Tuesday 25th December 2007

Nikki woke me up this morning, when she burst in to our room with cuppas for us all... singing 'Dashing Through The Snow'. It took me a few seconds to understand what she was going on about but then I remembered... it was Christmas Day... yippee! We woke Emma up and then she joined us on our bed, where we opened our presents (from each other) and me and Nikki opened our cards from the people at home.

Even though we're on the other side of the world, we've still been spoilt. We were given loads of money from my Mum and Keith, Granny Vera, Uncle Col' and Auntie Paula, June and Andy, Grandma Iles and Katie (bless her, she gave us $100!). From Nikki, I had some boxer shorts (which, after 8 months of wearing the same 6 pairs, I DEFINITELY NEEDED), the book SLASH (from Guns N' Roses), a really cool Quicksilver surf vest and some chocolate and nougat. Emma bought me this season's Bristol City shirt, which was a nice surprise, and something i'll make sure gets in lots of photos before I get home.

From me, Nikki had a pair of Paul Frank pyjamas, a new diary and some Body Shop cream. She also got some pyjamas from Emma and some little bits (including nail varnish, hand cream, hand sanitizer and a bar of marzipan) from Father Christmas. We bought Emma a surf watch from a shop called 100% Mambo (the one in Byron that was having the sale - with loads of free food and drink) and she seemed really please with it... thank God!

With all the present opening over for now (we wanted to wait until we did our Skype call before opening the small gifts from Mum and Keith), we got dressed and headed for the beach. Nikki had been up since just after 8am this morning preparing the dinner and we thought we'd spend a couple of hours in the sun and then we'd come back to collect the food - before returning to the beach to eat it.

Everything was going brilliantly. We were all in-and-out of the sea, we had a really good spot on the beach and in typical fashion, Emma was getting burnt. When it got to about 1pm me and Nikki went to get the food. When we got back to the beach, we realised that we'd forgotten the bread rolls. I offered to run back and get them and, because our hostel wasn't far, I set off bare-foot... oopps! The sand was REALLY REALLY hot, but I thought i'd be ok once I got off the beach and onto the pavement... what an idiot, it was even hotter - and I was almost crying in pain. Suddenly our hostel seemed about 100 miles away. I couldn't even stop at the traffic lights waiting for them to change - I just ran straight across! I collected the rolls, put on my trainers and limped back to join Nikki and Emma.

Christmas lunch was brilliant! Nikki had prepared a cooked chook (roast chicken), with loads of salad, bread rolls and potato salad. We sat on the beach with our Christmas plates and serviettes, our crackers and party hats, and had a right royal feast. We also had mince pies and Christmas pudding - but it was way too hot for those, so we saved them for later. We spent the rest of the day, pretty much as we'd spent this morning - in-and-out of the sea and having a laugh in the sun.

This evening, we came back to the hostel and did a Skype call with my Mum and Keith. It was really good to see them both and, with what must be a new record, Mum cried 4 times! At first she cried because her kids were online together. Then when we were talking about our appearance on GMTV, when she started crying again. Next, we got them to open their present from me and Nikki... and she cried... again. We didn't really know what to get everyone for Christmas, but for our Mums we got our favourite pictures from our trip so far and put them in a calendar. My Mum seemed to like it! We had a nice chat and they got to catch up with Emma before my Mum started crying for the last time - when we said goodbye.

Afterwards we did a Skype call with Nikki's family, which was cool because we got to see Andy and Grandma Iles for the first time since we'd been away. June didn't cry when she opened her calendar, but she did have a good laugh - so that was good! We had a long chat (in which they showed us how much cauliflower-cheese was left, because Nikki wasn't there to polish it off), caught up on all the gossip and then said our goodbyes, leaving them to open their presents. By now it was about midnight and so, after our hottest and most unusual Christmas ever, we collapsed on our beds and fell asleep.

Merry Christmas everyone!