Hail? On Christmas Day? I want my money back!

For all of you with visions of me sat on a beach on Christmas Day whilst you all froze in the fog back home, check out this photo taken from our restaurant window on Christmas Day. There was torrential rain and it even hailed at one point! Not what we were hoping for at all (and back in Sydney it was 26 degrees and our mates were on Bondi, which was most annoying!). Turns out it was the coldest Christmas Day on record in Melbourne with a maximum of 14 degrees and snow in parts. So, I spend all these years hoping for a white Christmas at home and I get one when I'm Down Under. Someone up there does not like me!

Anyhow, weather aside we had a cracking Christmas. The drive down was not as bad as expected. It took us 10 hours but if you consider that in Tinks the same journey took us 2 days then 10 hours felt like a new land speed record. Our hostel in St Kilda was lovely and we managed to make it reasonably festive with our christmas cards from home and presents.
Christmas Eve was fantastic - we went to the Stokehouse, a fancy Melbourne restaurant on St Kilda beach. On the way there the weather took a turn for the worse and by the time we got there we were drenched... it was far nicer to watch the gales and rain from inside the lovely dining room.

We started with cocktails and bubbly whilst waiting for Pete's mam Val and her partner Stewart to arrive and then we moved onto a lovely red which slipped down marvellously with our 5 courses of yummy food (scampi-stuffed courgette flowers; duck rilletes with quail breast; roast pork with crackling and prunes; chocolate orange torte with gingerbread icecream; christmas pudding with more gingerbread icecream. Yum!) We were entertained by gospel singers and a band (who were fantastic and soooo funny) and we even got to meet Santa! As the photos testify, we were quite squiffy by the end.

Christmas morning was lovely - we delved into our hiking sock stockings whilst supping on champage bought for me by Pete (and kept chilled in an esky full of ice - so Aussie). Present highlights included fake snow from my sister and a HUGE toblerone. Mmmm.

After a brekky of scrambled eggs, bacon, smoked salmon and more champagne we hopped on the tram to meet Val and Stewart for lunch (avoiding the torrential downpours where we could). Lunch was a lovely 3 course affair involving the obligatory seafood and turkey and then we retired to Val and Stewart's hotel room to slob with in front of the TV. How boring. Aussie children are obviously too busy surfing or something to demand good Christmas TV. Where were the films? The Queen's speech? Only Fools and Horses? Nada. Zilch. Nothing. It was all pants. So I fell asleep.

Boxing Day was thie height of boredom for lil' ol' me... I managed to score amazing tickets for the first day of the Boxing Day test at the MCG - right behind the bowler (or batsman - they change ends, you know?) We saw Shane Warne get his 700th wicket, which was exciting, and England play the most boring game of cricket ever, which wasn't. Now, even the people who like cricket were bored so can you imagine how I felt? Out of my tiny little mind. The things we do for love (like go out first thing on a freezing miserable Christmas Day to find a garage open and selling ice to cool your girlfriend's champagne on Christmas Day, eh Pete?)

Following the cricket we said our farwells to Pete's ma and went back to St Kilda to meet Dicka and Ange - Pete went to uni with Dicka. That was nice, but we were exhausted and not on top form so we sloped off to bed pretty early to get some shut eye in before our 10 hour drive back to Sydney yesterday.
It was nice to get back - especially seeing as Matt and El had obviously been missing us and greeted us with news of pizza and presents. Thanks guys! It was nice to feel like we were coming home.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Special Hello to Chloe - who has managed to work out how to read my blog. Give me more comments kidda, I love them! Love to you all. XXX

Snow is falling, all around me, children playing, having fun...

