Following on from last weeks post, it seemed only right to start this blog off with Sunday's souvenir of the day - Cruella de Vil's dream lampshade.

Sunday started off with a long lie followed by an amazing brunch at The Rusty Rabbit - scrambled eggs & bacon and Craig definitely couldn't say no to the side of halloumi! We were lining our stomachs as we had tickets for the Craft Drinks Market where we got to sample some amazing local beers, gins and wines - the perfect way to spend a Sunday! Craig's favourite was the Double Dark Red beer from Six String Brewing Co. whilst Katy was big fan of the newly released savoury gin from Dad & Dave's Brewing.

After having our fill of the free samples at the market we headed back to our apartment for a chilled out evening in front of Home Alone to get us in the Christmas spirit!

The souvenir's of the day are still coming! Monday's is the "Mask".

Monday was an extremely quiet day for us. Craig had been told he would hear back from his interview today so we spent most of the day waiting for the phone call to let us know one way or another. You see, we had made the rather last minute decision over the weekend that if the porter position was not to be; we were going to cut our losses and leave Australia behind to continue our travels on to South East Asia. This would mean we would be coming home a little bit earlier from our travels but would allow us to continue exploring rather than the constant job hunt.

By the time Craig received the confirmation that he had not been successful, we were both actually pretty excited at the prospect of getting to continue our travels rather than continuing job hunting. This meant that as soon as we got the news we were straight on the phone to STA to change our flight out of Sydney, we went in to planning overdrive and had flights and accommodation booked for Singapore and Bangkok no less than an hour later. Heading to bed on Monday night we were pretty confident we had made the right call!

The penultimate, souvenir of the day is the watchful lady who guarded the front door.

Due to the smoke on Tuesday (there is honestly no filter on the photo) we decided we'd rather stay inside as much as possible so our day pretty much followed on from Monday night, continuing to plan, organise and put together a vague itinerary for the next 4 months. Craig got his hair cut, Katy made endless lists of things we would need to pick up before we left Australia and we just, in general, got very very excited.

On Wednesday, we checked out of our very quirky Airbnb and moved on to another at Darling Harbour for our final 2 nights in Sydney. The 4 hours between checking out of the first one and checking in to the second one were spent in Starbucks (stealing their wifi) to continue the planning. This was then pretty much the theme for the rest of the day!

We had an early morning wake up call on Thursday as we had lots to get through before we headed off. First stop was the bank, to close our accounts - the staff did seem a bit confused that we were closing them after a month and no money moving in or out of them! Then we hit the shops to pick up a fews bits that we were in dire need of. There was only so much longer Craig could wear trainers with a hole in them and all the dye had run out of 2 pairs of Katy's shorts - backpacking life is so glamorous!! Next job for the day was doing a bit of trailing round pharmacies to make sure Craig had enough of a supply of antihistamines to keep his hay fever at bay and, the obviously required, factor 50 sunscreen! Last on the list was a Lifestraw for each of us and we were done. Back to the apartment to get ourselves packed, we had one final meal at Macchiato's and the alarm was set for the next morning.

On Friday we had a quick breakfast from Cafe 80 and then caught for the train from Central Station to the airport.

Flying with Scoot (long haul Ryanair), 8.5 very turbulent hours later we arrived in Singapore and both vowed never to do a long haul flight with such a budget airline again! But hey we had a nice room for the night booked in the Yotelair at Changi airport. So after a quick meal at Pizza Express (sometimes you just can't beat the home comforts!) we crashed out.

Next stop, Bangkok! (Where our blog content will hopefully improve beyond pictures of trinkets in our accommodation, thanks for all who have stuck with us the last month!)

After lunch at The Ivanhoe Hotel, we explored the lovely little market in Manly although, we didn't purchase anything, before walking down to the very busy beach and boardwalk. We strolled end to end and watching some beach volleyball, then we caught the ferry back to the city.

We had a chilled out afternoon and after dinner we decided to play the card game 'Backpackers' and by the time we learned how to play it, it was time for bed!

The next day was spent searching for jobs. However, on Monday night Katy wanted to see an aboriginal light and music show that was being projected onto the side of the Sydney Opera House. It, disappointingly, only lasted for about 10 minutes in total but it was a lovely display, although there was a cold wind while we were watching it.

