Hello everyone sorry i've taken so long to update this thing. Firstly i'd just like to say that i have loads of photos to put on here but i'm having a problem uploading them at the mo but i'll put them on here as soon as i can.

I've done quite a bit since my last entry but i'm struggling to remember coz its been a while. Emma got out here last thursday and Rory got out here on monday so the gang is getting bigger all the time (and the flat is getting more crowded!). I've been to the cinema a few times. Saw Babel and Blood Diamond which were both good and went to see Borat and Pan's Labyrinth which i had already seen but they're both brilliant and well worth watching again. I've also been to the beach quite a lot. I went to Bondi a few times and yesterday i went to Manly beach which you have to get a ferry to. The ferry ride did not agree with emma who gets quite sea sick! The beach was really nice though. I spent the morning on the beach then we found a pub for lunch and me, rory and sal ended up staying there for the afternoon.

Also, last week we went to Taronga Zoo which was really good and we had to get the ferry there as well. They had loads of animals e.g. lions, tigers, elephants, bears, giraffes, zebras etc. I also got to see my first kangaroo and koala and i saw a tasmanian devil but it was asleep. Best of all i saw a komono dragon which was cool as they are really rare. I took loads of photos but like i said can't upload them at the mo.

The main thing we've done since my last entry was rent a couple of cars so we could go up to the blue mountains. Me and Gary were the drivers, (we needed two cars as there was 9 of us) and we went to pick them up on thursday. They were big 4 litre ford falcon estates and the company we rented them off supplied all of the camping gear we needed and we got a really good deal. The cars were automatics and were quite comfortable to drive. When we went to pick them up on thurs Leah, Sal, Ricky and Emma came with us so rather than drive straight back to the city we decided to see some places we wouldn't have gone without the cars. We went to Botany Bay which was quite cool as it was nice to be driving through some country roads instead of in the busy city. We then went to a town called Cronulla and went down to the beach. It wasn't a sunny day though so we just paddled then went and found some where for a drink. Me and gary also found a cheap CD shop as the cars had CD players and we wanted some tunes. That night we went bowling because its quite far away from where we live so we thought we'd go whilst we have the cars. I am happy to report that i won the bowling with a score of 134. When we got back and parked the car up me, gary, and jammo decided to go for a drink. This swiftly became one of the heaviest nights i've had since i've been here. We stayed in the Great Southern hotel (which we dubbed the southern comfort hotel) till 4am then went to Scruffy Murphy's. It was great fun but the memories a bit blurry!

Friday was Australia Day which is a national holiday so we decided not to try and use the cars coz the roads were rammed. Also we were a bit hungover after getting in at 6.30 in the morning! When we eventually got up we went down to Darling Harbour where there was live music and an outdoor bar. We then got the train over harbour bridge to go to luna park to watch My Chemical Romance. They were amazing! We then walked back across harbour bridge so we could see the opera house all lit up at night.

The next day we got up and went to the blue mountains. We went to Ingar campsite in a little town in the blue mountains called Wentworth Falls. We got there about lunch and set up the tents. Then gary and jammo went into town to see what was about and i decided to go for a walk to see the falls. However the campsite was 10km down the bumpiest road ever so i had to drive to falls reserve before starting the walk. I decided to stop when we were near the end of the bumpy road coz there was a nice view that i wanted to take a picture of. However when i got back in the car the battery was flat. I have no idea why coz i didn't leave anything on but i had to call gary and jammo to get them to buy jump leads in town. Some friendly aussies stopped to help coz they had jump leads but their engine wasn't powerful enough to start ours so we had to wait an hour for the boys to get back from town with the leads. We successfully managed to jump the car but decided against going for the walk. We were in stitches the whole time though! Its a good job we're professionals at this sort of thing. You can take the boys out of Blackbushe but you can't take Blackbushe out of the boys! We than went back to the campsite and cracked open the beers. After all that what camping is all about.

The next day we got up quite early and drove to Katoomba which is the biggest town in the blue mountains. There we went to a place called Scenic World where we went on a skyway which is a cable car 200m above Jaimeson Valley with some amazing view of the valley. We also went on the worlds steepest railway which went down the side of a cliff quite fast. We then went walking to echo point where you can see more great views and you can see 3 rocks called the three sisters. Again you will be able to see all of these when i manage to get my photos on here. I also met an aboriginee at echo point called Goomblar who was playing the didjeridoo (no idea if that how you spell it). We then went for lunch in Katoomba before heading back towards the city. We had to jump start the car on 4 other occasions which was great fun but other than that it was a great weekend. We then tried looking for a park or something on the way back which resulted in us driving around in circles round the blue mountains for an hour or so before giving up and heading back to the city. We were shattered after all the walking from the weekend so had an early night. Then on monday we took the cars back and then met Rory at the airport.

I thinks that all i've done. I'll try and get the photos up on here asap. The plan this week is to rent a car on friday and me, emma, and rory will spend a few days driving to Melbourne via Canberra and the snowy mountains so next time i update this i should be in melbourne. Speak to you all soon. x