Thunder and Birds.... are GO!

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Hi all!

So here I am in Sunny Sydney. After saying cheerio to Grandma, Pap and Auntie Edna in Wellingborough I'd hopped on a train (not much of a hop, more of a back-breaking lift due to luggage!) to St Pancras. Taxi'd it form St Pancras to Paddington, caught the Heathrow Express to Terminal 1, changed train to Terminal 4 only to find Terminal 4 is essentially a building site! Not much use considering at this point I was about 6 hours early for my flight lol. Spoke to some nice builder in a lift and he said it was ironic because should I have been travelling the next night it would have all been finished. I don't think it's Irony, just bad luck. So I eventually find myself a bar, sit for one last pint of British beer (prob won't be missed to be fair!) and awaited Vicky's arrival from Edinburgh.

About an hour later Vicky arrives and we get our bags checked in. Now, in Grandma and Pap's spare room I'd done one more reevaluation of weight in my massive suitcase. Turns out Vicky was 0.1kg over (haha!, but they did let her off with it) and I was a whole kilogram under the 23kg allowance! Hoorah!!

So we head through security and hit the shops for last minute stuff and a bit of Duty Free (yes, remember that... duty free! Thing of the past in Europe).

Eventually we're boarding the quite frankly MASSIVE 747 plane (dad, you would have loved this!) and got settled into our seats for what was going to be a 23 hour flight, with a stopover in Bangkok... not looking forward to it at this stage (dad, you would have hated this!).

Take off, how the hell does something so big get off the ground?? And the noise those engines made was awesome. So was in flight entertainment (like a bank of about 50 movie, new and old, tv programmes or all varieties, loads of radio shows by some pretty respected dj's and all the free booze you can consume for the whole flight). Gary however, has about one gin and tonic to calm the nerves and passes out for the majority of the journey...

So we land in Bangkok, only for about 3 hours, the friendly pilot informs us we're ahead of schedule at this point too which is reassuring! Sitting in Bangkok airport it's a little weird thinking "i'm in Thailand?!" still trying to get over the reality that i'm moving to the other side of the world, finally seeing my friends in Australia! We reboard the plane, after ANOTHER security check taking my belt off, shoes off, taking my laptop out of my bag, walking through, no *beep* even though m Ipod and watch are made of metal and I had them on my body (yeah I kind of thought I'd test the system a bit!). Take off two, and we're off to Sydney! It's early evening in Thailand and I can't help but get confused as to how an 8 hour flight gets me in at 7am in Sydney?! Flyng through timezones is officially a bit weird.

Another smooth take-off, MORE food, I had a bottle of Champagne to celebrate (it was free!) and then promptly fell asleep. I awoke, found Vicky sleeping beside me as she has done the entire trip pretty much until we hit some pretty scary turbulence.. Looking at the wee map on the screen as to where we were and how long the flight remained for we were flying over Indonesia, not long now!! (Upon arrival at Colane St, Vicky's mum shows us a newspaper, 113 dead in Indonesian Tsunami WE FLEW OVER IT!! Amazing. Bit sad to hear of the event, and Aussies missing still too...).

Flying over the clouds, our friendly pilot happily tells us we are now a full hour ahead of schedule, with my face firmly pressed at the window of the jet the beautiful australian landscape was lit by a very early morning sunrise (6am we touched down). There was a creepy Middle-Earth style mist over some mountains south of Sydney. This is one of many occasions I wish I had my camera on me and obviously counldn't grab it from my bag! Grrr...

After circling over Sydney Harbour and Airport for a good while we made our approach, the runway is right on the seafront and i honestly though we were going to go for an early swim but thankfully we landed safely and got my way through another security run (belt off, shoes off, taking my laptop out of my bag, walking through, no *beep* even though m Ipod and watch are made of metal and I had them on my body ) and I go to immigration. Moment of truth, DO i get let in, or sent on my way.......

....

... aye right, a thirty second scan of my passport and I'm listening to "thank you Gary, welcome to Australia mate!" Hoorah!

Thursday 1st October
Vicky's sister Chloe picks us up from the airport and after a couple of cheeky comments about how bad i smell (!) we're driving home and Clo and Turner are pointing out what is what on our way home. Despite noticing it on my maps of Sydney, Vicky lives MILES out of Sydney in the suburb of Concorde. I ask her Mum Daphne how public transport is, simple, buses always late, overpriced and no-one uses them (the opposite of Edinburgh, send the Trams to Sydney!). Trains however go everywhere and are cheap and regular.... phew!

Vicky's Mum Daphne is absolutely lovely. She enjoys having people to stay, she's a good host in that she doesn't mind people staying but makes it very clear she will not be looking after you lol. Make your own bed, do your own washing etc, love it. Daphne also takes in stray birds and looks after them, nurses them. At the moment she's got all sort roaming the house and garden. It's pretty cool! They're noisy but that doesn't bother me. They've all got their own personality. Apparently I'm lucky to see some of them as they're native to Oz, and most would never dream of coming so close to a human so that's quite cool also. I do also love the fact that in amongst all these amazing birds and exotic colourful feathered friends Daphne has a duck, yes, a duck, he walks about the garden and apparently the household cat, Figaro used to love sleepin with it haha. Mum, you'd love Figaro, or 'Fig', there's photo's attached, he's deaf and going a little blind but considering he's about 18 years old (human years, are there cat years?!) it's expected. The birds don't bother him wither which is cute in itself. There's photo's of all sorts of birds attached. We found a ferret the other day too so now have that in the house! Mental!!

