Melbourne (28 Nov - xmas)

Did a Cannonball Run from Coober Pedy to Adelaide, had a sleep in Adelaide and got to Melbourne in time to pick up Caroline's friend Kate from the airport. Hi Kate! Poor Mr Bump was feeling a bit poorly by now. After a few days sightseeing Caroline and Kate took off for a holiday up the east cost, which I'll leave Caz to elaborate on later.

This left me (Rory) to get a job and fix up Mr Bump, both of which have met with mixed success. Job-finding effort was hindered by having to watch England get beat at the cricket. Besides a bit of flyering and putting up posters for the hostel, I did a couple of days labouring that were the hardest days work of my life. (Worse than courgette picking or a 19hr human resources/Courtyard slog). It was in an ex-curry house / soon-to-be trendy bar; me and Niall had to smash up brick walls with a sledgehammer and carry all the rubble down a narrow staircase to a skip. By the end of the day we had hit the wall in every sense and got a heap of sunburn and blisters in return for pretty miserly pay. As for poor old Mr Bump, he's had a bit of tender love and care from a mechanic and he should be ready for his next challenge.

Anyway, on a brighter note, Melbourne's a pretty entertaining city, a bit of a culture shock after the outback for me! I'm sure to get round to see some of the sights sooner or later, but in the meantime I've been happy to visit St Kilda and the beach and wander the city streets. Also saw a weird Aboriginal film at a really cool outdoor cinema in the park.