The one where I try to fit 2 months of events into one blog

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We left you last after just having settled into Sydney. Our first BBQ on the terrace was a delight, and we have continued this tradition up to now. We have yet to try out the aussie's favourite "shrimps on the barbie" (read in your best aussie accent) but now I've wrote this I might have to head out to the shop later and make it happen.

The house has been fun, and the people we are sharing with are now good friends. The only downside of the property is the landlord, who seems to insist on an unreasonable level of cleanliness and makes it his daily job to find a reason to evict every housemate so he can keep our bond. We are planning not to give him a reason!!

Tom is still at the bar he started at, and is doing extremely well. He is now transistioning to bar captain, so is running the bar on some of his shifts, which isn't bad in less than 2 months. He also consistantly gets top sales and plenty of hours. The bar is awesome, right on the waterfront of darling harbour, and what turned out to be 2/3 mins from my office once we worked out the shortcut, which made it ideal for a quiet pint or two after work.

I have finished my first job at Lloyds, thanks to Tim for setting me up with that. The time there was interesting, although the combination of a stuterring global ecomony and a small australian market meant it was pretty slow on the trading desks at times, especially closer to Christmas.

I have now just started a job selling electricity and gas door-to-door. Any advice on what would not make you slam the door in my face greatly appreciated!! I have two days of training next week then I'm in the field selling electricity for 8% off, sounds fun.

We have been to a few events in Sydney, but aren't doing too well on the out-and-out tourist attractions. For example, we haven't walked up the harbour bridge, been up the sydney eye tower, been in the opera house, or visited the zoo, the aquarium or the theme park. I did go to the botanical gardens the other day though, so not everything is missing!

Last month we went to a Foo Fighters gig at Sydney Football Stadium, supported by Tenacious D. The gig and the evening was awesome, Dave Grohl is an amazing performer, his energy lasted all night and he sprinted around the stage all the time, he's pretty good too.

Sydney football stadium is attached to the SCG (cricket ground) so I had a chance to look in there before the gig. Tom went to the 3rd day of the 2nd test between Australia and India at the SCG this week with some friends from work, he said the atmosphere was amazing. He also managed to see Clarke top score on the ground with 329* and a couple of Indian wickets in the afternoon.

New years eve was a chance to see the famous sydney harbour bridge fireworks. Tom was working at the bar with a ridiculous overtime rate, so I joined the friends we met in New Zealand, as they came to Sydney for 2 weeks over new year. We queued from 9am to get a good spot on the other side of the botanical gardens to watch the fireworks. We were still only 8,000th in the queue, some people had camped there since 3pm the previous day to get the best spots! But we managed to sneak in some beers so we enjoyed an afternoon in the sun with some beers and some food, before the entertainment kicked off at 6 with a fly-by. 9 was the family fireworks then we waited until the main event at 12. They were awesome, with barges mored along the harbour adding to the fireworks from the bridge.

I woke early new years day to join Tom for a champagne breakfast to celebrate English new year, and we also got a chance to celebrate Brazilian, Bolivian, Venuzalian, and New York New Years after!

I hope the embedded photos work, trying to add them to the blog but not sure how it all works. If not there are some photos attached to this blog that might be interesting.

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Photos

NYE
The view of sydney harbour bridge on NYE

Darling Harbour
Jeppy's place of work

1st floor terrace
My favourite spot in Sydney!

Sydney harbour bridge
Sightseeing: Done

Comments

[Elmer Cruz]

I miss Sydney
I always make it a point to go back to Sydney at least every couple of years. I love the place. Sometimes I regret leaving it but I think now I am able to appreciate it even more. Visiting again this year, August maybe just in time for the change of season woohoo!