Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2011! While you back in the UK are mere hours into the new year, I've been there for ages. So while you were settling down for lunch (or whatever you were up to at 1PM yesterday afternoon), I was watching the world famous fireworks from Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Jetlag was a major part of yesterday's frivolities. Despite my early optimism that I'd already acclimatised to Aussie time due to my sleep on the plane, sadly this was not the case. After a walk into Balmain and a game of Scrabble (rock & roll) with Colette and her partner Rachel, that finished around 6, my body had had enough, and I made my apologies and collapsed into bed. In next door-but-one there were "New Year Drinks", and I had been invited along with Colette and Rachel. However, I simply wasn't up to it, and while they went and had a lovely time, I fell asleep in front of the TV back at my home for the next week.

After waking only to see Simon "The Wizard" Whitlock (all-Australian hero) lose to "Na na na na na na na na na na" Vincent van der Voort at the PDC Darts, I drifted in and out of sleep all evening, still struggling with the 11 hour difference from home. However, at 11.40, Colette and Rachel woke me up to take me to a local park with a great view of Sydney Harbour Bridge. There was no way I was missing the fireworks!

For those of you who don't know, Sydney is basically a city made up of loads of random pieces of land surrounded by a lot of water. Balmain (where I'm staying) is a peninsula directly north of the main part of Sydney, and is only a few miles away from the centre of the city. However, much of those miles is made up of water. The upside of this, however, is that the park had a brilliant, unobstructed, front-on view of the Harbour Bridge (focal point for the fireworks). While some people had pitched tents and camped out to ensure their spot at the park, we rocked up at about 11.55, and promptly found a great spot right down the front. The fireworks were great, really memorable. I did take some pictures and a video, which I'll upload soon (if I get round to it). One probable reason for the spot where we sat being vacant, was that it was right in front of a group of rowdy Northern Irishmen. Good humoured as they were, I can understand why some people could perhaps see them as being slightly annoying. After repeating the tune to Duck Sauce's song "Barbra Striesand" (but replacing the words with each other's names), they then shouted "Happy New Year Dickhead" at everyone. (You'd be better imagining that with a drunken Northern Irish slur; it was more "Harpy Neu Yerr Dick Heed"). However, it was all fine, and no trouble at all (was more funny than anything else).

After returning home and falling asleep, I woke to plan my first day in Sydney. New Years Day. I decided that there were a few things I needed, so I got the ferry from Balmain East to Darling Harbour, and after eating the best ice cream in the world, found the biggest shopping centre. While I was looking for an Australian version of Curry's where I could buy a travel adaptor and a memory stick, Queen Victoria Buildings was actually full of Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klien and other shops of that ilk. Not Dixons.

Anyway, after putting that behind me, I went all local and got the train from the centre of Sydney to the much famed home of "Bondi Beach Rescue" - Bondi Beach. Instructed to look out for Maxxie, Hoppo and the rest, I sadly couldn't see any cameras (thus foiling my plan to end up on the next series by splashing around in the water hoping to be rescued), so had to go to plan b - relax on the beach. After a very relaxing couple of hours (and with burns only on my neck and massive tan lines on my arms), I packed up and set off for home. Which is where I am now.

Tomorrow I'm off to the cricket, for the first day of the 5th Ashes test. I'll be doing blogs and podcasts about it, so if you're not interested, unlucky. I'll be sticking links up on here.

Hope you have a great new year!

Will