Christmas Day + New Years Eve

Firstly, apologise for the lacklustre updating of this 'ere 

blog, but in my defence sleeping is quite time consuming and therefore being awake is usually spent at work or doing anything but this 'ere blog.

Anyways, I'm here now, your here now, it’s all good. So, Christmas day, it was grand ta, Helena, Andy and I spent it all at Bondi Beach.  A mate of Andy's had brought him a ticket to an event being held at the beach called 'Sunburnt Christmas', Helena and I had heard about the event from being in the Hostel as they had advertisement up whilst we were there in October and we both agreed to attend, in fact, my Christmas present to Helena was the ticket in.
The big day came and the, to be fair, the weather looked a bit dubious with some grey clouds visible in the sky but fortunately nothing came of it and instead it turned out to be a ridiculously hot day - sweet.

The event itself was a bit of a letdown, it was situated in a pavilion a good 50 yards back across a road from the beach, and although we arrived there at about 12.30 (it opened at 12) the queue to get in gave the even more credit than it was due - don’t get me wrong the music inside was right up my street but the fact that drinks were pushing the $10 mark for a can the same size as a coke can back home it was pretty unreasonable especially considering that about 99% of the people there were backpackers and could in no way afford to spend that much, so, instead, for the couple of hours lock in we had to spend before we were eventually allowed to leave at 3 it was a mass of rowdy Irish and tan-lined English sweating there tits off and perving over a fine selection of girls which now gives me comfort that I will now never need to go to a Butlins held single night or anything of the sort.

So 3 O'clock arrived and we were allowed to leave the pavilion, the three of us headed straight to the unsurprisingly packed beach, found a spot and chilled, all three of us proceeded to give ourselves a nice little bit of sunburn as a present to ourselves and also helps to ease the pain at the price of the tickets for the event given the fact that they got at least one thing right.

All in all a good day was had by all and I thoroughly enjoyed myself safe within the knowledge that I could lounge all day at the beach without having to clock watch and trying to see just how late I could leave it before I had to go back home, have a shower, get dressed and still manage to get to work on time.

I would also like to thank all (three) of you who sent out Christmas cards to me, they were greatly appreciated and a pleasant surprise.

 After Christmas New Years has come and gone in a flash, literally, even though I was down to work all day and was unsure as to whether or not I would actually get to see the internationally acclaimed firework display at Harbour Bridge in all its glory I was pleased to be informed that Ram (the hardest working kid in Sydney who’s first ever experience of fireworks was last year’s NYE) and myself would be able to go down to Pyrmont Park at see it all happen along with a couple of locals.

At 11.45pm we all started to make a move and walk down to this ever popular but still relatively quiet considering the absolutely superb visibility the park has in its arsenal, found a spot and waited, it was a very surreal but surprisingly tension building couple of minutes until eventually it all started to happen.  Now I'd been told before that from our vantage spot not only would we be able to clearly see the Harbour Bridge but also three other in-time-and-in-sync displays in the surrounding areas, one on our side of the river in Darling Harbour and the other two from the other side bt nothing could ready me for the sight of everything, I didn’t know which way to turn.  The Harbour Bridge was obviously the main attraction and I’m pretty sure the fireworks there had a little more in them than their less-hyped surrounding suburbs but they were just as impressive, and the fact that they were all in sync perfectly with the four spots ranging over a good 500 yards was a phenomenal spectacle - I got 10 seconds shy of 7 minutes worth of video on my camera and a couple of still shots that turned out to be pretty bad and very blurred which I think is down to me just being a man and trying to watch the display and take shots at the same time but at least in some you can make out some sort of definition of the bridge and its surroundings.

