dolphin fun

Today we saw 2 dolphins. It was so cool!! I doubt we would have spotted them ourselves but this woman stopped on the path in front of us and pointed them out to the people she was with. People keep talking about dolphin and whale spotting in Byron Bay so I'm happy we've now had that experience.

Last night we went to an open-mic night in a pub here and Vic sang again. Amazing, she's so good, we're going to try to go to loads more so she can get performing experience etc...it was a really good open-mic all round, with the cutest band of 16 year old boys who were surprisingly good, plus some singer/songwriters and crazy local funk bands. (This is a big hippy 60s timewarp place, remember). Much fun.

Then Vic and I attempted to go to the local crazy-backpackers venue, the Cheeky Monkey but by the time we got there there was a queue and the bouncers were having a row with some drunk abusive English guys. Eww. It all looked pretty cringe-worthy and yuck, so we opted for going home and hanging out at the hostel with the incredibly cool, intelligent, articulate Swedish guy from our dorm. He's amazing...especially when compared to the IDIOT English guys we were sharing with. God, what losers...they were getting up to view the sunrise today at 4am, and having gone to bed at 1, we were SO not happy when they made NO effort to be quiet when getting up: rather, they left the door to our room wide open whilst they hung out outside with a load of drunken people who'd just come home from a night out, talking and laughing loudly (and I mean ridiculously loudly: I'm not overly fussy about stuff like that - I've been fine in big dorms for the last 6 weeks. These boys were really out of order).

Then they came back at 6am and did the same thing again.

Then at 8am they decided it was time for Vic and I to get up and started talking/yelling to/at us. "Wakey wakey! rise and shine!" etc. What morons. It's like...before today I thought they were just a bit annoying, the kind of guys who never EVER listen to what you say, but rather talk over and at you loudly about themselves. After our experiences this morning...I'm just so glad they left today.

Anyway, enough bitching - aside from the idiots, things are great. Vic and I borrowed bikes from our hostel and went up to the lighthouse, which is the eastern-most point of Australia. Amazing views. The day had started off somewhat cloudily, but it's been warm and sunny since about lunchtime, and right now there's a glorious pink sunset which I think I'm going to run outside and watch right now.

Byron Bay

...I was going to title this post "What the world needs now: healing crystals" which is the banner above a shop here (Byron Bay = big hippy place), but thought it might confuse people.

It's lovely here! We arrived yesterday after a 14 hour coach ride from Sydney - ew. Never again. Though the coach drivers in Australia do tend to show movies on long journeys. This time we got some straight-to-TV movie called "Win a date with Tad Hamilton", starring Kate Bosworth. On the Melbourne-Sydney journey, we got "Blue Crush", starring...Kate Bosworth. I think maybe she sponsors Greyhound Australia or something. Things I have learnt since travelling #1: Kate Bosworth is just...great at playing fresh-faced, approachable girl-next-door yet improbably hot blondes. In crappy movies.

Anyway, Byron Bay is a little beach town in northern New South Wales. It's been a big hippy community since the 70s, and more recently been discovered by tourists, travellers and surfers. It has amazing beaches, and loads of shops selling healing crystals and paintings of fairies, or alternatively cool yet overpriced clothing. Yay! It's a really cute little town with lots of fun shops. I really like it here. Plus our hostel is really nice, making me realise that our Sydney hostel really wasn't so great. Here they have a swimming pool and free boogie boards, and we're sharing a 5 bed dorm with...a load of guys. (Why do we never get to sleep with girls?! eh?) 2 from the UK, from somewhere near Hemel Hempstead to be exact, and a Swedish guy who says he's a fisherman - fun.

We spent the morning shopping for a bikini for Vic. I managed to exercise self-control and NOT buy one for myself, even though the one I have is a)old and b)mismatched. Then we went to the beach - our first beach-holiday style swimming in the sea day, and it was so much fun. Did some swimming, did some body-boarding...tropical paradise time. It's pretty warm here but not ridiculously so. (It is early spring remember). Lovely...

