Merry Xmas from Down Under!

Christmas looks a bit different on this side of the world...

Christmas...a perfect time to sunbake

Carols in 27 degrees Celsius under palm trees and blue skies

When the weather outside is delightful...and the prospect of a fire is frightful...

Santa Claus is...hitting the beach, by the looks of things. The entire Lego model required 2,500 hours of manpower 

Upmarket decorations in a swanky shopping arcade

Tree spanning three levels decked in 144,000 Swarovski crystal ornaments and 60,000 lights

Three floors later...

Typical 'Chrissy' decorations (photo by Becca Hall)

Merry Xmas from Melbourne :)

Angry response to the most short-sighted article of 2014: Has travel become another exercise in narcissism?

For Henry Wismayer, creator of this tripe: https://medium.com/human-parts/has-travel-becoming-another-exercise-in-narcissism-bfb3ccbcdc3a 

Okay Wismayer, first things first - let's talk about that title. The fact is, travel is and always has been narcissistic: it's about YOU escaping the daily grind and the monotony of life back home so that YOU can experience new ways of life, new cultures and new people, with a view to broadening YOUR mind and doing things YOU might never have had the opportunity to try in your own country. 

Bed humping, chunder bags and wizard cloaks: is this the world's worst roommate?

"Bet you never thought you'd be rooming with a drunk, did you Gary?"

At this point, I am hiding on my bed behind a makeshift curtain hurriedly put together using two towels, unashamedly leaving poor Gary from Essex to deal with our shitfaced American roommate on his own. 

No, I never thought I'd be rooming with a drunk. And unfortunately I am fully aware that I'm rooming with a drunk. How? Because two nights earlier, he bragged about polishing off a bottle of tequila before passing out, proceeded to vomit into a plastic bag in his bed - I feel it is now necessary to point out that his bed was directly above mine - and then lay down to go back to sleep. Take the chunder bag outside, maybe? No? Oh Jeebus. I spent the remainder of the night unable to sleep lest the bag of vomit got knocked by a drunken flailing arm in the night and landed on my face/bed/bag. 

Sun, sea and sieges...one hell of a week in Sydney

When I arrived in Sydney, the torrential rain across my first two days really put me off. On my last day, the Lindt cafe siege held the city in a grip of fear for a gut-wrenching 16 hours. Bomb scares, the fact that I had been in Martin Place the evening before watching Christmas carols and relentless rain - honestly, I was desperate to flee back to the relative safety of Melbourne.

In retrospect: 5 ways I'd travel differently

This is very much a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin post. You live, you learn: here are five things I would have done differently re: my travels if I could wind the clock back to April. 

25 things to do before turning 25

I turn 25 in March. Twenty-five. Holy shit, that sounds old. Given that 17 was always the age that sounded the 'coolest' to me when I was younger and that I felt over-the-hill when my 22nd birthday swung around, I dread to think where this leaves me now. If I followed in my mum's footsteps, I'd be getting married in two years and hoofing out baby number one shortly afterwards. Slightly terrifying prospect, this growing up business.

Marriage aside, and babies VERY firmly aside, here are 25 things to do before reaching the quarter of a century milestone. This list is a combination of personal experiences, achievements and aspirations - I definitely haven't ticked off everything! Have you?

A Pom Down Under: First stop, Melbourne

I know, I know... I've been on the other side of the world for three whole weeks now and still no blog. What the heck has she been doing with herself, you may ask? The answers lie within...

17 places STILL on my travel wish list - are they on yours too?

It was a proud moment when I suddenly realised last week that I've been to six continents in the past eight months. Six! South America, tick. North America, check. Europe, yup. Africa, Asia and Australasia, boom. For an express tour around the world I've done pretty well, and I've racked up heaps of experiences and happy memories along the way that, rather than satisfying and placating the wanderlust I've been nurturing since April, have only served to intensify my desire to see more of the world.