HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well our time is coming to an end in Sydney; it's been a big mixture of work and play!!!!! I think we can safely say it is one of the most amazing cities in the world. Doesn't matter how many times we pass the Opera House or the bridge, I get excited! Thought I would try and write a summary of the things that have happened in Sydney over the past few months! So be prepared it’s going to be a long one!!!

Well within a week of arriving in Sydney, we managed to find a house to live in! We have our own rooms and are located in Surry Hills, which is 10 minutes walk to the city and a main train station. It was great to unpack the backpack and get back to some sort of normality. It was nice to be able to cook again and I think we have saved some money not eating out all the time, although there is a Domino’s Pizza at the end of the road! We’ve had a couple of bizarre housemates but have also had the pleasure to live with Cathy and John, who have been great fun!We have been working for the majority of our time here.

Clair as been working in lots of different pre-schools and has had plenty of experience with spoilt little children!!! I have been working mainly on reception in Corporate companies. However I have also done some filing in a company that makes ear implants for deaf people (quite strange being surrounded by laboratories and people in white coats!!!). I also had an admin role in a company that were moving office, not the sort of admin I’ve been used to in previous jobs, I was packing and lugging boxes for the whole week, felt like I was a removal woman!!! Oh and my favourite job was working on reception in an Old People’s home. It was great fun, some of the antics that go on, it was lovely chatting to them all and certainly makes you appreciate being young and fit (well sort of fit!)

We have been to the Opera house twice, enjoying a controversial show ‘Babes in the Wood’ in the Playhouse and a wonderful Christmas concert in the Concert Hall which was quite breathtaking!! I also did the tour of the Opera House, it was really interesting especially learning about how it was built.

We have had many a drunken night out especially after work on Friday’s!!!! We found a great local called ‘Scruffy Murphy’s’ (it certainly is scruffy) where you can enjoy a fun night at drag queen karaoke or a decent bit of steak for only $5!!!!!! The only problem is it never seems to close.  Tuesday’s (which are known as ‘tight arse Tuesday’s’ over here) have been spent going to the cinema, think we’ve seen more films over here than at home!

I took a trip to the Hunter Valley while Clair was on her travels. It is a couple of hours away from Sydney and is a great place to taste and learn about wine, it was absolutely beautiful. I was slightly concerned though as I didn’t want to get a taste for nice wine which would put me off the goon that we have become accustomed to drinking. (It’s only 10 bucks for 4litres of wine, classy hey!!!)

We have spent a couple of days at the gorgeous Boy Charlton pool by the Harbor, sunning ourselves and taking in all the funny sights to see, (lots of men in Speedos, highly hilarious)!!!!! We did the famous walk from Coogee Beach, to Bondi Beach. The weather wasn’t great but it was a nice day and really interesting to see all the Sculptures that they had along the way. It was pretty crazy seeing all the surfers in the Sea at Bondi, definitely hit home we were in Australia

Another highlight I think was the weekend when Sarah was over. We took a tram to the powerhouse museum and got to sit in the Big Brother chair and feel like we were in the diary room!!! Clair and I were so excited. We also got to see the memorable episode of neighbors where Scot and Charlene got married! There was a large exhibition on Aussie programmes, you forget how many we use to have on t.v back home, like Sons and Daughters and Prisoner Cell Block H hee hee! On that Sunday we went to our friend Ollie’s apartment for a BBQ even though it wasn’t sunny we headed up to his rooftop for some fun! We met up with Martin one of the guy’s on our tour in Thailand. The bbq wasn’t a great success but we had plenty of fun playing table tennis, swimming in the pool, enjoying a glass of wine while soaking in the Jacuzzi! We passed on the sauna though didn’t think it would be good to mix the heat with drink! We finished off our night in Scruffy’s for Karaoke, the next day at work wasn’t so much fun!!! So I decided to take the rest of the week off as I am supposed to be on a working holiday and Clair wasn’t working either! We went to Manly which is a lovely little place over the harbor, we caught the ferry and spent a brilliant day on the beach along with Sarah, Nikki and Leanne. Sarah and I went to Palm Beach that week too, it was so exciting and beautiful, we couldn’t believe that we were lying on the beach that we used to see everyday after School on Home and Away.

