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Published: January 27th 2007
Girl Power!
The duvet I have been sleeping under for the week, please also note the camp fishy/dolphin pillow case. Lovely.OK so here it is, my first blog while actually travelling, a week after arriving, its going to cover a bit so will be slightly long, but you should be used to this by now with me!
So I will start with me leaving on Saturday 20th January, a strange mix of emotions. The week leading up to it flew by and before I knew it I was getting up at 7am (anyone who knows me knows I hated that) and heading to the airport. It was all very weird saying goodbye to the folks and my sister, essentially its just a long holiday but was still a bit strange knowing I wouldn't be seeing them for a while. I didn't get emotional or teary-me and my Dad far to manly for that-but seeing my sister and mum crying is never a nice thing so that was weird. Mum started crying in the house before we left, in the car on the way down and was in floods by the time I left. It didn't stop there, here is a direct quote from an email from my sister:
"anyhow, as to be expected mum cried all the way back
Cheesy tourist photo #1
Just to prove I'm here I suppose! to Cardiff. i went home and she then rang me an hour later crying some more down the phone to me. i went over yesterday (Sunday) and she had laid a place for you for tea and was still crying! really - its quite a sight!!"
Kleenex's profits must have tripled this week but latest reports from my Dad said he had bought her a microwave and she had stopped crying-clever man. Mum I know you will be reading this so let me say im fine, all is good and I will be home before you know it! Bless her and the family, nice to know people care though! After I left them it was all then a bit too hectic to even think about getting emotional anyway, despite getting there with plenty of time I somehow managed to be the last but one person on the plane!Being used to the tiny Cardiff airport i misjudged the time it takes to get through the mountains of security and got on the plane with 10 minutes to spare, everyone had settled down and were waiting for me and some other random to get on, I had a lot of evils
Cheesy tourist photo #2
I sell it well methinks, wish you were here? walking down the aisle! It didn't get any better from there, I was in the window seat (hate that-bothering sleeping people everytime I want the toilet!) and the plane just wasn't the best, its only a small point but there were no individual screens, just a big one for everyone to watch, meaning I couldn't choose my films and it was miles away and also had to strain to see around the largest headed woman in the history of mankind sat in front of me-it was like some character from Mr Men. I don't sleep on planes so this was annoying, plus in the rush to get on I didn't get a chance to buy a book or magazine-annoyed! I was then stuck in with 2 boring useless people, the woman next to me seemed geniunly upset at having to share the same vicinity as me, not even me offering her a boiled sweet (thanks Dad) thawed her. Thus it was that I spent 11 hours on that flight bored to tears, but did see some decent movies (the Queen was actually better than I thought it would be FYI). Then a 2 hour stop in Bangkok and a 9
Watching the tennis on Opera House steps
A great idea, they put a massive screen up so you could sit on the world famous Opera House steps and watch the tennis. Think Henman Hill-yet better. However, it was boiling and I had no suncream so it led to...... hour flight to Sydney. Arrived in my hostel by about 11PM, rang the folks (cue more tears bless her) and headed to bed for midnight-the hardest part over with I thought.
The first few days were horrible and I hated every second of it, it wasn't so much homesickness but I had the best part of 2 days flying across here with just my own mind to keep me company, then checked into the 6 bed dorm (my logic being that it meant 5 other randoms to befriend) but found 2 Germans and a Korean-none of whom spoke English, and nobody else, I didn't meet/have the confidence to meet any randoms around the hostel etc so spent the first 3 days alone, essentially 5 days of just talking to myself. I then couldn't find any flats or houses to share that were decent and not many jobs on the scene. I was jetlagged and couldn't sleep and was getting about 4 hours a night, always waking at 6am and then having an entire day and night to waste by myself, I was depressed, lonely and I guess homesick too and missing family and friends, the confidence in the trip
Idiot, stung for days.
this ridiculous sunburn, I swear people were pointing and laughing as I walked around for days after. It was redder than the picture shows too. plummeted. I overthink things at the best of times but this was new highs-or lows depending on how you look at it!I also had to put up with a shocking pink duvet colour, which I have now learned to love but check out the picture of it, superb, it had to me!
