Ok so its been 3 weeks without writing or blogging. I admit I’ve been lazy or maybe I’ve just been having too much fun. I should have made notes or written a little everyday as now I have to think back over the last 3 weeks and attempt to put all that’s happened into words. Here we go…

Sydney is probably my favourite city I’ve ever been to. While our accommodation in Surrey Hills was small and expensive, the hostel was very central and had free wifi. Christmas Eve and Day is pretty much a drunken haze. We went to Bondi Beach on the Eve for drinks then onto Kings Cross for a few more. On xmas day we went to marouba beach with an old friend of Tommys who now works in Sydney. A lot of drink! A lot of sun! A lot of bbq! It did surprise me though that the group we were with were all English and Scottish. It seems british abroad hang out with british. I met some Australians yesterday actually who said the same thing about travelling in England. The Australian’s hang out with Australian’s. By the end of my 10 days in Sydney I figured out why this was the case. There are no Australian’s in Sydney, it’s full of English, Irish and Scottish. Sit in any bar in Sydney and those are the accents you will hear. Sydney is full of British, London full of Australian’s. Go figure. The Ozzies we met yesterday couldn’t understand why we loved Sydney so much. I guess if you grow up there you don’t appreciate it as much. Sydney is big but not too big. You can walk around the whole city centre and its suburbs very easily. It is busy but never seems crowded (except for Bondi on New Year’s Day). You can get to most beaches within 30 mins. The harbour and surrounding area has an abundance of great bars, restaurants and nightlife. Football and cricket stadiums are all within walking distance of the city centre. There is plenty to see and do. From tourist attractions like the zoo, aquarium and such like to parks, swimming pools and gyms. Ferry’s travel frequently around the harbour and across to neighbouring Manly beach. The atmosphere is very relaxed and chilled out. Not once did I feel uncomfortable or troubled wondering the streets at night. Chinatown which borders Surrey Hills had fantastic cheap restaurants. Bondi was a beautiful beach though a little too busy over Xmas. Marouba was just as nice and much quieter. There are just so many things to do. Our best night out was probably on Oxford Street which until late on in the night we didn’t realise was the gay district. We wondered why there were so many men in tight vests. The Gypsy club had great music and cheap beer and I couldn’t believe after being on the dancefloor for over an hour nobody tried to chat me up. Maybe they don’t do fist pumping in Sydney either. New Years Eve we spent on Bondi Beach at an event called Shore Thing. A mini festival with Snoop Dogg, Calvin Harris and Pendulum. We got there around 10pm sober and discovered firstly that the drinks were ridiculously expensive, secondly they had next to no alcohol in them and thirdly you were not allowed to leave and come back. With queues around half hour long it dawned on us that we would be spending this New Year’s Eve depressingly sober. Now I don’t necessarily need alcohol to have a good time but its New Years Eve and we wanted a few drinks, to kick back and have a good time. This whole situation started to get me down. I was getting angry. I attempted to persuade people on the other side of the fence to buy us some alcohol but to no avail. I was getting desperate. After four 12 dollar vodka red bulls with half a shot of vodka and a whole can of red bull in each I sparked to life. I looked at the bar staff. I studied their form. I picked my target. The guy I had my eye on served the person next to me so I asked the girl who served me if she would put in more vodka for an extra 20 dollars. “Sorry sir we are not allowed to do that”. I let her serve someone else and waited for my target. Bouncing around, sweating, smiling, gurning. This was the man. Ill give you 20 dollars for a cup of vodka and a dash of red bull “no problem, just tell me when to stop”. Two drinks later and I’ve lost the hours between 12 and 3. Apparently we were right at the front of the stage during Pendulum and had a really good night. Although I can’t remember most of it, I think the lesson here is that they shouldn’t weaken their drinks at a New Year’s Eve party. If they served proper strength alcohol I would have got drunk slowly and steadily and would probably remember midnight. Although, the real lesson perhaps is that if you run a bar make sure you don’t hire someone who is chewing his face off. New Years Day we spent hungover on bondi beach which was far too crowded. Just check out the pictures. That evening we had a bbq with Tommy’s old babysitter who now lives in Sydney. Check out the other picture of me putting another shrimp on the barbie. Good times. The next day we were sad to leave Sydney but Byron beckoned and Byron was another wonderful place.