Fireworks and Fishes

Much debate raged about the best way to spend New Years Eve here in Sydney, with numerous options available, each with their own persuasive pros and cons. Eventually it was decided to go and meet up with the larger group of international students who planned on heading down to Mrs Macquarie's Point, in the Royal Botanic Gardens, at around 5am. Whilst we had no intention of going so early, we hoped that heading down around 1pm would leave ample time to beat the crowds and find a good spot. It was to be a nice day too; I had caught the weather report on the news the previous night which had said there was "a zero percent chance of rain" whilst displaying a large sun graphic. Ideal. Although, in the flat, we did discuss the merits of claiming there would be absolutely no chance of rain. Surely that's impossible to predict? We shouldn't have tempted fate, really.

On the morning of the 31st itself, I had a long lie before getting up for some breakfast. I spent most of the morning tidying up around my room then packing my rucksack for the day. Since it was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day, I packed a towel and suncream, as well as plenty of water. I met Alex and Jessica outside my flat around lunchtime and we headed to Woolworths to get some food for the day - we were expecting to be sitting outside for around 9 or 10 hours and we had no idea whether there would be an opportunity to get food once we had picked a viewing spot. After sorting our packed-lunches, we headed to Railway Square where we caught the bus down George Street towards Circular Quay. We knew that the group we were heading to meet were in the Royal Botanic Gardens, so we attempted to reach the gardens by walking around the harbour, by the Opera House. Unfortunately we had no idea that the place was highly controlled, so we eventually reached a dead end and had to make our way back to the exit again. Soon, we realised that there was only one way to enter the gardens and began walking in the direction which the signs pointed. When we eventually reached the entrance to the gardens, we found a rather large queue of people, but decided that, clearly, not everyone we could see was actually part of the queue. How wrong we were.

This is the scene which greeted us at the entrance to the gardens. This isn't even the whole queue, since it wound up the hill and around the corner too. We never did manage to see where it stopped eventually!

Deciding quickly that an exercise in patience and aversion to sunstroke was probably not the best approach, we asked a security guy what our best option was. His blunt response made our minds up, "I'll be honest, you're not getting in here." We chose to move on and find another spot. Time was now moving towards 3pm and we were aware that a second entrance to the gardens was to close at that time, making it a seemingly pointless waste of time even trying to go there. As we walked back towards Circular Quay, we noticed signs for the Tarpeian Precinct, which seemed to be a grassy hillside, just behind the Opera House. It was still open when we reached the entrance and after having our bags checked we found a spot on the grass to lay our towels out. Finally.

This was our view of the Harbour Bridge from where we were sat. Unfortunately this photo was taken after clouds had come over to block the brilliant sunshine we had enjoyed for most of the day.

The events for the evening started at around 8pm, not long after it was dark, but in truth there really wasn't much to see until the main fireworks at midnight. We spent the afternoon sunbathing, before the clouds came over and there was a brief rain shower! We couldn't believe it was actually raining again, after also raining on Christmas Day, but we had a laugh once again at the "zero percent chance of rain" quoted by the weather forecast the previous night. In total, we sat on the hill for 9 hours, between 3pm and midnight - only really moving to get food, go to the bar or the toilet. It was a long day.

As the clock ticked on, approaching midnight, people started to gather their things up and walk down to the front of the area to get a better view for the fireworks. We found ourselves in a really great spot to bring in the bells and it was the most spectacular display of fireworks I have ever seen. I think seeing the Sydney Harbour fireworks at New Year is one of those things which everyone would love to see in their lifetime and I was lucky enough to get to see it. It was simply amazing - quite surreal really.

The Harbour Bridge with some of the boats which were lit up on water.

This is best photo I could manage which caught some of the Opera House as well as the Harbour Bridge, which gives an idea of just how good a view we enjoyed.

The fireworks themselves, complete with falling sparklers beneath the bridge.

After the fireworks were finished, we began making our way home with over one million other people, all seemingly headed in the same direction. For the event, the city is essentially shut-down and all the roads are closed to traffic. It was quite amazing to see literally thousands and thousands of people all marching up the middle of streets which you have become used to seeing busy with cars, taxis and buses all day, every day. I eventually got home around 1am, to be greeted by a pile of messages wishing me a Happy New Year from people at home. I got off to sleep soon after, it really had been a long day.

The first day of 2014 began with a long lie before I got up, had some breakfast and chatted to Mum, Dad, Kerry, Uncle Brian and Abigail on FaceTime as they brought in the New Year back home. After they went off to bed, I headed out to the supermarket with Claire and Jess to get some food for the flat, as well as some ingredients to make biscuits which my mum had sent me the recipe for. I spent the afternoon making those - and they were excellent, it has to be said - before chilling out and watching a film in the evening. At night, we heard there was another Iglu event on, so Claire, Jess and I headed downstairs to the common area where we had a few drinks and played cards with a few other people from different flats. There still aren't all that many people here at the moment, but one or two new people have started to arrive this week and the place should be full again by mid-February.

These are the biscuits which I made - they were excellent, even if I do say so myself.

I got off to bed at a fairly reasonable time and set my alarm for 4.30am in order to get up and watch the football. When I woke up some hours later though, it was quickly apparent that I had slept straight through my alarm and missed the game. I hurriedly checked the BBC Sport website to find that Spurs had beaten United 2-1 at Old Trafford. Another poor result, so I went back to sleep. I had work later in the day, although just a short shift from 6pm until closing at 9pm, so I spent most of the day relaxing in the flat. My only activity of note was watching Pulp Fiction on Netflix - I never get tired of that film.

I had another quiet day on Friday; a long lie followed by a trip to the supermarket took me up to the early afternoon. I then downloaded some music before having lunch, getting changed and heading off to play football. At night, Alex and I decided to go to the cinema and see the new Anchorman film. We met on George Street and walked along to the Event cinema, near Town Hall, for an 8.30pm showing. We walked into the relevant screen and began finding our seats; there was only one other woman in the entire room and she was sitting on her own. I couldn't believe it when I discovered that our seats were sat next to her. The guy who selected our seats must have thought that was good banter, but I wasn't much impressed as the time awkwardly dragged on before the trailers started. The film itself was quite funny in parts, but not as good as the first film I thought - always the same.

I was working again on Saturday, which took up the majority of the day, but I was fairly pleased when my shift seemed to go by quickly. After heading home, I made dinner and chilled out for the night - I watched Peter Kay: Live at the Top of the Tower which I hadn't seen for ages and it did not disappoint! Properly hilarious! Eventually, I headed off to bed shortly after 1am, which proved to be the start of an awfully bad sleeping pattern for the next few days. Upon waking on Sunday around 11am, I checked my phone to see that Kerry had been asked to stay on at her Christmas job at New Look, which she is delighted about.

