Crowne Plaza Hotel Newcastle

... as well.

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 ...

... day this week as she was going up to scout out houses. Between Christmas and New Year's was all I had to go off. By a huge stroke of luck, a friend of my friend Kym was looking for a place just then! She was flexible but said that it couldn't be before Christmas. Great, Trish won't be gone until then anyway! Then Trish got back and gave 10 days notice that she would be out two days before Christmas. "If the new girl can't move in then, you'll just have to foot the bill. It's ...

... good shape and only has a few little dings on it. Which is why it was as cheap as it was. I found a cancer spot on the roof. I didn't have any duct tape so I put my gum in it. There's duct tape now, but I'll have to find some paint and some fiber-glass and fix her up some day. There are a couple other little dings that need to be touched up as well. Ohh, yeah, and it could use a new thermostat. And rear brakes. And new rotors up front. But other than that it's ...

... run back in with my camera...rats! I did find a picture of it online though. We got to the beach & were met by 4 4x4 Toyota SUVs. They split everyone up into smaller groups and we climbed into the trucks. Off we went down the beach. The weather was gorgeous, one of only a few sunny days we'd had the whole trip. The scenery was gorgeous, although there's been cyclones in the area recently which has caused the mud to churn up terribly and the ...

... back down). It was then time for the arrival of Mother & Father Cook !!!!! Mum & Dad AKA Den & Syl arrived and we spent a couple of days in the City visiting the various sights. Den & I even climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge - the views from up there are amazing, I would recommend the experience to anyone. We also visited the Blue Mountains which were absolutely beautiful. It was also Gigs birthday and to celebrate we ...

... to have a lot of pent up energy or anger or something that he is now expending while asleep. At one point he does soften briefly, like a few bars of pianissimo following a thundering crescendo, but this is violently broken by a long and loud ****, a few turkey-type gobbling noises and an enthusiastic resumption of the snoring. Even with our earplugs in, the noise is overwhelming and I don't know quite how we ...

... the volunteers around, trying to go in all the doors. Another little guy woke up and started moving around. We took about 50 pictures each. Finally they came back with branches, and the little guy chilled out. Susie, the first one to run about, was old and is given formula, so she didn't munch on any leaves. A volunteer came out and gave us a short talk about koalas, then led us around back to pet one! Brock was feeding Susie as we all lined ...

... with a few photo stops along the way. after the walk we took a ride on the worlds steepest railway. The train travels backwards so you have an almost vertical view over the mountains, Lucy kept her eyes closed the whole way and kept saying she was going to be sick from fright!!! the worst was yet to come, when we got off the train the elderly Chinese man in front of dean had a really bad smell of pooh coming from him, he also had a wet patch on his trousers and he kept ...