Wednesday 10 April I was up at half 8 making Ruby a ginger and lemon hot drink as she was still feeling ill. She called in sick at work and ended up staying in bed for the rest of the day. When I eventually got out the house I had a wonder around Bondi Beach (on a glorious sunny day I have to add) which was really pretty - white sand, blue sea, cliff edges and a nice grass area. As the sun was up the vibe around the beach town was buzzing, people sunbathing, going for coffee, picnics in the park and too many people jogging! I didn't really know what to do after, so I was going to head into the city. I asked the bus drivers which bus I needed to get and how to get a ticket, as on some buses you have to have paid and collected a ticket from a newsagent before you actually get on the bus. Some buses won't even let you pay on the bus, you have to have pre-paid. Odd system or what. So the drivers turned their nose up when I said to the city as their reply was "why would you go there when the weather is this good." So I asked them if they had any suggestions and they told me to jump on the bus that was about to leave to Watson Bay and wonder around there. So I did and arrived at a beautiful bay that had a great coastal walk looking out at the city, watching yachts sail by. I just had to keep stopping to take in the scenery and remember where I was...especially when I looked down at one sandy bay to find a bunch of old naked men on the nudist beach (not a sight I thought I would see in Sydney I must admit!) After this, it was time to head back to Bondi to check on Ruby and top up on credit before I met with Toby for dinner. Ok, so I now know never to use Telstra as a mobile network. They are so expensive, I have spent $40 in probably less than 4 weeks and I have only been sending texts here and there, no big phone calls or anything, it's really expensive. There aren't actually many mobile networks out here in Oz. I can only think of about 4 that people have told me about so I guess there isn't much competition out there so they can charge lots. Telstra is good for getting signal everywhere, but much more expensive than Vodaphone for example. Oh I'll stop groaning, I have groaned enough about Telstra already! So Ruby was still in bed, looking rough. I headed off out to meet Toby in Newtown. 3 bus rides later and probably about 2 hours later I made it! It was a cool place, lots of restaurants, especially Thai, but also Mexican, Japanese and most importantly some amazing chocolate cafes. Ok so why don't we have these in England! They are pure chocolate shops, selling amazing hot chocolates of all kinds and every food related to chocolate, such as Waffles with chocolate or strawberrys, or marshmellows...amazing! So Toby met me at the station - was so lovely to see him. It wasn't even odd that we were meeting on the other side of the world, it just seemed so normal! It was really good to chat with him and it was kind-of a home comfort too, so really cool to catch up. He took me to a cool Mexican place where I tucked into a massive chicken burrito before we took a stroll down the road and ended up in one of these chocolate shops! YIPEEEE. It was Kelly heaven, and yes I have taken photos, I couldn't resist. Toby had a Thick Italian Milk Hot chocolate which was delicious, but I couldn't order the same so ended up ordering a hot chocolate with crispy waffle. It was nice, but I would definitely order Toby's if I was to go there again (which undoubtedly I will! Haha) He then drove me back in his bosses car and Kelly miss pro navigator got us there easy J

Thursday morning I was up at 8am to Skype the parents - now that's dedication from a daughter if there ever was ey! I could have been sleeping..everyone else was. But lovely to talk to you parents ;)

After munching on my museli, I walked the popular costal walk from Bondi to Cogee Beach. I can see why it's so popular, the views were stunning! I could seriously stare out at those views all day every day and probably never get bored. On the side of each beach was an open pool which was literally placed in the sea. How cool. And on the top of one cliff was a bowling green for the grannies - what a great place to retire. Great views and a bit of bowls...they probably finish off with some cream tea too I bet. Oh, how the other half live. So the walk was fab, and I stopped and people watched when I arrived in Coggee beach. Then I jumped on the bus to Circular Quays where I went to meet Lisa (a girl who has a spare seat in her 4X4 to travel up the East Coast!) Sydney harbour = beautiful. And the Opera house too. I didn't get to see it properly because we were too busy chatting but I plan to go there tomorrow and check it out. Lisa is from Germany (yes another German!) but she is lovely and we got on really well. We did a quick tour then grabbed some lunch in a food court and took it to Darling Harbour to have a mini picnic. We chatted for ages and decided that we could have some fun together on the trip. I went to explore a little bit more, even though my feet were KILLING me by this point, but I felt like I hadn't seen the city at all so needed to feel like I had achieved something sightseeing in the day. I went back to Rubys to find that she had been to the doctors, had 2 jabs in her butt, been given a load of antibiotics and told that she was really sick and contagious. So I gave her a big hug, told her she needed to get better soon, packed my bags and left. And I'm now in YHA Hostel in Glebe just outside of the main city. The hostel was $34.50 and it's really nothing special and not even sociable. Hence I'm here catching up on the blog again (I don't want to leave it so long next time). I think I will have a shower and head to bed because I do need another really good nights sleep. Geeze, 3 nights going to bed at 3.30am and getting up at 7am has killed me. I can't handle it. My eyes have been twitching all day because I'm still so tired. But I will be able to have a good day sightseeing tomorrow and then I have a weekend with Laura and Toby! YiPEEE. So exicted.