After getting showered and dressed, Claire, Jess and I decided to have a flat-excursion to do the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk. We caught the bus from Railway Square out towards Coogee beach where we began walking north along the cliff-tops towards Bondi beach. After stocking up with some water and an ice-cream, we set off. The walk took us around an hour and a half to complete and we saw some fantastic scenery along the way, as we passed coves, beaches and cliffs along the coast. Again, it's probably easiest if I just post some pictures which I took along the way.

Coogee beach from the start of the coastal path.

The rock swimming baths at Coogee beach.

Me at the cliffs between Coogee and Marourba.

Some people swimming in the bay at Maroubra, where there is an underwater nature trail, which is marked out by large chains along the sea-bed.

Concrete sunbathing areas, near Clovelly beach.

Clovelly Bowling Club, just after the beach.

Tamrama beach - often listed as one of the nicest in Sydney.

The swimming pool at Bondi beach.

After getting some food and then spending some time sunbathing at Bondi, we caught the bus back towards the city and headed home. The other exciting event of the day was that I purchased my ticket for Leeds Festival in August, which I am already very much looking forward to! At the moment, there is a group of around 8 or 9 of us going, so it should be a great weekend! It was time for an early night again after dinner, ready for the football at 3am. In some ways I wished I hadn't bothered to get up for it though, since the game was another shocker as Swansea won 2-1 at Old Trafford, dumping United out of the FA Cup. Back to sleep.

On Monday, Jessica and I were both off work so we decided to finally visit the aquarium in Darling Harbour - another item on the list of tourist attractions to see during the summer. We met outside Town Hall station and headed towards Zara where I had to return a t-shirt I bought, before walking down to the harbour. As we arrived outside the Sea-Life Centre, there was a huge queue - not anything like New Year, but still a lot busier than we had anticipated for a Monday. After waiting in the queue, we made our way inside and around the various glass tanks of fish - or fishes as Jessica liked to call them, in a deadly serious fashion.

Some sting rays, which still had their deadly barbs attached.

Most of the things we saw at the beginning were alright, but nothing really special, until we reached the first of the underwater tunnels. The first of these took us beneath a tank containing various stingrays, as well as two huge dugongs - which are essentially very similar to manatees. The second glass tunnel was a highlight of the whole aquarium though, taking us below the shark tank. It was awesome to see the huge fish up close, safely surrounded by the protection of the glass. They were just amazing, although they did prove quite difficult to catch on camera!

I think my favourite part of the aquarium was the final attraction though - a truly massive coral reef tank, containing many of the same kinds of fish we had spotted in the wild up in Cairns a few months ago. It was great to just sit and watch the various fish, of which there were thousands, swimming around and interacting. A great big fish tank is definitely something which would be included in my dream home, I'm sure.

Afterwards, we headed around to Circular Quay in order to find somewhere to go for lunch, but got distracted for a while by a spectacular yacht which was berthed in the harbour, near the bridge. It was clearly privately owned and the occupants were out on deck enjoying some lunch with a picture-postcard view of the Opera House. Quite literally how the other half live.

Eventually, I remembered a beer garden which I had spotted a few weeks earlier whilst walking across the Harbour Bridge, so we went there for some lunch. It was a great little place, with a rooftop garden overlooking the harbour and the Opera House; we spent quite some time just chilling out in the sunshine, enjoying some food and wine. Afterwards, we moved on to the Edinburgh Castle Hotel for another drink, mainly in order to see if they served any Scottish drinks and for the novelty factor to say we had been. In truth, there was nothing Scottish about the place except the name. Finally, we went to our favourite Three Wise Monkeys pub for one last drink before heading back to my flat to watch Trainspotting. Another good day had, and bed was very welcome once again.

Tuesday was my last day off before working for the next three days, so I had planned on doing something worthwhile, but it didn't really work out that way. After the late night previously, I had a totally lazy day, watching Oasis interviews on YouTube and eating rubbish food, mainly. There have been a lot of rumours going around recently that Noel and Liam Gallagher have ended their feud and there is growing speculation that the band will be getting back together. I seriously hope the rumours are true; I would love to see another Oasis tour!

I was back to work on Wednesday afternoon, which meant a lazy morning followed by chilling out and doing nothing much at all for most of the day. After my shift, I got home and cooked a beef stew, which Mum cooks sometimes back home. It's fair to say that whilst mines was reasonable enough, it wasn't anywhere as good as the one she makes. I'll need to keep practising it, I think. Whilst eating dinner, I listened to an episode of the Chain Reaction radio show, where Kevin Bridges interviewed Frankie Boyle and it was truly hilarious. Even if you think that Frankie Boyle is a bit crude and too much nowadays, I would still encourage you to listen to it because he's completely toned down and normal during it. It was really excellent and I'll likely go back and listen to it again soon before it gets taken down from iPlayer online. Thursday meant work again, though I spent the morning somewhat productively by starting to write this blog post - although it has taken me another few days to actually sit down and finish it.

The usual afternoon game of football was the highlight of Friday, after starting work at 10am. I headed home after my shift finished and had some pasta for lunch - a really good choice for a pre-match meal I thought. I headed up to the college field around 4.30pm where some of the guys were already waiting. It was almost a relief when 8pm came around though and brought an end to our game since I had played terribly, missing multiple incredibly easy chances to score. Just awful. I trudged home, listening to my iPod, made dinner and watched some TV before bed.

Even though I haven't quite caught up with the events of the last few days, I'm going to end this post here, otherwise it will just be far too long once again. The next post will include the You Me at Six and Paramore gig as well as some other adventures hopefully!

Until next time,
Jamie

Christmas and the final post of 2013!

My last post was on Sunday, 15th December - it's been a while - and that night brought another United fixture to enjoy. Gladly, we won 3-0 away to Aston Villa, but the best part of the game was the late substitution which saw Darren Fletcher make his return to the team after almost a whole year out because of his illness. It was great to see him on the pitch again. I got off to sleep soon after the game and immediately checked the other scores around the league when I woke up; I was absolutely stunned to see that Liverpool had beaten Spurs 5-0 at White Hart Lane, in a game that would ultimately prove to be the last for Andre Villas-Boas.

