Byron! Coffs! and Sydney!

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Ok you lucky lot! another blog so quickly after the last one! we have found a global gossip cafe open till 11pm (we are recovering from a couple of heavy nights! and bus trip 2moro!!) getting all my photos on for you all. not much touristy stuff lately but lovely beach here in byron. had a hard day lying on the beach and catching some rollers on the beach! 15ft waves! very cool! although i am a wimp and wont go right up to them, i do not have a suitable bikini and i hate getting stranded in them!!!!

So our first day in Byron we met our people in our APPARTMENT! yeh get us! flashpackers! lol. and maria and freddie were in the double room next door, they are lovely and we have had SO much fun with them :-) freddie has the best sense of humour! and maria is so blunt its brilliant!

...We are now in Sydney and have unlimited access to Auntie Jens pooter :-D

So carrying on from where i left off a few days ago! The day after the heavy night our roomies went to Nimbin and we met up with Sam (who i use to work with @ Matchtech). Really good to see a friendly face from home!! Sam has come out to Oz recently and is just taking it as it comes, good plan! Currently staying with her sis in Bangalow, only 10 mins from Byron so we had to meet up! We had some wine and lots of chat and then later went to the Tattoo place...Sharkys! Was good to have some support as dan was standing pulling a face...although he did come out with it's cool im thinking about one the next day! That night we again had a few drinks in the apartment and invited our swedish friends back (they had to move room the Oz experience driver always has their room when he's in Byron! Rude! Lol.) And yes again it turned into another drinking session...Dan was off the drink due to the previous night and I crawled into bed pretty soon after Dan! Sam meanwhile was out on the front porch with the other guys drinking Bourbon and playing cards...reception told us off the next day as they had a few complaints that number 9 has been very noisy over the last couple of days.....!! And that the place was 'rather messy!' What do you expect!! It's Byron!

Our last day we hit the beach, had rain and sun but that didnt bother us!! Spent the day with Freddie and Maria and topped up the tan...altho i am a ghost next to Maria! And again went in the sea with another inpractical bikini - i go for a line friendly bikini not 15ft wave friendly!!!! what can i say!? cant have lines for my dress!!!!

We were sad to part with Freddie and Maria but hopefully we'll meet again!!!!

We caught a bus to Coffs Harbour, only 4 hours so piece of cake!!! Coffs Harbour is very pretty, strolled around the harbour (made Dan even though he had a poorly foot!) and had a nice Italian in the evening at Maria's(!) Filled ourselves up for the awful night bus to come! I did prepare myself and bought some sleeping pills from a chemist...not that they worked!!!!!!! Doh! Maybe it didnt help that the breaks were at ludacruis times of the night!!!! Sitting in a service station for 45 minutes at 3am is not fun!!!! But any who...we made it to Sydney! Caught a train after the bus to Seven Hills and were greeting by my Great Auntie Jen and Great Uncle Col, and they are great, loving, fantastic people!!! So welcoming and have done anything for us! We have been very very spoilt. And i cannot manage to pay for anything...grrrrr!!! But we have insisted that we are taking them out for lunch tomorrow, and they have accepted!!! Thank goodness! They are so generous, but as jen says, we're family and that's it.

Our first day in Sydney was a long one after arriving at 6.15am! Poor jen and col got up at 5am! Jen said it's the earliest she's got up for over a year! haha! Sorry Jen!!! :-) We spent all morning chatting in the garden by the pool, looked so good i just had to whisk the bikini on and jump in. A bit chilly but good! It's only spring here and i think we english has a massive mis-conception that australia is blazing sunshine everyday! It is gorgeous weather over here, but when they get rain u still always manage to get sun and blue sky at some point in the day! They day isn't a complete write off like in the UK! Damn rain!!!!!! We were well fed, breakie, a platter at lunch and uncle cols special pasta dish, chicken in a sauce with angel hair pasta...although over here u say PAR-STA. Dan is already in the habit of saying YO-GURT!!! Was really good :-D

2nd day in Sydney Col had a golf competition and Jen took us up to the Blue Mountains, i remember it being a sight when i was 12 but yeh still as impressive! Saw the 3 sisters and went down to the valley floor, by cable car NOT the train! We did go down on the train when i was here last time but Jen had an awful incident around 4 years ago on the train. The wire nearly snapped! Very terrifying hanging off a cliff side! Jen thought that was it!!! Jen and col and their friends were saying their goodbyes! Jen said no loved ones of hers were getting on that thing, so cable car it was. The train is the steepest train in the world. Had a nice stroll round the valley floor and dan and jen were chatting about all the little villages where jen grew up at home. Dan is officially a great nephew.

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Southern Hemisphere's largest shopping mall, 4/5th biggest in the world!!!! and boy was it huge!!! We just saw a tiny snippet and we spent a good 5 hours there! We ended up buying so much that we ended up buying another case for our purchases....lol.

Today we have been to Fetherdale and out for a spot of lunch. Fetherdale is fairly local to Jen & Col and is good as it is Australian owned and is a nice wildlife park rather than a very touristy mainstream zoo. You can get closer to the animals as u will see on facebook!! I held a blue-tongue lizard...scary shit!!!! The smile is false i can assure u! It was for photo purposes, im sure uncle col got one of me freaking out. And yeh lunch with Shaun & Louisa at Il Lago....was very nice indeed. The food is really good out here, so fresh and the salad i love! Tomatoes are bright red and lots more salad leaf varieties, prawns are huge and seafood so much better!!!! http://www.illago.com.au

Anyways i need to stop being unsocialble, we are watching the rugby 2nite, was embaressing to see england lose to the kiwi's last night. Come on Fiji 2nite!! (They are playing Australia and Uncle Col is Australian, born in Alice Springs!!).

Take care guys, enjoy the photos! Am i boring u yet?? And hope u read every word of my blog, no skimming!!!!! haha. Lotsa love, Jo xxxxxxx

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Comments

[Mum]

Love your blog - no skimming from me!! Keep it coming! x