Hi everyone, hope u all had a great xmas!! I'll try and recap the last few days as best i can (from what i remember!) been a mix of highs and lows, really been missing home during this festive season!

Me and Stef have spent lots of days sunning ourselves down at Circular Quay (where bridge and opera house is) in front of the giant plasma screen they have to watch the ashes on. But we're not doing too well so trying to be quiet so no-one knows Im english!! The ashes come here next week so should be a lot of barmy army about! I love it down circular quay, theres so much going on down there and so much to see too!

Dec 21st was Tash and Teresa's last day at the hostel so we had a crazy night out which was so much fun! Lots of free drinks too, bonus! We even visited a place where they hamded out free food too as you danced away! Really miss u girls and hope ur having fun!

Me and Stef have made it to the beach a couple of days when the sun has decided to make an appearance, coogee beach and then yesterday we went to manly which I think is the best beach in sydney! The sand is lush, the sea is warm and its just great basically!

Xmas Eve was great, me and stef had a few drinks at the hotel then met the others at O'Malleys where there was a 'james brown' type guy singing, he was amazing!! It was such a great atmosphere in there and totally packed! Everyone was up and singing and dancing all night. There was a massive countdown to xmas day when everyone cheered and went mad basically, its probably the best xmas eve ive had! When I got back to the room i already had a prezzie and card on my bed from room mate saying i was the 'best roomate ever' aww, i was dead chuffed!! On xmas day me and stef were really lucky and got to spend the day in Richmond (bout 1.5hrs from city) where we spent xmas dinner with a family that Stef knows. It was so nice of them to have us over and was great being in a proper house with proper xmas food! We had loads, turkey, chicken, ham, duck - need i go on!? We even got xmas prezzies from them which was so sweet considering they were total strangers to me! Got free cinema tix, chocs, sweets and wine! Was so weird tho opening xmas prezzies in strangers house. There were two small kids there too (2 and 4) which was cool cos not usually around kids at xmas. Their grandparents had bought them 2 bunnies for xmas, it was so funny seeing them freak out when they first opened the moving box! The sun did manage to come out for us in the end so after dinner we sat in teh garden with an amazing view back to the City while Jimmys dad (stef's friend) played the bagpipes - don't think I'll ever have an xmas quite like it again!! At night I headed back to the hostel to meet up with Shane and the rest of the Irish crew, wasnt long before the whole hostel seemed to join us for music and drinks and we all had a great night!

Boxing Day saw the annual Sydney to Hobart race starting from Circular Quay so headed down to watch that and got good view too. Its a massive saling yacht race bout 640 miles down the east coast to Hobart (tasmania) it takes a couple of days and can be quite dangerous cos of weather conditions. Ive heard of pople having to be rescued but dont think anyone died this year (they have done previously) there were loads of people down there to watch so great atmosphere.

Me, Stef and Marie visited Sydney Observatory to try and book a night star viewing session but apparently its gunna be cloudy next few nights which is a shame. Still had good look round the place though, inisde its like a museum with all the telescopes and lots of pics too, was really interesting and you got an amazing view of the city from Observatory Hill.

Last night I went to the 'Not New Years Eve' party at the Opera House. We all got dressed up and it was so good being able to wear a dress for a change, felt dead good!! The show itself was amazing and we had such great seats, right in the middle! There was the 60 piece Australian Philharmonic Orchestra who played all night long along with guests as James Morrison (trumpet virtuso who apparently is huge and famous in oz and worldwide) and UK conductor Barry Knight. Bernadette Robinson was there too singing classics from famous musicals. Plus Alan Fletcher (Karl Kenndy from Neighbours!) made an appaearnce with host Lewis Flanders for some popular music songs, so weird seeing him like that! There was also a symphony choir too. Altogether it was an amazing expereince and such a fun night. The music and singing really was beautiful. At the end they played and sang to 'Old Langs Eyne' and we all had to stand up and hold hands, it was such a great moment!

So thats i think all up to date! Weathers been really good last few days but if the weather people are right its all over now! All plans for New Years are on hold, we wanna get to the botanical gardens for the best view but apparently you have to get down there for like 2am to get a spot and then hold it all day!? Only a week left in Sydney now which is really bizarre, so many mixed feelings. I think Im ready to move on now but its also going to be so sad beacuse I will be leaving so many people here who have become good friends and who I have had such amazing experiences with.

So happy new year to everyone, think of me at 1pm you guys back in uk cos it'll be turning into 2007 here! Its also the diamond anniversary of the harbour bridge so there doing massive celebrations this year to mark the 75 years, just hope i get to see it!

Have a good one whatever u do and hopefully I'll see you next year!

Ang xx