My people call me the dude. I share my teachings in the passages below... (along with many typos, grammatical errors and lazy writing)
Yesterday we went on a luxury wine tour around the region in a massive land rover discovery. I nice chap drove us to three vineyards, a cheese manufacturer, a brewery and a wine college where kids could learn how to make wine!
It was was a great day but it was long and a lot of wine was drunk. We eventually got back at around 6 where as part of the package we were given more wine and more cheese! The photos are of us enjoying it and some more of the the lovely house.
Yesterday, we took a visit to a opal jeweller, jumped up and down in the waves at Byron Bay, took a look at a light house, had a lovely meal then a few beers at an open mic night.
Yesterday we started out drive down towards Sydney so drove to Byron Bay where we're staying for a couple of nights.
We picked up some stamps for postcards along the way. What nice people the Australians are. In order to post using airmail you need to use the ashes winning stamps! Ha, ha.
Other photos are off Byron Bay, a frosted beer pump and the left over shells from our seafood platter.
Yesterday was a bit overcast but we made the best of it by taking a long walk along Broadbeach all the way to Surfers Paradise (10k round trip). There was a lot more action going on at this end of the beach. April described it as the Maliga of Australia. I'm glad we're not staying there.
After that we had some dim sum for lunch followed by a quick swim before heading over to April's dad's for dinner and cards.
They introduced us to a card game called frustration. And it is indeed frustrating.
Here's some photos from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw, Kangaroos, tree Kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles, lizards, Tasmanian Devils, emus, cassowarys, loads of owls, pelicans, obis, and bush turkeys.
We dipped our toes in. Not freezing, but you would have to move about a bit too stay warm, but I guess if you didn't do that you'd probably drown.
The sand was lovely though, prefect soft and white.
The mammoth journey finally ended after around 36 hours where we finally got checked into our apartment and this was the view we were greeted with.
It all started with us both running late for our mini cab pick up from April's offices near London Bridge, both had last minute chats with our bosses, surely this could have been done earlier earlier in the day… my conversation was about my appraisal which ended up with me signing a blank piece of paper where he would fill in the rest.
Anyway, back to the trip, we set off with plenty of time to spare, too much probably as the journey only took a little over an hour and left us with about 3 and a half hours to kill before the flight. Only £35 though so pretty decent and we got to see the houses of parliament, Buckingham Palace and the Natural History Museum all on route.
Thanks to Steve's airmiles we were upgraded to virgin premium economy for free and it really made the difference, instead of three in the isle seats, there were only 2 and nice big seats with loads of room. Due to over booking on our return flights we won't be able to get the same free seats doh! I'm not sure how we will cope. Might have to double check this as we'd be annoyed if we were able to book them separately.
The flight itself was fairly uneventful, 11 flight to Hong Kong, 3 hour wait to get back on the same plane before another 8 or 9 our flight to Sydney followed by a two hour wait before the final 1 hour flight to the Gold Coast. I watched Kick Ass 2 (6.6/10), the Millers (6.7) and Superman (6.9, not that bad to begin with, then got too transformer actiony). I also watched some more Deadwood, Mad Men and played a game or two on my tablet.
We were picked up at the airport by April's dad where we went to take a look at their new place and grab a bite to eat. We eventually got to our apartment at about 3ish local time where we had a quick shower and freshen up before heading out for a wander and a quick paddle in the sea (or Pacific ocean, I'm pretty sure you can see the curvature of the earth in the photo).
After that we were both pretty tired but forced ourselves out for a swim in the pool. At about 6 ish I collapsed on the bed and died till around 2am. It'll be another tough one today but I think we've broken the back of it.
Only just reached Hong Kong. Urgh. Then on to Sydney in an hour, then straight to the Gold Coast. Blurgh!
Holiday nearly started. Now to get sign off the piece of work I've been working on...
Financial crime training in the Old Library at Lloyd's. Not sure if it's training to do it or how to stop it yet.
I had an early dentist appointment this morning and my teeth are fine, he asked if I had an appointment to see a hygienist so I said no. He said would like your teeth cleaned on the nhs so I did yes.
Ouch! Bastard. I'm still bleeding now.
Calendar view of how many work days left till our two week holiday. Bring it on!
We went for a fancy meal at the Andaz Hotel with Shaheen and Kate last night. Good food, great company, all the cheeses and a much poorer bank balance.
These aren't photos of the restaurant but a secret Mason's meeting hall they discovered a few years ago. After our meal they opened out up for us to have a mooch around.
Awesome. Get saving, because we're going to be booking it for our joint 40th birthday in 5 and a half years.