On Monday, I crossed off another item from the "to-do list" as I visited the Museum of Sydney, near Circular Quay, with Jessica. The museum itself stands on the site of the First Government House, first occupied by Captain Arthur Phillip, who was the first Governor of New South Wales when he arrived with the First Fleet of convicts from England in 1788. The museum itself was enjoyable and interesting, but there is a severe lack of history compared to some of the museums and exhibitions which I have seen back home in Scotland and whilst on holiday in England or France, amongst others. Australia simply doesn't have a long and glorious history, although the interaction and relations between the Aboriginal occupants and the European settlers was a fascinating story of which I knew little about before my visit. One of the things which I was most surprised to hear was that the first Governor actually went to great lengths attempting to build relations with the Aboriginal people and there was strong social integration. Eventually, one of the Aboriginal men became so accustomed to English dining etiquette and politeness that he later travelled to England and was widely considered to have better manners than most of the English upper classes who he dined alongside.

Outside the museum, on the site of the First Government House.

After a few hours in the museum, we headed up George Street to find somewhere to have lunch. After wandering rather aimlessly for some time, eventually a decision was made to go to Wagamama in The Galleries, not far from Town Hall. This particular little collection of shops is home to the spectacular Kinokuniya book shop, where I had done some Christmas shopping and another hour or so was spent simply wandering around the shelves once again. After heading home, I got changed and played football in the evening. The entertainment for the night was supplied by the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League and the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special, which is by far my favourite Christmas Special of any TV show. United drew Olympiakos in the draw, which I was pleased with, especially since the away leg is first - a good day all round.

On Tuesday morning I had a shift at work, though luckily I was finished by 3pm. I headed home and ate lunch whilst watching the final day of the third Ashes Test. Although England still had a slim chance of turning things around, ultimately they collapsed again and Australia won the match, taking a 3-0 lead and therefore regaining the Ashes urn for the first time since 2009. England have been abysmal from start to finish and there was now a real danger of Australia thrashing them 5-0, with Tests in Melbourne and Sydney still to come.  received some Christmas cards from home, which was a great surprise; they certainly helped to create some additional festive feeling to my room and proved to be far more pleasant than the email received from Glasgow on the same day. The email concerned choosing dissertation questions and gave us some information about the process and a deadline date. I can't believe it's time to think about that already.

I had another day off work on Wednesday and spent the morning doing nothing at all. In the afternoon, Jess and Claire were heading out for lunch with Jess's friend Mai, from Vietnam. We went back to the Korean restaurant where we had been a few months before for Claire's birthday and it was just as excellent as I remembered. I'm totally useless with trying to understand the menu so took Claire's advice on what to order; I had a kind of beef and noodle soup and it was an excellent choice again.

On our way home, we stopped by the dollar shop in World Square to try and get some more Christmas decorations for the flat, as well as another Christmas tree. Unfortunately this shop wasn't nearly as good as the one at Bondi Junction and we didn't manage to find a tree, though we did get some more tinsel. I also bought a large Australian flag to hang up on the wall in my room, which I was very pleased with!

After arriving home and chilling out for a while, Claire, Jess and I began cleaning the flat for our re-inspection the following morning. We did a great job and the place is now truly sparkling, even though I feel like it was up to an appropriate standard first time around anyway. I know when something can be considered clean, you need only see how well kept my car is for proof of that. After we had finished our clean-up job, I hooked my laptop up to the TV in the living room and watched Angles Share, which was fantastic! I watched in on the American Netflix site though, which meant the Scottish dialect was subtitled the whole way through!

I headed off to bed in anticipation of another early rise to watch the football the next morning. United were playing away to Stoke in the quarter final of the Capital One Cup and a win would give us a semi-final place and a huge opportunity to go on and win a trophy in Moyes first season. The game was really quite boring for the duration of the first half and there was nothing noteworthy or controversial in the match until a massive hail-storm swept over the stadium, prompting the referee to temporarily abandon play. After half time, United scored two great goals through Ashley Young and Patrice Evra and we were safely through to the next round. The draw for the next round gave us a home and away tie against Sunderland, which seemed to be the best possible draw for us, so I headed back to bed for some more sleep with a smile on my face.

We had been told that our re-inspection would be taking place at 10am, so those of us who remained in the flat were up and ready, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the person charged with inspecting our living area. Predictably, there was no sign of anyone as time wore on and as we approached 11am, Claire decided to email and find out what was happening. I don't see why people think it's acceptable to have you waiting around all day after previously giving a very specific time, as if none of us had any other plans for our time. Eventually, I got bored and went to have a shower and get dressed and typically, the inspectors turned up whilst this was happening. I came out the shower to find a Facebook message in our flat's group chat to say that we had passed successfully.

I decided to make the most of another gloriously sunny afternoon by walking across the Harbour Bridge for the first time. I caught the free shuttle bus from Railway Square down to Circular Quay, walked around the front of the harbour-side, underneath the bridge and headed along the Rocks to find the stairs up the the bridge. Although I had a perception that the bridge was big, I had no idea it was so high; you can see for miles around, in all directions and it provides a great place to take photographs. After crossing the bridge, I stopped by a small bakery to get some lunch and found myself a bench by the water, looking back towards the Opera House and the city. It was absolutely scorching and a really relaxed afternoon. I also walked along to Luna Park - the fairground on the waterfront - and the Olympic swimming pool, which is superb! Here are some photos which I took along the way.

A busy harbour from the bridge, looking north-east, towards Manly in the distance.

The Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, city and a cruise ship - again, taken from the bridge.

Looking back towards the city and Opera House on the south side of the harbour, from the spot where I sat and had lunch.

Beneath the bridge itself.

The Olympic swimming pool, not far from the bridge on the north side of the harbour.

The entrance to the Luna Park fairground.

I decided that I couldn't really be bothered walking all the way back over the bridge and also quite fancied taking the train back over - the Harbour Bridge carries cars, trains, pedestrians and cyclists, all on separate sections. It also gave me a chance to see the other side of the harbour from the bridge.

This photo was taken from the train, whilst crossing the Harbour Bridge.

I was working again on Friday, though it was another good shift, starting at 9am and finishing for 3pm; it ended up finishing at 2pm though since it was 37 degrees celsius outside, obviously the shop wasn't busy, so I was sent home. After arriving back at the flat and having some lunch, I got my football stuff ready and headed up to Victoria Park to enjoy the sun for a while before meeting the guys at the College for a game. Even though it was still really quite warm when we began playing at around 4.30pm, I didn't suffer too much in the heat - I've clearly grown used to the weather here now, which isn't going to be much fun when I eventually go home to Scotland. As I arrived home from football, there were a few people having a drink downstairs in the common area and asked me to join them, so I headed upstairs to get showered and changed. We had some wine and the treat of some Smirnoff vodka, which we rarely buy here because it's too expensive and played some interesting games before heading to bed around midnight. I realised I'd eaten no food since playing football in the afternoon, so a few drinks had really hit me hard; I had some food and a couple of big glasses of water before bed, knowing that I had to get up early the next morning again.

