Wednesday 28th December

As you may have realised it's been a while since my last update and sorry for keeping you all in the dark; however, since my last update I have now been in Sydney for three weeks. After the Whitsundays I took a night bus from Airlie Beach back to Cairns as I had a pre booked flight from Cairns to Sydney the next day, on the 8th December. I spent my last day in Cairns soaking up the beautiful sunshine as I warned the weather in Sydney was a disgrace and practically like a normal English summer!

My flight was very pleasant, although to begin with I thought there was something wrong with the plane as I saw what looked like steam coming through the ceiling! I even asked the guy sitting next to me if that was normal and at first he said no - luckily he was joking! Anyway he was telling me all about Sydney and the things I should do when I get there, made the flight go a lot quicker having someone friendly to talk to!

There were two factors which I was not impressed with when I first arrived in Sydney; one, the weather and two, the rude and arrogant people! I was optimistic when I took my flight to Sydney, wearing shorts and a vest top but when I got there all I could see were clouds and feel a cold breeze! And the airport shuttle driver was a complete ****! No manners or common courtesy at all, he wouldn't even help with my bags!! Who does that?!

I was happy to arrive at my hostel, check in and finally chill out. I was staying at Wake Up hostel in the centre of Sydney. It was a big shock coming from a small town to a huge city. I felt a bit lost to begin with but now, 3 weeks later I know my way around and everything is pretty easy to find. Starting out from scratch again with no friends I decided to go on the free walking tour the hostel provided; I made some friends and saw a lot of the city including sights such as Paddy's market, darling harbour, the harbour bridge, the Sydney opera house and the royal botanical gardens.

Holly, a friend I made on the tour had similar plans to me; we were both looking for work in Sydney and wanted to do our RSA course (responsible service of alcohol - a course that has to be completed in order to serve alcohol); so we spent a day together handing out CVs in search of a job. We also did our RSA course and were offered a trial each at a bar called Maloneys. Holly has now been working there for a week or so, whereas I have only done a couple of shifts. As of today (28th December) I no longer work there as I do not want to be working on new years eve. Before I came to Australia, I always wanted to spend new years in Sydney and watch the fireworks from the Sydney harbour bridge, so after a week of contemplating if the job was worth it or not, I have deciding against working new years eve and left the job. There will be plenty more jobs available after new year as many people leave the city and travel up the coast, so there is no need to worry! (mum and dad)

Since being in Sydney we have done a lot of clothes shopping, finding nice things to wear on nights out and had to also buy some jeans and jumpers to match the constant weather changes. We have been on many nights out, mainly in Side Bar (underneath our hostel) and only ventured out once or twice! We also ended up moving into the same room because our old rooms were fully booked. We moved into room 207 where we made some more friends and became one big happy family of jokes and pranks! It was me, holly and then all the boys so it was pretty fun to play tricks on people who could take a joke. We initiated the games by wrapping cling film around Joe's bunk bed and also around Lloyd's pillow. The next day they wrapped cling film around our mattresses and foil around our pillows! Boys are not very original with their comeback plans. Soon after, we played the best trick of all; sticking temporary dinosaur tattoos onto the boys arms as they were asleep and passed out after a night of drinking. Me and Holly waited up really late until Joe and Billy had hit the sack. Then with the lights out and trying desperately not to laugh, one by one we stuck on about 3 or 4 tattoos on each of the boys. The pictures are hilarious and it was one awesome prank! The boys woke up shocked and were laughing stocks at work the next day.

We've also been to Coogee Beach for a whole 5 minutes; as soon as we lay down and got comfy, the lifeguard announced there is a huge thunderstorm coming which looked like a monster in the sky, no joke, so everybody had to flee the beach and find shelter. Since being in Sydney my tan has begun to disappear so everyday we thought there may be a bit of sunshine we headed for the beach, bondi, coogee and bronte beach. We also took a day trip to the Sydney Aquarium where we saw lots of fish, sting rays, sharks and a turtle. Most of my time is Sydney has been spent with friends and roommates, hanging out, going out and having a laugh. Krispy Kreme parties with Holly and Billy, met up with my friend Kirsty from uni and we went on a night out to Kings Cross.

