Kicked out of Library

Will add more updates soon.
P.S Ruth hope you get well soon, recovering from your knee operation.

Big Monday

The cyclone waves arrived last Monday. As we were driving to check the surf, we stopped for a pee break, and as if by a strike of lighting from God (send by my mum), i looked left and jarred my neck so that I could no longer look right again (this was my excuse not to go surfing on Monday. The waves reached above 3 meters high, it was insane to watch, the guys that went out were incredible. You can tell when its a big day in Oz because the photographers line to sand dunes with their massive lenses shooting the surfers.
I only have one photo which doesn't really show the real size of the waves, it was also taken at another beach that was unsurfable (too messy).

Temples versus Tasters

Aaaaahhhhhh.....WHAT a day I've just had!!! It was a girls dream!
I have just spend a whole day in Australias Hunter Valley, home of all my most favourite things....wine...cheese...anc chocolate.
This is where all the vineyards of the main ozzie wines live and I had a fantastic time doing tours with winemakers, and sampling about 20 different varieties of wine and champagne. To top it off there are also plenty wine's perfect accompaniments to sample alongside them, an array of creamy dreamy cheeses and some melt in the mouth chocolates that take you to a level of happiness close to heavenly!
In the meantime my gorgeous husband started off the day driving me around these divine establishments, and now also has the extra job of proping me up too.
Do I prefer a day at the Hunter to a day at the exotic temples of Anchor Watt? HELL YES! It's great!! It's like Disneyland for alcoholics, but it's all free too. Of course you do feel obliged after your seventh glass of champers to buy a few bottles.

I now fancy myself as a wine critic and I'm seriously going to pursue it, no Sarah Helm it's not just a fad like the tin whistle playing!

Cheeeeeeeerrrrsss!

Sam

P.S. I wish I'd brought my tin whistle to play scarborough fair around the camp fire.

Camp Statues

It gets VERY VERY dark in the middle of nowhere is Oz! At the moment its gets dark @ 7:30pm, and we have no lights, apart from a 250,000,000 candle power torch that runs out after 5 minutes, and the interior light drains the car battery.
There is only so much you can do in the pitch black...
So.....
I would like to introduce everybody to a wicked new game I invented called 'Camp Statues'. We both get in the van, with one person at each end. We turn out the interior light and one of you gets into a silly position (upside down, moony, scary face etc..) then turns the light back on, to the other persons amusement. After a few bottles of wine this game is bloody. I want everyone to go to bed tonight, draw all the curtains and play Camp Statues to share the fun.
Enjoy
Chris
P.S Those single people may have to develop a split personality for the night.

Happy Birthday Deb

Happy Birthday to my auntie Deb who used to pretend socks had personalities for my entertainment. Love you, have fun today!!!

Sxx

Chris and Surfing

Since we bought the board I have been a slightly lonely wife. I spend my days spinning ploys on the beach, trying to feel the void that my husband has left since that tall blonde joined us.

Chris surfs EVERY day. It really doesn't matter if it's hot or cold, if there is a rip current or it's flat, he surfs and that's that.

But the hours of emptyness and boredom all become worth it when he come out of the water in his (v. tight) wetsuit with a massive smile on his face. It's a slightly innane smile I have to say, but very heart-warming. Bless.

P.S. Contrary to rummours that I am a millipede bore I spend my time engaging in fun activities on blustery beaches, like.....sewing curtains for the van!

HAPPY MOTHER DAY MUM!!!!!

Miss you mamaita, eres la mejor!

Sxxxxx

Bloke Heaven......

....and yes, that Cool Box is full of Beer. :O)

Cafe Sydney

Last night we had a change from camping and put our best flip flops on and went for an amazing meal at Sydneys famous 'Cafe Sydney'. It was a wedding present from our friends Tricia, Ian, and their three gorgeous girls Rose, Grace, and Sarah.
After 3 weeks eating cornflakes and pasta with sauce, we had been checking the web site whenever possible and drooling over the menu, we knew exactly what we were going to order before we arrived.
The resturant is amazing, we arrived and had cocktails in the lounge bar, then sat down to eat at about 9:30. You dont get to see the view until you sit to eat, and i reckon we must have had the best seat in the house, the view was insane! You couldn't believe it was there.
We ordered:
Sydney Rocks Oysters.
Octupus.
Beef Carpacio.
Lamb with percorino, and pinenut crust.
Beef Sirloin.
Petit Fours.
Port.
Oh, and of course some fine wine.

