Ana and Emmas Journal

Gallery: kho nghai

anage — Fri, 9 Mar 2007 02:02:00 GMT

island

Gallery: ko bu bu

anage — Fri, 9 Mar 2007 01:46:00 GMT

thailand remote island

krabi

anage — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 02:14:00 GMT

said our farewells in the morning , with both of us feling sad to leave and promosing to return to the island...we head off in a speed boat towards pak meng where we get a minibus to trang ...this is about an hour drive and gives emma a taste of thai driving styles which she is not keen on....god knows whate she will think wen we are in colombo! when we arrive at trang we manage to get a "local bus" for the 2 hour journey to krabi..the bus is full of locals obviously :) and i amuse most of them by banging my head on the way into the bus wile trying to carry my backpack on....soem of them were wetting themselves with laughter but i was in to much pain to care !
the journey goes well and we then get a taxi to our hotel in Krabi town.
by this tie we are both craving plain food having eaten so much thai food on the island so we buy lots of packets of crisps and eat our way thru them.
The hotel which is nice enough...is directly opposite the night market in krabi which we take a quick stroll round for some interesting snacks including some bizarre sausage looking thing that tastes nothing like a sausage....before returning to the room to watch the man u liverpool contest.

in the morning watched one last film (cat woman) then set off to do our laundry and have a check about taxi rides to the airport. also we needed to try and sort out staying at the same hostel in singapore that we went to before.
emailed hostel and then did laundry which would be ready by 3pm , had a quick snack of raw chips and burnt burger while emma had one last pad thai....was the worst meal we hve had in thailand and a poor note to leave it on....but hey ho!
when the time came we collected our washing and asked about taxi prices, hotel and one other place wanted 500 bhat..scandalous, had an offer from one chap with a pick up taxi (of which there are thousands all with about 10 people crammed in them) for 150 bhat each) by this time emma and i are both in full haggle mode so we turn him down and get an offer for 100 bhat each leaving now....we then get another offer of the same from someone else and say its too much then finally get him down to 75bhat each....a bargain for the 16k trip :)

on arrival we check in and wait in the departure lounge .... in fact turns out we were waiting in the wrong departure lounge there are two one for domestic and one or international....luckilyh we realise jut as the flight is boarding....you think we would be experts after this number of flights but no! mind you I have never seen an airport operate quite like krabi airport.
on landing at singapore we head off to the info desk to check about hostel....whilke waiting wemeet to young english guys on a gap year and emma sells them our hostel as being good so i go and phone to se if they have a privat room for me and emma and any other room for them...they do so we all share taxi ...cool.
god to se kahlil again...the owner and he is v. pleased to see us ...he is (or his staff are) cooking an amazing bbq of prawns lamb rice etc...but we re not hungry although ema forces one gigantic prawn down! i agree to sort his new pda out in the morning and we have livley debate about smoking policy in singapore!
get poor nights slle worrying about sri lanka....have to say every one we have met has said ..."what you are going there now!" or words to that effect...so have quite a few doubts about actually going to this place....for alot of reasons not just the ongoing civil war!
but looks like we are going so will just be sorting a few essential items out today then off we go to sri lanka this evening!

kho nghai

anage — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:11:00 GMT

long tail baot to koh ngAIh not as wet as other
walk to resort with back packs along very hot beach
met with gay receptin man
room, swimming pool and views are out of this world

swim, walk along beach, hAVE NOname and spicey salad, arrange to meet canadian couple for sea food that evening

walk back along beach plesant, walk up steps hard work
go out realise bit red from sun enjoy a cold drink and meet couple
have red snapper with sweet nd sour sauce v fresh
emma has 1 thai rum, v strong
have interesting convo about all sorts, in depth.she is a teacher having a year teaching in china, but origainlly lives in toraonto. he is a charapractor, both well travelled and have loads of good info.

walk back v scary and pitch black
sooo nice to come back to air con :)
get up early for breaky and hav eggy bread and omlette etc nice
hang by the pool most of day arrange to meet canadians losely later, walk down beach in the eveing stars are well bright and sea looks nice and calm.go for a drink then head back to our plkace for some food, waiters are so friendly and all want to talk to you and know mmore about things.

