Usually when you have a cash flow problem and attempt to book into a hostel they'll throw you out faster than Victoria will leave a restaurant that doesn't serve garlic bread. In Coffs Harbour, however, the Plantation Hotel will allow you to stay for free on the condition that you go and watch the Vanilla Ice gig in their downstairs club. Yes, we saw the real Vanilla Ice, legend of such hits as Ice Ice Baby and...erm...the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles soundtrack. ...

Perhaps it's because we're packing up 'The Sham' and leaving Sydney that my head can't create a coherent blog. It could also be because Victoria (sorry...Santa) bought me Lego for Christmas and I've got my mind on that. Just like the Queen, I could ramble on about a hat and hope that everybody's still suitably full of brandy not to notice. However, Santa did bring me a load of shiny new bullet points aswell, so it would be a shame not to use them...Christmas in S...

Should We Stay or Should We Goa? Jamie Oliver stood on an elderly Italian bloke's shoulders and tried to dislodge a wild mushroom from a tree trunk using a knife on a pole. As we watched, we decided that it was time to invigorate our adventurous side, not by poking around in forests trying to find the perfect ingredients for a mushroom risotto, but by planning the next leg of a journey. On December the 28th we will be leaving for the land of perrenial diarrhoea,...

Two weeks ago on Melbourne Cup Day, Victoria fell asleep on her bus back from work and ended up in Canterbury, about five suburbs away from home. Although hilarious, I pointed out the dangers of napping on public transport; such as missing Neighbours. The cup is the horse race that stops the nation and is a public holiday in Melbourne and some lucky people in Sydney get the afternoon off work as Australia goes gambling mad. It was gambling Sydneysiders that funde...

As the airbed on Mark's floor became deflated we moved into a hostel in the ever so slightly seedy area of King's Cross, where if you're not a prostitute, drug dealer or policeman you're a backpacker or a pigeon. Hitting a highly stressful patch in our travels, we decided to do something that has comforted us across the world; no, not abusing alcohol....gawping at strange animals. Featherdale Wildlife Park (an hour out of the city) allowed Victoria the opportuni...