It's been a couple of slow news days here in Oz. We had a total non-day yesterday, travelling down from Byron Bay to Port Macquarie on the Greyhound for seven hours. The air conditioning was on ridiculously strong on the bus (it was like being back in the design studio!) and Jim and I only just escaped without frostbite. I mostly listened to my iPod before taking pity on Jim's unsuccessful attempts to revive his and lending him mine. I then watched the film ('50 First Dates' - total pap but I'd invested a good hour of my life watching it so was a bit put out when I missed the ending).

When we arrived at Port Macquarie I was knackered, bordering on braindead, and craving my sofa and contact with home in a big way. So I was a bit of a grump! The most exciting thing that happened to me yesterday was totally gashing up my ankle on the weighted door at the service station whilst struggling to carry two mugs of tea at once. Jim just laughed.

I woke up today in a slightly better mood but after seeing the sights of Port Macquarie, which took all of ten minutes, I regressed back into a sulk again! I'm rubbish company at the moment! No, I'm painting a really bad picture of the place - it's not unpleasant, there's just very little there bar a beach and some really cool boulders on the sea front that have been painted in all different colours and customised by individuals (some have birthday messages on, others have flags, pieces of art, random advice etc.). And we met some very nice people at the hostel who we hung around with today for a bit - Will from Manchester and Olly from London.

We left Port Macquarie at about 6pm but the bus was an hour late so we didn't arrive here in Newcastle until 10pm. Consequently, it was dark when we rocked up so I can't really tell what it looks like yet. But the omens are good: it seems a lot bigger than Port Macquarie, the hostel is amazing and there's a sign on the noticeboard here that says it was 32 degrees today! Yippee! Anyway, we'll have a look around tomorrow and I'll let you know what it's like.

Love you lots x x x

P.S. A couple of quote of the days for you...
Yesterday: "Savage bliss" - a brand of condoms sold in the men's toilets at the service station
Today: "You turd burgler" - shouted by a random tramp sat at a bus stop, directed at some hapless, passing cyclist (context is all).