Tuesday was spent much the same as Monday apart from a trip into the CBD for a coffee break in the afternoon. As this was our last night in the Airbnb we had to pack and tidy up (there were lots of passive aggressive notes in the property despite having paid a cleaning fee). Craig made a curry for dinner and then we watched the Late, Late Toy Show, a great, once a year show available on RTE that maybe, maybe, got us feeling a little bit festive, maybe.

The next morning started with an Uber into town, to store our bags at the IEP office, and then a coffee to kill a little bit of time. With CV's in hand, we walked down to Circular Quay. The first stop was a restaurant we knew were hiring. When we arrived the restaurant had applications for us to fill out and hand back in with the promise 'we will be in touch'. Afterwards, we handed in CV's to various pubs, shops and restaurants all around the Circular Quay. Sadly, we reckoned most would never see the light of day again and we also got a few rejections because we have no experience (rolls eyes). After lunch, we checked into our new Airbnb for the week and it was filled with an eclectic collection or artwork, books, travel souvenirs, books, sculptures, books and bizarre furniture. (As a bit of fun, we are going to post a 'souvenir of the day' while we are here. Wednesdays is (below) 'Blue Cherub, Suspended from Kitchen Ceiling.)

After our host had shown us around the property, Craig received a phone call from the Grace Hotel, who conducted a phone interview for a porter position. He passed after a long chat with Fernando and was invited to a face to face interview tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent continuing to apply for jobs and then watching the comedy series 'Sex Education' on Netflix.

Thursday's souvenir of the day is (below): 'Shower of Terror'.

Craig's interview went well but, he was told there was another candidate and, reading between the lines, there was a suggestion of nepotism. When he got back to the apartment we continued the job search and Craig heard back from another. This time to provide tastings of an Australian single malt whisky in a liquor store. It was organised by a promotional agency, who sent him information on the products via email and a contact number for the manager of the store, to organise the stock. As he began to swat up on the material he sent a message to the manager and got a very unhelpful and frankly, rude message back which would require him to go to Newtown (~40 minutes each way via taxi/Uber) to pick up stock on Friday, come back and then work for a total of 6 hours over 2 days (coming to a grand total of $150). So at this point he pulled out of the shift only for the agency to get back in touch and suggest he buy the $200 worth of stock at the supermarket and then claim it back from them. Again, he declined and asked for his name to be taken off their contact list. A message came back an hour later stating the stock would now be available at the store and he would be doing the shift as before. Deciding not to go ahead as he had no trust in the agency or he would even get paid to which he got the response 'that's disappointing'. We will let you decide who should be the most disappointed over the course of the 5 hours this wasted. Homemade pasta bake for dinner and then we caught up on the Apprentice.

Saturday's souvenir (above) is: 'Photo of Devil Child; in our Bedroom'.

​After a lazy morning on Saturday we then went for a walk in the afternoon, stopping only for a coffee and then had a fairly relaxed evening. ​

After getting ourselves settled into our room we decided to message the member of staff at the "farm" we had been in touch with to ask a few questions. Where was the farm located? What time were we going to be collected in the morning? Was there any paperwork we were required to bring? Is it really a farm? And lo and behold, we were ghosted!

Feeling extremely frustrated, we decided to expend some energy (frustration), and headed off for a walk along the marina and onto Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve - possibly the steepest walk we have ever done (in flip flops). The reserve is known for whale watching however we didn't have any luck, although the view from the top was still pretty lovely despite the smoke from the fires.

After some time chilling out in the hostel and doing a bit of job hunting we grabbed dinner and crashed out for the night hoping that the next day might be a bit better.

Monday morning (although there was no messages inviting us to work, or, you know, asking us where we were or why we were late) and we woke up with a fresh view of things. After a breakfast at Twenty46 we decided, given we were in the area for at least the next week, we may as well see if there was any jobs going locally. Sadly our luck wasn't in, the local schools and universities have now finished for summer so, entirely understandably, summer jobs have gone to the locals. The afternoon was then spent online job searching, applying for anywhere and everywhere we could. We finally caught a break and were able to finally arrange our verbal assessment for our RSA's for the following day. Having previously thought we would need to wait until almost Christmas, this was a massive game changer for us as suddenly we could apply for jobs that involved serving alcohol which would massively increase the job pool!

Beginning to go a little square eyed (and we thought it was a childhood myth) from staring at screens all afternoon we headed to Marias for dinner. Their early evening menu was just as cheap as us buying dinner from the supermarket and hey, it stopped us having to cook in the hostels kitchen! After dinner we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset walk along the beach.

