The Red Centre. Part 1: Hello from a town called Alice (ohh ohh yehh!)

We are now in Alice if you might of guessed. We arrived mid afternoon so didn't have much time to do anything before the sun went down. We went to two small areas of the East MacDonnell ranges called Emily Gap and Jessie Gap to see a bit of rock art and set eyes upon the outback.

We took a few pics for you see. Including the much missed Mr Monkey (he might have to reactivate his email to do his own personal posted. We'll remind him to sort it out. WATCH THIS SPACE!!)


Kate and Edna with the Mr himself doing a pose in Emily Gap.


Pauline, Kate and Edna with him again!


Kate and myself with the cheeky f@#ker yet again (get your own post going boyo!)


No one paying attention to my photograhic skills as usual.

Our next thing on the list is a dawn balloon ride over Alice with a champagne breakfast for Kate's birthday (we have to get up a 4.30am, work out the time I posted this and you'll realise I'm not going to get much sleep) and then a 5 hour drive to Kings Canyon (Guess who is drive, great!).

We're moving on. Finally!!!

After about 10 weeks of doing crap jobs, we are finally going to do some travelling (hooray!!). We are off to Alice Springs tomorrow, flying out from Sydney with my mum and Pauline. We'll spend 6 days exploring Alice, Kings Canyon and Uluru (Ayers Rock). They're all very far apart from each other, so we (i.e. Jamie) will be doing a lot of driving (the rest of us will be chilling out or reading in the passenger seats!). So, we should have loads of cool pics to put on here when we return to Sydney.


This is me, J, mum & Pauline eating out on Darling Harbour last night

Edna and Pauline have arrived in Sydney!

I'd just like to introduce a couple of lovely ladies who would like to keep their friends up-to-date with their own Oz adventure: my mum, Edna and her friend, Pauline....

We arrived in Sydney Monday at 7.50 am, and despite what Pauline says, I hadn't had a wink of sleep for 48 hours. (Rubbish! Pauline interjected)

Sunday: We checked into the Grace Hotel and met up with Kate and Jamie. They gave us a whistle stop tour of Sydney, including the Opera House, the Bridge, the Rocks, a street show, the botanical gardens. Finally, we caught the ferry to Manly Beach where we had a wonderful meal in the Whitewater Restaurant, ate good food and downed several bottles of red wine (and not a drop was spilt) Apparently, both of us kept falling asleep mid sentence but were rudely awakened by Kate and Jamie who insisted we fight the jet lag.

Monday: We had a late breakfast and then found our way to the tourist information centre and booked trips to the Hunter Valley on Wednesday and the Blue Mountains on Friday. Then along with Kate (Jamie was working) we went to the Sydney Tower - the highest observation point in Sydney, there is a 360 degree panoramic view of the city and surrounding areas. We took some marvellous photos but unfortunately technology is against us so therefore we cant show you any of them. In the evening we went to Leichhardt where there are lots of Italian Restaurants, we went to Moretto's where we found to our dismay that it was unlicensed, luckily Jamie managed to get to the supermarket next door to grab 2 bottles of wine with seconds to spare before closing.

Tuesday: The plan was to go to Taronga Zoo, however, the weather had other ideas - it's absolutely p****d it down today, so we've been shopping instead. The weather before today has been cloudy with the odd shower - not too bad - quite mild really considering it's winter.

I'd just like to end by saying how marvellous it is to be woken up with a cup of coffee in the morning by my lovely travel companion, Pauline, who is barking mad! She has a very sore throat and cough - and apparently I kept her awake with my snoring last night!!!!!!! I don't think so!

Thanks

Just a quick thank you to all those who sent cards. I received a few of them before my birthday but some are still turning up now. I'll pick those up as soon as I get a chance.

The Jamie Birthday Weekend (not the Queens)

As you all know and for the ones who didn't it was my 30th birthday this weekend. It was also the Queens official birthday so the Aussies have a long weekend to celebrate this, why? we don't in the UK. Probably just an excuse to drink more beer.

On the Saturday night we went out with Nigel and Kendi to a few bars in Darling Harbour. Nigel and Kendi very kindly splashed out on 2 bottles of champagne as you can see in the photo below

From the photos below you can see the bubbles have gone to our heads a wee bit.

Nigel and Kendi doing a bit of dirty dancing.

Me with 2 drinks on the go. Thats how to spend your 30th!

The Big Day!

On Sunday me and Kate went for a meal on Darling Harbour. We went to a steak house and I had a huge lump of meat, which was nice. Kate was a bit more reserved and got a smaller steak.

We also had a few Strawberry Royales, which is a champagne cocktail, very nice too!

This is me showing the new watch Kate bought.

Kate isn't as drunk as she looks on this picture but we tried to get that way drinking the champagne cocktails.

A Few Hellos

David & Mary - Thank you both for the lovely messages! I hope you have a fabulous holiday in Torbay (Jeanette told me you were going)

Mum - Can't wait to see you in less than 3 weeks! Missing you loads.

Sue - Hope you had the best time in Egypt. Can't wait to hear all about it. I bet you have a wonderful tan (I'm not jealous.. much)

Elaine & Syl - Jamie and I hope you have a great time in Rome. Hope it's not too hot for you.

Reply To Comments (by cheeky readers!)

Andy - Well that is just bloody charming!! Whilst Jamie and I have been slogging our guts out at work, Mr Monkey has been at home sat on his big lazy arse. Although we suspect that he's been nipping down to the pub - so that's where all our money is going!

Mum - It wasn't exactly a tattoo in haste. I thought about it for a couple of weeks and planned the design before I went to the tattoo parlour. Anyway, Sue has a huge sun on her back, mine is tiny compared to that. I don't intend to have any more done in future.