OK Phew...well finally here in Melbourne after a hectic week! So here's the update for now! On exploring Sydney myself and Uncle Benny did spot Russel Crows boat out in the Harbour...not sure if he was in it or not though... I stayed in Sydney for a few more days and caught up with Mark (fellow traveller from East Coast!), we went to the Blue Mountains on a day trip which was highly amusing. Our guide 'Terry' apparently knew Nicole Kidman...oh and David Bellamy...and several other famous people! We decided to head to Melbourne and managed to hire a car for 2 days, so off we cruised down the Hume highway towards Canberra...the Nations Capital! Canberra was really nice, very organised and perfectly laid out city although extremely quiet. Its really hard to believe its the capital. Our timing was brilliant and as we waltzed into the Houses of Parliment (literally you just stroll on in!) we were told it was question time and John Howard (the PM for those who don't know) was sitting...so we got to watch Australian MPs b****ing and arguing over current affairs!! Afterwards we visited the war museum which was excellent and made it for the closing ceromony where the pipes were played...a pretty impressive memorial. Having been driving for a good few hours, we stopped for a night in a little village called Cooma which is right next to the Snowy Mountains, although we never saw them! It was colder though! We found a local pub that had rooms and stopped there to be pleasantly surprised by the locals! So the evening was spent chatting to our new Aussie friends with a schooner of beer!! (or 2...) The next day we were meant to be heading to Melbourne but after severel hours of driving we realised it was a bit of an impossible task so extended the car and stopped the night in Foster. We tracked down the only backpackers and found it was full! But luckily they put us up in our own holiday apartment which was a really nice 2 bedroomed place with everything you could want for the same price!! After a leisurly start the next day we came across Phillip Island which Mark pointed out was home of the Superbike World Championship that weekend so we stopped to check it out and spent a brilliant afternoon watching the races and cheering on James Toseland who was the 2004 world champion and is a relative of Marks ex!! Didn't get to meet him though, but I think I'm now becoming a fan of superbikes!! It was incredible the speed they go at and the way they control the bikes!! Anyway to top the day of racing off, once we got into Melbourne we drove round the Grand Prix track thats been set up for this years race! Mark left today to go back to Brisbane so I'm left to look for a job and hopefully an apartment rather than a hostel for the next few weeks...wish me luck as its not gonna be easy!!! Hope you're all cool and having fun in the snow back in England!! Its getting cold here...down to the late 20's now!! ha ha!! ;-) take it easy, me xxx