Hi folks! Hope everyone is well and truly recovered. I bet hogmanay is a distant memory now. We had an excellent time over the festive, especially as we were able to spend it with good mates. After our tour up the coast with Scott and Sus, it was back to Manly (and the torrential rain!) for the rest of the festive. It was a bit touch and go with the weather for Christmas day, but by the afternoon it was glorious and we were all baking in the sunshine. We all opened pressies in the morning (the volume of pressies seriously increased thanks to the O'Neills and Pam Og!) and Fuz and Scott headed out for a surf. The rest of us (Susan, James, Ange, Ally C and me) trailed down a bit later, once we had had a couple of bucks fizz, and found that by the time we got there, the weather had really perked up. So we hot trotted back to the apartment, donned our bikinis (girls) and speedos (boys) and slapped on the factor thirty ready for the serious sun baking we had all expected of Christmas in Oz. The beach was pretty busy, but we got a good spot and chilled for the afternoon. Scott, Fuz and I were practising our hand stands (you just get the urge on the beach!!) and were in and out of the sea for a bit of a paddle about. Totally different to at home. It didn't feel a bit like Christmas though. In fact, it hasn't felt festive at all, even though there has been lights and decorations around. It's just not the same unless it's biting cold, windy, sleet/rain, slush, dark etc etc. Christmas dinner was cracking. We had a BBQ on the balcony of our apartment and James and I cooked up a storm with a mixture of marinated prawns, fillet steak, calamari, veggies, potato salad and baked potato. The cooking and eating process must have taken a good 5 hours! Again, guess what the new years resolutions are...! All good fun and like I said, great to share it with good mates. We all got up fairly early on Boxing day to watch the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Some of the yachts were pretty spectacular and they all got off to a good start. We had a really good view from North Heads and there was loads of people out to watch it. It's been pretty action packed the whole time Scott and Susan have been over, but it's been great to see them. We had a day trip to the blue mountains (lovely scenery, bit of a mediocre tour), done the Coogee to Bondi walk (lovely walk, but was delighted to get to the end of it, due to the weather hotting up!) and Sydney aquarium (really good, well worth a visit). Scott and Sus done the bridge climb and they said it was amazing. We opted out of it due to it being a 4am start and we had already started on the booze for a cheerio session with my friend Donna! Queenie (yet another Annanite) and his grilfriend Rae were also over for part of the festive so it was lovely to see them too. New Years Eve was a grand night and it was good to get the gladrags out. The cruise we were on was meant to only take 400 passengers, but it was probably closer to 700! When it first appeared to pick us up we all looked at each other as if to say 'is that it...?' It looked like something that had just came from the quay in Annan, or Leith Docks! 'Prawn boat' sprung to mind, I must admit! When we first got on there was no seats left (can you imagine us girls' faces??!), but within the hour we has managed to get a seat each - right next to the toilets. Nice. The bar queue to start of with was horrendous, so we were getting 3 at a time but it did get better as the night wore on (mind you, we still got three at a time, just in case they ran out!) The buffet was much the same. Everyone thought there was going to be a food ration, so we all dived up to the front of the queue and filled our plates, but it turned out there was an abundance of food throughout the night, so can't grumble about that! In fairness, it was the look of the boat that had put us off, but we did have a top night. Fuz, James, Ange and I missed the midnight fireworks as we were on the wrong side of the boat! We were hanging off the roof, so managed to see a little bit, but got a better view on the news the next day! We had a great view of the 9pm ones though, so all was not lost! And again, the weather was predicted to be windy and raining, but it was a really nice, mild evening. Couldn't ask for better! We had a nice meal on the 1st, Fuz and Scott went out surfing (of course!) and no one was too rough after the festivities. Scott and Susan left on the 2nd (it was raining, so I think it made it easier for them), to continue their Aussie experience further up the coast. We really did have a great time with them and we were delighted that they had been over to see us, especially for the festive.

So, I'll get away just now. Will write a new postcard very soon, seeing as I am (again) a lady of leisure! Take care, Em and FuzXXXXXXXXXX