Christmas Day - Bondi Beach

Woke up pretty early, had massive fry up and opened presents.
Waiting until 11am before having a beer in the sunshine and then headed for the beach.

Bondi was busy due to the great weather - 25 degrees in the shade. Sat on the grass near the beach and had a picnic and a few beers before cooling off in the sea. There were big waves and the sea was nice and warm. Everyone was wearing santa hats or reindeer antlers and the vibe was a good one.

Managed to smuggle the Jagermeister onto the beach and had a few jagerbombs. I went for the third dip of the day and the waves were really good fun so I stayed out but Claire got worried because she didn't know where I had gone (probably thought I had drowned or become a shark biscuit) but I found her eventually and made her jump by creeping up on her.

Had a few more shots then headed home on the bus. Got back home and had phone calls with our families and a few more drinks. Then watched TV and chilled out at home.

Lots of fun.

Howling Bells @ The Standard, Surry Hills

The Standard was a pretty cool venue but bloody expensive!

Support bands were entertaining, Steve Smyth (a mental soloist, think Jack White with a big beard) did a duet with Juanita which was good.

Step Panther were two minute comedy songsters (we met them after the gig and they seemed alright).

Howling Bells were great. Did lots of new songs, loads of first album songs and only one from the dodgy second album.

After the gig we went to the Beresford for a pint of cider. After a bit of a boogie we went and watched the lunar eclipse. Spoke to two tramps and then we got into a house party where we stood awkwardly for five minutes before running off! It was a bit quiet for our liking. Think soiree for the dead.

Homebake: Our first Aussie festival

Despite the lineup being all Aussie or New Zealand bands we decided to go to Homebake any way. The festival was on at The Domain which is about a ten minute walk from our house so very convienient.

Weather was excellent - not too hot. They have people dishing out free sunscreen so you get the idea.
The booze isn't cheap - $9 a bottle! Ah well, it's a festival. Also, they have a recycling initiative where for every bottle you return you get a dollar back (in the evening we literally 'found' free drinks very easily).

Bands wise, we see the Vines (big mosh pit), Ladyhawke (new material), Pnau (very good!) and headliners, Grinderman who were great - really impressed. They finish at about 11pm and we just walk home - slightly easier than the 8 hour trip back from Glastonbury!

Met some fun people, had a laugh and saw some decent music. Going to a festival in December takes a bit of getting your head around. We have another gig next week - Howling Bells at The Standard - Surry Hills. Should be fun also.

Melbourne to Sydney

Got up and packed our stuff then went to get our plane back to Sydney.
Flight was good, only took 50 minutes. Funny because it took me a week to drive the same route!

Got back to Sydney and had to find somewhere to stay. We picked MAZE hostel and it was a dump but never mind. It had bunk beds.

All in all I drove about 1750 kilometres. A long trip but an amazing one full of spectacular scenery and loads of wildlife. We saw animals that we didn't even know existed and some that we did (like spiders!).

Melbourne, Day Two

Had a lie in and then went into Melbourne. Walked along the river and saw some weird art and went past the MCG.

Walked around the shops for a while but didn't buy anything. Had a pizza and a coffee at a quaint little cafe and then took the free circular tram for a tour of the city.

Met Joel at a roof top cider bar so had a couple there in the sunshine before going to a higher roof top bar to meet Debs. Great view from up there and as the night fell it got more impressive as all the building lit up.

Went to another bar called Section 8 - cool and weird. There was a model of a goat drinking at one table and other odd stuff. After that we went to Hardware Lane and got some dinner. Good value on week nights as all the restaurants want your business so offer free starters and/or drinks. We got both free.

Headed home and did some packing before bed.

Melbourne, Day One

After the long road trip it was nice to not have to wake up and drive so we just went wandering around Port Melbourne. I got some shoes for work :-( and also bought the best book ever (i.e. The Bad-Tempered Ladybird) from a charity shop. Claire got some tops and a key ring.

Went to the beach for a look at the sea and had coffee and big slice of cake at The Velvet Bar. Very nice.
Saw the Spirit of Tasmania ship in the dock.

In the evening we headed to St Kilda with Joel and Debs and saw more little penguins. Then we went to a pub for some food at somewhere called Espy (I think). Steak and chips, nice!

Watched a couple of weird bands and then went back to Joel and Debs and to bed.

