Our last week in Sydney was a good one. We started the week with a spot of crab racing in the city in Scu Bar. We met Kathryn and Alex in the bar and held our spot for a good view of the stage and the crabby action that was due to take place. The place was packed rather quickly, we sank a few pitchers of beer and before we knew it the MC took to the stage. Me and Alex waited by the stage and paid $1 so we could place our bets on the crabs we thought would win by writing our names next to a number between 1 to 14 and then you would give the crab you picked a name. Alex opting for 'El Diablo' as I went for the more mature option of calling my crab 'Ashleigh's Pubes' By the time the clipboard came to me the first race was full so I had first choice of crab on the next race. I best explain how crab racing works. Basically fourteen crabs are placed in a bowl with the numbers 1 to 14 painted on their shells and the crabs used are hermit crabs so they all alternate in size. The bowl is placed upside down in the middle of the circular race board and once the bowl is lifted up, the first crab to make it across the outside edge of the circle wins. The first race started at 7.30pm and it felt like the whole bar was cramped around the tiny stage to see the racing action. The MC built up the crowd with his witty banter and got a girl out of the crowd to act as his assistant in showing off the prizes for first, second and third place. On a countdown of "THREE, TWO. ONE....CRAB RACING!" the assistant would lift up the bowl, releasing the crabs and the crowd drew its breath awaiting some fast crabby racing. The MC was great as he would do commentary on the crabs that were in the lead referring to the clipboard and using their names "El Diablo is making a good go of it but he is followed closely by Oh My Gosh, Slippery Nipple is in third place with Smell My Arse right behind him!" and so on and so on, he put John McCririck to shame and could teach him a thing or two. Alex's crab El Diablo was doing great and was in first place pretty much all the way but right near the edge of the race track decided to stop for a while and finished in third place. Alex won a Scu Bar cap for his skilful betting on El Diablo. Once the race was over, the crabs were put back in the bowl and the clipboard was handed around again for people to claim their crabs for the next race. My name was already down and I had a good feeling that Ashleigh's Pubes was a winner.

The races were 30 minutes apart and the same series of event unfolded, the MC cracked a joke, picked a girl from the crowd to be his assistant and then the countdown began "THREE, TWO. ONE....CRAB RACING!" My crab was rubbish from start to finish and didn't even have a look in. The night went on and the drinks were flowing. By the time that the last race took place at 10.30pm we were all a little tipsy and as the MC looked for an assistant Kathryn pushed Ashleigh to the front and pointed at her. She was beckoned to the stage and she acted out her role like the girl off Wheel of Fortune. As the MC called out the prizes she would model each one "For third place you win the Scu Bar cocktail shaker ...."And Ash would start shaking it both sides of her with a massive cheesy grin on her face. She had done this for each prize and I couldn't help but laugh. She loved it up there. I'm sure the wine helped her performance. Alex was the only winner of the night with the rest of our crabs being crap, I'm sure the losers had a date with a pan of boiling water and a salad bowl. We left Scu Bar feeling a little drunk with our ears full of 90's pop hits ranging from S Club 7 to B*Witched. Everybody else loved it though, me and Alex watched one lad in amazement dancing to 'Don't stop moving' by S Club 7 and he wasn't just dancing, he was REALLY dancing. Pulling out moves whilst singing every word at the top of his voice with an "I'm going to kill you" kind of look on his face. I have to admit it was rather entertaining. We found an Irish bar up the road and actually bought a couple of pints instead of your typical schooner, a glass that is less than a pint but more than a half. A few more drinks were had to finish us off and in true typical Brit fashion, we grabbed a chicken kebab to scoff on the train on the way back to Sydenham.

The next few days were spent working and doing research on different methods of transport to our next destination of Canberra where we are going to stay with Ashleigh's cousin Dan and his family. Thursday came around and we were a little glum knowing that it was Kathryn and Alex's last day in Sydney. We made our way down to Darling Harbour to meet them for a spot of lunch and some drinks. Lunch seemed to be put on the back burner as we concentrated on the drinking side for the first hour or so and caught up with what they had been up to the past few days. They had been all over the place and put our travelling credentials to shame. After finally eating we popped into Kathryn and Alex's hotel to pick up some beers and wine that had been in the cooler bag since New Year's Eve and headed to Hyde Park to sit in the sun and finish them off. As the day went by it was time to say goodbye and finishing our drinks, the hugs were handed out with Alex picking Ashleigh up off her feet and squeezing her like a bear. We were sad knowing that they were on their way home as we had loved seeing and spending time with them. It is always great to see a friendly face on your travels especially when their crack is as daft as theirs. As we left we looked back to see if they were looking or waving but they just lay on their backs in the park not even bothered. So we called them to make them wave at us as. Just so they know though, we miss them loads but we don't envy them being back home in the freezing cold.