Well that brings us about up to Christmas. Clair spent a weekend with her family and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them all. They took her to the blue mountains and she got to watch old family videos! That weekend the girls and I went to a Carol Concert in the Domain, it was spectacular, the whole park was covered in candlelight and we got right in the Christmas Spirit singing along whilst swigging goon from a water bottle (not a great idea)! We were even lucky enough to see the Wiggles!Christmas Eve was absolutely bucketing down with rain! So we felt right at home, we met up with all our friends in an Irish pub called the Mercantile down by the rocks and what an afternoon/night it was! The band were fantastic and we met some great people, it really did feel like Christmas although we missed family and friends from back home. Hayley (Angel Gabrielle) and I made it to Midnight Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, although slightly Merry (sorry mum!) it was so long and very busy but a wonderful experience, the choir were fantastic and we had a lot to say thanks for!!! The weirdest thing was a queue for the ice-cream van outside when mass was over.

I got woken up at 6am Christmas morning by the Dustbin men (yep they work on Christmas day over here!!!) I waited in bed until about 8.30am and then woke the rest of the house up! We got sooooo many presents, we couldn’t believe how lucky we were, we were only expecting to have one from each other but thanks to Vanessa and Cousin Laura from home, our housemates and the girls we had loads!!! It was a brilliant morning and the sun came out for us We had a lovely meal in a restaurant opposite Bondi and then we headed down to the beach in the afternoon. It was packed full of backpackers, everyone wearing Santa hats. We had brilliant fun making our Sandman on the beach, good old Willy had lots of admirers!!!! Not everyone came out that night, Clair was wrecked and decided to go home with Cathy but I ended up in the Casino with the Irish lads, Hayley, Lucie and Nikki. Only because it was the only place we could get in to. It was great fun, we went back to the lads for a little party and ended up playing charades, musical statues and murder in the dark, it was hilarious haven’t played those games since we were kids!!!!!

We all went to Palm Beach again the Thursday before new year, everyone thought it was beautiful. I even went in the sea, but it was so rough, knocked me over a couple of times and whipped my bikini top, thank god for reflexes!!!!! We went up to the Orbit Bar to meet Graham, Debbie and Daniel (I used to work with Graham back in London). It was so lovely to see them and catch up, the bar was really cool it is revolving so you get to see a 360 degree view of Sydney. We headed to the German Uber Bar after that, not such a great idea when you have to be up at 7am the next day for a trip to the Blue Mountains. Nevertheless I made it on time and met Graham et al for our trip. We had a fantastic day apart from the annoying tour guide who obviously wanted to be a teacher and never got the grades!!!! He even had the cheek to tell Graham off. We got to go to a wildlife park where we saw lots of Aussie animals, throw a boomerang (I wasn’t very good) get the cable car over the blue mountains and a crazy steep train up a mountain (that was a little scary but fun). On the way back we went to the Olympic park, I was very impressed especially when I seen all the Doyle’s that had worked on it!!! Clair took a trip to the park this week with all the girls, she also had a great time there!!!

New Years Eve, we set off at 10.30 in the morning to claim our spot at Mrs. Macquarie’s point (you can see the Opera House and the bridge from here). We made a picnic and had to hide all our alcohol because there was no bring your own! The queue was enormous but after two hours we successfully smuggled in our drink and got our prime spot and was able to relax for the rest of the day. We had great fun, there must’ve been around 20 of us. The sun was roasting and thankfully the forecast rain stayed away. We played a few drinking games and a couple of games of cards. Getting to the toilet was a bit of a nightmare especially when there is 25,000 people around. The theme this year was a diamond night it emerald city. As the bridge is 75 years old this year. We got to see a fantastic display of fireworks at 9pm. But the countdown and fireworks at 12 were the most amazing ever, it was so hard to take in and we will never forget it!!!! We all huddled together when it had finished to sing ‘auld lang syne’! We also got joined by a guitar player so we had a great old sing song! What a way to end a fantastic year.

Well that brings you all up to speed I think, I've probably forgotten bits but will save some stories for when I'm home!   A few more weeks and we will be going our separate ways!!! But we are going to make sure we make the most of our last couple of weeks in Sydney. Hope you are all keeping well. Missing you all very much! Lots of Love xoxoxo