Road Trip, Day Seven, Melbourne (Philip Island to Melbourne)

Woke up incredibly early to a lovely sunrise so woke Claire up to watch it.

Drove off Philip Island and pulled over to make some breakfast - scrambled eggs and feta cheese. Not the best breakfast.

Drove for ages and reached the big city of Melbourne with it's huge towers and then had to find the campervan depot. This proved to be an absolute nightmare, so bad that I don't want to talk about it!

Eventually, after about three hours of searching, we found the depot and dropped the van off and had a quick drink there before getting the bus back into the city to meet Joel. Weather was fantastic so bought a pint of cider and sat in the sun in Federation Square whilst we waited. Ten dollars!!!

Joel arrived and we took the tram to Port Melbourne and had a very nice chilli con-veggie that Debs had been preparing. Watched a bit of TV and then went bed.

Road Trip,Day Six, Claire's Birthday (Wilson's Promontory to Philip Island)

Woke up and made Claire a birthday cheesy omelette. We went to Norman's Bay beach but it was a bit windy so headed to Squeaky beach which was indeed squeaky. Weird. There is a lot of quartz in the sand which made it squeak when you walk on it.

Claire did some reading and I went rock climbing on the big rocks nearby. Found a little hidden bit and wrote a big birthday message in the sand for Claire. Then we drove off and stopped to have a wander in the bush. Saw two Kangaroos and an Emu.

Stopped of in a town called Foster to get some food and drink and then saw an Echidna walking along the side of the road. Cute.

Drove all the way to Philip Island where they have Little Penguin (sometimes called Fairy Penguins). This was Claire's birthday present. We got tickets and headed down to the beach front and sat in the bloody freezing wind all wrapped up in blankets whilst we waited for the sun to set and for the Penguins to emerge from the ocean after their day at sea fishing. The sun set and suddenly hundreds of these tiny little Penguins waddled up the beach to the vegetation. They were really cute.

We headed up to these board walks where you could get a closer look at them as they waddled up to their nests to feed their young and it was really like March of the Penguins in miniature.

After a while we set off in the van to find somewhere to park up for the night. Found a great spot but the local authorities told us we couldn't stay there so off we went again!

Eventually found a secluded beach car park on the other side of Philip Island and had some drinks to celebrate Claire's birthday before falling asleep.

Road Trip, Day Five, Hunstman (Metung to Wilson's Promontory)

Woke up early and drove off with Claire still asleep again. Stopped off at the side of a big river to make some breakfast (eggs and orange juice). As I was washing up Claire goes "oooh - look at that!" and I looked. There was a MASSIVE spider in our van.

Claire saved the day - she got a pint glass and captured the eight-legged freak and placed it far away from the van while we packed up the stuff (we checked everything for more spiders). Went back to the pint glass and the spider was running around and nearly knocked it over! We released it and it ran off dead quickly.

The weather was mostly grey and there were cockatoos everywhere. We drove to Port Albert - a bit of a dead end town. Parked up for some lunch on the coast - I made noodles for me and pasta for Claire. We had some bread and butter and there was a bit of an invasion of seagulls because I threw the crusts.

Claire was tired so went for a kip so I drove off to make up some time. I drove for ages going over loads of creeks such as Dead Horse creek, Old Tom's creek and other typically Aussie named creeks. I was trying to reach Wilson's Promotory - a national park and the southern most point of mainland Australia.

After ages I reached the gate to the park so woke Claire up. As we drove in we saw wild Emus straight away. Then we went round a bend and came across a wombat at the side of the road. Got out and Claire went over to him It's weird for these to be out in the day time so we were very lucky to see one. The wombat was very cute and quite timid!

After a long while driving through the beautiful scenery we reached Tidal River, the centre of the park where camping is allowed. We went to the visitors centre and booked on a free bird talk. We got a good spot to camp in and went for a walk. Found some enormous rocks and did some climbing.

Got back to the van and Claire made me a fry up for dinner. After dinner we did the same walk but this time in pitch darkness. It was ace - we saw four possums! Three brushtail ones and one rather angry Brown brushtail. He was hard to find but we could hear him roaring so knew he was there and spotted him with the torch eventually.

Got back safely and fell asleep.

Claire vs Spider

Wombat!!!!

This was one of many big rocks

Road Trip, Day Four, Lakes Entrance (Mallacoota to Metung)

Woke up and rang my mum. Had a shower (about time!). It was great to feel clean again.
Mallacoota was gorgeous - a bright sunny morning and lovely views of the ocean.