following moring we lye in, read books at poola dn then go to find out about kayaing and snokeling etc, meet canadian couple and they tell us how the have had a funny afternoon yesterday drinking long island ice tea in sea then colasing fro 12 hours after.we both go to recetio to ask about laudry as all our clothes now can not be recycled anymore, the washing here is to expensive so leave it and hatch a plan to hand wash stuff mean swe have to go on boat trip to buy soap etc..... nect thing we return back to room to figure our washing had been taken anywya!!! shit we gotta pay for it!!! luckly we talk to v nice guy and he pays half for it out of his wages which we both feel guitly about but he did just take it out of our rrom. meet canadian couple that eveing, they say how jealous they are of us staying here longer, our views are amazing. we have agood eveing and at the end say our goodbyes and swop contact details. take a walk back and both realise how lucky we are to be here and cant imagine being back at home and not see the sea anymore!!

next moring we bothg read books, hire aout nokelling gear and head for sea, fish were amazing although not much alive coral lift from al the boats docking in every day. swim quite far out and see so many unusual sea creatures!! takes alot of energy to swim back to shore. have lunch read books on beach and discuss sri lanka. the time does finaly come where we both have upset stomach and spend alot of afternoon in rooms. ana finishes his book in a day and plan to have a quite night.

sunday night .... more hassle over laundry ... the bloke we spoke tro before says ..."emma emma we need to speak to you both" and that the laundry was more expensivce than first thought and that he owed us more to make up his half of the difference .... and so we would therefore have to pay a bit more too ...felt bad for him becaause it semd that as it was his mistake he was expected o pay half of the price of the laundry and tried to hand us some more money....not sre how much this bloike earns but he certainly works hard for it so said we would just pay ......he was genuine..and now they all love us here....v friendly....takes a while to lose the general paranoia you have on entering a new country ....espciallly with thais's history...but the nice people are very nice!
we had a couple of beers at the bar downstairs in our place and got fustrated at the lack of decent music but after severa; loooks and lots of "khap khun khraps"! we couldnt find a way to play some ipod tunes...a shame...
still we went upsairs for dinner....feeling the strain of this backpacker lifestyle and ordered a bbq prawns belly pork and chicken with phad thai...nices meal in a long time!
I order my drink...the usual a large singha....emma wants a glass of white wine....and chooses the jacobs creek chardonnay....
and my worst fears are confirmed when a bottle turns up instead of a glass.....true to form we say nothing and resign ourselves to the 1200 price which i suppose is only the same as back home in a bar.

another day more pool action

today just pool again....sorry mary...although em did have thai massage if that counts as experiencing some other cultures :)
we did speak to some other english couples, one stuck up couple that had some issues with cooking toast at breakfast and then later with some deck chair theft...but another couple who seem really nice....they are going to set up a fishing business in portugal and neiher of them knows anything about fishing.....basically just gonna rent out accomodation on a river that is good for fly fishing...think they both have back up plans which is the key maybe.
resolve tommorow to book snorkell trip and also do some kayaking around the islnd which apparently is only 5 x 2 km so should be doable...if this is the last blog entry then you'll know it wasnt.
Its so hard to keep fit while you are away cos no routine, and also a bit embarassing to run along the beach just in case you run out of steam after 500m which i probably would, but i read a good article about NEAT yesterday which basicaly means jogging and gym work etc pale into insignificane in comparison whith your daily routine...for example an active job such as mining .... or any other manual strenous job wold burn off more calories than the small percentage of extra curricular excersice... and it also raises your metaboli rate alot more. so it is suggested that you try and incorporate activities into your otherwise sedANTRY job....some company has designed an upright desk which basically has treadmill and a desk top so you can walk while you type....if i carry on working from home then this is what i will try and set up i think :)...maybe hook up to a dynamo and save on leccy bills too! reckon alan would be up for that ...right up his street although he may have to attach a baby holder...lol

brought to bar ipod down with spekers that i twisted with pliers to fit plug ....locals loved it and us, i am meeting tomoorow to play guitar with one of them.
jordy girl boyfriend chip on his shoulder aout mainframes
met good chef from cape cod and his family two kid v. funny
well into thai food have thaichef fromback home in resteraunt,...say nothing better , but good to hear himspek about food and life
talk about meeting snakes that can kill you in 20 seconds

another londerner couple , met went over to other side of islland had good time ,.....we shoudl go....everyone met up bit stressful

ana wakes up with bad head,finish my book about a boy with asujers syndrom. conatiue to read my surfering book.

