Hope everyone had a funpacked new year, we have been playing host to a few visitors lately which has been pretty cool. First to arrive was Vicki, who we had met up with in Thailand a few months ago and who had been travelling in Asia since then, so it was all about comparing sunbleached hair, tans and weightloss - unfortunately I lost out big style on the latter - damn - but Grant is a definate winner on the former with his new blonde/ginger look. Bryony was next to arrive so me and Vic covered ourselves in balloons and turned up at the airport to greet her for a lovely low key, not at all embaressing, reunion.

Carly and Emma were next and they scooted over to Bondi on the Saturday for muchos shopping and well earned beverages in the evening. Jelly and Helen also then joined us that night for wine, wine and a bit more wine - lovely. Obviously fabulousness for me that I had all my girlies, but think Grant may have been checking out any bloke that came within a mile radius in the hope that they may want to talk football and farting with him.

Next on the agenda was New Years Eve, which we had been looking forward to for like… hmmm a year maybe. We had heard that the fireworks in Sydney harbour were possibly the best in the world so we expected it to be pretty busy, but man it was ridiculous. We arrived at the Botanic Gardens, which have the best view of the Opera House and Bridge, at 1pm and managed to jump the 2 mile/4 hour queue with some mates and get in in like 2 minutes - hurrah, although did feel a twinge of badness. This was soon diminished however by the sight we saw before us - it was none other than The MILF!! For those of you who don't know this was Stiff's mum Dee with her family (how old is Matthew these days??), all there except Stiff which was a shame but Grant seemed quite happy anyway (no offence Stiff). Anyway we had a chat and made sure we got some photo evidence of our chance meeting then settled down on our patch of grass for the 10 hour wait till midnight with Carly, Emma, Bry and Vic.

Now I say the Botanic Gardens have the best view of the harbour in the whole of Sydney but this is probably not strictly true if you are sat behind a huge tree which blocks out most of the daylight let alone the harbour views. This was however one of the only patches of land not taken by piles of bodies so Bry decided to look on the bright side and commented that the tree would be a lovely arty frame for the fireworks shooting off the bridge. So with 8 hours to go we got involved with some wine and beer action and chomped away on our picnic. The time seemed to fly and before we knew it the 9pm 'family' fireworks went off which were pretty spectacular. After what seemed like 10 minutes later it was suddenly midnight and the whole harbour erupted with fireworks in the sky. They also go off all down the harbour so some were right on the water in front of where we were sitting - awesome. Happy New Year everyone!!

Next on our agenda was midweek drinks at some special boys bars on Oxford Street with Jelly, Helen, Carly and Emma. For some reason Grant decided to refrain from his hunt for man friends this night and seemed perfectly happy chatting with the girlies for the next few hours - weird. Good night was had by all, culminating in Jelly not being allowed into the last bar for being too drunk… surely not!

As our crew all then left us the next day we decided to have a weekend of not drinking (!) and see what else Sydney has to offer, and let me tell you there are some quite interesting 'sights' to see. We took off for a coastal walk to Watsons Bay which is opposite the harbour and has cool views and some bars (ah yeah we did end up having a few beers after all). We then ventured a bit further and stumbled across what looked to be a nudist beach. Now not ones to be embaressed by such things (think one particular University story people) we decided to wander down and have a 'look' at the 'beach'. Now feeling slightly overdressed in our shorts and t-shirts I suggested we join in the fun… this resulted in a look of horror on Grant's face that lasted a good minute. However, after a bit of coaxing the pants were whipped off and two bright white bums, that I'm sure could be seen from the top of Sydney Tower, made their way down to the sea - hurrah. Nudist beach - tick.

So following these radical antics we opted for some slightly more mainstream entertainment on the Sunday with tickets to see Sydney FC play New Zealand Knights at the Aussie Stadium, our Christmas pressie from the Stuman. It was a good game and the stadium was rammed - these guys love their footy. Unfortunately Sydney lost, which was quite an upset as NZ are supposedly rubbish - like Arsenal losing to Sheffield Utd apparently... Grant has just told me to mention that the footballing powerhouses of Neil Emblem, Dean Gordon and Scotty Gemmil were on show for the knights, I have no idea who they are! Thanks for tickets Stuman.

Next was a trip to the Blue Mountains. We went as part of a tour with a tour guide who was actually American and the most annoying 'know it all' individual we have encountered so far on our trip. Yes I know a tour guide should 'know it all' but this was in the most patronising way imaginable and he even told us off like school kids for being 2 minutes late back to the bus - any later and we would have had lines. Anyway, this did not take away from the day and our first stop was a wildlife park where we got to stroke koalas, feed kangaroos and even hold a baby wallaby - I was a VERY happy lady.

Then onto the mountains which stretch over miles and miles of forest, as far as the eye can see. They are called the 'blue' mountains due to the chemicals given off by the eucalyptus trees and when this refracts with the sunlight it creates a blue haze - oooh, bit of science eh. We took a cable car over the mountains which was pretty breathtaking then a vertical train down into one of the valleys for a wander through the trees. Obviously muchos photos galore and pics of the Three Sisters rock formation from every angle imaginable . Unfortunately however, due to some kind of ridiculous camera failure (we were told it was fixed) we may have actually LOST all the pictures we took in the blue mountains - trying to get his fixed at the mo so fingers crossed.  Not sure I'll ever get over it if we lose the one of me with the baby wallaby... will be on a desperate mission to find another before we leave this country otherwise!

Until next time….

Linz x