Well, good morning everyone.......please if you could all just take a seat......that's it.........now a bit of quiet please????.........you at the back........yes you!!!!........hands out of your trousers and pay attention please!!!!.......Right......Lets get started shall we?

 Ok, and as before if we could save all questions until the end of the blog it would be much appreciated as we have little time and so much to get through.

 So the second week started off with a bang!!!! Well, actually it didn't, but now I've got your attention I just wanted to say that I'm soooooo over the jet lag right now, it's just such a thing of the past. In all honesty the second week started off pretty much the same as the first week, but with a little less tiredness. I believe in the last episode of my trip we had gotten up to just after a hazy night out and the rest of the week was pretty boring......WELL......it came to the weekend again and it was time to show Australia what the British are like after a few sips of a fine taylors port!!!

 Anyway, the weekend came and as always, Lauren gets a bit feisty if she hasn't had her after work beer, so as a dutiful boyfriend I obliged and took her to a nice bar on the beach for a post work/pre weekend beer.......from then on the night is a little hazy, so bear with me and I'll try and remember it all! We stayed in on the Friday night as there was a special offer on on beer from the local Alcoholics Anonymous Hall (only joking, it was the local off license), so as Saturday night was going to be a fairly "Large One" (in the words of Kevin and Perry) we stayed in and played some Poker - I must say that it's fine for women to play.....and I've never really been a fan of discrimination....and equality of the sexes is all good, HOWEVER, when your girlfriend starts to beat you at poker several times in the same evening you get the feeling that rules should be applied to this sort of thing to stop "card sharks" from playing the beautiful game!!! (needless to say that I don't think the beers had aided my play, and I'll probably just put the whole night down to Lauren spiking my drink or something). It was a really good night actually and as a few started to wither towards around 2.00am there were 4 of us left that thought a few poses for the camera would be a novel idea......so out came the camera......and the Zoolander poses (for those of you who haven't seen Zoolander - check it out and you'll see what we were doing in the Photos I've put up). The night came to a close at about 4.00am, so, so much for the bloody quit night in!

 We got up on Saturday feeling pretty darn good to be honest! So I headed down to the beach for a quick surf (it sounds so good when I say it like that doesn't it? But I think we all know that I can't surf, so it was more of a splash around at a kids paddling pool and then ride the surfboard in like a body board and just try to convince people that that is what I wanted to do along!). Me and Alf (one of the guys we're living with, not the puppet from the hit 80's show) made some plans for the evening during our sandcastle making time and Lauren went shopping to the Mall to buy some more clothes.......Now for those of you who don't know, Lauren came out here with a case that it probably just under the size of a 3 seater sofa. She ALSO managed to fill the 3 seater sofa with clothes and lady accessories. Some would say that there's not really a need for clothes at this point in the trip, but obviously you can't argue with women when it comes to clothes and shopping, so I thought I'd leave her to it and cary on with the sandcastle building - much more important I think you'll agree!!!

 So Saturday night came pretty quickly and we decided to go to a hostel that the others stayed at earlier on in their trip, in a place called Collaroy. The place was absolutely massive and filled with families with kids etc.....apparently things had quietened down a bit since they were last there! So we got a few chairs and tables outside and guess who decided to play a game....and guess what the game was???? That's right, Lauren and Poker!!! Who would have thought it! We got a thing called a "Goon" which is a box of wine - I'm talking 4 litres of red, which I must say that to the average wine drinking pallet it tastes a bit like a dead fish, but to anyone who's had a few beers before it tastes like a vintage red that's the best thing you've ever tasted.....and it was only $18 (about 7 quid), and in my book that's a bargain! So we were playing poker for drinks and that took us jut to the start of the AUSTRALIA vs WALES rugby match, so we hopped out of the hostel and into a bar which was absolutely awesome - I'm not usually one for chique bars, but this one was amazing, waterfalls all over the place, retractable roofs on the bars etc....it was a brilliant night......until Wales lost the rugby in the last minute of the match - obviously I had the others rooting for Wales on the night, and during the whole match we were so smug and really letting the Aussies know that Wales were clearly the better players. I think we pissed a few of the nearby watchers off too, and they were more than happy to throw our comments right back in our face when the bloody Welsh managed to lose the game and let the Aussies score a try in the last minute!!! I couldn't believe it! But I suppose I should have expected it really - typical Welsh!

After the intensity of the match we decided that it would be a good idea to have a few more drinks and get chatting to a few randoms in the bar. Met some nice people and some wierdos too - one of which was on a fruit machine and had just won $300, so I decided that me and Loz should congratulate her on her win with a photo of us both with her - take a look at the picture I've put up - I just meant a nice photo with all smiles.....Loz seems to have interpreted that as "a nice photo of me and the woman and Loz'll lick her face"!!! We thought at this stage it was about time to head out of that bar!!!

We got the bus back to Manly and decided to head out to a few more bars just to finish off the night......HOWEVER, I must first say that on the bus on the way back I managed to slip past the bus conductor without having to pay for my ticket, so yes, you are in the presence of a hardened criminal on the run ladies and gentleman! (god what a rush it was - Kleptomania here we come, ha ha ha). Anyway, we met a few more randoms in the other bars (of which we took various pics, but I thought only a few of them were postable for the masses - so only put a few on the website!). We were on our way home and decided to go for one last one in a bar just by our flat......Lauren held onto my arm as we were just about to walk in and told me that she thought it wouldn't be a good idea to go into the last bar, it was hometime for her, so we went back home and all wus fun and games on the way back.........then as we enter the flat, Lauren darted for the toilet and had an long conversation with the big white telephone..........after seeing the nights dinner plastered to the toilet......the walls.....the sink.....the floor.....the cupboards.......I thought it would be best to put Lauren to bed and do what I've been doing for the last few weeks as a house husband - it was time to donn the apron and gloves, get out the bleach and set to work (I don't recommend doing this after a few beers either!). Then it was bedtime for all.

 Sunday was a challenge for Loz, so we kept it pretty quiet and I made a few trips to the local supermarket for some comfort food - and yes I did go on my blades!!

Apart from that we went out to the cinema during the week and I've been all over the place on the blades, I'm really getting quite good, so it's almost time to actually leave the flat in them!!! (only kidding). I've seen some lovely beaches and some awesome views, so will be posting a few more piccies on the website over the coming days for you all to see.

 Ok, so sorry for not much to update on, but it's been a fairly quiet week, but I'll keep you posted as it's coming up to the weekend again!!! Wahey!!!

 Thanks for all your messages too and keep them coming, cos I love em.

 That's all for now class and I'll see you again next week at the same time. Lot's of love (even though I may be overstepping the student teacher boundaries). xxx