 After the display, which lasted about 10-12 minutes it was back to work for a couple of hours and as we were one of only two pubs I can think of in the area we were to brace ourselves for the congregation of passing sober/semi-pissed and wrecked punters hoping to get a drink, in truth, it wasn’t so bad, allot of people had obviously kept check on themselves or had seen it all before that it was no more of a celebration than it is just being at home when the clock struck midnight but there were a couple of people who were obviously in no state to be served - I'm not even going to go into detail about some fella and his washing basket.  By the time the bar had shut at 2am and we had finished cleaning up at 3.30am I was well and truly shattered, I started work at noon the year earlier you see...but even so, it didn’t stop me snapping up the proposal of going out after work - especially as the proposal included going upstairs into the casino at Star City - up until that point I’d only been on the walk-through bit downstairs either to Subway, Score Bar or Paddy Maguire’s - there was a fair crowd, Adrian, his wife Naoko, Teagan, India, Helena who had turned up at the bar about 1.30am randomly and obviously myself.  I'd never been into a casino before and to go in now, as a backpacker were, although mum probably won’t agree, I’m watching my money was a scary prospect, what if I caught a gambling bug and spent my life savings on the pokies or sold Mums house back in England on a wild 7 red at roulette?? fortunately it wasn’t to be, although I did have a dabble at roulette and instead of losing money I surprised myself and made some, $10 turned into a nice $40 I hastily pressed the 'collect' button as such riches were on the verge of giving me dizzying possibilities and to this day I still have the slip to claim the mountain of cash in my wallet.

 We left the casino at about 6/6.30am with everyone, well I cant actually speak for them but I for one was feeling a little bit....not very sober shall we say and it was then that Adrian suggested we go back to his apartment and do ourselves proud by drinking copious amounts of alcohol back there in-between playing Wii and just idol chit-chat with each other, at some point I crashed for a massive two hours, woke up to the sounds of Mario Karts on the Wii and proceeded to feel like shit for a couple of hours to come, it was roughly about 11am before everyone decided a nice fried breakfast was obviously going to be the answer to all our pain and we promptly headed to another local pub called The Dunkirk, upon arrival we found regulars from the Harlequin situated outside and also across the road at another pub (The Quarryman’s) who had yet to get any sleep and, as you can imagine, a little bit 'jolly'.  We ordered, we (tried to) eat, we stumble up to the Harlequin now that it was finally open and promptly go about ordering jugs of water to drink and place our hopes on doing what the breakfast was unable to do.  I do believe it was roughly about 1pm before people started to drift off and I myself thought this to be a good idea, I go to my apartment only to find I'm locked out and no one’s home, so, I stumble back to the Harlequin and then proceed to try and get into my apartment on the hour every hour until I began to give up hope - it wasn’t until a brief trip to the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel (PBH), a few other stops at locals close by an the stroke of half past midnight was I able to finally get into my own apartment - by this time it was 2 hours sleep in 42 hours and I was a little tired, my 'day off' had been spent all day at my place of work and I was not looking forward to waking up feeling like death himself and having to drag my sorry ass into work the following day, miraculously however I felt fine upon awakening from my slumber, largely I believe because I had sobered up a great deal but just being awake for so long but either way I was relieved and proceeded to go to work with a spring in my step!

There’s more to add about what’s happened in the days following NYE’s, and although it’s not a great variation on what’s been written before there are a few interesting and fresh points made that may be of some slight interest to my avid readers back home!

Nearly Christmas!!!

Firstly, I would like to thank my Grandad very much for the money you have very kindly given me, its a very generous amount and I will be sure to put it to good use - and I don’t mean on going out (well, not all of it!!!!). I send my love to Nan to.

