Update! Update! Update!

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for, an email from me! Right then, to start from the logical place i.e. the beginning, I left Sydney 2 or 3 weeks ago to embark on an 8 hour coach journey to Port Macquarie for a planned stop of 1 night before heading up to Byron Bay - my other option was to arrive in Byron at 4.15am something I wasn't too keen on doing! Anyway, me being me, ended up staying in Port Macquarie for 3 days and still arriving at Byron at 4.15am, just 2 days later than i'd planned on doing.

Port Mac was alright, not really much to do there, just a beach basically, it would've been perfect for a one day stop, but after 3 days of walking round doing fuck all it began to get a bit tedious.

My coach was due to leave at about 10.30 that evening but because I couldn't stand the thought of having to stay there another night I got to the coach stop about an hour early. Big mistake! I sat for the best part of an hour talking to an Aussie that claimed he was from Iceland, he was swigging vodka straight from the bottle and was already 2/3rds of the way through when I arrived so that may have explained his confusion in his own nationality!

Basically I went from one set of freaks to another, 6 hours on the coach later, I arrived at Byron Bay coach stop at 4.15 to be greeted by a couple of hippies and a stoned woman with no shoes on. That was four hours of fun I'll never forget, although I think I did quite well not to get murdered and/or raped!

Byron was a really chilled out place, nothing to do but sit on the beach all day and drink in the evening, the perfect life style really! The view from the lighthouse there when the sun set was something special, I didn't really want to leave the place but y'know onward and upward and all that.

When I was in Byron I took a day trip to Nimbin, that place, to put it in none polite terms, is fucking mental. Seriously, there were just people stoned out their heads everywhere, and so, as the old saying goes- when in Rome do as the Romans do. You couldn't walk 20 yards down the street without been offered weed, and when I was in a store I also got offered magic mushrooms. One day there was plenty long enough, if I'd stayed any longer, this e-mail would be making less sense than it is doing at the minute.

After the joys of Nimbin and Byron, I went to Surfers Paradise, which, to be honest, was shit. It was tackiness to the extreme, like Blackpool but with the good weather. The beach and sea there were really nice, but the night life, whilst plentiful, sucked. The hostel I was in organised a bar crawl type thing at a place called So Bar (see what they've done there? very witty indeed) the place was like, depending on where you know me from, Liquid, the Frontier, or the downstairs in Scruffy Murphy's. If Surfers hadn't been taken over by McDonald's et al. it would be a really nice place, but instead it's just average. Also, there aren't many actual surfers in Surfers Paradise.

From there I made the short journey up the coast to Brisbane. I like it here actually, it's pretty small compared to what I though it would be but it's alright. However, no matter what the city itself is like, it has got Australia Zoo, and where you get Australia Zoo, you get Steve Irwin! That's right, I had the honour of watching the man himself trying to 'death roll' a croc whilst throwing bits of meat at it. He is a fucking nutcase, more crazy than he appears on the TV. The Neighbours tour is gonna have to go some to beat that! I've also got a new job as an inbound telesales rep, but that's just kinda boring so I won't take up your time with the details.

Anyway that's it, sorry its been such a long email but I've actually done quite a bit in the last few weeks!

I'll let you know what else has gone on in a couple of weeks, but 'till then, it's goodbye,
Rich