Frist thing first - I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas - I still felt like it just passed me by. I left Brisbane today after spending two nights there and to be honest although the city was great and the shopping was even greater (and so cheap compared to home) and I liked the area I stayed in - The Valley with cool cafes and live music bars - I was glad to leave my hostel Bunk Backpaers which is not one I'd recommend unless you're about 16 years old and want to spend the entire night getting sick drunk the entire day sleeping. Also I was sharing a room with the oddest 3 girls I ever met who refused to talk to me even when I tried to be nice to them (I guess I was a bit too old for them to be bothered with) and the worst thing was they put the aircon on 28 degrees !!! and I think I upset them when I said 28 was not aircon but central heating (and belive me, in Brisie you need aircon). Anyway my bed was under the window so I just opened that - a bit noisey as just above the bar but you know me, I can sleep through an earthquake. Well a 5 hour flight from Brisie got me to Perth where I'm two hours back in time again. Lindsay met me at the airport and it was great to see a familiar face from back home again (even though she's a Perthite she's still a bit English having been there so long). So Lindsay drove me to my hostel which is pretty cool both in the ambience sense and temperature sense (at last a hostel I can sleep in without sweating the night away) - it's small and friendly which is just my cup of tea and talking of which they offer free tea, coffee and breakfast so all the better. Then we hit the City where I proceeded to book a hair appointment (get those roots done at last and have a well needed trim) and shop (again) as I need some shoes as fed up with wearing flip-flops constantly - got some Birkies but not sandel type ones just great closed in at front versions and in doing so spent my budget for the week!! My first impressions are that I'm going to love Perth - it seems really nice here and very relaxed compared to the east coast and there appears to be a lot less backpackers here and those that are here seem a bit older then the usual parade. I'm staying in town for 5 nights to see the new year in then probably off to Monkey Mia on a tour for a few days but also there's this cool one day festi just south of Perth on the 2nd Jan with Ian Brown headling so I might check that out first if I can figure out how to get there and find somewhere to stay. Tomorrow Linds is going to introduce me to the beach - my first ever experience of the Indian Ocean and I can't wait. Bye for now everyone - and Linds says hi to all those who know her. xxxx