I recently brought myself a laptop out here which means that i can now access the internet from my apartment whenever I want - its pretty cool as its handy to keep in touch and the ever persistent mother. I can also get online at work to by connection to a wireless network so it’s a pretty sweet deal.
Talking of work, I love it still - I made my first $50+ tips the other day and I’ve also enquired about getting a sponsorship there.
A sponsor ship will enable me to get an extended visa and also put me on course to becoming a manager, or at least an assistant, of a pub - pretty sweet, no? The only drawback is that apparently it cost's a hell of a lot of money and that this would come out of Nick - the pubs owners - pocket, I’ll have to work hard, prove my worth and try to impress him, as well as Adrian, the current manager of the place. The good thing is though that, whilst out with Adrian last night after work having a few swift ones, he told me that I’m doing really well at the pub and that the other staff members really like me - I mean, ya know, its always nice to hear!
Speaking of last night, Nick was obviously in a good mood and arranged to have a we tab set up so we could go out and get a few drinks - we'd get a round, get a receipt, and he'd sub Adrian with it in the morning - there was only four of us, Adrian, (Assistant manager) John, (one of the barmaids) Teagan and Myself, even so, we did quite well and took full advantage of the situation, wasn’t sure on the overall bill but i know we didn’t put ourselves to shame!!
We started by going to StarCity - a casino about a minute walk from the pub which has numerous bars/clubs/and other things open, some 24/7, first stop was Paddy Maguire’s, and Irish pub that serves good old English Pints as well as Scooners, as it was on the tab, pints it had to be!!! A few pints of Cider and a couple of Jagerbombs later (Red Bull ((energy drink)) is poured into a glass and a shot of Jagermeister is then dropped into it were you proceed to skull the whole drink in one go - a little explanation for the lovely people amongst us born before the 80's!!) and we were well on our way - bearing in mind we don't usually finish work till 1/1.30am this was now clocking onto about 4am and we decided to move onto the P.B.H (Pyrmont Bridge Hotel - a 24 hour, rough as f@!£, establishment which is, without fail, always rammed on a Friday/Saturday night/morning/afternoon and is somewhere i hope to show the wide-eyed Eldred, Jake, Matt and (possibly) Mum when they come over in April)

Oh, but before this happened, back at Paddy’s I notched up a game of pool that Ronny O'Sullivan would be proud of if he played pool that is.......anyway, we were playing doubles, Teagan broke and didn’t pot anything, it was my shot and I cleaned up, pulling off some ridiculous shots that you can see, picture going in in your head but in reality it’s more a hit-and-ah-well-it-missed situation, all was going well until we got to the black, the remaining seven balls for the other team had made it almost a snooker so that the only possible shot was to re-bound it off two cushions and hope that it went in the middle pocket, well what do you know, i hit it, nailed it sweet as, it rolled, it rebounded once, it rebounded twice, was inching closer and closer to the pocket, but oh no, what’s this, its ever so slightly off course, everyone’s watching, mouth open as unexpectedly the motions on the pool table go into slow motion, you know, like in the movies, a deadly silence had settled around the table, so deadly that i'm sure someone let out a little scream across the room, the ball was nearly there, but, shit, it was TO off course and it right angle were the cushion meets pocket and bounced away - letting out a little but clearly heard due to the silence giggle in my direction - I was crushed, my dreams had been dashed by a slightly bent, heavily beer stained pool table, I didn’t know what to do besides sit down and have a big 'grrr'-injected gulp of my Bulmer’s.