Friday 12 April, I checked out of the hostel at 9am and made my way to Laura's work to drop off my bags. I managed to find her building down the main road right in the centre of town. She was on level 8, so the views were incredible! It was great to see her, she was all dressed up looking very sophisticated in work. We had a quick catch up and then I left her to get on with work...didn't want her getting told off as she started the new job in January. I set off for the day...ended up walking everywhere! Saw The Rocks, which is an area just west of Sydney harbour which was full of coffee shops and sweet little streets with boutique shops. The I walked around to Sydney harbour...it was incredible. Beautiful in the sun...so I started taking photos of mini spec ted in front of Sydney Opera House. He was reluctant to have his photo taken, so wouldn't stand up for me, he just kept falling over. I think he was worried all the other photographers behind were staring at him and he was concerned that he was looking too dirty as his t-shirt is rather dirty (afterall I haven't washed his t-shirt on this trip yet! Ops, sorry Spec Ted). A lovely lady came up and offered to comfort him and hold him up whilst I took a photo. Then she got me to have my photo take with him. They ended up using their SLR camera and said they would send me the photo via email to me as it was better quality...how sweet of them! I then explored Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Garden which were beautiful. I just kept walking and tried to see everything I could. It was 6pm so I grabbed a McDonalds Chai Latte (which I must admit is the best Chai Latte I've had in Oz!) and went back to meet Laura. We then jumped on a bus to Lauras apartment in Narrabeel which was about 50 minutes away. It was a lovely place, right by the sea and it had with a balcony looking out. We went to the shops to get some food and we spent the night making stir fry, drinking wine and chatting! It was a great night.

In the morning we were both up at about 9am and went for a run. Laura went to the lake and I stupidly went to the beach...big mistake. I was out of breath within 2 minutes of running the sand was so soft, I just kept sinking into it. I made it 10 minutes along the beach and decided to run back because not only was I out of breath but my legs were starting to burn! I managed to do a bit of Davina as well as Laura was still out running. Breakfast was deliciously healthy - we had grapes, water melon, yoghurt, glass of orange juice and museli. Laura really did spoil me!

We then went in the sea and attempted to body board J The waves were great but I wasn't managing to catch the waves to surf on. A lifeguard on the shore could see I was clearly a first timer at this so she soon paddled out to us to tell us to swim out diagonally across the waves so it would be easier and then showed us how to catch a wave properly. It was great fun when I actually caught a couple of waves, you get a real buzz from it. I caught a really big wave and ended up beached on the sand. I was cheering to myself that I managed to get on it but to my embarrassment I looked up and all the other lifeguards were stood there staring and clapping at me. I felt like a little kid again and clearly looked/sounded like one too!

So after a run and a swim in the sea we went back to the apartment and enjoyed relaxing in the sun on the balcony with a cuppa tea and the left over stir fry we had made the previous night. It was delicious. When Toby arrived with "Red Danger Mau5" (their shiny new Toyota Yaris) we tested him out and drove to Manly. It's a really cool place; a long sandy beach on one side and a harbour just 5 minutes walk in the opposite direction, lots of ice cream shops and bars. As it was a Saturday evening everybody was out enjoying the weather with ice creams and beers! We went to a Mexican and bought Beef and Nachos (the Chicken Burrito I had the other night with Toby was better but it was still delicious) and had it on the public benches looking out at the harbour. We were so full we decided to walk off our dinner before treating ourselves to Max Brenna Chocolate Sundae (Laura's favourite and I think I can now say my favourite...it was FULL of everything choclatey - brownies, chocolate waffle, chocolate ice cream and a bowl of melted chocolate that you poured over the top and it would harden...oh gosh I'm drooling at the thought of it. D..E...L..I..C...I...O...U...S!!!

Having stuffed ourselves with some great food we went back to the apartment, got all comfy in our PJs and blankets and watched an Australian film (can't remember what it was called)...Laura and I may have fallen asleep!

Sunday morning we were up and in the sea by 10am trying out body boarding again. I was much better this time J I managed to catch about 3 waves before I was shattered. Toby didn't even last one wave, he was exhausted so ended up sunbathing on the beach whilst Laura and I were tackling the waves. In the afternoon they took me up North to where Hollyoaks is filmed. We walked up to the lighthouse and had a tour for $5. It was actually really interesting. Laura bought apples, water and a delicious banana cake that she made early in the morning (she is one of a kind!) - so after the lighthouse, we found a rock to sit on where we could soak in the sun rays, enjoy the view and tuck into her yummy banana cake. Perfect! The sea was so blue, the sand was white, the sky was clear and I was with great company...wouldn't have wanted to change a thing that day. We then ended up in a pub with more great views...more food (yummy potato wedges) and a good old cider. Back at the apartment we chilled on the balcony until the sun went down with some cheese and biscuits whilst assessing the surfers out at sea. There were lots of kite surfers too - it looks so fun I really want to try it! It looks like a sport that is challenging at first but then once you've got the hang of it then it would be quite easy. Toby left early evening and then we just chilled for the rest of the night, chatting and watching some American comedy show. Then Laura and I said our goodbyes too as she was up early.