The plan for Saturday was to catch the train down to Cronulla, past Como where Jessica would jump on, and go to the beach for the day. I caught the train from Central Station shortly before 11am and arrived in Cronulla around one hour later. The train journey was quite enjoyable after Como, where the scenery becomes quite nice and I realised as I headed south out of the city that when I reached Cronulla, it would be the furthest south I had ever been on the planet - how amazing! When I had got on the train at Central, I mistakenly text Jessica to tell her that I was on the second carriage from the front so she could meet me when she got on the train at Como - where she lives with her Auntie - though it turned out that I was actually on the third carriage from the front, so we didn't meet up until we both arrived in Cronulla. Very poor counting skills from me!

The beach at Cronulla, where Jessica claimed she went in the sea for the first time in Australia - even though she had previously been surfing, as well as snorkelling in Cairns. Oh dear! Haha!

After a few hours at the beach, battling the wind and flying sand - one group of girls had erected a beach-tent which eventually broke and collapsed, which was extremely funny, since one of them was still inside it - we headed off for some lunch. We went to a place called Northies, which seems to be the place where everyone goes in Cronulla at the weekend, and enjoyed some Rekorderlig cider with lunch.

Here is a photo of me at the marina at Cronulla, as it was starting to get cloudy. It looks like I'm holding an invisible bottle of beer or something!

We caught the train back towards the city and Jessica got off at Como again. I arrived back at the flat and made myself dinner, before watching Netflix for a bit. I got off to bed early for the football once again, United kicking off at 3pm back home which meant setting my alarm for 2am here. Another win was duly delivered, as we beat West Ham 3-1 at Old Trafford - a stunning goal from Adnan Januzaj was the pick of the bunch. I got back to bed and enjoyed a long lie on Sunday morning. Sunday itself was a very lazy day; I went out to the shops for a little while and then stopped by the supermarket and headed home again. I spent the afternoon watching a film called "The Way Back" about a group of men who escaped a Siberian POW camp during the Second World War, before reaching safety when they crossed the border into India. Later on, I made dinner and then watched "Elf" - possibly the funniest Christmas movie ever.

The Monday before Christmas meant a busy shift at work for me, starting at 9am until 3pm in the afternoon. Around 5am that morning, I had woken up with a dry, sore throat which seemed to be solved with a drink and a Strepsil - though I knew a cold was on the way, arriving just before Christmas with the kind of poor timing usually associated with Paul Scholes tackles. I got back to sleep before my alarm went off around 7.30am, which was time to get up and ready for work. As expected two days before Christmas, the shop was packed with customers and my shift passed really quickly - always a welcome relief. After work, I got changed and headed to go and play football again. When I came back, Claire and I went and did our food shopping for Christmas Day, in Woolworths, getting most of the stuff we needed in one go. The other important event on Monday was the extension of my lease here at Iglu; after much debate, consideration and weighing up of the various factors, I've decided to stay where I am living just now until I go home, rather than finding new accommodation. My flatmates are all nice and I'm in a really convenient location, so I'm pleased to be staying where I'm settled in and avoiding the need to move all of my stuff again.

I was delighted to find that I wasn't working on Christmas Eve, for the first time since I started working in electrical retail at Comet a few years ago. In an effort to get rid of my developing cold, I had slept with the air-conditioning off for the entire night, which led to a bedroom like a sauna and a night spent tossing and turning. I woke up fairly early again and remembered that it was Christmas Eve, so I had a couple of early presents to open which had been posted to me from home. After some breakfast, I opened an "Aussie Night Before Christmas" book and a pair of Santa Claus boxers, whilst on FaceTime to Mum, Dad and Kerry. Since all of my present shopping had been done and the food shopping virtually completed the day before, there was very little left to do except relax and play Pro Evo on the Playstation. I did venture out to the shops briefly in order to buy some ice-cream, a box of Celebrations chocolates, some cough medicine for my cold and pigs in blankets for Christmas dinner. I didn't manage to find the pigs in blankets, they don't seem to have them in supermarkets here, even for Christmas - same thing with Brussels sprouts actually - though I managed to get everything else. I also did some final present shopping, picking up some little gifts for my flatmates, before heading home to wrap them. Present shopping completed.

Presents for various people, all wrapped and ready to go!

I headed home, chilled out for a while and ate some Celebrations before making dinner. Alex, Jessica and I had earlier arranged to meet up for a drink later that night, when we would also be swapping our Christmas presents. After dinner, I went downstairs - almost literally - to Bar Broadway to meet Alex. We had a beer and caught up on his trip up the Gold Coast and down to Melbourne, where he had been road-tripping with his dad for the last few weeks. After finishing work, Jessica also joined us, which meant it was time to swap presents! I had got Alex some beers, a book of photographs of Sydney and the surrounding area and a Sydney engraved bottle opener; whilst I got Jessica some perfume, the Trainspotting book, some Crunchie chocolate and a bottle of wine. It's after Christmas now that I'm writing this, so I'm not giving anything away! After a few more drinks, the barman hurried us along, Jessica headed home and Alex and I went back to my flat to have another few beers before he headed off home too.

I stayed up late watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special again, followed by the Still Game Christmas Special. Once I was off to bed, I had another terrible sleepless night, first waking at around 5am once more, which is a nightmare on Christmas morning because you don't actually want to go back to sleep very much! I'm still like a big child when it comes to Christmas! Haha! Eventually I did get another few hours, before waking again around 7.30am, but this time there was no going back to sleep, no matter how hard I tried. I stuck my iPod on for a little while and lay in bed listening to Noel Gallagher before finally admitting defeat and getting up. I had breakfast and then spoke to Kerry and Cameron on FaceTime for a while, whilst Mum, Dad, Ade, Cors and Rebecca were all at the midnight carol service at the church. Once they came back, it was time for me to open my presents, which was exciting! Again on FaceTime, I delightedly opened up a Kindle, case and charger - much to my surprise - as well as a book of Sir Alex Ferguson quotes, new boxers and socks and a bottle of Honey Jack Daniels. I also got a Man Utd desk calendar from Gillian, Colin, Rachel and Emily; a personalised, Scottish-themed "Where's Wally?" type book from Auntie Jean, Uncle Brian and Abigail; a collection of superb Sydney-themed items from Jessica, including a much needed beach towel, and a "Hangover Cookbook"; a great t-shirt from my flatmate Claire; a bottle of Korean wine and an Australian bottle stopper from Jess; and I also got a card with dollars inside from David and David - all much appreciated! I was delighted with my gifts, particularly my Kindle which I had been thinking about for a long time, and unknown to me, the decision was made and I'm completely loving it!

