Thanks for all the messages since my last input, things are a lot better now, my Bruce Forsythe impression (apparently not that bad but to me felt enormous) has subsided, I can talk and eat properly now, which is great!

On Friday, I met up with Fizz and we headed over to Manly on the ferry. It's a small island (i think) popular with sydneysiders who go over there for a break, or retire over there. It's a nice place, was quite busy when we went over, I think it was the time of year but had some nice beaches. We walked around the edge of the beach and headed up to a point where we could look out and see everything going on. The surfers were crazy but cool! Going further out than I would have (i don't like swimming where the water turns so dark I can't see what's underneath me). We saw lots of local schools heading down to the beach for their weekly surf lessons- some really young kids! How cool would that be, if your p.e. curriculum included one hour of surf or water safety lessons each week. Awesome. It was nice to get out and about, and head over to somewhere different.

That night Claire came back to Sydney and invited me out with her to meet some friends. She said she'd met a couple in Magnetic Island and were really nice. When she started describing this couple, I realised i'd met them a few times along the coast, once in 1770 and then again in Hervey Bay! That's a common occurance when you're on the east coast, at some point along the way you'll see lots of people you met earlier in your travels, because most people are doing the same route! My point proved the next night when they invited their friend along who had just got to sydney- she was also in my surf lesson in 1770 and I spied her again in Byron Bay the previous week! Anyway, we had a great night at the local Irish pub Paddy Maguires. The band were great and did some really good covers... playing my current favourite song twice. Unfortunately the Chili Pepper's tribute band the following night (that didn't actually play any Chili Peppers) weren't as good, so it was an early- and cold night.

On Saturday morning Claire and I headed over to Glebe Street market, to have a look at what that was like. Glebe is a lovely area, very quirky, bohemian and chilled out, it had some lovely looking cafes and restaurants. The market was possibly the best market i've ever seen, it was awesome! Really beautiful jewellry, good food and some alternative stuff I haven't seen at other markets. The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny, it was a great morning. We started to head over to Newtown afterwards, where the weather changed quite suddenly. It was cold, windy and raining, so we decided to head back to the hostel and chill out there before we went out. When we met up with Lewis and Lisa, and their room mate Ann-Marie we decided that the following day we would meet up for the day and check out the thai food festival and the fireworks at hte Opera House. It rained all morning, by the time we met up we were in Starbucks drinking coffee and eating chocolate muffins (or at least, I was). Because of the weather, and because there were lovely decorations out, with Christmas songs playing, it actually felt like Christmas! Which i haven't had yet. Seeing Christmas decs up in the sun just makes me think that people haven't bothered to take them down since the last year, i still find it odd. Anyway, we headed over to look at the Thai food festival, me buying a white poncho on the way. I think I looked like an angel, the others didn't agree. The festival was great, we filled out a questionnaire about thai prawns and were given free orange caps! Which looked awesome on all of us of course. Lewis and Ann Marie were very excited about the monorail so we had to go on that, which gave us a break from the weather. The monorail goes round in a small circle, and I'm convinced you can get to the places quicker on foot, but never mind, they enjoyed themselves.

After that we walked over to Circular Quay to see how the plans for the Australian Pop Idol were going, and suss out where we were going to stand for the fireworks. We couldn't actually see anything, and as we had no idea who was in the final we decided not to stick around (sorry Lucas, that's why you couldn't see me on the TV!) and headed to a pub to sit down, eat (again) and have a drink. While we were there a rowdy lot came in, loads of guys half cut who had been to some kind of function, judging from the shirts and ties they were wearing. Anyway, bouncers appeared, gave them 2 minutes until someone dropped a glass, then chucked the lot of them out. It took 2 minutes for the police to turn up, and they were out of there! In australia there is zero tolerance for drunken abuse. If you even look drunk they'll escort you off the premises, unlike england where they let you continue til you can't stand up then throw you out onto the street. It was refreshing to see.

So, it wasn't long, once we'd watched the 'entertainment' and eaten our pizzas (mine was roasted pumpkin, feta and pinenuts... mmmmmmmm) we wandered over to the other side of Circular Quay to get a decent view, and wow did we get one. It was simply stunning. Ann Marie showed me how to get some black and white pics of the fireworks, and how to get the best shot in colour, and i hope you enjoy them. It was simply lovely, and I bet at New Years it would be even more awesome with the atmosphere and everything.

So now I have not long arrived in Canberra, I'm here for 2 nights then heading off to Melbourne for a few weeks. Not sure there's much to do here, I haven't heard many rave reviews about the place, but it's a nice break going from one big city to another. Will honestly put the pics up very soon, just going to see how I do it on this computer.

Look forward to hearing from you all, lots of love as always

xxxxxx