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Published: February 18th 2006
I have never spent Christmas away from home and was slightly apprehensive about how I would take to it. I wasn’t sure how I would feel for surf to substitute snow (not that I actually surf) and for Barbie to take the place of Turkey. However I am pleased to report that I coped with the adjustment admirably and indeed embraced it, but to be honest it just didn't feel like Christmas. When my friends at the hostel were in tears opening their Christmas parcels and messages from their parents and family, I was sort of looking on in bewilderment. Admittedly this was due in part to me being Christmas Parcel-less, mine didn't arrive until January 8 and as all the parcels were handed out by the hostel on Christmas day I had to just sit and watch longingly whilst others shrieked with delight at their gifts..But I'm not looking for sympathy here or an apology from Royal Mail (!)....
Outside is IN!
In the build up and following Christmas, a series of free outside events were held in The Sydney Domain...very civilized affairs where you take a rug, a picnic and a bottle of wine and wile away the
Hoff Dogs
They came with extra cheese...naturally!afternoon and evening being entertained by whatever was the flavour of the week.
Myself and friends attended Carols in the Domain, Opera in the Domain and Classics in the Domain. All really well organised events...My favourite event had to be Carols in the Domain: you can’t help but feel Christmassy when you are singing ‘Hark the Heralds’ even though it was a humid summers evening.
We were lucky at our Carols event that we had the added bonus of the Legend that is David Hasslehoff singing 'God Rest ye Merry Gentleman', they did whip us all up in to a Hoff Frenzy but I need no such encouragement, my good friend Phil loves the Hoff as much as the Hoff loves running down beaches and so I made it my mission to get a photo with him, unfortunately this didn't happen but I hope the attached make up for it hon!
As with everything it seems in Sydney the event ended with spectacular fireworks (it seems that this city won't do anything unless it can let off a Catherine Wheel with it!) and everyone went home feeing very happy. The Opera event was excellent too, I
Christmas Day..
Rupert doing a great job. have never experienced opera so it was a good opportunity to do so and also without having to paying extortionate prices to find out I hated it, which incidentally I didn't! It was Madam Butterfly and was wonderful-an added bonus was that they had subtitles above the screen so you could enjoy the music and follow the story.
Christmas Day on Bronte Beach
Christmas day was spent on my favourite Sydney Beach: Bronte. Just round the corner from Bondi and far less crowded and with a nice park area behind the actual beach. I don't want to labour the point about the Australians doing outside entertainment so well as I appreciate that this is because of the weather that they are blessed with, but the whole day was fabulous and very effortless, in stark contrast to a usual UK Christmas! There were public barbecues at the beach which we used, you had to pay 50 cent to use them for twenty minutes or so and scattered round the barbies were little open huts, with a table and chairs. It was such a cool Christmas day: people playing football and Frisbee and jumping in and out of the sea-totally different
Sad but True.....
We all had a photo of us putting a Shrimp on the Barby..No Shrimps were actually eaten that night. PATHETIC! but amazing too.
We were all feeling relatively fragile on Christmas day so proceeded with caution in terms of alcohol consumption! It was most certainly a wise move as when we made it into the sea at Bronte it was
choppy, a drag that I have not experienced before, with the poor lifeguards doing a sterling job at trying to keep people between the yellow flags "please people this is a dangerous current...you
will get pulled out to see if you get caught in that rip". This is serious businss and the lifeguards on Christmas Day were, as always, First Class.
It was funny to see people in the water wearing Santa Hats...it was a sea of red Santa hats bobbing on the water at one point! Unfortunately there were also a lot of men on the beach 'modeling' their new Christmas Speedo's-they really do need to be sent to Room 101! See Photo below for what they are now being nicknamed in these parts!
Sydney to Hobart
Boxing Day saw the annual Sydney to Hobart race-it was a race for us to make it to Watson’s Bay too as it seemed that the world and his
wife were heading that way, as it’s the best place to see it! It was a beautiful cloudless day as the boats went down out of the bay and turned right into the pacific down to Tazzy....I am sure it is far more technical than that but as I am not remotely nautical I will not even attempt. The winner of this year’s race actually broke the record and arrived in Hobart at 8.01 a.m. on 28 December.
New Years Eve
This is what a lot of people stay around in Sydney for after Christmas and although Sydney is a few hours from the International Date Line it is generally shown on the news as the first place in the world welcoming in the new year, so that was very exciting.
We took the boat across the harbour to a big stretch of park area. Even at 2:00pm it was incredibly busy but we managed to get a good spot. The fireworks were, of course, spectacular and it was well thought out too as there were some let off at 9.00 pm for the families and then again obviously at midnight. Every year the city has a different
symbol/theme to coinicde with the new year celebrations, for 2005 the Heart was displayed across the bridge and around the city and was chosen as a symbol of hope during anxious times.
The fireworks at midnight were spectacular but the only problem was that there was no countdown so there was that awkward two minutes where people are checking their watches and shouting "well my watch says 12.03 so it must have gone" etc etc... but even so it was an amazing eveing. Me and a few others decided to let the new year in by walking across the bridge (note: not over it) and that initially seemed like a great idea..Two hours later we collapsed back at the hostel significantly jaded.
Rain Stopped Play
I have been to two cricket matches in recent times. At one of them I got ridiculously sun burnt and looking back I was probably not a million miles away from a case of sunstroke (infact I still had the t-shirt mark three months later when I was bridesmaid for my brother) and at the other cricket match it rained until lunch and then a cloudy and cold days play ensued. One of
Rain Stopped Play...
Myself, farrah and Rupert getting rained on. The man behind seems not amused! these matches was held at the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) and the other at Old Trafford, Manchester...Obviously I wouldn't be making this point unless the opposite of what you expect happened! So yes you've guessed it folks I got rained on in Sydney.
Every time I have watched TV cricket from the SCG it has been a stadium basking in the sun and a cloudless sky overhead but alas not for me-the Manchester weather had followed me. I think the weather was still feeling shell shocked from the outburst of heat on New Years Day, when it was a truly unbearable
46 degrees. All future hot days will be compared back to this occasion...A feeling of being stuck in a hairdryer when it was on full blast was the only way I can describe it.
The cricket was the first day of the second test of Australia versus South Africa, it wasn't gripping but it was a good day nonetheless. My two favourite Australian cricketers, Shane Warne and Glen McGrath were playing so I was very pleased that I got to see them. There was a good bit of crowd entertainment too so we all came away relatively
happy.
Open Air Cinema
One of my favourite nights in Sydney was attending the fabulous Open Air Cinema at the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. The film is projected onto a screen that is on feet just inside the bay, so you have the wonderful backdrop of the Bridge and the Opera House which can from time to time up stage the film!
I had worked all day and met my friends from the hostel in the queue; tickets for all the shows for the films at the Open Air Cinema have sold out (it only runs from early Jan-mid Feb) but they release 100 seats on the door every night and we were lucky enough to get in via this route. You are let into the grounds for a couple of hours prior to the film and there is a bar and restaurant within these grounds. As it was a beautiful summers evening it seemed rude not to partake in a bottle of wine or two....one of those nights where you are not anticipating to drink shall we say and we all ended up feeling very happy indeed!
The film was first rate too; it was the
Australian premiere of the Johnny Cash biopic: Walk the Line. Unfortunately for most of January the patrons at the cinema have been rained on, ponchos are handed out but it is difficult to hear much of the film apparently as all you hear is the pitter patter of rain on your head. We really were blessed with the weather though and it was one of my most favourite nights in Sydney.
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