Some photos just for fun: me and Vic in Melbourne, courtesy of Liz

bondi

(Look, it's proof that we really are in Sydney)



I think this is Bondi beach.


Vic and I just got back from having lovely lunch with some friends of uncle Andrew, Tim and Cheryl. They took us to eat at this place in Mosman Bay (which is a suburb on the north coast of the harbour) where we had delicious pizza and lots of wine on a terrace overlooking the sea. So lovely! They are really cool people. (It's interesting meeting fun adults who aren't relatives).

Very nice relaxing sunday afternoon.


Yesterday we had a day of strenuous walking in the burning sun from Bondi beach (amazing, huge, sandy beach, lots of surfers, not as tacky or crowded as we expected) to Coogee beach and then to Rachel and Robs' house. I was wearing lots of suncream and didn't get burnt, but I didn't take a hat and by the time we got to Rach's I was feeling distinctly weird in a mild too-much-sun way. (I'm avoiding using the term sunstroke). I always get itchy in the sun (I'm like, allergic, in a really geeky way) but I was taking anti-histamines to deal with that, whereas I should probably have just...gone inside. Spent the whole early part of the evening curled up in a rocking chair at Rachel's, feeling freezing cold, shivery and feverish and unable to participate much in conversation, although after dinner (Rachel cooked amazing risotto) I started to normalise.

We went back to our dorm and managed to drink a litre of wine between us, whilst not doing very much. There's lots of new guys - blonde, German surfers. What fun.

Oh yeah, something that I forgot to mention the other day: we went to an open-mic night here in Sydney and Vic sang!! It was so much fun. She's an amazing singer, but I hadn't heard her sing anything for ages and was really scared and nervous...but it was great. She sang Joni Mitchell's Blue. It was lovely, aside from the stupid drunk men trying to talk over her. (I "sshh"d them lots).

most embarrassing thing EVER

I just spilt my blueberry frappe (god I'm such a wanker) all over the computer in this internet cafe. Well, it didn't really go on the computer, just on the table and floor and such but it was SO EMBARRASSING, plus the guy behind the counter is cute and then he had to mop up after my ridiculous clumsiness, eek I feel awful!! I've apologised a million times but I still feel stupid. Now we're hiding at the back blushing.
This is almost as bad as in Hong Kong airport when Vic spilt a coffee all over herself - but she actually got burnt, whereas I'm just...sticky. Yuck.

Anyway, aside from that disaster, things are good. Last night Vic and I went for a drink with 2 of the boys from our dorm, who are both really nice and cute...so YOUNG!! The (hot) German guy is 19, and the guy from Norwich is 18 years old!! They're both on post-school gap years...I'm so genuinely impressed at anyone of 18 having the confidence to travel on their own, independently (as opposed to, like, Oz experience etc). They're my new role-models.

Today we went to the zoo. The "zoo with a view", if you will. It does have an amazing view, and it was fun, just like Melbourne zoo. I don't know if we're just very immature for 22 year olds, but running around spotting animals all day is so enjoyable: I should do it more at home. We saw some koalas snarling at each other and fighting in a tree, which was great (you know how people say koalas aren't as cute and cuddly as they look? Well, it's true).

Opinion poll: what shall I read next? (Yeah, like you care). I just finished the new Bret Easton Ellis book (weird...I think I need to read it again before forming an opinion) and I think I'm going to buy a book tomorrow...any suggestions? There are some books lying around the hostel, but they're all either in German, or the Da Vinci Code.

Feeling at home

It's (still) lovely and sunny and we are hanging out in Glebe, which is a very cool suburb. We're about to walk to Newtown. I think this kind of area is where I'm going to try to live. We just walked about a block down Glebe Point Road and passed:
- a cool vegetarian/vegan cafe
- another cool cafe
- a record shop
- a bookshop
- another cool cafe
- a macrobiotic cafe (?!)
- another record shop
- a Japanese restaurant
- another bookshop
I SO fit in here.
Had vegan lunch in a cafe called Badde Manors. Managed to get into a discussion with the waitress about cultural differences in coffee names: here they call espresso "short black", normal black coffee/Americano is "long black" and with milk is "flat white" (as opposed to latte which is the same). How, er...fascinating.

