BONDI. BONDI. BONDI.

They say it's all about location and it certainly is in Sydney. Some people hate it, but so far we love it.


To give you a comparison we've moved from Mayfair to Brighton. We're much more Brighton type people.


so our apartment is roughly where the bricks stick up.


"No shopping" outside the shops - oh I get it.


The locals are friendly.



And the cakes are big.


So is the Youth hostels.



But it's all about the view from our balcony. Watching the sun go down as the waves come in. Magic.

BYE BYE POINT PIPER.

After nearly 3 years in "Posh Piper" we decided we wanted to try something new. It's a lovely apartment, in the most prestigious street in Sydney (if not Australia) - but it's boring. Dull Dull Dull. So we decided - stupidly or not (the jury is still out as we are still having to pay the rent there -until someone is found to take it over) to move to North Bondi.


We're going to miss the place.


We've had some great times here.


The first place we ever lived together.


Getting engaged down on the Jetty.


This has been Australia so far for us.

But we're swapping it for this.....


Taken from our balcony.

REPUBLIC OF EVERYONE - WEEK ONE.

So yup I've got a new job. Actually I should say an awesome new job. I'll talk about RoE another time, but let's just say - the nicest people you'd every meet, all trying to make the world a better place. So day one....

And Scotty makes me a lovely cup of (tiny) Tea.
Then on to The jobs in hand, to start with amnesty international - about the plight of women in Egypt, then the Council Cancer about getting teenagers to put on sunscreen. Then saving the ocean around Antarctica (I kid you not this was my first week) oh and Taronga Zoo. Better go and have a look what's going on there..... Before I come up with some ideas.


I met Kevin the Komodo Dragon (I named him Kevin).


Then off to see the mountain goats (with the opera house in the background - how cool is that?)


Is it real? (Err no).


My mates the penguins, I love the penguins.


Killer iceberg shot.


And then a seal. Love it. Paid to go to the Zoo. Life is good here.

Oh and all the cool kids ride home.

RUSTY'S BIRF-DAY WEEKEND AWAY.

So it's Rusty's birthday - a very good reason for 8 of us to head down the coast to Kiama for the weekend.


Across the road is a deserted beach.


No one for miles.


Apart from these two.


Russ happy about being here.


It could be worse, your girlfriend could have a Tash. Who's who?


Ahhhhh there she is. What a pad. Pool out back too.


Time for s walk to see the blow hole.
(Which was so unimpressive - I didn't even take a photo of it).


"Awarded" by who?


That's what the blow hole should look like (a photo of a photo).


Rusty getting in the spirit of things.


So this is the story of "Little me." We were playing a game where in teams of two, one person had to describe to the other a famous person (that was written on a piece of paper). Everyone wrote about 30 each, we had Tom Cruise (that Claire guessed just from me saying "Gay") we had David Cameron (who Claire didn't know his name - I think it was more couldn't think of him because he's so boring more than ignorance) we had loads. There were 100's and 100's of names written down - and the more you got in a minute the better your score. So after a few rounds of this "little me" came up. "Who's little me?" I thought, but as i couldn't think of this "famous person" I dropped it back in. The game went on, it got tighter and tighter with only a few names left. At the same time the discussion of ghost came up, how this place might have one, and strange things happen in the night. Which is when "Little me" popped up again. When the game was over Jay starts shouting "who the bloody he'll wrote "Little Me", that's just stupid. It's not a famous person." to which no one owned up. We even took samples of our handwriting to prove it wasn't them. No one wrote it. Was it the ghost? Then Cleo says it's her handwriting but she didn't write it, - had she been possessed? No. What we soon found out was she was going to write Little Mermaid" but ran out of space, so threw it aside - into the pile of other names. Oh well I guess you had to be there.


Next morning before we headed home we went into the shops to meet Ned Kelly.


The Cool kids.


And Wilko's head - and a mini castle.

IT'S RAINING LET'S GO TO THE AQUARIUM.

So with Russ and Cleo in tow, we jumped in the convertible, obviously keeping to roof firmly up and headed for Manly.


Meeting some Sea horses.


And a few awesome fish.


Even some bigger ones.


And of course the little croc - who's about 4 times bigger than last time we were here.

ANOTHER LITTLE STROLL.

This one included walking past Mel B (dressed as ET) and her trainer.


The paps are waiting.



Swarming like flies.


She can't even hire a kayak and escape.


Off we walk anyway.


Environmental graffiti.


Then past the baddies house in Minder when Arthur and Ray went to Sydney.


Another beach.


Let's get a ferry somewhere.