The next day we spent the majority of the morning practicing for our verbal RSA assessment. The markers were going to phone us and role play being an angry/drunk/aggressive/sad customer and we had to deal with them appropriately. Thankfully pharmacy has given us plenty experience with angry and aggressive customers so we passed with no issues! Phew! The rest of the day was spent, you guessed it, looking online for more jobs. Our evening then panned out much the same as the previous night, dinner followed by a walk, this time around Park Beach Reserve.

The following morning we woke to find that the hostel was having their wifi updated, so we made the decision to book into a co-working space, Toogetha. We spent the majority of our day there, searching for jobs. We made the decision that we weren't getting very far in Coffs Harbour so we would be better back in Sydney, just in time for the weekend to see if any bars would give us some trial shifts. So we booked an Airbnb for a week and a train back to Sydney the following day in the hope that, this time, we would be more successful. 

After heading back to the hostel and confirming with reception that we would be leaving early the next morning we grabbed dinner and then headed out for a walk along the Jetty. Whilst there we got to see 4 sea turtles swimming, diving and feeding along with a dolphin playing in the bay which was a pretty incredible sight to see.

The next morning the alarm went off at 5am and we made our way to the train station in what felt like a ghost town. 9. Long. Boring. Hours. Later. And we were finally in Sydney where we hopped in a taxi to our airbnb and crashed out for the night.

​Friday morning, we were raring to go and first on the agenda was collecting our copies of our CVs from Laura at IEP, with some words of encouragement - not to let one bad experience ruin our time here - and we headed off in search of a job. After a busy day, pounding the streets, with our happy smiling faces, Friday evening was spent with a quick dinner and beginning a new series on Netflix before crashing into bed! (Have we mentioned this Airbnb has the comfiest mattress we've had since we left, not quite up to the Simba standard, but an awful lot better than any others we've had!)

On Saturday we made the most of being back in the big smoke and headed to the cinema to see Last Christmas, Katy's choice (as I'm sure everyone would well imagine!) And it was definitely what we needed to get us in the Christmas spirit. We followed this with an early dinner at Darling Harbour, then enjoyed the walk back to the apartment passing all the Christmas trees that had suddenly appeared in Sydney (we even played the game of guessing if someone had used a cherry picker or gone out a window to put some up!)

Back at the apartment and in for the night, we pulled out the Monopoly board provided by the Airbnb hosts. An extremely competitive game ensued - Katy won, by a substantial amount (serves Craig right for being clever and mortgaging)! Various rounds of Connect 4 then followed - Craig won this time, by a substantial amount (Katy shouldn't have been so mean at Monopoly). We then settled down for the night with a bottle of wine and 'Christmas With the Kranks' on Netflix.

On Coffs Harbour: Although we had a negative experience, Coffs Harbour is actually a lovely little spot. It has a seaside area with beach, marina and jetty but also a bustling town centre with lots of different shops and eateries. We also got to see wildlife from the jetty which was our personal highlight. 
For those wondering about our lovely ghoster, we have since discovered farmers will pay people around an extra $20 if they convince other people to come up and as this is capped (usually around $200) we arrived too late to be of any use to that. Pure speculation, maybe she was just horrible. 

The rest of day the was spent rather unproductively, lounging in the room, although it wasn't relaxing as we were never left alone and some of our dorm mates had their music on for a time. To give an honest account, we were frustrated with our almost stagnant situation and because the job market was a lot harder to crack than we had realised (and perhaps, that was arrogance or naivety on our part). Craig got an email back today to say a job he had applied for had closed to any further applicants after receiving just shy of 1400 applications. In the last post we joked about the 'highlight reel' of jobs we had applied for but there were hundreds of others we had each applied for and heard nothing back. Our main goal was to work in the hospitality / restaurant trade however, to work with alcohol at all we must have an RSA licence, which is issued on a state by state basis after completing a different course for each state. We were struggling to get an appointment to complete the verbal assessment for New South Wales (NSW), this year.  We had been walking the streets handing our CV's into shops but no leads as yet. The original plan had been to work on farms which was proving just as problematic as places were advertising jobs starting the next day but it would be in the middle of the outback or on the other side of the country. Even jobs that were better dated were only ever looking for 1 person and going to the middle of the outback for a job for 1 person just wasn't practical for us. We were trying to stay positive but also realising, we couldn't live in this limbo forever.