next day get a kayake out and paddle to the rock shown in picture takes us 20 mins to get there and then tie up our kayake on the rocks and explore some caves then snokel for an hour, ana telling me that the fish we saw that aatcully surrounded us bite so i believe him and was scared of them all the time, loads and loads of fish swim with you where ever you go and there ar eso many amazing colous shapes coral and creatures i could defo spend all day looking at them and would love to learn to dive and get underwater camera. the paddle back is tough work and takes twice as long as water going other way. we finsh day with length of pool. both ana and i have toilot problems at this stage :) lovely
finish the day with a drink at hotel bar and meet up with amercian family and again play our music fro the bar and the waiters, tie the waiter eventully brings his guitar to the bar and ana and him play for one another sitting on the steps, ana says he was so incredibly enthusastic and the other waiter lad plays with i pod listening to hip hop, meanwhile i meet a couple mum and dads age at the bar and the man is v funny from liverpool making all sorts of crude jokes, a swiss couple join us later with some birthday cake and we talk about diving etc was v fun night and the young lads of the family were full of funny information.

following day begin with organising next leg of journey, we have a quick swim then go for a walk around the back of the island where youcan get quite far round when low tied, see many many crabs of all sizes and lots of jellyfish, disuss our plans and have lunch.

head to the bar for our evening beverage and bump into one of the waiters he tells us with much enthusuim that he has a big speaker for us to plug our ipod into :) we head down to the bar and he tsakes our ipod from us and sorts it out it was cool, we have a drink with iris and christine and family and talk about all sorts form harry potter and ali g to a tornado that hit htere home town cape cod.the bar staff are waiting for ana to help them copy there songs from i pod to there bosseslap top and ana takes a few journies in the golf buggie to the room and badck to get various cables etc. they love ana and listen to every word he says trying to understnd him. tai brings his guitar down and sits on steps playing and singing loudly, he loves west life stlye, other guy loves his hip hop :))manage to copy our music and more guys begin to come down form work fish and listen.talk to them about where they are from, spell there names ask there agea ( they laugh at me and anas ages) berma is where most of them are from and have not been home for 3 years they all can only travel to the islands in trang and make 4000 bat a month,working every day 6 til 11. we say we will look after to them if they made it to england, they laugh and smile so much its infecious even ana has his picture taken with him and has the biggest smile ever. we will miss them alot when we leave :(

another good day in ko nghai , go for swim in sea, swim in pool and lunch at co co cottage...as a side note we have had so much nice food here it is untrue....some sample dishes would be .

triple crispy spicy salad (dried shrimp,squid and chicken all fried),
spicy beef salad,
cashew nut salad (a favourite of emmas)
play boy salad (dont ask!)
mango with sticky rice in coconut milk
fried pork in red curry (basically short ribs in a red curry sauce)
and crab curry which emma said was tasty but fiddly to eat :)

anyway there are plenty of meals to be practicing wwhen we get home and we havent even been to sri lanka yet!...gonna need lots of plain food for a while when we get home i think.

we have a special evening meal plan for us by hotel which consists of 4 different types of thai curry dish rice and fruit for dessert plus a photo with the serving staff, khaw lin te runs over and jumps in right next to ana. we also spent the evening with christine and kriz and boys and have a full fun packed night of all kinds of conversation!! end the evening with the boys from the bar and have loads of fun and jokes while playing the guitar plugged in with a mike, we swap email address and mob numbers and told them we will text them when we are home in england and listeing to music, they defo made this part of the journey for us and as tai said to us 'ever remember' we will always remember them and hope they live a good standard of life with whatever they do.( without sounding patronising) they are such smiling people.

