Just got in from a nice evening with LELI. We went out for dinner (although not to the place originally planned - I have got a voucher for a free meal at a very posh place near where we work, dinner for 2 worth £100, plus a free bottle of wine, but as I will be driving I will only have one glass, and LELI is studying, so he will only have one glass, so best to wait until one or other of us is drinking!), then spent the usual hour or so sat outside his flat chatting.

I was struck when I was staying with SE at the similarities between the two. In many subjects they have almost the exact same view. For example, SE is talking about buying a computer, and when I asked if he was going for a desktop or a laptop, he looked at me like I was stupid. “A laptop of course. I don’t want something which is difficult to move.” This is the exact reason LELI gave for buying his laptop 12 months ago.

But in other ways they are very different. SE is so laid back he is almost horizontal. LELI can be very uptight. Poor LELI has been having run ins with my friend X. She drives me insane with her scatty ways, and the way, when she doesn’t like the answer to a question, she keeps asking it week after week, as if repetition will change the answer. But she now works for LELI (temporarily, she is on a graduate scheme where she rotates around different departments). I had an hour’s phone conversation with LELI earlier this week, trying to calm him down after his latest run in. Bless.

However, much as I love LELI, if I ever had to make a choice between the two. SE would win every time.

If I had been asked prior to this holiday, I’d have said that yes, I do love SE to a degree, as I love LELI.

But at one point during the holiday, while I was laughing hard in a restaurant, trying my hardest not to choke on my food, it hit me just how much I love this guy. I totally, completely love him.

What a waste of a holiday though. Spending so much time with one of the sexiest guys I know, in incredibly romantic settings - blue sea, white sands, walks along the prom in the moonlight - and no sex!

Today I have been doing some chores. I built my portable greenhouse, and then planted chilli, pepper, tomato, chives, basil, thyme, coriander and parsley plants. I also trimmed one of the plants in the back garden.

I then decided to go and trim the bushes out the front, as it was getting difficult to walk between them.

While I was pruning, this white lorry pulled up beside me.

“’scuse me love,” said the man behind the wheel, “We’re landscape gardeners, and we are based in this area and I was wondering if you would like us to give you a quote?”

“No thanks, I already have someone come and do my garden.”

“Well, would you like me to quote you on trimming your bush?”

The second weekend we were there, Saturday evening we went to SE’s friends for dinner. They are the couple who I met last time I was there, who came from the town I used to live in, and used to work for the same company as me there.

They had a great apartment - it reminded me very much of my first apartment in New York. In that it was a new building, with a doorman, they had a large place (bigger than most natives would have just for 2 people), high up with a wonderful view of one of the famous landmarks. They looked straight down at the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the 22nd floor.

Sunday (after SE had managed to push the ‘quirk’ ofdis-organisation to the level of competition - I swear he was trying to push me to see just how far he could go without forward planning before I would give in. I didn’t.) we picked up a hire car and headed south.

We stopped whenever we saw the sign for ‘lookout’. No. Amend that. We stopped whenever we saw the sign for ‘lookout’ and SE reacted quickly enough to turn off. I think he was expecting half an hour’s warning for everything, rather than the ‘next turning in a few hundred yards, slow now’ warning we were getting.

At one point I saw a sign for 3 lookouts. I pointed it out to him. Then I pointed the first one out as we drove past. As SE was swearing at missing it, I pointed out the second one we had driven past. Still swearing, he managed to drive past the third. At this point he started shouting - and luckily there was nobody behind us as we came to the second entrance to the thrid lookout and he pulled in.

Bless - he did all the driving while we there. A big difference to last time, when he drove once, and decided he couldn’t cope with the roundabouts. When we were driving through some country lanes, he actually asked me if I was feeling alright. “Why?” I asked. “Well, all the turning and twisting in the road, I thought it might be making you feel travel sick.” How sweet. “Come visit me, I will show you narrow twisty roads! You forget this is what most of the roads in Britain are actually like.”

Here are some view pictures, including some rather nice ones of SE.

And one where he looks like an arse.

We spent the second weekend heading south, to some beautiful beaches, with the (third, apparently) whitest sand in the world.

As usual, we had no plan, just got in the car and headed south, stopping whenever we saw a sign saying something like ‘lookout’. We got some beautiful views of the sea.

The best bit though was seeing a kangaroo by the side of the rode - within a few feet of me as we drove past. This happened on the first day, and I told SE this had set the mark, and that if he couldn’t find me kangaroos every day so close, he was off my Christmas card list.

Well, he excelled himself!

The second day there, we had planned to spend a good part of it on the beach. Of course, it was far too cold for the beach. We went on a dolphin boat trip in the morning, and then, in true British style, we sat on the beach for a good hour and a half. Well, I sat, SE decided to go for a run to warm himself up.

Aside - how frustrating - to be sat on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, it was almost deserted, with one of the most sexy men I know, and nothing happend….

Eventually we gave up (and SE wasn’t falling for the “I need more cream on my back, oh, it’s special cream, it needs to be rubbed in dead slowly..”), and decided to go for a drive. I hadn’t bothered to put my shoes back on, because my legs had done their usual ‘doughnut’ thing they do on the beach, and were covered in sand. Suddenly SE slammed on his brakes, and shouted, “Kangaroos!” Then he paused. “Well, maybe they were statues or something, there were a lot of them.” He turned the car round, and took my camera, saying he’d be back in a minute.

I sat there. And waited. Eventually I realised that maybe they were real kangaroos, and not statues, so I slipped on my sandals, and carefully got out of the car, shutting my door, switiching off the engine (he was convinced they weren’t real, had left the door open, and the engine running), and headed off into the field.

And bugger me. There were loads. And loads. SE said he counted at least 27, plus there were more he couldn’t see over the ridge.

And there were Joey’s.

And I was so excited. I walked slowly, to see how far into them I could go before they hopped off. And I got really close.

We even saw a pair boxing, it was incredible. SE tried to get a picture of that, this was the best shot of it.

I thought it was just me, the crazy Brit excited at so many kangaroos, until I saw just how many pictures SE had taken. There were quite a few!

The weather wasn’t brilliant the whole time I was there. Here is a picture of the view from SE’s apartment early one evening, with a storm brewing.

One day when I was there, SE had an interview for a course he has applied for. It involved him dressing the smartest I have ever seen - it seriously looked like an imposter - SE’s smiley face from this incredibly smart looking man. I kept laughing, which was pissing him off a bit. I told him it wasn’t him as such, just that I couldn’t get my head around seeing his face on top of the suit.

He agreed when he saw the picture.

Also, I can’t believe I was giving him underwear advice!