The next morning, we woke with a renewed positive attitude and the belief we would get a job today. After breakfast, we headed to the IEP room and set ourselves up at desks and applied for every job we could possibly twist or pigeonhole our skills into. Craig got an email after an hour and a half of this, to go for an interview on Tuesday for a charity job in the city. We were buoyed by this news and then, ecstatic, as Katy got a message through to say we had both been accepted for a job picking blueberries in Coffs Harbour, 5.5 hours north of Sydney. After deliberation over lunch, we decided to accept the position in Coffs Harbour as it was a job for both of us, the cost of living would be lower and the work was until the end of February 2020, perfect!

​With a weight lifted from our chests we were able to enjoy the afternoon, played some table tennis in the hostel before having dinner at 3 Wise Monkeys.

The next morning we said goodbye to room 215 and checked out at 10:00 and waited for check in to our new room at 14:00. This time was used constructively however, as we booked accommodation in Coffs Harbour for the first 2.5 weeks of us living there and transport to get us up. Once we had checked back in we went in search of some new clothes for working on the blueberry farm, this included longer sleeved t-shirts for Katy (t-shirt tans are never cool) and a new pair of headphones for Craig. When we returned to the dorm, we met both of our new roommates, Kurt (a 52 year old America college professor who had been let go from his job and had decided to go travelling) and Ross (a retired Kiwi in his late-60's who was spending 4 weeks in Sydney on holiday). With the conversation feeling strained and awkward, we left to the lounge to relax and play some table tennis (you'd think we were good by now). Before we went to dinner, we were caught by Kurt and ended up chatting for 2 hours about politics, travelling, our homes and recommendations for travelling. After a grab and go dinner we returned to the room at 21:30 only to discover the lights off and the other 2, fast asleep. This was a definite change from our previous room (as Katy said (in text), 'we were the late night rebels now!')

The next morning we did a load of laundry in preparation for leaving and, after lunch, we attended an interview. No, not one for a job, but one for an STA social media campaign with Laura, the IEP co-ordinator. We (and others) were recorded answering set questions that STA want to put together into a video to promote Australia and we will, of course, let you know if we are part of an advert somewhere!

With the rest of the day free, and our job troubles behind us, we decided to let our hair down and enjoy our final night in Sydney! We started at Jet Bar Caffe for an outdoor afternoon coffee, listening to a nearby busker and watching the world go by as we sipped on our caffeine fixes. We had identified another hidden bar to try but had to wait on it opening on 17:00 (it's 5 o'clock somewhere, right!?) so, to fill the time, we went to Reign inside the QVB for a glass of fizz - hey, we were celebrating!

After finishing our glasses we joined the 17:00 commuters and headed to the next bar. We do love our hidden bars and Old Mate's Place (Level 4, 199 Clarence Street) may have been the best and also the most hidden as you can see from the photo below.

After climbing the 4 flights of stairs, we entered a low lit library setting, with a very grand, old-style bar in the corner but we carried on, up another flight of stairs, and back into the daylight, we were here for the rooftop. The rooftop bar was amazing, tiny, but the bar was fully stocked and the views were amazing. Even better, we managed to get a table to ourselves. We enjoyed a drink in the sunshine as the sun began to sink, casting long, dramatic shadows across downtown.

On recommendation from our tour guide from the weekend, Justine, we went for Chinese food at Mr. Wong's (located up a lane, along another lane and then up a further lane) and it was one of the best we have ever had, with Craig making a strong case for it being the best (chopstick skills to be improved).

One of Katy's desires while in Sydney was to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House all lit up at night. ​It was truly stunning and, in many ways, surreal to be standing at a sight that was almost familiar to us, thanks to TV and films (and Katy being here about 20 years ago). 

We managed to get back to the dorm before the 21:30 lights out curfew and, after showering (so we could pack away the dried towels in the morning) headed to bed at 22:00 for an early night. Sadly, the Scary Canary, that was now directly below us, had very different ideas. At 02:45 the music finally stopped and by 03:05, most of the punters had moved on.

The alarm went off at 05:00 and after getting ready, we lugged ourselves down to the beautiful Central Railway station. Annoyingly, it was for the 06:30 bus replacement service to Taree (due to the bushfires) and then the train to Coffs Harbour. The bus, to it's credit, was well air-conditioned, comfortable and we left Sydney on time. We crossed the Harbour Bridge which was pretty special but as we left the smoke was hanging thick across Sydney this morning.

