Hello All,

Hope everyone is ok back at home?! I'm writing to report that our plans have changed…again! Which isn't unusual for us, but that's what makes travelling so fun!

The surf camp messed us around a bit, one manager told us we had work then when we got there another manager told us they didn't have work for us! We're not too worried though as the surf was poop! We had a couple of surf sessions while we were there, little waves but still fun! We looked up accommodation over Christmas and new year in Sydney but everywhere was fully booked so we decided to sell the van and go somewhere completely different!!

We made our way down to Sydney and put the van on gumtree, and within a couple of days it was sold!! After a day of stressfull driving through the city of Sydney! The mood was lightened though after Greg stuck his head out of the window whilst trying to reverse…forgetting that the window was indeed closed!

We sold it to a Spanish couple and managed to make $500 despite accumulating 2 gigantic cracks in the windscreen! (Due to the ridiculous amounts of pot holes down the east coast!) They loved the van though and were very excited!

We are now staying in Bondi Beach and after handing over the van on the first day we had quite possibly the worst night sleep….ever! We were in a dorm with 5 Germans and a French guy! They all seemed very nice but quite possibly the most inconsiderate people ever!! We went to bed about 10.30pm and within half hour they all came in and were chatting really loud for hours! At one point one German girl realised she had woke Greg up and came over to him and apologized for being loud and waking him… but then started to ask him where he was from and how long we are here for etc! She then joined back in conversation with the others who had gotten louder since they first arrived!! I kept coughing really loud as if to say 'shut the hell up' but they took no notice! After a few hours of hearing the German language and finally getting to sleep, we woke at 3am to a very very loud fire alarm! The whole building was evacuated and 3 fire engines, an ambulance and police car turned up! There had been a fire in one of the basement rooms where a curtain had caught alight! Luckily no-one was hurt and we were a few floors up, the other side of the building! We were outside for about 2 hours, everyone was in their PJ's really cold! The police are still investigating but it was probably someone smoking! It doesn't end there though!! After another stint of the German language talking about the drama we were woke again by someone's phone alarm at about 6am, they of course didn't turn it off and just let it ring and ring! It then went off about 4 times every 10mins until the French guy got peed off and turned the phone off! We were then kindly woken again by the German language at 8am when 3 of them started packing their bags loudly!

Over the weekend, we pretty much just chilled out and tried to catch up on some sleep, looked round Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach Market! This morning we travelled to The Hunter Valley and we are going to chill out here over Christmas! We are hopefully going to meet up with Vicky, Carl & the kids while we're here as they only live around the corner!

On Boxing Day we are going to fly over to Perth and take a tour up the west coast to Broome! Spend some time over there before we go to Singapore!

Greg spoke to Jen yesterday about going to see Jackie, Dougie & Co for a catch up! She is going to get Jackie to call us over the weekend to arrange something! Which we are looking forward to!!

That's all for now folks, we'll keep you updated and hopefully speak to you all on Christmas Day!

Miss you all

Greg & Lauren x