After I had chatted to everyone at home for a while longer, they all headed off to bed and I spoke to some of the troops back home, who were at Aaron's pre-drinking before going out on Christmas Eve. It was great to see so many of them and reminded how much I was missing them all, especially on that night since Christmas Eve is always a great time to all go out together and bring in Christmas with everyone. It was only Claire, Lin and myself in the flat for most of the morning, so Claire and I began preparing the food for Christmas dinner, which we would be having later on when Jess arrived home and Andy turned up also. We watched "Four Christmases" which is an awesome film as well as another Still Game Christmas Special, which was appreciated even though I did have to translate and explain several parts! Unfortunately, it was raining on the day, which meant our plans to go to the beach never materialised. It felt just like being at home - cloudy, grey and drizzly!

Carrots and potatoes ready to go in the oven.

The chocolate brownies which Claire made for dessert; we had them with vanilla ice cream and they were fantastic!

Later on, Jess arrived back and Andy also came along, which meant it was time to eat! Claire and I had been snacking on chocolate and crisps pretty much the whole day, but we were still very much looking forward to dinner! We had cooked a whole roast chicken, a beef joint, roast potatoes, roast carrots, as well as a seafood dish, as well as cranberry sauce and gravy. We had also gathered up a generous collection of wines and beers to keep us going for Christmas Day and beyond!

Ready for dinner!

After we had eaten, we cleared up and relaxed for a while before pudding; Andy and I played some super-competitve games of Pro-Evo on the Playstation, as he took Liverpool and I stuck with United. Grudge match. After pudding, and another beer, I caught up with home on FaceTime again, as Mum, Dad and Kerry had opened their presents from Santa and were now going to swap each others presents, including the ones to Mum and Dad from Kerry and myself. Mum was delighted with her onesie, mug, Sydney fridge magnet and butter dish - what a strange gift, but that's what she wanted, so there you go - and Dad was similarly pleased with the Still Game DVD box set, a 'Keep Calm I'm a Bus Driver' t-shirt and a couple of bottles of nice Australian red wine. My presents to Kerry included some perfume, a tartan shirt she wanted as well as a choice of two envelopes from a possible three, with only the knowledge that each one contained an activity for when she comes to Australia. She was only allowed to open two and the third would be revealed when she arrived here; she picked the envelopes with a whale watching trip and another with surfing lessons. She's petrified of being eaten by a shark now, or being stung by a sting-ray, which is hilarious! The third envelope will be revealed in a few months! I got off to bed shortly after midnight, having had a far better Christmas than I could ever have hoped for so far away from home - there was great company, great food and wine and great presents too! Superb!

On Boxing Day, my plan was to head out to the coast in order to watch the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Each year on the 26th December, a fleet of some of the worlds finest racing yachts departs Sydney Harbour on course for a finishing line in Hobart, state capital and largest city on the island of Tasmania. The race usually takes around four or five days to be completed, meaning that many will arrive in the early hours of New Years Eve. I caught the free shuttle bus down to Circular Quay and then another bus out to Watsons Bay, where I found myself a spot out on the headland to watch the start of the race. Once the yachts had raced off the starting line at an incredible speed, which totally took me by surprise, I followed their progress around the coastal path along with a huge crowd of other spectators to see them sail out of the mouth of the harbour and into the open sea. I got some great photos and it was a brilliant day standing out in the sunshine, seeing a part of Sydney I had never visited before.

The beach at Watsons Bay, with the city in the distance.

Just part of the huge crowd gathered to watch the beginning of the race.

Some of the yachts - the big black sail was one of those competing in the race - as well as hundreds of spectator boats.

A few minutes after the starting gun had fired. The larger yachts took off like sprinters, it was quite amazing to see!

Some of the smaller yachts in the fleet sail out past the headland on their way to the first buoy marker.

A classic selfie-shot with some of the yachts nearing the horizon.

A photo taken from Christison Park, above Watsons Bay.

Another shot from Christison Park, looking south, along the coast in the direction of Bondi Beach.

On my way back, I jumped off the bus at Circular Quay and decided to walk back along George Street. I had intended to stop by some of the shops and see if there were any bargains in the Boxing Day sales, though the sheer numbers of people out shopping put me off completely and I didn't bother. Many shops had people queued up around the block just waiting to get inside! Crazy!

This photo was taken outside Topshop, where police were patrolling the pedestrian crossings to ensure people weren't walking out in front of traffic.

After arriving back at the flat, I chilled out for a while before having dinner. Afterwards, I spent some time downloading some books onto my new Kindle, which is just great - I can't stop going on about how good it is. What an excellent present! There was another United game kicking off at midnight - I love this time of year, when there just seems to be football on every two or three days! Even though the game started really badly, United went 2-0 down to Hull after only 15 minutes or so, we staged a brilliant comeback to win the game 3-2 eventually - including a stunning volley by Wayne Rooney. Three points on Boxing Day, what better Christmas gift could you ask for? I got straight to sleep after the game since I had work the next day, which meant there would be sales on. The joys of retail.

As it turned out, work wasn't too busy and I didn't actually start my shift until 3pm, which I hadn't initially realised. I spent the entire morning doing nothing at all, except reading some of "The Promised Land" by Daniel Harris, the first book I chose to read on my Kindle. Predictably, it's about Man Utd and tells the tale of the historic 1998/99 Treble-winning season; it's a great read and I would recommend it to all United fans. In work, there were enough customers to keep us busy, but nothing that wasn't manageable and the shift came and went fairly quickly. I got home, made dinner and watched "Class of '92" - a Man Utd film about the amazing group of players including Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham who went on to make history playing for the club. Again, it was just fantastic and any football fan should make sure they don't miss it!

