Country Comfort Sir Francis Raymond Terrace

"Help!! A dingo stole my baby!" screamed Meryl Streep, in the movie I believe was called "Help!! A Dingo Stole My Baby!"*. I screamed this out in horror as well, just last week. But fear not; our situation was not quite as dire...we hadn't had to bare our teeth at any dingoes (dingi?), nor had we lost any of our "babies". (Although when Michael raps "Yo, Daddy Dude", I wonder if he has already been "taken" from us by the insidious adolescent ...

... harbour with many other tourists. Many of these tourists had attended the recent WYD celebrations in Sydney. They were easily spotted by their matching red and yellow baseball caps, backpacks, lanyards and their tendancy to break into song accompanied by marching bands and flags at the drop of a hat - i'm not even joking! Feeding time finally arrived and the 20 or so gigantic birdS that had gathered were treated to ...

... straight away. We were quite amazed that a 4 hour drive could bring about such a change. The next day was surf day! When I (Al) left work in Perth they gave me a voucher for a surf lesson so this was where I did it. As you can imagine with me not being the most agile of blokes I got very wet!! It was really good fun, a lot harder and tiring than I though, but I did manage to stand up 4 times and 'ride the waves'....I think the long hair helped!!!

... meals and great hospitality. so of course we returned! now on our way south, we returned yesterday for a rest day. relaxing is very easy to do at this household. it has been great doing so and having good company and meals. they also have a funny dog, named boris. he is a groodle. this is a poodle and golden ...

... sadly he was whisked off for a wardrobe change (there's a job) before Aimee could have a picture. So, we ran to the surf club, which is where they were filming next and managed to have picture taken with Kane and baddie drug dealer. Aimee made them laugh by telling our Detective Baker is alive story (as he was dead the last time we saw him, in sunny England). Jack came back, wearing a slighty dodgy orange t-shirt & very dodgy blue tracky pants (he said they ...

The next 2 days we spent relaxing (which in an Australian household is still pretty intense) and meeting even more family members... this time Phoebe (Murray and Caroline's daughter) and Josh (her husband)! We also celebrated Murray's birthday because, much to the annoyance of the family, he had been called to work on his actual birthday the week before.

All in all we spent 3 nights in Crescent heads relaxing at 'the house'...and eating fine meals cooked for us by a crazy chef named Mick (who once fractured a guy's skull with "me steel"..but that's another story). Crescent Heads was great...very quiet and a welcome change from Byron. We spent the days exploring every inch of the town and driving dirt roads in search of surf. We didn't fins much...the conditions weren't very favourable ...

Sat. Feb. 24 If the hostel has one drawback, it's the amount of noise in the area around it. There was construction, traffic, birds, etc. It made us get up early anyway. I wanted to swim in the pool before breakfast but the gate was still locked. After breakfast, we had a swim then took the free bikes out for a ride. They weren't in the greatest shape but it was still fun. We cycled to the outdoor market in Narrabeen along the river. It was so nice out and the area is ...

... pale blue workers uniform he has a cheeky air about him. The more he talks he reminds me of a goblin or the mischievous school kid. One hour and a half we spend at the side of the lake trying to locate the electrical fault. "Try again" and "again" and "one more time please" he asks as I turn the ignition key. He believes that the points are dirty and are stopping direct contact with the coil. He cleans them, but after one successful start the engine konks out again. Checking for ...

... Had a weekend in Cronullas - a real surfers town, stayed at the girls friend's house - a 3rd ranked surfer in the world, a guy called Phil McDonald? Nop - me neither, never heard of him!! Lovely massive house though - very cool weekend! I sorted myself out with a job working in a marleting company for a couple of weeks which was fun, the the agency found me a long tem placement at a company called SAI Global - a company that audits other companies - no ...