Hello everyone!

Wow only 8 days to Christmas! Exciting!!! We wanted to post a little blog to wish you all a very happy Christmas and here's to a fantastic 2012!

So much seems to have happened recently, not sure where to begin with an update. It's certainly been an interesting couple of months and had to think lots about the future. We have really settled in the city, made great friends, have a great place to live and I have even managed to play some cricket. A few weeks ago I got through to the final interviews for a Head of Development job here in Sydney at a theatre company and we were seriously contemplating staying for longer however it was impossible after just a few weeks to make that commitment they wanted. We certainly didn't expect to have to discuss this and so at this stage we have decided we weren't quite ready to make that kind of commitment! My current role ends just after the new year so I am on the look out for something whilst Holly has just finished work for the term and now has 6 wks off for the Australian summer hols.

Nevertheless, we do seem to have brought Australia a very English summer this year. In fact, it's the coldest start of summer in Sydney for 51 years!! We just hope it's going to be nice on Xmas day! Early predictions are 27c and showers...! Come rain or shine we are going to the beach on Xmas day and we are looking forward to an Aussie Xmas with our English friends here in Sydney. It still seems very wrong to be celebrating Xmas in the summer I have to say especially as you don't get the full effect of the Xmas lights in the city as it doesn't get dark until 9pm. We have bought a tree for our house but I have to say an artificial tree doesn't cut it compared to the real deal! One very cool thing is the Xmas buses that the city seems to have. Bus drivers jazz up their buses with tinsel and decorations in the windows and lights around the poles to raise money for different charities and encourage donations! This wouldn't happen in the uk... I'm seeing a health and safety field day ... Or they would be nicked!! Last night we went with friends to this massive free Carol concert in Sydney with 50,000 other people. It certainly helped us get in the Christmas spirit and I'm looking forward to my last few days at work now.

As I said, we have really settled as Sydneysiders and I know it's going to be blooming hard to leave next year! Not only the miles of beach on your doorstep but a couple of hours inland are the stunning Blue Mountains where we headed and stayed for a weekend recently with friends whose family own a property there. It really is a stunning place and we were so lucky to be able to stay right in the heart of the National park in a beautiful cottage. The scenery was breathtaking and to be able to wake up and sit and have coffee in the morning overlooking the mountains was the perfect change from the city!

I have recently joined a cricket team and my weekends have started being filled with getting the whites back on and showing these Aussies a thing or two! Choosing a side that was already bottom of the league, I hoped I could only be adding something, however my two games so far have ended in a draw and loss. The loss actually happened against a team that had only 6 players, yes I'm embarrassed to admit it's true! (heres a test to see how many of my friends actually read this as i expect a barrage of abuse for admitting this!) Two scores in the twenties have not been too bad a start personally. The team are a great bunch of guys and over half the side seems to be British. I'm looking forward to January when we are heading to Bowral to play on a grass wicket rather than AstroTurf. Bowral was also were Don Bradman grew up and the Oval we are playing on was his old stomping ground. Hopefully some of his magic rubs off on us!

I just realised looking at our timeline here that we had originally planned to leave Sydney after the New Year and head to Melbourne. We have abandoned that and are going to stay here in Sydney until May at this stage. But we are planning a little 12 day trip to Melbourne to see the Great Ocean Road in January when we are both out of work. So much seems to be happening in January with the Sydney Festival and then Aussie Open tennis in Melbourne, plus the Sydney Test match v India at the SCG, we are trying to fit as much in...Busy times!! Most exciting at this stage is planning a boys weekend down to Melbourne to take in the Australian F1 GP. Woohoo!

Anyway we will sign off and take this chance to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and very happy New Year! Keep in touch guys, miss you all lots especially our families at this time of year. We love getting messages from home so do keep in touch via our blog. Unbelievably we are almost half way through our travels now but still so much to see so roll on 2012!

T&H xx