Oh my god I know, I know, its been absolutely ages since I wrote, oops sorry! Not really sure where to start... I guess at the beginning. Well we arrived in Sydney, via the overnight coach, sometime in the week before Xmas. We stayed in a hostel right in the city centre for 2 weeks. Its a cool city, lots going on - not as laid-back as Melbourne and much more tourists (it sometimes seems as there are no Australians in Sydney). The first week we saw a few sights - went to the lovely botanical gardens which is a very large and gorgeous park right by the harbour and Opera House, saw the famous Sydney Opera House itself, a lot smaller and less white than I'd imagined but still impressive, we wondered the many shops - there are so many compared to the amount of people - its ridiculous! Our hostel was right near Darling Harbour which is also a nice place to sit amongst the lots of nice cafes and bars circling the harbour, eat some fish & chips, and watch the world go by. We also partied a lot, being the festive season and all that. Jayne and Laura had arrived from Melbourne and another girl, Sasha, we'd met over there was staying at our hostel too - so we had girls nights out most nights, it wasn't helped by the fact our hostel had a v.dangerous offer of free champers for ladies which never ceased to encourage us. That was the disastrous start to most nights. The night life in the city was pretty cool, most of the time we ended up at a backpackers club called Sidebar jumping around like crazies. Xmas eve a bunch of us went there, was a really good night, we wore our Santa hats to get into the spirit of things (and I wore a green dress which made me look much like an elf) thinking we'd be the only ones looking dorky but as we walked down the steps to the club we saw a sea of Santa hats bobbing on the dance floor, funny sight! Xmas morning Nikki had had a visit from Santa (I had put together a little stocking for her), we exchanged our little gifts for each other, Id also had a couple of cards from home which was nice. We nursed our awful hangovers with a v.xmassy brekkie - spag hoops on toast! Then, dressed up as xmassy as possible to remind myself what day it was (red top, red bikini, Santa hat) we met up with Sasha and headed for Bondi to meet Jayne and Laura for the weirdest Xmas Ive ever had. It turned out to be a lovely hot sunny day. The beach was full of Santa's sunbathing, Santa's playing cricket, and Santa lifeguards! There was even a fully dressed-up Santa on a jet-ski. It was kind of surreal. We spent a couple of hours relaxing on the beach. Me and Jayne attempted to build a sand-man, it proved a bit harder than building a snow-man and pretty much ended up as a sand-head with coins for eyes and fag in mouth but, hey, we tried. We had our Xmas dinner in a nice restaurant along the sea-front road. I had a sea-food pasta dish, which was no turkey-roast but very yummy! We had a couple of bottles of bubbly and headed to Gatecrashers, which we had already bought tickets for. Was a bit odd, it was held in Bondi pavilion, most people were totally off their faces and were prancing around in the sun (with Santa hats of course) to techno/dance music. Of course after a couple more drinks we joined in and generally acted v.silly. The day ended all too quickly. It was definitely the strangest, but also one of the best Xmas's Ive ever had. On Boxing day a group of us had a BBQ at Coogee beach. The boys bought the meat (ha ha) and we bought various salads. It was a boiling hot day. We ate (and drank) so much our belly's hurt, then spent hours of fun getting smashed around in the sea by the enormous waves. We all (especially me and Nikki for some reason) got knocked over countless of times. Its surprising how much fun it is to be knocked over, pulled under-water, smashed and dragged against the sand, generally get battered about, and lose your bikini in the process (exposing your white bits to the world)!!! The following day we visited Manly, a lovely beach at the end of a peninsula, which had a very holiday-town feel compared to Bondi or Coogee. We caught a bus there but for the journey back we got the ferry, it was dark and we got gorgeous views of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and whole city lit up as we entered the harbour. As is obligatory, New Years eve was a bit crazy, we started way too early. The girls came round and got ready in our room, we had a lot to drink whilst getting dressed and eventually stumbled into the club. We went to Cargo at Darling Harbour where Hed Kandi was at. The doormen gave us loads of tickets for free champers and we each got around 10 free. Not good idea. Before 12 I managed