Please welcome, for what may well be the last time (sob), the travelling extravaganza ... Claire McGrory ...Hello everyone! The Thailand Three have reunited and, as our aunt Chia suggested, are now TAT! While James & Rois looked after little things like jobs, accommodation etc. I took myself off to see Australia, just to test it out for them of course! I have had such a wonderful time.I flew into Sydney where I spent three days wandering about. I didn't manage to sleep on the flight from Bangkok to Sydney and arrived in Sydney at 5am. I tried to push on through and did quite well until about 6pm where I slept through about three stops on the tour bus! The Opera House tour was the highlight of Sydney for me. It is such a clever building. The next stop was Ayers Rock for a camping safari! This was unbelievable. We saw the rock at sunset and sunrise, walked round the base of the rock and found out so much about the Aborigines. On the second night we took our sleeping bags out of the tent and slept under the stars. There wasn't a light or sound in sight and I have never seen so many stars. I saw three shooting stars before falling asleep.From there I headed to the Whitsundays where a group of 28 of us sailed around the islands for two days. I had my second attempt at snorkelling! It was slightly more successful than mine and Rois' Thailand experience - mainly because we got dropped into the water from the boat - much better! The trip lasted five days and the group was great fun. We had another night of camping, went into the rainforest near Cairns and went diving in the Great Barrier Reef. The colours were fantastic and we saw turtles and a stingray! On the last day I had the chance to cuddle a koala! They sleep for twenty hours a day so you are lucky to get one awake! I also fed a kangaroo, which was great until it started licking my hand - that is my wildlife bit done for now!The time flew before I was on my sixth flight and heading to Rois & James and their new home. They have got a lovely house, near to everything you could need and their housemates are great. We visited the Victoria Markets where there are stalls and stalls of fresh food, clothes - everything! I would do some damage if I was living here for the next five months so look out for some new clothing purchases in James & Rois' photos! That night James was working so Rois and I did what needed to be done - headed to the cinema to see Sex & The City with our Aussie cinema snacks - frozen coke and Cadbury's chocolate with sprinkles in! The next day we headed to the beach and went on a long walk, stopping for some fish and chips. It really is winter here - I've had five layers on! We were so happy to meet up with our cousin Eoghan & his girlfriend Fiona who have been travelling in Australia too. James made kangaroo bolognaise and we headed down to the pub. Lots of pictures to follow.So now it's time for me to head home. It has been so much fun to share such a great experience with Rois and James. If anyone spots any bargain flights to Oz, I can recommend a pair of wonderful tour guides (although I would go with James rather than Rois for the snorkelling - he made it past the coral!)! So now it's just me and James again. As Claire suggests, if there's anyone else out there who fancies a gander in Melbourne, we're ready and waiting with spare bedding and plenty more "'roo" dinners! We will certainly miss Miss C McG. Anyway, we are feeling increasingly settled in Melbourne - we're learning how to return 'Guddays', to call wine 'goon', we're learning how to dodge the 'tram Nazis', and generally acclimatising to the climate! James is settled in a good job in a nice cafe, and I am enjoying a good deal of temp work, mainly working as a receptionist, where I come across a lot of interest in my name and my accent, and how the two marry! James cycles to and from work everyday (10km round trip), whilst I cram onto the rush-hour trams with all the other 'suits'! We're very happy to be in Melbourne, and to have found such a wonderful setting to take a break from out-of-the-bag living. The next step is to buy enough things to fill more than one drawer each - we've got 6!! All our love and thoughts always xxx