kho bu bu

anage — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 02:10:00 GMT

spent last night in lanta watched footy FA cup game ...home sick!
got car journey in morning to long tail pier...boat was a bit on the dodgy looking side
old man who was pilot looked about 80 but carried my 26kg bag as if was light as a feather
had to wait for another 2 couples to arrive ...one canadian couple(andrew julie) and a pair of londoners brad and cyrstlal.....then bags loaded off,we went with ana at the front with emma and brad and crystal behind them and the canadian couple "under cover" in the back
all was well we chatted and discussed what we thought bu bu would be liked as it semed evryone laughed when we said we were going there and all the other people on the boat had had the same reaction whenevr they mentioned it!
as the hour long journey progressed it became clear that it wasnt going to be one we kept dry on, and gradually ana and brad became wetter and wetter until all talking stopped and it was heads down time avoiding the constant spray of the salty sea in your eyes.....sure was an experience ...i was obviously a bit concerned at the sight of my dripping wet rucksack but luckily i had wrapped my laptop inside it with on e of my several plastic bags.
\anyway on arrival the isand did look idyllic although not as sparsley occupied as we had expected, there were quite a few people scattered on the tiny beach hichcontained an eating area and a main house and several huts at various locations around the beach front and upwards into thge hills. we found our hut and it ws basic but clean and sourrounded by foliage all around, masive lizards and crabs semed to dominate the island and i'm fairly sure there were bigger things around but didnt ask :)
we unpacked and went down to the beach to scope the place out...ended up spending the rest of the day chatting with the four people we shared the boat with and had decent meal from the only "reasuraunt" on the island.
Tried to sleep but it was so hot and the fan wasnt really enuff to make an difference and anyway it went off with the electricity at 10:30 ish although this did seem to vary.

no sleep for both of us
went for kayak trip, ana telling me to sit still in fact was boat moving and him paddling

we think we see a naked couple round the island and ana shouts cover up as we paddle past
try snorkelling but water is to cloudy
sun bathe for abit
have drinks and food with london couple and meet irish couple, emma and Mick?
have good laugh and all get pretty drunk on warm beer

next day after a night of no sleep,thinking bombs had gone off in night and sweating so much they might die,as no electricity until 6.pm til 10pm. listeing to trhe sound of the jungle all night

aNA reads his book until he finishes it, all day
i speak with irish couple and londoners in shade
have quick game of connect 4 and drafts and bat and ball, discover emma and i have a lot in common sport and art.
oraganise next islands accomadstion and boat trip with confusing conversations with owner
end eveing with last beer with new mates and all are looking forward to next place, londerners look forward to dive and irish go to new zealand!! say goodbyes

eqarly next morning meet iraish for breakfast, have good langh with them.
canadians decided to go to same island as us

Ko Lanta island

anage — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:14:00 GMT

taking off for krabi airport all goes well although as we begin to decent a few funny noises happen and the plane seems to be veering off in different directions. ( forgot to mention the pilot sounded pissed) ……I think I (ana) am getting worse at flying the more I do it.

Arrive at krabi airport and queue for at least 1 hr before we get through immigration, collect our bags and all goes smoothly. Worry we may have missed the last ferry to ko lanta (our chosen destination) until a very helpful taxi man assures us we will make it. On the way the taxi has to stop for a ferry crossing and we get out for a look around the stret stalls…the taxi driver buys me corn on the cob from a street vendor which is sooo tasty….the taxi driver is very friendly and even shares his nuts with emma…so to speak.

3 hours and 2 ferry journeys later we arrive in resort! Ferries are both an experience in the dark.

The room is ok although it is crammed full of mosquitos so we spend the next couploe of hours killing them an erecting our mozzy nets. Ana is mad and I am tired, goodnight.

Day 2 in Thailand

Wake up early to discover and explore our surroundings. Wander down to the beach and check out all the bars and restaurant menus all sat on right on the beach front. Not many young people about and a lot of old wrinkly bodies. At this stage we realise that there are not a lot of English about either. Ana fancies doing a cooking course that they hold at a restaurant sounds a lot of fun and interesting, get a menu and sit at a bar to soak in the beach atmosphere and decide whether ana wants to cook fish cakes on Tuesday or penang green curry on Wednesday.

Go for some brunch I and a pad thai ana has a cashew salad which is very tasty. Watch people floating on the water on some lilos and fancy a go at that ourselves so head for the town on a tuk tuk very dodgy but good fun. Go to a few shops and barter on prices and come a way with 2 lilos for 2,50 each which still is v expensive, think we need to work on our technique. blow our lilos up and head for water as it is sooooo hot now, we have a competition to who can blow there s up first, I win, then we realise that the valves don’t actually stay in the holes on either lilo. That’s the end of that idea.

