Seasons Greetings

I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sydney! isn't that a blokes name?

HELLO ALL

ITS IRONIC TO THINK THAT I AM ON WORKING HOLIDAY VISA AND I HAVE NEVER WORKED SO HARD BEFORE, and that is why i have not updated my blog for a while

Any way here I am! Since my last blog i have done many things, from learning to row to spending a weekend in Sydney.

I decided to visit my friend Pablo, whom I used to know in london. He was a work collegue and more importantly a strong persistant and always abliging drinking buddy. Many a lunchtime was spent in the pub have having a quick mini session before heading back to the office and looking on the internet.



I managed to get the cheapest flights available, something that proved a false economy, as the time of my flight resulted in a very costly journey to the airport, due to the early departure. I figured out that with the cost of transport and further costs of drops required reduce the burning redness of my eye (due to the 4.55am start in the morning) i could have traveled to sydney cheaper using a presidential style motorcade.

Any way, I flew over sydney at about 8am with the sun blazing and the view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in all its glory. It looked amazing. Sydney is beautiful from above, it looked very lagoonal (englsh) and reminded my of Venice in a way, apart from looking nothing like Venice if you see what I mean.

I must have quite liked the airport as I spent about an hour there trying to get out. This is a bit of a long story but i will try and cut it down to a short anacdote. When i got off the plane I saw signs indicating a shuttle into town, which I thought would be my best option. I started wandering around from one bus stop to another asking various officials where this most convenient method of transport might be. Each person seemed to be sending me to a different direction. I eventually came upon this 'Faganesque' character who promised that his own brand of shuttle bus would arrive in 2 minutes and take me right into town, so without hesitating i took him at his word and bought a A$16 ticket, 5 mins past and still know carrage. People were coming up asking him when the next bus would be and each time to my annoyance he would say 2 minutes. As I am not the most patient of people I demanded my money back. Suffice to say as soon as i got my money back the bus arrived and i was not on it (DAMN). What make things worse it that the shuttle bus i had seen advertised was not a bus at all but was in fact a train, the same train i walked passed about 5 times looking for the shuttlebus that didnt exist. Any way i am not one to moan but suffice to say sydney had already pissed me off.

The first thing i did when i got into town was meet up with Pablo and drop off my bag, i can't remember how long ago it was since I had last seen him but it was a while. Its funny how people change, I noticed he had put on weight, but you keep that to yourself dont you. (sorry Pablo if you are reading this).

With my bags disgarded i set off to explore Sydney. As soon as I arrived I could sense it was vastly different from Melbourne. It was very much like london but without all the Australians. It just seemed busier and more unorganised than Melbourne, which i found refreshing. As an explorer I decided to find my bearings and use the buses. Unlike an explorer, i had no idea where north, east, south or west was, so i just got on a bus and hoped. Hope is not all its cracked up to be, and 3 bus journeys later I ended up being somewhere where i think i wanted to be- The Harbour.

It was amazing to see it there in front of you. I have seen it before on telly so many times but it is certainly not the same as seeing in person (Obviously). The bridge was much bigger than i had expected. It was modelled on the Tyne Bridge apparently, but the setting is a bit different.

I was mindful of time and as so many people suggested getting a ferry to Manley I thought i would do just that. For some reason i thought it would be just over the bay, however it was more a 45 minute journey. Not a bad way to get to work I thought, however if you were to have a hangover this could prove to be the straw that breaks the camels back, but then i realised that camels would not use the ferry as they are not indiginous to australia, but any way.

Manley was beautiful, its like a separate beach community with lots of young, cooley dressed style conscious folk, needless to say i fitted in. The weather was really hot and so i headed for the beach with the other legions and observed the hive of activity that was the promonade. There were surfers, body boarders and even womens Beach Vollyball. As an appreciator of the sport I sat for a short while and watched all the group stages of the competition, followed by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds then the quarters, semis and then the finals. (great sport). I eventually got up realising I had used up the entire film on my camera. (how did that happen?). Needing to find some shade i decided to head back to the city as i had to visit Bondi. I thought you can't go to Sydney and not see Bondi and I am glad I did as it was beautiful. It's true when they say it is full of brits.

It was 5 o clock and I headed back to meet Pablo and start my first Sydney drink session. As I was suffering from sleep deprevation, red eyes and sun burn I must have looked a right state, however i managed to stay out until 3am. The only struggle really was trying to get in somewhere, all the bouncers thought i was too drunk because i had such tired eyes, and also coz i was too drunk.

The next day we got up earliesh and headed to the races, that's 3 times in as many months, I spent 29 years in the UK and went racing once now i am going on a monthly basis. I won one race and that was it, I spent most of it trying to avoid the scorching sun. On the evening we went to see Pearl Jam in an executives box Pablo got us access to. They were very good, except when he kept banging on about making poverty history. If I had wanted to see Bob Geldoff I would have gone to see Lord Of the Rings.

Once the concert was over we headed to a bar which Pablo frequents on a regular basis. We walked in and there were dips and finger food which i thought was really nice as it had a real local theme, I was half tempted to help my self to a cheeky one but held off. No sooner had we got a drink and sat down, then a fight kicked off between these 2 brusers. It only turned out to be a welcome home party for someone who had just got out of prison that day. Two questions went through my mind.- What would have happened to me if i had helped myself to their finger food and why was I friends with someone whose local is commonly frequented by criminals. However i put these to the back of mind and carried on drinking.

This couple at the table next to us started talking us. He was this really burly man and he was with this rather small fragile looking woman, both in the early 40's i would say. We started chatting about general things and it was pleasant. There was a bit of banter about my being english, the kind you get all over austrailia, general sledging. However as the night progressed the constant flows of double whisky and cokes turned the conversation more ugly. By the end of it i was begining to feel a bit uncomfortable and not just from the chair. I think it was time to go when he told me that his grandad was in the IRA and used to love nothing more than killing British soldiers (of which he was pleased about), this was re-enforced when he began showing his array of tatooes signifying his close links with Ireland. On that note we decided it was time for the 2nd kebab of the weekend and to get at least 3 hours sleep before my flight back to melbourne the next morning.

Sydney was a great place and it wasn't until I went there, that it actually felt like I was on the other side of the world.

PS.Collingwoods just got out for 10, thats depressing!