Hello all!!

Well just thought I would write again to keep you all up-to-date.......

Christmas was amazing here. There was 28 of us who had Christmas Dinner together. Each room had a list of things they had to cook. Me and Matt were at work all day on Christmas Eve so we got out of cooking! Well I had to take over when I got home. We had decided to have dinner on Christmas Eve as the kitchen would have been too busy on Christmas Day. Our room was in charge of carrots, pigs in blanket, beef and pudding! Bearing in mind there had to be enough for 28 people! Everything turned out really well and there was food left over. It was quite funny as just as everyone was saying ready to dish up someone asked where the carrots are.....still in our fridge! That's what you get for leaving lads in charge. We managed to stall everything so it was all dished up at the same time. We had roasted pumpkin which was the first time I had tasted it and it was gorgeous! We all sat on the roof of our hostel eating it and drinking. Everyone was to full for pudding so our room later ate that to ourselves :)

Katie, Emma, Claire and Debs arrived on the 30th! Me and Matt got up at 6am to go meet Claire and Emma who arrived first. When we got there they had already landed and was waiting in the airport. We then sat and waited for Katie and Debs. Their flight was slightly delayed and they took a while to come through. Katie said she was wondering around trying to declare some Heinz Mayo she had brought over for me :)

New Years Eve was brilliant. At midday we all headed to a place called Balmain to watch the fireworks. Me and Amy (our friend from Halifax) choose a spot to watch the fireworks and it was a brilliant choice as we had a really good view of the harbour. We were just across the water from it. There was a massive group of us all sat in this park from 1pm. You had to go early to get a spot. Claire's cousin was also there and one of the lads he was with I went to college with so that was funny seeing him there! Just before midnight me, Matt, Ed, Luke, James and Gary thought it would be a good idea to jump into the harbour :) It was freezing and the water was mega salty. Most people cut their feet as well climbing out. I also broke my phone on New Years Eve, was laughing so hard I dropped my phone and it landed in Gary's pint!! They had family fireworks at 9pm which were really good then the big ones at midnight. There was so good and went on for ages. It was a bit of a nightmare getting back to Glebe where our hostel was as it's about a 20 minute bus ride and it took us about an hour because it was that busy and it was a mad rush to get on the buses as there was that many people. There must have been thousands in the park where we were.

Since the girls arrived we've been to the beach a few times and Katie has conquered her fear of sand and now loves the beach! When we went on Sunday 4th there was a shark scare just before we got there! Not to worry though no-body was hurt!! It's been boiling here past few weeks and only getting hotter....hope England isn't too cold!! :)

We are all doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk the week of the 19th and also me and Katie are sky diving on/around 25th!! It's also Australia Day on 26th and a Public Holiday :) They have a massive festival in Sydney so we are all going to that.

Me and Matt are thinking of going farming for the month of March as all our friends leave Sydney in February to go up the East Coast. We are meeting them in April once we have saved some money! When you do farming you save loads as there is nothing to spend your money on. I can't imagine me or Matt farming but it's only for a month and something to new to experience!

Will write again soon. Love and miss you all!!

Amy and Matt

(Written by Amy!)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx