Ari and Lizzie

Did you know that if you go to Tasmania, you are out of mobile reception for most of the time? We spent a week out of range of everyone. Tasmania is full of nature and close cousins with webbed feet. They are friendly and very good at making jam and rustic furniture. Lizzie and I spent most of our time admiring mountains - 'Oh goodie, a mountain! I wanna ride a horsie!' - a la Brokeback Mountain. We camped by wonderful streams and made giant roaring fires and ate singed sausages. We had an astonishing time. This is the best holiday I have ever, ever had.

Before we went to Tassie we went to Sydney for the Mardis Gras. It was really too crowded to see much, but we found a tree, climbed it, and veiwed various floats and lights and people shaking their bootie from high up. We swigged heroically from bottles of chardonnay and were serenaded from beneath by drunk Irishmen who wanted to climb up with us. A good time was had by all. This time we were in Sydney with money. We thought it would make a huge difference to our opinion of it, but I'm afraid Sydney still smells.

After Tasmania we went to Adelaide, and we spent most of it in the Garden of Unearthly Delights, a big fairground with lots of theatre, a ferris wheel and a flying trapeze. We saw two very good shows for free on account of being friends with comedians. We ate a lot of food, and we met a couple of lovely people, and we are now much fatter and poorer than we were at the beginning. But we had such a good time. Every day was amazing.

Believe it or not, this is the abridged version of what happened, and if you've read this far then well done. Lizzie will post later, and I will leave it up to her to describe her near arrest at the hands of Hobart's police force, the ineptitude of Adelaide hostels, and my incredible yet liberating flatulence throughout.

Did you know that homosexuality has only been legal in Tasmania for about five years? ('oh goodie, a mountain!')

Love to all, especially Georgie, who texted us the other day, and who we called from the Mardis Gras whilst drunk. Congratulations again on getting into Edinburgh uni - we are so so proud of you.

Ari.xxx