So Sunday I spent on the beach again, and not doing like I told myself I would and going to purchase some Bondi essentials: flip-flops (they call them 'thongs' here, but I'm definitely not gonna adopt that...) and sunglasses. Same old same old really. The tan is coming on a shade each day.

I picked up a book (judged by its cover, and title) at Manchester Airport by Stuart Maconie called 'Pies and Prejudice: In Search of The North'. It's helping wile away the days at the beach, and Mr Maconie has become somewhat of a legend in my eyes, referring to and describing places in terms of football teams and bands. He also has a strong disliking of Jeremy Clarkson that I wholeheartedly agree with:

"How come if you're tragically obsessed with vile, globe-destroying, penis-substitutes you get the nickname Petrolhead but if you like trains you're an Anorak?"

Oh, and Stuart likes those little scale models you get of places. Good stuff.

Today I found my way to the city centre via a combination of buses and trains (the underground is just called 'train'. Hmm.) for noon to meet Charlie for a protest against China's policy on Tibet, and especially against their heavy-handed reaction to Tibet's recent PEACEFUL protests. It was an hour and a half of speakers ranging from the Dalai Lama's Aussie representative to exiled Tibetans to Amnesty Australia. To be honest I mainly sat and browsed the demographic, but it was nice to see that some Australians are politically-motivated enough to give up their lunch hours.

Next stop Circular Quay (so many kweis on this trip already!) for a pretty decent view of the opera house and the harbour bridge. All fairly impressive but, to be honest, it was more of a "right, now I've seen it and I can say I have there's not much more to do". They're just the same as in the photos! Whilst sat on one of those big mooring bollard things I was approached by a youngish girl who asked me to take photos of her, which I did, and then we got chatting... my first travelling friend! A 22 year old German who hates Germans and Germany. Excellent. She accompanied me to the Botanic Gardens (where I feigned pushing her into a pond when she tried to "catch" an eel that rose to the surface) where there are the most incredible fruit bat colonies that roost in the trees (see the only photos I've managed to upload onto Facebook so far). Antje passed me a piece of her leftover lunch bread further down the path and then I was descended upon by up to 4 huge white and yellow cockatoos. f***ing scary I tell you, and heavy! There are some amusing photos, I'll try to get them up next.

That paragraph was becoming tediously long and probably too boring to read, so here's another. We sat at a cafe and had a beer (Germans and their beer, honestly!)/ orange juice and chatted and then parted ways, me in search of the illusive flip-flops that meet my standards and Antje to meet a random traveller heading to Melbourne with a spare place in their car.

I don't know if it's the cold that I've still got or the sun, but every night so far I've been completely shattered. Bedtime.