It’s just a fat Tyne Bridge!
Monday, September 25th, 2006
19th September 2006
Hello all! We have been in oz now for nearly 2 weeks, and are settling in nicely to our new lives (only short term, don’t worry Shirley!) by the sea. After the wet and windy weather our first week in town, things have settled down nicely into the mid to high 20’s that are apparantley typical of early spring here.
Our plan is to stay here in Sydney for the next few months, using it as a base to travel in and around the South of Australia, before we hit the road again, and travel up the East Coast. Since we are here for a relatively long time, we have managed to find ourselves a 3 month lease on a flat, and are currently enjoying the luxury of living out of a wardrobe rather than a backpack for the first time in 4 months! Our place is in Coogee, in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, and is located only a 2 minute walk from the beach, and just around the corner from Dan, our old mate from Uni! What’s more we have a sofa bed if anyone fancies visiting! Coogee is about 2 miles south of Bondi, and much in the same mould, i.e. there are as many English and Irish as Bruces and Shielas!
When we first arrived, we did the typical tourist thing of visiting the harbour area, for the obligatory shots of the bridge and opera house. The first night, we met up with Dan, and his missus Hazel, for a ‘quiet’ drink. Well, Dan hasn’t changed since he moved out here, and about 8 hours later, countless schooners and chasers consumed, we headed back in pieces to our hostel, where we pretty much hid for the next day or so to sober up!
Much of the rest of first week was then spent looking for somewhere to live, which wasn’t as easy as we hoped, nor as pleasurable given the constant grey sky! Still, things are looking up now, and with the sun finally beginning to shine, we feel vindicated for moving to the beach rather than the city! Our place is not your typical beach house, rather an old shop which has been converted into a studio flat! Still, it aint bad, and is a welcome relief to the hostels / campervans / tents that we’ve called home for the last 4 months.
In between flat hunting we did manage to get down to Sydney aquarium, which, like the big kids we are, we both really enjoyed, taking countless photos (sorry John!) of the sharks, rays, etc etc that are on display. All I could think is that it is a good job my Dad wouldn’t fly out here, as if he saw the size of the Aquariums he would no doubt be shipping one over to replace the bedrooms back in our house in Whitley!
The weekend saw us get to grips with our first premiership action since leaving home, the time difference meaning that Saturday afternoon games at home kick off at midnight over here, and are shown on Satelite telly, forcing us down the boozer, which can be either seen as a good thing (Chris) or a bad thing (Charlotte)! We have also met up with another Leeds mate, Sparky, and his new wife Louise, who are over here at the moment as part of an extended Honeymoon, cue another big night out on the lash!
Still, it hasn’t all been drunk and disorderly down the pub, we have managed to get some exercise in by way of the Sydney running festival! We entered the 10k race, having adjudged the Marathon, and half Marathon options to extreme, and the family race a little tame! The race started early on Sunday morning, from Sydneys north shore, took us across the bridge (deja-vu Great North Run!) then down through the CBD and botanical gardens, before ending up at the opera house. The scenery was spectacular, our times anything but!
Anyways, enough for now, hope you are all well back home, looking forward to hearing from you soon!
September 5th, 2006
Fiji time: 3rd August 2006 - 5th August 2006
On our return from Mantaray we decided we still ... 
Chris and Charl