Thanks Tricia & Ian, it was an amazing night we won't forget, and we will dream about it over our pasta sauce for the next 10 weeks.

P.S Neither of us had ever had Oysters before, we weren't too sure how to eat them, but we tried all drifferent ways, Slip straight down, bite and chew etc.. I didn't expect to like them so much, but they were awesome, you could really taste to sea in them, not in a fishy way, but more of a sea salt, fresh way.

P.P.S If you want the aphrodisiac effect of Oysters, don't drink a Mojito, 2 Coopers, a bottle of White Wine, and 2 large Ports.

Cyclone Swells

Apparently, according to a dairy farmer we met on 90 mile beach there was a big cyclone in Queensland. We have just arrived in Sydney from Jervis Bay where i surfed at a beach called Cave Beach, the waves were incredible, the big ones coming through were about 6 foot, although i spent most of my time under the water. The guys i met while surfing reckoned it was the start of the cyclone swell, and was building ready to peak on Monday. Some guy even said that they had recorded 9 meters in Queensland !!!!
I know where i'll be when that comes in..... the bar!
Anyway, here are some photos of me, they are pretty grainy because Sam had to use the zoom.

Happy Mothers Day

The advantage of being 12 hours ahead is when you forget someones birthday, anniversary etc.., then remember half way through the day you can send and email or post a comment and still get away with it.
Happy Mothers Day Marge.

Never Carry Bio Hazards To Big Events......

We can't tell you over the internet about this as it is too embarrassing, it's just a reminder for when we get back.
I must also practice how to react when caught with biohazards by a security guard, and never react the way i did again. In London I may of been shot.

Wilson Promantary

This is supposed to be Oz's ultimate national park. We stayed for 2 days, and it rocked. Here are some quick shots. The surf was pretty good too. Although the portugese millipedes weren't so much fun. Ask Sam when she gets back, she actually went to the visitors center to ask for a 'fact sheet', she is a millipede bore.

Here is a picture of Lorne,

Where we are all moving to. This was where we had breakfast each morning. Pack your bags, and sell your houses.

Congratulations Martyn and Elaine...

Our great friends Martyn and Elaine who we ski with every year, and eat too many curries with in Maidenhead flew off to Canada for a few weeks skiing, and happened to get married one afternoon. Best wishes to the both of you. Looking forward to seeing some shots and hooking up for a walk to the Bel & Dragon when we get back.

"Shall we check the surf?"

Sam is getting bored of me saying that. We have had the board now for 7 days and I have been surfing 5 days (the 6th day we were in Melbourne, the 7th is today, and we are heading to the beach).
I haven't seen any sharks yet, but must admit i did get a bit nervous the other day when i was out in quite a big break on my own (i figure that another surfer 1/2 your chances (or doubles your chances) which ever way you want to look at it)
I nearly wet myself when i think I have 2 months of surfing, and then 1 months or snowboarding in NZ, i can't quite believe that this is actually my life!
Sam is doing well, she stood up on her second session, she has got the paddling down and catches her own waves, then jumps up (bum first) then surfs into shore. She looks wicked.
The 3 of us are still sleeping together in the van, two of us dream of good swell, the other dreams of hot showers, smoked salmon and champagne.

Note to Self...

Convince everyone to move to Lorne when I get back home....

Hunt em DOWN!!!!!!!!!

We just watched the quarter finals of the Rugby 7's at the Common Wealth Games and had a blast!
It's perfect rugby for people like me with short attention spans, 7 minutes each way and it's all done and dusted, winner decided.
The Telstra Dome which is the stadium was brilliant, massive and covered. So we found our seats and settled down with a beer and a meat pie (had to be done).
We saw about 8 games and it was all VERY competitive. England was playing Samoa and blimey..you would have thought that the whole of Samoa had flown by the sounds of the boos that filled the dome when the England team came out!!!! Of course it was the Aussies being jealous and not really getting over the World cup yet.
It was a tense game with about 5 of us shouting for England and 10,000 shouting against us. Samoa were in the lead until the last 10 seconds when England scored a try and won!!!! HURREYYYYYY!!!
It was sooooo exciting that I think I had a mini-heart attack!

