Thursday 6th December 2007

Even though we didn't get in until early this morning me, Glenn and Luke planned to meet at 6.25am this morning to go and watch the Newcastle vs Arsenal match in the Cheers Bar. So, when the alarm went off at 5.45am, I dragged my 27 year old ass out of bed and went downstairs to wait for Glenn. The Cheers Bar was only round the corner, so we were soon at the bar ordering our drinks... a well needed cup of tea. After the match we walked back to the MAZE hostel so that I could wake Nikki and the Beave' and check out. When we left the bar, it was absolutely hammering down - I don't know what's happened to the summer in Sydney?

When we'd finally checked out, we stood on the doorstep of the hostel and it was time for me and Nikki to say our goodbyes to the Beave'. We've been traveling together since the 19th October - and he's become a really good friend. Instead of spending years getting to know him and his (millions of annoying) habits, we've fast-tracked him and he's come out ok in our book!

It was still absolutely hammering down with rain and we weren't too sure what to do with ourselves? We had planned to catch the ferry to Manly and spend a few days at the beach - but we were wondering if it was worth going in the rain? Blow it, we thought - a little rain won't stop us, so we hailed a taxi and rode down to the ferry port. Pretty soon we were sat on the Manly Ferry, cruising across Sydney Harbour, when all of a sudden the clouds parted and the sun started to shine... yippee! We got off the other side and there wasn't a cloud in the sky - so we slowly walked to our new hostel, the Manly Bunkhouse. We thought we were going to be staying in a twin-room, but when we arrived we were given the option of a double for the same price. It was $78, so there was no way we were gonna turn it down, plus it's pretty cool - it has it's own bathroom and a small kitchen with microwave, kettle, toaster and fridge - it's like our own self-contained apartment.

Because I'd got up early to watch the footie this morning, I was knackered and needed a nap (now, it had nothing to do with the fact that i'm getting old), so I led down while Nikki went out to explore. When she got back a few hours later and woke me up, we went for a walk around town. We spent the afternoon walking around, going in and out of the shops and then spent the rest of our time on the beach, which is beautiful. It's quite big, so there's loads of space and so me and Nikki sat around watching the surfers and swimmers in the sea. This evening we just hung about in our little place, had some food, and then chilled out.

Yippee! Back at the beach!

Happy Birthday Gran!