Day One - Uluru or Ayre's Rock or as e Australians call it, The Rock

Really good flight and another time change, two hours less than Sydney so that's 9 plus than UK. Once again, I was in the right side of the plane when we come into land and I saw Uluru. My first thought was, oh that's small lol. When we landed and I saw it I thought, bloody hell it's huge lol ;).

The hotel is beautiful. It really is lovely. Linda and Nikki you are going to love this, I've booked myself on a star gazing night this evening. Someone, Brian Cox mmmmmmm, is going to tell me all about the stars in the Southern Hemisphere - how cool is that. I also went into the little down on the hotel bus (it seems ages since I did that in Hong Kong) and there were two aboriginal women called Alice and Valerie painting. They draw pictures of the stories of their culture, all different interpretations of the one story. Valerie (that was my mothers name) was painting something that looked so beautiful. I told her that Valerie was my mothers name and she couldn't paint her nails, she laughed. Top and bottom of it is I bought the painting and I have photos of her painting it. It is the story of the seven sisters. One bloke fancied one of these sisters and wouldn't leave her alone. So the sister fled but he kept following. The story goes girls that he thought with his trousers lol nothing different there then. I told Valerie and Alice that even a thousand odd years later it's no different in the UK. We laughed and laughed and I thought how appropriate this painting is lol so had to have it. A story about sisters sticking together to keep safe from men - how apt! Went back to the room and had a couple of hours by the pool. It is very, very hot. I then had a doze lol. Give the girl a break, it's the first time all holiday!

So I am now in one of the restaurants having dinner. Red red some garlic bread to start with. It's a good job I am on my own lol it's very garlicky. I have the normal glass of Chardonnay but I have ordered .............. The skippy burger lol. So Kangaroo burger for dinner lol. Well it had to be done lol. Just looking around I'm the only person on my own. It really doesn't bother me, in fact I quite like it. No one to please, just me. Don't worry I won't come back and be selfish lol. I know you all won't let me anyway lol.


Skippy was really, really tasty, I'd have that again but I don't think they sell it in Sainsbury's. I mean can you imagine a supermarket in Stoke selling kangaroo lol. Perhaps there is a butcher somewhere. It was really tasty. It was like beef but not fatty at all. That will teach it to ignore me when I asked about the helicopter in the ravine lol. I wonder if I will start hopping lol! That garlic bread is going to come back and haunt me all night; I'm going to be so thirsty. I have to be up and ready for 5.15am to see dawn rise over Uluru. It's a special day for me to be doing this as it would have been my Dad's birthday. So it's going to be rather special. I don't know what he would have made of all this. Like I said before, probably laughing his head off. I better go and buy another bottle of water. As it is so hot they suggest you drink one litre of water every hour. I'm drinking the tap water lol, filling up my bottles and sticking them in the fridge. Aaron said you could drink the water in Australia and he ain't dead yet lol.

So off to see the stars, how exciting then straight to bed............ On my own in case any of you were wondering. Skippy, Skippy, Skippy the bush kangaroo Pmsl, what you say Skippy lol.

Wow! I wanted to one to this country because I knew I would feel so small (yes even me) but tonight totally blew me away. There was only me and a pole from Portugal and we were taken out in the bush, on foot, away from the light pollution. It was so dark it was difficult to see where you were actually going. Ball around were animal noises lol, I wasn't scared I thought it was exciting. When I looked up to the sky I couldn't believe the night sky. It was truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I don't really understand it to be honest but it has always been something I have been interested in, thank you Brian Cox lol. The two guys who did the talk were really, really good. I told him I am no Sheldon Cooper - I mean lets face it I don't know how the stay up there, but I didn't admit to that lol. We looked through the telescope and I saw Jupiter which looked like it had a stripy t shirt on lol. The astronomer was obviously blown away by my technical knowledge. My friend Ian, on Facebook, told me to look for Orion and we did. And yes Ian lol you were right it is upside down, how cool is that. I saw the southern cross, other galaxies, which I described as in a galaxy far, far away lol. I saw the moon and her acne lol then Saturn wow! You could see all it's rings, it was totally amazing. I don't really know what he was telling me lol but it was absolutely amazing. All the while you could here animal noises, nothing else. A truly wonderful experience.

Oh yes just one more thing. The guys said that the temperature was 3506 degrees today and when it rains here the rain rarely touches the ground because the heat evaporates it. So the rain will come down, you can see it, then it just evaporates. How cool is that!