This morning we went round the art gallery of New South Wales, which is right by our hostel. It was a really excellent art gallery experience, lots of modern and aboriginal stuff, plus Chinese calligraphy and Japanese galleries.

Today we (finally) managed to befriend some of the guys in our dorm room, which is cool, although we were annoyed when we got in last night (at midnight! It wasn't even late! We'd been at a pub quiz with Rach and Rob which was lots of fun) and they were ALL in bed, and made such a total fuss (in a passive-agressive moaning/sighing way) about us turning lights on. It's like...this is Sydney! You're crazy travellers! You should be out partying!! But they do seem cool so maybe it was just a glitch.

Manly

Is the name of the suburb I'm in right now. Cool huh? It's a 30 minute ferry ride across the harbour from Circular Quay, and it's got a gorgeous beach - the whole white sand/blue sea thing, lots of people surfing, some beach volleyball...it's just like on TV.

Yesterday was spent hanging out on Oxford Street, which is very different from London Oxford Street, but does have fun shops. I bought some sandals to replace my flip-flops that broke. We also discovered a wonderful bookshop/cafe called Gertrude and Alice which is just so cool - I think I'll try to work there. OK, so the bookshop/cafe thing is a bit self-consciously trendy but it's such a nice place. I had a soy latte: I felt like Madonna.

Sydney is still fun and sunny, but that's all the news you're going to get for the moment as my 20 minutes internet time is rapidly running out.

Sydney rocks

Which is a good thing considering that I made the decision to work out here about 3 years ago before I'd visited. But the city is living up to expectations, which is...such a relief. We arrived on sunday night, then spent yesterday exploring - it's hot, sunny and lovely (and bear in mind that this is early spring in Australia, which promises good weather for a long time to come!) the sea is everywhere, there's so much parkland: you can walk all the way from our hostel to the harbour (about 2k) through the park.

We got off the coach after a gruelling 13 hour journey (we could have broken it up by stopping at Canberra - but everyone, plus Bill Bryson, plus the guidebooks, write Canberra off as a pretty boring city full of civil servants, so given how I spent the whole of the last year I didn't really feel the need to investigate) and were greeted by a drunken Aussie rules football fan who asked us out for a drink. (We didn't go). Excellent...

We're staying in a hostel in a suburb called Woolloomoolloo. (Australians use the word "suburb" differently from back home - all areas of the city aside from the centre are called suburbs basically: it doesn't mean they're really far out). It's pretty cheap ($125/week) and we're in an 8 bed dorm with a load of guys which is certainly...interesting! Everyone seems nice, apart from the German guy who I haven't really spoken to, but he's hot, so it's all good. The hostel has a big kitchen, 2 TV rooms, 2 computers for internet, all that stuff.

We've got 10 days in total in Sydney, 7 more nights before we head up the coast, so we're trying to plan things to do. (Seeing an opera at the opera house was on the list but has now been scrapped as it would cost us $50 each, minimum).

Yesterday we went round to Rachel's which was wonderful, it was so lovely to see her and her flat. I can't believe she's been living here all year. It was great to catch up, meet the kid next door (that is some confident, outgoing kid; the opposite of my cousin Lottie) and we also got to do some lying around getting our Aussie soaps fix (Vic is rapidly turning me into a Home and Away fan, arrrgh).

Today we managed to drag ourselves out of bed in time for free breakfast (mediocre pancakes) and now we're heading off to explore the city more. I love Sydney...

Last day in Melbourne

It's looking pretty sunny, so I think we'll be heading out for a day of exploring soon.

Since I last updated Vic and I had a glamorous night out in Fitzroy, the party suburb of Melbourne. We met up with Liz, my friend from school, went to some posh bars and drank exotic cocktails. It was alot of fun, particularly when we got to this bar called Polly's, ordered the Polynesian Mojito that someone-or-other had said we just HAD to try, and realised it was about 80% proof. Liz refused to drink it on the grounds that she would get drunk, so Vic and I split hers.


