Phew!!!

We're just coming down from a manic period! Our guests, Mick and Sue returned to the UK at the weekend having spent the last two weeks with us - they arrived just two days after we'd moved into our new apartment. Prior to that we'd had 4 backpackers staying with us (Niall and three of his friends). So now it's just Ros and myself, a chance for the two of us to settle into our new home. We're loving getting up to a wide panorama over the river and sitting out on the balcony eating breakfast while watching the runners and cyclists passing by on the waterfront. We're adjacent to the Olympic Park - a vast green area with cycle / running lanes through mangroves and manicured grassland. So Ros has no excuses for not getting her running back on track. As for me, we're a little further from work now so I've bought a second hand bike for commuting - I'm hoping to get fitter too as I've neglected my cycling over the past few weeks.

Mick and Sue's visit was the catalyst for a couple of trips over the Easter holidays. In particular we spent a few days in Port Douglas, Queensland. It's a seaside resort on the edge of the oldest tropical forest in the world and also happens to be adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. Two world heritage sites for the price of one! So we spent two days in each! Mick and I went scuba diving on the reef while Ros and Sue went snorkelling - all from the luxury of a large boat. We did three fantastic dives at different sites to see as much of the amazing sea-life as possible. We were so enthralled that we just had to go out and do it all again and found ourselves on the Low Isles a couple of days later, this time diving from a tropical island. In between we did a couple of trips into the rain forest..... spending time with an aboriginal guide, diving into a natural plunge pool, going on a Crocodile safari and pretending to study the massive number of ancient species of plant. I took so many photo's that it's going to be a week or two before I process them all. In the meantime here's one I didn't take myself -

Diving, visitors and a new home

Mmm, I've just noticed that my posts are becoming less and less frequent - sorry for that. It's not as if I'm running out of stuff to talk about, in fact it's quite the opposite - we're going through a very active period.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were planning on doing some scuba diving and we have since started on that. However it hasn't been plain sailing - we had a false start a couple of weeks ago. A combination of poor instructor, poor conditions and Ros's instinctive fear of drowning (!) led to a panic attack and a bail out. So we re-arranged the training with a more experienced instructor in a swimming pool (rather than a busy beach/bay) for this last weekend. Unfortunately Ros just couldn't overcome her natural fears and despite several attempts has called it a day. I've carried on and so far have completed two of the three days of the PADI Open Water Certificate. Just two dives to complete next Saturday and I'll be certified and ready for our visit to the Great Barrier Reef over Easter.

We had visitors from home a couple of weeks ago, my Auntie Bernadine and Uncle David. They were on their last leg of a tour around Australia and were staying in a hotel in the city centre having booked it before we even came out to Aus. It was good to see them and show them a few of the sydney highlights - felt like we were seasoned locals showing them the ropes. Not only did it make us realise how comfortable we've become in our surroundings in just six months but also provided us with a link to home, short lived though it was.

Despite all this activity we've just signed up for a new property. We move into a smart riverside apartment next week in a trendy district adjacent to the Olympic Park. It's 5 miles from work so in some ways is less convenient than where we are at the moment but there's a little more life down there and will give us more of a city vibe for the next 18 months. We're both looking forward to the change of scene.