Hello everyone!

Contrary to popular opinion we have not gone into hiding since the 26th July, we have however been too lazy/busy to upload stuff. All is now rectified, there's lots of new photos of the things we've been up to in Sydney & there's still more to come :-)

We got to Sydney on Thursday 31st July about 5pm & got the bus to Balmain where Kate's cousin Matt & his wife Sal live. They've got a gorgeous flat with views of the Harbour Bridge from the windows-definately beats a youth hostel!!! We dumped our bags & headed back into the city for drinks & dinner with Joe, Valerie Mark & Claire who we had travelled from Melbourne with. What was meant to be a quiet couple of drinks degenerated quite rapidly - mainly because of the free beers! The 'high' point of the evening was the male stripper (!) who was actually one of the bar staff because the proper stripper didn't turn up!

Amazingly we avoided a hangover & on Friday we met up with Joe, Claire & Mark for some sight seeing in Sydney. We went to the Opera House, up the Harbour Bridge & the Rocks, weather was a bit grey-very jealous of the weather you've got in the UK! We went to a bar, only because the weather was bad ;-) & the wind blew a glass of wine all over my crotch (thats my story & I'm sticking to it!!!) Needless to say I looked like i'd wet myself for hours afterwards! Finally we worked out what ferry we had to get back to Balmain, we saw the sunset over the harbour; Kate & I enjoyed a romantic moment :-D

On Saturday Sally took us to Bondi Beach - the place where babes were made! LOTS of nice bods on the beach (even though it was cold!) the scenery was ok as well ;-) We saw some people surfing & had a lovely lunch overlooking Bronte Beach (just along the coast from Bondi) On Saturday afternoon the Kiwi's were playing Australia so we went to an Irish Bar (where else?!) in the city to watch it with Matt, Sally & Natalie (an Aussie that Kate knows from home) The beers flowed, one thing led to another & with the help of a Slippery Nipple (courtesy of Natty) a new dance craze was born...Moves include the kangaroo, the koala, the wombat, the possum, the emu & the roadkill. Needless to say we were politely asked to leave the extremely posh bar in Sydney's CBD! (This was after I had stolen a beer glass from the Bavarian Beer Hall)

On Sunday it was decided that fresh air and hair of the dog was the way forward & so Matt took us on a tour of the Eastern suburbs & then on the ferry to Watson Bay where we had a late lunch and couple of beers. It's an absolutely gorgeous place & getting the ferry's definatley the best way to travel.

Monday was a bank holiday here (but literally only for the banks - very strange!) so we met Natty for some lunch & explored the Botanical Gardens. There were the hugest bats ever-so bloody creepy! After that we took the sight seeing ferry, although we were more excited about the free glass of wine that you got on board! We saw the houses of Russell Crowe, Heath Ledger & Nicole Kidman (& Ken Rudd the PM) The free glass of wine contributed to the next stop on our sight-seeing tour....cocktails at the Shangri-La Hotel! $20 a cocktail but the view was absolutely incredible, we got there at the right time & saw the sun set over Darling Harbour & Central Quay, really beautiful. For dinner Matt took us to a really cool local Thai place for soup (a lot lot more filling than it sounds!) A massive bowl for $7 - the only budget eating we've managed!

On Tuesday we had a mooch round Balmain (it's a really quirky, upmarket suburb right across the Harbour from the CBD-kind of like Notting Hill) then we went the the Art Gallery of New South Wales & saw a really cool photographic exhibition as well as the permanent collection which included paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Sickert & lots of Australian artists (Kate was happy!)

We had a stupidly early start on Wednesday so that we could go to the Blue Mountains. It cost us $16 return on the train for a 4 hour round trip - bargain! The trip was really scenic even though the weather was really miserable. It was raining in Karoomba as well but we did a walk around the Luena Cascades which included some stunning viewpoints (photos to follow) Typically it brightened up as we got on the train to leave!The scenery was amazing but the place & people were slightly strange - we had lunch in a shop that housed the worlds biggest tea pot collection (!) On Wednesday night we got some beers & wine in & poor Matt is now struggling at work (he should have taken his own advice and avoided VB!)

Today has been miserable & stormy so we went for lunch with Sal, emptied the supermarket of junk food & then came home for a dvd marathon (Kate's been in tears for most of the afternoon!) Tomorrow we're going into the city, possibly meeting up with Joe & then we're staying with Natty in her posh apartment in the city on Friday night because we leave at 6.30am on Saturday morning for Surf Camp (lol!) Stand by for some hilarious pics!!!!!

WOW, that's a long blog entry, I hope you're happy mummy duffy! Hope you're all well.

Love you all lots

J & K xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

p.s I'm sure I can sort out a pin-up size version Luke!!!