We checked in to a long term hostel, which is around 95 pounds/week for a fair sized double room and bills included - considering sydney is affectively the capital this is a fair deal. Big communal kitchen which is poorly maintained and barely cleaned but hey, they have hobs and an oven so we can cook which is more than weve been able to do up until now. Hostel has around 60 rooms so is quite big, the place itself is nice enough, just full of scum. Hannah and i were under the presumption that travelling is quite pricey so would only find normal people and hippies (who knows where they get money from) but no, couldnt be more wrong. The jippos and c*** we tried to leave behind in england seem to have followed us here. Frequently drinking until 4/5 in the morning culminating in fights between northern scum vs the paddys, not how we envisioned things to be. After being in the hostel for a few days and hearing other people complain also, we awoke one morning to smashed glass, some blood, and elsewhere some sick - the management finally got off their arses, stopped being pussys, and threw some people out. Well we can only presume this as it has now stopped happening. Apart from this, hostel is fine. We bought a 2nd hand big tv, in part to drown out the voices of twaty english outside the window, and partly for entertainment - some good programmes on over here - we even get the bill, no corrie though. Met an ozzie couple when we were in thailand who live in sydney, met up with them a couple times. They cooked us dinner which is nice, and took us to a bbq, so met some of their friends. Been to bondi, which to be honest, is quite nice but not worth worldwide recognition, it has soft sand.......and sea, like lots of other beaches - most infact.

We spent christmas day at a different beach, coogee. This was a nice and hot day, took a disposable bbq with us but the cheap lighter fuel in it wouldnt work. As it turns out, alot of australian beaches have free public bbqs which solved the problem. Electric so knows worries about getting it going, even met a couple of blokes who gave me beer whilst i was cooking! Xmas dinner was home made turkey burgers, lamb chops, king prawns & kangeroo steaks. Along with a small amount of salad, chips & dip, and of course some booze. Good times!

NYE was sweeeeet. Some people had camped out in good spots by the bridge from the night before (loosers). They have family fireworks at 9pm, then the proper ones at midnight. Hannah and i strolled down near the bridge at around 8ish, and found a brilliant spot away from the 1.5 million other muppets. This was find of the year, with less than an hour to go, we lay down a blanket with an un-obscured view of the bridge, only a couple of hundred metres away - people should look around rather than follow the crowds! Fireworks we brilliant, people next to us gave us some party poppers and sparklers - wouldve been nice to stay with them the rest of the night if they werent hill billies (except one, which is the only one we properly talked too). Sydney tourism spanked $5million in 15 minutes - was bludy good though. If i were a millionaire and wanted to waiste all of africas yearly income as quick as possible, purely for the hell of it, id do the same :-)