10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1....Happy New Year

As of tomorrow Bad Boi is officially on Australian turf and mine and Amy's lives will once again be complete...as only a Bad Boi can :)

For New Year we had Alison's sister Jenny visiting from London and Jamie and his cousin visiting from Melbourne...we headed down to Sydney Harbour to check out the much talked about fireworks - they cut off pedestrian access to the Harbour at about 6pm so you are forced to get down there six hours early to ponder life. They have fireworks for the families at 9pm which breaks the monotany of sitting on a concrete floor a little bit (obviously some people were organised and brought picnic food, seats, cushions, games etc etc. we on the other hand brought doritos and dip). And what we thought was a good position - between the Botanic Gardens and the shops lining the harbour, turned out to be not so good since the 9pm fireworks went off the other side of the Botanic gardens and the other side of the Harbour as opposed to on the bridge and the Opera House which we could see!

Attempt number two - and since all the families left and we managed to score a place in the Opera House forecourt which was ace and we were on the steps to the Opera House when they went off - brilliant! The usual anti-climax was blown out the water by the $14m they set off in smoke!

You were not supposed to take any glass or alcohol into the enclosure with you but us being A PROFESSIONAL STEALTH INVESTIGATION UNIT - we managed to sneak in a bottle of sprite (vodka) mixed by moi and I don't think anyone will be giving me that task again! How old are we again?! Security was on the lapse side! A good night was had by all and in the end it as fairly civilised since the night before we stayed out till 5am in King's Cross dancing and eating Macd's....who at 5am only had big macs and quaterpounders with cheese left, what happened to all the McChicken McNuggets huh?!...Mark, Jamie's cousin managed to stay even later than us and arrived at Macd's in time for the breakfast shift! Then he got a taxi to Botany Road (we live on Botany Street!!) and ended up on the other side of the city!! Genius :)

Since new year we have visited the moonlight theatre to see Clerks II, the Rand(y)wick Ritz to see The Pursuit of Happyness and The Holiday (all thoroughly recommended) and are now spoilt for choice of activities since the Sydney Festival has begun - we went to a Brazilian Jazz concert in the park and managed to pick up some tickets to go to the Sydney Opera House to see a show called Kiss of Life by a British guy called Chris Goode...also very good :) We will be frequenting the free outdoor cinema at the Olympic Park and some firework display which you are reccommended not to go to if you have difficulty breathing, we will let you know about that one!

Oh, and did we tell you, our lounge now has two armchairs and the most recent addition...three televisions - WOOHOO! Ooops - what I meant to say was three broken televisions :) A big thank you shout out to the City Road boys who when we left gave us some money for each of the countries we were visiting, anywho we remembered this the other day and pretty much ran to the supermarket to buy alcohol....JUST KIDDING!!....we bought lots of yummy food :)

And as for emplyment - I now work on the corporate reception or Client and Dining Services (as they like to call it) for JP Morgan with a lady called Jennie who is pretty entertaining. My day consists of confirming meetings, meeting and greeting people, speaking to the waiters, playing solitaire and freecell, taking people to meeting rooms, when Jennie goes to lunch I play internet jigsaws (www.jigzone.com if there's any other puzzle geeks out there) then Jennie comes back and I go to lunch, in the afternoon Jennie goes home and I play games for another hour and a half - throw the newspapers out, turn the lights off and leave! Saving the world one jigsaw at a time :) Did you hear on the news about the guy called Rex who has just climbed the seven highest mountains in the world and he is only 23? Well, he was in our office the other day and the Attorney General came in for a meeting and I spoke to Shayne Warnes manager on the phone....!

Amy on the other hand now works for a stockbrokers and from what I can gather shouts at the six people who work there...watches music videos...wanders the streets of Sydney for however long she can get away with each day...and writes visual basic code (and she calls me a geek!!)