Best Western Capri Plaza Hotel Newcastle

... as well.<br><br>Arrived in London, only to be told that we had to stay in our seats as the English port authority wanted to send in a doctor as there was a medical issue. Anyone guess what it was!! You are all right, suspected swine flu.. OMG. Someone apparently developed a fever, I had visions of being hold up with this stinky lot in some hotel. Anyway the person was showing signs of flu but couldn't tell if it ...

Rose: A mere snip of a journey (15 hours) takes us down to Newcastle. It actually goes quite quickly as despite stiff necks we manage to sleep a fair bit. We catch up with a school friend of Joel's, Daniel, his wife and two delightful daughters - 3 and 17 months. They live in Newcastle which was formerly known for its steel industry. It is struggling to re-invent itself but has a couple of nice ...

... the town. There's a real hippy vibe to the town and we felt that if your not tattooed, pierced, dreadlocked, walking around town bare foot and sleeping on the side of the street, people tended to look down on you or treat you as boring. Bumped into the Icelandic girls again that night as the Irish girls had moved on. They brought us to a good bar called the Beaches, or "the *****es" as the Icelandic girls called it. There was a really good band on there ...

... much notice as possible so I could find a flatmate. Ok, she said she was going up to the Gold Coast to scope out housing situations mid December and would have a better idea of exact dates then. Great, life isn't so horrible after all! Then gave her three weeks notice. I would need to find someone for between Christmas and New Years. Who the hell wants to move between Christmas and New Year? I asked her the exact date, she said she didn't know, but she would let me know the ...

Hi evryone. Leaving Sydney and Glebe Village backpackers was sad. I had had so much fun and felt very at home at the backpackers and meet some great people it was hard to actually make the decision to leave but then i looked at my bank account and saw how much money i was spending opps giggle giggle. I must admit i stayed around the hostel in the morning to say good bye to everyone then struggled to get my back pack on oh how i hate ...

... hanging off the bridge) - and the waves weren't huge yesterday. Madeline was most impressed with the "red boat stuck on sand", I took the photos in between quite heavy rain squalls, you can see all the spectators huddled under the gazebo during one such squall. The last photo is from the car park, as we were going home.

... during high noon. (And I wonder why I'm so tired at about five o'clock half the time.) So yea, it's damn hot here. And I'm sure it's starting to get pretty chilly back home so I'm not even going to begin to complain. Not a chance. It's so hot here that New South Wales is experiencing one its worst droughts in recent years, coupled with the fact that the Ozone layer above OZ is the thinnest on the globe. Hence the great tans (good) and high skin cancer ...

... beaches are lovely. In the evening we went for a night out in Newcastle which was good fun - it was weird still being about 25 degrees at 1 in the morning though! Just chilled out on Sunday, walked round Cardiff for a bit and just watched TV at the house. Think i'm over the jet lag now ready for my first week of work - we're doing an away project near Woy-Woy so won't be staying in Cardiff next week, hopefully it will be good fun!

... interesting, free champagne and somebody to talk to us who actually knows something about the art. The more we looked at it the more some pieces really appealed, ok if you have a spare $8000! Wonderful fish and chips and a swim by the beach. It was a lovely relaxing few days and thank you Kate for making us feel so welcome. So welcome in fact we left a pair of socks and knickers on the washing line!