Me and Liz

Following that, the classiness of the night rapidly deteriorated. We ended up in a markedly less classy and more scummy pub, I spilt red wine on my new, pale-pink top, and Liz spotted someone who used to be in Neighbours which caused Vic to actually squeal out loud. (Liz: "Shh, calm down, don't react so much, they're looking...") Then I broke my flip-flop (sorry, thong) so altogether, a brilliant night out!

Liz says that me and Vic speak EXACTLY the same and have all the same mannerisms. Hmm, she's probably right. Maybe we should spend some time apart. We're trying to integrate some new phrases into our vocabulary, as everything being "amazing" is getting a bit old.

Yesterday we decided to put something back, so we cooked dinner for Uncle Andrew. It went...ok. We were making veggie lasagne (it was always our signature dish at uni) so we went out and bought all we needed in the way of vegetables, wine, etc. However, whilst cooking we realised we hadn't got milk...and decided to use soy milk in the cheese sauce. (I'm SURE that I've done that before and that it tasted FINE...) It tasted absolutely yuck. Luckily we caught it before we actually added it to the lasagne dish, which would have been an absolute DISASTER. Instead, we had to make lasagne with NO cheese sauce, just grated cheese on top. It was ok, a bit dry, but hey. There was no way we could compete with Uncle Andrew's cooking.

I've had a bit of a cold for the last few days, ew.

Primates

Vic and I went to the zoo yesterday, and I decided that primates were my favourite animal species, but then I realised that includes humans. Damn. Guess I'll have to pick again.
The monkeys were just so cute...little ones swinging from trees and so on, and huge gorillas just lumbering about, orangutans with cute faces and the mandrills with crazy coloured faces and asses...the mandrills especially looked mad, like a made-up animal in a sci-fi film, so like humans but so different. As Freud would say, it's unheimlich, or uncanny.

First Freudian reference of the diary, high-five!

There was an element of urgency added to our zoo visit as we turned up at 3:15pm and closing time was 5, or earlier for certain enclosures. The woman who sold us our tickets was just so concerned that we got to the gorillas in time that we found ourselves actually running through the zoo feeling really panicked. Actually, I highly recommend viewing animals with a deadline...it never got boring. Highlights included the pygmy hippo which jumped in the water while we watched and swam around, loads of kangaroos, and a real life duck-billed platypus (I used to have a cuddly-toy one as a child). Plus one of the wild-cat things did some snarling. The bears caused us some distress as they were wandering in pointless, restless circles, and didn't look too happy in captivity.

Other highlights of yesterday included a trip to the videoshop. It was rent one, get one free...so it's been a bit of a movie marathon around here. Confession: we've watched Hitch twice in the last 24 hours. John, are you proud? Actually it's so good, so much better than I expected, although sometimes the physical comedy goes on a bit too long for me. Eva Mendes is amazing. Yesterday we also watched Ned Kelly (Uncle Andrew pronounced it "a C minus movie") and we have an Australian thing called The Castle, plus Coffee and Cigarettes still to watch. Woo!

Given the above I think you'll agree that it's pretty impressive that Vic and I have left the house at all today, but we struggled on in the face of the film-viewing-pressure and made it to the Queen Victoria market today. It was amazing, like the most enormous delicatessen you've ever been in. Melbourne is such a middle-class, fresh, organic, wholefoods type city. It's easier to find a healthfood shop, boulangerie or organic butcher than it is a supermarket (seriously; Vic and I got lost earlier trying to find the Safeway and eventually located it underground). We bought some fun bread and fruit and tofu-based cheese (I'm experimenting with the veganism).

I also bought the new Bret Easton Ellis book so now the 13 hour coach trip to Sydney isn't looking so bad after all.

hangin in Melbourne

Today Vic and I finally did the tourist thing in Melbourne. Federation Square, then The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which had a very cool display on "the abstract in the digital age", and then an exhibition called "Vanishing point" which was incredibly cool: lots of computerised animation stuff.

