Better Man

As the sun started to glint down on Sydney town, I spent the whole of Friday running around like a mentalist getting as much as I could sorted before I finished, although an extended lunch did go someway to disturbing me. Obviously my last day, it was also another girl at works; Sotha, who was leaving for a trip around Europe - which brought back obvious memories for me when I was saying bye to everyone back home before setting off myself. Though this was far more fun than emotional for me as I tucked into a decent Pork Schnitzel at the Belgian Beer Cafe... and a raspberry beer followed by a couple of Hoegardens.

5.30 rolled around quicker than usual, possibly due to the lunchtime beers. and it was time to party again. End of month drinks is a regularity at Centric and served perfectly to mingle and say goodbye to everyone.

The rest of the weekend at this point seemed a little unplanned with not that much on; other than a daytrip on Sunday, but Friday extended to one of the most enjoyable evenings I've had down at the Slipp Inn with my now ex-work friends.

I got up feeling great, and then to see the new change in the weather almost made my week or month, I took a wander down to the beach to sit and mull over the previous nights excessiveness in the cool breeze and nourishing sunlight. I remembered what I'd come to Sydney for.

After a little shopping (I'm a Guess Jeans ho now), Flee and I met up with Jarrad and a few of his mates for some afternoon tea (drinks)... I managed to fall by the Hugos bar late on to meet with Pheebs and some friends from work, before going for a little sleep before getting up for another full on day in the Hunter Valley.

Sunday 7.10am (I didn't realise the clock still worked at this particular time of day and week) we got the bus from Coogee detined for the Hunter Valley. After picking up Graham, Charlotte, Tom, Rob, Adam, Charlottes folks we dozed our way North over the Hawkesbury River and into the Hunter Valley. Similar to my experience in Marageret River, Perth, the valley is famed for it's wineries so taste and test we did.

To cut the story short, I must've tried over 30 different wines, along with several ports and several shots of schnapps. 2 wineries in and a greart Salmon lunch, I was noticing less and less about pallettes, noses and vintages and at some point near the end of another sun-drenched Winters day and at one point remember the whole bus sleeping off the afternon as we headed back to Sydney.

We were dropped off on Market Street near the CoolerBar which was hosting the 'Neighbours-Night'. So with a few more beers, we met Toadie and Steph (and some other guy I didn't recognise) I told Toadie how much I loved his work, I think he picked up on the sarcastic twang in my voice and laughed it off with suited aplomb, Steph was a little harder to work with but she came around to my model style pose in the end. We also scored 1st prize in the pub quiz - $200 which has been banked for use on our final weekend out together.

After a Hungry Jacks, the night and weekend was over... but with no job to go to on Monday I would have some time to kill...

Izzo

As my iPod shaped alarm clock wakes me up with some of Paul Wellers finest, I have a stretch, a yawn and haul myself from bed. I pick up my huge Blue Hilton towel and wander off to take a shower. Since the flat is a little emptier now, I can afford more than 1 or 2 minutes of hot water with great appreciation for it.

After getting dried off I get my work clothes on, eat some muesli-yoghurt mix and sit down to watch the Channel 7 morning news tick by.

After collecting all I need to take with me; a Michael Crichton book, my iPod, wallet, phone and keys I walk down the stairs from the flat to get to the bus-stop. I see the view I’ve seen every morning at about this time for the past 3months. “I wanna be adored” fades in from silence. The impossibly steep Beach Street falls away in front of me towards the Coogee Beach at the end of the road. A telegraph pole sprouting random cables with a shrieking black bird sat on top welcomes me to the outdoor world as behind him in the distance, up toward the next cove, I can see waves collide with the rocks beneath the cliffs. The water explodes upward 30ft against what has been in previous weeks; a stormy, foggy, rainy or clear sky of varying colour schemes. Today however, the sky mixes pale terracotta into grey lilac with just a little haze muting the clarity of the violent waters below.

