Beach Walks and Baking Cakes!!!

My first full week at work for 7 months dawned, there’s not much to tell in terms of work, we were still floating about all 6 of us in the fishbowl, getting on with the project in hand, minding our own business and me making full use of the coffee machine!! Non-work wise the week was a quiet one really, catching up on news from home with calls from my mum and my friend Martin and chilling out at home with the exception of Tuesday when the chilling out was done at Jarrad’s instead. Strenuous eh! Friday came and Martin and I went along to watch Star play in the eBay Netball match during lunch… we were the cheering squad and were most impressed with the eBay team efforts – they hammered home a win with no trouble at all. Good work guys! Friday night saw us out for the usual Friday night drinks and a little worse for wear we ended up in PJ O’Briens again – even though we’d sworn we wouldn’t! Oops! The girls’ old flatmates from Melbourne (before me and Linz) were in town for a couple of nights and being Irish also, PJ’s seemed to be the obvious venue. A fun, silly night was had by all.

On Saturday, Jarrad and I decided to make the most of living by the sea, although it was too cold to swim, we got ourselves some lunch and headed up to the headland to take in the view while munching our burgers/sarnie’s. (you can't see it very well in the pic here but we sat on the edge of the headland on the far right!) It was a beautiful view and a time that made me very grateful for the place I’m living in and the friends I’ve made here. Once we’d frozen silly in the wind and the cold we went and thawed out over a DVD at mine before heading back to Jarrad’s – a flat even colder than Beach Street (and with Beach Street being a Victorian building you can imagine it’s not the warmest, especially for ‘Miss Always Cold’ here!!)

Sunday, after indulging in takeaway pizza – yum! – I bumped into my friend Lisa, who I’d also worked with at Beachcomber in Melbourne. She ended up coming back to mine for a cuppa and a natter – I hadn’t seen her since I left Melbourne so it was fab to catch up with her and several hours later she finally made it off the sofa and back to hers. It’s a scary world when most of the friends you have move on frequently and you’re left wondering where all your mates have gone, as is the case with pretty much everyone around me at the mo, with the exception of local boy Jarrad anyway. So I was pleased to discover that Lisa would be living close by for a while. That evening – guess what, it was Sunday night so Five O’s it was… again!!

The working week arrived once again (as well as my Sister’s 30th birthday) and the path wasn’t exactly clear… the weather was full on rain storms, there was heaps of traffic and with a bus packed full of commuters, our bus driver made a little mistake; took the wrong lane on the express way and we were on our way to North Sydney – the wrong side of the bridge to where we were all meant to be – with 20 minutes to go before we were all meant to arrive at our offices! Oops! Luckily everyone on board just found it quite entertaining and simultaneously we all pulled out our mobiles and the calls to work began! To our driver’s credit, he apologised profusely and got us back to ‘almost’ where we were meant to be as quickly as possible. The rain hadn’t eased by the time we got off and with my umbrella being as rubbish as ever I made to work pretty damn soaked once again (Jarrad on the other hand, with his big fat golfing umbrella made it safe and dry – I hope you feel good about not swopping with me young man! And you call yourself a gentleman!! P’ah!) hee hee – Just Kidding! Given the Mitzi didn’t have one at all I don’t think I was the worst off!! Anyway drama’s over, the working week passed pretty normally and I found myself settling back into the world with disturbing ease. I was starting to feel like a normal person, flat, job, friends, the lot…. What happened to Backpacker Flee?!? I have to say though, I was liking being in one place for longer than a week or two and not living out of a bag was enjoyable too! The only thing I wasn’t liking was the weather – the rain didn’t want to stop and it certainly wasn’t feeling like the hot, sunny Australia I’d signed up for! That’ll teach me to live in Sydney in the Winter eh! (I know the pic doesn't fit but I liked it!)

Play wise this week, it was dinner and drinks at the CBH, my treat this time, on Wednesday eve, another lovely night. A bit of late night shopping with Trish on Thursday after work and a quiet night in with a DVD on Friday night – we were saving ourselves for the kick off of the first England World Cup match on Saturday night! Watch out Paraguay!!

