So its been a month since I've been in "sunny" Australia. I say sunny.... it is currently pouring down outside. I arrived chilled and relaxed as I spoilt myself on my last two days in Auckland, I also got to catch up with Mandy and Sean who I met in the States and they treated me to dinner which was lovely of them. Excited about seeing Nicola, I didn't let the clouds disappoint me too much. Poor Nicola had a 25 hour flight from the UK and had arrived much earlier than me, and bless her she had stayed awake to see me arrive. It was great seeing her again and felt like only yesterday since I had seen her last. Having way too much to talk about I dumped my stuff in the hostel and we headed to the beach. We stayed in Bondi for our first week - I had mixed feelings about Bondi beach when I first arrived. I couldn't see what all the fuss was about.... however I now see the charm that Bondi holds, there are lots of cafes and boutique shops and if you surf the beach is perfect as the waves are huge. Not much got done that first day and despite the protestations from our new room mates we stayed in that night.

As Nicola was only in Sydney for 2 weeks we decided to pack in the tourist things and in our first week we did loads: - we did the Bridge Climb, where we climbed over Harbour Bridge (good fun), did a tour round the Opera House and went to see the Christmas show, took a trip to the Blue Mountains (which are stunning!), went to the Aquarium and saw some monsters, went to the Wildlife Park and saw lots of kangaroos and koalas (incidentally koala's sleep for 20 hours of the day and eat in the remaining 4 - so if I could get my request in now to come back as one of them....), went to the beach (Bondi and Manly which I think I prefer to Bondi), visited The Rocks (oldest part of Sydney) and I managed to persuade Nicola to do a sky dive too... not that it took much persuasion. Both of us had fallen in love with the city especially by Darling Harbour, The Rocks and Circular Quay so we spent most of our time there.

By the time Christmas Eve had come around I was very ready to leave the hostel and partake in a bit of luxery. As we had left booking accomodation so late the only thing we could get was a hotel. Oh well! It was amazing!! I loved it. AND it cost the same as what people were paying to stay in the hostel we had just left, which really wasn't worth it (could easily have been the worst hostel I have stayed in... although since then I have found another good contender for that title). We were both disappointed with Australia's reaction to Christmas (its really not a big thing over here, which is rubbish for me, being the biggest Christmas fan EVER) so we decorated our room in tinsel and got each other Christmas presents.

And so started the festivities.... Christmas Eve was good fun. We got drunk. In Santa hats. And Christmas day we got tickets to the Sunburnt party on Bondi beach which was very good fun. Lisa from the America trip was also in Sydney so we met up with her and partied on the beach. Christmas day was so strange, for dinner we had chips and raving on a beach front in hot weather is not, well normal for Christmas day. Boxing day was another drunken one - possibly the most drunken evening yet. But we all had fun. I feel I should give a special mention to goon here. Goon is cheap boxed wine, its so cheap because its disgusting. There is no other word to describe it. However after the first few nauseating sips you get a taste for it and you get wasted. Which is the reason, on the night Lisa introduced the stuff to us we were in bed by 10 very very drunk. However it is the backpacker choice of drink and most people ignore the words "Produced with the aid of milk, fish, egg and nut products..." printed on the side of the boxes.

All in all Christmas was different, but great fun, despite not feeling Christmassy in the slightest. Maybe I could have one when I get home?? Mum? Dad? Yeah alright, I suppose I can wait until December. On Nicola's second week we didn't do so much... mostly because we went out a lot more but that was only so we could make the most of the hotel by sleeping in! New Years Eve in Sydney was awesome, I still got that dreaded feeling I get at the end of every year but we had such a laugh and since we decided we would get tickets for a bar (instead of standing in a park all day to reserve a good spot) we got good seats for the fireworks on Darling Harbour - unfortunately we weren't in the right spot for the Harbour Bridge but we got to see them on the news the next day. They were good!

It was very sad saying goodbye to Nicola on the 2nd, the two weeks went far too quickly. We had both fallen in love with Sydney and I liked having someone from home with me. It also meant I had to leave the hotel and go back to hostels ;-( Lisa was still here however and we went on a little trip to Melbourne. First stop however was Canberra and a side trip to Yass where we stayed with the other Lisa from the America trip. Was really nice seeing her again and her parents let us stay, cooked us dinner and washed our clothes. We were really looked after which we were very grateful for. After that we headed in to Canberra and stayed in the city in a completely overpriced hotel which we got screwed on but because we had left it so late we couldn't get anywhere else and all the buses out of Canberra were booked. Canberra is the capital of Australia and I wouldn't recommend going there. I didn't like it.

Melbourne however is cool... its very artsy and has a nice feel to it. Federation Square is nice, the river is lovely, St kilda (just out of the city centre) is a charming place to be and I can definately recommend the night market at Victoria markets. We did a lot of walking round (despite the 42 degree heat - hottest place yet!) and saw lots. We even headed out to the club at the casino which brought back memories of Las Vegas. And of course we did neighbours night even though I don't watch the show and have no idea who any of them were. It was a great laugh however and it was a shame we couldn't do the neighbours tour (it was all fully booked). It was then time to say goodbye to Lisa which was also very sad, she left me to begin her adventures in Asia. I then spent the next 3 days on a mini tour to see the Grampians (ok) and the Great Ocean Road (beautiful!) including another helicopter flight over the 12 apostles... all lovely. Getting to see wild koala's and wild kangaroos for the first time was incredible too. My last day in Melbourne was spent at the Australian Open, managed to get tickets for the first day of the tournament and saw some great tennis matches and Andy Rodd*** which was a bonus!

It was then back to Sydney for me where it was time to start the job hunt and flat hunt, which is going....... ok. Despite the appalling weather I'm glad to be back here. Definately prefer Sydney to Melbourne, has got a special feeling to the place that I've only ever felt in New York and London before. I'm glad I'll be spending a couple of months here.

Nearly at the half way mark now and so much has happened already, its hard to remember it all! I have become far too relaxed, a little bit heavier, and smiley (so people keep telling me)... oh and the dreaded homesickness has kicked in along with the realisation that a year is a long time, having said this however the thought of joining the real world again is not a happy one so I think I'll enjoy my freedom for the remainder of the trip. Oh and worry about how I'm going to get home, since my flight is from Nairobi, Kenya and the country has disolved in to turmoil. I think I'll just overcome the job hurdle first.......

Take care my lovelies..... thinking of you all! xxx

P.S. I have just read this back and I've noticed Andy Roddick's name has been starred out as it ends in a rude word. Nothing to do with me. If Sta Travel think Andy's name is offensive, then so be it.