Before arriving in Oz, we had a one night stopover in Singapore. This is Raffles, which is apparently a very famous hotel. I, however, don't subscribe to Hotel Admirers Monthly and consequently had never heard of it.

My shoe. In Singapore. Honest.

The sky over Katoomba.

This is Mudgee, a little town about halfway between Sydney and the telescope. I'm quite fond of this place and the Winning Post Motel.

And this is Gulgong. I'm standing a couple of feet behind where I parked the hire car rather badly.

I think this might be a wallaby. It's certainly different to the vast majority of 'roos we saw and is definitely wallabesque in body shape.

And this is the result of my dodgy parking. Luckily we (I) didn't get charged for this back at the hire car place. Three cheers for Red Spot.

The AAT dome. Not so many pictures this time as I took loads last time. Plus it was broken and we were treated like lepers while we were there so don't really want to dwell on my time there.

Because we could't do any work we drove up to... some place I can't remember the name of one day to go and look at the Australia Telescope. It's actually an array of 5 (or so) radio dishes.

In case you were wondering.

A 'roo.

A photo especially for Will.

As if they weren't pissing us off enough at the AAT, they decided to write my name as "Bellowy" everywhere. Twats.

Then we went to go and see the Parkes radio telescope, which actually makes up a part of the Australia telescope even though it is a couple of hundred kilometres or so away from the main site at... that place I still can't remember the name of. This is the one used to communicate with the Apollo missions as seen in the film "The Dish".

Back in Sydney.

A slighty atypical view of the Sydney Opera House.

An Ibis takes a bath.

I call this one "Life imitating art".

I should really have photoshopped the bottom right corner in this picture.

And off to Watson's bay we went with Mark Taylor (look out for him shortly).

And here's the cheeky gerbil himself.

A picture especially for Chris.

He might like this one too knowing him.

If I was going to graffito that sign I think I would have done something slightly more subtle but much more amusing. See if you can guess what I would have done.

Yes, I went to watch "that" sunset again...

... as did a few other people.

Woman and bird, life's greatest double act.

Our cheap 'n' cheerful hotel in Sydney.

Then back to Singapore on the way home.

An Englishman abroad. Well, I'm from Yorkshire and am also working class so am probably classed as subhuman by the "Englishmen" who actually say things like that. Mr Chip, meet Mr Shoulder.