Greetings to all once again! It seems that I have yet again been rushed off my feet, but alas I have managed to find some time to catch people up on what I have been getting up to. So here we go….

Well first and foremost, Pat and I have made our plans for traveling down to Melbourne. We have booked a hire car so that we can have a bit of a road trip haha! Yup we are driving from Sydney and heading inland to the Blue Mountains for a day, then the plan is to travel to Wollongong, Bateman’s Bay, several other places including Phillip Island, and then we are going to fly over to Tasmania around the 3rd February. All going well I should be back in Sydney for my flight to Alice Springs on the 11th .

So enough of that, I should get on with the things I have done so far…

Well on the 23rd Pat and I went to Darling Harbour and visited Sydney Sea World. It wasn’t quite as good as Kelly Tarlton’s back in Auckland, but it was still an interesting place to visit. My favourite part was the seal pools, I got some good photos of the seals close up. After that we walked around the harbour and looked in the shops, annoying when you haven’t got any money spare, but never mind.

In the evening we met up with my cousin, Anna. We also met up with a few of Anna’s friends, one of which I was surprised to recognize from New Zealand!! I had seen Jo playing pool in Rotorua! It really is a small world! So anyway we all started in a pub on Circular Quay, and then we headed to a wonderful restaurant called the ‘Lowenbrau’, a Bavarian establishment. There we enjoyed beer by the litre, and an excellent steak! Unfortunately half way through my meal, the house entertainments, who were very good, asked for volunteers from the diners to partake in a Bavarian dancing competition! Just my luck, everyone on my table voted me up, thanks guys! So I danced and it was funny, and then I sat down to rejoin my nice steak… until I then got voted for to take part in the ‘Down a litre competition’!!! Unfortunately I lost to a competitive German but I did get a free litre of beer, not bad! At last I got to finish my dinner!

After the meal we headed into the town to several Irish bars that had entertainment. After a few hours we went to a club, and then home to bed.

On the 24th we woke up rather late with small hangovers! We managed to get to Pizzahut in the early afternoon for breakfast (oops) and had an ‘all you can eat buffet’ for $14. Needless to say I had about ten slices of pizza, eight bits of garlic bread, and three visits to the dessert stand!!! After this both Pat and I felt like s***! I was close to hurling but was satisfied that I’d had a good feed! In the evening we met up with Anna again and we went to Coogee Beach for some drinks and met more of her friends, which was nice.

On the 25th Pat and I visited the Sydney Opera House and did the tour, which was very interesting and impressive! So impressive in fact that we decided to get tickets for ‘Sweeney Todd’ showing that night! The performance was excellent and we had a great time. It was really good the have done something like that as it is one of the best Opera Houses in the world! I may go and see Macbeth soon too!

The 26th was Australia Day! Pat, Tim and I met up with Sam and we all went into the streets of Sydney to see the festivities taking place. Well there were a lot of people about and many street bands playing. We found an awesome cake bakery and gorged ourselves on sweet pastries!!! We then walked over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and took some photos, before heading to Luna Park.

Around 6:30pm we got into line at Luna Park for the ‘My Chemical Romance’ gig! On the way in the security decided to change the entry rules so that No cameras were now allowed into the venue! Never mind, the gig totally rocked! Pat and Tim stayed at the back to drink but Sam and I got right up the front, not ten feet from the band… excellent!!! As I said the band was on the ball and the crowd responded, an awesome experience! I believe that ‘Slayer’ is playing soon so I may try and see them too! After the gig we spent an hour or two taking night photos on the bridge, before getting a late Hungry Jacks (Oz’s Burger King).

Today we got up late again and chilled. In the afternoon we went shopping for a few things and Sam met us. We had dinner and went to the cinema to see Apocalypto, which I quite enjoyed. Oh by the way I would recommend to anyone to go and see Pan’s Labyrinth, a really good fantasy fairy tale, come gory film! I now have the soundtrack to the film on my iPod!

So anyway, we are again up to date. It is now 2am so I had better head off to bed as we begin our road trip in the morning!! Yup tomorrow we head into the Blue Mountains. So until I write again, take care and I am only a phone call away.

John aka Baity aka Jersey signing off….