Hey everyone,

yes, i know it has been ages since i last wrote on here, before christmas i think, so much has happened so time for another update!

Christmas time seemed to come and go quite quickly over here, the sunny weather definately takes away some of the christmas spirit!! by christmas eve we were desperate to hear some christmas carols so headed down to darling harbour for a carol service, think our expectations were maybe a little high though as all we got we a few singers on a small stage, the crowd was quite big and there was no atmosphere what so ever. A little disappointed we headed to a bar on the harbour for a few christmas drinks, after about half an hour a realised that we had not heard one christmas song - it was christmas eve!!!! So we left and headed to 'scruffy murphys' a backpacker bar by our apartments where there is always a good atmosphere - and on christmas eve it definately did not disappoint, a great band, packed out bar and lots of drunk backpackers singing fairytale in new york - brilliant!!

Christmas day morning was a very strange feeling, waking up in our apartment, feeling slightly hungover and with only a few secret santa and stocking presents to open. Got up and headed over to our friends hostel where we had bought tickets for their christmas day rooftop bbq, had a great time eating shrimps and drinking cheap champayne with our santa hats on. About 3 o clock we packed our bags and set off to get the bus to bondi beach to join the rest of the backpackers in sydney for christmas day on the beach! we arrived at the beach just as a plane was writing the words 'call mum' in the sky overhead! the whole beach was absolutely packed out and had quite a festival atmosphere going on, with bikinis and santa hats galore on the beach. The police kept quite a low key presence on the beach until about 7pm when the crowds were starting to get louder and the all day drinking was starting to kick in, we watched them patrol along the beach confiscating bottles and slicing open bags of wine, although we managed to keep ours hidden!!

Boxing day was Dannys birthday, and after the previous two days none of us were feeling too much like partying, poor Danny! we did manage lunch in the harbour, birthday cake and ice cream back at the apartment and a few quiet drinks up at the rocks later though.

On 30th December, Alex's parents arrived for a few days, on the way back from their holiday in new zealand, as did Gemma and Phil, over for new years in Sydney. Had a very bizarre night up at the argyle bar in the rocks, with alex's parents, auntie and uncle, gemma and phil as well as me, cat, danny and laura - very bizzare but great to see everyone.

As new years eve arrived we were well prepared, our alarms were set for 7am, our picnic food and drinks were chilling in the fridge and we new exactly where we wanted to be to watch the fireworks . . . . trouble was the rest of sydney seemed to have the same plan!! we arrived at the botanical gardens at 8am only to find a queue that stretched from the entrance, down the road and around the corner - oh dear!! anoying thing was there was no security watching the queue so with groups of people pushing into the front it took twice as long to get in. After nearly 4 hours standing in the baking sun (and gemma managing to somehow find us in the thousands of people!) we were in!!! Set up our things underneath a tree at mrs macquaries point at the far end of the gardens, great view of the bridge and opera house and of the hunderds of small boats appearing in the harbour. It really was a gorgeous day, the weather was perfect and the gardens just got busier and busier all day. was a great place to chill out with a few drinks and have a massive catch up with gemma, so good to see her after 4 months away! By about 8pm the gardens had got so packed you could hardly move and we spend the next few hours packed in together waiting for the fireworks! They did not disappoint though, the 9pm fireworks were spectacular and the midnight fireworks were awesome, i'm sure some of you saw them on the tv, the build up and the atmosphere just made it all the more memorable, definatly a new years i'll never forget!

On 2nd January we checked out of our gorgeous apartment, said emotional goodbyes to danny and laura as they set off to melbourne for the next part of their trip, and headed back to see our old friends at the hostel in glebe. going back to hostel life in a 12 bed dorm was a massive reality check after living in our gorgeous apartment for 2 weeks. was back to normality as me and cat set back out to find an apartment. During our first search we saw 4 horrible apartments that were too shocking for words, 10 chinese people living in small apartments that smelled, with people actually paying to sleep in the living room of an apartment, or old shacks of houses on the outskirts of town with mould growing up the walls - they all made beechwood view look like a palace! we didnt have high expectations for our 2nd day searching so when we found this apartment we were over the moon, its not amazing by any means but great for us at the moment, living in a shared house on harris street in ultimo, about 10 minutes walk from the centre of the city, lovely housemates, nice house and really handy to get to everywhere.

still no luck on the job hunt, cat has managed to get a job in a clothes shop on darling harbour, about a 10 min walk from our house, but its a bit of a nightmare time at the moment to look for jobs in sydney, i've been told it will pick up by the end of the month though and hopefully i'll be able to get some hours at the shop where cat works to tide me over till then.

Saturday was the start of sydney festival, which is quite big over here, had a big night out watching the free shows and bands on the first night and me and cat are hoping to see some more over the next few weeks (remember reggie watts from the uni days at hi fi, well he's playing at the festival next week!)

Well, there is a quick run down of the past month or so in Sydney, more photos of the new flat will be up soon (please dont compare to the christmas apartment, it's a massive step down!!)

Hope everyone is well, thank you for all your messages, will update again soon!