Happy Christmas and New Year!!! We have been in Sydney now for just over a week and it has been madness.

Last Thursday, we arrived in Sydney and ended up driving through the city, not once but 3 times over the harbour bridge trying to find our friend Zee's house who we were to stay with, Shelby was not feeling the love. We sadly handed her back and made our way to normality for a few days at least....

We were staying with Nur and Aydin (Zee's parents) who have a beautiful apartment in Cremorne, 10mins away from the city centre. They are so lovely and looked after us so well. On our first evening we met up with them for dinner at this gorgeous restaurant and caught up. Friday we spent the day enjoying a TV and the comforts of a home!!! that was until we decided to have a walk when we stumbled upon a hairdressers and we decided to get our wigs finally chopped by a Japanese guy, even though we couldn't understand one another it turned out ok, well it was just a trim!! Saturday we met up with Laura and Ana (Shelby co-drivers) to celebrate Anas birthday, this was after Nur and Aydin prepared a fantastic Turkish style brekkie- amazing, oh and the next door neighbours dog tried to hump Lucys foot as he thought her ugg boot was a lady dog....not good!!! Anyway we chilled out in the city with the girls before having cheese and wine (sounds classy but it was on the floor of a hostel room) so we then headed for Darling Harbour which is this beautiful harbour (of course) with restaurants, bars and clubs all around. It has an amazing atmosphere and after several alcoholic drinks we were dancing our hearts out! Ana almost broke a rib through stealing some guys sock.. the joys of getting older...???

The following morning we met back up with the girlies for cake and presents and then went for a German lunch, very nice! We had a look around the rocks market and then spent the afternoon recovering in front of the big screen watching the cricket, which is up near the harbour and the opera house to then head back to the house.

Monday we took a trip to Manly beach which was nice, spent the afternoon catching some rays before Nur and Aydin cooked us up ANOTHER gorgeous feed! Tuesday we spent the day packing up ready to move into an apartment (in Bondi- half way between Bondi mall and the beach...perfect) we had not seen nor met the Brazilians we were going to be living with over xmas and new year! hmmmm. It is actually lovely, well it's clean, comfy and we have our own room and the people are real nice. The next day we spent the day sorting ourselves out and cleaning!!! then caught up with Andy who we stayed with in Brisbane as he was here on business which was nice. That night it was a massive Leeds met reunion (for those who know, Tom Colbeck, Haley, Stenna and Nick) it was such a great night but was so weird, we could have just been in the Arc!!

We suffered the next day, so spent the day baking on the beach, yeah good idea?? on the way back from the beach we bumped into Kelly, an ozzy who we used to work with at Prestige People in Leeds it was so random, anyway she lives on the next street along so we obviously had to meet up with her for a few....too many. Walked past the Australian Idol presenter too, unbeknown to us - fun. Anyway Friday was definately a day to beach it and Dvds at Kellys in the evening!!! (she has been so good to us these last few days)

Saturday, spent the day shopping in the city, met up with Lucys cousin and went for Sushi. On our way back we collected a parcel from Nur and Aydins who stocked us up with so much gorgeous fruit and veg for our Christmas day celebrations- so nice. The evening we met up with Haley and her friend and Emma Bibby (for those who know) after 4months of not seeing each other, we all had a wicked night out in the city but got caught out in the rain on the way back...drowned rats!

So today its Christmas eve and it is chucking it down with rain, you will be pleased to hear!! we are about to sort out our final preperations for our bbq tommorrow before we go out for dinner this evening with friends (thanks John aka dad). Really looking forward to this week, full of celebrations but will miss you all back home. Hope you have a great Christmas and have fun.

Love you all and we want to hear all the of your stories.

big hugs and kisses

laura and luce xxx