It's February? When did that happen?

New Year's Day at Coogee Beach

January went by SO fast and I never even posted on here *slaps self on the wrist*.  You know the number one opening sentence to blog posts is "Sorry it's been so long since I updated....".  Well at least I saved it til my second sentence!  2011 has been a total whirlwind and I can't believe we are already 1/12th of the way through it.  Ohhhh where to start.  New Year's Eve seems like a logical place?

Finale!

Hung out all day with my friends who live in Darling Harbour and ran down to one of the piers to watch the fantastic firework show.  Watch the full show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1699ga06aTI.  There were so many fireworks that you could hardly see the finale through all the smoke!  Good company, good show, great way to start the year.

Housemate Marie @ Meat & Wine Co.

First food of the year was regrettably a kebab. Spent the first day of the year relaxing on the beach then headed to Meat & Wine Co. (where 2 of my roommates and a ton of my other mates work) for a fantastic dinner.  The kangaroo fillet was delish :)

Most of the month has just been spent working and playing at the beach.  Not a bad life I say!  I've met some really beautiful people here which has made this month fly by so fast.  My resolution this year was to fall in love with something every day... and so far I've been successful.  It's a nice habit to stop and remind myself that I'm living a dream here and there is something wonderful to experience every day if you just open your eyes, and I intend to keep my eyes wide open!!

Roman loves espresso

Biggest event of January was the trip to Melbourne with Jen! I took over a thousand pictures, and have whittled that down to under 200... so obviously I can't post all of those on here.  Keep an eye on my snapfish and facebook pages for the full rundown.  Fell in love with Melbourne pretty much instantaneously.... could be trouble, could be brilliance.  So much amazing coffee, food, art and randomness…. Pretty perfect.  We wandered around the city the first day we got there and met up with Steven (who I work with and just happened to be in town... he may be stalking me....) and his friend Erin who showed us all around..... down through back alleys, alleys within alleys with dirty delish dumpling shops, VIP treatment in the Eureka Tower that overlooks the city, brewskis by the river and so much more.   What a treat :)  We were having so much fun that I didn't even take any pictures all day.... now that is saying something!

Day two was the Great Ocean Road… and the name is very appropriate.  We rented a car and set off down the coastline and saw some amazing views as well as wild kangaroos (including one hopping through a gas station car wash… it tried to box me), koalas, blue-winged kookaburras, foxes and soooo much more.  It was so nice to be behind the wheel of a car again, singing along loudly with the radio and just doing what we wanted.  So glad we didn’t take a tour bus... lame!  The sites were so diverse, moving from jagged coastline, to rainforest, to one of the largest waterfalls in Oz and ending at the 12 apostles at sunset.  How we timed it out so brilliantly, I will never know… but it was an unforgettable day! Oh also, there is a rock formation called the Razorback... and you best believe we called the Hogs! Woo Pig!

12 Apostles at sunset

The next two days were filled to the brim with tennis at the Australian Open.  I had forgotten how much I loved the sport (it’s a bit hard to watch on TV) but as soon as we were in Melbourne Park it all came swarming back.  The first day we just had grounds passes, so we couldn’t get into the big arenas… but we still saw a couple wicked matches.  The Youzhney vs. Kavcic match was amazing… 5 sets of intense battle and since it was on a smaller court, we had near front row seats for all the action.  Also got in to see John Isner play which was pretty awesome since he is a SEC Alumna (UGA).  He’s so tall that I’m pretty sure he could cover the entire court with two steps haha.

Me, Andy and Jen

The second day (which we hadn’t planned on going to at all) we decided to step it up and get tickets to Hisense Arena to see a couple big matches… Djokovic, Roddick and Sherapova all played in a row so we pretty much had to.  Sadly we got there right as Novak’s opponent retired and he won by default, but eh what are you going to do.  Jen is a huge Roddick freak so that game was entertaining for more than one reason… plus we were in the third row so you can’t really complain about those seats!  Amazing!  Left in the early afternoon to do more exploring of the city and took the City Circle tram all around… its free and we were exhausted from the tennis heat so we just rode the tram all the way around before finally getting off and seing some of the sights.  Wandered over to little Italy for too much pasta, then headed back to the hostel in St. Kilda…. Where we got stopped by the tram police for not having the proper ticket and had to talk our way out of it.  Near heart attack: check.  Went out with our hostel roomies, a couple of british girls who had actually been staying in Coogee before heading down to Melbourne, which was great fun.  Stayed out too late and danced until we couldn’t walk.  At one point, one of the girls told me “You are so fun… I just want to put you in my pocket and take you everywhere.”  Pretty much the best compliment ever.  On the last day we just wandered around St. Kilda until our flight and got to see a little Fairy Penguin.  So freakin’ cute.  Then it was back to Sydney, and back to semi-reality.  All-in-all I would say it was a very successful vaca.

Australia Day: pretty much like 4^th of July so therefore amazing.  Fireworks. Costumes. Drinking. Revelry.  That’s all :)