Mitz and I started off the day with ‘Coffee and Cake’ in Clovelly before getting our hair done – my first indulgence since leaving home so I think it was long overdue. That evening the Beach Street gang headed to the Palace for the match. Apparently that was going to be the place to be. We joined forces with Charlotte, Graham, Tom and their new flatmates, saw a few other faces we knew and settled down to watch England beat Paraguay – having a few Irish and Scottish among us you can imagine the abuse that was flying about… not to mention the cheeky pro Paraguay texts we were getting from Jarrad, who’d taken himself off to Melbourne for the weekend, otherwise, I’ve no doubt he’d have taken great delight in delivering said texts face to face! Cheeky Aussies!!!! (not to mention the Irish and Scottish – you all know who you are people!!) After the English victory (ok I’ll admit, quite a dull one but a victory all the same!) we all headed upstairs in the Palace for a spot of dancing the night away.

Sunday we ventured to Bondi Junction, I had a birthday present to find for my sis who was arriving into Sydney on Tuesday. Then headed over to watch a DVD at Jarrad’s and chill out for the evening. The next day was a bank holiday for the Queen’s birthday; it turned out to be a gorgeous day, bright sunshine and even pretty warm. The ideal day for a walk. Not before a cheeky lie-in and a yum breakfast of pancakes at a café near the beach though! After that though, we headed off on the infamous Coogee – Bondi walk. A 5km coastal walk between Coogee and Bondi Beach, in case you hadn’t already figured that out!! The walk takes in some awesome scenery and an amazing graveyard on the cliff’s edge. It took us the best part of a couple of hours and was great fun. It was about time I got round to doing the walk and Jarrad was a very good tour guide – despite making me climb over fences and nearly spraining my ankle! Ha ha! We met up with Luke and Trish once we arrived at Bondi, they’d set off before us on the walk. We all headed for a drink before nipping to the junction for some very random shopping – never did I think I’d be party to buying mattress protectors or cake tins in my traveling times!! It was a such a good day though; good weather, good scenery, good company - all good fun! After our random purchases and a comical wait at the bus stop we jumped on the bus back to Coogee so I could get baking! Btw - the pics above and below are Jarrad and I on the walk; above is us half way and below is us with Bondi Beach in the background.
So, if you've been paying attention to what you've been reading, you'll have gathered the cake tin was one of my random purchases; I’d decided that as I hadn’t been there for Lotte’s birthday I’d bake her a cake (Mum, close your mouth – stranger things have happened!) Sian had supplied me with the recipe for Lotte’s favourite cake – Lemon Cake – which luckily happens to be mine as well so now armed with cake time I was all set to bake up a storm! In fairness I can’t continue this bit without mentioning that the cake baking was a team effort… Luke was the other invaluable 50% of the team. Now, I think we can safely say better cakes have been baked but for our first attempt since those heady H.E school days (yes, I don’t think I’ve even attempted to make a proper cake since then) I don’t think it was a totally bad effort.. just a little flat!! But it’s the thought that counts right??!! And I had a feeling that Lotte would be surprised as hell to find out I’d even attempted to bake for her!!So, another week over and the long weekend had been fun too. I was feeling all too settled once again and Sydney – people and place - was growing on me, fast! Uh oh! xx

Karaoke Fun (?!)

The next few days at work were spent settling in and being trained really, not too much to report. Friday evening came though and we had a comical night planned. Mitz is a karaoke nut and had been rounding us up to join her for ages now so we’d finally given in and agreed. Trish had gone to Melbourne to visit her boyf but the rest of us along with Rachael, Cillian, some of their friends, Tom, Graham and Charlotte (the girls friends from Fraser Island and Tom of tattoo fame) and Jarrad were all joining us in the fun and games. After blurring our senses with some after work drinking (and trust me to do Karaoke my senses need a shed load of blurring) we headed to Elizabeth Street and Karaoke World. The set up is you basically hire a private room with a karaoke machine in and a bar outside. At least I’d only be making a fool of myself in front of my friends and not random strangers – although I’m not sure whether that was better or worse!!

