Bye Bye Beach Street! Bye Bye Sydney!

Ok, so last time I left you on a Friday night to go to the pub... it's a week and 2 days later now and I WILL keep this thing up to date if it kills me! So.... back to last Friday - despite my intentions of it being an easy night, well, it clearly didn't turn out that way! I headed off to meet Luke and some of his workmates for a quick drink at Customs House in the city (where I was greeted with a shot and 2 G&T's drunk in quick succession - I should've known then where the evening was headed!) before jumping in a cab back to Coogee to meet Jarrad for our farewell evening. This was the last time we'd be able to catch up before I left so although I was looking forward to the evening, I was a little sad too. We met at The Palace in Coogee and sunk several more drinks (although I think we might find J did actually have more will power than yours truly that night!!!) The evening flew by, with lots of chat, silliness, honesty and Jarrad generally laughing at my absurdity most of the time (fair play.. i think i was laughing at myself too!) and before I knew it, it was 2am and finally time to head home to bed. I had a fab evening with Jarrad and am so glad that our last night catching up was like that. I have however, been a bit of an emotional wreck these past few weeks what with the whole leaving thing and all so saying our goodbyes was tough!!

Anyway, Saturday dawned and another hangover accompanied it, Luke and I spent the day sorting out bits and pieces in preparation for leaving then the evening drew closer... and our final night out in Sydney was upon us! The plan involved Tom, Graham, Charlotte, Rob, Glen and Steve - as most of them were headed on to pastures new soon too we had a bit of a final farewell planned. To start with Luke and I headed to The X to pick up the posh bottle of sparkling white we'd bought in the Hunter Valley and managed to take to a Non-BYO restaurant on his birthday so had been unable to drink and had had to get the restaurant to look after it! Armed with that and a cheeky takeaway (which unfortunately turned out to be grim but hey!) we headed into Pitt Street to meet the others at their flat for a few drinks, where Luke and I enjoyed our lush bottle of wine and felt very smug watching everyone else skulling the Goon!! Haha!

After we'd polished off the wine we set off... first stop Star City - Sydney's grand casino. We'd not made it there before so it was good to be able to check it out before we left. We all had a bit of a 'flutter' on the old Roulette tables but i don't actually think any of us managed to come out with any winnings! Ah well - it's the taking part that counts right??!!! (Yeah, right - tell my bank manager that!!) Anyway, once we were over the whole gambling thing we attempted to check out the bar on the 17th floor overlooking Darling Harbour bit it was too busy so we gave up and headed to Kings Cross.. venue for the evening.. Le Panic! It was a small club but with a pretty cool chilled out vibe and we whiled away the time into the wee small hours in there with a few more drinks, a bit of silly dancing and a fair bit of just chilling out on the comfy sofa's (needless to say given my excesses from the previous 2 nights, that was where i was to be found for most of the evening!) It was all good fun though and before we knew it, it was getting light and time to make our way back to Beach Street.. for the last time after a night out! It had been a really fun night though and good to spend it with all the guys and girls (well, Charlotte being the only other girl but you get my meaning!)... we were however going to suffer, yet again, the next day!

Sunday morning came all too quickly - well, in truth it was already here before we'd even slept but I have to say, I didn't think I was stil capable of 3 big nights in a row so I'm fairly amazed that i was up and dressed and on my out by midday on Sunday! Luke and I had decided a long time ago that we'd check out the City to Surf that day. City to Surf is a 14km run from the City to Bondi Beach. There'd been talk of us actually doing it but you'll not be surprised to learn that that didn't quite happen... Jarrad however had been most impressive in his training efforts - he even gave up drinking completely for 3 weeks - and so he had run it. Now, thanks to the whole late night, hangover thing, we obviously didn't quite make it in time to see any of the run but we were there to congratulate and join them in the pub afterwards. In fairness, a pub was the last place my head wanted to be that day but as any good friend would, i couldn't not celebrate with Jarrad. By the time I got there he was well on his way (let alone by the time I left!) he did manage the run in 67 minutes though, within his target time so fair play that he was celebrating with a few beers (well done Jarrad btw!). His flatmate VK, had also run it, I don't remember the time (sorry VK) but i remember he did well too so congrats there also!

Anyway, I spent a few hours - longer than intended but hey - being amused by the drunken antics of Jarrad and his friends (involving such comedy acts as betting on the colour of women's knickers!!! all very amusing!) and even braved a cheeky drink, hair of the dog and all that, before I really couldn't put off leaving any longer.. there were bags to be packed and a city to be left! Once again, Jarrad and I said our goodbyes - this time it seemed harder than on Friday, I guess because this time i really did know that i wouldn't be seeing him again, not until either one of us makes it to the other side of the world again anyway! Not that Jarrad had any concept of that this time, Friday perhaps but today... too many beers had passed his lips for any of that to register by that point! haha! Pic shown here was actually taken on Friday but I think it depicts the antics of them that day and it was an excuse for me to put a 'catalogue pose' pic of J on there looking daft! Sorry J, couldn't resist!! ;-)

After I'd left and found Luke again, who'd been saying some goodbyes of his own, we hotfooted it back to Beach Street - several hours behind schedule - and began the craziness of getting packed and out the flat. We finally managed to leave around 9pm i think, with ridiculous amounts of luggage and a tear in both our eyes (admit it Luke!!) The whole leaving on Sunday and not Monday thing was all a bit last minute to be honest.. I'd made a bit of a balls up with my flights which meant that while we had to be out of the flat by 11am on Monday, my flight wasn't til 0820 on Tuesday.. and Sydney airport is closed in the early hours so i was a bit stuck. Well, I wasn't really as Jarrad had kindly said I could land myself and my bags on him if need be. As it was though, an alternative came up... our friend Dec suggested we go up and visit him for a couple of days. He lives in Copacabana, an hour or so north of Sydney, Palm Beach way. In truth we'd been skeptical that, thanks to our hangovers, we'd manage to make it up there but somehow we found the energy to organise ourselves just enough. I was glad to be leaving Sydney with Luke, I think it would've been harder if we'd left seperately. Anyway, so that's what happened, later evening on Sunday 13th August 2006, not helped in the slightest by the taxi driver, Luke and I packed our stuff in the back of the cab, made sure we'd taken suitably daft pics of the flat and said our goodbyes to Coogee, Beach Street and the lives that had become so normal there. I'll not deny, it was sad and i was apprehensive about what was to come! We were real backpackers again.....!!!!!!!! (as you can see from the ridiculous pic below at central station with all my bags!! You'll be amazed to know I've got it down to 2 now!! Quite impressed with myself i have to say!!)