We got to Taree an hour and a half ahead of schedule which we spent sitting on the train, waiting for it to depart due to the smoke hanging over Taree. We arrived into Coffs Harbour at 16:15 although the train journey hadn't been overly pleasant. The 2 gentlemen in front of us had a smell of stale alcohol that permeated from them and the family behind us had let their 4 girls run wild around the train. Craig even had the youngest child telling him how to play a game on his phone (to be fair, she had a fair point, he wasn't doing it right). The Uber dropped us off at our Airbnb, which turned out to be a townhouse, and it was almost instantly therapeutic for both of us walking into all of that space! Over dinner, we caught up on 2 weeks of The Apprentice and then managed to drag ourselves off to an early night before we fell asleep on the sofa. We were exhausted but we were in Coffs Harbour, ready to be back at work!

​Friday and Saturday were spent relaxing, lounging in and around the house and getting ourselves ready for the move back into a hostel on Sunday and, work on Monday morning.

PS, apologies for the very wordy post!

​Our journey to Sydney started off apart as Qantas, rather helpfully, sat us at opposite ends of the aircraft. After touching down we were prepared, focused and ready with all of our Working Holiday Visa paperwork to be questioned by a border agent about our financial status, where we were staying, if we had an outbound flight booked, did we have any previous convictions, what colour eyes do we have, have we ever smuggled drugs, when did we last go to the toilet, what addresses have we had for the last 20 years, are you planning on carrying out terrorist activity in Australia, you know, all the usual rigmarole! We were convinced it would be more awkward than normal as we were also coming to work but, as it happened, we spoke to no one and were able to make our way through the electronic gates without speaking to a single soul! But hey, we weren't complaining! (Other than not getting a stamp on our passport) Our bags arrived fairly quickly, customs let us pass and we made our way to our transfer into the city. It was very difficult for us to get our heads round seeing all the airport Christmas decorations whilst standing in shorts and t-shirts in 24 degrees!

We arrived at Base Backpackers, far too early for check-in, so dropped our bags off and went in search of some breakfast as the airplane choice of scrambled eggs or tofu held no appeal to either of us. After some sustenance, we headed off to explore and obviously we went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Being a Sunday it was crazy busy but we found ourselves a wall to sit on and enjoyed an hour of people watching in the sun with this fantastic setting.

After some time we made our way back to Base (geddit!?) to grab some lunch in the attached pub, Scary Canary, and then checked into our room, a nice 6 bed dorm room! Thankfully, our room mates were all lovely, if a little untidy (but then anyone who knows Craig knows that everyone is untidy in comparison!) and we were fairly happy with our bunk bed for the next week.

After a very chilled out afternoon we headed to Macchiato for a delicious Italian dinner then, having been up since 03:00, we were both in bed and fast asleep by 21:00.

The following morning, after breakfast, we had our orientation with Laura from IEP Australia who helped us set up for working and living in Australia. As part of the orientation, we got our tax file numbers sorted, were given Australian SIM cards and given instructions on enrolling for Medicare. After the orientation, and continuing with getting ourselves organised, we headed to the Commonwealth Bank to get our bank accounts opened (Katy now has an Australian bank account, with her married name, before she does in Britain!) 

With a busy morning under our belts, we were ready for some food, so went to Parlour Burger for lunch. Afterwards, we walked back to the hostel and set up our Australian phones and signed ourselves up to the online course; the Responsible Serving of Alcohol (RSA) for NSW (because every state has its own, different course and you can't handle alcohol in any business if you don't have it) in a bid to expand the pool of jobs we could look for.

​For dinner, we headed back to the Scary Canary and, for a bit of fun, stayed to take part in the pub quiz! Realising we were substantially older than the rest of the participants, we debated sneaking out and not embarrassing ourselves however, the questions were perfectly geared to those over 25, and we managed to come in 2nd place (just 1 point behind 1st) and won ourselves a pitcher of beer!

The next day was a very uninteresting day spent working on our RSA courses, we shall spare you the very boring details! We interspersed our day with eating, playing table tennis and avoided the 38 degree heat as best we could!

Having had such a dull day, the next morning we decided to be tourists and went for a wander around Darling Harbour which was much quieter and more pleasant than the area around the Opera House (10:00 on a Wednesday might have something to do with that...).

