Lazy

So after the uber weekend that was, Craig spent his last few days in Sydney running around shopping and taking in the last of his sight-seeing, a poker night and even getting a dirty Tuesday visit to the Palace in before Wednesday night, taking the boys of the house out for a final farewell dinner. I think he had a good time, and he will have gone home a different person than the one that arrived in Oz, after learning how to turn on a washing machine all by himself!! Just kidding mate... (Did you work it out in the end?) :P

Since then, I've been like a wee snail; reclusive after an inquisitive young lad pokes his antennae, and curled up in my homely stead, only coming out when it's seemed safe to do so. Err, I'm not sure where the whole snail analogy is going, since I'm pretty sure snails don't go out for Friday night drinks in Sydney...

err, yeah moving on... work:hard, play:still hard - despite best efforts to relax. I think my body is in shock after having it pretty easy since October 2005... err, actually, make that 'ever'.

My 5-a-side soccer comp ended with our team in the final, however, the game was rained off and I wouldn't get to represent in the final game to be replayed at a final date, a real disappointment as I could feel a grand final hat-trick in my boots :(

That weekend after, a few of us went to a house warming party where a challenge was laid down to pin as many clothes pegs to your face as possible. I guess I too have really matured since all this solo travel and life changing experience, enough to get over 20 on me.

Sunday was mostly; in mind, a write-off, though we did make it down to the SCG to watch the Sydney Swans in a great game of Aussie Rules against Brisbane Lions; courtesy of Jarrads employers members passes. The Swans won it with a few minutes to go in a thrilling finish.

Afterwards I got the chance to kick an AFL ball for the first time of my life. I reckon I did okay, but probably better at the keepy-uppies right afterthat - the hand-ball punch thing was a non-starter really.

Another week of work ticked by fast, and the weekend just gone finally yielded something productive in a cool Sunday spent Rock Climbing at an awesome facility in St Leonards. Rog, Wedgie, Alison and myself spent a few hours scaling the various summits - including one I'll remember for all the wrong reasons - I've tagged it 'The Nutcracker' for obvious and still evident reasons.

After that, our forearms and fingertips were good for nothing else other than sitting in the Bavarian beer cafe at Manly Wharf for a gorgeous Chicken Schnitzel smothered in cheese and ham... and of course a few cheeky German beers to sink it all down with.

It's Alright

NSW Road Trip, Easter Weekend

The first chapter of my new job came to an end on Thursday evening, and with it came the excitement and anticipation of a road trip out of Sydney. Since my return to Australia last Ocotber I've only managed to get out of the city a couple of times. It was time to do what no one had recommended yet I felt it somewhere near neccessary to do - that is to visit the nations oddly nominated capital city - Canberra.

Unlike Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra is, well very unlike Sydney and Melbourne - both great cities in their own right. Canberra is located nowhere near the coast and didn't really seem to have any significant waterway entering it like the majority of capitals around the world today. It's really less than a hundred years old and as such doesn't really have a great deal of history to offer. The general feel I got of the place was of another city with big aspirations just waiting for it's populus to catch up.

Regardless, on arrival, we set about having a good time and went to check out one of the main tourist pulls of the area - The Australian Parliament Building. The city itself is quite interestingly laid out and at times it really seems like a large town built in the middle of a park. Nice...ish, but I certainly wouldn't wanna spend too long here.

After grabbing some dinner, it was time to make best of the 'nightlife' which sadly took a beating from it's regular form as it was Good Friday. A trusty Irish bar was however open for more hours than any of us would be able to utilise so our venue was pretty much set for the night.

We bombed out and returned to our hostel, significant for being Mr Burgess' first time in one, and for me - the first time in one since my time in California last year. A pretty good clean one I must say, it even had a pool which got a dip the following morning. We had a browse around some of the city stores before saddling up and waving goodbye to Canberra, the capital of Australia.

