G'day Mate!

We love the fact that you now have the equivalent of Sky+ on flights now. You can now badger the stewardess for another free wine without missing any of the film you are watching. Back to back episodes of The Office kept Gavin and I in fits of giggles for most of the flight from Singapore to Sydney.

It's Monday 6th and we have been in Sydney for just over 2 weeks. It's winter! Who allowed Australia to have cold weather? When we arrived at Sydney airport I was wearing flip-flops but realised I was underdressed when I saw people coming into the airport wearing hats and scarves. To be fair we have had some really lovely days. In fact there have been a couple of days where we have been sat in Hyde Park in shorts and tee shirts. The days are beautiful and sunny with clear blue skys but a cold wind - nights are plain cold!

Our first destination in Sydney was D.Lux Hostel in Kings Cross. We arrived pretty tired after our 8 hour, overnight flight and were lucky enough to be put into a dorm on our own. Aaaaah sleeeeeep.

The hostel had a really good social atmosphere and arranged free drinks sessions in local bars every evening. On Saturday 21st, after catching up on our sleep during the day we headed to The Gaff for an hour of free beer. Ever been to a Ritzy nightclub? It doesn't matter in which city, they were all the same. Yes, well then you know what the Gaff was like. Prizes for the couple that act out the best sexual position on stage and that sort of thing. Once the free beer stopped flowing we left. We did join them for one or two other free drinks session though - well, we are backpackers!

We met up with the Birmingham Crew, Vicky and Zena on Sunday 22nd. I wont go into details about the night although needless to say carnage ensued. We have some good nights with Vic and Zena since and they have introduced us to some really good bars (sadly we have also introduced ourselves to the local kebab shop).

On Monday 30th Gav headed off to the Wests Tigers home ground for the rugby match against the Queensland Cowboys (anyone else think that sounds gay?). He went with Aussie Greg, the guy we met in Hanoi, Vietnam. We had both met up with Greg for beers on the previous Friday which was good fun.

It was our third wedding anniversary on 31st July so we treated ourselves to a meal and a bottle of wine (or two) at a restaurant we visited when we were here on our honeymoon.

As well as sampling Sydney's nightlife we have actually got our acts together and managed to find ourselves a flat and jobs! Our apartment is right by Darling Harbour and we are sharing with two lovely girls. The joy of having a room to ourselves being able to unpack our rucksacks! The apartment block also has a gym and pool that we can use. Gav is using the gym this evening.......how many times do you think I'll make it to the gym? Oh but ER is on tonight. Some of the apartments we went to view before finding this one were unbelievable - real dumps. I think we have been really lucky to find the one we are in.

We had to get out of hostels for a bit as I suspect we would have been driven to murder if we'd have stayed where we were for much longer. The last guy we were sharing our dorm with thought it was perfectly acceptable to repeatedly and violently break wind and to use the bathroom with the door open. And guess what? He only bloody snored too!!! I'm not sure what was worse, his trumping, snoring or the sound of his knuckles dragging on the floor. He was disgusting.

Gav started his new job today working with an electrician refurbishing shops and offices. He very much enjoyed his 10 minutes train journey over Sydney Harbour Bridge this morning as opposed to driving for 3 hours to London as he would have done at home. I start my role as an Executive Assistant for 2 Partners at PwC tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in (remind me I said that when I'm moaning about the hard work!) and a bonus is that the PwC offices are at the end of the street that we are now living on.

We both plan to work for the next three months before we go off on our travels again so I can't promise much exciting news during that time as it will be back to early to bed, early to rise........yeah, WHATEVER!