We are finally in our new house! The move went well, we moved most of the smaller items ourselves and got a removal firm in that charges by the hour to move the heavy stuff, it worked out much cheaper that way. The two guys were huge and picked up the washing machine and other big items single handed, one was a Maori though.  Ste, Sam & Tom helped to load up the van also to make it quicker, they all worked so hard and were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, we couldn’t have done it without the boys. I have just been doing the last of the unpacking whilst they are all at the cricket, by all accounts England are kicking the Aussies asses!! They should have a great day, particularly as they found out they are in the same area as the barmy army. We walked past the barmy armies headquarters in Sydney – the Paragon hotel, it had lots of banners outside announcing they were there.

The house seems great (fingers crossed), it has a ‘retreat’ area upstairs (big landing) with a balcony and lovely sea views, so I have put sofas up there, it also has a beer fridge and other bits so we need never leave the retreat! The open plan family area downstairs is really nice and Xena is loving the garden, so we will hopefully finally settle and start enjoying Australia. We have cable TV, a phone and broadband – feels like we’re in heaven! I cleaned the old house reluctantly, I was going to leave it in the same state we received it in, but didn’t want problems getting the bond back so did the right thing. Our new agent is really encouraging us to go back to VCAT as he has not made any effort, or even been in touch at all in fact, to correct any of the outstanding problems and we have had to continue living in a faulty house. I may just do that.

Sydney was fantastic, and so was the weather. We went to Bondi beach, then walked the coastal path and came across some lovely beaches. We also walked to the harbour and saw Sydney harbour bridge and the opera house up close, we had seen it from the ferry the previous day. We saw the royal botanical gardens and walked through Hyde park, saw the lovely Anzac war memorial, and of course shopping. I will put some pics on Flickr. We have booked to go and watch Hairspray the musical in the city on New Years eve, then we can watch the fireworks at midnight, they are saying they will be better than Sydney’s this year!

We decided to have a traditional Christmas dinner – BBQ! Partly due to the lack of time available to shop for Christmas fayre as we got home at 23.00 on Wed night and was up at 6.00am Thur morning packing, and partly because the boys are not that thrilled with Christmas dinner. It is strange not seeing sprouts (don’t think they even have them here), parsnips are out of season and I don’t think they do stuffing either. Most Aussies BBQ, and eat seafood, especially lobster for dinner. We had a lovely celebration, anti pasta to start, then veal, chicken, burgers and sausage of course. I did do some crispy roast potatoes though as a token gesture! Some nice beer and wine then chatting with our family’s when they had all woken up. Not right though, celebrating Christmas in the sunshine!!

The good thing is that the supermarkets just don’t get crazily busy, I went shopping for food on Christmas eve with dread, only to find the place quieter than normal. The mall also was just like a normal Saturday, it just isn’t  celebrated as intensely over here., but boxing day is a big thing, the mall was packed out. Ellie  and I did one hour and left, the Aussies must love their bargains and so do I, but not that much….