Going Barmy with the Army!

I’ve never been a cricket fan, in fact, I don’t even have a clue what an ‘Over’ is.  So being in Australia at the same time as  The Ashes wasn’t a big deal to me.  

However, as Martin and our friend's Nick and Zena LOVE cricket, I inevitably got swept up in the celebrations when England, to my surprise, actually won!  What was supposed to be a few quiet Friday night drinks turned into a lock in at ‘Barmy Army HQ’.  

Before I knew it, I was arm in arm with die hard cricket fans, celebrating victory with pints of (Aussie) beer, doing ‘The Sprinkler’ and singing; ‘ We are the Army, the Barmy Army and we are mental…’ at the top of my lungs.

I still no nothing when it comes to the rules of cricket but I do know the lyrics to all the songs now!

Who needs the Harbour Bridge to celebrate New Year when Coogee Sparkles!

There's no doubt that the obvious place to spend New Year’s Eve in Sydney is at the Harbour Bridge but with Martin working at 7am the following morning, the battle to get a taxi home along with 1.5 million others lead us to abandon this plan and celebrate at home instead.

So, we invited our good friends Nick and Zena over to ours, I cooked up a retro buffet - hot dogs, chicken wings, and even  cheese and pineapple on sticks and we had a ball.

We knew there was a fireworks display taking place on our local beach but the name of the event (‘Coogee Sparkles’) really didn’t do it justice.  Our flat happened to be in prime position to watch the firework extravaganza that without doubt, gave the harbour bridge a run for its money.  It was brilliant!

Lots of bottles of Asahi beer later, we ran down to the beach and caught the ‘3, 2, 1’ bit of the countdown to see in the New Year.

Alcohol + sea + celebrating new year = only one thing: a midnight swim in the ocean, which was both cold and hilarious in equal measure.

Brimming with excitement, Martin and I then made a spontaneous trip to The Palace – a very tacky nightclub, where, still dripping wet, we danced the night away with lots of 18 year old backpackers.  What a great way to start 2011!