The Train to Melbourne

Based on the English Intercity 125, Nice!

The train journey from Melbourne to Sydney was great partly because of the fantastic array of characters en route who were:

• Red headed man who exposed his Arse crack to us for most of the journey

• Extremely talkative young woman with a hearing impediment and had no inhibitions

• Loud resonating Snoring man

• Greek guy in neat waist coat, flat cap, ironed stone wash jeans

• Middled aged police man in civvies sporting high waisted chinos, immaculate bushy bloke moustache and comical mobile phone ring, who enthusiastically presented his police badge at the first opportunity

• Older country woman with stories of the drought

• Aboriginal bloke with broad shoulders and bright blue eyes

• English listening post, explains psp to greek guy

• Enthusiastic metro sexual who used his white Mac the entire journey and leapt out at stations to check emails

• Big boss eyed bloke

• Female Service Attendant with a face like a slapped arse and heavy eyeliner.

• Cute little boy with mohawk playing eye spy with the talkative young woman

• The woman at the kiosk who responded after being asked if they served cafe lattes “we only do two types of coffee-black and white”.

Our undercover photo of "the not so undercover cop"!

Wylie Baths in the rain!

Swimming at Wylie Sea Baths in a thunderstorm was a highlight in Sydney. The surf gushed in making it a big salty jacuzzi.

It was just starting to spit as we got in, we decided to get out 30 mins later when the lightning started! This is just after we got out.....

Cliff top walk

We did a fantastic cliff top walk from Coogee Bay to Bondi Beach. This involved about 3 hours winding our way past a series of magical beaches and coves some with quite ferocious surf and also a romantic cliff top cemetery in Clovelly.

En route to Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach

Clovelly Cemetary

Sydney-aahhh.

Our first day was magnificent, sun-filled and fuelled by regular caffeine stops to keep us awake (thank god Sydney has got better at coffee these days!). I was still blown away by the sheer coincidence of seeing my old friend Pavi at the train station at Sydney airport. Pavi was one of my first mates in London and had a huge influence on my early days in the city (all of you who have been to the Phoenix bar in Charing Cross road are experiencing Pavi's legacy) Four years ago he moved to a new and happy life in Japan. He had just got off a plane from Tokyo I spied him over Dave's shoulder as we had a weary jet lagged hug on the platform. The chances of bumping into him are literally one in a million.

When we finally rolled into Coogee Bay on the 317 bus the sun was blazing and the water glinting all blue-green and beautiful. Our hotel rocked- the window from our room opened out to a view over a roof top of the Coogee Palace dome and the ocean beyond. After ditching our luggage we giggled and played in the surf. At one point a wave sent D literally tumbling over me. Got very sunburnt on the face (we only had SPF 20). Sydney well and truly confirmed capital of the buffed and tanned bod with lots of pretentious joggers wearing pedometers. In the evening ate posh kangaroo steaks-extremely yummy with baked pumpkin and pear. Slept to the sound of waves-bliss.

Day two-the tourist day. Opera House, Circular Quay, closed Government house, Botanical gardens filled with fruit bats. Chatted to an old Aborginal fella on the Quay, and bought some music off him. He was from up North and his music was a weird mixture of trance techno and didgeridoo. Beers on Manly beach, and then the biggest tropical thunderstorm we have ever experienced. See dramatic pictures!

Flight and First Day....

Well, we're here!
The trip was seamless and hardly any hassle. Both flights were very good helped along by the huge selection of great films all "on demand". We had both decided to try and stay up for the duration of the first flight, (11 hours), we were both asleep seconds after watching Atonement. Meals and service were fab, we woke to a nice breakfast before touchdown in Changi Airport, Singapore.

Kate decided to go and have a foot massage in the 90 minutes we had there, and (as I have never done it before) decided to join her. We booked a 30min scrub and massage, not only was it just pure heaven we were in there for about 45 minutes.

The funniest image was the guy having a full massage with his face tucked in the hole of the bed using his mobile and making calls!! Some people relax in different way I suppose!

We we finally got out all relaxed we found our flight was on last call! We legged it to the gate (floated with new feet!) and actually made it in plenty of time, well before the first class passengers had quoffed their Champagne.

The second half of the flight was on the brand new Airbus A380 for plane nerds! It is the worlds biggest (And most economical) plane. It is huge, a wonder the thing gets off the ground. It is very plush inside with a fab entertainment system.

More movies and great food ensued, and we both managed sleep for a few hours before our landing in Sydney.

We decided to get the train and bus to the hotel. We had time to kill before check-in and thought it would be nice to see a bit of Sydney.

At the station we amazingly bumped into a friend of Kate's, but i'll leave her to tell that story.
It didn't take long to get to the hotel. We checked the bags in, had some lunch and changed into swimming gear and headed to this wonderful beach and spent the afternoon here frollicking in the surf of Coogee bay.....Finally, we had both relaxed.

The pic above is view from the hotel window!

Other pics are here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24022722@N07/show/

I'll update when as and when I can.

I tried on a bikini today in Marks and Sparks for our sojourn on Coogee Beach and I suddenly saw where all that wine we bought in France ended up...well I'd rather be a bonne vivante than a match stick. I am horribly complacent about packing these days; my usual modus operandi is to pack at least 5 times more than necessary, and then ditch a third and then wear a tenth of it. Am warming up to seeing Sydney in Mardi Gras mode, and feeling quite a buzz from being a tourist in my own country. Will being back make me more Aussie or less?

The night before Christmas.....

Well, here it is....

I've decided to set up a blog. I love documenting my trips and usually regret not writing things down. So hoping this will be a good way to write as I go. Look forward to Holiday ramblings.

Tis the night before Christmas.....Sorry, departure and much packing still to be done...OK, ALL packing still to be done, but we don't leave till late tomorrow so plenty of time in the morning!