Yesterday it was Anzac Day, so everyone gets a day off work. I met up with Sue and her boyfriend and a couple of other friends at the RSL club in Mossman. It took me a while to get there as I had to get one bus to the city, then I got stuck at Martin Place, I couldn't get through as the Anzac Day parade was still going on....eventually I made it, and managed to get my next bus. We had lunch and a few drinks, then we went downstairs for the main event of '2 up'. I hadn't played it before, but I know it's a tradition on every Anzac day, the soldiers used to play it to pass time. Basically, everyone stands around in a huge circle, to play you have to put some money in your hand and place it by your head (which means you bet on heads) and then someone else can come up to you and give you the same amount of money, and that means they get tails (or you can do it the other way around). Then the guys in the circle toss the 2 coins, and when 2 coins come up the same, whoever has betted correctly wins all the money (if that makes any sense!) It was such great fun, and really rowdy, everyone is shouting 'Heads or Tails'...Roger gave me $5 to start me off, I managed to get up to $15, then I lost it all again...oh well, it's definitely good to get involved!! They play '2 up' all afternoon, and they were still going on at 6pm when we left, I can see it's very addictive!! Towards the end people were betting much more that the $5 we were!! What a great way to spend the afternoon!! and another fact...it's actually illegal to play it any other time in the year.

You may have noticed I've been a bit neglective of my blog lately, I think it's cos I've not been working and I'm just getting a bit fed up with it....and not much to tell really. I know you're probably all feeling really sorry for me cos I haven't been working for nearly 6 weeks (!!!) but it does really get to you after a while, and especially cos I can't actually afford to go out anywhere while I'm off. Mostly my days consist of checking my emails and maybe taking a walk, reading and of course, watching some TV (I'm addicted to the Lifestyle channel!!)...exciting stuff!

But the weekends are a bit better. I met up with Sue last week, as always, it was great to catch up with her, I ended up drinking one to many wines though, and the next day I wasn't feeling the best! Saturday Jason and I went down to the beach for a sit in the sun...it's still really nice here, but the wind is a bit chilly now, as long as you're sheltered you're alright though. On Saturday night, Rachel invited us all around for a bbq. I had a really nice night, I much preferred doing that to another night out in Coogee, we had some really nice food and wine and a really good laugh.

Sunday Jason and I took a walk to pick up his car, then we met our friend Sean for lunch. After that I sent Jason to the cinema and I settled in for a bumper night of the Biggest Loser, and Big Brother (yes, it's back again!!) so that was my fun night ;o)

Still struggling to get all of our information together to apply for our visas. We've got our bits together, now we're just waiting on Jason's company to provide documents. We're hoping to send off it all on Wednesday, so it should hopefully be approved (or not) in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to finally get it done, we've been so stressed about it, it's not easy at all. We tried to forget about it over the weekend and enjoy Easter. Friday night we went out with Martin and Linn for his birthday. We went to a bar with a great view of Bondi for a few drinks, then we came back to Coogee for dinner. It wasn't a late night tho as it was Good Friday, all the bars shut at 10pm, which was probably a good job! I managed to get hold of my brother on the phone when we got in as it was his Birthday too, it was nice to be able to wish him a Happy Birthday!!
Saturday, Jason and I got up early and went for a drive, I'd read about a new road 'Grand Pacific Drive', opened late last year that hugs the coastline from the National Park to Wollongong, which is south of Sydney. After you've driven through the park, you come to the Sea Cliff Bridge, which is just under 2km long, it's really cool, it follows the curve of the coastline below the cliffs....you feel like you're driving on top of the ocean. We stopped off at one of the villages too, there are some really stunning houses along the coast.

On the way to Wollongong, we stopped at one of the many beaches and had our lunch, then headed on. We didn't do much in Wollongong, just looked in the city centre, and then went to the viewpoints on the seaside. It was a bit windy and chilly, so we didn't stay that long. It was a great drive though, very scenic, really worth doing.

When we got back, we went to the cinema to see Ice Age 2, which was really great, then we had a quiet night in and watched a DVD. Yesterday, Jason and I went to Sue and Grants for dinner. It was really nice to see them again, as it had been a while. It was good to catch up on all the gossip!!

The weekend was quite a busy one. Friday night, we met up with a few people for dinner. We went to our local Thai restaurant, which is really cheap, but the food is fantastic. I opted for a change this time and had Cho Chee (I think) it was really yummy. It was nice to go our for a meal and to catch up with everyone.

Saturday day, Jason and I had to do a few things for our visa, it's really such a nightmare, he has to get re-sponsored (long story) and then we have to apply for our visas. I'm very stressed about it at the moment. Anyway, we did that, then Saturday night we went to Bondi for a friend's leaving party.

Yesterday I typed up a CV for Jason (for the immigration) so that kept me busy for a while. Then in the evening I went into the city to meet Mirjam (I'd met her in Auckland a few weeks ago, and she mailed me last week to say she'd be in Sydney). She is the one from Germany that lived in Munich and knew a few people I used to work with at HP. We had a really nice evening, we went down to Darling Harbour for a couple of drinks and chatted about Munich and all the different places we used to go to. She is actually going back there in a couple of weeks, so we're going to catch up again when I'm there in June. It was nice that she made the effort to contact me while she was here. When I got home I phoned up my Mum as we hadn't spoken for a few weeks (which is very unusual for us) so we had a nice long chat. That's about it really, this morning, we've just been running around trying to find a Justice of the Peace to certify all our documents for the visa....what a nightmare!!

We went to the Basement on Saturday night to watch a band, they were really good, it's very expensive there though, we spent a fortune. Sunday I didn't get much done at all, Jason's shifts have change at work, so he's now working every Sunday. I just lazed around really, but it was such a long boring day, the clocks went back too which made it much worse.

It's starting to cool down here now, the evenings are much more bearable and I'm even using a duvet (or doona as they call them here) at night which I love. The temperatures are now varying from about 23 - 27 degrees...and at night it is very cool. I'm really looking forward to wearing the small amount of winter clothes I have got! I didn't really have much of a winter last year as I was away for 6 weeks of it in Queensland, and it's like summer up there in winter. I really do miss the seasons, Autumn and Spring are mostly hot or warm, so you really get 9 months of summer weather in the year, so if you like changes in seasons, it's not really the greatest climate and I'm sick of wearing the same summer clothes....I'm happy it's going to be winter soon ;o) Sorry, listen to me moaning...you can tell I've got far too much time on my hands!!