Upon arriving at the P.B.H at about 4.15am we proceeded to get more drinks, and simply take in the 'where’s the next fight gunna appear' atmosphere that is set in the foundations of the building, weirdly enough it nearly happened, and probably would have if I didn’t have my laptop in my bag across my shoulders at the time, right at our feet and probably involving me. Basically there was this dude, so blind drunk that literally he seemed to be using all his will power to try and lift his two upper eye lids from where they had nestled on his lower two lids who was off his face, be it drink or something else, god only know as I'm sure he wouldn’t in the morning. He was stumbling all over the place, bouncing off chairs, walls, and people when he went stumbling into Adrian, sending beer alllllll over the place, now, if he apologised, happy days, he's a mess but he still has manners, we turn around and order another pre-paid drink but as it turned out he looked up and said with the apperance of a man who appeared to be sleep-talking something along the lines of 'awalja gbauaw goowa' to which Adrian was just like 'what the f.........', the fella obviously didn’t take to well to hearing actual English was (trying to) give allot of verbal to Adrian and then went and topped it off with a nice little push, so, I stepped in and said the ever so polite but clearly understandable 'what the f>!< d'you think your doing?' to which he started, surprisingly, getting really arsey with me - that particular incident ended with him being taken away by the bouncers but about half an hour later i saw him talking to Teagan which was giving her a 'I don’t like what you saying to me' expression on her face, I went over and caught her eye mouthing if everything was ok, she nodded but with no conviction so I decided to stay, it was a nice spot anyway, right by the dance floor occupied by some fine specimen of women, I wasn’t complaining, it wasn’t until I saw her expression get worse that I just walked up and put myself between him and her just trying to bloke his line of visualised sight, turns out his hand was hold of Teagan’s arm and wouldn’t let go, I prised it open, he stumbled, swore and decked it head first into the wall, if I wasn’t pissed off with the bloke it would have been some very funny shit but I was more bothered about getting a bouncer to kick him out permanently and making sure that my shining armour was in fact still shiny that I passed the opportunity, I may have a little chuckle to myself right now in fact......I did...............and it felt goooood.
Fast-forward to 6.30am and leaving time, were all pretty plastered, i make it to my apartment which is a comfortable stumbling distance away and proceed to get some sleep subconsciously aware that I had work in nice and a half hours and that i was pretty sure I'd wake up a tad bit drunk still....I didn’t wake up drunk which was good but woooooooow what a day to christen my first Australian hangover. I make it to work, proceed to feel sorry for myself, try to eat something and make ludicrous never intentional quotes such as I'm never drinking again, blag it so that I left early so that I can feel equally as bad just in another building, my apartment, a pot of Pringles and a couple of paracetamol later and I feel as fine as a fat kid does eating cake! Ain’t that right Matt?
Helena and i have also purchased tickets to go and see the final of the Australian Tennis Open which is on the 1st February and is played down in Melbourne. A friend from Helena's work and a friend from back home in Sweden called Kicki Roman is flying out and coming to see it with us - Helena assures me we will have free accommodation due to people either she or her sister knows so that’s a bonus. I've also a feeling that Helena and I may be splitting up and going our own separate ways after that little adventure, she's expressed a desire to move on wereas, as you already know, I'm quite happy were I am (for the time being), so, if that’s how it’s going to be, its gunna be an emotional final but for a couple of different reasons!! Tickets were $290 so, on top of that flights ($59 – it’s cheaper than by train) and food I'd say around $400 - pocket change to a working boy like myself clocking up av. 55 hours a week!!!!!!)
Also in February a girl from work, Emma and I are going to the 'Big O Festival' which is what appears to be a travelling music event. The headline act are an English group from Leeds called The Music who I am a massive big fan off and have been fortunate enough to see play live before and also feature (almost as heavily as the band themselves) in the recordings taken of their set at Reading Festival this year, supporting them are Scottish band The Fratellis, who I've also seen live and then four other bands/groups - Ben Lee, BlueJuice, Yves Klein Blue and then the Cassette Kids!!
I'm really looking forward to it and as the venue is about 20/30 minutes walk from my apartment it to is also within stumbling distance to make it home!!!!

Right, that’s a nice little essay you've just read and I hope I haven’t made you late to any appointments or meetings now that you've just woken up having nodded off mid-read!
Thank you again Grandad, you are very kind.
Hope everyone’s good!
Merry Christmas
Tom!

(Turns out this is just over two and a half pages in word, that aint bad going for moi!)

Another day, another dollar

Yesterday was another long day at the office - started at 11.30 this time and with the Christmas carol singers sheduled to sing at 7.30 that night, combined with it being a Friday - the busiest night for the pub, i knew i wasn't getting out before dinner time.

I ended up staying upstairs all night in the function room again as Channel 7 from the TV studios had there Christmas party in the room which they had booked out from 12.................till 12.

