One for the grandchildren...

I did it. I fucking did it. A whole weekend without booze, taking my tally of days on the wagon to five.

It was relatively easy in all truthness, and my ear feels a lot better so it was definitely worth the sacrifice to let the anti-biotics do their work. Why I can't I be this sensible all the time?

As the weather was still lovely, I decided to hire a car for the weekend and explore a bit more of New South Wales. My travels mainly took me along the coast south of Sydney, and some stunningly beautiful coastline and lakes.

Accompanying me on my travels was my friend Tom. I have known Tom since my second day in Australia, when we 'met' in a nightclub. Since then we've become very close, although I should stress we are not an 'item'. I'll be very sad to say goodbye, but that was always a risk of only staying in a place for a certain period of time.

Quite how you classify my friendship with Tom, god only knows. I've been careful to stress the fact I leave Australia in July, and if I'm being brutally honest I have not wanted to restrict myself to just one person while I'm here. That's not me being promiscuous. It's real life - who goes to the other side of the world to have a short term relationship that precludes them from meeting other people only to then go home again?

For the vast majority of the time, I have genuinely enjoyed Tom's friendship and just being with him. On some occasions, however, I have felt uncomfortable. Take the rather interesting example of when he pushed someone down a flight of stairs (well, at least three or four) for trying it on with me. Nothing even happened. This was a drunken 4am in a nightclub thing, and in a strange and bizarre way I suppose I almost found it flattering at the time, but it is actually worrying.

But then on Friday I stumbled across his myspace profile. This wasn't some kind of spying, he had mentioned having a page on there, I keyed in his name and it appeared. Amongst the day to day stuff were details of a sexual encounter he had recently had with someone else. A guy called Simon. To quote in full: "Simon... even if he was a bit Twinky... was REALLY good in bed... and a really nice guy... but man was he good, :P"

Cue an 'interesting' conversation in the car on Saturday afternoon. It took me a few hours of driving to work out how to approach the subject (he already knew I had seen the web page). On the one hand I thought it best to say nothing. So he's slept with somebody else - so have I since I've been here. We're not an item, and I had been concerned that he was getting too close and over-protective.

Trouble is with that approach, it's not really me. Plus, this was a situation so weird it couldn't be left to pass without some kind of comment. One day he's virtually attacking someone who tries it on with me, the next he's shagging someone else and posting a review of it on the fucking internet! I don't know about you, but I find that a bit odd.

So, we talked, and I managed to pull off the feet of simultaneously appearing jealous that he had shagged someone else whilst complaining that he was getting too close to me. I'm glad no recording exists of what I was saying, because it probably made about as much sense as Prince Charles on Crystal Meth.

I don't know whether it was worthwhile bringing it up or not. When it looked as if he was going to start crying I thought probably not. I'm not sure we even established a different way forward or if anything has changed. But, then, does anything have to change if I'm leaving?

I suppose the main thing between now and the end of the trip is to have fun. The same must apply to the time I spend with Tom and anybody else. Perhaps I shouldn't have brought it up. But perhaps that's because there were no comments about me in bed on there!

Jesus. I wonder what will happen if he finds my blog? Will I appear a hypocrite? Mind you, I haven't pushed anybody down the stairs. Oh, I need a dr... er... dressing gown and to go to bed. Because I don't drink. At least not for a few more days.

PS: Ok, ok ok, ok. Yes, he is younger than me!