We had lunch in a vegetarian place run by Hare Krishnas. We were very scared that we'd get converted and start walking around with bells and shaving our heads (Vic has a head start) but luckily we avoided it. It was really cheap as well. Apparently it's in order to spread the word about tasty vegetarian food. Yay! I'm considering converting again, or maybe going vegan cos it's just so extreme and healthy and I mean, I already like soy milk. I keep deciding to and then someone will offer me cheese and...cheese is just so nice. But maybe, when I move to Sydney...

I bought a nice top for $25 plus a lip-ring from a piercing shop called Punk-tured, clever name, right? I know we shouldn't buy things since we're a)poor and b)travelling and have to carry all our stuff, but I figured, we're saving approximately $20 per night by staying at Uncle Andrew's instead of in a hostel, so maybe it's ok...alright, I know, shouldn't buy things. No more clothes, I promise.

I nearly bought some fake tattoos at Punk-tured, so that when we get to Brisbane we can try them on my cousin Katie and pretend to her parents that I took her to get a tattoo. But then I realised that actually, I would be way too scared to play that practical joke on my aunt and uncle because they might kill me before I got a chance to explain.

We did some hanging out and drinking coffee on Lygon Street, the cool bit of Carlton, the suburb where we're staying. It's near the university, lots of cafes, organice butchers and specialist bookshops. I discovered that Bret Easton Ellis has published a new book. How was I not aware of this earlier??! I HAVE to buy it, only it costs $30 and I'd already spent too much money today. I managed to resist today, but I don't know how long I can keep that up.

Last night we met up with a girl I did psychology A level with, who's doing work experience in Melbourne for a few weeks...this was only the second time I've seen her since school, but she's very cool and it was nice to have someone to talk to besides Vic, for a change...

Cold

Oh my god it's cold here. Really, really cold. As Australians keep pointing out to us, it feels just like home. Ouch.
Apparently this is freaky for Melbourne-area.
Today was fun despite the shivering, driving rain and inappropriate footwear. (Me and Vic only brought open-toe shoes to the beach..."thongs" if you want to be all Aussie about it...I was later reduced to borrowing Henry's golf shoes. Why the hell does my 18 year old cousin have golf shoes anyway?!!) We took a ferry across the bay, and were promised dolphins which sadly never appeared. Had lunch in Sorrento, then slunk back to the house to warm up before dinner on the pier which was aMAzing. We've had SO MUCH good food since we got to Uncle Andrew's.
Then me and Vic watched "School of Rock" while huddling under duvets. Jack Black rocks. OK, my hands are going numb (no central heating in this beach house grrr) I have to go jump into bed.

Sport-tastic

Since arriving in Melbourne I have set up my Australian bank account. And I have an Aussie mobile number. And adaptor plugs. And a tax-file number. I'm, like, practically a naturalised Australian citizen. It's crazy. Decided to cheat the fear about staying here for a year by just going ahead and pretending like it was all sorted out. So now I can't back out.

We're now at my uncle Andrew's beach house an hour outside of Melbourne. We just ate the tastiest pizza ever, mmmm. My relatives here provide amazing food.

We went to watch my cousin Henry play football today. ("soccer", not Aussie rules). He warned us that football in Australia involves alot of fouling and yelling at the ref but...man. That was nasty football. At one point, the whole pitch was one big scrum, with both teams throwing punches and people running on from the sidelines to join in the fight. There was nearly a fight between the spectators near me and Vic - this guy was threatening to bottle people. We were scared. Henry's team lost 2-1 but it was certainly an experience. (We English wouldn't behave like that, of course). Just been watching alot of cricket, as well, though we forced uncle Andrew to surf between that and a crappy Lindsay Lohan movie (man, it was bad, though not as bad as "Monster-in-law" which we watched on our last flight. Oh my god, I cannot BELIEVE that anyone actually made that film, it's destroyed the last vestiges of my faith in civilisation).

