Having not seen Kris for 8 months and him having completed a (thankfully succesfull) front line tour in Afghanistan i was pretty excited to see him to say the least! We rented a studio apartment for a month over Christmas, you don't even want to know what that costs in Sydney!! But it was perfect, i got to show him round Sydney and we went for a beautiful walk from Coogee beach to Bondi Beach which passed several more secluded and quiet beaches and bays. We also had a look around the Japanese Friendship Gardens which are close to Darling Harbour where i worked. In the middle of the city there was this oasis of ponds and water falls and Japanese style buildings, it was like a secret garden.

A few days after Kris arrived his best friend text him checking he was okay and exclaiming how the Taliban/ISIS seem to follow him. Confused we turned on the news and saw the Siege taking place on Martin Place. This was about a 10 minute walk from the flat. I rang around all my friends and warned them to stay clear, the man holding hostages had also said he had planted bombs around the city. I worked in Darling Harbour, arguably one of the biggest tourist hotspots in Sydney next to the Opera House. I called up work and they said they were staying open so i went into work a few hours later, a little nervous! It ended up being the shortest and easiest shift i'd ever had as out of our 200 bookings only about 20 turned up. No one wanted to be anywhere near the city, understandably. Tragically that night the terrorist shot one man and a woman was then killed in the crossfire as the armed police stormed the cafe. There was an enormous memorial of flowers laid out in Martin Place which i went to, to pay my respects. The atmosphere in the city was definitely very tense over the next few days and it brought home to me how much of a problem this kind of thing is in Australia. I hadn't realised before but there is a huge islamic extremist following in Australia and many terrorist plots have been foiled recently.

Luckily the rest of Kris' time in Sydney went without any more drama! I introduced him to my friends that i had met in all different places who happened to be in Sydney. We put on a great dinner in our little flat for them, it was so much fun! Despite the fact i was contractually obliged to work Christmas day we still had a lovely Christmas. We made Christmas Eve our Cristmas and took a trip out to Manly on the ferry. Here we met a girl i had met in Fiji and relaxed on the beach for a bit and went for a drink. You can imagine how the conversation went when my boss rang me and asked me to come into work!! No thanks! After Manly we went home and cooked a christmas dinner complete with yorkshire puddings i made from scratch! I felt like this made up for the pre cooked shop bought pre stuffed deli chicken i bought!

After an amazing 3 weeks with Kris he headed back to England to work. But i'll see him in around 4 months which for us is nothing, so no dramas there! :)