Jarrad and I indulged in a ‘Quick F*ck’ – the shot that is, not literally ;0) – for dutch courage before taking a deep breath and belting out badly out of tune classics over the next few hours. I have to admit I was mostly happy to just sing-along with the rest of them but I did get up and do a no doubt very bad version of ‘Especially for you’ with Luke! Unfortunately I do believe there’s video footage of said events – I just hope they never come to light! Anyway, after our time was up we all headed back to Beach Street to finish the night there. It was a good night, despite me losing a bet that had been set with Luke the day before – I blame Jarrad for my downfall though – my willpower would have been rock solid if it hadn’t been for you Mr Chambers!! ;0) Not to mention the fact that insider information was at Luke’s disposal prior to making the bet with me so technically he cheated too! Thankfully though, the stakes weren’t too high on this occasion, I just owed Luke a few bags of sweets (or lollies as the Aussie’s would call them). I have to admit, I can think of worse bets to lose!!

The weekend following our Friday night Karaoke extravaganza was spent leisurely (unsurprisingly), Jarrad had to work on the Saturday but the rest of us passed the day catching up on food shopping and watching DVD’s before heading over to Charlotte, Graham and Tom’s flat in the city for a few Saturday evening drinks. Sunday saw Mitzi and I heading into the city to check out the World Press Photo exhibit – a free exhibition at Sydney Library. It was a brilliant exhibit with some excellent, if harrowing, images on display. Luke came to meet us for coffee at our favourite café by the Quay before I headed back home and got treated to a lovely meal at a gorgeous Italian restaurant (La Spiaggia) in Coogee followed by drinks at Cushion Bar – a bar in Coogee that I’d not yet managed to check out. Despite being a school night we had a few cheeky drinks and a fab evening. I do seem to remember losing another bet that night too though, a challenge that had been 'laid down' the previous day, so this time it only took 24 hours for my willpower to desert me – Rubbish... But I blame Jarrad again… that boy’s clearly a bad influence!! ;0) (and btw - that's not nearly as bad as it sounds - infact it wasn't bad at all - all bets were innocent fun! I'm a good girl you lot!!!)

Working Life: Back to Reality (ish!)

So, I had 2 days before I was to re-enter the world of work. My plan was to be very productive and do all those little things you mean to do but never quite get round to (or maybe that’s just me!) like get this little blog up to date, chores at home, get my finances in order – you know all the usual little things! Needless to say that didn’t happen.

Monday I did get a few things done, headed to the embassy to get my work visa stamp and made it to the recruitment agency to sign my contract and meet the other 5 members of the team I’d be working with. So it wasn’t totally wasted. Where it all went pear-shaped however was agreeing to meet my friend Nikki –who I’d worked with at the Beachcomber in Melbourne – for a few drinks. Chosen venue was the CBH so I headed down along with Louise and caught up with Nikki and Luke came down to join us later too. Having bumped into a few other faces from my days in Melbourne the evening turned into a late one… with lots of pool playing and silliness, once again including free champers from Gramps! I think I finally got to bed about 4am – something was telling me Tuesday wasn’t going to be as productive and I’d hoped!!!

I was, thankfully, feeling far more human come Wednesday morning – my first day at eBay! It was strange to be getting up for a normal working day just like at home (and yes, I did make it on time this time!!) but I was excited about it. The job is not something I’d done before but that was kind of what I was looking forward to, doing something I wouldn’t normally be doing – I guess that’s what this trips all about after all!

There was 6 of us in the team working on the project that I’d been contracted for. I’m not allowed to give too much detail as the project hasn’t launched yet or been announced to the press so I have to be quiet about it. It’s a global eBay project though and it was cool to think I’d be working on it. The other members of ‘Team Mage’ as we’d been named, included 4 guys and one other girl: Alex, Nik, Cosy, Star and Martin – the latter 2 being the 2 I’d become good friends with.To start with we were all set up in one of the conference rooms – a glass walled room which we named ‘the fish bowl’ – we felt a bit like we were in Big Brother as everyone in the office could see us but we felt a tad segregated! It wasn’t an ideal set up in terms of integrating with the rest of the staff but everyone seemed really friendly and I was excited to be there.

