21st-22nd

Wed 21st

Nothing much happened today however, Myles has had it confirmed that he will be rigging the show in Sydney for the New Years fireworks!! Yes the one from the bridge and opera house! Very very excited about that thanks mostly to daddy and Campbell for the recommendation and the cracking reference!  Also a show on equal size for the Australian Navy, also in Sydney. I didn't believe it was equal size but apparently it's a week set up!

 So plans now semi-set in stone we had to think of an accommodation plan. For this we needed WIFI, so Rose bay it was only to find that the wifi we had been stealing now is password protected. This was not good. The only free wifi we could find was a printer in an office, so if I wanted to print something I could but not do Internet things. A new Internet tactic was needed, McDonalds was considered but their WIFI isn't up to much, it's ok to upload a blog but not for research. We then remembered that our first hostel in Sydney had brilliant WIFI, so we took a short drive down and sat outside it for an hour or so doing everything we needed online. Applying for jobs looking for accommodation etc. Battery's running low in all Internet equipped devices we headed home for a lovely healthy dinner of sausages chips fried onion, sweet corn and carrots, Tasty.

Thursday 22nd

We woke up this morning to a lovely morning yet again feeling much better that we had got a bit of a plan together and we had applied for a few bits and bobs. It was a slow start as there was nothing we really needed to do. Laura had a big tidy up of the room and kitchen while I helped by supervising. Laura had work this afternoon in the marina so we headed down and I dropped her off. I then went back into the high street to get myself a haircut. It was looking a mess and getting in my eyes and I had had enough. Anyway long story short, a good 45 mins later, that seemed like a week, I had a cut mop of hair. It wasn't how Auntie Selena would do it but a cut is a cut none the less. I then had an hour to kill so I sat in the car reading the free local paper that is thrown on our drive every couple of days and then had a walk into the marina. Laura was still working so I had a look at all the boats for sale. My favourite was a black carbon fibre stealth boat until I saw the price. At 2 million I thought it was a bit steep so looked at what else I could afford, nothing really appealed apart from a rather large boat, I read the spec and it had more bedrooms, more bathrooms, more dining rooms and more cinemas than Laura's and my house put together, oh and a fuel range of over 3000 miles! Again I saw the price and ran away to collect Laura. We headed home and sat down to dinner. Watching The news we were amazed to see that a massive part of Sydney had a powercut. Apparently it was a cable theft (not confirmed) that had wiped out 60,000 homes and all 3 phase power. So it wiped out all the traffic signals in that area. That area just so happened to include the motorway that goes through Sydney centre (in a tunnel underground) so it was closed in both directions haha. We found it hilarious but the people stuck in a solid que of traffic on their way to the airport probably didn't. A little while later Rene came home. He had asked yesterday if we like coffee and he had something for us if we did. Very intrigued we asked what it was and he went into his room and brought out some sachets of coffee powder. All different types were there from moca to latte hot chocolate, black to just plain boring coffee. He asked us to try them as we wanted our opinions on what we thought. You can't buy it in the shops as its a totally new brand and our guess is that It's Rene's new business venture. A little while later our phone rang, not knowing who it was I gave it to Laura. It turned out to be a chap called Ian. We had emailed him yesterday as he had his house advertised. Basically him and his wife work a lot and they have a house that needs looking after. So Laura would clean and look after the house while I would maintain their garden. (Very excited to have a garden to play in again as I'm missing my one rather a lot). We were chatting for a good 20 mins and he agreed that we could come down and visit, take a look at the house and they would treat us to dinner! These are people that we have never met and they want to take us out for dinner?! We sat down very excited that something was actually happening now and planned what we were going to do only for the phone to ring again. It was Ian again, he had spoken to his wife and they had agreed that rather than us drive out there to then drive back here to collect our gear to then drive out again was stupid and that if we just come down tomorrow evening and meet them with all our stuff we could stay, providing that they liked us etc... 

Even more excited we said goodbye to our housemates as we wouldn't see them in the morning (Laura had work at 7) and went to bed. 

Friday 23rd

Very early start for us today, half 6 to be precise. 3 hours earlier than we normally get up! We staggered around and I took Laura to work. It was fairly chilly on the seafront so I offloaded the worker and put my heater on while she walked into the marina hehe. I got back home and Rene had just got up, I made a life or death decision, do I go to bed or do I stay up? I elected to stay up and try this new coffee. A lucky dip into the cupboard and I pulled out a latte. I sat down to read the property section in the local paper and sipped this drink. It was a tiny bit bitter for me so I put 1, yes 1 teaspoon of sugar in. I normally have 3 1/2!! So it's muuuch healthier for me and will rot my teeth far less quickly. That made a huge difference and was actually rather nice! It was creamy and most importantly it wasn't grainy. Most instant coffee, especially lattes go grainy when you mix it but this didn't! That was enjoyed while I dreamt of owning one of these houses (again most having a 7 figure price tag). 

I retired to our room to pack but I remembered I had promised Laura that I would write the last 3 days blog so I spent the next hour doing just that. The time came to collect the worker from work and come home to pack ready for tonight!! Once home the packing begun. Laura wanted to sleep as she felt a tad boat sick but wasn't allowed. After a good hour packing up food clothes and our bed it was time for a shower. Showers done it was lunch time which is our favourite time :) cheese on toast for Myles and more marmite for Laura. Lunch polished off Michael our landlord arrived and we let him know of our departure and finished off packing, Laura making very sure her toaster was safe. We packed up the car triple checked the house was empty of our things and hit the road. Myles brimmed the car on £24.88, that's 3/4 a tank in the Subaru! Madness, sat nav programmed we started the drive and came across the Sydney traffic. Eventually after a lot of start stop we got to the highway and didnt stop for a good 45 mins until we turned off. We had driven straight into the countryside and it was beautiful. About 10 mins later on back roads we found our new home tucked away up a nice driveway, arriving at the top there was a lorry with Subaru written on. Myles was instantly excited. Nobody was home but Debora arrived after 5 mins or so. Ian was shortly after. We instantly got chatting about everything and anything really until we were invited out in the car to be shown the local town and we were treated to a meal! We had a lovely curry and again conversation flowed brilliantly. We came home and settled down to write this and are heading to bed soon. 

We will get a photo across to you ASAP. Love to all x