Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Slam! Beach Volleyball Competition, Coogee Beach

With the pennies in shorter supply at the moment, any free events that came up, were always going to be highly appreciated. When the Volleyball comp came my way, I couldn't have imagined what a good days spectating it might be.
As I came upon the beach, the wider end of it was covered in over 10 volleyball courts with cascading sponsors banners flying fast in the coastal wind. The theme of this comp is fun and fancy dress - so teams are encouraged to get right in to things.

Aarons team picked collars and cuffs as theirs, but others went for all out sweat-fests, dressing as Teenage turtles and superheros. The best teams for me were the matched bikini ones however ;) The day played out, eventually ending in some beers in the Palace...

Another week of job hunting finally took a turn for some good luck and with this I was able to chill out a little and even make a visit to the Australian Museum to check out the BBC Nature Photography exhibition. An amazing standard of pictures, especially the ones by the younger photographers!

By the end of the week I had two job offers on the table and was definitely fortunate enough to be able to have a choice between them - rather than being forced to take the first thing that became available to me. With me requiring sponsorship to carry on work in Australia, this had been the toughest I'd ever found it to find a new job, and with just around 5 weeks out of work - I was just a little bit relieved to be able to start my new role on the flip side of the weekend. A little ironic maybe, that one year ago when I arrived in Sydney, I stayed in a backpackers down Kent St - which is now home to head office of my new company. The new position will allow me to travel around Sydney a fair amount - in a very similar job role to the last one I had in the UK where I was travelling all over the South East of England on a daily basis.

Of course, after lying low on the social radar for the past month, I was eager to get out on a big one on Friday night... which I think was managed in great style. Gemma from work had a birthday party at the Slipp Inn, then the after party travelled to karaoke and then on to Kings Cross... where I think we made the best of arriving at a club at 4.00am...

Ahhhh, to be employed again - this could be bad for my health!

We are your Friends

TropFest 2007, Sydney

The weekend played out with a trip to TropFest 2007. The worlds largest short film festival... in the world!! Back down at the domain, site of the Homebake festival I visited last year the organisers throw up a tri-sided jumbo-tron screen rig and the crowds surround to indulge in some artsy-fartsy film fun.

We took along a picnic and some beers and chatter-boxed our way to dusk when the short flics finally beamed onto the screen amidst an air of anticipation. I was in two words, pleasently surprised with what I saw before me. All Australian amateur talents (my apologies if they were professional!), the films were with only a few exceptions, fun and innovative to hold everyones attention all the way through.

The most surprising thing to come of the event was the winner. I usually assume that some weird/alterntive bit of film would pick up the overall winners gong, but an animated short did it. My Imaginary Friend... I'm sure it'll be available on YouTube soon enough.

Another hard week of job hunting to follow, it was to be laced with some very sad news.

***

To Marc Deakin, my friend from days gone by and beyond at Thurrock council, a guy who seemed to have accomplished a lot in his youth. He started out in fashion, and with his learnings in this field, shifted his creative mind to web design and work at TBC (I was always dead impressed that he'd made his own shirts that he wore to work). In his spare time he also pimped out his car to an awesome standard. His passions spread to music, where a few nights, he played bass guitar at the Orsett Cock in front of good friends rocking out in the front row. I had a chance to say hi last October when I visited my old workplace, I could never have guessed it would be the last time I would see him...

So to one of the nicest guys you'd have come across, may you rest in peace mate.

Toop Toop

Good Vibrations, Centennial Parklands, Sydney,

Since last the last time I chatted, life has ground down to a situation I'd much less rather be in. I've been job hunting now for a couple of weeks and things have only just started to look positive.
Aside from this, I still find myself looking forward to weekends due to the fact I still get some time off from my current (sadly unpaid) full time occupation of trying to catch me some employment. However this Saturday was to be a little random and spontaneous.

I met with Aaron in the morning simply to pick up my football before he headed to a pre-festival party. Since I knew a few of the guys n gals there, I decided to go along to say hi... but of course, the vibe was a little infectious. As the gang departed Randwick for Centennial Park, I felt a little out of the loop, so I decided to see if I could get in the best way I can... for cheap or for free.