I like Melbourne so far. We explored the city centre on friday night and found a very fun bar, as recommended by the guidebook. (I love going to places in the guidebook - if you have a bad night, you have a scapegoat). There were alot of fun haircuts. Definitely a city of good hair.

Favourite photos

The Garden of Eden, Kings Canyon



Uluru


There are lots of Hong Kong/Singapore/Malaysia at www.photobucket.com on Vic's album, "victorialouise".

Come in under the shadow of this red rock

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
(Did TS Eliot ever get to Australia??)

Since I last posted we've been on a 4 day tour of the outback, sleeping out in the open (amazing stars and upside-down moon!) and being fed on only big, bloody steaks (these damn Australians really love their meat). It's been interesting. Being on a tour is a lot like being on a school trip. It was very weird to us as we've been used to planning our own time. Everything was organised for us; transport, meals, camping, stuff to do. Partly frustrating and exhausting, partly very relaxing, like being a child again.

Vic and I were convinced that we would be touring with a load of British 18 year olds on gap years, but thankfully we were wrong. We were actually among the youngest, in a group of 14 with about 7 different nationalities represented, including some actual Aussies and a couple from Tasmania. Ah, they were fun. There were various people who spoke English as a second language to varying degrees, so lots of really cute accents and hilarious mistakes. Love it. We pretty much escaped any excruciating 18-30 style games, though we did get to sit round the bonfire and toast marshmallows (flashbacks to Brownie camp 1990, shiver).

Uluru was amazing. The desert was amazing. The landscape is just so...alien. Flat and dry. Red earth and scrub stretching away, occasionally broken up by dry river beds or salt lakes. Then the huge rock just...tipped in the middle (they've thankfully avoided putting any kiosks/hotels/McDonalds right next to it so far, touch wood). It really looks like it fell from a great height. Just one big red rock (it's a single piece of sandstone).

We didn't climb it. I don't know how anyone can, when there are leaflets and signposts all over the place from the Anangu aborigines saying "Please don't climb the rock" etc. When someone asks so nicely, how can people just think "Hey, wonder what the view's like from the top?"?? Grrr. 5 people in our group climbed, the bastards. They should just ban it, I think, if people are going to fail to respect a polite request.

Would have been good to see the view, admittedly. Damn ethics.

We walked round the base - 10km, which was gruelling in the heat, but I successfully avoided sunburn (how? It's a miracle.)

Following sunrise at the rock (which followed sunset at the rock - I really feel like I've "done" the rock now...) we did some climbing in the Olgas - sandstone mountains in Kata Tjuta national park - and around Kings Canyon. And some driving - alot of driving. Central Australia is just so big, and so empty - aside from the flies, but oh, man: I promised myself I wouldn't talk about the flies. Kings Canyone was amazing and possibly my favourite outback destination. The gullies and rocky walls are stunning, and there's a shockingly lush green bit in the middle called the Garden of Eden.



On a less transcendental topic, we also went quad biking at the cattle station we were staying at. (The choice was quads or camel-riding). It was so much fun. We were both terrified, because the guy who took us out went relaly crazy in his safety briefing, and also because Ozzy Osbourne injured himself on one and I mean if he, master of motor-skills and co-ordination, couldn't do it then what chance did we have? However, once we got over the fear it was amazing. I don't know why I was scared actually, I mean I can drive a car and I'm pretty good at it, right John? (Christmas day 2004 - the only time my non-Catholic brother has actually crossed himself).

Disaster, though, I lost a contact lens. Whilst quad biking (that's gonna look good on the insurance claim form). So a) I had to finish the ride with imperfect, skewed vision, which was probably very dangerous and reckless, but what was I going to do, walk home? and b) now I'm stuck with the hot glasses all the time. Lucky they're so hot.

Last night we did crazy end of tour partying in Alice Springs. Much fun. We're now in Melbourne at Uncle Andrew's house being amazingly well looked after. This house has all the technology we could want. There are more photos up at www.getjealous.com/vicandmary and I'll post some Uluru ones on here in another entry.