I have to say, the location of the office was great, Number 1 York Street, right by the harbour bridge (as you can see in the pic), being on the 19th Floor meant the views we had were wicked! The thing I was loving about eBay too though, was all the little added touches that came with the office… a fridge stocked full of juice, all sorts of supplies in the cupboards, a toasted sandwich maker, a fully stocked fruit bowl and my own personal favourite perk… a proper coffee making machine ‘Starbucks’ style. Now, I know I don’t drink coffee but I could froth milk to my hearts content and as that has become a bit of a fave beverage of mine in the mornings, I was a happy girl! Small things eh!?!

The eve of my first day at work was Louise’s last night before heading off on her travels round Oz so saw us heading to Five O’s again for a ‘last supper’. Lou had become a bit of a fixture, not only on our very childish ‘Kiss-a-ton’ chart in the kitchen (daft antics you guys don’t need to be bored with!) but in the flat and as part of the Beach Street gang – we were going to miss her. She was coming back to Sydney again though so we were happy enough for her to leave us various clothes and boots to cheekily borrow whilst she was away! Cheers Lou – those boots were great! xx

Festivals, Tattoo's, Waxing and Football!!

After a slow start thanks to the night before we got ourselves up and ready and headed off to the Surry Hills Festival. Surry Hills is a suburb of Sydney between Coogee and the City, we met up with some friends there and set about checking out festival life in Sydney. It was just a small scale festival but there was a great vibe and it was good fun, there were bands playing, random drunk guys spinning hoops around themselves, or trying to anyway (highly entertaining!) and all sorts of stalls. It was a nice sunny day, if a little chilly and Luke, Tom and I headed off to explore the place, leaving the others close to the beer!

We ventured into the maze of stalls selling all sorts of things from vintage clothes to organic juice drinks. One stall in particular caught our hungover, mischievous eyes… the tattoo stall!! As you can see from the pic below we all gave in and gave our skin over for a crazy guy to make shapes on to his hearts content. For Luke it was a boar on his arm, Tom a Hog i think (Tom - i think i might be wrong... correct me??!), also on his arm and for me, the Batman symbol, on the small of my back, naturally!!! Now, I should imagine its pretty obvious to all of you that said tattoo’s are clearly not permanent (and if it’s not obvious… come on people, if I was going to get a real one do you really think I’d get the Batman symbol??!) however, there’s one person that it’s not been obvious to since that day… my Mum!!! Later that evening Mum called… and I was evidently still feeling a little mischievous as I found myself telling her about my ‘real’ tattoo! To which I received the response ‘oh Felicity, why couldn’t you get something nice like a little butterfly or flower!’ It’s one thing after another!’ Ha ha! Ever the troublesome daughter me!! ;0) Now I fully intended to send her the pic here by email and then follow up a few days later with a confession that it’s fake but somehow I didn’t quite get round to it… oops! So, as far as I know, Ma still believes I have been branded with the Batman symbol for keeps!! Until now, that is as I’m assuming she’ll read this… so, ha ha.. don’t worry Ma, it’s all gone, my back is clear again and should I ever actually get a real one you can rest assured it won’t have anything to do with Batman!! ;-)

Anyway, after our little tattoo adventures we found ourselves some food and settled down on the grass to take in one of the bands where the others joined us – all of whom were highly amused to discover our ‘lovely’ tatt’s!! The festival finished fairly early so we headed home with the intention of getting changed and heading out… didn’t quite happen, tired from Friday night and needing food, Luke cooked us one of his infamous curries (including a veggie version for me) and we found ourselves parked on the sofa’s infront of DVD’s not long after, clearly not about to move anywhere for the rest of the evening – hardcore party animals us eh!?!

Sunday dawned and the day was spent fairly leisurely around Coogee. Jarrad popped over in the morning and joined us in mooching around… which is when it was decided, today was the day for Luke to fulfill the terms of the dancing bet. Now, I can’t remember exactly when but you’ve probably gathered by now, much to my and my armpit’s relief (and Jarrad’s too I was to find out later), Luke had failed in his ‘no dancing’ quest and so, his right leg was to be stripped bare from the knee down! I think he thought he’d get let off as we’d not got round to doing it and he’d lost the bet roughly a week before… yeah, as if we’d let you off Luke – I’ve no doubt you’d have made me keep my end of the bargain had it been the other way round!!

