Cricket,Christmas&2011

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Heya everyone!
Sorry it has been so long since we have posted a blog, we didn't have a clue its has nearly been a month!
A lot has happened since we last wrote to you all, especially as we have now had our first Christmas and New Year's away from our home and families! Christmas day was alot better than we had anticipated as us and our 4 room mates (now the American/English couple and 2 Irish Girls) were all in the same boat so decided to have the most best Christmas we could! We went and bought a proper 6 foot artificial tree on the days leading up to xmas and Hannah decorated it and we went away from tradition by having a Koala Bear at the top instead of an angel or star. On Christmas morning we all opened our presents from each other and then started on our Christmas feast - where everyone insisted on doing their own bit of christmas tradition from home until we ended up with our English/ Irish / American feast! Rick (who's also a chef) did us a hug Jamie Oliver recipe chicken and we had honey parsnips for Jamie, Lots of different potatoes for the Irish girls, Sausage in Blankets for Rick, Madelines Stuffing for me and apple pie for dessert for Bobbi. (unfortunatly Bread sauce could not be found for love nor money!). After feeling stuffed to the brim we watched lots of xmas films and a few of us had a nap and then spent the evening drinking and having a huge poker tournament- which got very competitive and had now led to having poker night every week at the flat! The few days after Christmas we spent chilling out and watching some of the cricket as well as going out for Boxing day or as the Irish call it St Stephens day where we spent the night at the Crown Casino Complex in the city- the biggest casino i've ever seen or imagined being the biggest in Australia with its many restaurants, shops, bars and clubs all of which looked like something out of Vegas! We also went to the Ashes Test 3rd day at the MCG where we say over 70, 000 supporters in a 100, 000 people stadium(bigger than any in the UK)! The crowds were amazing especially the English which surprisingly there were just as many of as the aussies...and they made much more noise! The English side continued to thrash the aussies and me and jamie were Happy to see both England and Austrlia bat and know that by the end of the day that England would had retained the Ashes the next day (which they did in less than 2 hours of play the next day)!
New years was also a fun day as we met up with the Irish girls (unfortunatley for us they had moved into a new house after christmas with some Irish friends from back home ) and their new flat mates! We went to the beach in the afternoon witht the intention of having a bbq but the weather on New years to was to hot to cope with the beach let alone a bbq as tempratures went over 40 degrees - infact the fire works in the evening were also nearly cancelled due the heat being unsafe! Luckily however the fireworks did still go ahead and we all went down to the river bank in the city and watched the firework display at midnight which were released from the rooves of the skyscrapers of the city skyline!
In news other than the holidays... Jamie has just started his job working for a large energy company called 'Simply energy'- his job means him going to thier large offices near to where we live in the morning for sales pitches and new marketing schemes and then he does door to door selling in different areas! The job has a lot of perks with him being given all transport and a free subway meal every lunch and he also gets a work iPad in a few weeks whcih he'll get to keep whilst he works for them! He gets a good base wage every week as well as a lot of commision for when he makes sales.. he is one of the only new recruites to already be making them! The company has also been voted the 14th best company in Australia to work for with their free bbq's every saturtday night for staff, camping trips, road trips and monthly night out with a huge pre paid bar tab! Plus many people jamie works with have been promoted to a team leader within a month of working at the company if your selling well so as Jamies already doing well its fingers crossed!
I also go back top work tommorow and am really loving my job at La Vita Buona wine bar although it can be very fancy and people ask the most ludicrous questions about wine i've been reading up on lots of books on wine and such and am hoping with the training i get from my mangers to learn a lot in the time i work there! It was scary at first be given so much responsibility as soon as i arrived as i was opening up on my own within 3 shifts and then doing days on my own there before a week! I also am being sent by them to get RSA qualifications in Coffee skills, Coffee Cocktails, Wine Tasting and cigar training which they will pay for and will look great on my CV!
We are also looking forward of the arrival of Julz tonight and Jess next week so we can show them our new home and take them around the sights! Whilst Julz is here as well we are also going to start looking for new housing which may be cheaper and accomodate the 3 of us- as many people we have met are paying less or the same of us and have a pool and even shared tennis courts! Going to have a look around St Kilda at some shared backpacker house that we've found on gumtree later to see what we can get for a lto cheaper and then save more money alot quicker and maybe travel earlier than we'd hoped! if we decided to move to another city it would also be easier now as Jamie can transfer to different sities with his company and hospitality jobs are literally everywhere so it should be easy to get bar work or restaurant work anywhere! Make sure you check out the pictures form Christmas, the fire works, the ashes and the wild beach fairy penguins which were taken less than 10 minutes from our flat on St Kilda beach pier! Missing everyone at home especially over the holidays! Please message us on here to let us know how your doing back home! Happy New Year! Hannah and Jamie xxx

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