Battleships

Shapeshifter, The Forum, Sydney

A great weekend owing to a rock climbing session at St Peters. My 4th go now, and my progression really showing with me managing a pretty hefty overhang... happy with myself, I went home to relax before the evenings fun.

I met up with Todd & Rog for some early evening drinks and then we headed over to Fox studios for something a little new for me; a Kiwi Drum n Bass act called Shapeshifter.

So into the Forum, and a massive surprise. So much fun was had and a night-long boogie ensured sore legs for Sunday.

Medevac

After a stressful and largely un-enjoyable week of work, here's Lukes recipe on how to kick back and forget about the 9-5, if only for 2 days.

Step 1,

Finish work on Friday night, meet with compadres for some wind-down drinks. The quality of the whereabouts matters not here. We for instance tried to get into the hottest new bar in town, but found a queue longer than some athletic running races. So off to Jacksons on George we journied. Not the worst selection ever as they do do giant beers for very little amounts of your hard earned cash.

Step 2,

Step up a little with a change of scenery, pick something with a watery view, some soft lighting and some funky music in the background. In this particular case, we found 'The Loft' over looking Darling Harbour. Here we bumped into some more old acquaintences and got to talking about some good old times. From here, you may start to forget where the night started, and somehow, miraculously find yourself leaving a taxi parked out the front of your house... in some cases, the taxi driver may be asking you to clean up the side of his car before he leaves...

Step 3,

Haul yourself from a perfectly good sleep on Saturday morning, grab some breakfast and then pack your things and head to the beach. We chose Maroubra. Here, some friends were partaking in a grand finale of a season long volleyball competition. I found it very therapeutic to watch inbetween kicking a ball around, swimming off a hangover and catching some very welcome winter rays of sunshine.

Step 4,

The volleyball might not go quite the way of your friends, in which case you should probably help them console themselves by accompanying them for some drinks in a local eating/drinking establishment. In this case the Maroubra beach hotel was perfect. Poor quality beers and cheap conversation (or was that the other way around?) are the way forward at this point - "Just how would you spend 60minutes if you could freeze time just once?"...

Accompany friends home and prepare for the next round.

Step 5,

Attend party, mingle, drink and laugh at and with new and old friends.

Step 6,

Head to fancy part of town to watch the FA Cup Final. The first half may be some of the worst football you've seen since Sydney took on the Urawa Reds but you'll have had a few drinks at this point - it's gone midnight and so you won't mind so much. Resume the FA Cup final in a less classy part of town - Kings Cross would be a perfect locale... Pretend like you actually care who wins as the worst game of football you've seen in years heads into extra time.

Step 7,

Head to Iguana bar to be re-united with non-football loving friends. Some more drinks, which help spur on some crazy dancing... Before you know it, you're again in a taxi, but this time ordering McDonalds drive thru at 5.30am Sunday morning...

Step 8,

Another recovery session - this time aided by Coogee beach and a 'Roo lunch overlooking blue skies, calm surf and an awesome sea breeze... Spend as much time as possible thinking about as little as possible...

Step 9,

Try not to remember you have work the following day and there you have it - an awesomely relaxing weekend!

Back to Black

I got to the Randwick Medical Research Institute trivia night just as the first round was finishing... some may say a little too late. Though with the final rounds, we managed to claw our way into contention of the winners prize but sadly just missed out. Therefore we took the runner up bag consisting of 6 bottles of Cascade, some Pringles and some random bits. A good fun night, that carried on that way over Jaegerbombs at the Royal...

I awoke early on Saturday and got up to make the most of the day... However, the big night soon caught up on me so I bailed on the usual rock climbing and opted instead for some leisurely solace visiting my 2nd World Press Photography Exhibition at the New South Wales Library. With my original plan of seeing James Morisson falling to pieces, I instead joined up with Rog, Matty, Benny, Loen and Con for some poker action... I won a single hand off a high ace... it wasn't to be my lucky night. But a fun night it really was.

Feeling guilty for passing up the exercise on Saturday, I took up Rog on his offer to go to the Royal National Park for a quick up n down of Lady Carrington Drive. A scenic 20k ride that I hit up last year... same, same, but with added crowds as it would seem everyone stays away from this beautiful place if it's a bit cold.

The weekend was garnished with a bit of fun down at the driving range where it was great to relieve some tension by hitting some little yellow balls 200metres with a driver... happy days, here again :)

Straight Lines

Silverchair, Enmore Theatre, Sydney

A midweek gig hasn't happened to me since I think, living in the UK. I always remember having an awesome time, then spending a couple of hours trying to get back out of London, and then having to wake up having had about 4-5hours sleep and feeling like death the following day at work. At least this was a little more local.

Silverchair, one of Australias biggest bands, once known for their Nirvana influenced rock, now put on a gig showcasing about a decades worth of shape-shifting musical direction. With the style of music changing constantly, and the front man Daniel Johns taking time out to tell the odd musically accompanied joke, it was good fun gig. I was just stoked I didn't have that 2hour trip home afterward... I was asleep as soon as the taxi driver new where to head.

Sun Rise Light Flies

As a few more weeks pass me by, I've struggled to find time, for perhaps the first time since I began writing this stuff to write this stuff. With work taking up 50+hours per week and then some, I've had to carefully crow-bar in some activities to keep from going nuts.

Some weeks ago, we hosted our first social function at our new home. A poker night for the boys. It was a great success - espically for Aaron who walked with the majority of prize money! For the losers it was an exit to the houses newly formed games room.

Anzac day followed immediately on - a welcome public holiday Wednesday off of work, reserved for the right to remember Australian war heroes of past and present. Of course the serious stuff is generally over with in the morning and by the afternoon, most Aussies seem to be down the pub playing a traditional once a year only game of 'Two-up'... regular readers may recall me chatting about this last year when I'd arrived in Sydney. So on that note I will use Anzac day more as the rememberance of the time I first settled in the land of New South Wales. Needless to say the evening ended up with a little fun of the liquid variety.

Rock Climbing has started to become a regular activity, my 2nd session a few weeks back being the highlight of a quiet weekend. My body was a little more ready for it and didn't display any of the painful traits it did in the first outting... although I did manage to get myself tangled in the ropes - then find myself having to bail off an overhang giving me a nice big rope burn across my ribcage.

Another week of work careered by, so Friday night it was time to party - or party as much as my tired legs could handle. A trip to the Annandale hotel... a pub gig venue worthy of some such greats as Wolfmother, The Vines and Eskimo Joe - in their earlier days of course. We were there to watch a band from Melbourne called 'The Dukes of Windsor' - who I actually knew before hand, as one of their recent songs has been remixed and played at just about any place that plays remixed songs lately.

Last Saturday, was time to celebrate Mayday. Not in the traditional way that some hanky bearing weird English guys might, or even neo-nazi's through Europe might, but with a costume party with the Mayday them - Aeronautical style! Aaron and myself donned personalised workmens vests, ear mufflers, dodgy baseball caps and ping pong paddles and jumped in the car with Jarrad and Em to join the other partygoing stewardesses, terrorists and security wrapped baggage...