Hello again - here comes Sydney!!

After being abit unimpressed by the change in pace of Perth, I was pretty excited about flying to Sydney. My beautiful friend Marita, who I met in Bangkok, kindly collected me from the airport, and took me to her place - which has a perfect view of BONDI BEACH!! Oh my god - her place is immense - the back has waves crashing against it and the front has a perfect view of Bondi!! After ordering in some Thai food for old times sake, we went for a few beers (which ended about 3am) to The Bondi Hotel. This then encouraged another lazy day of watching all the cheap DVDs she had bought it Thailand!!

Marita is part of the North Bondi Voluntary Lifeguard rescue team (there are two voluntarty clubs - Bondi and North Bondi, and then there is the paid club who patrol 365 days of the year - just abit of info for you there!) and I got to go to their Christmas party. It was hilarious - it was brilliant, and really lovely for me cos it is one of those things that I felt quite lucky to attend. I'll put the photos on, and they are hilarious! The night was another late one. A band played, then we all rolled onto the Bondi Hotel again - this time we left at 4am!!

I am totally in love with Bondi - apart from the fact eveyone is so fit and health conscious. It does really rub off on you. I was really suprised by how much I like Bondi, as everyone says its so pretentious and full of posers, but its not. Its an absolutely beautiful setting, and you can walk all the way around to at least five other stunning beaches along the rock front. There are alot of surfer dudes, but I wouldn't say posers, I would say they were people who love the surf and that's why they bloody live at Bondi! People are prob just jealous!

One day, Marita wasn't feeling too hot, so I took myself off on my own to discover Sydney! It was wicked - it was so lovely after a few days to be back in traveller mode - I was armed with my backpack, my map and my camera, and I had the best day. Walked down to Darling Harbour, which is just stunning - walked all around, and went on the monorail (which FYI is a waste of time - the seats face inward so you can't see anything and the windows are darkened so you can't take any pics). Then I went to the CentrePoint building, where in the 3D cinema/ride thing after, I met the lovely Andy Kirkman. He gets a special mention in my blog becasue if all goes to plan, you will be hearing much more about him. After spending the rest of the day together - seeing Hyde Park, The Queen Victoria Building, The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge - we discovered that we were both heading to Melbourne on the same day. Andy had been looking into doing a vehicle relocation for the trip (where are company gives you a van they need moved, fill it up with petrol, and you have a certain number of days to get it to whatever city). Anyway, turns out when we called them all that there was nothing available for when we wanted to go, so we looked into hiring a car, which was abit too expensive and we were on a time scale, so not worth it. We ended up spending the next few days together, and flying to Melbourne together (which BTW, due to flights being so cheap now, is less than the bus or the train, which both take a day - how ridiculous!!). Anyway - what came out of this is that we are going to travel up the East Coast together!! We are going to hire a campervan for a month and take it up to Cairnes. We are going to look for two additional recruits, and the trip is going to start . . . 7th of January (aka my birthday) from Sydney! I am so excited. Andy is wicked and we get on really well, and it would be lovely to be travelling with someone for a while. It also means we can unload our stuff abit, and really see some of Australia. Most the companies give you camping gear, so we can head into the outback abit too!! Bring it on - I am so excited now!!

Also met up with Jess, who I was in Chaing Mai and Pai with, and went out for her b'day with her new housemate Nat (they are friends from home and living in Bondi now). They have been really lucky as finding a place can be really difficult and furnishing it for only 6 months. Anyway, they were walking along with a mattress they had found - nice! when a slightly crazy lady started talking to them and asking if they wanted anymore stuff. They fell in love with her, and went with her to see what she had. Turned out she was minted, and had an enitre garage full of unwanted furniture. They agreed that if they cleared and tidied the entire thing they could have the lot. She's also offered them work in her cafe, which they have happily accepted - cool story huh!