xmas '99 (ii)

And even at work we get to eat lots - and at places that I can't usually afford to go to (I knew there was some advantage to this work lark). Here we are at the RACV club for our Christmas lunch, shortly after the ladies around the table had cleansed the buffet of cake.

All the rest of the current pom contingent are staying at the Middle Park Hotel, just down the road from my flat. This is me sat outside the pub on the day I finished work for the Christmas break - and it appears as if they had 'finished' long before I did...

... as you can probably tell.

With both Matt and Neil in town for Christmas, it was turning into a fair old Notre Dame reunion.

We decided to go for the traditional Aussie christmas lunch, so here we all are proudly displaying our shrimps from the barbie.

Does life get any better than this?

Just after boxing day (and the traditional cricket test at the MCG), we started on our three day trip up to Sydney.

Travelling via the coastal road, we spent three days in the car (sometimes all asleep), stopping at Lakes Entrance (cold), Bega (cheesy) and Woollongong (pricey - we were desparate).

We also got to see some great scenery, the kangaroos at Pebbly Beach (above) and some hidden away beaches with crashing surf.

But not once did we ever venture off sealed roads in our rental car.

Honest.

And then we arrived in Sydney, early on New Years Eve...