Christmas Day

For Christmas Day, I had arranged with Holly and my friend Aoife, someone met in Cairns to go to Bondi Beach with her and her friends. We all packed different parts of a picnic and came together to celebrate Christmas day and chill out in the sunshine. Luckily the weather was amazing; we ate a lot, sunbathed and had a pretty good day. All we needed were our santa hats, an Australian flag and our bikinis. Not something you'd dream of having during December in England.

On Boxing Day, we took a walk around circular quay, the harbour bridge and the opera house. As of the 28th December myself and Holly had nowhere to stay in Sydney but fortunately for us, we had made some friends who were using their friends house over the new year period. So from 28th December until 2nd January we were offered a very nice roof over our heads. Special Thanks to Martyn, Ross and Stuart.

Now into the present, here we are at the boys' house. It's amazing, nicely situated in the suburbs of Sydney in a place called Burwood; with its own swimming pool, gym, sauna and steam room, our own room shared between us, own bathroom, what more could we ask for!

Thursday 29th December

Day trip to the Blue Mountains! Me and the boys took a day road trip to the blue mountains. It was similar to the trips I took in Cairns but the view off the top of the mountains was incredible. We saw the three sisters, climbed and trekked for about 2 hours through mini waterfalls, rocks and trees. Just when we thought we weren't going to see a huge waterfall, we came across it! The view was spectacular and there was about a 200 metre drop where the waterfall continued down the mountain. We did get pretty close to the edge though, even the boys were scared of the height!

Friday 30th December

I met up with Kirstie and Inge from Cairns and we all went to Manly beach for the day.

Saturday 31st December

New Years Eve - we planned to get to Milson's Point which was where we were camping out for the day to get a good view for the fireworks at roughly 9/10am which meant we would have to be up at 6am! And with Holly coming home late from work and us not getting to bed until late meant there was no way we were going to be up on time. Therefore half the group got up and did the morning trip to reserve our picnic spots. The night before we spent lots of hard work and time making up our picnic, including the part where Martyn ended up with cheese all over his face!! If you can't play with food, then what's the fun?! It was pretty funny!

Eventually we made it to our picnic spot and met up with everyone else around 2pm. Talk about being late by 4 hours! We sneakily got out of the morning shift to reserve the space! Another gorgeous day, sun shining, spending the day with friends and eating and drinking all in the lead up to the new year. There were portaloos provided for everyone to use; however, you can imagine the queues for them. At one point I was so desperate, me and Holly went in search for a bush! Just as we were about to lose our dignity and pee in someone's back yard we found some people having a house party who I yelled up to, 'please can we use your toilet?'. Luckily they said YES!! We were up like a shot! Another toilet story, me and a girl called Alice were dying for the toilet literally half an hour before midnight so we were a bit naughty and jumped to the front of the portaloo queue, pretended we didn't speak English and ignored everyone behind us and ran into the next free toilet! We did get yelled at and someone banged on the door so we were as quick as possible then ran away as soon as we were out of there!! The things you do just to empty your bladder!!

New Years Eve has never been that exciting and nor was this one, but it was nice to be with new friends and watch the fireworks off the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They were pretty spectacular and worth quitting my job for so that's all that matters really. Our original plan was to head into town after the fireworks and go out, but the queues to get into the train station were ridiculous; in fact, I wouldn't even call it a queue, more like a ram of people all trying to go in the same direction! Anyway we decided to go straight back to the house in Burwood and go to bed! It was a really good day and a very cheap new year.

New Years Day - it was really sunny so I made the most of the swimming pool and sunbathed. Had a good chillout day and explored around the area. We found a gorgeous estuary at the back of the estate with a huge park and loads of boats. I would definitely love to live somewhere like that, it was perfect, there was even a small beach. Sydney is nice but the suburbs are even better!

It is now Monday 2nd January and we have to leave the luxurious house and head back to the hustle and bustle of Sydney central and move back into Wake Up Hostel. I will definitely miss being away from the city!!

My plans are to look for a job in Sydney and then I have no idea…that's all for now! I will update again soon.