to drop and smash an entire tray of full glasses of champagne on my feet, which is about the last thing I remember of the night, although somehow I do have v.wonky photos of the midnight fireworks. The first week of the year we started making much more of an effort with the well-needed job-hunt. My credit card and overdraft were getting a bit scary to say the least! We did some very random work. We even did a bit of labouring! Yes its true we were demolition women! Ha! Nikki called an ad she'd seen that morning and an hour later we were with the lads to demolish an office building. It was really hard work! Obviously we were the only girls that any of them had ever seen on a site and they were very amused - but we did our best to show 'em! We shovelled, wheel-barrowed, swept, threw and smashed stuff everywhere. I must say we looked very dashing in our orange jump suits, especially when by the end of the day we were covered head to toe in dirt and soot! That evening we agreed to clean the boss' flat for some extra dough. He was a very dodgy character- a right hillbilly. He picked us up in his yeut (!)and we cleaned his flat whilst drinking all his beer. The next day was even harder on site, we were knackered my arms ached so much I felt really weak. We worked really hard at it and the guys were all really impressed but I realised there is a v.good reason why women don't do that kind of work, because we physically cant! It was horrendous, my whole body hurt in muscles I never knew existed, it was so dusty the taste of dirt was making me nauseous, and by the end of the day I was the dirtiest, blackest one there (I must of worked the hardest of course!), I literally looked like Id spent my whole life in a coal mine! Anyhow, that was the end of our demolition careers. I scrubbed myself till I was red raw (and was still dirty), blew nasty black stuff out of our noses for days and ached for a week. Never again. That week we moved to Bondi beach. For a few nights me, Nikki and Sasha had to share a twin room which was a bit of a squeeze. Carried on job hunting, and tried out the nightlife in Bondi, it doesn't compare with the city but we had a laugh. I started doing some cleaning for this kind of odd, smelly guy. It was a bit weird as he just lazed on his sofa while I cleaned his putrid flat. Really good money though - even if he was a bit pervy. Nikki went on a surfing trip up to Byron Bay the next week, unfortunately I couldn't afford it so I stayed and carried on with the job hunt. Had a couple of interviews, one for selling juice on the beach which I would've loved and another Im not even sure what the job was, either way I didn't get them. I also started looking for a room to rent - which was equally unsuccessful. They were either tiny shoe-box rooms that wouldn't even fit my back-pack inside (I suspect they were literally cupboards being sold as rooms), too expensive, living with creepy guy (one of whom sent me obscene messages) or just plain strange (having to walk through other peoples room to get to mine). I made friends with a Hungarian guy, Tibor, and his flat-mate Rob, and spent that week alternating between sleeping at the hostel and on their sofa. Had a couple of wild party nights out with him and his flat-mate. He also took me out a couple of times, went for a nice Thai meal then a lovely coastal walk from Bronte Beach along the clifftop path, past Tamarama Beach and finally to Bondi. And another day we did the Mono Rail ride in the city, which is a weird little futuristic train that does a loop around the city centre in the sky! Then went for another meal in Darling Harbour. It was Jayne's birthday that week so a group of us had a BBQ at Coogee again which was nice. Nikki decided to come back to Sydney the next day. That week was pretty good - we both finally got jobs AND a flat! She managed to get a job as a kitchen-hand in a little cafe, and I started in a posh shoe shop, it was in a very snotty area called Double Bay and located underneath the Savoy hotel. I absolutely hated the couple first of days. The area was too snobby, on the bus journey there I'd pass through the most gorgeous huge houses, and all the staff were much older - I got really confused with their names as they were Margarita, Marrissa and Mirella. Ugh. Later that week I did meet the Area manager though she's so lovely she made me hate the job alot less. We moved into Tibor's flat in Bondi, 20min walk to Bondi beach and 5 minutes to Tamarama beach (on the same road!). Me and Nikki took his flat-mates room (obviously he'd gone by this point). After two guys living there and not cleaning for what must of been years the flat was absolutely