On Saturday, I had a quiet morning before meeting Jessica in the city in the early afternoon to go shopping for a while. I was looking for sunglasses, a new belt, aftershave, a watch and possibly some new shoes. I ended up not getting any of the things I went for but did buy two new t-shirts. Typical. Once we had called it quits at the shops, we walked down to Darling Harbour where we had an early dinner before meeting up with Alex, having planned to see the new Hobbit film at the cinema that night. We wanted to go to the IMAX at Darling Harbour to see it - they have the biggest screen in the world there - but it was already sold out. The back-up plan was to go to the Event cinema on George Street, where we bought tickets to see the film in regular 2D; I enjoyed the film, but much the same as the first Hobbit film, I didn't think it was fantastic. Certainly not in the same league as Lord of the Rings, but not many films are, in hindsight. Again, I headed home afterwards and got straight to bed since there was yet another football match that night. I set my alarm for 2am in order to get up and watch it, though when 2am came around I was simply too tired to get up. I put the alarm back on in time for the second half starting and went back to sleep. What felt like 10 minutes later, my alarm went off again, at 2.50am and I dragged myself out of bed to see that it was still Norwich 0-0 Man Utd. Hadn't missed much anyway. The second half wasn't very good either, though Danny Welbeck did steal a nice goal and it finished 1-0! Another good away win and our fifth on the bounce!

I had another chilled morning on Sunday after a well-needed long lie. I was supposed to be working later in the day, but received a text from one of the managers at work to say that since the shop was really quiet, I didn't have to come in for my shift. Instead, I headed out to the shops at Broadway to try my luck at getting some of the things I had been looking for in the city. I did finally get myself a new belt as well as another new t-shirt, but nothing else. Shockingly bad effort. I spotted a Facebook message on my phone and saw that Robert had asked me to go and play football down at Wentworth Park again at 3pm. I decided that would be a good way to spend the afternoon, so got changed and headed down shortly before the time when I knew the guys usually arrived. Only Robert was there and we sat around until almost 4pm waiting on some others to arrive; eventually a few lads turned up and we had enough bodies for a short-sided game of fives. Fives on a Sunday afternoon - it was almost like being at home! After a few hours in the afternoon heat, I grabbed my stuff and walked back home, completely shattered. Upon arriving home, I discovered that Australia were once again dominating England in the Ashes and were merely 30-odd runs away from taking a 4-0 lead. No prizes for guessing that they took a mere half an hour to gain the required runs and embarrass England once more. Abysmal from them, awesome from the Aussies.

This is Wentworth Park, where I played football on Sunday.

This morning, I got up around 9am and had some cereal, before lying back in bed to watch Match of the Day. Incredibly, towards the end of the football highlights I fell asleep again and didn't wake up again until shortly before noon! I must have needed it, since I don't think I've ever slept for anywhere near 12 hours before! Very out of character for me! After jumping out of bed in shock at the time, I sat down to start getting this blog post written, before heading out to play football this afternoon. Unfortunately, very few people turned up, so we called it quits and I decided to do a running session instead. I followed a routine which Andy had showed me at home some time ago, essentially HIIT cardio work - it was absolutely killer and the heat didn't help. I walked home, legs like jelly, had some dinner and sat down to finish this post.

It's now just past midnight on Tuesday, 31st December, which means there are less than 24 hours of 2013 remaining. It seems to be fashionable to complain about the year that has just gone and make promises of a "new start, new me" on Twitter and Facebook, but I have to say that 2013 was another awesome year in my life. I cannot wait to see what 2014 has in store.

Our plans for tomorrow are to head down the Harbour fairly early and get a good spot to see the fireworks at midnight and bring in the bells! I'm looking forward to the world-famous Sydney Harbour fireworks, so I hope they don't disappoint! I hope everyone in Sydney, friends and family at home, as well as friends who have now returned to their own part of the world have a fantastic New Year when it comes and a brilliant 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Until next time,
Jamie

It's beginning to feel a lot like...summer!

There is a bit of an overlap from the last post which I need to catch up on...

On Sunday night, after returning from Stereosonic and stopping by McDonalds for some food, I battled to stay awake through the Man Utd game as we drew away 2-2 away to Spurs. I was so tired from the weekend and it was bedtime for me as soon as the final whistle blew; my head had barely hit the pillow before I was asleep. Monday morning brought a well needed long lie, after which I got up and did absolutely nothing all day except watch Netflix and eat. The most productive part of my day was sorting out the various photos and videos from the weekend and compiling some of the better clips together to make a YouTube video. Here is the link to it, if anyone would like to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH5W26lISxs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUYFev9KKJGt7jKnRlQlJEuQ

On Tuesday, I started picking my classes for next semester. Although we won't have them confirmed for quite some time yet, we are still required to submit the list of classes we want to take just now - in fact, it was supposed to be done before the end of the semester, mines was late. After strategically picking through the timetable and reading some of the class descriptions, a final selection was settled and I headed into uni to hand the form into the International Office on campus. In the afternoon, I decided to update and add to my list of things which I want to see and do in Sydney whilst I'm here - given that it is summer and I'm not at uni at the moment, now seems the best time to see some of the sights. After drawing up my list of sights and places to visit, I finally got my last blog post finished off and posted online.

Inevitably, when you first finish a semester at uni after an exam period, or back in the school days as well, you seem to spend a lot of time doing nothing at all with your time. It is sort of enjoyable at first to just be free from any obligation to study although it does get boring quite quickly. On Wednesday however, I was still happily procrastinating my days away and spent most of the morning after breakfast watching the Sound City documentary, on the recommendation of Andy. It turned out to be a very strong choice and I really enjoyed it - well worth watching if you're into music at all. Later in the day, the first headliner for the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2014 had been announced as Blink-182 and it looks as though there may be a few of us going to it next summer after I arrive back home. After cooking dinner and catching up with home on FaceTime, I got an early night since the football was on early on Thursday morning again. It was another poor result as United lost 1-0 at home to Everton, so I was happy to go back to bed and get some more sleep when the match finished.

The sport continued after I got up again the next morning, as the second Ashes test began on Thursday morning in Adelaide. I'm starting to quite enjoy cricket, even though I've always taken a slight interest in the Ashes when they've been contested over the past few years and I found myself watching most of the play up until lunchtime. Since food supplies were running a little low in the flat, I headed out to the supermarket in the afternoon before returning to watch some more of the cricket. One of the best things about watching cricket is that you can do other things whilst it is on, unlike most other sports - I guess that is why many people find it so boring really. Whilst the match was going on, I sat and downloaded some new music, particularly the back catalogues of Paramore, You Me At Six and Nine Inch Nails in anticipation of seeing them next year. In the evening, Claire, Jess, Khurram and I went to Pancakes on the Rocks, the 24-hour restaurant near Circular Quay, famous for their awesome pancakes. I had chilli beef nachos and a chocolate pancake which was to die for, but so incredibly heavy that none of us managed to clear our plates. Later that night I watched 'The Usual Suspects' on Netflix; I had never seen it before but it was really excellent and I'll probably watch it again sometime soon, which is unusual for me. The big news event of Thursday, 5th December however was the passing of Nelson Mandela, the influential and brilliant former President of South Africa. Tributes poured in from across the world and the television was dedicated to stories of his life and achievements. What an incredible individual.