I’m walking, and Ian Brown is now in full voice in my ears. I’m on my way to work in Sydney, for the final time. Reflecting on what I’ve just described gives me a triumphant feeling, that I escaped the monotony of my old M25; M2 Thurrock to Sittingbourne daily hour-long commute to work to come and do something else with my life.

So as another era of my years trip flags to an end, I’m stunned to find this one, the most emotional to say goodbye to. Maybe due to the amount of time I’ve stayed in one place, maybe due to the strong friendships I’ve forged living here or maybe even of the now inevitable heeby-jeebies one gets when you know you have to lose all that you’ve just built to move onward with nothing but memories and a CDR full of photo's on your travels.

You've Got a Friend in Me

Life was almost getting too normal. Working, fun at the weekends, and a new monotany of similar dinners and ironing during the week. But since Mitzi & Trish were living up their final week in Sydney, the monotany was forgotten as we partied through the week - at least for this week!

Monday ; Chinese takeaway night, Tuesday; Mitzi's friend John arrived from travelling South America so Pizza and beers when he arrived to stay with us, Wednesday was a large group frenzy Spanish Tapas meal in the city - awesome 8 course meal with a little too much wine, Thursday we went to a lovely Thai restaurant in Randwick and Friday night, after working hard all day the weekend began...

The main reason for my Sydney employment was a project this weekend. So after a hectic days work I couldn't wait to leave for the evenings entertainment; especially since I would have to work Sunday overtime.

I met the girls at the Hippo Lounge on the fringes of Surrey Hills for some early evening drinks and potato wedges before heading into the Gaelic Club for a little gig.

After missing out on Arctic Monkeys tickets I was sure to get the Zutons ones that went on sale about 6 weeks ago. Once our food and drinks were done, we went in and watched the support act. Not much to say here other than a weird lead singer who wore an old grey cardigan and had weird desires to wrap the microphone cord around his head. The interval came as we chatted to a few of the majority Brit & Irish crowd, discussing the merits of bad cardigans and odd stage manorisms.

Finally the Zutons made their appearance. "HELLO SYDNEY". Within 3 banging songs, the Scousers had the crowd around their pinkies. The venue was pretty small but meant the atmosphere and sound were top notch, miles better than the festival I went to back in Perth.

Buzzing after the gig (something I'd been craving for the entirety of my travels), we pushed on back to the Coogee Beach Hotel for some final farewell drinks.

Saturday arrived and was a complete contrast to Friday, the house was emotional and sad. I went to the airport to see the girls off. After a teary goodbye, I took a bus back home for a reality check. With just me and Flee the only tennants, the atmosphere had fallen away quicker than an Italian striker blown over in the penalty area.

So instead of moping around the place, we headed out to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the Aussie Rules footy. Flee knows the family of one of the Richmond Tigers players and so was able to get us free tickets for the away game against the Sydney Swans.

Being a cricket pitch the rest of the year, the pitch is huge. Too huge! You can barely see what's going on once the ball is half way across the oval. We drank a few beers, lapped up the atmosphere and tried our best to understand what was going on... but I swear at some point there must've been about 45-50 people on the field during play; 5 umpires, 18ish players per side, a couple of chaps in fluroescent jackets and a couple of physios, you wonder how Graham Poll would get along with this lot! Afterwards we went for drinks in the Entertainment quarter at Fox Studios (next to the ground) before I slipped off for bed.

Luckily I had to work on Sunday which helped keep my mind off of things at home. When I returned, we'd found a new flatmate...

Vehicles & Animals

With Mitzi & Trish leaving the Beach street domicile the following week, the girls had extra motivation to make the most of their last full weekend in Sydney. Mitzi suggested going horse riding and since trying things I’d not ever done before was well at the top my list, I begrudgingly came along. “Begrudgingly” since this particular morning was cold and raining and I have no waterproof clothing. Nevertheless, we (minus Trish but add friends Tom and Rob) got our selves down to Centennial Park and tacked up ready to meet our new best friends.

