Sydney Siders... Settling in!

The novelty of having our own place was still working its magic and the girls (Mitz and Trish, my flatmates from Melbourne who were the other 2 members of the Beach Street Gang) arrived on Thursday. Despite it meaning that Luke and I would now have to share our sofa’s, it was fab to see them again. Now that we were all there it was all systems go on the work and play front! Time to find out feet and become Sydney Siders for a while!!

Despite my best efforts, work eluded me for another week and the others had similar stories to tell so, as we couldn’t work hard the only thing to do for the time being was fulfil the ‘play hard’ part of the plan. Friday night, after more rounds of agency interviews, we all met up and planned to go up the AMP observation tower (Sydney’s tallest building with a rotating viewing deck) to check out the view. Turned out the bar up there was closed and you had to pay $20 odd to get up there so on suggestion from one of the staff there we headed to Australia Square. There’s a restaurant/bar called Orbit on the 42nd floor of tower there that also rotates and offers a pretty impressive view over the city - as you can see from the pic at the top! There you only need pay for your drinks rather than an entry fee. Ok, so they’re not the cheapest of drinks but at least that’s what we were paying for rather than just to be allowed up there. Luke rather comically on this occasion took a while to settle into the whole rotating thing, with a little motion sickness momentarily phasing him! Bless! After we’d spent way too much on fancy drinks there and taken in enough of the view, we headed to Bondi Junction to check out the delights of the nightlife there - namely the Cock and Bull, the classic Irish backpacker haunt and yep, as cheesy and dingy as it sounds, fun all the same!

The next day was spent leisurely around Coogee (the pic shown here is of the view from the entrance of our apartment.. a view I never fail to appreciate each morning when I leave for work, whether it's gorgeously sunny or overcast and dramatic, I love walking out and being greeted by that!) - before heading to the CBH for a cheeky afternoon drink – we met up with a couple of friends of the girls from their time in New Zealand; Kim, who was heading off to Thailand in the next couple of weeks (we were all very jealous) and Jarrad, an Aussie who also lives in Coogee and who was to become a bit of a fixture (a welcome one that is) during my time here. The cheeky afternoon drink inevitably turned into several afternoon, not to mention evening, drinks and we all stumbled back to Beach Street many hours later, a little giddy and giggly – don’t you just love those impromptu pub days!

That day/evening also saw the birth of the ‘Betting’ culture that was to become a bit of a theme in the coming weeks… this has already been mentioned in an earlier posting at the time it happened but I’ll recap for those who missed it: Something you should know about Luke first of all is that he has a weakness for daft dancing. The boy can’t help but tap his feet, nod his head and let his body ‘feel the beat’ whenever we’re around music, be it at home or in public! Somehow, after a few drinks, talk turned to his control over this little habit of his. I’m not sure how I became the instigator but the result was a bet between Luke and I that he could resist from dancing (the only thing allowed was the tap of one foot) for 3 weeks. If he succeeded I would have the ‘lovely’ punishment of growing one armpit’s worth of hair for the same duration but if he failed and gave in to the music, he would have to forfeit all the hair on one of his legs from the knee down… by way of Waxing!! Oh how much did I want him to fail – not just because I have no desire whatsoever to grow my armpit hair but because how much fun would we have waxing Luke’s leg! It was now my mission to make him fail… bring on the ‘toons!’

Sunday saw us walking off our hangovers on the same coastal walk we’d done the week before, this time add Mitzi though, then Luke subjecting us to possibly the most horrid film ever… Hostel!! Why?! why would you want to watch it?! I only managed to not hide my wimp-ish eyes for one particularly nasty bit and it still haunts me today! There is comical photographic evidence of Mitz and I cowering behind our pillows but I think i might save that one from public view!! Can't imagine why!?! ;0) The pic shown above however is Mitz and I having a little rest at the top of one of the headlands on the coastal walk - not that you can see any of the cool scenery from this shot mind!!

The following week and the pattern continued, lots of internet job searching, agency interviews etc etc, as well as my first proper interview by which I mean with a real company rather than a recruitment agency – it was for eBay, pay was good, environment seemed cool and I really wanted the job! I met Luke afterwards before heading back to Five O’s for dinner with Mitz and Louise (her friend from home that had arrived to stay for a while) and the CBH for a few cheeky ones, which, oh surprise surprise, turned into a bit of a sesh involving the locally well known ‘Gramps’ and his penchant for buying everyone bottle after bottle of champagne – well, who were we to argue!!

