More Cairns

This is the view of our hostel pool from the upper balcony.

I found SNAKEBITES!! :)

Snorkelling on the reef, wiffout suncream on my back... oops.

Debbie Does Queensland

I'm in Cairns! And it's not as hot as everyone warned me it would be. Spose that's cos I spent my first day in the pool and first night in the jacuzzi...


Sorry, I have to rub it in to everyone who's NOT here with me (i.e. everyone I know) cos I just LOVE jacuzzis.

I met some pommie guys and we went for dinner at the Cairns Yacht Club overlooking the water.
And I've done something I never thought I'd do - I bought a SINGLE ticket to the Pete Murray concert tomorrow night! I think I might have to go see a movie alone now too!
So Kim and co, I'll call you my late Sat night to catch up on all the goss!

Skiing on the Brisbane River

It took rusty me 5 goes to get up, but then it was sooo much fun that I didn't even think about the sharks in the river... Went with the Brisbane Waterski Club - they meet every Sunday and you just pay per go. Excellent!

New House

This is our new spot up the road from the old one... New phone number too: +61 738923938.

Pre Melbourne Cup

Staying with Ben and Darc from Van Tour!


We went to the Grampians for Sat-Mon. It's a mountain range and national park with lots of walking etc... and there wasn't another house in sight :)

Melbourne Cup

The crew




The fashion police

The real police


They must've known I was coming...

Post Melbourne Cup

On the Wednesday I moved over to Danny and Stuart's place in Fitzroy - this is the view from their balcony.
That night Danny and I met up with Sarah and Mike Hutton-Squire and we went up to the top of the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere for some touristy sight-seeing, follwed by pizza and beers at Southbank.


Thursday night Danny, Harry and I attempted to do a Brunswick Street pub crawl phase 1. Why didn't someone tell me to go home after this one?



Harry and I picked up 2 random guys that also wanted to play pool and stay out late. Everything else was closed so we ended up in some skanky pool bar at about 5 in the morning...

...and then at Harry's place to play 500 (card game) and imaginary cricket.
Heading home after 7am...


Thursday I woke Harry up for our 3pm Scrabble date. We didn't manage to officially finish it, but the "..tener" was the second half of my first word (softener) which might hint to who was leading when we packed it in...



Paul Cartmel from UCT days happened to be in Melbourne and happened to chat to my bro on MSN and get my number, so he met us out for a few drinks later. It's great going out with those guys - I never have to worry about my jacket or handbag cos one of them is always wearing either one or both!



Leaving Honkytonks. We decided to all "Go home and drink water!"











At Brad and Holly's for a bbq on Saturday, before hitting Honkytonks again, and then the Pony!


My new party trick!


And what would a night out be without Harry taking his top off...

Ben and Ally

In between flying around Aus I went for a lovely breakfast with Ben and Ally, my old housemates from the early London days when about 13 of us lived in a 6-bedroom house in Roehampton! They live just up the road from me now!

Seeeeedneeeeee

I've just realised something. Since I became old, my Derman luck seems to have run out. I booked tickets to Sydney from Monday to Thursday because a) I had my birthday bowls on the Sunday, b) I wanted to watch the final 2 days of the cricket test (Aus vs Rest of the World), c) Luke's farewell was on Thurs and d) I had a "blind date" organised for Friday. a) it poured down so much they cancelled bowls first thing in the morning, b) the cricket ended 2 days early, c) Luke decided to fly to Canada 2 weeks later and d) the date was postponed for 2 weeks.
Sooooo I packed my tourist gear and headed to Sydney anyway. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the zoo,









wandering around the city and Darling Harbour, eating about 3 kg of mussels and catching up with vannies (Bec and Dicko) and London work mates (Paul and his girlfriend Linda),
exploring Manly (and the zoo) with Al (the guy I met at the U2 concert),

shopping on Oxford Street in Paddington (sounds like I'm in London!).
Chinese Gardens...
Dinner with Cameron, Shazza and Watto.
On Thursday Cameron, Watto and I played golf and just missed the downpour (maybe I have a tiny bit of luck left!) and although I didn't manage to get anywhere close to challenging Cameron, I did beat Watto by a few!!