Happy Christmas everybody!!

We had to drag ourselves out of bed this morning at 10.15am - snoozed for an hour as well!

We quickly got ourselves ready, then went down to the kitchen to prepare our Christmas dinner...

We made our turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches and our cous cous salad. Took a while in the busy kitchen with limited utensils and pans! Some people are so scruffy too and just leave pans in the sink and food in the plug hole.
Yesterday, we also bought 2 cheap cool bags and two lunch boxes. They'll come in handy while we're in Oz now, can make our lunch if we're out all day. We also picked up a big beach towel which we didn't have, and can double that as a picnic blanket!

We walked along to Hyde Park and found a nice spot near a fountain for our Christmas day picnic. There were actually people there sunbathing! There were quite a few people in the park relaxing actually. Some with Santa hats on, a few couples and some families. We couldn't believe it when Starbucks and McDonalds were open! And all the public transport was running.

First we had our bucks fizz! Oh yes, that cheap bottle of bubbly we got yesterday and we picked up some fresh orange juice from 7/11 this morning (yes, 7/11 is open Christmas day). Just wouldn't be the same without proper orange juice. We had to be discreet though as alcohol isn't allowed in the park.
Whilst sipping our bucks fizz we opened our really thoughtful Christmas present each from Michelle, Gareth and Liam and a lovely card from Therese's Grandma and Grandad. We'd carried them all this time from leaving home! Was really nice to have something to open on Christmas day.

We tucked into our turkey sandwiches first, which were lovely.
Had an audience of birds too - a seagull, a couple of pigeons and about 10 of these ???????
It was really nice in the park - clear blue skies, sunny and warm!

We munched through our salad, and some crisps and dip that we also got, plus we went through all the bucks fizz. Then we moved onto the wine that we'd poured into our metal water bottles! First time we've used them. We've lugged the stupid things all over, but they've finally come in handy!

Then we relaxed and put some music on. Well, we didn't have any Christmas songs, so we had to go for the closest kind of thing - Dreamboats and Petticoats album with all the old classics.
It was red hot in the sun and we kept having to move into the shade. First time we've ever tanned on Christmas day anyway!

It's obviously not the same as having a Christmas dinner with family at all. You can't beat that. But we still enjoyed ourselves.

Before we knew it, a couple of hours had passed and it was about 3.30pm. So we went back to the hostel and dumped some of the picnic bags etc. Then we caught a bus to Bondi Beach! We've got to do the beach on Christmas day! There was a funny group of young lads on the bus singing all the Christmas songs and getting everyone to join in on the way.

Took about 15 minutes to get to Bondi, and it was really busy down there. Still like plenty of space though, it's not crammed with people. There was loads of people out on the grass verges then loads on the beach. Alcohol isn't allowed on the beach and there was a checkpoint where security were checking bags. But we had filled another water bottle with wine! We sneaked through the exit area one at a time. No problems.

Ahhh, clear blue skies, lovely soft white sand and the sea...and then you realise it's Christmas again when people are running around in Santa hats and reindeer antlers! Weird.
There was also a festival going off called Sunburnt too, but we decided the other day not to bother with it and glad we didn't - it's not even on the beach! It's in a courtyard just off the beach. We could hear the music from there on the beach anyway...for free!

The beach is actually better than we expected. The thing is, it's such a famous beach that was played up for so many years, that nowadays everybody who goes says it's not actually that good. But it is! It's got a really good beach and is much bigger than we thought. Again, people down playing it so much.

There were loads of people on the beach. Plenty with alcohol too. We soon got talking to a group on the beach and spent a couple of hours there.

It started getting a bit darker so we headed up for the bus home with a dew from the group we'd been chatting to. It was like a party bus. There was a group of English girls singing loads of Christmas songs and plenty of people on the bus were getting involved too. Was really funny and the bus was jam packed with backpackers!

When we got off the bus, we realised that the group of girls were from our hostel and walked back with them. A few of them had been to Leeds or lived there at Uni so got talking about that and had a good laugh with them.

Two of the girls came back to our room just while the others got sorted. We treat them to mince pies and wine!

We joined the girls to find some bars up at the Cross (Kings Cross) but nowhere was open other than restaurants. We ended up leaving them in a restaurant and walking straight back. Burnt some calories from all the wine anyway!

Managed to make some Christmas Day phone calls home to family too! And post a few Christmas wishes on Facebook!

Had a fantastic Christmas day and something very different to the norm. Can never beat a Christmas at home with family though.