We left Kathryn and Alex and made our way back down to Darling Harbour as we had tickets to see Tron: Legacy at the world largest IMAX screen. The cinema only has one screen in it, that's how big it is. I couldn't say how big it is but I would say it is bigger than a football pitch. But the quality was amazing, we have been to IMAX cinemas before but nothing compared to this. The quality was out of this world. The film was great too with a great soundtrack provided by Daft Punk. After leaving the cinema we had a phone call off Paul as he was on his way down to Darling Harbour with Tony and Walshy for a drink and asked if would like to join them. It wasn't hard to decide what we wanted to do and we made our way to Bungalow 8 to meet them. Ash had a bottle of wine that Kathryn gave her in her bag still and went to the toilet leaving me at the bar by myself for fifteen minutes. I was waiting for the gang to turn up and was wondering what the hell Ashleigh was up to. Turns out that she had hung her bag up on the back of the toilet door and it had fell off smashing the bottle of wine inside it. She had spent ages getting all the glass out of her bag and wringing it out. As the boys turned up Ashleigh came out of the toilet with her bag smelling like vinegar. We met some of the lad's friend, a group of girls from England, Suzy from Oz and we drank the night away making up for the wine we had lost.

The weekend came and we couldn't wait. We were picked up by Paul at 7am as he was driving us up to the beach house that was on the central coast. With the car loaded up we set off on the three hour drive in the rain. Hopes were high that by the time we got there that the weather would improve for some beach action. Once we got there, one by one the cars turned up adding more and more people to the beach house gang. As the beers started to flow the sun came out and the clouds cleared much to our delight. It was now beach o'clock. We headed down to the beach and wasted no time jumping into the sea for a swim. As the girls topped up their tans the boys played every sport under the sun on the sand and even in the water. After a few hours of running about we decided it was time for a few more beers at the beach house. I had told Paul the legend of Tequila Sunday's with my brother and Sterling back home a few days beforehand and we had decided that we would make the beach house Saturday 'Tequila Saturday!' Let's just call it my gift to Australia. A basic ingredient to a Tequila Saturday is...you've guessed it TEQUILA! A few bottles of José Cuervo Especial had been bought to help make Tequila Saturday a success. The day at the beach house was action packed with many a game of Ring of Fire being played and games being made up on the spot like Handstand Championships, Flip Flop Duels, Flip off's and hitting the centre target with a Frisbee challenge. You have got to love the games that are made up when you're drunk. Thing is though everybody took them deadly serious and nobody wanted to lose. As the night went on the drinks flowed and the BBQ was fired up. Jace arrived at around 10pm as he had been at his sister's engagement party that had turned into a surprise wedding. They had arranged the engagement party to be at Deb's house and had organised a celebrant to turn up to marry them there and then without anybody else knowing that it was going to happen, what a great idea and we would like to say congratulations to Jackie and Nathan.Tequila Saturday was a great success with José Cuervo being responsible for how drunk me and Paul were. This resulted in the two of us having a Liam Gallagher off to Wonderwall. But the main show was about to commence, oh yes it was time for Walshy to take us to Diamond Land with a guitar and his comical lyrics. It felt like 4am when Ashleigh told me to go to bed but it was only 12.30am. I had a good time a little too much and maybe been enjoying the company of José Cuervo a little too much also.

Paul woke us all the next morning at 9am and it felt like my head was going to drop off. We had a quick clean up and the BBQ was fired up once more to get the breakfast on the go with Tony taking command of the BBQ cooking up the meat like a dream. As the breakfast was being cooked up we received a phone call off Peter Allan and Shelly, it was great to hear their voices and to find out that they were hung over too making us feel a lot better about ourselves. It's always good hearing a voice from back home, it makes you feel like you're not so far away. By the time I had finished talking to Peter everybody had finished their breakfast leaving me a mountain of food on a plate to make my way through. Once breakfast was done another clean up took place before we jumped in the cars to find a beach with some waves for a spot of surfing. The first beach we went to didn't have any waves at all so we took a twenty minute drive to another beach in the hope of some waves to surf. The waves were too strong and were crashing hard against the shore making swimming a chore never mind surfing. It worked out good for me as my hangover was sent straight from hell so sitting about on the sand doing nothing suited me down to the ground. As the boys ran all over on the beach, I nursed my hangover with the girls lazing on the beach instead. After a few hours we made our way back to the house and finished off any food that was left. We packed up our stuff, loaded up the cars and made our way back to Sydney. The weekend had been great and was a laugh a minute. We just have to say thanks to Paul for organising the whole thing and to Tony for buying the booze and food in before the trip. We loved it up there and it was a great way to finish off our time in Sydney. It's good to know that we have left Tequila Saturday's in good hands and I'm sure that it will be the first of many to come. It is not goodbye to all the guys in Sydney but a see you later as we will defiantly be back in Sydney at some point in our travels to catch up with everybody. We are only a few hours down the road too so you never know, a few weekends here and there to see them all are defiantly on the cards. We just have to say that we are really grateful to Deb, Dom and Jace for putting us up and we hope to be able to return the favour one day.

We roll into Canberra on the 17th of January and we can't wait. Ashleigh is really looking forward to spending time with her family and I'm looking forward to it too. In Canberra we plan to find work as soon as possible so we can save up some extra funds for the next leg of our trip. A bit of normality and routine will be good for us as we have been moving on constantly for the past four months and it will do us nothing but good to take a breath and set up home in Canberra for a little while.

Love Peter and Ashleigh x