Roger.

The handsome cabin boy.

We had to put off the Blue Mountains due to pressure of work (it's tough, all this eating, drinking and constant enjoyment), but saved our energies for a fantastic long weekend up the Hawkesbury River on Roger the houseboat.

Embarking from Boganesque Brooklyn, the sun pounded down as we navigated upstream like Joseph Conrad in boardshorts.

An adolescent snapper catching a fish.

We spent an idyllic time swimming, eating, drinking, playing games (Kim has discovered Scrabble), fishing, birdspotting and generally hanging out on a mini-hotel on the water.

Toasting the Smuffs' wedding anniversary.
Any excuse will do.

Kim and I had tested our sealegs the previous Saturday thanks to a fabulous gift from the Hoadys of a 'boating experience', sailing on a racing yacht around Sydney Harbour.

With Dan, Hackney ex-pat.

The sun shone, the water glistened, Kim steered for a bit, I pulled a couple of ropes and sails and it was very special experience indeed.

Our skipper was Joe Samson, a 21 year old Shoreham UK lad. What a future he has, sailing fancy boats around the world for pleasure.

Joe.

Now you know me, I normally disapprove of hyperbole, but words such as 'amazing' and 'awesome' are happily tripping off my tongue with alarming regularity in Australia. If I'm not careful, people will start accusing me of being 'upbeat'.

Fortunately, to counter this, Caz has introduced me belatedly to Lana Del Rey, who I think is marvellous. She's no Kate Bush, obviously, but has a beautiful, cynical voice and I am hooked.

Our first engagement in Sydney had been Caz' 35th birthday party, where we met her friends, the beautiful and the daft, and ate ice cream cake (a pattern developed from here on...).

Ice cream... and cake... ice cream cake! Genius.

Marshmallow meltdown.

Our closing engagement was the Russian Resurrection Film Festival premiere where we watched Vasilisa, a beautiful-looking War & Peace-lite movie, before adjourning to the after-party to listen to Caz' folks band Catch-22. I knew they would be good, but they were brilliant. Much drinking and dancing ensued, culminating in some Cossack-styled jumping about.

Memories of my Hoady wedding vodka blackout had resurfaced after we'd watched their video a few nights earlier (it was hilarious, sheer carnage), so I just enjoyed the band and ate some more cakes.

And that was pretty much that. Our Australian leg, anticipated as a breather between months of backpacking, turned out to be our most action-packed for ages!

We put on a bit of weight too, thanks to Chinese and Indian food, Tim Tams, ice cream, digestives and ginger snaps. For various reasons, I'm going to dip my toe back into vegetarianism, starting with Thailand, next up...