Well here it is, I know all the 'blog fans' (i.e. James) have been waiting for me to finally get my ass into gear and write this darned entry, so here it is, a mere 9 months late and with my memories a tad on the hazy side...

THE CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR BLOG!

So, Christmas really was just one hell of a party.

The reason why it really was the season to be jolly was because Matt lived with a bunch of legends who welcomed me into their home as a complete stranger (despite the fact that a mere 5minutes after arriving I managed to spill an entire glass of bright red cordial on their snow white carpet and in a panicked attempt at clearing it up I poured what turned out to be bleach all over it, the end result being that it looked like someone had bled to to death on their floor.) In the build up to christmas more and more rucksacks appeared in the livingroom, the line of shoes by the doorway seemed to grow about 5metres every morning as Matt and his flatmates accomodated every joe bloggs we seemed to party with. So by the time Christmas eve arrived we all somehow managed to queue jump our way into the Side bar (popular backpackers'haunt) and danced the night away to festive tunes and consumed a lot more tequilla than i think we all care to remember!

Not surprisingly on Christmas morning everyone's heads were a tad on the fragile side but nothing could quell the festive spirit. Matt created about 17 types of different potato dishes & his french flatmate Thomas cranked up the bbq for some burgers on the balcony. How festive! Unfortunately, fate had different plans and i dont think even a crisp was consumed that day by anyone as the carnage on boxing day revealed about 10 million empty wine bottles. But for those who could remember it, it was a bloody good night!

We fired down to bondi on boxing-day for a bbq on the beach where we ate all the christmas day leftovers (surprisingly there were a LOT!) and watched the sunset over the beach. It was actually a kind of poignant day as Matt and myself were due to be melbourne bound a couple of days later and saying a final farewell to everyone would mightily suck.... not before the greatest new years party however....

So James had gone to some serious lengths to keep his visit a mighty secret. He'd even concocted a detailed fake itinarary for his new years party in melboune so when he appeared on Matt's balcony on the morning of new years eve sipping from a box of goon (ingredients include fish eggs and milk and tastes utterly vile but hey its cheap!) I was a tad on the emotional side - 1-0 to the deighster because there were tears!

It goes without saying that it really did make my night so much more special having my best buddy with me. We watched the 7pm fireworks over darling harbour from Matt's balcony then sauntered over to the Egyptian Ambassador's mansion (Matt's friend is his daughter. Result!) for the midnight celebrations which was a party and a half. Our christmas party had opened packets of pringles lying around tables for our guests; this party offered metal platters of spinach tied carefully inside filo wraps.

As the sun came up our energy levels took a dramatic nose dive so we locked up the mansion and dispersed on mass into the streets completely oblivious to the fact that James had gone for a cheeky nap in one of the rooms at the party (he'd taken a 9 hour overnight bus to get there so can't really blame him) and we had just imprisoned him in the Abassador's joint overnight. Oopsi! Luckily he woke up a little unsure of what the hell had happened and managed to break out of the mansion and came and reunited with us later in the day!

A few days later we left Sydney (this time for good!) and headed for Melbourne where we would melt in the 46 degree heat wave, cheer federer on a the Australian Open and meet the legend that is Karl Kennedy... WOAH!

Joanne