A picture is worth a thousand words

Sulphur crested cockatoos feeding in my uncle's garden
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This is basically a short little update as I have now worked out how to upload some photos.  Unfortunately not all of my photos can be uploaded yet, specifically none from when I moved into the hostel, but there are a few of the local wildlife which is pretty funky.

In terms of news, I'm feeling quite settled in The Great Aussie Backpackers hostel now and everyone is very friendly.  We get a free breakfast every morning which consists of toast with jam/butter/peanut butter and tea or coffee which is good, although I am yet to get up early enough to get any milk from my tea as it goes fast.  Every weekday night we get a free drink each in one of the local bars but after that the drinks get pretty expensive around here (about $8-9 for a bottle of beer).

...reds the new brown right??

Stumpy the blue tongued lizard
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Yesterday I went for a walk towards Sydney city centre, which is about 20 minutes walk from the hostel, but ended up stopping off for quite a few hours in Hyde Park which is just as pretty as its British namesake but nowhere near as large.  I fell asleep in the sun (may have a slight sunburn...but reds the new brown right??) and woke up to find a vicious looking bird with a long, hooked beak blinking down at me.  I am yet to find out what type of bird this was, but I believe it to possibly be some sort of ibis.  Says the guy with no zoological nous whatsoever.  Also managed to get stuck into the book I have borrowed from Grumps - The Pillars of the Earth.

Some rainbow laurakeets feeding from the end - the one with half a beak was very attached to nibbling my finger
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Hyde Park is nestled next to St Marys Cathedral, a huge and very impressive building made of reddish stone.  I have a few pictures of this and the surrounding area (and Mr Ibis) but will have to put these up with the next update.

Yesterday evening was the weekly complementary bbq, and it was very good indeed!  I had salad, a jacket potato, a large sausage of some sort and, the piece de resistance, a kangaroo steak!  Without meaning to sound cliche, it tasted very much like beef, just a bit harder to cut (although this may have been how it was cooked).  Unfortunately I will have to cook for myself tonight.  After a quick, thoughtless and rash shopping expedition I have the following ingredients at my disposal - peanut butter, cheese, bread, pasta, humous, apples and tomatoes.  Interesting...

Attack!
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Anyway, hope you like the few pics I've put up (click more photos to see the others) and, like I did, appreciate the Aussie sense for basic, no-frills, straight-to-the-point graffiti.