Today had been a day of learning. Two things I learnt today are:

1. Always wear more sun lotion when you are on the water

2. Never, EVER, show a seagull your lunch

It all started this morning when I woke up at 5.30 to catch a train into Sydney to go Whale Watching at 9am (why I thought that was I good idea I'll never know) anyway, after surviving the train journey by reading a comic book (it was already on the train!) I jumped on a city train to Circular Quay where I walked to the Commissioners Steps to wait for the boat to arrive.

It was all going well, and I even managed to get a seat on the top deck right at the front, little did I know those seats were empty for a reason.

Being right at the top and at the front meant that I got one hell of a bumpy ride the further we got out to sea, the weather was still rough and the waves were huge we were going up and down like a rollercoaster ride and it felt like nose diving on some of them, I was grabbing hold of anything and anyone at one stage in an attempt not to just slide right off the front!

We got around the point and out to see and we had been there about 20 minutes when people started to drop like flies, I mean, it was really rough but some of the people out there especially the young kids just looked sick as dogs and we still had another 3 hours to go!

One by one they started to walk downstairs and sit inside where it was calmer but one family made their two kids stay up deck because they didn't want to go downstairs so we had to put up with two kids being sick which was pleasant. Not.

30 minutes went by and it we hadn't spotted anything, and although my stomach is actually quite strong for motion sickness just bobbing up and down and sideways constantly was getting a little bit tough to take and I was started to hope the guy would just move somewhere when he told us that he had just heard of a sighting of 4 humpback whales off a point that was about 10 minutes away and for all of us to hold on tight because he was going to floor it to get there.

Floor it he did! I was literally hanging on to the bar in front of me, whilst the rest of my body was being simultaneously thrown up and down of my seat completely and being battered and soaked by all water that was throwing itself up onto the deck.

It was like re-enacting The Perfect Storm, although George Clooney wasn't there… just some man that looked like Meatloaf and me wearing a raincoat and hat, so rather than Hollywood film, think low budget movie, like somebody pretending to be in a perfect storm whilst they're sat in a bath tub with someone throwing cups of water at them and that's sort of where we were…

Anyway, once we got there and he slowed down, he very kindly asked if we were all alright at the front, to which instead of vocalising an answer I just slowly turned around and looked at him throw the window.

His response? He laughed is arse off.

It was at this point that a lovely German woman gave me a towel that she had bought with her so I was at least able to dry off a little.

Shortly after that one of the girls on the boat spotted a whale and as we moved over to it we realised it was actually a pack of them and as we got closer we counted 8 humpback whales all moving together.

Totally amazing, we stayed with them for about another hour just slowly following them as they headed North (strange because they should actually have been headed South at that time of year) and every few minutes they would all come up to the surface and swim along before heading back under water and doing it all over again in a few minutes time.

One of them did occasionally swim up to the boat which was brilliant but soon re-joined the pack. After being out at sea all morning the Captain called time and we headed back in to Circular Quay and although I'd felt fine the whole morning, as we came into the harbour I did start to feel a bit queasy so was very glad to be able to get my feet back on dry land!

I thought I might have been feeling unwell due to not having had any food and it was about 1.30pm, so I sat on the Quay side and got my lunch out of my bag, rolls and cold pizza that I prepared that morning. What happened next I would have loved to have been witness too and if anybody had played the Benny Hill music it would have fitted in perfectly.

I put my sandwich bag with my roll in it and the bag with the pizza in it down on the wall whilst I repacked my bag, then out of nowhere a seagull comes by and grabs my sandwich and starts dragging it along the wall, so I run after the thing turning my back on my bag and my pizza. Shooing away the greedy gull I turn back to see another one having a good old munch on the bag with my pizza in it, so now, holding a sandwich bag with a roll in it, I run back up the wall, shooing and waving the roll in the air like a lunatic trying to get the other greedy gull off my bloody lunch!

I managed to save my lunch and my bag and actually found myself running for cover to get away from the crazy birds. It was only when I sat down that I released the grip on my bag and ate my lunch just that little bit quicker than normal...

Once I was done it was about 2.30pm and I decided to go and walk around the Chinese Gardens in Darling Harbour before I met Bob & Penny at the IMAX (biggest cinema screen in the world - 8 storeys high) so I hoped on ferry and spent an hour wandering around the gardens which were beautiful before heading over to the cinema.

We watched an IMAX documentary 'Born to be Wild' which was all about orphaned orangutangs and elephants and two women that had set up programs to look after them in their natural habitats, it was so cute and not bad for my first IMAX experience.

After the film we all went to King's Cross (aka red light district) to meet Lee and Milena for dinner and I am going to stay with them for the night as I have another early start tomorrow and it's a lot easier to already be in the city than not, so they very kindly said I could stay at their apartment with them.

Dinner was lovely; we went to a Vietnamese place and then out for Ice Cream from a little Norwegian parlour.

We all went back to the flat for a bit before Bob and Penny left to drive home. The rest of us stayed up for a while longer before heading to bed around 12.30am.

I feel shattered and still a little queasy - hope it's gone by the morning…