Sydney Australia - Part 3

With only 3 weeks to go, we have had an absolute blast in Broadway, Coogee, East Balmain, Bronte, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Darling Harbour, New Town, Marrickville, Kings Cross, Bondi and many other little places that make up Sydney. Each suburb has tonnes to offer, even now we have not been to the lovely burger and Spanish places we always say 'we will go there next time!'. It is going to be hard to leave behind our tiny apartment which we have made very homely, work friends and housemates but we look forward to our adventures up the East Coast. We are waiting for the floods to clear around the Rockhampton and Frasier Island area. The rain in Sydney is still on and off so our break along the coast may be a wash out. We have only a week or 2 to get things booked but I guess we have to wait. Watch this space!

Since our last update, 3 main events have occurred:
Christmas
New Year
Cricket

Christmas was the most peculiar event. We made Christmas as special and different as possible. With the constant White Christmas updates from back home, it was tough to compete but we did it. Despite the absence of our family, home traditions and friends it was joyful. We decorated the room with lots of cheap and tacky treats from Hot Dollar, hung stockings, played Christmas tunes most evenings and lit advent candles to count down the 12 days before. Jonny came back from the West Coast and spent the holiday with us, it was nice to have a familiar face around. On Christmas Eve both of us had to work til 4 and then we headed to the local St. Andrews Cathedral with our Canadian and Swedish friends.The Cathedral presented a beautiful service with a choir singing carols, an organ and prayers. It was covered in wreaths, lights and many trees against the stained glass windows. It was a moving service making us both think and feel deeply about the family and how we wished they were here. After the service we went to Newtown and met with a Dutch, Swedish and Kiwi friend and enjoyed a delicious Nepalese banquet and plenty of wine.

The next morning we woke as early as the hangover would allow. Opened the gifts wrapped inside the stockings and threw 'snow' around the apartment, very festive! We woke Jonny sprinkling the snow over his head - I don't think he appreciated it much!We all chipped in and made a delicious Christmas full English breakfast.

Us and 10 other house mates head over to Bronte Beach. This is inbetween Bondi and Coogee and so guaranteed to be less busy. At Bondi there was 50,000 on one strip of sand, at Bronte there was around 2,000 giving us plenty of space to lay a towel. We played in the water or should I say the water played with us with the huge waves battering down on us, made balloon animals, had a picnic and took group photos. It was a perfect day at 30 degrees and it was forecast rain too so we were lucky!

In the evening, we put together with friends a huge group Christmas dinner in the house. It was a bit of a shambles with not enough spaces to sit, no cutlery and sparse brocolli but we have enough of a fill from the Canadians whole ham contribution, drank more wine. We finished Christmas day listening to our Swedish housemate play guitar and having a laugh.

New Years Eve was also forecast to rain and it ended up being another fine day. We had made plans with the Swedish and Canadian housemates to head to a place called East Balmain. This is East of Sydney Harbour and is right on the water edge. It has perfectly clear views of the bridge. We went on the bus and found a shopping trolley to push all our goods to the coastline - very classy! We had plenty of food, water, blankets and wine and found a perfect spot at 12pm. So it was a full 12 hours before the celebration but it still went fast! We sunbathed, ate and played cards during the day. As night fall came, we sang and played guitar again and everyone around was really excited. The atmosphere was electric, I have never felt anything like it. Everytime a ferry or yacht went by the whole park would wave, whistle and cheer. There was even a marriage proposal in the sky. 9pm came and there was a kids display. I thought it was incredible and so it made everyone even more excited for the big bang. At home, there is a midnight countdown from 10 - 1, not in Australia! We were all sat around chatting then the fireworks suddenly went off! We jumped to our feet and the whole sky was in lights. Further down the harbour there was 4 more displays virtually the same as the bridge and they were all in perfect sync. It was a sight that is very difficult to describe! WOW, is all I can think of.

The Ashes one of the worlds greatest sporting rivalries, Australia vs England, Convicts vs The Pommies! The final test of the series hit Sydney and despite England leading 2-1 and thereby already retaining the Urn, England were desperate to beat the Aussies on their turf for the first time in almost 20 years. The 2 Jonny's rocked up at the impressive SCG and took our seats around 10.30 on day 4 of the test. The morning saw us rack up the runs quickly and gave us Englands highest ever score on Australian territory much to the delight of the Barmy Army which we were right amongst! The afternoon saw us sipping ice cold beer in the searing heat as our superb bowling attack tried to knock off the stubborn Aussie batsmen. We had them on the brink as the 7 wicket went down but despite an extra 30 minutes of play we couldnt finish them off. The next day the cricket was free seeing as though it wouldnt take long for us Pommes to beat the Convicts down to size, unfortunately we couldnt get seats with the Barmy Army, the area was completely packed so we sat up above them with a birds-eye view and watched with delight and pride as we took less than 1hr to finish the job and convincingly win the series 3-1. The atmosphere was brilliant, unless you were an Aussie, songs were bellowed out and the England players took there photos with the Barmy Army, if only we had had the same seats again we would of got a pic with the full squad! What a day for the English, what a great day to be in Australia!

Soon we will leave Sydney, but we have many great memories from this super city!