A wise man once sang 'Its a sad man my friend, who's living in his own skin, and can't stand the company'. That man was Bruce Springsteen, and everybody knows 'The Boss' is never wrong. So I had a word with myself-literally-and decided to just be me and get on with things, I got more involved around the hostel and started speaking to random people. It was all a bit rubbish at times, you have to be cheesy and start conversations about nothing just to get friendly with people, you know it sounds pants, they know it too, but its a process you have to go through. My conversation starters I'm embarassed to say were along the lines of:
"nice weather today/its hot"
"ooh thats nice food you are cooking"
"these adverts are so bad"
and my personal favourite I cringe to admit... "that's a nice
Australia Day
Some of the crowd gathered to watch the stage and big screen. Beer, music and sun, great laugh too. top you have on"
However they did the job, I got friendly with a few people and had some good banter. About the same time new people moved into the room, it was now a Candian guy (more on him later) 2 German guys-both cool and good guys, and 2 German girls who were also good fun (not in that way, tut people!). I have also becomes good mates with 2 top Irish boys from County Tyrone and am with them most of the time, Andy and Gavin, absolute legends (as most Irish are)and a ball to be around, we have great banter. Its funny how in the space of about a day things can go from lowest of the low to amazing highs, life is wonderful and you don't have a care in the world. I was buzzing and loving it, the first few days were a distant thing of the past and even now seems ages ago and I can't believe I let myself get so low-but you live and learn right? I still have no job, place to live or even sorted my bank account etc, but they seem insignificant and nothing and I hardly even
The whitest people in history?
Spot the new arrivals. Left to right, Andy (Irish) Jan, Alex (ze Germans), Gavin (fellow Irish idiot) and the beauty that is me! think of them now, today for example I have been hungover and sat around all day watching tv, eating and now on here! Plans are afoot though, the two Irish boys have a place in Bondi already and me and the canadian are going to spend tomorrow trying to find a place for us to share in Bondi too. His name is Tyler, now obviously Fight Club springs to mind(Brad Pitt's character was called Tyler for those of you not in the know)so we have named him this, he now never gets called anything else, we say "Where's fight club?" "hey fight club pass me that pen" "whats the time fight club?" etc, and he has accepted it as his name and replies, brilliant.
So the week has now become a slight blur of doing not much and quite a bit, Wednesday I went to Manly and had a great afternoon with Jen (Canadian girl I met on last travels, she's awesome) and her boyfriend Simon, who are getting a place there, so will meet them fairly often :-) . Then went out that night with the Irish and had a good night-visited my old haunts from last time
Posers
Pretty much sums them up, never a quiet night with these 2 around. and got very drunk, woo! Thursday I went to see a flat in Bondi but it was rubbish, wasted the day away with people from hostel and then went out in the night-not a massive one but still good. Then Friday was Australia day, so a load of us from the hostel went to Hyde Park in the centre of Sydney where they had loads going on. We sat in the field all day in front of a massive stage with masses of people gathered watching a radio station do one of those top 100 songs of the year thingies. We sat there all day drinking beer, getting sunburnt, listening to the music and looking cheesy in Aussie cork hats. Back to the hostel for a change and out in the night (we missed the massive fireworks display because we were in the pub and forgot lol!) and had a great night, me and the Irish for most of it out around Kings Cross, top night, loads of stories and events etc but this blog is long enough as it is. So I'm here now hungover and suffering, have wasted the day watching the womens tennis final and soon I
Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you...
Hope you are all singing Crowded House now.OK so its not snow like back home and it wasn't cold, but still I want less of this!! will go off and get ready as we are out again tonight!! It's a hard life! Plan for the week is to look at places with Fight Club tomorrow, then once settled find a job and bank account etc and take it from there.
So not a massively eventful first week but was the first so therefore an event itself, sorry its a massive blog! Reading back I sounded a bit bad at the start, let me clarify-I'm 110% fine now-Mum and Dad especially-and a million miles away from how I was feeling at the start of the week, I'm loving it now and having a ball so please don't worry for me. I have a load of mates, know a few around the hostel, am having a great laugh every day and drinking far too much! Will find myself a place soon enough-and its with Fight Club (and maybe even with the Irish if there are more apartments going in their complex-we check tomorrow) so I won't be on my own again-and even if I was I can cope better now, was just a shock at the start I guess. I'm still thinking of you and missing you all of course, hope you are enjoying the blogs (if a little long and boring!) and they have been read over 200 times to date so im getting popular, even attracting people like 'A Random' whose comment you can see below-Hello to you! Hope all is well at home and thanks to those people who have been in touch since I have come away, hope this continues as its great to hear from people.
Oh before I forget, if you want to leave me a comment do it at the bottom left of this page, its easier and then shows up on this page, whereas if you send me a message on the right hand side where it says 'Contact Travelling Mike' it comes to my email instead and is not shown on here, so comments are better ok!?
Hope you enjoy this blog, sorry for the length (lol Chris), and once again-I'm fine now Mum!!
xxx all
Mike
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Sarah-Jane
non-member comment
Survived a whole week without you.
At the risk of sounding like a wife...did i not tell you to put some sunscreen on? Nice to see the 500 sit ups every other night and swimming regime didn't go completely to waste either!