We left after some dodgy McDonalds breakfast made us all feel about 28% worse than before eating and as such wouldn't take too long to need something else to eat. We reached Cooma - the 'capital of the Snowy Mountains'. We stopped in at a pub where they had a couple of pool tables and the Eng Vs Aus rivalry continued. A strange moment passed over me however, which Craig could also appreciate. As many pubs televise sports coverage, this one was no different. On one screen, there was Horse Racing live from Randwick race course - which is now just around the corner from where I'm living. Another screen across the room was airing the Essex Championship derby match between Southend and Colchester - being played not far from home in England.

We moved on from Cooma and soon found the landscape changing. After the initial mountainous surrounds had passed, some wide open lush, green, sweeping fields filled our view. I had to stop to get a few pictures in what we all thought was a pretty incredible looking area. Thousands of round boulders were strewn across the landscape - with no apparant reason. We took this in for a while before making a few more impomptu stops as we finally reached our destination; Kosciusko National Park; Jindabyne.


This was my second visit to Jindabyne, the last time however was a very brief thru-trip on the way to Thredbo and Perisher last July.


Today the sun was shining, the air was fresh and the vibe was really cool about town. We secured a room for the night before heading out with a newly purchased boomerang. Many failed attempts and we were finally catching the returning 'rang.
This evening was way more fun than Canberra, with us sinking more change than I can remember into the pool tables and queuing up the pubs video dukebox with some absolute hum-dinging classic music videos.
The morning I've been waiting for for years arrived. I awoke way earlier than the other guys like many kids would have on this particular Sunday, except they'd be expecting to see the Easter Bunnies eggs. I was going wakeboarding. Sweeter than chocolate.

This was something the three of us had organised, but in a freakish twist of fate, Craig awoke with the worst cramp of his life and left the wakeboarding trio as a duo. So down at Lake Jindabyne Aaron and I got our wetsuits on and boarded the boat. Marty gave us a bunch of instruction on how we were to get ourselves out of the water and upright... obviously before we even thought about being dragged at speed behind a speedboat.


First in the mountain lakes waters, I was surprised at how warm the water was. So without that to worry about, the rope tightened, I slowly moved forward, rising out of the water like a phoenix... and then in a flash, falling straight on my face back beneath the surface.



Take 2, and I was up and out. Having a good snowboarding background seemed to help and I was soon weaving around from left to right and having the best fun I've had all year. As I was cruising along, I was starting to get tired, and all of a sudden I caught the toe-side edge and my forearms slapped the glassy surface hard.
Aaron jumped into the bindings and went through a similar learning curve. A couple of equally impressive stacks before losing the board from his feet and clamboring back on board marking half time of the session.

Our driver and instructor reckoned that the conditions we had were nearly as good as we could have wished for, with many areas of the lake perfectly calm.

I had just about mastered being upright when Marty decided to give me a real thrill by turning fast and hard thus swinging me out at speed with a heap of g-force which put the size of my grin off the edges of my face. There was no way I was going to better this feeling today.


After the fun of the lake, it was time to hit the long road home and back to Sydney. With a little exception. It was Easter Rodeo day!

In we went, lookin' like real city slickers in amongst the country cowboys and cowgirls. We watched as the lassooin', Steer catchin' and Rodeo Clownin' before running low on interest... over 400kms back to Sydney... went a little quicker than I thought it might. With a whole days true rest to recover before returning back to work, I was very much satisfied to have gotten away from everything for a great little break.


Happy Easter!

Little Superstitions

This week would be quite a revelation in my Sydney story so far. As much as I have packed into my time here, there's still lots I want to do - and last Monday I finally got to tick another activity off of my list. At least temporarily anyway.

Craig and I met after I finished work down at East Circular Quay and wandered up to the Sydney Opera House for we had gotten ourselves some cheap under 27 tickets (Shhhhh), to a play by a little known playwrite - William Shakespeare. The Scottish Play or Macbeth as it's also known was the title.

The performance was given it's tilt with costumes alligning to more modern day attire - at least out on the frontlines, with most of the cast members looking like they'd stepped out of a modern day war film. The dramatics were of a very high quality, although I must admit it was a little unusual to hear the occasional Australian accent in with the majority English accented cast.

