Right as usual I've been a little bit tardy with the updates on here due to a multitude of reasons. Firstly it's been pretty hard to type with the shoulder I managed to dislocate whilst attempting to jump head first through a hoopla ring suspended 5 foot above the ground and set on fire after drinking 3 buckets of vodka. Secondly I've been pretty busy partying hard for 10 days in Thailand with my great old colleagues Wilco, Finchy and Mark (the pictures speak for themselves) and then in Australia with Blanty. Thirdly I've just been lazy really.

Anyway as you can probably tell I've been having a cracking time still. The last days in Thailand with the lads from home was a cracking send of to 16 superb weeks in S.E. Asia. After this is was on to Oz to spend Christmas and New Year in Melbourne. Christmas Eve was fun, met up with my mate Sam from Uni along with Catherine (Ben's Girlfriend) and Dears. We started pretty early and proceeded to have a crawl along a number of pubs in St Kilda until we unfortunately ended up in a pub with a load of cricket fans screaming "Barmy Army, Barmy Army etc". Anyway we had a dance and a giggle and all went home about 4am. Upon waking on Christmas Day morning with a slightly sore head I went through my pockets and realised I'd found a mobile phone in the pub the night before. Being the lovely guy that everyone knows I am I sent a message to the last dialled person asking how I could return the phone to the owner. It turned out that the girl who owned the phone only lived 5 minutes from my hostel so I went round to deliver it. By chance they were cooking Christmas dinner and offered me a seat at the table, which as I'd planned a lovely dinner myself of Turkey Pate on Toast I accepted. One Roast Chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, yourkshire puddings, mash, gravy and all the trimmings dinner later I was a very happy laddy.

The next day it was off to the MCG for the Boxing day ashes test with Trent (another ex-colleague), Sam and 6 other Aussies. England were shocking but we did get to see Shane Warne's 700th Wicket which was a bit of a highlight. Paul arrived from England that evening and we ended up at the third (and final) day as well.

The next major event on the calander was New Years Eve that turned out to be one of the best New Years for ages. My friend Matt who I'd been travelling round SE Asia for a while with arrived and it was also Dear's Birthday. We decided that to pay $100 for a ticket (thats about 40quid) where drinks were free from 8.30 - 4.00am. The music was fantastic and everyone saw the New Year in in Style. Then, at about 3.00am, one of the promoters was going round asking if we wanted to go to the after party. Not being one to turn a party down we decided that it'd be rude not to show our faces. The bus to take us there turned up at about 3.45 and about 150 piled on. This has to go down as the best bus journey I've ever been on. The normal lights went off, the disco lights went on, the tunes started blasting out, everyone got up and started dancing as we careened round Melbourne for 20 minutes on our way to the next venue. Anyway we ended up back home a few hours later and pretty much slept for the rest of the day.

Sydney then followed and it's been a little (although not much) quieter. Been to the blue mountains for a day trip, went to Bondi and Manly beaches for the day and also another day at the ashes. There've been some other big nights out with some more of the guys from SE asia and a day drinking in Darling Harbour with Ben as well. Paul's here til Saturday and then I plan to head on up the coast to see a bit more of what Australia has to offer and actually calm down on the going out side of things as I think I need a new set of kidneys. Thats all for now, bit of a essay but it's been ages since I updated.