Hi everyone,

Updating you from Melbourne but will tell you all about last week. The actual week was quite uneventful and worked every day. We also had an invasion of ants in the flat which wasn’t pleasant hopefully we have irradiated them now! Saturday did an early shift and then Suzanne (from Kings) and Tony came down. They have been travelling Oz for the last two months and are in Sydney till Tuesday. We did the obligatory trip to Bondi but unfortunately the 30 deg blue skies sunshine decide to swap itself for grey skies and torrential rain as soon as we got there. Just abit annoying as it had been really hot all week! It didn’t ruin our trip though and we had lunch at a restaurant called Iceburgs over looking the pool, sea and beach. Couldn’t have got a better spot and was very nice to share it with them, had loads to catch up on and loads of stories to swap so was all good. Luckily got a taxi back cause the rain was out with vengeance. That night we went to circular quay and went to the opera bar for a drink, normally this place is amazing as it is under the opera house, on the harbour edge and opposite the bridge, the rain however spoilt it a little but was still good. There was a massive cruise ship in the harbour and it was S&T's first trip so was good. After this it was on to the Ice bar, its one of those places that every thing is ice including the glasses. We had to put on big coats and ugg boots and the most useless gloves ever. Its called minus 5 and that was the temperature in there. To begin with it felt like a winters morning but the ice glasses made it feel worse. There were ice sculptures everywhere and was very cool but smaller than we expected. Photos were banned but I of course sneaked a few. Next it was on to Darling harbour, the weather still crap so didn’t have quite the same appeal. Went to a few bars which were all good before going home. Had a really good night and the rain didn’t ruin it too much.

Sunday we were all feeling a little hungover but battled on and drove to Sydney and to the Rocks market. Luckily its undercover as the rain was still out in force. Its the best market in Sydney so had to be done. Its got loads of cool stuff that I WILL be getting before coming home! While there spotted some paparazzi, they were taking photos of the actor Hugh Jackman from Xmen, Swordfish and Scoop. It was amusing to watch them taking untold shots of the poor bloke shopping with his family, he did stand out though in shades and a straw hat! I of course had to take a couple, not that I knew who he was but the others said he’s bigtime in Xmen. We then went for lunch in the restaurant/bar part of the ice bar, they had really big cushion chairs that were just right for a Sunday hangover. We then went to the botanical gardens to show them the disgusting but amazing freaky fox bats flying everywhere. I was very excited to see a grassed area full of cockatoos, had been trying to get a pic of them since coming to Oz but they are normally way up high in trees. They are actually quite cute things, really quite big and white with a few spikes of yellow hair. We had fun feeding them grass, sad it sounds I know but we weren’t the only ones! The rain eventually got the better of us and we went back to the flat. After a quick freshen up and before Tony had a chance to go to sleep we went for a driving tour round the eastern suburbs. Stopped at Coogee and Clovelley, the waves were huge, was like being at a northern beach. Paul then took us to this park with a really good view of the city, it was dark by this time and the view of the city skyline was amazing with the scrapers, harbour, bridge, Sydney tower and opera house all lit up. The camera unfortunately couldn’t capture it and I am thinking of getting a tripod to make my photography even more amazing! Went for dinner at Doyle’s in Watson’s bay before all finally becoming exhausted! Suzanne and Tony went back to her family friends but I was to meet them on the Monday anyway. Had an amazing weekend with them, so good to see friends from home. That’s all for now, speak again soon LOVE AND MISS YOU LOADS LAURA AND PAULXXXX