Hey everyone I know we're late with this but you know what they say…better late than never!Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone at home and whoever is reading this, we missed you all a lot over the festive period, so we had to go out and get intoxicated as you will learn from this blog and the pictures which are there for evidence.So it's a long one, you might want to go the toilet, unplug the phone and make a brew!So we were coming to the end of our Australia experience but there was two whole weeks to fill with fun and frolics.We chose to spend them weeks with Lydia and Bobby who we met some time ago in Malaysia so that's where you've seen their faces before!These two lovelies agreed to let us crash at their place for our time In Sydney, I'm not sure that they knew what they were letting themselves in for! Yeah cause Jac farts a lot in her sleep. Not only did they agree to let us stay, they introduced us to their friends who some of lived next door and were fellow scousers and some lived down the road who were Irish.Danielle and Nicole from next door had decided to cook a Christmas dinner for the Saturday as everyone was doing their own thing, they invited us along too. Everyone had organised a secret Santa and not wanting to be left out Aaron and I decided to open a present from Carols box, which she had sent over, we found that the box contained a Santa suit??? And I talked Aaron into putting it on and dishing out the presents, strangely enough having only met them the night before and only spending about an hour with them sober I was slightly anxious. Strangely he didn't want to but after a few beers there was no stopping him and it was getting him out of the suit we had a problem with. The Santa went down so well, the dinner the girls made was amazing, it took them nearly 9 hours and 12kg of Potatoes! They cooked for 13 people that day and did a really good job, everyone was made up with the effort, the day in all couldn't have gone more perfect. That wasn't the end of the day for us, we all went on to get very merry and played a lot of drunken Jenga, played some drinking games (which we do remember so look out you lot at home) and decorated and shaved Aaron as punishment for falling asleep! I might add while Jac supervised I am not impressed with that woman.For our Christmas eve we had planned on getting a cruise around the Darling Harbour (round the corner from Sydney Harbour) but it was fully booked, we then decided to take a stroll into Darling Harbour and see what it had to offer us and to soak up the Christmas atmosphere. Sydney really is a beautiful city, with all its skyscrapers and the bridge and Opera house, the atmosphere as your walking around is electric. We decided on a Thai that night for old times sake, we had a lovely bottle of wine (boys went back to Chang) and sat and ate and admired the views.We then headed down to a part of Sydney called the Rocks, where we met up with Claire and Rich to see in Christmas, yeah with a bit of old Christmas in New York drunken style you can't beat it.Christmas, we woke up and opened some presents, Lydia had kindly bought Aaron the new series of Family Guy (if you haven't seen it, try too it's the funniest thing) and we spent far too long watching that before we went round to Rich and Claires for Christmas dinner.We had already had the traditional Christmas dinner so with Claire and Rich we opted for a fish dinner (more chicken for me, but I did eat a prawn), the spread that they put on was amazing, everything you could wish for and more, we even had crackers (the pulling type) sadly no party poppers (but it was nice to be able to finish my dinner with out picking the streamers out of it!).Dan and Ange, others we had met came around and we all measured our heads with a measure tape we got in the crackers, we found someone with a bigger head than Aaron (get in he must have just as much trouble as me in the hat department) and a smaller head than mine, so we went to the beach to celebrate not having the worlds biggest and smallest heads.There were loads down the beach but sadly it wasn't the nicest day, it didn't rain but it was quite nippy.We ended Christmas day with phone calls home, was great to speak to everyone even if we cant remember exactly who we spoke to or what we said, it's the thought that counts eh!Boxing day we thought we better pull our fingers out and head down to see the Opera house, this is one of the biggest and most exploited things we have been to see since being away, apart from Ramsey Street. The Opera House is a strange one because you have to get it at a certain angle to make it look like the postcards, walking up to the front of the house it just looks like 3 strange shaped buildings, but if you get it on the side it has the 'picture' effect, really cool place to visit though and a little surreal!After a lot of piccys we headed into the Botanical Gardens, theres