1st January 2010 - 3rd January

January 1st

So we did what most people would do on New Years day and had a nice long lie in. Pottered around the flat for a bit and then me and the 'L Ballers' (Paul and Chubb spent way too long perfecting this game if you ask me!!) went to watch Avatar at the Imax theatre which has the worlds biggest screen apparently.

…….biggest screens my a@%e! The film was better than expected and all the better in 3D but not sure it was worth all the hype. Anyway, we met Chan after work and headed over to Wagamama's for dinner - Chicken Katsu Curry mmmm!

Urmm, that was about it for New Year's Day. I bumped into Ed and Anna on the way back, people I know from Cardiff, which was random but nice to see them.

January 2nd

We were a bit more lively today - managed to get some more of this blog written and then went off to a lovely little sushi restaurant for Lunch - the ChubbWards have converted us to Sushi big time!

Me and Paul went off for a wander and bought supplies for our trip to the Blue Mountainsbefore heading out to the pub for couples pool tournament! Naturally Evans and Evans were victorious……both games! On the way home we stopped by Harry's Café De Wheels (primarily because I had heard that this Pie and Mash Van was something of tourist spot and had therefore been banging on about going there for some time!) http://www.harryscafedewheels.com.au/Home.aspx?element=1&category=1

Was worth it though, they have the best Pie mash and Gravy I've tasted in a while. I've just noticed it's reads as though a lot of our time in Sydney was spent just EATING…..not gonna lie, it was!!

January 3rd

Today was our big road trip to the Blue Mountains - bit overcast as we looked out of the window but we thought it would be ok. We picked up out hire car early doors, they upgraded us for some reason so we ended up with an automatic, which Paul has never driven before. So after getting to grips with the car we were on our way. Naturally, I was about as helpful as a chocolate teapot when it came to navigating and promptly fell asleep about 20 minutes into the journey.

We stopped off on the way at a big camping warehouse to pick up a tent (that would become out home for the next few weeks), sleeping bags and anything else we needed. Had a great deal with the tent which we have nicknamed Bobina Junior (anyone who will have known about or even had the privilege to meet Paul's late Peugeot 306 - Bobina Senior would know what an honour it is to bear its namesake!)

So, about two hours after leaving Sydney we finally made it to the Blue Mountains. Still overcast! Starting to get a bit worried about the weather now as it would limit what we could actually do/see! This was all confirmed when we made our way to the Three Sisters Lookout. This was what were supposed to have seen - http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/three-sisters-katoomba-ausw665.jpg. One of the best vantage points in the whole region. This was what we actually saw - http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1227/3267816794_129d49e82e.jpg. Now just replace that random guy with Paul and I and you can imagine what our pictures are like!

It was both frustrating and amusing at the same time. So there wasn't much we could do really - the drizzle meant that it made it unpleasant doing any of the longer walks and plus we wouldn't have seen any view along the way because of the fog. So we ended up doing a bit of a driving tour, we went and had lunch at the Leura Cascades (hardly 'cascades' but more of a small trickle!), popped into a little tea shop that apparently had the worlds largest collection of teapots (Note to owners: In my opinion miniature teapots DO NOT count as they have no function!!), then went and did a small walk down to Wentworth Falls, which was a big beautiful waterfall on the outskirts of the Blue Mountains area. It was pretty cool actually as the fog that had accumulated toward the bottom meant that it looked like the water was dropping into nothing.

So after a damp day all round (still glad we went though!) we headed back to Sydney. This time I fell asleep within 10 minutes and so poor Paul had to drive all the way back with no company.