Okay so I’ve been saying for ages that I will update this and so far I’ve been so slack that I haven’t. Don’t ask me why today is the day, I woke up and it seemed like a good idea.

Right, lets see…. Been home about three weeks now. At my request Jay and I came in on the sly. I wanted to have a bit of a chill out and unwind before catching up with everyone but it didn’t fully work out that way. We got Friday night, just mom, Jay, Jase and myself which was really nice. Sat day was fairly laid back just caught up with the Grandpears. (awesome folks that they are) Sat night mom and I arranged to go looking at Christmas lights, so Jay got dragged around the city. Later sat night (despite the sheer exhaustion) we followed Em (yep, my liddle_em has her learners license) out to Evandale to a farewell for Troy. The night was, well, lets just say the night could have gone better.

The next few days consisted of wonderfully boring domesticated things like opening bank accounts, talking to government agencies and all that jazz (hey I could be in there stage show. *sings “And all that Jazz* - yeah I would so rock the stage).

Somewhere over the ten days before Christmas we managed to kidnap 3 out of my 4 cousins and do things with them. Lauren and Jay hit it off from the word, as did Nick and William. James is using a little caution or so it seems. I’m stoked that they all get along, I plan on spending more time with them now that I’m home, they’re awesome and incredibly funny to chill with. ATM James and Nick are on a family road trip somewhere between here and QLD. Lauren and William are down the coast at our family’s beach house.

Christmas Day, went well, thankfully Jay and I had managed to get around all but one person, my brother Jason (from here out referred to as Jas-Adam to avoid confusion.). This meant that I wasn’t launching family on Jay for the first time all on one day. (Thank god for small mercy’s.) Nah, my family rock, but when still meeting them and getting to know them, they can be a bit full on to a newbie.

oooOOOOOooooo  Beach House. I love the coast. Any of you that have spoken to me will know this to be true. Jay and I got a few days in down there between Christmas and New Years. Had to come back to town to sort out our stuff with the airport, customs, quarantine etc. (oh the joy) we went back down but unfortunately my back seized up so we came back to town. Fingers crossed we’ll get back down there soon – Didn’t even get to really show Jay around. L

After the aforementioned playing with customs etc. our things arrived in Launceston and Jay was happy to have his stuff. We’ve got everything setup and unpacked. This is a good effort since some of my boxes from first time I was away are still not unpacked and under the house. My reason is I don’t have anywhere to unpack them too and that’s what I’m sticking too.

New Years – I would love to sit here and say we were party animals, stayed out all night, got our groove thing on in hundreds of clubs and it was the best NYE ever… but I’d be lying. We had a quiet one at Hayley’s house with her, Coral her partner, Holly, Chicko and her partner Jess. Midnight came and went will all that goes with it, fireworks included. We were all keen to go out by about 1am unfortunately I was in agony from my back so Jay and I went home. I heard the next day the girls got home around 4 and 5 am respectively.

Since NYE we’ve been catching up with friends. Especially our friend Helen who I have known for many many years now and she is just the bomb. We’ve been doing a lot of walking up the Cataract Gorge (it’s so pretty up there). I think Jay might be in love with The Gorge – Expect a June wedding… lol

The other day we walked out to Tamar Island. It’s this little island in the middle of the Tamar river (the river that runs through the valley that Launceston is in). It’s got this cool board walk. It’s about 1.5km out. We had a really nice picnic lunch out there. Jay found what he thinks is Pukekoes (sp). As it was 30 degrees and extreme on the UV chart we decided that we wouldn’t explore the island that day. I had already decided to take Jay somewhere for a swim but couldn’t choose the location.. by the time we got back to land I had a light bulb above my head. I decided I would take him out to Corra lynn (like The Gorge, it’s free, natural and fresh water with amble parking – what more could you want) We had a great swim out there. We came across some random’s who had eHeHhfdksa friend who couldn’t swim so Jay took the opportunity to help him and taught him to float and swim  so he could at least have a bit of fun with his mates. He won’t be winning any races anytime soon, but hey, for about an hour lesson, he’s doing well.

Some where in the next few days Jay, Helen and I ended up in a car driving to Hobart in the state’s south in the middle of the night. I was pleased to see when we got there that they still have a 24/7 Bakery. Jay will vouch for their good quality bread. As it was the festive time of year, the Sydney to Hobart (yatch race) boats were in and despite the fact it was about 1am we were still able to wander around the docs and look at them. It was also the Taste of Tasmania festival (10 day food and wine festival) so they had some cool kids rides and stuff on the docs.

The next few days were just more of the same, job apps, walking, swimming and chilling.

The weekend consisted of dinner with Mom and some of her friends on Friday night. Sat was  Hayley’s 21^st party. She had it at the Northern Club which was pretty cool. We’d left the car at home so both Jay and I were able to have some drinks. We went from the Northern Club to Royal on George with Holly, Adrian and Celeste to celebrate the 7^th anniversary of Holly’s 18^th birthday. (for all the dense ppl out there, it was her 25^th birthday.) from Royal Jay, Adrian and I went to Reality for a dance. After a few hours of dancing the combination of standing and boots did a number on my back and Jay elected to take my home.

This all brings us up to this week. I started some casual bar/waiting work on Tuesday at a Tavern down the river. Jay is learning his way around the city by car, applying for jobs and enjoying all The Gorge has to offer. We’re spending time with Helen amongst other friends and all is well.