Well, mooched about Melbourne a bit, locally yesterday, and in the city centre today. Locally, it's cool and a bit arty, something like Lark Lane. The city centre, well, it's got trams, lots of coffee shops, loads of shopping arcades...it's just missing something. A big bridge, a white pointy opera house, and a bunch of ferries sailing around a beautiful harbour would improve it no end! Maybe that's a bit harsh, we'll give Melbourne more time to grow on us, THEN...

Sue and Brett, who Sal knows from their time in the UK, when they worked at RSA, kindly offered to take us out and show us around Sydney and Wollongong, and we had a lovely day! First stop, Paddington Market, for a nose 'round and a flat white or a long black (coffee!), followed by a scenic drive down the coast stopping at the Scarborough Hotel for lunch. Then on to Sue and Brett's home town of Port Kembla, for coffee, cake, and a lovely dip in the pool! After ...

Another lovely day, we took the ferry to Watson Bay, Sal sunbathed on the beautiful beach, while I chilled out in the shade watching the yachts sail around Sydney harbour. We wandered around looking at the gorgeous houses, then we had fish and chips from Doyles, a Sydney institution, apparently! Back the hotel, a quick shower, then out to Sydney Opera House for 'Soap', a production incorporating modern dance, mime, burlesque, and acrobatics...it was bloody awful...

After a fine meal last night, we were up early today, as we were booked on the Wine Tour and Tasting experience. The tour was good, but the idea of wine-tasting at 10am? You'll also probably know what light-weight drinkers we are, too! But we were fine, as only light sippage was required! We finished the tour, and headed back to Sydney, Sal navigated well again, and with only minimal stress, we made it safely back to The Harbour Rocks by tea-time!

So, the Blue Mountains, very wet sadly! We went to the fantastic 'Scenic World', and went on the famous 'Skyway', 'Cableway', and 'Scenic Railway', and saw b*****-all, Lamby is on the glass floor of the cable-car, btw,( oh, ok, we got a fleeting glimpse of the famous Katoomba Falls, through the mist! ). But on the upside, we didn't have to queue for any of the rides! So it wasn't all doom and gloom! We did stop off on the drive from Katoomba to Pokolbin, when wea...