"Clare... It's an emergency..."

I came home from a hard day at school to hear a weirdly loud, drill-like sound coming from our toilet. When I looked round the door, what can only be politely described as "brown sludge", started fountaining out of the bowl.

Not pleasant and pretty scary as it started to leak out of the bathroom onto the carpet!!!!

It turned out the plumber was testing the pipes out in the downstairs flat.... It took me an hour and a half to clean up (obviously I had time to take a photo for the blog) and the flat still smells disgusting.

I apologise if anyone is offended by the above photo... (the toilet not the one of me cleaning....)

Goulburn Revisited

And now I know how to spell it! ...

Another weekend, another weekend away. This time to Clare's farm for some more pizza action. I thought I'd seen the best of Goulburn on my last visit but Clare had clearly left the best sights for this time.

We went to the famous historical waterworks.

The brewery, owned by the local priest.

We were the only visitors here but apparently they were having a "quiet" weekend. It's usually packed full of tourists... Can you believe that Clare had never ever visited this amazing attraction?!

As the only visitors we were able to take up prime position in the beer garden for a taste of the local brew and a cheese platter.

The best part of the weekend was spending time on the farm, which is absolutely gorgeous, quiet and peaceful. I managed to avoid getting bitten by spiders, snakes or massive ants when I had a little walk round to take some pictures.

Then back to Sydney on Sunday for an extremely warm Sunday afternoon on the beach. It's a hard life!

I love Jervis Bay...

I met Matt Wingate's cousin for dinner this week and he said - "Have you been to Jervis Bay?" When I said no, he suggested I pay it a visit. Helen doesn't get out much these days so she was especially excited to come too.

Only two hours from Sydney in the Subaru and we arrived at a very pretty little town with beautiful beaches and no people. It's winter here so too cold to go on the beach ..... brrrr...

Hyam's beach has the whitest sand in the world apparently - it was very white indeed....

I keenly got up on Sunday to check out the sunrise but it was a bit cloudy. Sensibly the Whittles stayed in bed. Spot the tourist.

We also visited Kangaroo Valley, "a little piece of England in the middle of Australia" - it was all gorgeous (no Kangaroos) but we did see an echidna crossing the road which I was quite excited about.

007 - A Time To Bond

Clare decided to have a big party for her birthday this year and as her favourite housemate I was invited "plus one" to join her at the Italian Village in Sydney. Gorgeous location, stunning views over to the Opera House.

Helen and I took the fancy dress part of the invite seriously and in my opinion, looked very James Bond (or Austin Powers/Pulp Fiction)....

I met lots more of Clare's family who had made an equally special effort with their costumes...

Drank some James Bond cocktails .....

And was proud to be one of the few still standing at the end of the party!!! Happy Birthday to you Clare!