After possibly the most amazing shower of my lifetime and a change of clothes... Vicky and myself see it pointless going to sleep at 9am so we jump in Vicky's car (still covered red dust from sandstorm a couple of weeks back) and we go for a wee drive. Now, what started at 14 degrees at the airport we were now hearing on the radio that by lunchtime it would be up to 33 degrees in the city centre... eeep....

Vicky shows me the Olympic Village and stadiums that are nearby and we go shopping for essentials (toothpaste, uk-oz power converters, deodorant etc) and we discuss what to do with our day. It's agreed we go for a swim, turns out I've left my swimshorts in Edinburgh so we've got to buy new ones and I need to buy my pills for the old chlorine allergy.

We head down to the local pools and seriously everyone, it's boiling!! I jump in the water and steam is practically coming of me!! We doss about in a kind of tired/jet lagged state for the remainder of Thursday, meet up with Vicky's friends from school (all lesbians and not afraid to show it! hard work....) and we have a little dinner and head home. Sitting out the front we witness two cars pull over, and an older gent step out of one and and a young rugby lad step out the other. A heated argument about one of them cutting the other on the roundabout ensues. The old guy cops a good couple of smacks in the face and falls to the floor. Yound lad speeds off. Police are called and passers by help. Only reason I'm writing this (despite being like an after hours Neighbours episode!) I was surprised to see the amount of people who stopped to help, nice folk these aussies. Turns out however, when we told the old geezer that the police were on their way, he tried to jump up and get back in his car in a panic, fell over, once the police arrived, he ended up being handcuffed and lifter for being pissed in charge of a vehicle! Mad. Vicky, Daphne (mum) and myself then proceed to drink bottle after bottle of wine on the porch until the wee small hours of Friday morning, good times.

Friday 2nd October
Vicky and I sleep pretty much ALL day only to find the Edinburgh weather has caught up with us. It is gloomy, cloudy, and by the evening, it's absolutely pissing down at a Scottish Summer of 14 degrees... bit disappointing but we made our fun. Vick and I caught up with the lesbians again (I meet the queen/king of all dykes in the form of Erin... the butchest, mouthiest, sickeningly annoying of all the World's gay community! No offence...) we rent a video, get takeaway (form one of a buzzilion thai restaurants in Sydney!) and have a quiet night in. I'm still absolutely knackered at this stage.

Saturday 3rd October
Vicky and I finally finish unpacking, get washing done, and she drives me upto the Rozelle Markets (mum, you'd have liked this, not really my scene), we sort ourselves out with a pay as you go SIM for my phone to share as a starting point and distribute numbers over facebook and email to our friends in Sydney and Melbourne. I then get a text from Tristan, he used to live with me in 100/14 Holyrood and worked with me at North Bridge Brasserie at the Scotsman. He's visiting Sydney from Newcastle (2 hours north) for the weekend for the grand final of some aussie rules football match and a music festival that is happening on Sunday. My very good friend Brendan, who visited me in Edinburgh in August also gets in touch asking what my plans are for the evening.

Brendan Willenburg. Undoubtedly one of the closest friends I've ever had in my time in Edinburgh. We worked together at NBB for the 1st year or so I was at the Scotsman. He then had to return to Oz and took an Irish girl, Amy with him, they're still happily living together in Sydney. He tells me he's seeing a show at the Opera House until about 9.30pm and should try and meet up afterwards.

Chloe has arranged for a lot of Vicky's friends to come over for a BBQ on Saturday evening. Most presumed it would be cancelled but in a true Scots style we still go ahead and barbecue in the rain, on the porch. My first Aussie BBQ and it's in the pissing rain, with a girl cooking who'd never done it before hahaha typical.

Knowing the Sydney Opera House is a fair trek, even when driving (city centre on a saturday night?!) we decide we'll see Brendan another day and go meet Tristan instead, who's having a drink with friends in Newtown, a little closer to Concord. Vicky and I hop in the car getting soaked between the 6 foot distance from the front porch to the driveway . We eventually find the bar Tristan's in, and are promptly stopped by door staff to check ID. Of course, I have none... the only ID i have is my passport and there ain't no way i'm walking around with that on me all the time just to have a beer. Vicky tells me everywhere will be the same so we may as well go home, bit disappointing, I ring Tristan to explain, he comes out to meet me, a quick ten minute chat in the Tropical storm bellowing against us. I get a phone call from Brendan, he explains there's no security at the Opera House. A quick bit of persuasion on my part in Vicky's direction and we're driving to the Syndey Opera House...

IT IS MASSIVE!!! AND SO IS THE BRIDGE!!!!! We find out where Brendan and Amy are sitting and get the drinks in for a good chin-wag! Brendan explaining that he still can't get over the fact i'm here in Sydney. We talk about plans for work, activity, the shitty weather, potential DJing work and old times. All this in the company of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Quality....

Sunday 4th October
Got woken up by the birds in the house at 8am, decided to get up and write to you lot haha!

Until next time...

Gary xxx
Down Under.

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