Go swimming in sea and then pool, read our books and then get ready for evening. Have some cheap drink in our bar then head further down beach to others. Our evening meal was sat / lye on the floor on a long custion type mat and eating green curry rice and salad. V romantic!!! Note to self need to get washing done tomorrow. Ana s points out that the whole island is oover run with germans, good job the world cup isn’t on.

Towels towels towels I’m not genralising but the sun loungers are covered as soon as the sun rises and stay there for the day

Today we go for a late breakfast of an omelette and 2 boiled with toast. go to find a cash point, realise it is so hot today we must get in the water soon and wear lots of sun tan cream. We blow our lilos up( again) and manage to keep the air in to the beach. Both get in the water and lilos work a treat. Ana tries to catch some waves and we spend the next 2 hours floating around on the sea. Stop for a quick drinks break and head for the pool, where every sun lounger is taken accept nobody is to be seen, it is actually true about germans and there sun beds. Both do laps of the pool and tire ourselves out, read our books by pool then get showered and changes ready for sunset. Again an amazing sunset,while we sip our ice cold beers and eat our monkey nuts. Have some v nice evening food at a restaurant down the beach, ana a mixed kebab skewer and I some prawns in thai sauce. Both sun burnt and head back for an early night and alovera lotion.

Today is more of the same relaxing stuff floating on lilos, swimming in sea and reading books. Apart from ana adds comedy value……. We sit down to enjoy an ice cold beer and watch sun disappearing behind water, ana goes to the toilet and returns pissed off, I ask whats wrong and he was v annoyed as he had banged his head on the way out of the toilet. Claiming he wasn’t concentrating as he was fending mosiqtos off. we laugh. We continue sipping beers and ana announces he is going to the toilet again and will make sure he minds his head. Ana returns to from the toilet and without saying anything shows me the sleeve of his shirt. He had caught it on the door on the way out and ripped a hole in it. I could not believe something else had happen on a trip to the toilet!we laugh. Later that evening ana once again needs the toilet and in jest says what the hell can happen to me this time!!!!!...........he returnd from the toilet clutching his head to reveal a deep cut on the other side of his forehead and sticks his tongue out to show me he at bit his tongue at same time……… both didn’t laugh until later about that night,he had hit his head again in same place………………. now ana has a harry potter scar !!!!!

Today we both forget its valentines day and have our usual routine of lilo work etc I need to get out of the sun early as feel like may be burning and go for a thai head and face massage… it was amazing, the most relaxing thing ever. We follow our romantic theme to be in the sea at sunset and then eat huge bbq prawns with green curry dipping sauce was sooooooooo good and tasty. End night early with cocktail and bed.mmmmmm nice!!!

Start the day again by floating on sea and follow by laps of the pool. Go for a late lunch at a restaurant down the beach which had swinging chair seating, ana has pork ribs in red curry and this becomes the official tastiest meal of the week!!:) meet 2 nice girls from oxford and arrange to meet them later for a drink, there plans are to travel around thailand and Cambodia but have only enough money for another 2 weeks away, both left there jobs for a 4 week holiday. We have a drink together and watch fire thrower and a latern get heated up so it takes off like a hot air balloon. Move onto the beach deck chairs to bar next door and talk all night. Ana makes friends with a dog that follows us home and a Swedish guy joins our party to chat, then makes move on girl we are with and she tells him to get **** as he has just told us about his wife and kids in bed at home. End then night at 5.00am and have a late night swim in pool.

Next day we feel pretty tired and ill, sleep until 11.30 and miss the meeting and exchanging of details with the 2 girls, ana and I also owed them beer money ooopps very slow Day sleeping and lazing around. Start planning next island visit. Ana finishes the day off by eating a plate of chips spire ribs with rice and a whole pizza!!! Germans still hate us (no offense Sylvia ) and nobody smiles at this resort apart from the thais. Go to bed at 7.30.

Wake up feeling refreshed, plan and book the rest of our trip to Bubu Island for 5 night and koh nghai island for next couple. Discuss plans for sri lanka but are unsure of decision as both very over spent. Do our usual lengths of pool and eat salad for lunch. Ana has bad tummy and are in the room at the moment. He has also received a text about cricket training starting on Monday, announces he needs to get back for that J we go for a meal at our next resort where there is a art gallery and studio, the owner is v friendly and his favourite frase is ‘lovely jubely’ food is ok.

