More manliness per pound

Nick likes to wear iconic buildings like a hat

Name the building

Sydney skyline at sunset

Be a tiger for the camera

Rad, gnarly, awesome and other such surfer talk

So, on Tuesday, I caught the ferry to Manly. Now, some cynical folk might accuse me of going to Manly only to repeatedly perform the same cheap visual gag. That would be a half truth. For while there was undoubtedly that part of me that wished to see how far such a blatant source of hilarity could be taken, it's also meant to be a pretty nice part of Sydney to see.

However, one word of warning: please do not injure yourself whilst laughing at my attempted facial hair.

Last Sunday, we went to a massive Brazilian Jazz concert put on for free in the centre of Sydney as a part of the Sydney Festival. How can you go wrong when something is free? Especially when there are loads of bats flying about overhead.

As you will have noticed there is a picture of me with a surfboard above. Yep, yesterday I learnt to surf. Well, I say learnt to surf but it's going to take practice before I can stay standing on the damn board for more than about 5 seconds. Surfing is harder than it looks. A lot harder. It looks so easy, yet it actually requires exertion of every part of your body. If it wasn't so fun I'd have thought I was getting exercise. Shudder.

The guys teaching us couldn't have been any more surfer stereotypes if they were trying. When we were finished, they handed out questionnaires to do with what we thought of the course and our instructors. When asking us to fill them in, they also asked us to bear in mind how we thought they would cope in the real world, not one where they hang out with a bunch of backpackers on a beach all day, teaching them to surf. They had a point.

Tomorrow or Monday we are off back to Melbourne, in search of jobs (urgh) and a flat to base ourselves in for a couple of months while we work. Not sure what I'll do yet, it'll be easiest to get bar work I guess, but I might be equally swayed by something I've never done before, e.g. gardening perhaps. Nick's just going to hang around on street corners, plying his trade.

Everyone knows who Harold Bishop from Neighbours is don't they? Well, I was talking to a Scottish guy the other day who said he went on the Neighbours set tour in Melbourne. At the end of the tour there was a Q&A with some of the "stars". One guy asks (he must have spent all day coming up with this one) the guy who plays Harold why he is so fat now. Completely unruffled, he answers: "Because every time I shagged your mum she gave me a cookie". Harold Bishop 1, other guy 0.