​Next stop, was to Myers (a department store) Christmas shop. It certainly wasn't a patch on Macy's however it was awfully nice to have a wander given we are both struggling to get into the Christmas spirit. We also used this as a chance to pick up some smarter clothes just incase we got any interviews as we reckoned our fairly worn out backpacker gear wouldn't exactly help us get a job.

Our afternoon was then spent applying for any and every job (highlights included Katy applying for a job at the zoo, Craig applying for a job as pharmacy delivery cyclist and as a receptionist for a botox clinic) we could find online and hoping we might hear back from someone! We then headed to Sushi & Grill for a delicious dinner. Whilst Katy is a huge sushi fan Craig definitely isn't, so this was one of the first times Katy has had sushi in over 5 years, and so she was extremely excited about it. Sushi & Grill definitely didn't disappoint!

​The following morning we headed to the Medicare office to get ourselves sorted with Medicare (as the UK has reciprocal agreements with Australia, we get free healthcare should we need it (hopefully we won't though!!)) Annoyingly, as with all of these places, it was a very long drawn out process so it took up the majority of our morning. We then spent the afternoon trawling round some shops with our CVs (and happy smiley faces) in the hopes someone might be hiring.

After a busy day of more job hunting we treated ourselves to some incredible cocktails at Grandma's Bar. Sydney has a thriving hidden bar scene and Grandma's bar was one of them. The name had caught Katy's eye on google maps, given she had had such a wonderful Grandma, however when we went to actually find the bar it took walking up and down the street a couple times before going into the entrance of a block of flats! The cocktails and eclectic furnishings however, were definitely worth it.

After a few drinks we were both confident we would manage an excellent nights sleep despite being in a dorm however, our new roommates had other ideas! It started off with a lady in her 40's checking in, who turned out to have some form of sleep apnoea, and kept us wide awake with her snoring. Then, just as we were drifting off to sleep a young guy arrived with his 5 mates, switched on all the lights, had a full blown conversation in, we think, Hindi then proceeded to take the mattress off of the empty bunk and disappeared. They then returned the mattress with similar fanfare 3 hours later, incidentally, just in time for the lady to get up and leave, so finally at about 04:00 we were able to get some sleep.

We didn't manage much of a long lie the next morning however, as we joined the I'm Free walking tour which was an excellent way to see Sydney. Run by Justine who is a 'Sydneysider' we got to see some lovely bits of Sydney and were given some insider tips of places to visit. The tour left from the Town Hall and we worked our way down, over 3 hours, to the Harbour Bridge whilst learning about the city from it's early convict history to it's current incarnation.

We followed the tour with lunch at Mary's, on Justine's recommendation, as they do the best burgers in Sydney and she was certainly right. Sadly, the rest of our afternoon wasn't quite so exciting as it was laundry time and we squeezed in a nap given our lack of sleep from the previous night.

For dinner, it will come as a surprise to no one that we went to our favourite chain, the Hard Rock Cafe so that Katy could get yet another pin (there was a bit of a discussion about whether we should work out how much money Katy has spent on HRC pins but it was thought best not!) With its setting on Darling Harbour, we enjoyed walking around the beautiful lit up harbour after dinner.

After a much more restful nights sleep, we woke on Saturday and decided we couldn't do much job hunting so instead we joined the locals and headed to the Rocks Market. We tried some BBQ'd Kangaroo (it was delicious!) and enjoyed wandering the stalls although nothing was bought. Next stop was Munich Brauhaus where we stayed for a drink or two, Craig was thrilled to discover they did beer in steins just like at Oktoberfest!

We returned to the hostel for some chill out time and then, in keeping with the theme, we went to the Beerhaüs for dinner (trying to stop Craig being too sad about missing out on Oktoberfest in Munich this past September!) Whilst the food was good, there wasn't much going on so we left after dinner to go in search of another one of Sydney's hidden bars. The country themed, Shady Pines Saloon, was located down a small alleyway and incredibly difficult to find. With our phone's torches we located a small sign above a white washed door and entered one of the most fantastic settings, a low lit, Southern American style saloon. We sat at the bar drinking incredible cocktails, (Katy was enthralled with the Pumpkin Flip) nibbling on, in-the-shell peanuts (monkey nuts) and, the big bonus for us, non-stop country music. We sang to our hearts content with our favourite's being "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys" and "The Whiskey Ain't Working Anymore." An excellent night and a brilliant way to spend a Saturday.