So yer, i stayed there all day, finished at 1.00 and had lunch. After work the Manager brought in 4 big like 24" pizza's for everyone to eat which was nice but i was just fucking relieved to be sitting down!

Amidst all this happening, some Asian fella was sick all down the stairs and again on someone Else's jacket, a women lost her purse AND i was training a new girl, but, i raaaather enjoyed it, time went surprisingly quickly due to there always being stuff to do and again, the moneys going to be worth it, the last two days of work at the pub I've clocked up 26 1/2 hours alone, let alone the rest of the week - that's roughly $503 right there!

Anyway, i have work again tonight at 5.30 and I'm again going to be training someone else but this time its a mate a made during my time at the hostel and have met up on a couple of occasions to see West Ham games as he also has his premiership team priorities on the money!

After work I'm going into the city to meet a friend from back home, a Mr Paul Jarvis, so its going to be along old day but this time through choice!

Anyway, here are some more picks for you to have a look at...

The pictures include: Andy Mason - A Manc that Helena and I have met out here and become really good mates with - he works at Old Trafford back home - has met practically all of the players and the shirt that he's wearing was given to him as a leaving present by the club before he went away. A couple include Helena at 7.00am i the morning, still pissed from the night before, diving into a fountain thingy in Darling Harbour after a 5c coin, roughly 2.5 pence. The two with the Christmas trees are also from Darling Harbour and are situated just in front of a big food plaza and shopping mall. There are a couple from the bar I'm working at - the one with all the beers on tap is downstairs whilst the other with the spirits and wine is my little hubby hole upstairs. One's a tourist shot of Pyrmont Bridge - the first electronic bridge in the world that opens up to let large ships in and out - in all its glory and the last is of me the other day when i was up early and saw these birds on our balcony, there were about 10 of them so i decided to grab some bread and try my luck, all was good until the second bird not on my hand decided to bite my bloody finger instead of the bread and sent me throwing the other one nearly into the wall due to an impulse pull-my-hand-out-of-the-way reaction!!!

I asked for hours at work...I certainly got them!!

I've made it pretty clear to the guys at work that the more hours they can send my way the better - especially as now I'm thinking about purchasing a laptop - my apartment has an Internet connection and i think in the long run it will be more worth while instead of topping up and adding to what must now be around $200 of credit on my Internet card alone!

Well I got paid a fair sum yesterday - pay day's Wednesdays - but just over half of that is to go on rent straight away and i don't want to be a total hermit while I'm out here, I do actually want to get out and about still! Though theres a danger of burning the candle at both ends and K.Oing myself physically.....it may already be happening.

yesterday I was sheduled to start work at 4.30 which is the earliest time I'd been asked to come in as of yet but I was woken by a phone call from one of the assistant managers, Mike, asking if i could cover his shift at 12.00...it was 11.30!! i agreed, probably largely due to the fact that i was still in a state of wakingupness and wasn't 100% sure what my name is let alone making life changing decisions such as covering a shift! Anyway, like i said, i agreed, said that I'd be there as close to 12 as possibly but i need to carry out the three S's first. I still got there at 11.50 and began to work. I wasn't for a good hour or so later that i realised that i was working later still and that the possibility of me having to work through the covered shift and my original shift until close began to dawn on me, i text Mike to see if he was coming in later to which a half suspected 'Na' was the reply - dang, the prospect of a 13 hour shift was a little bit like getting a kick in the nuts but I'm pretty sure customers could see dollar signs in my eyes should they have looked close enough!! to be fair, the day went pretty well. There was a function up stairs that started at 6, and with me being the function kid now at around 5.30 i went up and started to sort out the bar and get the place ready.

It was a really good evening and as it was a Police Christmas party, you know, the people who deal with drunks and people who drink way to much, everyone was smashed - there was even a made-my-night moment shared by one other spectator and myself involving a serious wardrobe malfunction with this stunningly beautiful must-be-around-25 blonde girl - she was smashed, probably the most drunk out of everyone there and she was re-arranging her dress around her boobs when, something happening and out they came in all there glory, now, because of the state she was in it took a good 5 seconds for her to realise anything was wrong so i was happy to do my duty for the male population and take in and stare at them with a perverted smile upon my face!!