On meeting Buster; described as a Chestnut with a White face, there was an immediate bond. I knew he was a horse and I was about to pay $60 to have a ride on his back, and he could obviously tell I wasn’t gonna flatten him with my weight – a fair compromise I think. I was informed that Buster “forgets he has 4 feet and occasionally trips over”. I’ve never seen a horse “trip” but I was hoping it wouldn’t look anything like those first few dramatic fallers at the Grand National.

We were led out of the stables and onto the Centennial Park Bridal track; the inner-most lane to the cycle route I took a few weekends back. After a brief induction on how to drive a horse, I was ready to yee-haw my way around on Buster… okay, more like trot through the mud hoping I wasn’t gonna fall off – or come off with my inner thighs in agony. After a few stumbles, I was confident Buster would get me all the way home without me coming off in a muddy puddle – even after he stepped the pace up to a canter a few times; quite possibly threatening the original colour of my under-krackers, I think his accelerator cable must be faulty.

As luck would have it, the rain eased up… 20minutes after we’d finished and got on the bus.

After an afternoon drying off, warming up watching DVDs and munching on oven fries and home made chicken baguettes, we ventured back out in the dark of night to check out the notorious Kings Cross district of Sydney. Kings Cross is home to a wealth of clubs and gerenal seedy nightspots where some of the worlds odd balls go out to play. We checked out a couple of bars, including one that served us Long Island Ice Teas in an actual tea-pot before everyone was ready to move on to some awesomely classy night club. We fell into a place called The Empire, which was suitably trashy playing all the cheesy tunes you could ask for. After fulfilling our fix of the 'notorious' Kings Cross, it was time to do battle with the drunkards challenging for the odd rare cab appearing from around the corner.

After the late night, half of Sunday was already lost when we all started to stir. Trish having not been in the waters off Sydney, decided she’d like to go for a dip. The sun was shining and it was looking like a fine (winters) day to go swimming. And none of us needed any convincing… None.

After a quick dip that saw us get flipped upside down by a monumentally large wave we headed off to Five-O’s; the home of the $5 steak & mash. These cheap meals had become the Sunday tradition and this was to be our sad farewell with all four of us Mosely Place tennants plus Tom munching away at our Medium Rares, (and Calamari in “veggie-Flees” case).

Hit me baby one more time

During the week, as well as suffering some ill effects of, well, being ill, I watched the 2 World cup Semi final 2nd halves (at 6am) and was looking forward to the Italy V France finale on Monday morning. Sadly it was to be shown at possibly the worst hour of all. 4am.

In the mean time Mitzi and myself boarded a bus from Central station on Friday night, destination: Lake Jindabyne. It was April 05 that I last strapped on a snowboard and I could barely wait to get going after such a long layoff. This would also be the first time in a very long time I’d have to suffer hire gear. Luckily I got some reasonable stuff which aside from the board & bindings, was all brand new with no sweaty remains of anyone else left over.

The journey was around 6hours but was nice and easy with movies all the way. After a sleep and some fried brekkie, the bus was headed to Thredbo. As we rose up in altitude, it took quite a while till the first snow sighting, though on arrival at the resort, the main runs seemed well covered. Indeed my first few were really enjoyable until I ventured away from the Gunbarrel lift and found quite a few muddy, gravely and icy patches. Luckily today was the first day of the season that the highly elevated Basin section was open. I was able to get some first tracks on some crusty untouched snow.

My first day back on snow in 15months was a little trying at times, my usual ability seemed lost, though I still managed a few small kickers and a few slides along a funbox. With blue skies and warm sunshine I was able to ride at times, with just my T-shirt on. Sick.

Most Ozzies had warned me not to expect much of their snow resorts compared with European and American destinations, which I think was good as my expectations were originally low. My opinion was higher at the end of the day, I’ve ridden smaller resorts in California and if Thredbo had a decent snowfall on it, there would be some really great runs. It was completely surreal sat on a chairlift with a snowboard strapped on after spending the days previous in an office in Sydney city. Also quite strange, was the lack of regular Alpine landmarks; gum trees replacing the pine trees and rocks & bush in place of the usual rugged grey rocks of the Alps.