Check out of bunglalow 1 lanta island and check in to arty bungalows. All v pink and arty I love it! There is a tv in here and ana is glued to it watching FA cup lolol

Gallery: around poundy's house and tennis in gold coast

anage — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:27:00 GMT

poundy's house and tennis in gold coast

stop over in singapore

anage — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:10:00 GMT

The flight to Singapore is uneventful and on arrival we get a friendly taxi driver who gives us whistle stop tour of Singapore on our way to the hostel…..dont think it cost us any more!

The hostel is a bit of a shock as we have booked a double room but they don’t have any, they manage to shuffle us round into a four bed room and asure us we will have room to ourselves…we are both tired and apart from a quick stroll round we get an early night.

We spend the next day exploring china town an the various quays of Singapore…but to be hosnest it is mainly a city to shop in so we go and look round the shops…emma is amazed to see topshop and other places that make her feel homesick…and just make me feel sick.

The next day we get chatting to a friendly german girl we met…slyvia…and spend the day with her exploring..we head to little India which is cool and drink some chai and marvel at the variety of produce on display on the stalls….spend whole day walking…very tried will sleep well.

We spend the next day organising our flights to Thailand which we have only just decided to take as I (ana) have my doubts about going there but we decided to give it a go J

In the evening we end up going out with the owner of the hostel and his friend and slyvia…have a good night nd get to see some real Singapore people and dancing….he is quite a character..although he is infat Jordanian…I think he likes me because I helped him figure out how to network his PDA which he had just purchased….you never know when its handy to be a geek!

Emma spends the next evening wih her new friends…slyvia and Claire…and they get some quality "woman time" together I think.…..I decide that tomorrow before we leave for thailand I am going to parcel some exces baggage up and send it home…so in the day ema and I head off into singapore to post my tent and sleeping bag amongst other things back home….it will all go by boat apparently and will take 6 weeks…I hope I see them again as I have big plans for camping when I get back J

We Get back to hostel and get taxi early to airport to save us hanging around hostel for rest of day. Look round shops at airport and finally we board our tiger airlines flight for krabi.

Gallery: Thailand - Ko Lanta

anage — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:59:00 GMT

Ko Lanta Island

Gallery: singapore

anage — Tue, 6 Feb 2007 18:32:00 GMT

quick stop off

hello

anage — Tue, 6 Feb 2007 00:48:00 GMT

hello and sorry to everyone who has been looking to check journal we have written our last month but have not manage to put it on net yet as been v busy arranging our trip to sri lanka and thailand, ana may be blaming me for it not being oragnised but it more trouble than you think,you know when you are dyslexic like me!!!in singapore at the moment and trying to arrange and re arrange out trip, have had funny nights in an indian night club and in china town, eating an indian!! very clen here and have met some good people in our hostel. look forward to hearing about there trip. and again i will hopefully have sorted this by tomorrow b4 we leave for thailand. em

Gallery: emma's b'day

anage — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 17:51:00 GMT

birthday celebrations with bjorn again!

Gallery: back in sydney...again!

anage — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 17:48:00 GMT

back in sydney...again!

return to poundy's again

anage — Sun, 4 Feb 2007 19:08:00 GMT

On returning to poundy’s nick and I (ana) go out for some well earned "man time" unfortunatkey nick is already tipsy as we head out for the city…he has been drinking at some high powered meeting in Brisbane all day and had to rush back to Sydney to go out drinking with me….a hard life. Manage to have a good night though although we don’t eally move around much as I think I over compensated in trying to catch up to nicks drunken state J some how manage to last the night though and "the girls" seemed to have had a good time on there own drinking and trashing the male species no doubt.

For the last month (or 6) emma has been reminging me that it is her birthday on Feb 4^{th as such I have had plenty of time to arrange something a little unusual….i cant however take all the credit for it as it was joh who gave me the idea….anyway the plan was to book a night in a good hotel (ridges in sydney) and have a trip to the twilight concert at Taronga Zoo…this is an outdoor concert held in amazing grounds of the zoo with impressive views out over the city…..the evening I chose was the abba tribute band "bjorn again" who are supposed to be very good.}

We borrow loads of picnic utensils from poundy…including a cool bag etc and set of the Birkenhead point shopping centre to buy our picnic supplies….we decide on prawns as the staple diet and manage to buy a kilo of freshly caught cooked prawns for ridiculously cheap price..sainsbury’s will never be the same again.

