11 January 2007 - It's been a while....

So, it's been a while since i last updated....yes, i am lazy. It's been a busy few weeks and i really don't know where the time has gone.....

We manged to get Josh's shop opened on time and had a couple of opening parties.....el vino did flow!! Luckily josh gave me a job after painting and decorating the rooms above his shop....i'm pretty confident that I'll never be painting again!

Unfortunately Nicko left Melbourne on 22nd December to back to England for Christmas and New Year, we said our goodbye's at the airport as i was leaving Oz before he got back and I'm pretty sure he started crying.....i was fine though!

So, then it was time to plan for Xmas and New Year...Me and Kevin had tickets for all 4 days of the Ashes Melbourne test at the MCG over boxing day so we were planning a relatively quiet one so we could fully abuse ourselves at the cricket!! Nicko's mum invited me to her family's Christmas lunch so i went to her sisters place just outside of Melbourne. In the morning i had been at Kevin's girlfriends place for breakfast and to open all our presents. Nicko's aunt cooked us a treat in the afternoon.....salmon, asparagus and feta cheese for starters, then some oysters followed but a full Christmas dinner with some very expensive red wine and Champagne......backpackers are doing it in style nowadays!!! After lunch i was to due to get back to Richmond as were spending the night with Kevin's girlfriend's Italian family in Reservoir. Italian meat, home made red wine and some Italian singing ended Christmas day, had a wicked time.

So the next day was Boxing Day and we were off to the MCG to watch the 'mighty' England play Australia in the Fourth Test. We had already lost the Ashes but we were gonna have a good time anyway. Unfortunately the Test only lasted 3 days as we played probably the worst cricket of the whole series!! We spent each day of the cricket at our seats and then in the afternoon it was off to stand with the Barmy Army for some singing, dancing and a lot of banter with the local convicts......scenes were made! Everyone take a look at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9G6H9w60H8&eurl=

Here you'll just see me with the Barmy Army on day one and you can definitely see my giant England flag with the mighty irons on it!! Amazing!!

We had a wicked time at the cricket, met loads of cool people and the banter was immense!

After 3 days of drinking with the Barmy Army we were up for a quiet New Years!! It was off to Reservoir again for Lasagna and home made wine with Louise's Italian family. They made me feel really welcome the whole time i was in Melbourne and always made sure i was well fed! We left their place around 10.30pm to get back to Richmond. Louise's dad is building a house in Richmond which has a rooftop terrace that overlooked the City, so we were all off there to watch the fireworks with a few drinks.....it was a good night.

The week after New Years was spent painting and catching up with friends as i was leaving Melbourne for good on January 8th! I was really sad to be leaving as I've made some great friends and met some wicked people. Kevin's sister Kelly arrived in Melbourne for a 4 week holiday last Tuesday and on Thursday we hired a car to go down the Great Ocean Road to the 12 Apostles....it was incredible. We stayed the night in Port Campbell then drove back the next day, we even had a Helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles.....amazing scenes!

So, my flight out of Melbourne was booked for Monday 8th January so the weekend was spent saying goodbye to my Aussie friends. Friday we went to Pelican restaurant in St Kilda, me, Kevin, Kelly, Josh, Emily, Dave, Blakey and his girlfriend. The food was amazing and the Espresso Martini's after were even better!! We went to a couple of bars in St Kilda and managed to stroll home at 4am after a wicked night. The next day had a well needed lie in as we had planned our Saturday night in Brunswick street. A few of Louise's friends were out with us and Kat and Emma who i had met in Magnetic Island up north met us as well for a few drinks. Had a really good night and for the second night in a row strolled in at 4am...! The next day me, Kevin, Kelly and Louise drove down to Ramsey street for a wander.....it was hilarious and me a Kev took our 12 foot England flag to get some photo's....amazing.

Monday was my last day in Melbourne.....very emotional times! I said my goodbye's and me, Kevin and Kelly set off to the airport as we were off to Sydney for a couple of days to watch the England/Australia 20/20 game. We arrived Monday night and checked into our Kings Cross Hostel......we went off to Kevin's friends flat, whose balcony overlooked to Sydney Harbor Bridge, it was incredible. We had a BBQ and a few drinks there then set of for a couple of Gin and Tonics in Kings Cross, we had an early night as the cricket was the next day. We chilled out the next day on Bondi Beach before we set off to the SCG for the 20/20 game. It was a great atmosphere and we managed to get tickets for the game off of a tout for face value as soon as we got to the local pub....result! As usual the England team were awful and we got smashed by 77 runs! We had a good laugh though and even got on Aussie TV celebrating with our England /West Ham flag after we hit hit a 4......amazing!

So Wednesday i said good bye to Sydney (I still really don't like that place!!) and i said goodbye to Kevin and his sister.....it was pretty strange to be leaving as Ive spent most of my time with him over the past 6 months.....he's in England in June though so we can create many scenes back in the UK! I flew to Brisbane that night to meet Dave's (My best mate from UK) cousin who lives here. We chilled out at here place last night (she lives in a claret and blue house - amazing!) and i crashed out at 11pm after a long couple of weeks! It's ridiculously hot up here and it's my last night in Australia tonight! Not sure what the plan is but I'm sure we'll be doing something to say farewell!!

Off to New Zealand tomorrow to meet some family that I've never met in Auckland - I cannot wait!!