Bring on the Grand Slam!

Gilo my friend,

'Tis a tired and weary Roberoo that sits in an internet cafe in Auckland tonight. Had the proverbial "one or two" with Murphs last night. We went to the Coogee Palace Hotel along with some English girls that work with Murphs. I tell you, I don't know why we never went there before. Bads in particular would have loved it - beautiful young English birds to beat the band. For my part, I got things back on track after my embarrassment at Byron Bay by scoring a friend of one of Murph's colleagues. Very enthusiastic kisser, and a bit fresh with the hands to boot. As we had only one set of keys between us, Murphs had to stick around till the bitter end of the night, which wasn't his plan by any means as he had work this morning. I was in an absolute heap heading to the airport at 7.30 a.m. this morning. As an indicator of the trance-like state I was in, I forgot to take my (brand new) fleece back off the metal detector bloke (not sure what his official title is) and only noticed this fact as I was getting off the plane in Auckland. That's another $150 down the drain so...

Ayers Rock was something of a disappointment. No matter how much they try to dress it up, there's no escaping the fact that at the end of the day it's just a big rock in the middle of the outback. Wasn't let climb it either - apparently it was "too windy." The other sights nearby were much more impressive, particularly King's Canyon, so that made the trip worthwhile. My abiding memory of the Northern Territory, though, will be the fucking flies - pardon my French. If I hadn't invested in a fly net that covered my head, I would have been driven to dementia. As regards my travelling group, there were no birds worth talking about, unless you're partial to fat middle-aged Americans or 18 old Japanese girls with glasses and/or buck teeth. Ah, there's Rob with his ridiculous standards says you, but no I tell the truth may I be struck down as a liar if i lie. Bloody hell, I'm slipping in to Ned Kelly speech. Speaking of which, I went to see Ned Kelly in Sydney the other day. Good film, but spoiled for me by the fact that I lost my phone in the cinema. I say "lost" but it would be more accurate to say that some thieving bastard nicked it off the floor in the 3 minute interval between my leaving the cinema and realising that my phone wasn't in my pocket. What a pain in the ass - I've lost all my Australian numbers and I had to shell out for an unlocked phone so that I can use my Irish sim card over here. I had a wry laugh to myself at the thought of you binning your phone in Brisbane airport, and me having to buy a phone days later. Such is life, as Ned Kelly would say. To cheer myself up, after buying my new phone I went into a camera shop and bought a digital camera. It's a Sony and it's pretty cool. Can take 3 minutes of camcorder-quality video footage, and if you're prepared to skimp on the size of the image, that goes up to 40 minutes! It also has a very good digital zoom, which I tested out on a photo of Roz yesterday. I think you can guess where I zoomed in on - unfortunately she deleted the photo before giving the camera back to me...

Anyway, enough rambling - I'm going to wander down to an Irish bar I saw in Lonely Planet called Dogs Bollix, and stay there to watch Ireland clinch the Grand Slam.