So, ‘man wax’ strips bought, which much to our amusement were named ‘Nads’ (yes, I know – we’re children!!), we instructed Luke to give his leg a quick wash, open those pores and make himself comfortable on the sofa. Jarrad had rejoined us for the main event and we all took great delight in mercilessly ripping hot wax strips from Luke’s leg, I think ever Jarrad had a go! It was team work at it’s best! By the time we were finished Luke’s leg was as smooth as right down to the toes and I think I speak for everyone when I say it was most satisfying not to mention fun!! Photo above right is 'before', photo on left here is 'during' and photo here right and below are 'after' - i think my face says it all in one on the right, not to mention Luke's face in the 'during' snap!! Judging from the email I got from him a few weeks after saying 'My leg is starting to itch! I hate you so much right now!!' he can protest all he wants but we know the pain killed anyway, although now he's talking about getting his other leg waxed 'to even them up' Yeah right Pucas.. you big girl!! ha ha!

Later that evening there was football on; Leeds Utd vs Watford in the playoff final, that Luke was keen to watch. Seeing as I’d put him through the pain of waxing I agreed to go with him to a sports bar in Kings Cross; Sydney’s notorious spot for all hours nightlife and entertainment (much like London’s areaof the same name) So, we headed out for that – kick off was about 1am so I think it’s safe to say I wasn’t exactly the life and soul as I was about ready for bed before we’d even left the house but it was cool to check out ‘the X’ and very amusing to hear Luke’s assessment of his newly hairless leg being like wearing a stocking on one leg, oh and muttering about how much colder his right leg was compared to his still manly, hairly left leg!! Ha ha! All in all, an entertaining weekend!!

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!!!’

Sydney: Take Two!!

So, I survived… although it was possibly close on one of the worst experiences so far (akin to the 23 hours it took to travel from Bangkok to Koh Phi Phi all those months ago now!!) In fact, I think this worse despite being 10 hours shorter, the bus was full to the brim and we all only had one seat each – every other greyhound journey I’ve managed to nab 2 seats and some semblance of sleep, it was not meant to be this time though. The time passed ridiculously slowly and the only thing worth mentioning is my first sighting of one of Australia’s infamous ‘big things’ – I’d heard all about them but until now, despite having been here for 3 months at this point, had yet to come across any. You can see from the pic here that my debut sighting was of The Big Prawn! As far as I’m aware there’s no rhyme or reason for these things, they seem to just be ‘because we can’ type displays. But if anyone knows any different please feel free to enlighten me!!

So that’s it; that was my entry back into Sydney – dull as! – I arrived early Tuesday morning, April 25th – Anzac Day to be specific – and got myself on the bus to Coogee. It had been decided along the way that Coogee was to be our new home for the next 3 months. Luke had arrived back from his little jaunt back to Thailand a few days earlier and was waiting for me at Surfside hostel. It was becoming a bit of a pattern, Luke greeting me like my own personal porter at hostels in Sydney but I wasn’t complaining, it was good to see him, esp after that hellish bus journey. Luke had already booked me in so checking in was easy enough thankfully. Then despite wanting to sleep desperately my body wasn’t playing the game so after reviving myself in the shower and catching up with Luke we met up with a friend for lunch at Five 0’s – home of the $5 menu (their steaks are what they’re renowned for but obviously I wasn’t sampling them!) – which was to become a regular haunt of ours over the coming few months (as is the case with ever backpacker in Coogee I suspect!)

After lunch we headed to the CBH (Coogee Bay Hotel), one of the 2 bars in Coogee that everyone can usually be found at. As it was Anzac Day; Australia’s own version of our Remembrance day and subsequently a bank holiday for one and all, there were special games of ‘2 Up’ going on, this being the only day of the year that it’s legal to play this game you can imagine the atmosphere. The game basically involves betting with abandon on heads or tails. It’s done in a kind of ‘boxing ring’ setting and its easy to see how one could get carried away!! We managed to be disciplined and being meagre backpackers just bet amongst ourselves… escaping without too big a dent in our wallets!