Spoke to an old hippy who was walking to Secret Beach. We had already driven there but it was hard to get down to the beach so didn't bother. We went to Quarry beach instead. It was lovely and secluded. We saw some odd jumping bugs. Had a cup of tea and spoke to an old hippy woman called Alice. She had a cute dog. Claire made a Currawong (sort of crow like bird) friend who ate eggs out of her hands.

We drove on and took the misleading 'tourist drive' to a place called Marlo. Misleading because it was just a longer route to Marlo and not very pretty - just high sided scrub land really.

Got to Marlo and walked down the jetty of the huge lake. The area we were in was made up of these huge coastal lakes.

Drove to a little market town called Orbost and went to a cafe to charge up phone and camera. I had a cream tea, Claire had gnocchi except it was not gnocchi. It was a pasta dish with watery sauce and mushrooms. It was vile! Decided that Orbost was rubbish!

Headed down to Lakes Entrance which had loads of shops and restaurants but it was a bit touristy and not very pretty. Asked at the tourist information place where was cheap to camp and got directions to the council site but it was rough as hell and not cheap!

Decided that Lakes Entrance sucked too so drove even further on. Found a pretty place next to a lake to park up. The place was called Metung. We had a few glasses of wine, got a bit tipsy and fell asleep.

British Sea Power mug of course.

Murdoch at Quarry Beach.

Arty shot of the coastline.

Signs that mean 'Keep 'em peeled!'

Ninety-mile beach.

Road Trip, Day Three, Baby Wombats (Moruya to Mallacootta)

Woke up early and drove off with Claire still asleep :)

Drove to Narooma and had a walk around. Went whale watching but didn't see any whales. Did see a massive horrible Pelican though which looked like some sort of evil dinosaur.

Drove on down the coast and got pulled over by a policeman. I had to count to five or something but I was confused. When I had finished he said "Jeez, that's bright hair!" which confused me even more until I realised he was talking to Claire. Told him we were off to Merimbula. He said "Oh Merimbula" in a completely different way which was funny.

Stopped off at a place called Potaroo Palace (Potaroo's are small weird marsupials). We got to walk around a field with kangeroos and emus in it. We fed them too! There was also koalas, lizards and swamp wallabees. The best thing though was the baby wombat called Eric. Claire got to stroke the little critter because it ran over to her.

Our destination for the night was Mallacoota but we underestimated how far it was and nearly ran out of petrol. The van was spluttering a bit and it started to rain so we got a bit worried we would have to walk miles through the bush to find some fuel. We crossed the border of New South Wales and Victoria so I sang Victoria by the Kinks.

Fortunately we made it to Mallacoota petrol station and asked where we could sleep. The lady in the petrol station said there was a place called Forjour. We couldn't find it (same old story!) but found another touring park place at about 8pm which looked nice so we just parked up. Great views of the sea and a very pretty place too. We walked to the boat ramp and spoke to some fisherman who were trimming their fish for dinner. There were about fifty massive pelicans there eating the scraps and they were evil too. Found the sign of the touring park and it was called 'Foreshore', not 'Forjour' - I blame the accent!

Had a few glasses of wine, some pasta and then bed.

Kangeroo with Joey.

Eric the baby wombat.

Road Trip , Day Two, Rainforests (Bombo Beach to Moruya)

Made some breakfasts in the back of the van and saw some Splendid Fairy Wrens (which are the cutest birds ever).

Drove to Minnamurra rainforest and bought an Australian bird book. Went walking through the forest and saw Lyra birds, Waterfalls, Strangling fig trees and lots of other foresty things.

Headed on to a place called Batemans Bay and did some food shopping.

Kept on driving to find a place called Moruya to sleep but couldn't find it anywhere and it was getting dark.
Saw a frog jumping across the road and had to ask some fishermen where the campsite was. They led the way in their car - very helpful!

Got a camp fire going (took ages!) and sat around it drinking wine. Claire made me kangeroo sausages and beans for dinner. It was very nice.

The campsite was in a forest near a little airfield so we had planes coming and going and they sounded really near.

Put fire out and hit the sack.

Claire under a massive strangling fig tree

Claire on a rope bridge. If I had a sword it'd be a Temple of Doom situation.

The Rainforest, it rained!

It took a while but we got it going eventually!