Photes! (will this work?)

(Note: What's with all these spam comments dammit? I've had to put it back on registered users only - what's going on, it seemed to start only after I put photos up. Weird and lame.)

Me and Vic at the peak on Hong Kong island


Nathan Road, Hong Kong


Vic's hair before and after!








Family in Singapore

Our hostel in Malaysia (looks nice huh? the luxury).



This is a pretty random selection - we'll put up more when we get more time. There's more on Vic's new site which is www.getjealous.com/vicandmary (it's currently a work in progress. Damn, it's $1 for 13 mins 20 secs web time!)

We're heading off to do the whole Uluru tour tomorrow (5:45am wake up call ouch) and are back wednesday night.

PS - Oh my god America has gone mad. Jesus Christ. It's awful - Lord of the Flies, hello. Civilisation can go to hell so quickly. Oh...man.

Desert, heat and scary Australians

We're in Alice Springs. We're in the middle of the Australian desert.

Australian immigration is fuckin crazy. They quizzed us on our plans as we entered Darwin airport ("where are you going now? and what about when you get there?") and threatened to make me talk to someone in a small room because I have a work visa. That didn't happen, thank god: it was 4am, if they'd asked me what I was planning to do I have no idea what I would have said.

We moved through to have our bags searched, and the nice, fatherly, red-faced security guy initiated the following conversation:

Jolly man: "So, where have you come from?"
Us: "Hong Kong and Singapore."
Jolly man: "Did you see any chinese in Hong Kong?"
Us (after a confused pause): "Uh, yeah."
Jolly man (chuckling): "That's a surprise, they're all over here!"
Us: Nervous laughter rapidly becoming hysterical giggling plus uncomfortable glances at each other.
Jolly man: "Where are you off to in Australia?"
Us: "Alice Springs."
Jolly man: "There's your first mistake. You don't want to go to Alice. There's alot of black people round there."

Um...wow. I thought this was the 21st century. This was an official at an international airport for god's sake. Or was it some kind of Aussie humour that we just weren't getting?

We're now at our hostel which is amazing - it's got a pool, hammocks, internet, a bar, a lounge and tv area...I'm loving it, except that everything's so expensive compared to asia, we're fretting about money somewhat. I'm so glad we've got so many relatives and friends to stay with and save on hostel money. ($17 tonight, in a 6 bed dorm).

It's so hot. I mean, this is the desert. The landscape is amazing...red earth, rocks. The flights last night were pretty awful and I got no sleep, but had a transcendent moment when I stood up on the plane, looked out of the window and realised we were flying over miles and miles of red desert. It's so different from everywhere else I've ever been.

Skinhead

(I'm updating on the free internet service in the airport. Asian countries rock!!)

About to fly out to Alice Springs via Darwin. It's going to be a horrible night of cramped planes, no sleep and hanging about in airports...grr.

Our last day in Singapore was uneventful except for Vic's dramatic new hairstyle. This morning at about 1am we shaved her head. Well, I say shaved, but really it's a number 3 which is quite long (maybe 1.5 cm??) so I maintain that it's more cropped. It looks amazing, as of course it would on gorgeous Vic. It was a bit of a terrifying process though, especially as I was under pressure to do it evenly and not leave any bald patches, etc. I think I've done well. My cousins were pretty surprised and 4 year old Lottie doesn't like it at all:

"Do you like Vic's new hair, Lottie?" shakes head.
"Does she look like a boy?" nods.

We may be able to post pictures later courtesy of Marie, who we met for lunch. We finally managed to force ourselves to try durian - the incredibly smelly fruit that's a far-east speciality. It smells like rubbish (it's banned from public transport and most hotels and public places; it really is that bad), has the texture of raw chicken, only more squidgey, and tastes...ew. Yuck. Not sweet like most fruit - it's kind of garlicky, and basically horrible. Plus we can't get the smell to wash off our hands...eww.