That's all,

Sam

P.S. Watch the finals tonight (we will probably loose to Fiji though!)

P.P.S Sam got very very involved and wouldn't stop shouting 'Hunt them DOWN!' I felt abit uncomfortable and a little embarrased, but hey she is my wife and you just have to stick by them, so i started growling.

Sams Best Photo..

Sam took this shot the other night in the reflection of the van, and she wants everyone to see it.

Do you think she may STILL be gutted about loosing the photo competition ??

Politically Correct Bastards

The Aussies are hilarious, they are soooo blunt and don't think twice about saying, Bastard, Bitch, Shit, Slut, Bloody Hell, Pakis, Japs, Chinks etc. We can't get over it, the equivalent of Richard and Judy is on TV and Judy suddenly blurts out ' The Bastards!'

No wonder they don't understand why we wont allow thier advertising.

Where The Bloody Hell Are Ya ?

The Aussies are also going crazy that their latest multi million tourism campaign in Britain has been rejected. The strap line 'Where the bloody hell are ya?' was deemed inappropiate by the British TV board. They are obviously struggling with tourism at the moment, and they seriously believe its a conspiracy to keep the brits in England and stop us from travelling abroad (never mind the ticket price and 24 hour flight).
So if you see the campaign on tv it probably just says 'Where The Hell Are You?' you'll know what it was supposed to say.
Hilarious

Comm Games

We are back in Melbourne to watch some commonwealth games. We have tickets for the Rugby 7s this afternoon, were we are going to shout loudly, drink VB, and eat meat pie with dead horse sauce (a tradition apparently).

We didn't watch the opening ceremony but all the Aussies are dying of embarrasment about some duck and Koala with breasts. Did anyone see it, what is it all about, the radio won't shut up about it,....they think they are the laughing stock of the world..

Please explain.

P.S The poor kid that had to dress up as the duck doesnt know what hit him!

I had a Threesome last night.

There is a new addition to the travelling party, she is 7 foot 10 inches and blonde, with nice wide hips. Last night was the first night that we all spent together with me sleeping cosy between her and Sam. We both rode her yesterday, but unfortunatley the ride wasn't that good or long enough.
I am over the moon that she is with us, and can't wait to spend the next 2 months riding her.

Bells Beach

Most of the reason why we drove all the way down here was so that we could see Bells Beach. Its a famous right hand break that was used for the final scene of 'Point Break'. It is near Torquay, but is nothing like Torquay. It was just as we had imagined it, totally uncrowed, stunning scenery and a perfect break. The guys surfing it were brilliant, and we stood and watched it for ages.
Simon, Gaz,...before you ask... there is no way I was going in, I would of been mashed.

The Great Ocean Road

We left Melbourne with a mild hangover, but clean after the first hot showers for a while. We headed for the Great Ocean Road which is supposed to be one of the most stunning roads (well the view from it) in the world.
First stop was Torquay....what a dump, its modelled on Newquay in Cornwall..but worse. We were expecting amazing beaches with perfect surf, but got packed beaches full of Australian chavs and we were unable to see the surf for people, plus it was bank holiday monday and the kids were off school, the place was jam packed so we were going to have to sleep illegally and risk the $200 fine. So after a mango icecream with 12 screaming kids we got back in the van (without the kids) and drove along the ocean road.
It turned out to be amazing, the road was brand new, jet black with clean white lines running down the middle, without a pot hole in sight, .. oh yeah the view was alright too.
There was still no availablity in any campsite along the coast so we checked our gypo guide and found that there was a free site in the forest near Bambra along a small 6km dirt track. 20km and 2 hours later we arrived there having driven down rain gullies and possibly the worst road in the world. I had stupidly ignored the 'Local Vehicles Only' sign at the start of the road, and even more importantly we had ignored not the 'High' risk of forest fire, not the 'Very High' risk, but the 'EXTREME' risk of forest fire. Again I slept with one nostril open, but was pleased to hear the thunder of rain on the van at midnight (it hadnt rained here for 3 months !)
Next day was spent crusing the great ocean road listening to Keane and stopping to lie on the beaches every so often. Perfect.

