Blogs from Coogee, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

It's my last proper day in Sydney today before I head off to the Blue Mountains, so I've arranged to meet Rebecca, a friend and former housemate from the old Manchester Uni days. I met Becs last time I was over in Oz in 2008 but at that time, she and her partner Ross had only just moved to Sydney and were just beginning to find their feet. A lot can change in 4 years! Ross and Rebecca are now the proud parents of 4 week old Elise, and I'm very excited to meet her today. They now live in Coogee rather than Bondi, so I headed off on the bus - too hot/too lazy to do the coastal walk despite the fact that it's almost certainly quicker. Coogee was just as I remembered it - ... read more

After a full day’s boozing and finger licking good dinner we prepared ourselves for fright night!! Being the talented and frugal couple that we are we decided to resurrect the Smurfs costumes for a final outing, albeit with some minor modifications, blood and ghoul! When we got to Aaron’s house we were all blown away by the effort he and his house mates had gone to decorating the house – it looked straight from the set of Dexter with all the plastic sheeting in preparation of mass murder!! There were also some equally fantastic costumes on display picking out Edward Scissor Hands, The Pope, a headless bride and Daphne from Scooby Doo! Also interestingly there were a few guests on the loose who were less than welcome with some of us… a couple of baby Pythons ... read more

Bit of a timeless classic this trip and everyone was amazed to hear it had taken me so long to do it. It all happened a while ago now, a couple of days after the trip to Palm Beach, so I'm a bit hazy about the exact details. I do know I caught a bus from central and rocked up at Coogee just as it started to rain a bit. It's always funny being by the seaside out of season: you get the same atmosphere wherever you are in the world and walking around Coogee in the drizzle dragged me straight back to England. It seems to be a bit more laid back than Bondi with fewer posers and fitness freaks. Be great to come back in the summer when it must really come to life. ... read more

After miss judging how long it would take for us to get to the airport we ended up having to race though to get to our gate, where we proceeded to sit and wait for over an hour, typically our first flight of our trip was an hour late leaving. We couldn’t quite believe the size of the plane that was going to take us to Australia, it was tiny but as a consolation it was brand new and Jet Star have excelled themselves with their seat…all leather!!!! We flew for 4 and a half hours before landing in Darwin, we had a connecting flight to Sydney about 3 hours after landing, luckily we didn’t have to hang around because it took so long to get through customs, we thought it wise to tick pretty ... read more

Not really done much this week to be honest... the weather was much hotter, it's been hitting 40 degrees so lots of suncream and sunbathing for me :) The meal up the tower was alright... tried kangaroo which was pretty nice but i wouldn't have paid 70 dollars for it... which is what they usually charge! Went on a 2 hour coastal walk to Bondi with couple of friends the other day, had some creepy sculpture fest on the way which made it worth the walk! Bondi beach was gorgeous but there wasn't much to do and we ended up getting bored, eating lots of chicken and setting off back again. My friend got stung by a bottle jellyfish all over his back, there's photos of us drowning him in vinegar on Facebook :) he's alright ... read more

I don't really know where to start - I've been having problems with this all week and haven't been able to update it so I'll try and wrap it up now. Day 2 - We all went surfing on a private beach in Bondi and the weather was 40 degrees. Couldn't have had a better day to be honest, even though I was rubbish at it :) The water was just pure clear and the coach men were all mint, we all finished off with a walk along the beach! The group got invited to a free meal and night out at a bar called the Gaff that night and I can't remember much more... Day 3 - The weather had dropped about 20 degrees today and we basically just got our essential stuff done like ... read more

Finally arrived after 2 effort flights After finding out there was about ten people on my flight the whole time that were in my Ozintro group and making friends with them, we met the man at the airport and some others and went to the hostel... The weather wasn't that sunny so wasn't really freaking out about being away from home because didn't really feel like Australia. But then couldn't get to a payphone and simcard wouldn't work and just wanted to ring mum and dad which was rubbish! So morning sucked. Then Mark (team leader man) took us all around the botanic gardens in Sydney central and i got wild cockatoos or whatever the white ones are called to come sit on my arm and eat bread :) got some mint pictures but not enough ... read more