Although very tired from the weekend goneby, I managed to enjoy the play and left mostly satisfied that I'd fulfilled my Opera House want. Except I really won't, until I see; or more importantly, hear something there...

Madder

V Festival, Centennial Parklands, Sydney
Well I was hardly not gonna go to V, the first time it made it to the Sunny side of the world. After doing 8 back in Blighty - so close to home was always a 25minute drive to Chelmsford. Now however, it's 45minute walk from home.

Only problem was for me, the lineup, pretty week and it's only a one day event, though I had a large crew of friends going, so I figured it would be unlikely I'd have a crappy time.

Myself, Craig and new temporary housemates Rich & Lou, Martin & Tracy rocked up about 3.30pm to find what I can only describe as one of the most fun-killing things I've ever seen at a festival - yes, an hour long queue for beer. Almost a carbon copy layout of Good Vibes the other month - on the same site, they really managed to get the drink situation so horrendously wrong.

Eventually, walking away with 4beers in my hands (I was hardly gonna queue up again any time soon), I settled to watch a band I've not seen before from the US - The Rapture. I was dead impressed. The sound and the band were great. However time was tight and it was time to whizz off to go see Britpop legend gone solo; Jarvis Cocker.

Despite only hearing all new stuff and no Pulp classics, I thoroughly enjoyed the set and especially his quips between tunes.

Next up, Groove Armada. My 4beers had kicked into play as had everybody elses 4 drinks so we had a really lively time as the English boys saw the crowd 'shakin dat ass'.

My final hit of the day was gonna need some more juice, and Australia V gets a plus point for the Jaeger tent. A couple of bombs and I was ready to go party hard to the first band I've seen play twice in Australia - 2Many DJS. As expected, an absolute pearler of a set rounded off the evening.

The tyro organisers have a lot to learn to get something as successful as the UK leg of this festival, but it was a real pleasure to be part of the first one here.

After V we fell into a nearby pub where as luck would have it, Craig was able to see his beloved Arsenal take on Liverpool... I'll just leave a picture as a memento of this occasion:

Everyday People

INXS, Simple Minds & Arrested Development, SEC.

A long week at work came good in the end, at least outside of hours...

I clocked off on Friday night and met Craig at Town Hall and we went for some impromptu cheap chinatown shopping before heading toward Darling Harbour and the Sydney Entertainment Centre - one of the last big venues I'd yet to visit in Sydney.

The event was a bit of retro night as acts that have been around for over 15years joined forces to put on a big blast from the past. First up, as we walked in the door, was Arrested Development belting out the classic Mr Wendall followed by their other hits and a cool cover of Redemption Song. I was really surprised how good these guys were, and wouldn't have thought they were even around after this long.

They left the stage and soon it was the turn of the Scottish 80's legends; Simple Minds. Jim Kerrs voice was spot on for the gig and he seemed genuinely impressed with the Sydney crowd. This was one of Craigs top things to do whilst here, so he was in his element watching these guys, especially once 'Don't you Forget About Me' and 'Alive & Kicking' ended the set.

I'd spotted one of Craigs friends sitting a few rows in front of us with, as luck would have it - Jim Kerrs mum & dad. After a few words, Jims mum invited us to go backstage with them. So with a bouncer escort, we were shown from our seats and through the stage doors.

So there we are sitting around a table backstage with the Simple Minds lead singers parents, with Arrested Development wandering around when Jim walks in. It was a slightly surreal and definitely unexpected moment of the evening! So after chatting about the state of the roads in the Eastern Block countries, lawn bowls and Scottish weather, we got pictures and our tickets autographed before heading back to our seats to watch the last act of the evening.

This was a little wierd, with Michael Hutchence obviously missing from the INXS lineup - the American Rock Idol winner instead in his place. His voice no doubt impressive, though his stage presence was a little odd, especially since the rest of the band are probably nearly old enough to be his father.

Never the less, they played all there hits of old mixed in with a few new ones and the crowd went nuts.