Hope you all had a great christmas and happy new year. well here i am in melbourne, having spent the last month here. I love this place, it is much nicer than sydney and has a really relaxing feel to it, even if the there are 4 seasons in one day! the weather has been so random, one day it would be in the high 30's then then next day it would be in the low 20's. On christmas day it rained all day and was only about 16 degrees centigrade, but today on new years day they are predicting the mid 30's. I am now fully moved into my apartment, which is very nice and very local to everything in the city. I feel like i am in a student house again, everyone is on a tight budget and there are always people coming and going. I am starting to make use of the pool and will aim to go in the gym and have a game of tennis, we will see! I have been working for the past 3 weeks and have a further 2 weeks to go. I am only working 3 days a week but it pays the way, and keeps me in the luxury i have come accustomed to, that is cheap home brand foods! I have enjoyed the job, it feels like a little community hospital, with 4 wards and 3 therapists covering. It hasnt been busy except for the day after christmas! I am in the process of trying to find more work whether it be in OT or in child care, so fingers crossed. I have managed to make it to the neighbours quiz night, a bit sad i know but had a good night. I got my pictures taken with Harold Bishop, Toady and Lynn, but hey its got to be done!

It has been great the last week over christmas because a lot of my friends that i met in bundaberg have been down for christmas. On christmas eve, myself, linda and marie went carol singing in a welsh church - how small a world is this, Marie's family new the vicar from home! It was a really nice service, with parts of the carols sung in welsh - i felt like i was surrounded by the welsh minors quire, the sound was amazing. We then headed out for a chinese dinner, very nice but a tad expensive and then we hit the pub, only for one drink mind you, which turned into several! Christmas day for me was spent opeing presents with linda and marie at my place, they then went to mass for a couple of hours while i was left in charge of basting the ham, big responsibility for me! We spent the afternoon with 7 other orphans, in adams place with his aussie girlfriend. we had a really nice dinner, it was a cold buffet, with ham, lovely vegetables, and king prawns done on the barby! We were supposed to go over to the park and play cricket except it decided to chuck it down with rain for most of the day, so ended up staying in an watching little britain for 3 1/2 hours - not my kind of thing tho. I left the party in full swing at around 11pm as was feeling very sober and knackered, i left linda passed out on the landing, the host of the party passed out on the lounge floor with a cat nose drawn on her in permanent marker while most of the others were drinking over the park and attempting to play cricket in the dark!

The next week has been spent with of the guys from bundaberg. Being it was the cricket and half the lads are major cricket fans they all ended up going to the ashes. Unfortunatley me and martina had to work on those days so we met them afterwards when they were all steaming drunk, that was interesting! I think i must have been in the barmy army head quarters 4 times in the last week. We have also discovered the casino in melbourne - i have gambled a little, but luckily i came out with what i went in with, i see how easy it is for people to have a gambling problem - the chips burns holes in your pockets!

Most of the guys who were down here for christmas have now gone up to sydney for new year but there were a few of us still left here. New years eve was a bit of a funny night for me, as i wasnt quite feeling up for a big party as was feeling unwell. We headed down to federation square to watch the family fireworks at 9.15pm then headed off to a house party - everyone was steaming drunk, so myself and someone else at the party headed back down to the main fireworks at midnight. we didnt get the best views because we arrived at dead on midnight, but they were still amazing. the australians certainly know how to put on a fireworks display! They had fireworks coming off roof tops, off the river and off the highest apartment block in melbourne. I am so glad i headed back down for the main display. Once that was over i headed home as still not feeling great - its amazing how quickly a tickle in the back your throat can turn into a chesty cough!

So here i am now in the year 2007, lets hope i have just as good a year as i did last year, minus the broken leg! can you believe i have only got 4 months left of my travelling, but somehow that wont stop me, still got plenty of things to see and do.

So happy new year once again.

sharon