Saturday 22nd December 2007 - Tried checking in to our room in the YHA Sydney Central but there was a minor problem. Our booking was cancelled!! WHAT!! Apparantly we were supposed to check in the 20th but as we didn't show they cancelled out booking. This was not a good situation to be in as its the busiest season and its fully booked. Luckily we got sorted out and only have to moves rooms twice. What a couple of numpties!! Still we got upgraded for one night and got a night free out of it, so in theory we come up trumps!! Got the monorail to the cinema in the evening and it was soo good we watched two films. We went gold class which meant we had massive reclining chairs and got food and drinks brought to us whilst watching the film. Felt like celebs.

23/12/07 - Headed to Bondi today and Jonny and Tom hired a board between them. We thought it would be a good idea to take our underwater cameras out and get some photos of the surfing. Bad Idea. Mr Shaw lost Jonny's camera, woops!! To be fair the waves were big and strong like me!! Jonny bought a replacement in the afternoon.

24/12/07 - Christmas Eve, hit the supermarket to get food for xmas day and bumped into a Guernsey girl Charlotte Rugg, how bazarr. Shopping over and we went to Darling Harbour for food and refreshments ooh yeah!!

25/12/07 - Christmas Day!! Happy Christmas everyone!!! Danish and German sang us some of their xmas carols when they came in last night. We have some very funny roomies. We wipped up a storm for xmas lunch, microwaveable turkey with veg including sprouts, fried potatos so they looked roasted and cranberry sauce oh and gravy ooooooo lovely!! Good work Ian and Jonny! Food fit for a king well almost. After that we went down to Bondi which was a bit of let down. All the hype and the weather wasn't very good so we just kicked back at the hostel and watched a film, nice.

26/12/07 - Back to Bondi today for a surf and sunbathe. After that went to the Opera House and bumped into some more Guerns, Sam Le Tissier, Sam Ozanne and Jamie Sebire. Did a Jet boat round the harbour which was quite cool. Went to the Argyle in the evening which has urinals that are shaped like pint classes very bazaar.

27/12/07 - We hit the sales at the surf shops today and shocker bought another pair of boardies and a t-shirt. Its christmas!! That seems to be the excuse for a lot these days!! I blame Tom Shaw for sure!! Went to the cinema again today with Leah and Maddy so they could experience the gold class!! Its christmas afterall!!

28/12/07 - Its Tom Shaws last night in Oz so thats an excuse for a party if ever i've heard one and its Christmas afterall. Back to the Manly Wharf, then back to the hostel for a quick change and popped next door to the Scubar where we only bumped into another 6 or 7 Guernsey boys!! Theres more Guerns here than ozzies but not as many as there is asians, they are taking over!! Anyway a cracking night topped off by us winning 140 dollars on the pokkies courtesy of Tom Shaw, GET IN!! Well now Tom's gone maybe I can get back on budget.

29/12/07 - No lie in today we had to sell Tom's board and say good bye to him. Stayed on Manly beach for the afternoon, then finally conquered the rice monster this evening, made ourselves a chicken tikka masala of sorts.

30/12/07 - A fairly quiet one today getting some preperation in for the big party tomorrow. The girls inform us that we require a picnic tomorrow.

31/12/07 - New Years Eve. Up around 10 thinking we won't be heading off just yet, only to get a call from Leah saying its time to go and the location has finally been confirmed - Mrs McQuaries Chair. A rushed breakfast and a long walk with our picnic to the entrance of this mighty big chair, only to be greeted by the worlds longest queue!! We started walking towards the back a good ten minutes later about half we up the queue we meet Maddy and Leah. Good work those girls for getting there early so we could queue jump. Found ourselves a nice spot to sit and wait for only 12 hours or so til the fireworks. Why we got there so early i found out a little later when there was hardly room to sit. Still we had a nice picnic til we saw what the girls had. Strawberries and marshmellows covered in chocolate, fajitas, chese and biscuits, a 3 course meal compared to our 3 family size packets of crisps, tuna sandwhich and sausage roll. Ah well the fireworks were awesome and we had a pretty damn good few view!! Happy New Year!!