It has occurred to me that I have perhaps been a bit rubbish at the whole blogging thing. I haven't exactly taken to it like a duck to water. I couldn't sleep cos the philipino bloke in our room is snoring like a proper james blunt so I thought I'd come down and attempt to give some sort of account of what I've been doing with myself since i got to Sydney.

I don't really know what i expected when I got here. Seeing the sights countless times on TV makes it a bit weird when you actually see it all infront of you. I think the first times I saw the harbour bridge and the opera house on the horizon, i was slightly disappointed. I reckon the opera house neds a bit of a clean. Maybe its cos the first time I saw it we were having a bit of a murky day. Me and Rich have been sharing a room with Emma (19, Rippon) and Dean (21, Essex). Although we have only known them a couple of days, its quite cool to have some more familiar faces. First day we did some sort of walk that the lonely planet suggested we do. I think the initial twinge of disappointment might have came due to the fact that I loved Melbourne so much and i don't quite get the same vibe here. I was hoping that what Bill Granger had told me would be true. maybe it is and I'm just missing it. i dunno. one thing for sure is that its ridiculously expensive. more so than melbourne. probably more so than London. Booze especially. crack's cheap though so thats ok. in protest over sydney's obnoxious pricing, we bought some really REALLY cheap wine and got trashed in the room. The following morning, Dean and Emma went off to Bondi whilst Richartd and I made our way in the heat towards the CBD and the chinese gardens. They were quite nice. We threw an AFL ball around (badly) in the park near the botanical gardens. It was ridiculously hot that day and there was a wedding. We walked past to check it out and saw the bride smoking. Classy. We later bought a picnic for the Mardi Gras. We congregated in Hyde park and ate our measly sandwiches and continued to get absolutely smashed on cheap wine and later take in the festival on Oxford St. We managed to get quite a good view after a slight altercatio with a tall german in socks and sandals. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. i haven't laughed that much in ages. Some of the floats were hilarious. I was pretty gutted that I missed the riot when I went to the toilet. i couldn't find any of the others when i made my way back so decided to walk back to the hostel by myself. It took a good couple of hours as i had no idea where it was. Some old bloke propositioned me so I ran away quickly and had a dodgy hotdog and called mum which I'm sure she appreciated. We ended up in the Scary canary 9the bar attatched to the Base hostel we're staying in) which was pretty dead. Had we been more organised we coulld have got tickets for an after party. They were playing really dire hip hop. Some awful girls started on emma for no real reason so we had to try and pull these tall blondes who all looked like big bird off emma and get out. She was quite upset. Wasn't very nice to see cos she's only little. we made her feel better with an assortment of noodles from the world famous 7eleven.

We got up late the next day with quite stinking hangovers and made our way to Bondi. Emma stayed behind cos she felt dire. Richard had managed to accidentilly make friends with some bloke outside the scary canary the night before. He's called ben. We call him simple ben. he looks like this. http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2007/10/04/sweeney-todd-waluigi.jpg

Anyways, we ended up at Bondi which was a it delapidated and tired looking but ended up losing our hangovers in the rip tides and pounding surf. It was pretty 'kickass' as simple ben would say. We hired a body board which was hard work but def worth it. We had beans on toast for dinner. Yum! i had to wake up at 5.30 am the next day cos Rich was leaving. Had a great 2 weeks with him and was a bit gutted that he's moving on. Richard, If you're reading this, cheers mate, it's been a good laugh. I called mum before I went to bed. I think she's sad that I'm not at home anymore. Mum, if it makes you feel any better, I'm having an awesome time. Dad said that sometimes when a cold wind blows across him, he thinks of me. Don't really know what to make of that metaphor but I appreciate the sentiment all the same. Dean, Emma and i made our way to the fish market in the morning. I was a bit disappoited cos I half expected a massive hal;l full of huge fish and fat blokes shouting. None of that. but i had some oysters and a massive platter of sushi which kept me full for a good while. We then got the ferry to manly which was really nice. Got some great views of the harbour. manly itself looked a bit tired but the beach was nice enough. Dean seemed in a bit of a bd mood for some reason and didn't stick around for the lovely macaroni cheese that Emma and I made. She wanted to put icing sugar in it for some reason but I managed to dissuade her. It's now half two am and I'm still awake. never mind. I'm trying to decide what I'm gonna do with my time. Richard says that Surf camp is awesome so I might head up there before too long. Sydney is ok but I think if I have to work then I'd rather do it in Melbourne. Emma is heading off in a days time so there won't be anyone else here cos dean is going to another hostel and I think he might be in a bad mood with me. Dunno why. I'll keep you posted.