January 2010- fancy dress, music festivals and films!

Saying bye to Nikki was easier than other good byes since we have been here... not cos we don't miss Nik's crazy energy, but cos we know we are going to see her and the rest of the Londoners soon!!! Yep - we are coming home!! We will be home for 3 weeks in March and April and are so looking forward to seeing everyone!

So, January, the month that is usually one for detoxing and saving money, has been no such thing for us!

We had a big girls night out to celebrate Kim's 35th birthday...80s themed!
So we all spent hours drinking vodka, crimping hair and applying over the top make up in Kim's hotel room before we hit the cheesiest night spot in Sydney - Retro!

The place is a dive, with sticky floors and plastic cups, but it really is the funnest place in the world for an 80's night out! I honestly cannot remember the last time I woke up after a night out with legs this sore from dancing!!



The fun of this night out started with the shopping trip - Helen and I were like kids in a candy shop in the jewelry shop!

While everyone in the UK has been dealing with minus temperatures and snow, we have been dealing with crazy heat! We felt it most at Big Day Out - a music festival that was a bit like a giant fair ground! We managed to stay cool thanks to the best invention ever - a battery operated fan that also sprayed water!


Sham and I danced our arses off at the DJ stand where they played lots of old - school dance mixes... Sham was threatening to go "raving" when we come home... now I have warned him we are in our 30's, but no doubt there will be a few of our friends at home that are in as much denial as Sham!!
I am not convinced that I am cut out for festivals... but that might have been more about the 40 degree heat!

Summer in Sydney is the season for outdoor films - a few of the parks and beaches show both classic and current films and we have been taking advantage of it! Sham and I went to see Top Gun and I went to see Grease with the girls. By far the most spectacular venue though is the cinema at the Botanical gardens.

This one sells out within about an hour of the tickets being released. Luckily for me, the lovely Sarina bought up lots of tickets for various sessions as soon as they were released. So off we went to watch The Time Travellers Wife. Unfortunately, summer in Sydney means that there is always a fair chance of rain - on this particular evening, we got a storm!

We got drenched! The good news is, the rain stooped just in time for the film to start - so we were pleased to have sat it out.

So, as you can see, 2010 has started on a high for us! We are really looking forward to seeing all the Londoners in March and even more excited about Mr and Mrs Gavriel visiting us in a few weeks!

Bye for now
Kunj x

2010!

Firstly, Happy New Year everyone!
We have spoken to some of you this week, but if we haven't caught up yet, we will soon!

There is not much to tell you about our new years eve... we had a bbq at Helen and Chris' (who are not by the way EVER allowed to move cos this is the view from their balcony!)


I am going to have to let the pics speak for themselves!

Christmas.Done.

Christmas got off to a slow start - with our sad news still painfully recent, we decided to not attend the gangs Xmas dinner last Sunday. They all seem to have had a great night and the good news is, Helen brought my secret santa present home for me!!

I left work on Christmas eve and went to do a big food shop with Nikki and Shak. The supermarket was surprisingly void of madness! Not sure if the Aussies are more organised and so don't need to go shopping mad on Christmas eve or if we live in an area full of English people that know better than to go to the supermarket on Christmas eve! After our shop was put away, we headed over to The Oaks in Neutral Bay. It was a bit disappointing as a Christmas eve night out, so we left at around 10.30. I was lovely to see some of the gang though as we hadn't really seen anyone for a while.

Christmas morning saw the four of us spend all of 3 minutes opening all our presents - there was no waiting for each person to finish etc etc!
I then finished sorting our food out for the day, and off we went to Jo and Pauls!


Jo had done a great job of bringing a little bit of pommie Christmas to the orphans in Sydney! After a quick glass of pink fizz, we headed down to the beach. A few of them braved the cold water for a swim, the rest of us settled for a couple of hours of beach cricket courtesy of Shams present from Nikki, we headed back up to Chez Watters just before the rain started!


We then proceeded to tuck into enough food to feed a small African country!! Here are pics of SOME of the feast we consumed...




Coupled with the never ending supply of beer, wine, cherry brandy, pimms and rum we had, and the rowdy game of hum that tune, it was only a matter of time before someone gave in to the urge to have a little nap!

Naz found himself a strangely comfortable place to do just that!




Boxing day was spent braving the shops for a bit of last minute shopping for Shak. We also went to see Avatar at the Imax.
This was without a doubt one of the best films we have seen for a while!!