CAPTION COMPETITION - ENTER NOW!!!

We got bored of the photo competition and we've already eaten Kangaroo (which isn't nearly as exciting as snake), so to encourage more comments on the blog here is a caption competition. Best entry gets a drink on us when we get back (well...wait till we've worked for a little bit ey).

Here is the photo

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne this morning. Its buzzing because of the games. We are about to go and buy tickets to watch the Rugby 7s next Friday. Melbourne seems like a much more thriving city than Sydney (not sure why).
We have showered and are going out all night long to check out how the Australians party.
Have it!
Chris & Sam

We Are Trailer Trash.

On our 1st night in the van we rocked up at a caravan park, it was closed so we parked illegally on a cliff top (we did try parking outside someones house, but they turned the light on). We were pretty restless all night but got through it to wake up to an amazing view in the morning.
The second night we did some driving around and found an excellent spot (again illegally) by a rock pool.
The 3rd & 4th nights we actually went to national parks where you are allowed to camp. It was much better to be able to camp openly with having to worry about what people think (could be taken the wrong way). The national parks are amazing, there in nobody there apart from you and about 10 other campers, you are parked on a field right on the beach. The beaches stretch for miles and miles and are totally empty, we were sat on the beach on wednesday, and we must have been to only people there about 10 miles in each direction. It totally blows your mind.
The van is excellent, its very comfy, and easy to live out of. It gets dark early so we make a fire and sit around that drinking and playing cards until about 9:30pm then sleep till 7 in the morning when the sunrises. I never imagined we would be doing this in Australia, its so cool because we are off the backpacker trail and are seeing parts of Oz they we never would of dreamed of seeing on a bus trip.
Loving it.
Chris & Sam

Our New Home..

We have been living in our new home now for 1 week. It took some getting used to on the 1st night, but now its really comfortable.. We have loads of pictures of the new house.
Our Bedroom:

Our Front Yard (Seriously):

Our Bathroom (Again - no joke):

The Breakfast Room (Making a cup of tea):

The Kitchen:

Our House from the outside:

Off to The Outback..

Well, hardly. We are leaving Sydney to drive down the famous Ocean Road in our campervan today. We have had the all clear from 2 mechanics now, and we are off to Ikea to buy a duvet, curtains, and hopefully one of those wicked hot dogs they make.
Wish us luck, it should be eventful. We will try and keep the blog updated but we will be staying on cliff tops and national parks which won't have internet connections. The posts will come in short burst from now on.
Anyway... must hit the road. WOOHHHOOOOOO

The Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras!

So as soon as Mom & Dad left we got back on the crazy travelling tip and joined 700,000 gays and lesbians at Sydneys Mardi Gras. Wasn't too sure what to expect so i put on my tightest vest, my hairband, and shades and drank VB out of a brown bag (apparently you can only drink on the street if its out of a brown bag - dumb or what!).
Okay - so all jokes aside about my metrosexuality but it was bloody brilliant, Sam and I laughed so hard we nearly cried. They really camp it up. Its a big parade, and the first group to go past were about 200 lesbians dressed in leathers with their boobs out riding Harleys or Ducatti Motorbikes, they stopped every 20 yards and reved the hell out of the bikes, screaming, shouting and waving whips above their heads. It looked amazing. Unfortunalty the photos are a bit too much to put up on the blog, however i did video it so everyone is welcome to watch when we get home.
Followed by the lesbians were hundreds of floats from all sorts of organisations (Gay Rugby team, Ikea, green Party, Labour Party, Democrats, Family and Friends Of.., water polo, outback gays, kate moss 'Line dancing, I believe in Rehab' etc... the list goes on) with thousands of lesbians and gays behind, doing dance routines to hard trance music.

