ten thousand two hundred and forty five miles: Flashback blog: Xmas and New Year

Christmas time in Australia means full-on heatwave and lots of tourists - so work is very busy for both me at the restaurant and James in the emergency room.

As it was our second Xmas it didn't feel as strange as it did last year and we actually found ourselves quite over subscribed with parties! James and I spent Xmas eve making mince pies and mulled wine to take to our parties. In the evening our neighbours had a BBQ and drinks in the courtyard and then we had to leave at around 8pm to head to a dinner party with some of our other friends where we started to work our way through the wine collection James and I had built up on our trip in November. We came home late that night and opened our presents under our tree, why wait until the morning if it's after midnight?!

We woke up with slightly sore heads on Xmas day and drove to Brisbane to have lunch with my family. There were 16 people and a feast of food, after lunch I got in the pool with my cousins and the kids, James was meant to join but instead found his niche with the over 70s playing card games and drinking sparkling wine! Typical.

Feeling sleepy from the food and sun I drove us back to the Coast to attend our fourth party in 24 hours. My friends from work Basia and Tania hosted a 'orphans' Christmas for all those away from home, and some who just wanted to join! They have a beautiful garden and set the table up under the mango tree - it was really quite magical and they are amazing hosts. I wish I got a photo!

We brought our xBox and Kinect with us and James made everyone play athletics - the 100m hurdles are not fun after so much food and wine!

It was a tiring but amazing few days, we are so lucky to have so many great friends and family here. We'll miss this next year when we're in the cold!

For NYE, I had to work but James was off so he joined in with another neighbourhood gathering.

I was still at work at 11.45 and beginning to panic that I would see the New Year in mopping the floor - but my friend Sam, one of the Managers, saved the day and told me to leave quickly! I changed at the speed of lightning and managed to meet James on the beach at 11.55 just before the fireworks began. James was pretty drunk and decided that he would join the other drunk idiots and take on the dumping waves in celebration of the New Year. Luckily, James managed to avoid getting dumped on a sandbank and making his face bleed, unlike some of the other swimmers! He then proceeded to take drag out friends Yuvnik and Anna, and Diana and Camillo back to ours for another boy vs girl Kinect party...

By 3am I decided to call it a night but James drank, and cigar smoked, on with our neighbour Shane until much later...