Life's a Beach

Since I last wrote, 6 weeks have passed. Michael has left us, Spurs have defeated AC Milan in the champions league, Me and Dan have woken up at all sorts of hours to see the mighty Spurs play, we have left Sydney and said goodbye to Jonny - reducing our travelling group from a fantastic 5 to a feeble 3, David has shaved his hair off and Dan fears his head will explode!

Sydney
We lived in an apartment right on Bondi Beach for about 5 weeks and this proved to be a more chilled but still awesome experience. We sacrificed a couple of wild nights out for TV-watching nights in - partly due to the lack of money and partly due to Sunday nights fantastic TV viewing - Bondi Rescue, Hawaii Five 0 and NCIS LA became staple viewing! Meanwhile, Friday nights seemed to be occupied by going to dinner at our adopted Family, the Hoffmanns! My boss at work, Brenda (Brendles as she was affectionately nicknamed!) was a lovely jewish lady who kindly took the 4 of us into her home for Friday night dinners and to meet the family, feeding us up and sending us home with the leftovers! The food and hospitality was very much welcomed having been living off of Instant noodles and pasta for days on end! Meanwhile, a few of the Aussie girls we met in Argentina also took pity on our malnourished bodies and invited us round for a delicious BBQ.

We had some fun nights out including Brenda's Daughters Chloe's 21st Birthday Party - A fancy dress house party with the theme 'In the Garden'. Me, David, Jonny and Dan dressed up as a washing line and thought we were rather witty!:

Between going to the beach, watching DVDs and working our respective jobs, We also found some time to be tourists and visit the Opera house and Harbour Bridge... Dan in Particular enjoyed getting up close and personal with the opera house:

As our time in Sydney drew to a close, we began thinking about rushing our way up the east coast and Dan and David headed to Byron Bay where David shaved his hair off and they had a delightful time on the beaches and looking around the town. I stayed in Sydney for a couple of extra days then said my Goodbyes to all the lovely people I had met, and also to Jonny who is staying in Sydney for a couple more weeks and whom I wont see until he is back in England in around 6 months or so... Sad times!

(Jonny's hat in particular will be sorely missed!)

Brisbane:

Next up I took the 16 hour bus ride up to Brisbane, where Dan and David also arrived after their trip to Byron, and we all met up with Jack and Oscar, 2 friends we met in Bolivia who you may remember fondly from previous blogs entries in which Oscar ate a bunch of fish food and Jack was awfully handsome!

Our 4 days, 3 nights in Brisbane were hilarious and despite being poor travellers like ourselves, Joscar demonstrated outstanding hospitality in borrowing bedding for us and buying us a welcome pack of eggs bread milk and cornflakes. Here are a couple of highlights from the brief stay:

• Sausage-Gate: Oscar having recently travelled with a couple of Israeli's was intent on making us a traditional Israeli dish upon our arrival, and one that he had just learnt was a tasty Israeli stew called Shishuka (not sure how you spell that!). Anyway, whilst he was at work, he texted me asking to take his Sausages out of the freezer, and I obliged. Later in the night, when he got home, there was a powercut and in the darkness, lit only by candlelight, his french housemate Remi appears out of nowhere and accuses me of taking HIS sausages out of the freezer to defrost.... I immediately pointed the finger at Oscar who had told me to take the pack of sausages out of the freezer and despite Oscar realising he had made a mistake in that his sausages were in the fridge and not freezer, he maintained his innocence and let me take the wrap. As we later told the story to Dan and Jack, the story got more and more ridiculous until it was decided that Remi had been a raging frenchman who had accused me of being a 'Sausage Bastard!'. That aside, Oscar made a fantastic Shishuka despite having to chop all of the vegetables in the pitch black!

• Gold Coast - made the short trip down to the gold coast and more specifically to Surfers Paradise, a beautiful beach famous for its big waves. We spent a great day there with the boys playing football, frisbee, and jumping in the sea to rid us of our respective hangovers.
  
  

• Brisbane city... surprisingly cool city with plenty to do... especially when Jack and Oscar are involved!

• Oscar's face upon realising he would be too late to get a Mcdonalds breakfast... a 6 foot 4 man close to tears!

Cairns:

After a mad few days and a couple of emotional goodbyes in Brisbane, we boarded our plane to Cairns where I am writing from now. Dan and David are currently doing a scuba dive in the great barrier reef and then tomorrow we are heading off for Thailand. It is a sign of how long I have been on the road for when I am most looking forward to receiving 1 (or hopefully 2) free meals on the aeroplane!

Thailand on Sunday...
The last leg of the trip. The first time in 5 and a half months that we will be properly travelling in a group of 3. We are all very excited at the prospect of travel, cheap food and accommodation, good weather, wild nights out, exciting new things to see and generally seeing what Thailand has to offer. My prediction is that the Thai people will be friendly but sly! Fingers crossed that they are nowhere near as annoying as the Bolivian locals.

In other news, Dan has expressed concern about his head exploding due to a scuba dive and 3 flights in 3 days messing with the pressure in his head! Concerns were almost realised when he gave a positive reading in a routines explosive check at the airport last night, but a second test came back all clear. That actually happened!

That about wraps things up, so until next time...

Adios!