Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii just me here now that Jess has gone home...

Arrived in Oz just over 2 weeks ago so going to try and cram it all into one entry:

First landed in Sydney and went to my hostel on Pitt St. Think I chose quite a good one coz although it was a bit dirty and gross, the people there were really nice. Stayed there for a couple of days and went out drinking and clubbing (oh have started drinking beer how horrific), walked around the botanical gardens, met my vegan cousin for thai which was gorgeous and also sorted out bank account, phone etc.

Easter weekend, headed up the coast to Terrigal to see my great auntie Shirley, who is the most amazing old woman ever! She's almost 80 years old and is obsessed with aussie rules football and regularly goes to watch the games! She lives with her son who is a paramedic and his wife is a nurse. They were all so lovely and welcoming and fed me so much food! was so nice to be in someones home and to be able to chill out and watch tv, eat home cooked food, play with their toy poodle dogs (crazy dogs!) minnie and gidget. got loads of easter eggs on easter and went out to family lunch where we ate soooooooo much food including auntie shirleys zucchini slice (family recipe) and gorgeous pavlova! yum!

so returned to sydney and then moved to a different hostel which was really cool the coz they organised stuff all the time like a bbq on coogee beach. then decided to walk from coogee to bondi and had a drink overlooking the surfers: was so pretty! shared a room with a very strange woman who was about 60 years old and tried to take over my life! she came out clubbing on nights out (fell asleep on the sofa in the bar and refused to go home and threatened to come to other bars with me arghhhhhhhh) and tried to make me do stuff with her during the day. i just fobbed her off, but it wasn't EXACTLY fun. met some more really cool people at that hostel: spent loads of time with this really cool american girl and dutch guy and we had a picnic in the rose garden of botanical gardens on our last day together. miss them very much if they're reading this! oh and cousin brent took me on the boat the manley beach and we also had lunch in darling harbour. so nice to get to know family better!

flew from sydney to melbourne and was collected by my lovely auntie alex, who has an 8 month old baby toby with uncle wayne. so again adjusted to a different way of life: living with a baby is very different from living in a hostel! my aunt gave me earplugs because toby screams all night and keeps them awake! why do people ever have children urgh! luckily i'm a heavily sleeper so slept all the way through it, to my aunts disgust. again i was fed v well all weekend and went out for lunch with auntie lorrie, neil and his family. my auntie took me for a walk with their labrador max and we went out for afternoon tea at this place called miss marples teahouse which we both really enjoyed.

now in more central melbourne: the suburbs are really pretty but do love cities! love the buzz! and love that melbourne has so many different parts to it: good shops, a wicked chinatown, and not as expensive as sydney. i've been staying in richmond with a family friend for a few nights. we went out to a vegetarian restaurant and have also been to the melbourne comedy festival: saw "the best of the edinburgh festival" there which was 3 guys: an english an irish and a canadian. i personally thought the english and irish were funniest but rowan liked the canadian guy, perhaps because he's lived in canada. that comedian was called jason john whitehead which made me think of our jonny! and currently watching australian daytime tv which is really awful! worse than english! have been to victoria market and am currently trying to get a temping job, which is proving to be near impossible! had an interview yesterday but not really sure if much will come of it. fingers crossed!

love australia and really never want to come home (don't worry mummy i'm sure the novelty will wear off soon)! such a great country! oh here are my photos of oz so far (fran there are some of toby in there...):

http://s693.photobucket.com/albums/vv292/saraha9946/

Sarah xxx