We buy some other goodies…wine….fruit…etc and pack out cool bag and head off to the hotel. Hotel is very nice although it seems I miss calculated the price an it costs me twice as much as I anticipated…hey ho L

We get ready and head to the lobby for a drink and to wait for the mini bus with all the other people who to the concert from our hotel. Most of the other people going are in their 60’s so we wonder what the demographic of the concert is going to be! But when we arrive there are several young and old people …a good mixture and packed….2000 people there…a sell out.

We find a really good spot on the grass and set up….there is a couple of hours till the concert start and we kill time by eating prawns and drinking wine….this back packing is hard!!!

When bjorn again come on it is to a big cheer and I feel nostalgic and sad that I never saw the real thing in the 70’s and that emma wasnt even born J

The group are superb I can highly recommend them, they play a good mix of songs …abba and some others including "black Sabbath" !! everybody dances and has a good time. Even I managed to get dragged into dancing briefly as I was taking a picture of emma dancing from afar and some woman forces me to go and join emma so she can photograph/video us both…..great fun L

The concert ends all too quickly and we head back to the hotel to eat the rest of the prawns and discus the night…..we meet some friendly aussies …retired chemists…who we chat with and discuss all things including English cricket.

On returning to poundy’s place we spend the next few days playing with Imogen and Bea and generally getting to know them better….emma and I will miss them a lot….although they are quite a handful they are definatley fun to be around and constantly entertaining!

We go for numerous coffees and spend some time with joh and melana (her next door neighbour) including a day spent at the Sydney Olympic pool which was good except that I (ana ) spent the rest of the day trying unsuccessfully to remove trapped water from my ear…

Another day emma and I head down to the rocks market by Sydney harbour and emma finally gets to see an art gallery J w also spend the day/evening at a pub down there which is well known for live music….we are not disappointed and see all sorts of crazy characters not least those on stage.

Gradually after days relaxing and tying up a few work loose ends the time draws near to us leaving for Singapore we spend the last night having sips of port and reminiscing…and the next day leave for the airport.

….a sad day and we must say again are thank you’s for poundy and joh’s hospitality…and emma apologises once again for losing the cool bag ice block J

Gallery: gold coast

anage — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:32:00 GMT

still in the gold coast!

Trip to gold coast and surfers paradise

anage — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:06:00 GMT

Arrive at the airport in gold coast and get bus from airport to hotel, looks very mush like America with all the high rise buildings and buffed up bodies. Great to hotel and it is very nice, air conditioned big pool and huge reception area. After walking around the hotel it reminded us both of emmas place in Portugal, as porters drove golf buggies round and there was a shuttle bus service into surfers. Ana likes the idea of playing golf as our room looks over the greens. We discover later that there are over 100 golf courses dotted around in one area. The first evening is spent calling around the banks and police about anas card fraud L we do notice the hotel buffet is sea food and there are masses of prawns and crab J

After all the phone calls and hassle we relax in the hotel bar and meet at kiwi guy who feels sorry for us and buys us our drinks for the rest of the evening. Following day we get a shuttle to pacific fair to do some shopping and explore. I buy a sketchbook and ana gets bored. loads of good cheap food tho!!

Very hot so spend the afternoon by the pool and soakin up sun.

Again spend evening making phone calls to sort fraud dilemma out.

Next morning treat ourselves to buffet breakfast and after breakfast head to the tennis courts. Where I thrash ana 6-3 gets very hot and jump in pool.

Play tennis 6-3

Have buffet, prawns crab smoked salmon, lobster ace

Surfers paradise beach town few shops

Uni student types everywhere

Try find accommodation no luck as v busy weekend, as beach cricket and big day out concert on

Stay longer in raddisson go shooping have crepe, play tennis go swimming, have buffet, watch cricket and tennis on tv.

