour before hand uploading pics.  I only got about 50 uploaded so ended up buying a new memory card.  Much easier.  And yes, I know I have them on disk, but I didn't want to delete them until I had them backed up online as well, just in case.  And yes, I know I'm mental.

 

The Blue Mountains (Sun and mon) were amazingly fucking cold.  And very beautiful too.  We went on one long walk of about 3 hours down 1,000 steps and then back up them including a bit of walking on the flat.  There were a few waterfalls and lots of birds and trees, so guess who took quite a few pics??!  I also learnt that it's called the Blue Mountains as the Eucalyptus trees look blue from a distance due to the oil they give off.

 

That evening 5 of us stayed in the hostel there which was really lovely and had a fire!!  I was so happy!!  The main sitting room area also used to be a dance hall and still had the original floor which was a bit bouncy.  The decor was art deco, so yes, I took more pics. 

 

The following day I didn't go far as my legs fucking hurt like you wouldn't believe it, so just wondered around the town, Katoomba (I think) and stayed in reading.  It was also cold and miserable and not the weather I'm inclined to venture out in.  I also had the first rain of my trip the day before, admittedly it was only for about an hour and a half and over most of our lunch break, so didn't affect us too much.

After getting back into Sydney after a bit of Tea and Tim Tams we headed out for some sups.

 

Tues - my last full day in Sydney!!!  Was pretty exhausted from not much sleep the night before the Blue Mountains and all the walking etc I still managed to go for a run and then headed into the city to wonder around The Rocks.  I was going to go back to the Botanical Gardens but couldn't be arsed.  That evening we had our usual ritual of tea and Tim Tams, sups, stayed in, and then headed out for cake for the last time.  Sob.

 

On the Wednesday I packed and then headed into the city to get the bus to Canberra and arrived in Canberra at about 5.30pm.  Which was fucking cold and rained the whole of Thursday which was my only day there.  Walked around both the Parliament buildings.  They only decided to build the first on in 1913, ha ha ha ha ha.  Amazing.  I also wondered around the Portrait gallery which I really enjoyed.  I then headed back to Sophie's and we went out for really yummy Thai.  On Thursday it morning it was time for me to leave and got the bus and train down to Melbourne which I will save for the next email!

 

I'm glad I went to Canberra, more to see Sophie, and feel that I did it justice on the Thurs and saw most of it!  The only thing I didn't get the chance to go to was the other gallery, but Sophie said it was huge and wouldn't have taken me hours to go around, and as I only had the one full day, I'm glad I did what I did.

 

So lovely ones, I'm now on my second hour of Internet time as need to get some stuff booked for New Zealand.  Can't believe I'll be there this time next week!!!!  It's crazy how fast it's going, am over half way through!!  Am having an amazing time, and enjoyed every minute.

 

More soon, hope all is well with everyone, and haven't been caught up in all the riot shit.  Can't really believe it has happened!!!!

 

Oh and also, I'm the face for a Macmillan on line campaign, so if you fancy going to their website, check out the 'big thank you' page.

 

Lots of love, etc etc etc.

XXX

Macmillan film

Quickly, here's the link:

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1082563/macmillan-cancer-support-launches-thank-you-film/

Hope you enjoy.

XXX

Bye bye Brisbane

Sooooooo,

Ummmm, where to begin?  ...at the beginning is a very good place to start...no, no, no, no do NOT break out into The Sound of Music in the internet cafe. Although I am currently staying in the very trendy Newtown in Sydney, think of Shoreditch and you've got the
Sydney equivalent, I think I might get some odd looks if I did start to sing that.  Anyways, moving on from Sydney as that will be my next email (and I feel some Finding Nemo quotes coming on), this one is all about Brisbane.

I arrived at 6.30 am - nice.  After only about 3 hours sleep on the flight and it was FUCKING FREEZING!!!!!  Was not amused.  And got a shuttle bus to the hostel I was booked into.  It was called the Wood Duck if you are at all interested on the Upper Roma road, which while I was there was classed by the local news as a 'Ghetto full of litter, drugs and human excrement'.  So that's a good advertisement to one of the backpacking areas in Brisbane.  Nothing like good press to encourage tourists and backpackers to stay.  I can assure you, that unsurprisingly the press has oh so slightly exaggerated, and I know, I know, I can hear you saying 'noooooooo, the press would NEVER do that!!!!!' but dear friends, I hate to break it to you.  It's true.  The reason for the good press was that some backpackers decided to sleep in the cars they had bought rather than pay for a hostel and obviously did not move to find a bin or anything, but just threw their rubbish out of their cars into a car park that the council never cleaned.  So, now that I have put the story straight, I can move on an tell you what I did.  And no, I was not one of the backpackers adding to the rubbish, I did in fact pay for a room.  I actually payed for my own room which was very nice.  The room was fairly basic, but the bed was comfy and it meant that I wasn't woken up by people coming in late or getting up early, and you all know about me and sleep.

