Redback Spider!

It is so lovely to read your messages you have sent us, I was trying to see if I could reply to them but I couldn't work it out. Well we have been here for 2 weeks now but it seems like we have been here much longer... def settling in. There is so much to tell that I will probably forget something or ramble on about stuff you don't want to know.. so I will try and not go on too much.

The first thing to say is Gav screams like a girl if any creepy crawly thing lands on him! It is rather funny to say the least. We have been creating a vegetable patch in the back garden and Gav managed to get 2 big beetles land on him to which he yelped out and shouted 'you dirtbird, get that off me!' Mick, Lin and myself were in hysterics laughing and Gav was flinching all afternoon.. needless to say it was a perfectly harmless wee beastie but Gav insisted on killing it anyway.

The other thing we did see was a redback spider which is the second most deadliest spider in Australia. If you got a bite from that you would be dead within an hour! Lin's mum killed it straight away and I was asking why are you killing it... the poor thing was only sitting in a plant pot. After they all stood in shock looking at me they told me what it was!

We have been job hunting lots but nothing has come up yet, so we are enjoying doing nothing and trying to make the most of it by doing wee day trips, as I am sure we will be working soon.

Sydney is a beautiful city and as much as Gav and I are wilderness people we really like it. The Harbour Bridge


and the Opera House are magnificant and every time the bus goes over the bridge and you get the first glimpse of the Opera House it makes me smile as if I am an explorer discovering something precious for the first time.


There is an amazing aquarium in Sydney where we went and spent hours looking at beautiful and ugly fish! We also saw sharks and Gav insisted of getting a photo with me in the foreground.... I hope that is as close as I get to a shark out here.


We saw the most gorgeous little animal though and I was immediatley taken with it. It was a Platypus! They are such delightful little creatures.

Tomorrow we are going up the coast to Nelson Bay for a long weekend (it will take 4 hours to get there, but apparently this is a short journey here in Oz.... we could get across the whole of Northern Ireland in that time!!!!). We are really looking forward to going to see some of Australia's natural landscape.

Well I will go now before I start rambling. Hope you are all well and looking after yourselves.