As the sun set, the après began. Back in the Snowy Valley resort we were treated to a live band – fine in my book doing a fine cover of the Verves Lucky Man. After seeing a dog getting served at the bar, I decided that I must’ve drank too much so hit the hay.

The following Sunday morning, we were dropped off at the Ski-Tube station for Perisher Blue. Within a short while, the train had taken us through the mountain and into the Perisher resort; Australias largest ski resort. The guide had suggested the cover wasn't as good at Perisher, which was contrary to 3 other peoples opinion so we weren't too sure what to expect. But a great snow cover was ready and waiting; not just the runs but the surrounding scenery too. The sky was blue, but the temperature much colder.

We spent the morning on the Perisher Blue mountain where there are some wide open runs great for finding your snow feet and also some narrower paths through the trees and along tight banking turns. I was already enjoying Perisher more than Thredbo (although my riding was markedly improved over the previous days which would have had lots to do with that).

Another trip on the Ski-Tube and we arrived at Blue-Cow, one of the other mountains at Perisher Blue. Here there was not so much choice in runs, however there was a really good challenging steep run (that didn't have death-ice all over it) that I had a few goes on.

After a Roast lunch, I spent the afternoon gunning it down the runs at Blue Cow and was more than a little sad when we had to jump on the train back to the car park.

As we headed back to Sydney, I was left to think about the Oz resorts in general. Although not as big as most in the world, there is definitely a great experience to be had there, especially after some new snowfall - and later in the season when the terrain parks are fully built.

A little physically exhausted, I managed to get up for most of the world cup final, and after an entertaining enough game; I can admit as far as the early mornings go - I'm glad it's over. Congrats to Italy.

Way to Fall

The end of the Australian financial year meant party time at work. So as 5.30pm rolled around, our modern staff room was filled with helium balloons, a frozen cocktail machine wheeled in, finger snacks covered the worktops, beer and wine populated the two refrigerators, music and videos played from the plasma screens. Everyone rolled in and hours later, filtered out. After using the last of my energy up at a club, I cabbed it home and watched as much of the Germany Vs Argentina match as my tired eyes could manage.

It was then the day of the England Quarter final against Portugal. Australia time meant a whole day to kill before this so I opted for a visit to the NSW art Gallery, Sydneys Chinese Gardens and dinner at restaurant I’d had my eye on – “Rib Specialists”. They were indeed great ribs!

The Chinese Gardens were as ornate as you could imagine, and bared a very striking resemblance to the ones I’d already seen in my time in South East Asia. Hard to believe that you’re actually smack in the middle of a busy metropolitan city.

Trying my best to culture my Essex-self, the art gallery was next on the hit list of things to do. The old stuff is admittedly wasted on me although I still managed to find some humour in the old oils. In the gallery’s sub terraenean levels, there was a lot photography and modern art that was far more fascinating to my eyes before the lights were killed and we were ejected at closing time.

I caught some early evening Z's before heading to the pub for the England game. The game wasn't anywhere near as well supported as the opener against Paraguay but the atmosphere was still pretty lively. It wasn't to be Englands year yet again. Beckham leaving injured (almost a blessing in disguise had we have got to play another world cup match) and then Rooney getting sent off, brought out the best football I'd seen from England so far - but still no ability to finish the 2nd rate team off. As Chris Ronaldo blasted in the decisive pen, bitter Aussies let out there laughter just to make the defeat even worse. Though I'd given Sven my support up until this world cup, I had grown tired of him this time around. Roll on Steve Maclaren. Ah well, there's always next time in Austri-tzerland '08.

Half way through Sunday I emerged from bed with a sad, sad hangover - made infinitely better by the news of Brazil also having an "off day" at the office. I went for a bike ride around the Centennial Parklands to burn some of the belly I'd gained over the previous 2 evenings. stopping by to watch the world go round; or at least some geese, horses and roller bladers.

I had to get a picture in here relating to the new Superman Movie which I saw last week. Most of the street scenes were filmed in Sydney, and you may notice a fountain that Superman lands in front of holding a car. It's a minute or two from my work, and here's Luke thinking he can fly after a couple of beers...