a point there where you can get a picky of the Opera House and Bridge in the background, you would think you could get this all the time but no you have to go to a certain spot, we got a lovely picky as you will see!Most of the rest of the week was spent drinking and getting over hangovers to be honest, we spent a couple of days on the beach when the sun ventured out, the guys that we met here are truly great, without them I'd hate to imagine what Christmas would have been like, and its nice to be around people who are away from their families and in the same shoes as us.We ventured back into the city to go up the Bridge.Now Aarons fear of heights is getting a tad worse so we didn't climb the bridge as I don't think he would have made it, plus you only go half way up and cant take a camera, so you have to pay for any piccys the company take of you, it was a little windy that day so I didn't even fancy it!We instead went up one of the towers, there are 2 at either end of the bridge, you wouldn't really notice them unless pointed out, but you can go up them for a fraction of the price, take piccys of the Bridge, Opera House and Harbour.Aaron didn't come out of the tower much so if his piccys are blurred its 'cos he was shaking! (It was really cold up there, honest.)We finished the day off with a visit to the Aquarium, people have raved on about this to us so we had to do it, and guess what, it was fab, they have an underground tunnel with sharks and a sting ray that I cant even begin to describe how huge it was, it was like the UFO in Independence day, cast a shadow, I got a picture but not sure if it shows just how massive it was, put me off snorkelling I can tell Ya! You think were getting to NYE??? Not just yet, I told you we got up to a lot of mischief!Because there was such a good crowd we decided to have a night out…without each other, our first Girls v Boys night out in 6 months, waahhhooo.The Boys went to a place called Kingscross and the girls bagsy'd the Darling Harbour but really we didn't get off the veranda until about midnight and then went to the local on Bondi, where a man thought we were all his daughters and tried to give us money, crazy man!Aaron made it back first (like it was a race) as he had too much to drink and the bouncers over here are picky at the best of times, so the drinking carried on until the wee hours, not that I'd know, I was put to bed, all the excitement went straight to my head! I'd like to point out that although I was first to be knocked back me and Dan were still last standing. NEW YEARS EVE! The hype around this day is massive as you can well tell, the best fireworks in the world brings in the crowds.Most of Sydney is 'Alcohol Free' so you have to buy theirs, we had all as a group decided to go to the Harbour, the botanical Gardens had one of the best spots like I said of the Bridge and the Opera house, only problem is that someone told the world and the world wanted that spot too!We decided to go to Hyde Park to have a few too many goons and wait for some people to finish work, once the group was together we ventured to the gardens, hell they had closed them early due to crowds, damn it.We then decided to venture to The Rocks, which had a lovely view of the bridge.Aaron being Mr Small Bladder as usual popped behind some port-a-loos for a tinkle, 'cause they were locked for some strange reason before you asked, I don't just get it out anywhere you know, and pulled out a cooler bag, after a sneaky peep inside we discovered it was full…of COLD BEER, theres a picky of Ian with the find, maybe a bit blurred as well because he was running away at the time, and it was even the scouser who got on his toes away with it. Trying to keep so many people together is impossible and especially that there wasn't really enough room for all of us to stay together, some ended up at the front while others were more away from the front than they wanted to be, in the end it wasn't about being at the front it was who you were with when the fireworks went off.Me and Aaron lost each other and were reunited about 2 minutes to go, we were with Gaz, Baz, Sylvia, Dan and Nick in the end.Bobby and Lydia we right at the front and Ian was fending off some Irish Floozy!It was a long blog I know, we're sorry but we have done a lot with these guys over the last couple of weeks, we had such an amazing time with them so here goes:

To everyone…Bobby, Lydia, Danielle, Nicole, Ian, Gary, Mark, Alan, Jimbob, Barry, Sylvia, Tom, Guy, Brick, Rich, Claire, Angela, Dan, Claudia, the man who left the beer behind the port-a-loo, Leah, Tash (internet gals)…Thank you all for making us welcome over the 2 weeks, we appreciate it all so much, we had such a fab time with you all and stay true to our word, if any of you are ever in Liverpool you'll have somewhere to crash and hopefully we will make you as welcome as you did with us.

Loads of Love

Miles and Jones XXX