The next day Luke and I decided to break the pattern and be tourists for the afternoon… we were both skint so thought we’d just do something not too far away and for some reason picked Parramatta! Can’t honestly tell you why but hey, off we set, down to the Quay to catch the ferry over. Parramatta is a town/suburb of Sydney, easiest (for us tourists anyway) reached by boat from Circular Quay. It takes about an hour and to be honest there’s not an awful lot of interest there but it’s a nice enough place, we went for a walk in the gardens and along the river - making up our own versions of the stories that accompanied the aboriginal paintings on the footpath - then did a bit of shopping and went for food. I think it’s safe to say the two of us have had more exciting days of fun but it was nice to be out of the city for a bit and hey, at least Luke didn’t throw me off a motorbike this time!! ;0)

Unbeknown to me at the time, that was to be one of my last days without work. The following morning I got a call for a temp job in St Leonard’s – the other side of the bridge, just past North Sydney. It was for a company called ‘The Marketing Department’ and it was just dull data entry work but I needed the money so naturally accepted it. It was only one day and it was a bit of a trek, bus and train (not to mention getting lost in the rain, buying the only umbrella I could find which remains as rubbish now as it was then and was stupidly overpriced and thus getting soaked to the skin and being ridiculously late!) Luckily the people at TMD were very understanding about my useless sense of direction as well as being highly amused by my sorry wet state!!
It was only one day’s work they needed me for and I ended up finishing it all sooner than expected so skipped off early (and still got paid for the rest of the day, bless them) and met Luke back in the city. The weekend that followed saw us on Saturday night heading out to sample Surry Hills nightlife, find our way – foolishly, some might say – to PJ O’Brien’s and end up drinking ridiculously large cocktails and dancing in a random TAB bar til 5am!! Oops! Sunday was quite clearly spent recovering, although Trish and I did manage to rouse ourselves long enough for a little walk by the sea. Having suitably alleviated our guilt at being so lazy, we all set off to Five O’s for dinner, again! Anyone spotting a Sunday night trend?!?!

Monday, now fully recovered, we headed to Bondi Junction during the day this time to check out the shopping on offer. Now, I know it sounds like there was a lot of shopping going on people but unfortunately the only things I was allowing myself to buy were birthday presents for various friends and family… otherwise it was window shopping for me! Boo! I did however get a call from Command, the recruitment agency that had got me the work at TMD… they wanted me back for the rest of the week! Yay! Money! Thank god!

So, the rest of the week saw me in St Leonard’s by day... There was another temp (Rachael) there this time who was to become a good friend along with her boyfriend, Cillian (the cheeky chaps are the peeps shown in the pic here). They’re a lovely Irish couple and Rach and I spent all day having fun and games with the data entry (?!) and popping out for lunches together. She was staying on longer there after I’d left but I’d managed to sort myself a 2 month contract, starting the following week, in the city so I could only stay for the week. Work wise, I have to say the week went pretty quick, although the work wasn’t the most interesting, everyone was really friendly and having Rachael there made it more fun too.

By night that week we managed to squeeze a few things in. On Wednesday evening we headed up to Orbit Bar again. Nick; Luke’s original travelling partner had arrived in town with his girlfriend, Lucy so we were all meeting up for a few drinks. It was great to finally meet Nick after hearing so much about him. He and I remained the one piece of the puzzle that hadn’t crossed paths since those few days between Thailand and Laos where the whole ALF, Luke and Flee scenario was set into motion by our respective brief encounters with Andy and Dave. Nick and Lucy were actually leaving the following day, or maybe even later that evening if I remember correctly, so it was only a brief meeting but it was good to meet the man himself and I’m sure we’ll cross paths again – it’ll be tough not to with Andy and Luke being, I fear, somewhat permanent fixtures in my life from here on in! Hee Hee… just kidding guys, I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Thursday night saw us having a few cheeky games of pool down at the Palace, staying close to home for the evening, then on Friday, even though not all of us were working, we joined in the whole ‘Friday night, After work drinking’ culture that every city has. We started at Australia Square, the normal bar at street level this time with Rachael and Cillian joining us along with my brother’s friend Ryan from home who’s been living and working over here since last year. It was fab to see Ryan again after so long - is always good to see a friendly face from home when you’re on the other side of the planet. Map and mates – he seems very happy. I’m not sure you’ll be seeing him for a while longer if he’s got anything to do with it!! It turned into a very drunken, very silly evening – in which we ended up at PJ’s again – oops! – that was becoming way too much of an occurrence… Sydney must have more to offer than PJ’s but at this stage we weren’t entirely sure where to find it and we were entirely too drunk to think sensibly of anywhere new to try. It was a fun night though and to the Beach Street Gang that shared in the evening with me… Just remember… ‘You’re My Guys!!!’