After a 13 hour train journey over night from Melbourne (where I could not sleep one bloody bit) we arrived in Sydney on Dec 23rd ...to it raining I think - or just cold I cant remember (this has been a recurrent theme for Sydney at the mo). We then trekked for a few mins to the 'wonderful' Maze backpackers on Pitt Street = wicked location right in the centre of everything....altho a wicked location as soon as we got in the room we noticed the problems = it bloody stank, not just of feet (which the Northern guys Chris and Scott had a lot to do with) but of general s*** and damp. Nice - no matter how much the windows were kept open and the fans on, it bloody stunk! The building site right next to us may have had something to do with it as well, altho thankfully they didn’t work the whole of the xmas time we were there. The first night we were gona have a quiet one, a box of goon and some beers in the games room playing pool....but then we knew the northern girls and lads were out in a bar called 'the gaffe' = a proper backpackers bar type place which is actually quite trendy. Good night had. The next day we met Marcus, my cousin to get garths new bank card which he d forgotten the pin to (was trying to do two things at once again!). Garth had a nap and I had a few drinks with him and his gf, which starting at 3pm then turned into us ending up in an Irish pub (obviously) for the whole afternoon on Guinness, others joined us later and then straight back to the gaffe again!! Needless to say xmas day I didn’t feel too well, but we brought our bbq stuff and a few beers to Bondi and met the others for xmas day on the beach.....bloody weird! As some of you may have seen from garths email I committed the cardinal sin on xmas day.....(bearing in mind there were no bbq's to cook our kangaroo kebabs and sausages on) I went with some others to..........dum dum dum Maccys - yes I was bloody disgusted with myself as well, didn’t feel right - at all!! We then met some of the Essex boys from Byron and went to their flat, then drank in the corridor of our hostel later on with some others, classy! Boxing day I got up pretty early (mid day) and met Jen and Krysia who were doing the opera house etc. Then I met Mark and his mate Rich from the lpc and we started drinking alongside the opera house in their bar there - such a nice setting and pretty weird doing this all on boxing day! Garth joined later and then we went back, got some food and straight out on the town - to a club called House, pretty good music and lots of drinks had! One of the days we didn’t get back till 6am and then sat outside the hostel like common tramps drinking with some others (including Rick a lad from Bolton, bloody funny bloke) until crashing at 7am. This day I didn’t get up till 6pm, went to have some food and some t*** had nicked my soup, bread and pasta - hmmmm. Had fish and chips and then back to bed later on for a bit more of a nap - hard times (yes this is even lazier than being at uni!) There were a few more nights of the gaffe, scruffy murphys Irish bar (smells of piss) and some others before the big one......NYE. When me and the girls had gone to the opera house we had asked the photographer there where it was best to view the fireworks from etc etc - he said he took his from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair every year and suggested we get there at 8am....altho this at first sounded crazy even to us we started banding round the idea to the others. Most responses were 'you’re mad' 16 hours no thanks - mark was a no no and some others but eventually once one cracked the others caved - so we had a plan, we had the food and booze and the plan was in action. NYE 7:30 am and we were all outside the backpackers with heaps of food and booze and ready for the wait... in the que for 7:40 and the sit on the pavement started. sweet. 10am we started getting let in = no booze allowed, me and Rick were the runners so we just had the blankets to put down and he had some goon inside. I didn’t get checked at all (but no bloody alcohol) he did and the goon was gone...Alex got 2 bags of goon taken away but the girls got their pre mixed stuff in and our Pringles box trick of putting the spirits in a smaller bottle inside the tub worked a treat. We got to the main viewing point and set out our space. The day actually went pretty quickly...well from 2pm onwards where me and Garth started the drinking! The fireworks were....as im sure you’ve seen every year - bloody amazing! such a good time. On the walk home the streets were just mobbed with people everywhere. New yrs day we had to check out, 10am so the usual trick of going down giving in the keys and then back to work worked and we finally left at 2pm to go to Marcus's flat where we stayed for 5 days before moving into our new house..... all fan mail = Unit 30A, 371 Enmore Road, Marrickville, NSW, 2204and my no is now +61435037797We moved into the place on 6th Jan, and as soon as we stepped out of the taxi - RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWHHHHHH (that’s my impression of a plane noise) were right under the flight path, which is nice....but ok = it only starts up at 6am EVERY DAY!ha, na its ok. First night there was a bbq over at another house so we joined that, met some Scottish and English guys wed met in Byron who lived there as well! weird! Then on to a house party. It’s pretty much like uni and also neighbours as the doors are open all the time....Altho not our bedroom! Altho today I woke up and someone had nicked half my ham, cheeky gits it wasn’t even open and also my sprite - hmmm, think its this fat Irish dude who’s kipping on the sofa, words will be had - altho I dont fancy him sitting on me! And Em you’d hate the kitchen in the state its in....even I (yes me the one who you thought was messy) am slightly disturbed by the state of the kitchen - think me and Garth are gona get the marigolds on and have a bit of a spring clean (not bleach everything everyday mind) (its on the levels of James and Phils last year but thankfully doesn’t smell (yet) of 3month old ham left in the fridge!)Xmas http://essex.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4807&l=a1e4d&id=283600208 New Year http://essex.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5096&l=26257&id=283600208 Xmas http://nottinghamac.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087179&l=8e2ed&id=199703881 New Year http://nottinghamac.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2088428&l=04e1f&id=199703881