Road Trip, Day One, Murdoch (Sydney to Bombo Beach)

Picked up the Campervan (a Mitsubishi van with Murdoch from Gorrilaz painted on the side) and after getting used to the controls (like having a window that opened!!!) went off on our merry way down the East coast of Australia, destination - Melbourne (in about a weeks time).

Bought some relatively cheap petrol and stopped off at Coogee (about 4 kms into the 1400km drive :)

Had some fish and chips, watched a woman TV presenter doing a talk on birds and then drive on down the Pacific Highway to find our first place to sleep in the van. The van was cool! It had enough room to stretch out in even for me! The 'Wicked Campers' depot have a load of unwanted stuff left by other people after their road trips so we took full advantage and got various cans of food, duvets, pillows, foil, napkins and stuff.

We reached a place called Bombo Bay and decided that as it was getting dark, this would be the place to sleep. We had great views of the sea and it was nice and quiet and off the beaten track. There were a few freight trains that rattled through in the night but it was very quiet otherwise.

Was knackered so fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Our home for the next week or so.

Coogee Beach

London - Tokyo

Claire's make up made it down to London in time! Got the bus to the massive Terminal 5 and found the right counter to go to. Tried to blag an upgrade but it was a fully booked flight and we were stuck with our crap seats :(

Met my mum and dad (thanks for coming down to see us off!) at Carluccios and had some olives and coffees and then it was time for some more emotional goodbyes. Wave one more goodbye before going through to security and then we were all alone.

Claire was buzzing around like a blue arsed fly whilst we went around the shops trying to find a place with Yen.
The time came to fly and as we went through the guy says 'oooh you've been upgraded'. SWEEEEEET!

Got on the plane and our seats were dead posh. Loads of leg room, massive headphones, touch screens, bar menu, free food and drinks all the way. Luxury. Took off on time and waved by to my mum and dad and then Heathrow, London, UK, Europe....

Got over Russia and thought it was a good time to pay a visit, so I walked through the commoners in Economy and grinned.

Didn't sleep all the way to Tokyo and drank a fair bit so we were a little confused on arrival into Narita international. Somehow found out that the cheapest way into Tokyo centre was a local train service that took two hours. Lots of pointing and miming later we bought the right tickets and found the platform. The signs on the platform said that lots of stations are shut due to APPROACHING TYPHOON. What the funk?

Got on the train and off we went. The train map was rubbish and each station we stopped at caused a bit of panic as they were not on the map we had. Decided to stick with it and see where we ended up. There were two little Japanese primary school girls in sailor outfits. Probably dressed for the imminent typhoon. One of the stations we stopped at was getting the full pelt of the typhoon - never seen anything like it! There were some people getting very wet. Soggy Nintendos and Pokemon all round.

Eventually we make it to Shinjuku and walk to our hotel, or so we had thought. It was the right name but the wrong place. Grrrr. Manage to print off some more directions and grab a taxi (because it's a rather big place and it's pissing it down) to our actual hotel about half a mile away. It was very hard to ask the driver how much it would be!

Got in the hotel and it was pretty cool - we were on a very high floor! It was a bit Typhoony outside so we decided to go for a walk. The umbrellas lasted all of ten seconds and we got drenched in the Typhoon. Ended up in a cafe next to our hotel and had a bottomless coffee and miso soup. 8 or 9 coffees later we went back to the hotel room and accidentally fell asleep, despite all of the caffeine. Woke up at 4am and the worst Typhoon had passed so we decided to go out on the town.

Found a cool little bar and had some beers, then found a place for some noodles and tempura and then we wandered around til first light and then went to bed again. Jet lag? Whatever.

Leeds to London

Finished clearing out the house and said goodbye to Claire's family.
Got on the train and after ten minutes Claire realises that during the big clear out she has accidentally thrown out her entire make-up bag with all her new and expensive stuff in it! A few phone calls to her mum though and the bag is back in safe hands and just needs to get down to London overnight.

Arrive at King's Cross, catch the tube to Terminal 5, and second panic hits us - where is our hotel confirmation email! I start to wonder if I actually clicked 'Submit' when booking the hotel.

We get the bus to the hotel and approach the reception with fingers crossed. It's all booked and we are in! Good job as the hotel is fully booked and the nearest one to it is the massively over priced Hilton.

Grab some pizza and chips, watch some TV, watch the enormous planes flying over the hotel and get an early night before the big day.