After the walk down there (first ever festival in walking distance of where I live!), I was asking people if they had any spare tickets, but alas, no yield. A tout/scalper was selling tickets for $30 above face value... which was still more than my budget oriented wallet could handle right now. The front gates had a box office, so decided to line up and see if there were any tikets available and for how much... though 1 minute of queueing and an Englishguy came up to me asking if I needed a ticket. He offered it to me for less than half face value, and after I'd eyeballed some other tickets to check for authenticity, I was soon through the front gate.

So, another day, another festival in the life and times of Luke Fonfara. The general vibe of Good Vibrations tends to lean to the current trend of electronic music, ranging from synthesiser machine backed guitar bands through to hip hop acts and DJs.

After dancing away to the Cut Copy and Sneaky Sound System (both highly recommended), I managed to catch a bit of Jurassic 5 before moving on down to the Laundry Tent to see Cassius - the French DJs that have been around for a bit. These were my most anticipated act of the day, and they didn't disappoint me. We danced hard and was eventually glad in my legs at least that they handed over the decks to the big Dutch guy Timo Maas, a trance master no less. However, he seemed to be in a pretty serious mood and his set didn't really do much to lift me up for the final slot of the evening... so off I went.

Next Stop, the Beastie Boys on the main stage. I arrived as Snoop Dogg was leaving the stage as a special guest, after this, the set remained, well, a bit dull as I chatted to some guy. Eventually it picked up a little but not enough to hold my attention and I walked away still unconvinced by the Beastie Boys in general. My final stop was Dirty Laundry - almost like 2 Many DJs, they make a habit of mashing up well known songs and beats together... The best of a pretty average bunch of headliners played on as I left the venue to catch up with some friends for a post festival chillout session... all in all a very enjoyable day, and a bargain too!

Saturdays

Copacabana, NSW

Another trip to Copacabana on the Central Coast meant some more trouble with Decca! After patying hard on Friday night, Saturday was left to chillout and recover by the clubhouse of one mans fairytale come true.

The father of one of Deccas friends from school has spent his life building his dream home, including a surrounding 9 hole pitch putt golf course! Today was time for the 8th annual Copa invitational golf tournament. As such I would play no golf today, but with a hangover, I was happy with that fact.

Swimming, some hair of the dog and a long lazy sunny day topped off a cruizy weekend before I embarked upon another week of chasing my occupation...

It's Not Over

Year No.2 in Australia

The remainder of the weekend was a little more conventional, I returned back to Randwick and recieved a text invite to Julians (a guy I met on Fraser Island back in August) party. So the rest of the evening would follow similar suit to the past 2 ie. drinks in Coogee, drinks in Auckland and now drinks in Sydney...

Drinking games with Scandinavians, playing iPod DJ again, and then stumbling off to jump in a cab and I was done.

The following day was far more leisurely with myself and Katy heading out to an as-yet undiscovered part of the Sydney coast line - Watsons Bay. Ice Creams and random wanderings whiled the afternoon and finale of a long weekend away.

With Monday came the urgency of job hunting all over again. Somehow though, with some of the complications now out of the way (Visa runs to New Zealand), I was finding it much easier to keep my head stress-less and keep focused on the task at hand. The week seemed to returning no yield, until Thursday when I finally got invited to an interview... and after that, another... so at least things are looking a little more positive...

Tuesday night a large group of us headed down to Bungalow 8 for the "All you can eat Mussels", then headed away again with fully fed, fat stomachs!

Day Tripper

New Zealand... again.

February 2nd 2007

6am. My alarm wakes me up at the now customary time, and after a shower, I throw the last few things I need into my snowboard bag. After a beans on toast, I set off for the bus-stop for a jam packed excursion.

Sydney is about 22degrees this morning, grey and gloomy, so I’m not too worried about leaving this time.

