On Tuesday afternoon after Fiona had finished her bar skills course, me, her and Patrick took the bus to Palm Beach, it's about an hour and a half away on the bus, it wasn't exactly beach weather but we had inside info that they would be filming scenes for Home and Away there today. We didn't get there early enough to be chosen as extras, but we saw the infamous surf club and the Summer Bay sign which I had my photo taken underneath. We were abit disapppointed at first as we thought we had missed the filming, but then we crossed the road and on the other side there was this lake type thing and they were filming there! Was quite interesting to watch, I didn't know who any of them were but still fun to see them filming it. I'm going to have to watch it religiously now so I can see the scene when it gets broadcast! Got some good photo's of the beach and sunset too which was really nice.

On Wednesday we moved into our new house in Marrickville/Enmore, was alot worse than we had first thought, we got there at 10am as this was the time that we got chucked out of the Wake Up hostel, at first when we got there the woman at Sydney Terraces told us we weren't moving in today, and then she said we were too early despite no one ever telling us a time we could move in from. The girl whose room we were moving in to hadn't moved out yet or even packed her stuff up so we had to leave it all in the living room. Place was really dirty and messy and there was rat poison on the floor, just like being back at uni really. We went to the Metro Shopping Centre which is only 5 mins away from us to get out of the way for abit.
In the afternoon we went to do the Bridge Climb at 4.15pm. Was feeling quite nervous about it but the guide who took us up called Nick was really friendly and jokey which made everyone at ease. We got suited and kitted up, felt abit like Bill and Ben in our suits or something! Managed to whack my knee on the practise steps which I now have a lovely multi-coloured bruise to show for. Really enjoyed the climb though, the grating and stairs are abit hairy, but once you get on to the main archway and you see the view from the top it's all worth while, so glad I did it! I think it's one of those things you just have to do though, a once in a lifetime thing. Nick, our guide was telling us about these 2 guys who managed to get past all the security one night when they were drunk (the guys not the security!! Haha) and they climbed all the way to the top and proceeded to try and get up the flag poles at the top to rip the flag down. Sure they must have had a death wish or something! He was also telling us about all the guys who constructed the bridge and how nearly as many people died who worked on the gurders as the people who worked on the ground. Apparently only one guy has ever survived after falling off the bridge and he was back to work within 18 days. On the climb back down we got a mini-sunset which was a really nice ending to the climb.
Thursday was spent cleaning the house, felt abit better once the bathroom, kitchen and living area had been hoovered and cleaned, it's still not great but it's livable at the moment. Will do for a few months I guess, it's not like we're living there forever. That night we went on an IEP pub crawl over in Manly, ferry over was lovely as it was a nice day. More of a pub walk than a crawl though as we only went to 3 pubs, had some great fish and chips at the Manly Wharf Hotel though, was $19 but you got a plateful of chips and two fishes! Yum. Got the ferry back about 11.30pm, was a good night and good to meet some people from different plaes, although there seemed to be far too many Canadians there!
On Friday we went to Toronga Zoo with Fiona's friend Lyndsey, got a good deal on the Zoo Pass, for $44 you get entrance into the zoo, with return ferry and a sky rail ride into the park, was good value considering entrance to the zoo was $39 alone. The zoo was good fun, had another nice day weather wise and the views from the place are amazing as you can probably see from all the pics I took of it! Bit disappointed that you couldn't hold a koala for a photo, but later found out that you're not allowed to hold them anywhere in NSW, obviously Cairns and other places aren't so tossed about their koalas!
On Friday night we went back into the city for Rachel's (the Bunac rep who came over with us) leaving do as she was flying back to London the next day. Was good to see all the Bunac peeps again as everyone is moving out to diff places now and separating a little due to jobs and stuff.
Sunday was a lazy day and me and Fiona just had a walk into Newtown, practically walked all the way back into Sydney I think! Walked down Enmore Road and King Street, there all lined with quirky little bric-a-brac shops, clothes shops, little bakeries, shoe shops etc, was a nice day for a stroll about. Went out for drinks at the Darling Harbour on the night time, very expensive round there though.
Monday was spent mostly job-hunting. Got abit disheartened when we went to a recruitment agency as they wouldn't take me on because they had no suitable roles coming in for the stuff I had experience for, but I managed to hand my cv out to 3 shops in the city and applied for a couple of jobs online so fingers crossed. Trying not to get too worried about it as I've only been looking for less than a week, although didn't really think that it would be hard to find a job, I guess that the economic problems are hitting everywhere. On a happier note, we have now booked our trip to the Blue Mountains for Friday which I'm really looking forward to, after that I think I've done most of the touristy stuff that I wanted to do in Sydney. Will sign off here, but will update soon after I've been to the Blue Mountains, it's currently chucking it down here so hopefully it will get better by the end of the week.

Take care and keep in touch :-)

Love Lynz xxx