Advertisement
Published: January 12th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Opera House
Beautiful... We know we may have landed in Oz November 3rd but we got sucked into city life straight away so we thought of blogging our Sydney experience in one big hit.
Unfortunately for us, the day we've put aside for the blog is a stinging 37degrees outside and we ain't got no air-con :-( (i know, tis a hard life)!!!!!!!!!!!!
Being in a developed country was a bit of a shock to the system at first so we spent the first couple of weeks on Prozac and getting used to Sharons Airbed. It was so nice to have a homely feel of a decent sofa to sit on and a 42" plasma tv to waste away the days...........................Cheers Shazza.
We spent the first few weeks getting our bearings; Sydneys massive with loadsa different suburbs and as bin as we had Shazza's flat to base ourselves in we took time before making a decision on where we were guna live for the duration.
After visiting Bondi and various other places we made the decision to be living just outside the CBD (Central Business District) ((honestly, everything is abbrieviated out here, " u have to get the
Bondi Beach
Spot the ego's B..U..S to the C..B..D to get to the Y..H..A" and they also kept warning us of an S..T..D but god knows what the damn aussies are on about)) other than having to step out ur front door every morning and be right in the thick of things, especially as we thought hangovers may become a bit of a regular thing in this city.
Bondi was ok but without owning a Chippendale body, Armani swimming shorts and Shades that cover ur whole head we opted to find a place to stay in Coogee, which is basically Bondi but without the big-ego's.
We replied to an advert wanting two males to share a house with eight females, yes i said EIGHT FEMALES. At first this sounded like heaven but after being Big Brother fanatics over the years we thought just how 'bitchy' eight birds could be towards each other. After contemplating the pros and cons for 3 seconds we met up with them anyway in a B..A..R in the CBD........................................................................................err, well, it's an understatement to say "this could have gone a lot better". There's a story behind it but not suited for Blog material.
We eventually
Scuba Training
One gust of wind and i was on the floor. The tanks are heavy!! found a place which was a bedsit for two just outside Coogee in Randwick so job done. It ain't exactly the Ritz but it's somewhere where we could call home for eight weeks!!
We spent our days wasting away on Coogee beach or exploring the city sights of Sydney, it's a wkd city and the sights are fantastic.
We also fitted in a couple of days work here and there. I worked at the Sydney Exhibition Centre on Darling Harbour at the southern hemisphere's largest IT show. My god i've never seen so many geeky intelligent people in all my life, how outa place did i feel??
We also spent a couple of days working for a Removal firm at the citys University. Once again, alot of intelligent geeky people, how outa place did WE feel!!!!!
It was a laugh seeing how both of us would cope with a days hard graft after sitting on our arses eating and drinking for months. Oh well, a few calories burnt at least.
I used me extra pocket money to do a 4 day Scuba diving course. You honestly don't know how much goes into swimming and
Hillside Tennis
The crowds started to gather as it was Jest v Dunn breathing underwater.
It involved homework, a two hour written exam and practical examinations.
I almost fell at the first hurdle though; having to swim 200 meters at 7am on monday morning was not what the body needed!!!
Still, i passed and am officially allowed to dive to a maximium of 66 feet and i luv it.
Been on a few dives since with Shaz and her pals just to iron out a few things as they are all experts.
Check out the photos as i'm trying not to fall over with a metal tank on me back!!
With all this spare time on our hands we've decided to trake up a new hobby, no, not paraglyding, not skydiving, not water skiing but the adrenalin filled game of BOWLS.
We ain't talking ten-pin bowling either, that's for whimps. We're talking pension loving, elderly people playing BOWLS.
Honestly, don't knock it until u've tried it..........................WE CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!
In between our new hobby there obviously only leaves one more thing to talk about................................the nightlife.
WOW, this place kicks arse, it caters for all. The posh expensive part is to
spend an evening drinking at Darling Harbour with all the 'sexy people', there's also the backpacker style where you pay $1 for a bucket of cocktail and then that brings us nicely to Kings Cross. Oh dear, this is where the Freaks come out and play although an experience nevertheless.
Obviously we've done them all on numerous occassions. Our local as we like to call it is Coogee Bay Hotel (CBH of course). It's easy to get to and has five different bars which cater for all, including a Sports bar for Premiership football GET IN.
We won't dictate every night to ya because we basically can't remember most of them but there's one that sticks out.
To celebrate the fact of passing my Diving course we decided to go out early in the afternoon for a few Scooners (aussies version of a pint). With good intentions of having a few then dissapearing to bed with a dodgy kebab it all went wrong. We met up with a few travellers and stayed out all day with them, as the wallets started to get a tad light we bypassed an off licence and went back to a lads flat to
Panoramic Sydney
CBD, Opera House and Bridge taken from a ferry to Manly continue the party.
A couple of bottles of wine later and we decided it was time to depart (we think). It took ages to find a way out of this complex as it was a secured building. I managed to scale a 6 ft wall and that was the last we saw of each other that night. Realising we'd split up i thought ok, now i've gota find my way home thinking i knew the way. Remembering i'd got my MP3 player in my bag i whacked it on full blast and started trekking.............................i'd totally got lost in the music, i'd been walking up and down streets for nearly 2 hours bearing in mind the journey back to ours was only a 15min walk.....................................S%@T..................... Where am I?????????????????
Meanwhile, Daz was one flip flop down, soon to be two as without knowing where and how, he'd lost the first one, he decided to chuck away the second one. At least he managed to find his way home within an acceptable duration.
So with Daz safely tucked up in bed my adventure was just beginning.
I figured if i could find the sea i'd know exactly where i was,
Anyone for BOWLS??
Adrenalin filled experience it was about midnight on a wednesday so the streets were bare. I finally stumbled accross a beach, gutted, it wasn't Coogee Beach and far to small for Bondi. Sod it, i'd had enough, i settled down on the beach luckily with a towel as i still had all my diving gear with me and got some kip. I woke up at 4am freezing cold. Ok, time to start walking again. Finally found a phone box as i was out of credit so phoned Sharon for advice. This however was a weekday and she had to get up for work in a couple of hours, i think i was expecting for her to come and pick me up but no chance of that. Out of the distance came some headlights and like an Angel from heaven it was a taxi. GET IN. It turns out i'd walked to Bronte which is not what i'd planned. I'd never been so happy to see a bunk bed in all my life.
Others include falling asleep at bus stops, falling asleep outside our bedsit door as we'd both misplaced our keys and scaling somebodys garden fence to retrieve $30 worth of calling
Anyone for BOWLS??
Just admire the technique credit (don't ask).
So that was basically it for before xmas and then the 'Jests' arrived................................
Advertisement
Tot: 0.132s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0814s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sharon
non-member comment
4am on a school night
Ha,ha,how I laugh about THAT night...now (after recovering from being woken up by mobile AND my house phone ringing at 4am). The furthest I was going that night was to my street directory, to direct the drunken fool to either the beach, or home ....no chance of SD's Taxi (i.e Puk) picking him up...will miss you both, it's been 'fun'!!!!