It's my last night in Sydney, a Friday night and I'm in!! However, I have a bus which is a 3 day trip down to Melbourne tomorrow at 7am so I'm going to keep it tame.

I met up with Tasha in the evening and her boyfriend kindly picked us up which was nice rather than the bus. Then her mum cooked us a lovely pork chop dinner and it was so nice to have a base and have a real house and be looked after. We had dinner, a glass of wine and just chatted which was really nice.

In the morning Tasha headed off to work and I met up with the Oz experience guys. Annoyingly (after I had boasted) the weather wasn't as sunny and it was raining and actually quite cloudy. Nevertheless we had a bit of a wander of the city. We walked along George Street most of the way and then made our way to the Harbour. We got our first glimpses of the Opera House and the Bridge and it felt so surreal. You spend ages thinking about coming, arrange it, get here and it just doesn't feel real but it was pretty incredible. Then we booked a tour of the opera house. As we were waiting for that, we wandered the botanical gardens and got a good view of the Opera House and the Bridge. The tour was really good and insightful. It's interesting to hear that the guy who designed resigned from the project due to pressure from the government because it was costing too much money. They carried on the design without him and he never came back to see it. It's quite sad really. We walked up on the bridge as well.

That evening, we went to the Opera Bar and I had a glass of brut and Tasha came to meet us which was really nice. Then we went to a bar which was a bit cheaper for a couple. After a couple, we headed home, had another home-cooked meal of spag bol which was delicious and then just watched some TV.

The next morning, rather energetically I made use of Tasha's pool and gym that is part of the apartment block so I managed to fit in a bit of exercise which was nice for a change. Then I met up with Emma and Steve who I had left in Cairns and the Oz Experience guys. We walked along George Street down to the harbour again and got some sunny photos of the bridge and the opera house. We sat on the grass round the bridge and just chilled out a bit which was nice. Then, we walked towards Darling Harbour and then Emma and Steve headed off and we walked to the Establishment bar to meet Tasha.We got 2 free drinks, for being ladies so we stayed for those and went on to Ryan's bar in Australia square for some drinks outside and some pizza and wedges. We proceeded to have a fair bit of white wine but a really fun night which ended up in Mc Donald's.

This morning Tasha had the day off so we got the bus to meet up with the others. HOwever, we took a mini detour and ended up the other side of the bridge because we hadn't realised quite how far the bus went. Anyway, it means I can say that I've been over the bridge and then we ended up on 2 trains to get back to the meeting point where we met up to get the ferry to Manly which was really nice. The sun was out but there were also clouds which made it a bit cooler but nice. We stayed on the beach for a few hours watching the surfers, got an ice cream and headed back on the ferry. I had to say bye to the Oz experience guys after 3 weeks :( I headed home with Tasha and then she drove me to Bondi Beach so I could see that before I left. Then we went to the supermarket to get some fajita stuff to cook for her parents as a thank you for letting me stay. The food was delicious and now it's bedtime.

I'm looking forward to Melbourne and am on the same bus tomorrow as 3 of the girls from the Oz experience which will be nice.

Hope all is ok in the UK xxx