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!