Sydney

I arrived in Sydney on Tuesday, October 2nd. As we flew over the city I could see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge and it brought back memories of when I was here a year and a half ago.

I stayed with my friend Kelly over the next few days and she took me to some of the sights along the coast, including Royal National Park - the first ever National Park in the world.

Funny thing - I've been missing Jacks so much, I was pleasantly surprised to find out Kelly, Matt & Sam have an adopted cat named Monty. Apparently he belonged to the people who lived in the house before them, but when they moved a few streets over, he kept coming back to "his" house. So now Kelly, Matt & Sam take care of him. I guess cats really do love their territory!

I moved into my new flat with my roomate Kathryn on Saturday. It's a beautiful place with incredible views, and only a hop, skip, and a jump away from downtown. For the past few days I've been exploring the area trying to find all the secret spots for good shopping, eating, etc.

All in all, I'm doing well... other than waking up at 6 every morning, which I'm not sure is from still being jet-lagged or from the crazy birds here that, I swear, make so much noise I honestly think they're trying to be annoying!

L.A.

I began my year-long adventure away from home by spending a few days in Los Angeles visiting my good friends Cinzia and Aamer.

I can't say I had any expectations of what L.A. would be like, but I suppose, like with any other city in the world, there were good things and bad things. Thankfully all my experiences were good as we never had to deal with the nightmare of traffic in a city of 8 million people. They must've all been on vacation themselves or had nothing better to do than stay at home.

Our first night included a lovely dinner at the Grove followed by drinks at the Saddle Ranch. "Is that where people hop on a fake bull?" you ask. Why yes it is! If your wondering where the picture is of me on that bull... well, you're not going to find it. There was no way I was getting on that stinkin' bull, and even if I did, there would definitely be no picture to prove it!

The following night was definitely one of my favourite parts of visiting L.A. Aamer so kindly arranged for us to go to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel. But not only did we just do that... we got the "star" treatment. We entered through the back where we ran into Amanda Bynes (one of Jimmy's guests), and went straight to the green room where we had drinks and appies. Then we were escorted to our front & center seats where we watched Amanda Bynes' interview. And finally we were escorted again to the VIP section to watch James Blunt perform. Totally awesome! Apparently we were seen on tv a bunch of times, so hope you caught it!

On Saturday, Cinzia and her boyfriend took us on a lovely tour around to Malibu beach, Venice beach, and (my favourite) Santa Monica. We rode the ferris wheel at sunset on the Santa Monica pier and had dinner along the promenade.

Sunday was spent doing some more touring around and included a drive up to the Hollywood Hills. Beautiful houses up there, but I would never want to live there. And finally, Cinzia and John made me a lovely home-cooked meal before my 24 hour trek to Sydney, Australia!