It was truly an amazing sight and we would reccomend anyone who plans to visit Sydney to plan it around the Mardi Gras.

Marge & Farge Have Left.

Mom and Dad left for Hong Kong yesterday. They took us out for a great meal on Friday, and we all got thourghly drunk. It was wicked to see them and as ever they were on top form.
Chris & Sam

Thanks Everyone.

Thanks to everyone for the Birthday Cards, messages, and the AUS $ which went either towards the Mitsubish, or some drinks in the Opera bar on my birthday. Here is a picture of the bottle of Champagne Ruth and John bought me, we took it in our room, and you can just make out the Opera House in the background.
Very dissapointed in Harry who totally forgot, emailed Sam a Happy Birthday message, and sent a photo of him having an affair with another one of my friends (Simon C).
Flaming Galar !!!
Chris

Car Parks & Camper Vans

My parents travelled 10000 miles to come to one of the best cities on the otherside of the world to visit us. So for the 1st day we took them to used car garages on William street.
Then on their 2nd day we took them to an underground Multistory carpark to look at Campervans at the Kings Cross Car Market.
We have decided to buy a van...not a campervan, but a van which is converted into a campervan (the seats fold down to make a bed). We spoke to loads of dealers, and mechanics and decided that we had to buy eiter a Toyota, or a Ford for about $3000.
Yesterday we bought a 7 seater 2.0l Mitsubish Starwagon for $3600 that has done 258,000 km.
It looks great on the outside, and seems to run well. We had a mechanic do a full inspection and he estimated $1700 of repairs that need doing. Great.
We are going to Ikea tomorrow (with Marge & Farge) to deck it out with bed, and curtains. Then we are going to live in it for 3 months. We have no breakdown cover and no Insurance (apart from 3rd party person).
The blog should get interesting, plus you may notice Sam & I start posting comments from different time zones :O)
Wish us luck.
Chris

Sh*tney

My sister visited Sydney, and hated it. I think it rained when she was here for 3 days.
We arrived on Sunday, and it was raining. We met checked into the hotel, which was amazing. Its a 5* hotel called the Shangri-la. Our hotel looked out over the harbour bridge and opera house. It is the best hotel I have ever stayed in. We went for coffee and spent hours chatting catching up, then moved onto the beers, and finally ended up walking around the harbour and in a great resturant. It was a little wierd to be sat there with M&D, having left them in Heathrow 3 months ago, then seeing them again next in a resturant over looking the Opera House. We had a great night and celebrated our birthday. Its lucky we were under cover though because Sydney really did live up to its new name my sister had invented (Shitney), and 17mm of rain fell in 1 hour. None of us have ever seen it rain this hard!

I don't think Mom could quite believe it when we had to walk back to the hotel all wearing black bin liners to stop us getting wet. I certainly don't think the Shangri-La and their guest could believe it when we turned up looking like we did.

It has stopped raining now, and we are calling it Sydney once again. Its a great place, and we are having fun with Marge & Farge.
Laters
Pomms

10,000 miles to Katoomba

The blue mountains are listed as one of the top attractions of this area of Australia, words associated with it on leaflets include breathtaking, outstranding, increadible...And, though dampenned down by the grey overcast sky...they would be the right words to describe the view.
The rainforest is dense, mysterious and tropical, so here is a picture of the 3 sisters rock formation (what they "should" look like) on a sunny day.

However because the weather was pants we thought we'd visit a little nearby town called Katoomba, the name of which had atracted Sue's attention (Sue A.K.A. Marge). What do you picture when you hear the name Katoomba? (write it down on a piece of paper and put it in comments if you can before you read on).

So, Katoomba...
Hummmm...Katoomba...well, we took a picture of it, here it is.
Katoomba is not a quaint village with heaps of character next to this stunning tourist attraction, oh no, it's RUBBISH!!!!!!

I've got nothing more to say about it. Just look at the photo! Poor Sue was gutted, and I felt really bad for her, I just hope the aquarium is a hit tomorrow.
So, so far Sue and Matt have travelled 10,000 to go to a multistorey carpark, and even worse...Katoomba!