Well it's been one helluva week. Just arrived at the Formule1 hotel in King's Cross in the pouring rain sharing a room with Blair and Scott.

Journey was a nightmare...11h40 from LHR-LAX in upper class (thank god!!) and the Heathrow Upper Class lounge complete with Buck's Fizz and full English. Then 14h40 from LAX-SYD in economy...maybe 3hrs sleep.

Week 1 started last Sunday with us landing in the worst rain Sydney has had in the last 20 years. Lovely 2 bed apartments in Haymarket for us put on by VBlue and I'm sharing with Vicki, aka Mrs Cox for the week. Went out for brekkie with the crew and our managers Dean and Dave and then supermarket for provisions (vegemite a must!!)

Chilled out with some of the guys n gals for the rest of the day and had a great Thai takeaway before getting to bed at 17:30!

Next day up early for orientation day at the VBlue HQ in Botany after vegemite on toast for brekkie. Met Carrie who's been emailing us lots from VBlue and some of the VB buddies joined us for a BBQ lunch on the balcony...at least it'd stopped raining!

Tuesday was trying to find a flat day so Blair, Scott and I trudged the length and breadth of Sydney trying to search for somewhere to live. 3 of the places we looked at, Colin, Casey and Ben were a few minutes behind us or half an hour in front of us which was funny. Ended up seeing about 5 places, becoming totally disheartened and going back to the apartment for some food and bed.

The rest of the week was pretty similar really....a drugs and alcohol test plus first aid training with a woman from St John's Ambulance who scared us all silly with talk of poisonous spiders, snakes and jellyfish. Look up "Deadly Animals (come to Australia)" on YouTube....it's quite funny :-)

Saturday was hectic. The way the rental agents work over here is weird. They have open houses on saturdays where there can be as many as 50 people all looking at the same property at the same time but it's almost impossible to get them to commit to showing you round at any other times. Plus its ridiculously expensive! We ran from one viewing to another by the skin of our teeth after already seeing 4 or 5 places that day. Most were crap...especially in the city centre with so many Chinese residents. Saw a really nice place just off Oxford Street which suited us all...really central so we got a Thai meal and filled out the application then and there. The boys - Scott and Blair had already figured out that I get ratty if I'm hungry so fed me soonish!

Gemma's 30th birthday drinks were that evening so went back to the hotel and got ready. Was a really nice night out which I think everyone needed especially after househunting all week. Ended up on Oxford St with the boys and getting pieface (pie and mash shop) on the way home which was awesome. Getting into bed about 3 ish when we had to check out of the hotel at 10 the next morning....fun, NOT!!

So that was the first week! Lovely 2 bed apartment all paid for, to 3 of us all sharing a crummy room with 9 suitcases, no handle on the bathroom and nowhere to even fart in privacy for s bargain price of A$30 a night. Let's see how training goes on Monday!