Steve's Mum arrived in Sydney on 27th for her whistle stop tour of Sydney and Ali and her folks drove up from Jervis Bay later that day leaving Rob and Rach to see in the new year with the kids down in Jervis Bay. We have spent the week introducing Steve's Mum to a number of Sydney beaches Bondi, Tamarama, Little Manly (didn't hit the ocean beach as the shark sirens were going as 6 sharks had been spotted just before we arrived) and Parsley Bay with Jackie and Hal. We also visited the zoo, took an open top bus tour and had a quick stroll for the botanical gardens and watched the NYE fireworks from Dover Heights all together. Of course we have continued to feed and water ourselves throughout this week. Diet starts in India!

After Steve's Mum headed back, shortly followed by Ali's parents we visited the Sydney Cricket Ground on the second day of the test, are fairly balanced day before England routed the Aussies on days 3 and 4. We haven't really been able to experience the cockiness of sporting Australia as they have been well and truly hammered and the press etc have been knives out for the Australia team, you'd swear journalists prefer it when the national teams are doing badly.

We've also been able to spend some time with Jackie in Sydney too, a friend whose mum was in ante-natal classes with Ali's mum when she was expecting Rob. Normally the Wildigs spend Christmas with Jackie's family in Essex but this year Millie the dog was our only representative.

We took Rob and Rach out for a last supper which was a lovely meal but didn't get close to thanking them for their amazing hospitality, it was a fitting end to our trip with us all getting about as drunk as we did on our first night. Spending nearly two months in Australia with friends and family has been truly fantastic. Getting to see James and Izzy so much and getting to really know them has been so much fun and leaving was a pretty sad day. However 6 months is not long to wait when they head over for the wedding of the year (move over Kate and Wills, it's all about Essex this year...)