Happy New Year! Here's to an awesome 2011.

So it's been quite awhile since i last blogged, so here's an update on what i've been up to!

I've spent the last few months living & working in Brisbane, Queensland on the East Coast of Australia. Brisbane is a pretty cool place (apart from the current weather conditions) - there's plenty to do here. Its got lots of museums, shops, bars, cafes, restaurants (i particularly like Pancake Manor which is open 24hrs a day!), cinemas, weekly markets & a vibrant cultural scene with plenty live music/bands playing, open mic nights, comdey nights, theatres etc. Its got a great night life :) Its got a man-made lagoon on the Southbank which is nice to chill out by during the occasional glorious sunny days. Brisbane is also within easy reach of both the Sunshine Coast & the Gold Coast - home to some of the best beaches in Oz. For those thrill-seekers amongst you you are near to some awesome theme parks, such as Wet & Wild & Movieworld (i scared myself silly by going to Fright Night at Movieworld in October, they transformed the theme park into a place full of zombies & characters from scary films - for those of you who know me you'll know how scared i was having to walk through a Freddy Kruger Maze!).

Unfortunately they are suffering the wettest summer on record - typical, just my luck - i leave England to escape the rain & end up in a place with regular tropical thunderstorms. Its so humid though even though its cloudy & rainy i'm sweating like a beast! Disgusting really, i've even taken to setting off to work early so i can walk slower so i'm not a sweaty when i arrive!

One place that i would recommend going to which gives an excellent view of the city is Mount Cootha which is lovely, i spent a pleasant day there walking around the reserve & admiring the view from the look-out point. Another good way to spend a day in Brisbane is to walk along the riverbanks & around the botanical gardens - if you manage to get a sunny day (or at least a non-rainy day) then it's really lovely. There are still a few places i really need to visit - such as Mount Tambourine, Currimbin Rock Pools & Moreton Island - i'm just waiting for some good weather!

After staying in hostels for nearly 5 months i took the decision to move into a little cottage in Windsor (about 10mins outside the city) with 2 friends i made at the hostel. I cant express how wonderful it was to hang up my clothes & to have my own room! Pure luxury, i shall never take wardrobes for granted again!

December was an odd month if i'm honest - to me December should be cold & i should have been excitedly building up to Christmas but i didn't feel remotely Christmassey. It's so weird wandering around shops listening to Christmas songs & seeing Christmas trees whilst you're sweating away in shorts & a vest top!

I flew to Sydney on the 28th December & fell in love with it straight away! I spent a wonderful week exploring the city & it's beaches. The Royal Botanical Gardens are gorgeous, they give wonderful views of the Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge. It felt totally surreal to be sat enjoying an ice-cream at the foot of the Opera House. It's a lot smaller than you expect & it's not as white as it looks in the pictures & postcards.

On one of the days I went on a very interesting & informative 3hr walking tour given by a local Sydney-sider, she showed you parts of the city that you perhaps might not see at first glance & gave a lot of historical info. Sydney has a lot of building that try to look older than they are! After the walk we made our way to Darling Harbour, which is pretty nice too, with museums & aquariums to visit. Apparently it has an excellent night life too, with some funky bars.

Sydney also has the lovely Hyde Park in the city centre which is a great place to hang out in the sun - it has fountains (with a statue of a man literally taking the bull by the horns haha) & a huge cathedral looking onto it. Its crazy to have a little oasis of greeny in the middle of a huge metropolis but i guess that's quite usual of major cities the world over.

We spent a lovely afternoon walking from Bondi beach (not as amazing as i was expecting) to Coogee beach - definately recommend that to anyone who visits Sydney. Manly is also very nice, a lot smaller but equally as good - just try to visit it when it is sunny!

There was an excellent lighting exhibition outisde the Opera House which was basically an inflatable rubber & plastic sculpture that you entered "to be immersed in radiant light & colour". It relied on sunlight shining through the plastic to create the effects, it was pretty damn cool. I got some excellent pictures, which i shall be uploading soon.

I kacked myself going up to a revolving restaurant on the 47th floor of a building called The Summit, with excellent views of the city - so i settled my nerves with a delicious cocktail. We wanted to go up to the Sky Tower which is even taller but it was shut for a few days for some reason :(

There was a very interesting exhibition on at the Maritime Museum about sharks - did you know that more people are killed in the world every year by toasters or falling off a chair at ground level than from shark attacks? Im still terrified of them but it puts the level of danger i'm in into perspective a bit more. I may have to go into the wter for a surf lesson sometime soon! If nothing else it will be pretty funny watching me trying to stand up on a board haha.

The Museum of Contemporary Art didn't reallty inspire me when pieces of plywood with a few scratches on it is called "art". Perhaps just dont get what the artist is trying to say but that's just me.

Sydney has awesome night life - i spent a random evening listening to Irish music & eating delicious food. I also salsa'd my night away in a cool bar - i never knew how truly excellent at salsa i am haha! I feel like i need to move here to truly expeience what Sydney has to offer & my word does Sidders have plenty on the go!

Sydney is the New Year capital of the world apparently! So it's safe to say they put a lot of effort into the New Year celebrations - we managed to get a spot ito watch the fireworks in front of the Sydney Opera House! It was amazing. It was a long day as they closed the gates at 3 & you couldnt leave after that so we were camped out for about 10 hours & hadnt really planned ahead to bring provisions. Alcohol was expensive but we treated ourselves to a glass of bubbly at midnight! Its a once in a lifetime opportunity to be stood watching millions of pounds worth of fireworks in front of one of the worlds most famous buildings. It was quite surreal. Unfortunately my night was cut short when i was accosted by some drunkards in the street who ended up breaking my shoe :( bad times.

All in all i've had an excellent few months in Australia, can't believe i've been in the country 4 months already! I'm ready for my next adventure...