Hi Everyone and Happy New Year from Sydney!

After our 10 hour bus ride from Melbourne, we got to sydney and met my eldest cuz Ben at his Bar in Balmain - The Bridge Hotel, a classy establishment! Once he'd finished his shift, we made our way to his house in Rozelle, a little suburb 10mins outside sydney itself, perfect! A great house, he shares it with 3 girls, Elisha, Lara and Claire, though claire is moving out soon! Anyway, it was NY Eve, so after settling in and meeting other people who were elishas mates over for NYE, we left and met ben's mates down in the harbour at a lush apartment and began to see the new year in....culminating in the Fireworks over Sydney Harbour! Really good night and a great hangover the next day!

New Years Day and the sun was shining at last (it got lost in Mbourne) so me n greggy headed off sightseeing...as you can see from the pics, rather a lot of the Opera house and the Harbour bridge, but then we wouldnt be proper tourists if we didnt take them! Sydney itself is a great city with a nice, busy but friendly vibe to it and "alot of character" in gregs own wise words!

We have done so much in the 6 days since we've been here, as greg flies home tomorrow we tried to do as much as poss (Gar i will be your personal tour guide when you get here!)

We were lucky enough to be chauffered around the harbour by ben's friend Andrew on one (yes one) of his boats, then he dropped us off in Manly for the afternoon, which had a nice beach, windy and good for surfing!

Ben drove us to Palm beach where they film Home and Away but the weather was crap so ben dropped us back at Taronga Zoo, hence the wildlife photos (mainly of deadly animals with a few cute ones thrown in), but it was still a good day - we caught the ferry back across the harbour into the city. That night Ben cooked the best seafood meal ive ever had, Oysters, mussels, king prawns and loads of other fish in different sauces - gorgeous! Shame though that the Mozzies tucked into my arms and legs while we were eating outside - swines!

The next day, absolute scorcher, hit Bondi Beach! Had fun in the waves and more fun on the sand looking at the lovelies all around us! My attention was distracted so much that i forgot suncream and am now suffering the consequences - a pinker shade of bronze would be being kind - yes mum, im burnt, don't panic, have bought sydney out of aftersun!

Yesterday we went and saw the 4th Morning of the Test match - yet again England lost and we were there to witness it! Really great to see the aussies parade around the ground in front of us! Did manage to get some good pics of the aussie b******s picking their kids up just in front of us which made up for the fact we had the afternoon to do something else and not see england pile on a 250 run lead before bowling them out before lunch on the 5th day...dream on!

Today (gregs last day) we went back to Bondi as it was the hottest day we've had...greg sunbathed while i kept my t - shirt on (suprisingly wise i know) and i even wore my Rashy vest in the sea! On the way home we bought some chicken and kangaroo steaks (lush) and cooked a BBQ for greg and ben!

Thats about it so far, absolutely love Sydney, ben has been a great host and ive had a marvellous time with greggy - looking forward to Murph getting here in 6 days time!

Bye for now

x