Chrissy in Brissy!!

So its that time of the year again, the season to be cold and cuddled up with your family singing songs by the fire. Well not in Australia, to be honest you wouldn't really know it was Christmas. We live right in the capital of Queensland, however there were no turning on the lights (as the Christmas tree lights were solar powered!!), no fat jolly men in red suits in department stores and no cheap and tacky Christmas shops that just seem to disappear after new year. During the week leading up the Christmas we did see a few schools signing carols but they were very strange. I remember one in particular, it was about Santa running away from a kangaroo! I'm not saying all Australians are bar humbugs and of course there is still the one or two that go over the top. We went on a bus to our friends house and the whole bus was covered head to toe in tinsel, snow flakes and the fat man we all love sweating his guts out in a red suit and white beard but all in all Australia doesn't do Christmas. I suppose it is because Christmas is always associated with snow and all things cold which I suppose is never going to happen in Australia especially this area.

One of the main reasons why we were employed at Valley was to cover the Christmas period, and that we did. We worked most mornings the last week of Christmas, Christmas eve night and the whole of boxing day :(. We tried not to let this get us down and so we sneakily shut the pool early and as soon as 6 o'clock hit on Christmas eve, we had the whole pool packed up and had a beer in our hands ready to start the party. We arrived home to find our fridge stocked up with alcohol all our presents from home and each other under the world's smallest Christmas tree and big smiles all round, at least our house felt Christmasy.. We took it in turns to you tube Christmas songs and take the micky out of Rachel as it was only 9.30 and she had passed out. By 11 we were all merry enough, we had sang at the top of our lungs "Last Christmas" (probably seriously upsetting our neighbours with the jumping around!!) way to many times and manged to de coma Rachel, we were ready to hit the streets for a big night! We had to grab a cab as it was the starts of the floods (not that we knew what was in store but we were use to this wet miserable weather!)so it was either pay or swim, we headed to an Irish bar. We saw a few people we knew and had a few dances but as soon as 12 o'clock hit it was end of the night!! Music off, lights on and everyone out! A little confused we all poured out and into Hungary Jacks. Hungary Jacks is the Australian version of Burger King, but Mc D's painted the words Burger King as they had to change their name! Just a little fact for you! With our 'feed' (another Ozzie word we picked up) we all headed home for a little after party! The party didn't last too long before everyone headed to bed for Christmas day!

The morning of the 25th of December, our second Christmas away from home had arrived. We all tried to be good and limit what we brought each other, but like all Christmases it got out of hand. Shereen, Becki and I excitably took it in turns to open our presents from home and one another. We were all super excited and loved all our present. Rachel and Danielle finally woke up and we swooped our secreted Santa, I think we were more excited about guessing who our Santa was than the actual present. After ripping into all our presents, playing with them all and admiring how new and shiny they were, it was time to get ready for the rest of the day.

We all put on our new Christmas outfits, did our hair and waited for Pete to pick us up. We were off to Siobhin's house (the girl we met in our hostel) we were going to have the full works with 10 mates. It was really cool, we had Irish, Canadian, English and Scottish all sat round a huge table. Marie and Siobhin (Irish & Scottish) were in charge of the turkey, ham and veggies, everyone else did a few little bits, Shereen made some brownies and mince pies. We had so much food, and it tasted amazing, I particularly enjoyed the ham as I had never had it before. Dinner was cool, we all made chit chat and took it in turns to use the computers to call home. The drink started flowing and the Christmas ball balls started to be thrown. The day was really nice but we had to call it a night at 10pm as we had a double shift the next day and young Shereen had been snoring for the last hour! We said our good byes to our friends wished them a Merry Christmas and headed home.