That evening was spent chilling out at the hostel, what little energy I had that day had finally left me and that was all I was really capable of. Besides, we had a busy few days ahead of us… there were jobs to be found not to mention a place to lay our heads for the next few months!

The flat hunting actually turned out to be pretty successful the following day and we signed up to move in on Friday… only 2 more days to survive being in a hostel – Surfside’s not exactly my favourite place in the world and I was really feeling like not being in a hostel for a while so it was a welcome thought that come Friday we’d be settling into our own little flat! Luke and I ventured to the cinema to celebrate that night – a few hours of Matthew Mcconaughey and I was a happy girl!! (Not sure it had the same affect on Luke mind!!)

Job hunting was the agenda for the next day but unfortunately wasn’t as successful as the flat hunting. Although the shoe shopping went well – my bank manager might disagree with that though! – Obviously if I were to be working in an office for the next 3 months, flips and trainers weren’t quite going to cut it… the thought of donning heels for the first time since November was a novelty too; Jules, I’m sure you’re feeling my excitement at the prospect of being allowed to buy shoes! I went home a happy girl again, I’d registered with some agencies, set the job hunting ball in motion, had a flat to move into (discounted too thanks to a lovely water feature we have in the front room!) and a fancy new pair of heels! Life was good!

Friday finally came and Luke and I trudged up the hill to our new apartment with our backpacks weighing us down for what would be the last time until August. The photo here shows said hill - our apartment is 3/4's of the way up on the right hand side. Not a bad spot really!! The day was spent settling in, unpacking and making Beach Street our own. By the time we were done, despite being a Friday night, we were loving the novelty of being in our own place so stocked up on DVD’s and spent the evening relaxing on the sofas (2 might I add.. of which Luke and I very quickly settled into ‘his n hers’ – mine obviously being the bigger and better one – actually come to think of it, the comical race for the best bed in our room when we first arrived was won by me too – I think playing the girl card has its advantages sometimes eh ladies?! That and chucking all his stuff onto the other bed, parking my bum on my preferred choice and refusing to move or help him with anything until he’d agreed that was indeed my bed, was also quite an effective tactic! Thanks Pucas! Knew I’d break you! haha!

The weekend was spent in a similar fashion to Friday night, very chilled out and relaxing which was just what I needed after hurtling down the East Coast for the last 3 weeks. On Saturday we headed into the city and discovered a great little café on the Quay that does fab Cream Tea’s and offers views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. That night we did manage to venture out of the flat for a few cheeky ones at Coogee’s 2 nightspots; The CBH and the Palace! I’m sure everyone who’s visited Coogee before will know where I mean!

Sunday was spent with a little exploring along the coast. We live on the opposite side of the beach to the direction that Bondi is in and although the famous Coogee-Bondi coastal walk hadn’t yet been done, we decided to check out what was in the other direction, towards Maroubra. Although winter was clearly on its way, (the flips were still being worn but it was touch and go) the day was lovely and bright and we discovered wicked rock pools, cliff faces and the like.

The next few days were spent similarly too. Lunching with my friend Lu, who we’d met at a recruitment agency the previous week, taking advantage of Cheap Tuesday at the cinema (this time Johnny Knoxville in The Ringer… hilarious people, very un-PC but very funny!), checking out nearby Randwick, making the most of the beach while it was still warm enough to and lots more job hunting! Although I still wasn’t ‘feeling the Sydney vibe’ as much as Melbourne, I was finding myself settling into life there nicely and I was looking forward to getting to know the city more over the next 3 months. Its one thing travelling through places, always on the go, but quite another when you stop and really take somewhere in for a while. I found that with Melbourne and I was hoping I would with Sydney too. Time will tell I guess… xx

btw - all the beach shots shown here are of Coogee beach and the one of Luke and I is taken from the coastal walk with Coogee in the background.