Tramping, Quaffing, Dancing

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I had to double check I was using the word quaffing in the right context....Urban Dictionary informed me that yes, in fact I was.
Quaffing - Its like drinking, but you spill more. That, by the way, was the polite 'Urban' use of the word.
It's that time again. I can't believe it's been 6 days since I last wrote. Time here seems to be flying, probably because it's potentially the final half of my trip.
Tuesday I went to the Blue Mountains. It was an organised trip I went for in the end as it was getting near the same ammount to do go with public transport. And at least with Oz Exp, you get some chat about where you're heading and they even give nature info. I learnt all about the lyre bird and the aboriginal reason that its always scratching about on the ground. I would tell you the story (as I have recounted to many other people already) but its a little too long for here. OR is it? I guess I could break it down for you:

Three sisters - Grumpy hunter daddy with magic bone - girls bored, throwing stones - awaken mythical beast - favourite food little girls - daddy turns girls to stone (Three sisters rock formation - blue mountains) - mythical beast very angry, wants eat old man in revenge - man hides in cave - mythical beast can wait him out - man changes self into lyre bird to sneak out, tucking magical bone under qing (of course) - mythical beast a bit peckish, lyre bird snack? - lyre bird gets in a flap/panic drops magic bone and hides - mythical beast bored of all his snacks running off and goes home - scratch scratch scratch, where is that magic bone i dropped?

There you go. Clear as mud i'm sure.
I stayed over in Blue Mountains and had a nice evening at the YHA there watching the Princess Bride and Snatch (had never seen snatch before, and it was funny as, need to watch lock stock now!). The next day i went tramping (or hiking, walking, a-wondering) through the forests, to the 'ruined castle' rock formation. It was a really nice walk surrounded by 3 very different types of forest, with so many birds making a load of noise round me. Was pretty wicked. I sat atop the rock formation and had my lunch. An evil looking bird joined me and eyed my sandwich as if I should definitely be sharing. It was a good sandwich, salami, salad and homous, I wasn't sharing. I think I walked about 20 k that day. :-)

Next day was my day for trying to sort stuff out again, collecting my passport from thai embassy, sending off to vietnemese embassy (200 bucks for the privalage of a visa and getting the travel agent to get it up to Cairns for me, ugh.) and then the exhaustion caught up with me so I had a proper early night.

The following day (Friday) I went to Hunter Valley on a wine tasting tour. I wasn't planning on going, but it was half price and I decided that I may as well, I like some wine, why not find out which ones I actually like and find out a bit more about them. What I hadn't realised was that Oz Exp take you to boutique wineries, for a more personal service. What this means is, buy the wine whilst your there 'coz you'll never find it in the shops. So I ended up non the wiser about which wines to buy, as each winery is unique and the smaller ones even more so because they can experiment. I did have a wicked day though. Met some cool people on the trip and got pretty drunk. Then went out with them in the evening when we got back.

Yesterday Olivia took me sailing i round Sydney Harbour. It was a lovely day just lazily sailing round. Well I say sailing, there wasn't much wind so we nearly had to paddle for some of it. But yeah, I had fun. And then saw Star Trek at the Imax. Such a massive screen! It was an ok film. Although, I did kind of nearly fall asleep because I was soo knackered and hadn't had time for my coffee that day. But I managed to get wrapped up in the film after 20 mins and then it kept me awake. I went out again in the evening and met up with some people I'd met in Queenstown. Had goood times.

Finally, I need to mention that my plans for London have pretty much fallen through now. So i'm currently deciding what to do with my life. The current options are. Not come back to Englad at all. Come back for a couple of months and then head back to Aus/Nz for a year or two. Or (and this is a relatively new idea) move to Manchester with Kerry and Ruth (my friends I made in Queenstown). Any other ideas on what I should do with my life? Do get in touch with them. I haven't mentioned trying to find somewhere else in london because, realistically. There isn't any work. Its well expensive. I don't know anyone else who needs a housemate and well....i've tried that idea and it didn't work out.
Anyways, I leave Sydney tomorrow, finally heading up the east coast. I would definitely love to come back here to Sydney at some point in my life. But am looking forward to seeing what the East Coast has to offer.

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Comments

[kate bell]

spiggin awesome idea!
Come and live in devon with me!! Lol X