The next day work went really well, but it felt like Christmas was over for another year. I think both Becki and I were secretly happy than next year we can spend it with our friends and family. We had small plans for new year, Both Becki and I had to work until 7.30pm, and then work again at 5.15 in the morning. As soon as 7.30pm hit, the doors were locked and a beer was popped. We had a few beers and headed to the casino. It was Shereens first time in a casino and she was getting well involved. After a few hours of spinning the roulette wheel and the first time ever losing a couple of dollars we headed outside for the count down and massive firework display along the river. We were all a little disappointed as there wasn't a count down however it wasnt hard to miss the start with a thousand fireworks lighting up the Brisbane sky and the rain had stop for the event, we also had some sparklers which we lit and wrote messages in the air. Our sparklers cost a 1 dollar for 10 and I sold one for two dollars, so I might have lost the battle ($80 on the roulette table) but I won the war ($1 profit from the sparklers). The fireworks were really cool and they looked epic over the bridge and the wheel in the background. New year was really fun and it was really nice just hanging out the three of us. However deep down we knew we had a better New Year planned, we were all super excited about our present to ourselves, SUNSET SOUNDS!!!

Sunset Sounds is a chill out music festival, by the Brisbane river in the botanic gardens. The setting was perfect however we were in the middle of the Queensland floods. Being truly British a bit of rain really didn't put us off. We had a few pre festival drinks in the unit with Amy and Matt and walked to the festival. We followed the hordes of wet excited people to the festival gates, got our wrist straps and headed in. First things first we got some more beer and a program of the bands. We didn't know that many of the bands who were playing but we all got fully involved in the wicked atmosphere of the crowd and manged to learned he words pretty quickly. We did watch Angus and Julia Stone, who were sick. They were fashionably late by an hour but standing in the pouring rain, in a puddle up to our knees was competently worth it!!

The second day I was more prepared. I decided it would be a great idea to wear my waterproof purple trousers in public. Like the day before we a had a few drinks but this time we were more prepared, we made a quick stop at BWS. We brought three bottles of vodka and put them all down Shereens top! The rain was on top form and we were drenched from head to toe so all we could do was MUD SLIDE! We were jumping around to?????? and suddenly this very wet muddy excited guy was at my feet on his belly. I turned around and looked up and there was a massive surge of people split in two. At the bottom of the hill was a concrete drain cover, where lots of people were on guard catching head first mud sliders before they hurt themselves.

We all looked at each other and nodded almost simultaneously, we raced to the top of the hill and waited for our turn. Becki when first, she took a massive run up and she was off. Head first, through the hordes of people, bouncing on the stones and effortless over the slippery grass. Luckily Becki was saved at the end of the line and it was my turn. I took my run up, when the time was right I got into the sliding position and I was off. There was a sense of freedom and rabbles all at once, I was flying. Shereen also had a go, enjoying the ride every bit as us. Rachel and Danielle weren't as keen to get so fully involved as us, but after we had done three or four more times, they couldn't resist and as a house we all held hands and catapulted ourselves down the hill.

Smiles were all round but soon the cold set in and being a lot wetter Shereen, Becki and I got really cold. We all refused to let that stop the fun, so we jogged back, got showered off got everything we touched muddy and after a quick change were back on the streets!! By the time we had got back Rachel and Danielle had found some young boys to distract them. We all joined into one big group.

On the way back from one of the bar trips I literally walked into Tom. Tom was one of the guys we spent Christmas with and hugs went flying round. We all continued to jump around to the music but it was getting late and we were having far too much fun for it to come to an end. No one was ready to call it a night yet, even though Rachel and Danielle had work at 5.30 am! We tried to get into our favorite club, The Vic but our dreams where smashed when they saw the state of our clothes. Our hopes where not crushed yet as in the distance we could hear a sax and a guitar, with the sound of screaming drunk people, it drew us to it like a moth to a flame. We then spent the next hour or so making new friends, requesting classic traveling songs and signing our hearts out. Sadly they to had to call it a night, so with Tom in tow we casually strolled back to our apartment and had a few interesting chats about hot topics, then crashed a burned. Luckily for Becki and I we had book the last two days off but with only 30 minutes sleep Rachel and Danielle dragged themselves to work.

All in all Sunset Sounds was the perfect pick me up from a little disappointing Christmas and New Year and gave us one massive tick off the list of must do's while we are away!