A Spaceman Came Travelling

The Christmas bumper issue,

Twas the Thursday before Christmas and all most of us were thinking about was knocking off from work for the weekend... even though Friday was still to be worked. You see, work shouted a full lunch in honour of a guy leaving our department for one of the English offices, so with a few beers already inside us, you could understand the mentality there.

I finished up and went to meet some friends from back home visiting Sydney for the first time - Hev and Sarah. After dinner at Five-O's, we headed into the palace where we kinda got Christmas off and running early, Az, Jazz and their folks showed up later in the evening and somehow I found myself out a bit too late on a school night.

Despite only being a 5hour day, Friday dragged beyond belief... I did however manage to make it an AFD (Alcohol Free Day); oh, aside from 2 beers after work. Must try harder.

Saturday had been planned for a few weeks, and a bunch of us met at Dirty Nelly's Irish pub in Paddington for the first leg of our "12 days of Christmas" pub crawl. After meeting our fellow crawlers, we headed onward down Oxford Street to pubs 2, 3, 4 and so on... Christmas hats were purchased, pool & pokies were played, many a joke told. By pubs 7, 8 & 9 in the city we could see the end in sight, but still realised just how far we had to go. Eyes got tired, the conversation degraded and some people started downing pints - a great idea only at pub 8 and beyond!? Nightfall and we hit the double figures for drinks and pubs in close quarters to my old job Macquarie Place... my memory of what happened from here is probably a little too hazy to try to recall... but I remember making into those final doors and slowly making my way through my final Tooheys New of the day. Taxi for Fonfara...

Christmas Eve, some Christmas shopping, some chilling out, a nice BBQ dinner in the evening and again a very low alcoholic content - no wonder after the previous days epic.

Shrimp on the Barby!


I started my Christmas in a very untraditonal way. I went for a run about town and the local park - almost an attempt at 'pre-burning' some of the culinary delights I was about to assault my body with later in the day.

Without any breakfast I met up with Aaron & Jarrads family and we headed off in a taxi to the Carlton Crest Hotel for our all-you-can-eat Christmas dinner buffet.

The forecast had been bleak, but with a weather forecast that makes the Blighty one look 100% accurate, anything was possible, and as the afternoon started, the sun was out and made for a nice temperature. Meanwhile, the seafood was being devoured. Prawns, Crab, Oysters, Yabbies, Salmon to name a few... I was nearly full when I finished my seafood - but then moved on to some more traditional Coq Au Vin - well, traditonal in France maybe! The afternoon drew on with wine & beer and finally a huge swoop to the dessert section. When we made it home, with bellys full of food making us feel like whales as we plunged the pool and basked in the afternoon Christmas sunshine.

A Racing Song n Dance


Eversince I knew that the Southern Hemisphere had hot Christmases, I'd always wanted to experience one on the beach in Australia. On Boxing Day I finally got to fulfil this desire. The sun was shining, though the wind was up so after a kick around on the Randwick oval, 30minutes sunbaking and a quick swim we were done.


I then headed back home to get changed, walked a out of my front door and around the corner at met some friends at the Randwick racecourse - free to internationals today!.

The earlier winds had died off and the weather had turned into an absolutely gorgeous day. The whole gang ended up drinking Champagne to celebrate.

After the races we headed into the city for a good ol' knees up at the Lowenbrau beer cafe where as well as food & beer (yes, beer after champagne - never a great idea!), the hosts belted out some sing/shout/clap along numbers and everyone had a ball.

Then some bright spark suggested we go karaoke (can you guess?), 2minutes later and one of the guys; Brian, had phoned ahead and booked us in!

Sometime around the turn of midnight, Christmas was over for another year and I was sleeping off a heck of a good party.