The peaceful location - Coogee Bay, a cosy flat of 7 people in 3 bedrooms working up until Xmas (us).

The unruly location - a huge luxury yacht sailing down from Airlie Beach to Sydney, carrying a cargo of 20 or so good time guys & girls on holiday and ready to PAAAAARTY up to Xmas and beyond (them).

During the run up to Xmas, little did both parties realise to what extent their destinies would collide (us & them).

The cause - one of the group of invaders heading down to Sydney has his name on the lease of our flat. He used to live here, then moved to Airlie Beach, and invited his 20 or so new workmates and friends back down to his flat for Xmas and the New Year, promising them all their own beds AND demanding a room of his own....which didn't really take account of the occupants of the flat (us)!!

The effect - a flat rammed with people, the minority of whom had to go to work in the morning, the majority of whom were out on the lash until 3am most nights and then came home to carry on drinking, shouting, playing indoor cricket and mercilessly raiding our fridge. On a good morning, when we stepped out of our bedroom, we actually recognised some of the sleeping bodies liberally dotted around the flat. On a bad morning, both breakfast and lunch had disappeared from the fridge overnight, and the flat reeked of stale beer and fags.

The warning signs - the huge quantity of alcohol, backpacks and sleeping bags that materialised in the front room. Never before had we seen 6-pack containers of 2 litre bottles of Bourbon!

The outcome - after an initial rocky introductory period, us & them seem on the whole to be reasonable people, and we get on ok, ie. we co-exist. We were fairly pissed off at having to give up our bedroom for the Head Viking (invader), but our 'big love' room of 4 mattresses together (2 girls + us 2) is working out fine. It was also quite satisfying to know that the various people in the front room were equally unhappy with the Head Viking, given what they'd been promised.