Play tennis 6-4 7-6

Watch tennis

Make sandwiches for dinner

Leave hotel to move into our apartment, it is so cool, kitchen, living room, pool and amazing views of the beach. We chill here watching tennis walking along beach front to main beach which is a lot further than we thought, arrive there sweating like anything and all the people are poshos with loads of money look down there noses at us when I go into there art galleries :0)

Go to an ice bar called minus 5 where you have to wear massive jackets and gloves and boots and everything in there is ice, really cool loads of sculpture around. Loads of surfer dudes around here good to watch from the living area balcony J look forward to Thailand and my birthday in Sydney.

Ana has been working v hard on work and we have been chilling out man!!!!!!! Australia day today loads of people about in cars hooting there horns etc

Chill our beans as much as poss watching tv and soaking up views. Book a trip to the water park. Where I thrash ana at every ride going he insists we go on them a gain and I beat him a number of times! Go on a v high steep slide where you cant see drop down from top its so high. Really good fun day.

Next day is our fight back to Sydney.

Gallery: around darling harbour and china town

anage — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:22:00 GMT

around darling harbour and china town

Back at Poundy's

anage — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:04:00 GMT

Arriving back at pounds was nice, having a bed again and all the home comforts. we drove back from our camp site at the parklea via the blue mountains which are seen in pictures, there were pretty amazing with a blue haze above the trees, this is the eucalyptus oil from trees. On drive back we stop off for a bbq at a stop off point on the side on the road called Sutton park!!! We arrive at pounds to meet the children ImO and bea, they are both very cute, swimming around in next doors pool. Imogen has a mega imagination and does not stop talking which is hilarious. We have an evening bbq J with nick and joe and catch up on gossip.

Following day we spend with joe and the girls as nick is back to work, we visit a beach called balmoroll, it has a shark net in a section of the beach so me and ana swim for first time in the sea, yeah!!! We go for a coffee and head home for dinner!

Next day is spent relaxing at the local pool and looking round the local shopping centre which has loads of factory outlet shops for me to spend some money , which I haven’t got on a xmas present for myself, which I don’t need ~J

On Sunday ana and nick head off to play cricket against the barmy army, true to form they are v late to arrive as v hungover, the world team ~( anas team) look a little less confident in there play and field positioning and discuss the amount of good players they have actually got on the opposite team, jimmy saval is up first and is quite brave as wears no gloves nor helmet! Unfortunately rain calls the game off and we will never know if ana would beat the barmy army :0 )

Ana and i take the van back in Sydney and say goodbye to our little home, we meet nick for lunch in a small Chinese restaurant in china town and have some great food. We go visit the opera house again where we spent New Year which seems a lot quieter and different from that evening.

Following day we visit drammoyne pool again to soak up sun and try and do some exercise, after that we go for a coffee, do you see the running theme, nicks house was very relaxing and we hung around catching up on sleep and discovering parts on the city and local area.

Catch a ferry to darling harbour from down the road at nicks which was brill as it went pretty fast and could see the whole view of the pounds house from other side.we look around darling habour and watch a show with didgeridoo man talking about history of the instrument and culture, was great.

Joe bee and I go on a merry-go-round.

we arrange a night out where the girls can get dressed up and the boys can drink, I look in my bag and realise I have no clothes that are remotely suitable for a night out in the city so head off shopping with joe and the neighbour upstairs to look for bargins, fined a few things but nothing to get to excited about, so ana and I head for the city to check out bargins there, ana gives me a time limit of 3 hours to find something so the pressure is on, mum if you are reading this well its your fault the thought entered my head after hearing that you and dad had bought so much in Selfridges sales J I find a perfect bargin of a dress shoes and a bit of jewelery, dress is reduced from $199 to $34 which made is 15 pounds!!!!! Bargin!!!!

Ana and I are still relaxing booking and organising our trip to the gold coast we play on beach in front garden and go for coffees quite a lot J

The big going out night arrives and we go to a very posh place on the water called the loft (Holyoake’s) where only the posh can get in, when we get there, there is a queue the bouncer ushers us down the road and tells us a back way to get in, v sneaky I look back and realise the people waiting in queue obviously don’t shop where I do J

Gallery: narabeen and blue mountains

anage — Thu, 4 Jan 2007 17:15:00 GMT

back around sydney....narabeen and blue mountains

Gallery: new years eve

anage — Mon, 1 Jan 2007 18:24:00 GMT

habour bridge new year