We saw this tall ship sailing into Circular Quay when we were trying to find Pancakes on the Rocks. I still haven't got tired of going down there and seeing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

On Friday night, we were planning to have an early Christmas dinner of sorts, before Lian left to travel around New Zealand, after which she was heading home to Singapore where she would be getting married. We had divided up various parts which we would be responsible for, so on Friday morning I headed down to Woolworths to get potatoes and some wine from the liquor store nearby. I was also tasked with picking up a bottle of champagne to go with the Vera Weng glasses which the girls had already got as part of a wedding present. I ended up buying two bottles of Promised Land Moscato - which turned out to be lovely and we've since bought more - as well as a nice Australian champagne on the advice of the shop assistant. I returned to the flat to peel and prepare the potatoes since I had a shift at work from 4 until 7 in the evening. After getting my part of the dinner ready, I had some lunch, got ready for work and headed to Broadway for my shift. Work went by fairly quickly and when I returned home the dinner was almost ready to go - always welcome immediately after work! When I checked my phone though, I discovered that our exam results were out and the inevitable nerves sunk in; it doesn't matter how good or badly you think you may have done, the moment of actually getting the results is always pretty horrible. Gladly, the three results which were available were all decent enough and I was relieved to have safely negotiated another semester of exams. One more result to come still, but it was good to have the majority out of the way and I was looking forward to our evening of food and wine as a small celebration. We enjoyed some roast chicken, potatoes, carrots, baked fish and a takeaway pizza followed by a brilliant chocolate cake. Lian really appreciated her gifts and card too, which was great! We ended up staying up until around 2am before calling it quits; I was totally stuffed and ready for bed, especially with work again the next day.

I was starting work at 12, so at least I had time for a decent sleep before needing to get up, having some breakfast and a shower and getting ready to leave. Once again, my 6 hour shift went by fairly quickly and it even included a break long enough to go and get a sandwich from Subway. I had found out the previous day that Alex was back in Sydney for a few days after his trip to New Zealand, so we planned on having a night out on Saturday before he flew back to the USA on Monday. After work, I headed home and made myself some dinner and chilled out for a while before we were due to head out. Jessica came over to mines for a drink and we were then going to head out to Kings Cross. Although, Alex didn't get into the club where we were meant to be going, so Jessica and I ended up finishing our drinks and not going out. I ended up going to McDonalds around midnight and watching the football on my laptop; unfortunately United lost at home for the second time in a week.

On Sunday morning, I had a long lie and woke up to check the rest of the football scores from through the night. Rather fortunately, both Chelsea and Man City had dropped points too which meant the United result wasn't nearly as bad as it might have been. I had been planning on going to the pool at the Prince Alfred Park to spend the day relaxing in the sunshine, but shortly before I was going to leave I received a Facebook message from Robert, a guy I met through the Soccer Society, asking if I wanted to play that afternoon. I decided to play football rather than go to the pool although in hindsight, the pool would have been a far more relaxing day, as the afternoon heat beat down on us as we played. I even managed to get a little sunburnt from the few hours which we played. It was good to meet yet another decent group of guys who enjoyed a game of football though and it was also the first time I had been down to Wentworth Park, where they play. The park is near the Anzac Bridge and not far from another amazing marina on the waterfront - it's a very picturesque place for a kick around. On a related note, unfortunately, there was an email sent out to those players who hadn't been picked for the Hakoah squad and I was one of the people who hadn't made the team. Gutted. I'm still hoping to find another team though.

I was working once more on Monday - a fairly long shift too - which is great for making money but also dreadful knowing you have to get up and go to work all day. The shop wasn't too busy, which was unusual considering how close we are getting to Christmas, even though it was a Monday. I had a bit of a headache in the afternoon and I was glad to be finished work and get home. After dinner, I spent some more time hunting for Christmas presents online to send home, but I was still struggling to come up with an idea for Kerry. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, it was alright bright and sunny and the weather forecast was for a really warm afternoon, so I decided to get up and go to the pool at Prince Alfred Park. Disappointingly, the free swimming there has finished now, but it's only around $3 for a student entry - can't complain at that! Just as I was heading down past the reception in the common area, one of the staff came running after me - I didn't hear him shout on me since I had my headphones plugged in - and told me that I had a parcel waiting for me. He said I could pick it up later in the day, so I headed off to the pool wondering what could have been sent for me. Surely it couldn't be my Christmas package from home, I considered, since that had only been posted around a week earlier and previously my birthday presents had taken almost four weeks to arrive here. I enjoyed my afternoon relaxing in the sunshine at the poolside, topping up my tan which is actually reasonable now, although I'm still far from bronzed. There's still time! When I returned, I discovered that the package was in fact my Christmas gifts from home - I have no idea how they arrived here so quickly, but I'm not complaining. I opened my cards from Dad, Mum and Kerry as well as one present which was labeled "OPEN NOW!" The present turned out to be a Christmas decoration with the dog on it, which I pinned up on the wall for the time being.

My presents and cards from home - including a card from the dog! Haha!

The other brilliant thing which happened on Tuesday was that Jess's boyfriend had visited and she had convinced him to leave his Playstation 3 in the flat for a while. Needless to say, I was delighted when I discovered that there was a copy of Pro Evo Soccer on it and took great pleasure in virtually beating Barcelona a couple of times with Man Utd. As sad as it is, I do miss playing FIFA! Haha! I also received my first wages from work on Tuesday - I have definitely missed pay-days! I got a fairly early night after dinner since United were playing early on Wednesday morning once again; I got up at the usual ridiculous time and watched us beat Shakhtar 1-0 to seal first place in our Champions League group. Happy days.

Playstation 3 and Pro Evo hooked up to the TV in the living room!

