Christmas seems like such a long time ago now that we are several days into the new year but we've been having such a lovely time. Vix's brother Jonathan arrived in Sydney on the 20th December and rented an apartment nearby in Berry Street in the CBD (Central Business District) which is a few minutes by car and about ten minutes' walk from the apartment here, then Ginge arrived on Christmas Day evening, and we've all had a very sociable week or two pottering about together, going to the cinema (all of us to the Gold Class cinema in Macquairie on Bank Holiday Monday to see Sherlock Holmes, sitting in armchairs with footstools and a three course lunch served to us during the film - great experience - and then Simon, Vix and I to see Nowhere Boy at the Orpheum in Cremorne Point one evening - a 1930's cinema, lovely - after 5 of us had had a lovely dinner at a restaurant round the corner and Jonathan was in Alice Springs overnight to see Uluru).

We've also spent a couple of days/evenings with Charlie and Helen at their house - very relaxed, lots of chatting and eating, and recently an afternoon in the pool playing water polo.

New Year's Eve was lovely; we pottered about tidying and preparing for the evening's party and then Jonathan arrived, followed by Diane and her family who have been out here for about 6 months now - most of us knew each other from Wembley Op, such a small world! Amazing food cooked on the barbie and pleasant company too, and the fireworks were legendary. New Year's Day was spent at home, doing really not very much - perfect.

The weather has been on and off - a few days being overcast although still warm, and a few days of blazing sunshine. Yesterday Simon, Ginge and I went to Taronga Zoo, walking across Sydney Harbour Bridge and then taking a ferry across. A really lovely day; we signed up for three 'encounters' where you get up close with the animals and have a picture taken with them: koalas, giraffes and a snake; then we saw almost everything else there was to see, including a bird show which was amazing - all open air and overlooking Sydney Harbour.

This week we're off the the Water Park at Jamberoo (love these Australian place names) and also to visit the Aquarium at Darling Harbour, then a beach day with David and Victoria on Saturday.

We've now uploaded our pictures onto Windows Live, so for those of you who haven't been able to see our pictures on Facebook, you can see them by following this link:

http://cid-5d774445eca82dd2.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Sydney%202009?authkey=ci1aaIE*cco%24

Hope you are all well,

Jane and Simon xx