Waltzing Matilda

Unfresh from missing Englands red-eye encounter with Ecquador, I decided to get up at 00.20 and wander down to the Coogee Beach Hotel to see the Aussies take on Italy. I wanted to experience the Yellow and Green armies support at least once and this would, if the bookmakers had their way, be the final chance to.

They nearly provided an upset too, until deep into stoppage time, they gave away a penalty and lost it with the final kick of the game. I left a very packed but very silent pub and returned home for the better part of 4hours sleep.

Young for Eternity

With work week no.3 behind me, the weekend was kicked off in the newly opened Custom House Bar. After working in several “Custom Houses”, I can confirm this one to have been my favourite! Live band, patio drinks and plenty of banter fresh from Australia’s victory in the World Cup over Croatia allowing them the path to the second round. When I finally left the pub, I met with my friends for another Karaoke session. Frank Butcher stayed at home this time, however I did sing about living in a Country House and provide backup shouting to a Lost Prophets number.

Having decided to boycott doing the Harbour bridge climb, we set out to simply take the footpath across and check out the views. With a sunny day they were great, and I’ve found myself falling for Sydney in a big way. The more I pound the pavement, the more I seem to find. Quaint craft markets, quiet historic streets with lively pubs and top quality restaurants everywhere you go. This time we went for Italian in the Rocks, in the restaurant district clustered around one end of the harbour bridge. The area is one of the coolest and most picturesque in Sydney so it would seem with at least 3 weddings out and about looking for rustic backdrops for which to be photographed against.

With some friends having a house party to celebrate a birthday, the evening time again saw plenty of food, drinks and fun and looked like setting the pace for slow Sunday. However we managed to get ourselves together and make our way out of the city to Macquarie Ice Rink for some skating. After a very shaky start, I finally managed to get it and was cruising along with all the finesse of Peter Crouch attempting an inverted scissor kick at the world cup finals.

With the England match firmly on my mind, I set my alarm for 12.55 and went to sleep. I awoke by chance at 5am, realising the match (a 1-0 Beckham free-kick) had finished hours ago and that I should’ve set my alarm for 00.55. No such blunders when the 3 Lions meet Portugal this Saturday in the quarter finals.

Bend in the Road

Friday morning, 1.55am after around 4hours of sleep, my phone started buzzing to remind me of the England game. I crawled into the front room like duvet shelled tortoise to cheer the boys on. Sadly, England did nothing for much of the game to keep me from slipping into sleep - until Crouch and Gerrard popped up in the final 10minutes to send us through to the next round.

After a Saturday morning World Cup hangover (catching up on sleep I'd been losing all week watching the games), we headed out to Glebe Market - a recommendation that decribed the place as a cool clothes and trinket market in a hip part of town. It was okay if a little small, and the vibe was indeed quite cool. I bought no clothes, but a couple of cracking cds at rock bottom prices. We continued the slow paced weekend with a trip to the cinema - which ended in a viewing of one of the worst films I've seen in a long time - Poseidon - it's almost comedy how bad it is. It really is.

Sunday I got up (to a strange argument with one of our neighbours which ended in her apologising for the noise they'd been making repairing furniture at 7am, with a bottle of Chardonnay) and collected a hire car for a little day trip we were all looking forward to going on. An hours drive North of Sydney got us to Ku Ring Gai Chase national park.

Most of the National Parks have something different to offer than the last, and this was no different. It almost has a European feel about it, lush green hills meeting a wildy crazy estuary. Our first stop saw ustaking in some lake like views as a father taught his daughter to fish. Very idillic, as the little girls reel went mental. She tried her best to pull the beastie in, but dad took over. He battled for 2 or 3 minutes and it the fish splashed around in the water in front of us, the little girl asked "What is it dad?", to which he replied as only an Aussie dad can - "It's a bloody great fish!"

Onward, we were heading around the winding hilly roads to the set of Home & Away - Palm Beach. Located on a peninsula North of Sydney, the area is obviously very wealthy and very beautiful. The temperature too was way more forgiving than the average 19degrees I'd been getting way to used to. We soon found the Surf Club, the trade mark beach walk fence and also spotted Alf Stuarts Boat House. Sadly there were no cast members (to heckle) so we stayed around for some lunch before heading back into Ku Ring Gai Chase.

A new feature to the blog this week - is a little video of yours truly filling in for the missing Alf Stewart of Summer Bay fame.


We were able to check out a great couple of view points over Lion Rock (named after the Egyptian Sphynx) and America Bay - a 1km walk through the bush eventually finding it's way to a small waterfall overlooking a surreal snorkelling bay with a couple of millionaires pleasure-mobiles anchored for show. We also got a look in on the "Basin Walk" famed locally for it's aboriginal rock engravings. I was a little sceptical after the hand prints a few weeks ago, but these were a little more interesting. Fish, Turtles, people, Roos - all right there in the rock for... I'm not too sure how long. But they were pretty cool nonetheless.