Since Jessica and I both had a day off work on Wednesday, we decided to go to Bondi as it was supposed to be another scorching day. We were not disappointed and managed to catch the train then the bus out the Eastern Suburbs shortly before 11am. The beach was remarkably quiet and free of people, since it was before noon on a weekday - I had never been to the beach so early before but it was well worth it. The peace and quiet was promptly interrupted by some European guys blaring dance music from their portable speakers though. It was fairly annoying at first, but then they began playing some decent tunes and it was fairly enjoyable to just relax on the sand with some background music. After a few hours of sun-worshipping, we headed to the restaurant at the pavilion for some lunch and a beer. It was great to sit and look out at the sea as we ate and it was definitely one of those moments where you had to pinch yourself to remember that it was actually real. A Wednesday afternoon in December and here we find ourselves on Bondi Beach. Living the dream. On our way back to the city, we stopped by a shop called Hot Dollar, at Bondi Junction, so that we could both buy some cheap Christmas decorations. We ended up buying quite a lot of stuff and my room in the flat is looking suitably festive now!

This giant turtle, made from recycled car tyres, was in the restaurant where we had lunch at Bondi.

On Thursday back home, my Christmas cards which I had posted finally arrived. Rather unfortunately, only the cards for Dad and Kerry had arrived by Thursday, which was funny since it was Mum who most wanted a Christmas card! Her own one did arrive on Friday morning though, luckily enough. My plan for the day was to finish my Christmas shopping - finally! Just after lunchtime, Claire, Jess and I headed to Paddy's Market to get some fruit and veg which we were all needing in the flat; we headed home and dropped off our shopping and then I headed back out to the city to take a wander around the shops. My shopping trip took me to a few places I hadn't really been in the city before, for example the Queen Victoria Buildings which I had only really passed through once before, as well as the Westfield Shopping Centre near the Town Hall. I also found an amazing bookshop called Kinokuniya, which was comfortably one of the most impressive book shops I have ever seen in my life. The majority of the presents I needed to buy were all done in a few hours, so I spent some time looking for some things for myself as well, although I ended up not buying anything. I always find it easier to spend money on other people, which is unfortunate when you could really be doing with some new shoes!

Friday meant that I could look forward to another game of football in the afternoon. I didn't really do much all day, apart from watching the recently aired ITV documentary, 'Keane v Vieira: Best of Enemies' which was brilliant! Roy Keane is such a legend at United for what he achieved as a player, it's just a shame he feels the need to constantly bad mouth Sir Alex Ferguson and just generally act so bitterly towards the club. In the early afternoon, Jessica dropped by with some more Christmas decorations for me as well as some surprise presents. I had no idea what she was on about, but soon discovered that there had been some behind the scenes chat between her and Kerry on Facebook which had led to Jessica buying some things for me which were from Mum, Dad and Kerry back home. Very sneaky! Jessica was keen to point out just how well wrapped her ones were and I believe she may even have suggested they were better wrapped than the ones I had received from home! Serious fighting talk when it comes to present wrapping! Haha!

After playing football and arriving home, I got showered and changed and ready to head out with Claire and Jess from the flat, to go to the night market down at the Rocks. We walked some way down George Street before catching the free shuttle bus the rest of the way to Circular Quay. The markets were extremely hipster, but also quite cool - there was an old fashioned barber, ghost-walk tours, fortune tellers, a silent disco, stalls selling all kinds of jewellery, masks and other small gifts and even a karaoke machine which had gathered quite a crowd as enthusiastic tourists murdered some well known hits! There was also numerous amazing food stalls and we each regretted having already had dinner before we left the flat.

Here's a photo of the three of us wearing our headphones at the silent disco - we didn't stay long, although some people were really getting into it. Always a laugh!

Even though we had already eaten earlier we decided to buy some cannoli from one of the market stalls. It was a sort of crispy biscuit tube, with a filling almost like ice cream. Again, it was something which I hadn't tried before I don't think, but it was excellent! We walked around the rest of the markets and then began walking home, back up George Street. We also stopped by Chinatown where I bought a few cream puffs again - they're just too good and too cheap to say no - and Claire went to a place which sells Taiwanese desserts and that was also fantastic!

Here is Jess and I posing with the cannoli - superb!

On the walk back, we also stopped by the Town Hall to see the lights, which never seem to get boring either - they're fantastic! There was also a music performance happening on one side of the building, in time to the illuminations, which was really cool and I managed to catch a short video of it.

This is the side of the Town Hall, all lit up.

Finally, I also noticed that the monkey statues on top of the Three Wise Monkeys pub had been dressed up in Christmas gear, which was funny!

Yesterday, I was working from 12 until 6 again, so I got up in the morning, had a shower and some breakfast and headed off for my shift. The day went past fairly quickly and I also had a break to go and get some food, which was very welcome since I was starving. Jessica and I were planning to go out for a few drinks that night, but eventually we decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe at Darling Harbour. I'm fairly sure the only time that I have been to a Hard Rock Cafe before was when we were in Disneyland Paris years ago and I've never been to the one in Edinburgh, so I was really looking forward to it! We ended up getting a really good table with a view of the harbour, which was great for the usual Saturday night fireworks. I had brisket with coleslaw and chips, whilst Jessica had fajitas and we drank a really nice bottle of Marlborough Upside Down Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. I'll be like a Scottish Oz Clarke by the time I come home.

Hard Rock Cafe Sydney!

The Christmas tree at Darling Harbour.

Inflatable floating Santas on the water.

Afterwards we went to another bar on the harbour-side where we had an awkward conversation with a random Scottish woman, before we moved on to Cargo Bar. I'd never been to Cargo before, but it was really excellent; the DJ was like an old man - he looked like Judge Jules - but he played some great tunes. There was also an awesome guy with dreadlocks and a beard who had some brilliant dance moves - Jessica thought he was the coolest guy in the world and then we discovered he actually worked in the bar! Haha! We headed home around 2am, shattered. What a good night - I'll definitely go back to Cargo!

I woke up fairly early this morning - I can never seem to have a decent sleep after a night out - but since it was around 8am, I decided to use the time to catch up with home. I chatted to Jonny in Valencia on Skype for a while and also spoke to Mum and Kerry for a bit. Afterwards, I went out and finished off the last little bits of my Christmas shopping before getting everything wrapped. Wrapping is such a chore, even more so because I appreciate presents really should be properly and nicely wrapped, but I'm not very good at it. An infuriating task, really. I spent this evening finishing off this post and cleaning the flat since we have an inspection tomorrow; gladly the place is looking like a show-home. We've done a really good job of getting the kitchen and living room looking spotless. Only a few hours until the United game now - big game away to Aston Villa, we could really be doing with a win!

Here's a picture of my decorated Christmas tree - thanks to Jessica - with presents underneath!

Only 10 more sleeps now!

Until next time,

Jamie