I can't get that song out of my head, can you believe? There's not a snowflake in sight... last night we had to open the doors onto our balcony as we were so hot. Although the ads on TV still have snowflakes and stuff on them. Christmas this side of the planet just seems all wrong!
So, it's my last day at work before Christmas and the big boss is closing the office at 1pm - escape! - so I'm quickly tapping this in without real thought before I leg it to meet Pete for lunch. What's happened since the last blog entry? Still working. Earning cash to fund my restaurant habit. Pete is working at Bill Granger's restaurant in Surry Hills (put Bill Granger in google and you might just recognise him). He gets free food, lucky barstool. All is peachy in our house, we drink too much and stay up late and it's all good. I've also been catching up with old friends - namely Jane, my bosom buddy from sixth form who I lost touch with at uni... she's out here now with plans to settle for a bit and we got quite squiffy in the Opera Bar on Wednesday. She always was a bad influence (but not gay after all)!
Tomorrow we drive to Melbourne to meet Pete's ma and her partner (silly drive of about 9 hours) .. we have a posh restaurant booked for Christmas Eve - cocktails looking out to sea at St Kilda beach followed by slap-up swanky 4 course meal. On Christmas Day we're booked into a restaurant too so we're probably going to get through the day in a drunken haze as no-one has any responsibilities! Nice. Pete's mam and her partner are at the boxing day test - I tried to get us tickets but gave up when we lost the ashes... so we may be meeting up with Pete's mate from uni. Then a nice 9 hour drive back on the 27th.
New Year's Eve is set to be drunken fuelled. We plan to find a vantage point for the fireworks that allows us to take our own booze, then the gang of housemates will probably drink from stupid o'clock and go "ooooh, nice fireworks". Hopefully it won't be as drunken as the Christmas carol concert we went to last weekend - I ended up trying to throw up and sleeping on the floor all night as movement equalled nausea. Classy.

Anyhow, I'm back in next week so will update the blog with photos of Christmas and stuff. I just wanted to wish everyone back home a very happy Christmas. Sorry for the lack of Christmas cards but here you go... take this blog as your Christmas wishes from me! Love you all and wish you were here (or I was there). Big kisses. XXXXX

Working 9 till 5, dah dah da da da da da-dah!

(Sing the title a la Dolly Parton)...
Yup, today I have that Friday feeling! I haven't had that in a looooooooong time (and the last Friday feeling it was the best one EVER as it was my last day). I started this week with the worst jet lag (as I landed back from the UK on Saturday and started work here in Sydney on Monday - killer). My title is SAP Training Coordinator (oooooo, posh) and I'm working in KC Australia's Corporate Supply Chain. More importantly than the title is that my team are lovely (especially the other training coordinator I'm working with) and there is a kitchen with a fridge and an oven. Sorted. That and the fact that from my chair on the 12th floor I can see a sliver of the harbour bridge between 2 buildings! Wow! On my way to work I cross the harbour bridge and pass the opera house. Hark at me. It's been weird being back at work though - I am so not used to getting up at a regular early hour every morning. I feel asleep fully clothed last night.

Out of work all is well too. We've moved into our house and our 8 housemates are lovely. Our main chums are Matt and Elena, a couple of Laaaaandoners. El's birthday was Tuesday, Matt's is Monday, so we're eating and drinking lots at the moment as it would be rude not to. Good job that I walk 25 minutes to catch the train every morning, eh?

We also share with 2 German couples, a German girl, a couple of Korean girls and a couple of English girls. It's all good. We are in the heart of the (gay) action in Sydney... surrounded by bars and so many restaurants that even if I eat out every night until we leave I wouldn't get through them all. Faye heaven!

Being at home in the UK was class, it was like Christmas. I ate all the things I missed (cheese pasties etc.) and drank far too much with my ladies. I met the lovely Matilda (my friend Jenny's adorable bab) and caught up with my homies.

Jane's graduation day was particularly marvellous - I was so proud of her. So proud that we started drinking Magners at midday and continued until we met the family for a chinese meal at eight o'clock that evening! That's the way to celebrate.

I was gutted to leave the UK to be honest - I was being far too spoilt! But getting back to Sydney and its summer sunshine was definitely good. None of this getting dark at 4pm lark here! We should be here for at least 3 months before we head off to Asia, the next part of our journey. But there's a lot of Sydney adventures to be had before then! Watch this space!!!

One thing to note, hotmail is blocked at work, so I will be checking my hotmail account less frequently. If you want to send me lovely news, send it to my KC account... similar to last time, but Faye.Lester instead of fmlester before the @. WRITE TO ME NOW! XXX