Alroight duuudes! Sweet surf at the Beach of Bondi this fine day. That's right, we've been tackling the jellies and catching the EAC right past Sydney.

Nemo quotes aside, we did indeed go to Bondi today but it was not a completely pleasant tale. Be prepared for a tale of woe.

Yesterday proved most productive; Howie stayed at home and applied for jobs, while I hitched a ride on the magic Sydney railway to the centre, where I indulged in a Max Brenner hot chocolate and cruised the shops. When I got, an email from an Education Agency was awaiting for me (hoorah!) and I am to call back Monday to arrange registration.

Today we moved house. We had previously been in Room 8, a 'cosy, intimate' room the size of a postage stamp. We moved into Room 24, which in comparison is like a mansion. There's practically an echo. After moving, of course, it had gone lunchtime, so our proposed walk from Bondi to Coogee was looking unlikely. We did think, however, that we would go for the 'relaxed' option of cycling out to Bondi and 'hanging out'. Well, as you can imagine, if it involves a bicycle, the likelihood is there are going to be 'hilarious' anecdotes resulting. And you wouldn't be wrong.

13km isn't a very long way, in reality. I wanted to go on the bus; Howie wanted to cycle. I felt so bad for not wanting to cycle that I felt I should cycle. So we cycled. 13km across Sydney is horrendous. At one point, I had just tackled a long, steep hill and was crossing a major junction with 3 lane traffic each way and with Howie yelling 'Come on Darlin'' as he darted across the road, practically tally-ho-ing his way across the city. By this point, my neck hurt because of my uber-crud bike helmet and I was in no mood to flap about on a busy road. My bike is, it seems, a tad too big for me, so when I tried to push off from the kerb to manouever across said mammoth road, I couldn't quite get up to sit on my seat properly. I toppled in the middle of the road (didn't quite fall off) but it was incredibly embarrassing and horribly worrying, seeing as we hadn't even gotten to Bondi yet and I knew we would have to come back. We got to Bondi in the end, but not after I had whispered into the handlebar of my bike, 'I hate you. I HATE you and I'm going to put you on the scrap. I HATE you'. I almost told my bike I hope it gets stolen, but I didn't think I would tempt fate.

Bondi, as it turns out, is pretty great. Ok, it's kind of tacky in many ways, with shedloads of tourists and more posers than you can shake a stick at, but we had some great food and smoothies, and sat on the beach watching the surfers. In was pretty ace.

I won't go into details about the ride back, but do let me say that such was my pride wrecked by the horrendous ride there, that I felt a little bit of shame to see my poor little bike sitting waiting for me patiently, all chained up and practically begging to be ridden somewhere. So to make up for my being so mean to my bicycle, I rode back with vigour and enthusiasm and even managed to negotiate the city streets in the dark (yes, it took that long to cycle back).

Back at home, we cooked ourselves some real Aussie grub - kangaroo meat. We made some roo mince (*sob*) into burritos and had some homemade guacamole to go with it. Scrumptious and heartily recommended.

Everyone seems to be out celebrating Halloween here (either that or there are lots of very very ugly people roaming the streets of Sydney) so we might celebrate by watching a scary film. But not like Wolf Creek again or I might not even step outside.