Hello once again, and welcome to my regular ramblings from afar!

Firstly, heres hoping that you have all had a Merry Christmas and a very very happy new year! Todays journal entry is to just fill you in on the events and dramas that we have had down here at our end over the holiday period - and what a few weeks we have had!

Christmas kicked off with the traditional trip to the local after work on friday 22nd, 2 for 1 drinks and then a trip to club retro! This evening was even more special than usual for myself for 2 reasons, firstly because my good friend Mr Michael Goward was in Sydney and joined me, and secondly because i has the good experience of walking Krystle home, picking her up off the floor of the Queen Victoria Building, one of Sydneys most respected buildings, because she wanted to nap there! Also enter Dave of Scotland fame, at 10am saturday morning - "WHERE THE HELL DID I GO LAST NIGHT AND WHAT DID I DO?!!". Another night for the long list of chaotic friday nights!

The weekend before christmas included shopping for all the bits of our christmas meal, which involved a trip to the the fish market on the saturday morning amongst other things - not a pleasant experience with a little bit of a hangover I can tell you! With all the elements purchased, it was just a case of kick starting Chirstmas itself, and I did this with a trip to the midnight mass here in Sydney's St Marys Cathedral. Again, this proved to be a learning curve, 3 things were learnt here. Firstly, it is possible to pick up a girls number and a coffee date in a catholic mass - not me, but my dear friend Mr Daniel Marshall. Secondly, mass lasts a long time - i didnt get home until 3am and I'm convinced thats why Santa missed me this year! And finally, make sure that you say the right thing to the priest when he gives you the rice bread/body of christ. Saying "Cheers" makes you look like a total looser.......

Christmas day itself was a gem of a day - 12 of us in total enjoying a proper Christmas dinner in our flat, turkey with all the trimmings and then over $400 of booze to finish off with the rest of the evening! (Please see photos for further illustration). However - a further lesson was again taught to me here: it is good to win at drinking chess, even when you partner, one Krystle King, keeps asking you if the Knight is the dragon, and whether he can attack diagonally the vodka that she wanted to drink.........

On boxing day we took oursleves off to the cinema to watch a little bit of a kids flick - Happy feet, dancing penguins and snow helped to make us a little bit more festive - it just doesnt feel like Christmas without miserable weather! And whilst the weather hasnt been overly hot for this time of year, we were still able to go to the beach on the 28th of December - which just doesnt feel right at all!! In between then Krystle, Jammo and myself wasted most of the 27th after watching all of the boxing day football program, right up to 6am when me and Krystle found ourselves in Macdonalds for breakfast!

The build up to new year began with a trip to see the musical version of "Pricsilla Queen of the desert" at Sydneys Star City. If I has tried to impress my masculinity on anyone, I doubt I couldve chosen a camper show to take anyone to! Thankfully Krystle stayed true to form, and just enjoyed lots of cocktails before I was reluctantly dragged into a casino for the first time! Beginners luck led me to help us collect over $200 dollars in winnings from the roulette tables, and i also won a cuddly toy in a crane machine! Luck be a Thompson tonight for sure! This was then all spent on vodka and redbull, as it should be apparently.......

New years eve was going to be the main event for many of us, and having paid a lot of money for VIP tickets to one of Sydneys self termed "Super clubs" a lot was expected! Darling harbour was rammed full for fireworks, and we got one free glass of champagne before they let the masses in. Just one. I couldnt believe it, we paid double what everyone else did! Oh well, you live and learn - and Paris Hilton didnt show either, not that it mattered, a good evening was had by all generally, althought I was very tired and left at 3am.

And here our new years ended, and we all went to bed and slept peacefully until the real dawn of 2007........ NOT!

Oh for the simple life! Returning at 3am I found that someone had jumped from the 17 story of our appartment block, police and ambulance's everywhere! Back in the appartment I found Scott, drunk and smashing plates over his head - plus he had bought with him a racist Irish Girl who told me I was the most miserable Scotish person she had ever met when, at 8am, we were all still up because she was drinking our tequila and shouting her mouth off! It was 7am when i re-entered the appartment having shelterd back in Darling harbour for a bit, but 7am also marked Scott's mayhem hitting its peak. To summarise in the best way I can, Krystle was taped to her bed, everyone was woken up to play drinking chess, Me and Jammo has to wrestle for our lifes to stay both in our beds and sane, and we all ended up with our rooms trashed and stuff thrown on top of us.

So in summary, of all the things I have learnt this festive season, one is more important than any other! Never, ever ever live with a scotsman who has a liking for tequile, jagger bombs, drinking chess and food court curry. Despite buying us a "im so sorry" curry on new years day, the wounds are yet to heal...........

From Sydney, with a very bruised and battered body,

Gaz xx

P.S - for the record Krystle wanted me to put that she has spent most of the day reading a book, and is now in church repenting her sins, and has been nowhere near booze today...............