Back into the working week, the obvious highlight was the England V Sweden match. It all looked so promising until the second half. Ah well, after 2-2 and a Joe Coal wonder strike we won the group and get to play Ecquador in the next round - thankfully over the weekend at 1am!

World in Motion

World Cup fever had arrived. I spent Friday afternoon at work feeling more like it was Christmas eve than anything else (as well as the world festival of football, it was the long Queens Birthday weekend). Of course the only problem with the World Cup in Australia - is the ludicrous time the games are on TV. Nevertheless, I waited up till the start of Saturday and watched the opening ceremony followed by the Germany game with all its cracking goals. I attempted to last it to the Poland match but soon found myself looking at the back of my eyelids instead.

So I was left with a Saturday to kill until the main event in the evening (England Vs Paraguay). Myself and Trish took a trip into town to check out a few things. The 2006 Darling Harbour Jazz festival (nice) was on - a floating stage with plenty of jazz acts for you to shake your "boom-boom" to. Though once we'd finally had enough of that, we went in search of more thrills. We found the Sydney Maritime Museum with its tremendous Viking exhibit.

After settling some disputes about the Viking history, we found out what it was really like to be a viking - by trying on a viking helmet. Hmmmm. But when the fun had gotten much too much, we trotted off home to get fed and ready for a night watching Eng-Ger-Land, Eng-Ger-Land, Eng-Ger-Land.

After the 1-0 victory had been digested, we carried on celebrating into the night dancing it away in the Palace...

22 Grand Job

Monday 5th June 2006. It was to be Sydneys coldest maximum temperature on record for 11years. 12 degrees Celsius, relentless pouring rain (that wouldn't ease up for over 48hours) and gusting winds that would welcome me in to my first proper job in 7 months. Better than a sunny day while being stuck in work I guess.


So, now I'm working full time (at least until the end of July anyway) as I recharge my bank account before moving up the Australian East Coast. I'm in a similar IT support role to those that I've been doing in the past, except this time with a Financial Advisory company based in Circular Quay, Sydney (indicated by a little red arrow on the photo above). Just a short walk from the Opera House (a desk view too!), Harbour bridge and the swankiest eateries & drinkeries that the city has to offer.

Rat Race

Bells Line of Road to Mt. Baker

After an amazing day previous, I got up extra early to catch the train. I travelled North through the mountains to Bell Station. Remote was the feeling I got of the place as I hopped off on to a platform made of sand. The station itself was deserted, and strangely, there was no town or much sign of civilisation nearby. After I got my bearings, I headed East down the Bells Line of Road – famed for having the best road views of the mountain range. They were certainly good, however I had to make my way down 15kms of this road before I made it to Mt.Baker. I really did fear for my life as tankers hurtled past me at speed. I quickly perfected the “jump off your bike and hide behind the steel crash barrier” technique.

I eventually left the tarmac and started to circle Mt.Baker. Some nice views, especially of “The Wall” – cliff faces similar to typical canyons you may have seen.

The weather however, had been far harsher than on the Oaks Trail. Winds had practically blown me down many of the Easterly roads, and when it was time to get going – I had double the work to do. So back West along the Bells Line to Bell Station, with a stupidly strong headwind to battle. As I neared the end, rain began to fall – but only as I reached the sandy rail platform. I was relieved to a point, except for finding out the next train was 75minutes away. After 5 minutes, the boredom became too much.

I found a truck weighing station – the only civilisation anywhere. The guy there informed me the next rail station was 8kms away and had a host of cafes etc. As much as my shocked, overworked leg muscles didn’t wanna, I put one last effort in, with the hope of a warm café in my sights. A gruelling last uphill nearly had me crying as the trip for the day topped 50kms.

Finally, I passed Mt Victoria station and got my bag of Kettle chips and can of Coke. The rest of the afternoon back in Katoomba was bitterly cold, and wet. I hadn’t enjoyed the day too much and was wishing I was home. I fell asleep at 9pm hoping the weather would improve for my final ride.

7.20am, the crack in the window blind of my hostel room was bright blue which gave me the boost I needed to get up and out for the last time. I arrived in Wentworth with the view to looking at the most prized attraction; their falls. I got as far as I could on my bike, chained up and followed the Japanese tourists down the beaten track.

Some great views of the falls (helped massively by last nights rainfall) and some more of the mountains huge cliffs and I was just about Blue Mountained out.

Back to Sydney for Saturday lunch, with 36 hours to prepare for my first proper job in 7months.