disgusting!!! Yuk! We spent a whole day scrubbing and throwing junk out. There was over 7 bin bags of crap to chuck! It was an effort but we finally made it resemble some kind of home. And we filled the fridge (which previously had only ever seen wine and beer). Our new flatmate didn't know what had hit him; a clean house and home-cooked meals - lucky guy! He started being my new personal trainer, which basically involves him dragging me around the park while I huff, puff and moan away. then up and down about a million stairs. Its horrendous. The following week I started at another store in the City Centre, I was to do a few days training there before being left there on my own! I prefer the area, right in middle of things its in a shopping city on Pitt Street - which always has some crazy, and very talented, street-performers on. Unfortunately the store itself is completely dead. So boring. Luckily the then manager was lovely, a really friendly Mauri girl, we spent most days just chatting away. On the Tuesday one of my best friends Libby arrived from London. I took the day off work at meet her at the airport at 7am. Grrr. At first it was so strange seeing someone from back home after all this time! But it didn't take long for it to feel as though we'd never been apart. The flat was a bit cramped, 3 of us in one room but we coped. That day we dropped her bags off at the flat and went to Bondi Beach. Had a lovely seafood lunch and some wine sitting outside. Then passed out on the beach. I took her on the coastal walk from Bondi to Bronte Beach, there's this guy that actually lives up in the rocks. He has paintings, cooking facilities, loads of junk and even an armchair. On Wednesday the two of us went to the Sydney Opera House!!! I had to go straight from work so Libs met me and we had to get glammed-up in the loo's and make our way in the pissing rain (she had clearly bought the weather with her). The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart was showing. It was an amazing experience, neither of us had ever been to the opera before, and to do it at the Sydney Opera House was great. We did it in style of course, had champagne and cheese at the bar before, and at the interval. Our seats wern't too bad either. The voices and acting was really good. And although we didn't understand a lot of what was going on, being in Italian and all (and the plot was pretty complicated) we managed to only doze-off once each! (it was 3 hours long). We all went out in Bondi that Friday until the early hours and ended up having a little party at ours, until I realised I had to leave for work. Ugh. Felt absolutely awful and am surprised I made it through the day without passing out. I had to take a break at one point and get some air, there was so much going on outside it was confusing; kids playing drums badly and loudly (not at all what I needed in that state), drunk fat guy dancing half-naked, and hot half-naked guys doing some amazing capoera. I learnt to cash-up that evening so that the following week I could open and close on my own. That night, still with no sleep, me and Libs went out in the city. Went to a couple of bars and met up with Sasha, danced all night in a very scruffy Irish place called Scruffy Murphy's. The next week I died of boredom on my own in that shop. Ive taken to just standing behind the counter and reading a book (gone through 2 already). On my day off the 3 of us went into Newtown for lunch. Supposedly a hippy-area its certainly no Camden, not much there really. So Libby decided to get a tattoo! Nice one on her foot, which meant she had to walk bare-foot the rest of the day. My next day off Libby and I did a bit of shopping, then that afternoon went for a lovely lunch and drinks in Darling Harbour, which somehow ended up lasting until midnight. Which is typical of the lunches we had together in London. The following day I was also off so us four roomies strolled to the end of our road and had a BBQ on the lovely Tamarama Beach, which is smaller than Bondi but more enclosed and prettier. Ate loads (for a change) and had a few beers. Ti attempted to teach me football, which was amusing, we played for hours (my god I was aching afterwards!). We had another night out last weekend as it was Libby's last one here. She left on Tuesday, which was sad. Since then I've just been working and trying to get enough money together to move on again, Nikki hopes to leave to go up the coast in two weeks and I really would like to join her - money situation not looking good at all though! So maybe I'll catch her up, we'll see. Tomorrow we are going to Sydney's gay Mardi Gras- which I am really excited about! Yay!