Holiday Inn Penrith Panthers

When I arrived in Australia, I was lucky enough to be greeted by Karen in Sydney (former roomie in Lake Louise). I stayed with her in Penrith (more accurately Cranebrook, beside Penrith), a suburb of Sydney.
Right beside Karen's house were some cricket ovals, and every day at dusk, all the cockatoos and galahs would come and feed there, like cute little noisy winged feathered cows.

... way it looked afterwards was hilarious. I have never worn anything so tight in my life! I explained some basic stuff to Laura, who had only done a few hours of surfing a couple of years ago, and then we headed into the sea.

It was bloody difficult. The waves were ridiculously frequent compared to the waves in Montaņita in Ecuador where I learned back in July; they were also more vicious. I had also opted for the 7ft board as ...

... is also an aussie football stadium next to it & the Sydney cricket ground.
Oxford street market has been described as “a place to meet & to be seen”- well let’s put it this way you have no option but meet people, it’s so packed in there & as Paddington is a young family area, there are way too many prams in a small space. Space wise & things to look at I still rate the Rocks market higher.
Also I saw my first eel. Not a pleasant ...

Ok , so due to everyone thinking im a moody cow and not enjoying myself i will just clear up a few things!!

I had FAB time in America.... loved it... Grand Canyon ... AMAZING... Vegas..cant wait to go back and do it right... San Fran ..probably my favorite city so far!! Met some lovely people who i will keep in touch with!!
Australia..only been here a few days but i like what ive seen. Now people...if i didnt go on about my misfortune ...

... Opera House which is maybe the best looking building in the world, seriously I reckon I took at least 10 photos of every day! We then did a boat tour of the harbour, this was ok but rained so we stayed inside the boat! In the evening Lisa cheffed up another awesome dinner, home cooked food is just so good!

We took a tour of the Blue Mountains the next day, which was good but bloody freezing. We got to see the some stunning scenery up there, did the scenic railway and ...

... simplistic, boring, and non-theatrical nor dramatic. How that gets overlooked I don't understand!

It was a glorious day weather-wise. Cool (45-70 degrees), sunny and perfect harbour views. Reminded me somewhat of San Diego and Vancouver. I'm definitely enjoying the cool weather.

After the Opera House I walked over to the Australian Hotel where they have a pub and an interesting selection of pizzas ...

... Rangers U6 Green!!! And hopefully Abigail will be there at the match so Reilly can get a few last cuddles to get him through the next 4 weeks.

Then Mum will be here to go to the airport with us. And then we're off!
Plane goes at about 2.25pm, then a short stop in Hong Kong, then off to London, arriving there at 5.35am on Sunday.

Fingers crossed for a smooth flight and that the we all get to sleep for at least some of it.

Catchya soon!
:))))

... it comes to the red stuff. P**sonally I thought the Semillons tasted like weak lemony wat**. But what would I know. Our first exp**t walks us through a s**ies of sparklings, whites, roses, red and a port. Of course only a little sip of each but it c**tainly goes straight to the head at this time of the morning. The Asians are already in s******ing mode as me and the auld dolls look on in pity. Next stop is Seth Nobels - a little win**y owned by some sort of ...

... out flew all over the crowd. There are 800 species of birds in Australia, and we saw some very cool ones, including the Black Breasted Buzzard. The Black Breasted Buzzard eats very hard Emu eggs. But it can't alone break the Emu eggs. It has been evolved over the years as one of the few birds that simply knows how to use tools without being taught. It will pick up a rock with it's beak and smash the Emu egg until it ...

As you will notice I have created a new Travel blog because one we used before took me about half an hour to log into the stupid thing, by which point I was too ****** off the write anything anyway. So welcome to our new Blog. I'll start with the most recent events beacuse, as many of you know I don't have a great memory and I haven't been keeping a diary since I've been in Oz so it makes sense to start here. We're about 3 months behind on the blog too so this may be a bit ...