From the Ritz to The Rubble

The Oaks Trail

The Blue Mountains are a couple of obvious things. Firstly they're Blue, well - the Gum (or Eucalyptus) trees which populate the majority of the forests give off a vapor which makes everything over 1km away look Blue. Second, they're mountains - which for some reason, I failed to realise that they would be cold like all other mountains I'd ever been to. I awoke to Zero degrees C. I boarded the train as I saw a couple of snowflakes float past me. Thankfully that didn't carry on and by the time I reached Woodford, the air temperature had warmed enough for me to take off my hoodie.

I began cycling and soon found the beginning of the 28km route to Glenbrook. The trail was only suited for 4x4s, Bikes and walkers with some pretty huge inversions that I generally had to ride down rather than up. After all my time in the city being deprived of anything natural to shoot, I stopped quite a few times to take some pictures. By the time I was around 7kms in, the cloudy sky had broken up and the horizon was blue again. At one point I could see through the haze to see the Sydney city skyline 66kms away.

I had come to the Blue Mountains in absolute off-season, which meant that during the whole day, the only people I saw were the occasional park rangers driving past. Quite a contrast from the MPB last Friday night! After a while, the trail became decidely more 'road-like' and I was able to cruise through the trees at a quick pace. I took a detour to an old Aboriginal Cave - a 4km detour - which I would have to ride back (completely uphill). When I arrived to see the 'ancient paintings' I was treated to a dozen handprints under the overhang of a rock - thoroughly underwhelmed, not really what I was hoping to see. Regardless I pushed back up the hill (which incidentally had been the best part of the ride that day (at least, the going downhill part).

I eventually hit tarmac again, made it to 50kms per hour before having to stop for a while as my brakes were overheating. One killer final hill of the day took me back outside of the Blue Mountains national park and back into civilisation. I'd been a little dissapointed to have seen very little wildlife, though was treated to a one off as I rode downhill toward the train station; an Eagle (at least I was about 75% sure it was) perched up ahead took flight at about the same speed I was travelling - so for about 3 seconds I was riding with an eagle about 1.5metres in front of my nose.

My day was capped as I reached Glenbrook train station exactly as the once hourly train arrived at the platform. Including my detour, 36kms completed. Bonza

Little Sister

Back in work, I had to quickly come to terms with having the smoothest leg in the office, once one person had found out they would tell 2 friends, and they'd tell 2 friends and so on, and so on... I carried on about my daily life, though waiting till after dark to go jogging and generally being seen in shorts as little as possible.

On Friday night, I hit the Martins Place Bar (MPB) after work, along with the rest of Sydney so it would seem. I bumped into the first Australia Big Brother 2006 evictee (which was about as amazing as you're guessing), before some friends and the girls minus Trish showed up. We went on to our private karaoke room. What followed was pretty interesting - and surprisingly not quite as similar to the first few weeks of Pop Idol as I thought. After belting out 'Bittersweet Symphony', I did backing vocals to 'Don't You Want Me Baby' in the style of Frank Butcher... Pretty soon our time was up and we fell back home.

The start of the week was to end my stint at 'Select! Recruitment' and herald the start of a short sebaticle before starting my new job the following Monday. My time there doing what was a pretty mind-numming job (sorry Lisa/Jodie if you're reading!), was actually a nice introduction back into the civilised working life and has at the very least got me back into a routine of being up before 7.30am each day.

Wednesday finally arrived. I took the bus into town and into Clarence St Cyclery to pick up my new best friend. A Mountain Bike which would be my gym membership, my 'thing to do when bored' and the first posession measuring over 75cms in length in over 7months. I rode it straight to Central Station and hopped on board the 12.03: Destination: Blue Mountains.

Things on the journey were spiced up immeasurably when a tramp (somehow with a valid ticket??) decided to crowbar his way into a conversation I was having. He rightfully guessed that my face wasn’t very ‘English’ looking, I mentioned Austrian as one of my parental ancestories, to which he claimed “We are brothers!” in an Eastern European accent. Turning out to be Slovenian, it damn near killed me. He asked me to help him and his stuff off of the train at his stop – I was only too happy to help, to remove the smell… it was taken a bit too far when he gripped my arm in an act of solidarity between us “European Brothers”!

A little later, I pushed my new bike off the train at Katoomba - my home for the next few days. I dropped my things in my room, and got pedalling (not drugs!).

I quickly arrived at the 3 Sisters viewpoint, took 20minutes to make some pictures with all the other tourists, checking out Queen Elizabeth viewpoint and then the decidedly inferior Prince of Wales viewpoint (named after there visit during the 90's). I considered this my warm up as I completed around 6km's of cycling for my first day. The following day might be a rude awakening!