So I arrived last Monday and and did not much that day.  Had a sleep, went for a wonder, found the galleries and sat by the river reading for a bit before heading back to the hostel.  I was fairly chilled out in the evenings whilst there, and only went out once.  A few of us ended up in a Karaoke bar and had a fucking funny night singing along to all the classics.  Journey, Bon Jovi etc etc etc  Cheesy music bliss.

During the day I went running and was fucking proud of myself as went 3 times and the park near the hostel, Roma Park was fucking hilly and I didn't let myself walk once any time I went.  So feel massively proud of myself for that!  (Sydney park is also hilly, am not amused.  Why didn't they put the parks on flat ground?!?!?!?)  Bollocks, I've forgotten to bring the link with me because I went to the Koala park and hugged a Koala, and have a photo I can show you...well I could if I had the link.  Will put it in the next email.  Had a really nice time wondering around, and there were also various birds, wombats, kangeroos etc.  I was taking a photo of a cockatoo and as I took the photo it said hello.  Properly burst out laughing when that happened, and only got a few weird looks from the families who were near me.  Now I have a little story to tell you so you won't moan about how expensive the bus is again.  Well for a single journey in London anyways.  I got the bus out to the park and when I got on the bus I asked if I could get a return and was told no because the journey was too far to get one, I had to get two singles.  It took about half an hour to get there. so I said, ok, can I get a single.  It cost.....wait for it.....$7.40!!!!!!!!!!!  So 4.94 EACH WAY!!!!!!!  Bastards.  So let me tell you folks, we get a bloody good deal in london.

So what else did I do, a boat trip down part of the river which was great.  The architecture on the South Bank is really interesting.  Some of the houses are the traditional colonial style with beautiful iron work on the balconies etc and then other houses were really sleek with lots of glass and quite Frank Lloyd Wright-esque.  And don't you worry, have about a million photos that I will out on facebook when I get back.

I also went to the galleries, the modern art one was incredible and unfortunately didn't allow myself enough time in there.  Thought 2 hours would be enough as I tend to get bored quite easily, I know, I know, an awful thing for someone to say with a History of Art degree....but if I don't like it, I don't spend hours pondering over it.  They had lots of aboriginal art and an exhibition of school children's art.  I think they were GCSE to A Level and it was fucking amazing!  I couldn't believe how young they were to have made such amazing art.

I did lots of walking around and spent a few hours in the botanical gardens.  Brisbane is great because the city is fairly small so it's easy to walk around and not get lost.  And if I did lose my way a bit, I just found the river and knew that if I walked along it towards a certain bridge, I would end up back near the hostel.

Had some amazing sushi rolls.  They were huge and only $2 with lobster in!  I went there with a couple of guys from the hostel and in my standard way, ate more than them.  They only ate 3 and I managed 4.  Go me!!!

So I think that's about it really with Brisbane.  Another thing that was great about the hostel was that a lot of the people staying there were there working, so it was nice and chilled and not filled with 18 year olds so it meant I could be a granny and that was fine!

I can't think of much else to say really.  The coach journey down was long - 18 hours and freezing because the coach driver thought that air con was a necessity the ENTIRE way even though I told him I was freezing.  Wanker.

So my lovely ones, I think that's about it.  I'm going to read this back now and think, fuck me, I'm dull.  All I do is take pictures of animals, plants and buildings.  Go running and go to bed!!!  But to be honest, I'm having such a nice time doing this, and having some 'me time' I don't feel like going out every night. 

So as the internet here cost about $5 a second, I'm going to bugger off.  Oh and happy news, it's about 22 degrees here, so my worrying about it being cold was not needed, woop!!  Still rather concerned about New Zealand though....

Lots of love, laughter and smiles,
XXX