8.30am. Check-in at Sydney airport. I see my bags get carted off to the oversized baggage man and I make my way through to the gate, and start to anticipate what is almost a novelty since I haven’t done it in just over 3months. My passport gets stamped as “Departed Sydney 02 Feb 2007”, a few pages previous, a page has a stamp saying “Arrived Perth 02 Feb 2006” and a few pages prior to that one, a big sticky label informing the details of my work visa “Valid from 12 months from first day of arrival”. Time to leave.

10.10am. Back in the luxury of an Emirates flight, I’m watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 as the planes tail tilts back as we lift off the Australian tarmac. Pretty soon, I’m being fed whilst cruising of the Tasman sea toward Auckland.

4pm. I pick up a shiny newish Silver Ford Focus from Hertz, and I’m in full voice as I drive through the rush hour traffic toward the Central Business District in the “City of Sails”.

5.50pm. Re-united with Nick and Lucy, who hang back from their trip North to catch up and have a bite to eat at a pub near their place. Great catching up, and over way too soon, the two of them were soon on their way and headed off to check in to my hostel.

8pm. I’m a backpacker again; despite having no backpack, and checking in with merely a towel and toothbrush.

8.35pm. Lift of Destiny. Unsure of what to do with myself this evening, I hit both up & down buttons on the elevator. If a descending lift showed first, then I’d walk the city and maybe find a bar to chill with a beer. If ascending, I’d check out the ACB roof bar where a “wild party” had been advertised.

8.36pm. Ding. Upwards. I met a Norwegian girl in the lift who was meeting up with a large group of Scandinavian friends and my night was set. Free punch meant everyone was having a great time despite some pretty dodge music. The English in the house were ecstatic after finally beating the Aussies in a one-day cricket match. The music was really terrible. I’m taught some great phrases in Spanish by a guy from Chile.

February 3rd 2007

1.35am (approximately). Head hits pillow.

8.30am. Dude in room turns light on thus waking everyone up. Kinda handy as an early start was needed regardless. I shower and check out and head for my wheels a little excited at the thought of what I’m about to do.

9.45am. I drive over my 3rd famous bridge in a year, as I head North of Auckland.

9.57am. I can only remember one of the Spanish phrases from the previous night.

10.10am. My throat is saw from ‘yelling’ too much to my music as I pull up in the car park at SnowPlanet. I check in and get geared up.

10.30am. I cut my first lines of snow since the Dubai dome, which had raised the bar in terms of indoor domes I’ve visited. Auckland SnowPlanet it pretty good however, it’s slightly longer than what I’m used to in England, and the snow quality if pretty good. The best thing however was the terrain park. I nice big kicker with a good quality landing zone meant I was busy all day. Later on I hit the straight rails and also had an attempt at a kinked one, a little cautious to avoid injury in a foreign country.

11.55am. An early lunch, I recommend the Bacon and Egg Quiche.

2.05pm. The sound system plays The Verves Bittersweet Symphony. I love this place.

2.34pm. Oops, I realise the time and leave sharpish. The car is loaded up and I have to head back to Auckland airport already. Regardless I’m well happy after getting the better part of 4 hours back on snow. I set off toward the airport.

3.14pm. I’m lost.

3.25pm. Back on track.

3.50pm. I arrive at the airport, drop the car off and repack my snowboard bag.

4.10pm. Queued up for the pleasure of paying $25 departure tax.

4.20pm. Standing in line to check-in. Flight due to take-off in 40minutes with about 20minutes of people in front of me waiting…

4.24pm. An angel calls out and asks if anyone heading to Sydney is still checking in. I get fast-tracked to the front.

4.26pm. Unable to check in, I overlooked pre-paying my tourist visa for Australia.

4.28pm. In another queue across the check-in hall, awaiting a woman to complete the necessary administration associated with the required visa.

4.47pm. Back at the Emirates desk and I'm finally given a boarding pass and an escort through customs and x-ray control.

4.58pm. Sat down at last as the plane taxi’s from the terminal.

6pm. After nearly 2movies, a great monkfish meal and 2 white wines, we touch down in Sydney and I’m home…