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1 large beer...
...why not make it 2 very large german mango beers!Well this one has to be write retrospectively as it was sometime ago and the years have flown by, it's not 2014 and I'm on holiday in Santorini, Greece. Work takes it toll and time just keeps on ticking. As such this will be more of a summary of some of the highlights of living in Sydney and taking in the Australian dream.
We arrived in Sydney after leaving south east Asia and it's a just as warm here but much fresher and less humid. We let Jay know we have arrived and find ourselves a hostel to kick back in. The first we do is get ourselves a smorgasbord of olives, delish meats and breads to welcome us back to western society, oddly this was all bought from Woolworths which is still going in Oz.
We party it up a little bit with Jay for a few days at the Blue Parrot hostel but it's a bit pricey for us and decide to kick start the job hunt on what little cash we have left it won't be long until we can't afford to stay in hostels. We meet up with James and Kim Deverrill, Jeff's long time
Rocks on a Friday...
...Under the Bridge bar which ended with shots! mate from Uni and decide that Manly might be the place for us with amazing beachs, surfer chilled out beaches and just 20 minutes on the ferry to Sydney centre.
We go pretty hard-core at finding jobs and a place to live and it's pretty knackering, however we both find jobs with the help of my rents sending my suit over from the UK along with a few other provisions, thank you 😊 I find a job at Warner Bros on Sydney North Shore which is full of really nice people and a work atmosphere I'd not experienced before, this consisted of working hard but much more emphasis on lunchtime beers, 4:30 Friday beers where the office takes on a much more chilled atmosphere with the CEO cracking open the beers and doing the rounds. Can't knock it! Helen finds a job at David Jones but opts out of that job and moves onto Capitol finance in the heart of Sydney. To follow getting jobs we run around finding flats, house shares and finally find an amazing balcony flat in the old post of building in central Manly. We seal the deal, again with some help from Mom and
Manly Scenic Walk...
...well we managed to walk about a kilometre then had a picnic with cider and then walked back! Dad in the form of letters of recommendation from people back home, this took a bit of time to get sorted as I seem to remember them needing 6! We move into our new home and start living the Australian dream, kicking back in Manly, days out to Shelly and Freshwater beachs and general goon filled days.
Loving the Oz way of life and take in the Manly bars and have a few days out with Kim and James to beachs, lakes and Sydney Aquarium. We keep meeting up with Jay and the rish, most at the Rocks under Sydney bridge and the Irish bar in Bondi where the rish are living now. Jay gets a job and we're all working for the man now! Sadly, Jay goes to hardcore and ends up having to head back to the home-land, we say our goodbyes and catch up on our return to the UK.
Christmas rolls up, Christmas in Australia is not like Crimbo in the UK, I can't think of a single UK Christmas were I went surfing on Christmas day! We spend Crimbo day at Ed's with Kim and James and BBQ it up and surf on
25 balloons?!
Birthday fun on waking up, Helen had festooned the flat with decorations and balloons a'plenty! my boogie board and Ed's surf board. Boxing day is spent at Kims sisters house as they are away and James cooks a kick as dinner with a bit of guitar hero battling for good measure! Cheers guys, great day and when we have the monies we will return the favour, maybe in Brighton when we get back to the UK.
New Year is set and we head to Cremorne Point which has the best views of the bridge, so sayeth the locals! We watch the longest firework show I've ever seem and the goon filled night continues back in Manly, I seem to recall Skyping Oli and god knows what we were saying! After a bit of a messy one me and Helen depart the house party and watch the sun come up on Manly beach, nice.
Working for Warner Bros has it's perks and turning my short term job into a longer standing one meant I got first dibs on some Kylie Minogue ticket to see her Showgirl Homecoming Tour at the Acer Arena near the Sydney Olympic Village. This was obviously more for Helen than me!
*I'm starting to wonder if my timeline here
Birthday on Manly Beach
Efforts at the jumping pictures, 7 hours of me drinking and i was a little worse off than i thought at this point! is right as I'm sure me and Jay did a few festivals together as well, so long ago I'll have to re-order this a bit!
Now, I know me and Helen hit up the home of the Home & Away people at Palm Beach and ran out of cash to get back on the bus, fortunately a nice bus driver saw we weren't local and gave us a ride back.
Big day out at the famous Bondi Beach where we got to see the lifeguards and the helicopter get everyone out the water as a big shadow could be seen just off the beach, shark, ray who knows but I was out the water in seconds!
Festival season in Sydney and the two big ones are the Big Day Out and V-Festival, we do both. Big day out with Jay and the rish, messy and awesome, this was again at the Olympic village and was a quality day. The next one was out somewhere in huge mass of fields, we do this one with Kim and James and it's another awesome day, I think we saw Snow Patrol, Pixie lot and some other random bands.
Christmas Eve Manly raving!
..we check out the local crimbo carols, they weren't bournville green, although they did have glow sticks, TUNE!! Lots of goon and starburst consumed, sore head the next few days!
Sore heads continue as we go on a wine tour of Hunters Valley, working our way through what feels like a never ending procession of wines. I think the nicest one we tried was at Iron Gate winery and was a Shiraz. All in all it was a fine goté filled day out and we almost got to see Eric Clapton play as well!
The next trip was by the same company and we head out early to get picked up in Sydney and bound for the Blue Mountains, this also stops of a zoo of sorts with Koalas, Emus, Wallabies and Wombats. The Blue Mountains are like the Australian grand canyon and but covered in deep jungle, we walk through the mining trail and can see how it would be easy to get lost out in the jungle/forests of the Blue Mountains.
Lots of shopping days and visits to Sydney harbour and botanical gardens follow and living in Sydney is great, Central Avenue our new flat and home with a view is starting to feel like home and we love it. There's no denying
Christmas Day surfing...
...watch out for the blue bottles!! that the thought of staying in Oz has crossed our minds a good few times at this point!
* I'm going to keep updating this one as things come back to me as we did so much here, as it's now the future in 2014 I'm feeling a bit Sydney home sick and wouldn't mind a return trip!
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AJ
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u been to the ramsay street?, wow