Best Western The Astor Metropole Hotel Brisbane

It took me forever to convince my family to come for a little walk with me to a local wetlands so I decided to just make them come! Boondall wetlands is about 10 minutes drive from our place and although not beautiful right at this moment (as the rains are absent) it is awesome that it ...

... close taking photos was a joke, we got plenty of splashes but little else until the calf was hungry and started suckling - for this to happen; mum turns upside down and has her tail out of the water for up to 40 min's, long enough for us to get some nice snaps. We also saw a couple of dolphins but sadly they did not swim alongside the boat like they do on the telly! We also heard the whales singing - marginally better than Max on a good day - however ...

... the only thing is that since I have all the liquid in my ear it was blocking his view of the eardrum so he couldn't say for sure - either way they both heal themselves gradually i just can't go swimming or diving underwater or in the sky for the next 4 weeks :( he gave me some painkillers and thankfully theyve been working

it is time for bed now haha

i love you all and miss you so much - can't wait to see you all in January :)

... would have set me back about $100! Yikes! It wasn't worth it to me. Although it would have been cool to see the zoo where Steve Irwin used to work. He is still featured on the advertisements....a little weird. And his whole family is still at the zoo and they have made Bindi the face of Australia Zoo. They were advertising her 11th birthday bash on the website www.australiazoo.com.au

I went into a supermarket to get a few ...

... kangaroo on her trip, and the place was supposed to teaming with them. Unfortunately they were all hiding when she set out to look! There were also supposed to be some early arrivals of whales as they migrate past the island, and whale watching season starting in June, but these were elusive, too. The scenery of the island is stunning, and we found a great restaurant and bar that night, so we had a great time in ...

We arrived in Brisbane around midday and walked to our hostel. Our room, was like a prison cell, it had no plugs and smelt horrible. Unfortunately we had booked in for two nights but promised to move hostels asap. Brisbane was really nice though, and we spent hours just wandering round, exploring all the streets and shops. We spent a week here (due to it being easter) and really enjoyed it. Brisbane isn't by the sea so they have a man made ...

It seems that I've been having some pretty low-key weeks lately. With school starting I've been keeping busy with classes and reading and all that other fun stuff! This week did have a couple of highlights though, mainly on Tuesday... So last week sometime I was making quesadillas for Matt and I (and they turned out even better than Qdoba's, I swear!) when Reuben came in and mentioned a 'Taco Tuesday' night at a local bar/restaurant. Now, considering I have not seen or ...

... die and**en, die heute mit dem Surfen dran waren. Wir hatten also einen QUT Mitarbeit** und zwei Surflehr** dabei, als wir im Me** schwimmen gegangen sind. Für eine halbe Stunde durften wir uns auch noch die Boards ausleihen und Surfen gehen. Es war schön, endlich mal etwas abspannen zu können und auch wied** auf den Boards zu stehen. Wir sind dann mit den and**en mit dem Bus zurück zum Camp gefahren, wo uns dann Sarah und Pet** schon **warteten. Ich ahnte ...

... down. Sure enough the heavens opened and the temperatures dropped into the high 20s on the next day. Australia, we'd discovered, was a country that loved rain - in Victoria and South Australia because they barely have any, and in Queensland to provide nature air-conditioning. Rain, it seems, is a very good thing (and that's hard for an Englishman to get his head around). In fact despite the rain it stayed too hot in the ...

Today was Christmas shopping day. Lorna met up with Desley, Samaya & Teila and they all went off shopping for the day. I know this was dangerous, but sometimes you just have to take risks in life. As it turns out, Lorna didn't break our bank, but she said she still had a great day with the girls shopping. I started off with the intent of Christmas shopping, but that lasted until about ...