Anyway, after they all left and the clearing up had been finished it was indeed 1.00am, completing the 13 hour shift and leaving me a little bit tired, i woke up this morning however - I've taken to calling 2pm in the afternoon 'mornings' now as this is the general time i awake from my slumber - feeling like absolute crap - and have done all day, i had to go into work earlier and asked to get my shift covered which they managed to do and i went back to bed till about 5pm, its 8.05pm now and i think i may have overslept a little now as I'm not so much tired, just feel like rubbish. I'm in again tomorrow and Saturday and they have Sunday off and my plans for that special day, as the man himself intended, is rest!

48 days...

its only been 48 days since I've been in Australia but it feels allot lot longer!
I've met some awesome people already, people that I'm pretty sure that I will defiantly keep in contact back home and possible even meet with in the distant future..

Work is quality - I've resided from looking for more work purely because the hours from the pub have picked up, for the next two weeks I'm doing - so far - five days a week already, add to that the fact that the french dude, Julian, is leaving in a week to go home for a month, the I'll be rolling in shifts!! - i also got my first official pay-packet on Wednesday, I never realised the amount if would get taxed, its a bitch, but it would be a lot worse if i didn't have a Tax-File Number, instead of only getting taxed 29% of my income, it would be a sickening 49%!!!

I've also got a few random photos form my phone to upload taken from all over - our apartment....the pub....surroundings!! (To be uploaded soon)

I'd also just like to express how much of a blow it is that Sunder land have lost Roy Keane, i know he chose to resign but not only is he a God but also a great inspiration for the game! Theres also no denying what he did with Sunderland in his short 27 month stint!

The Harlequin Inn

Just thought I'd post up the website address for the pub I'm working at so you have can have a little look see.

http://www.harlequininn.com.au/

It's an awesome place and the staff/customers are really nice people but unfourtunatly there arn't as many hours going there as i first thought so I'm still looking casually for something on the side.

Unique Opportunity

So the job that I've got over here in rainy Oz is working in a bar which I've taken to like chocolate to a fat kid, and i think the managers noticed because he's now asked me to work the function room upstairs on my own on a Friday, the kid who used to do it left yesterday and this proceeded to show me how to work the bar upstairs, who the regulars were, how to shut down the bar and also how to make a couple of shots...
he also said that he had gone about and made a couple of his own shots 1. to pass the time and 2. out of boredom but they have proved popular with his regulars and also customers who have just come in on the day. He recommended that I try and invent a couple of my own which is what has led me to write this post...I want to ask my fellow drinkers for some ideas.....

The spirits and options we have at the pub to use are the obvious Whiskeys, Vodka, Rum, Gin, Bourbon, Baileys, Sambuca (black and white), Coke, Lemonade and then things like Frangelico, Jagermesiter, Jim Beam, Midori, Malibu plus things like Apple, Orange, P/apple and Cranberry juice plus a lot more besides - I've only been there two days so don't know the whole arsenal of spirits just yet...

Anyway, if you have any ideas of recipes that might work well together I'm happy to give them a try, the dude I'm taking over from said that his own shot called johnny Rotten was very popular and consisted of 3 parts Barcadi, 3 parts Malibu, 3 parts Midori green and then baileys poured around the edge to create that separated effect.

I've thought of a few names that could transfer well to be also the names of shots such as Raise The Alarm, Commercial Breakdown, Rubicon and the such...obviously it's better for me if the shot represented the name its given, i.e. Rubicon - Fruity, but i suppose for most Australians who've never heard of them it wont really matter.

so, if you've an idea and a name then I'm more than happy to hear them and give them a bash, I've a couple of friends coming to the bar tonight and I've taken it upon myself to try a few on them tonight with a Baby Guinness being the first one I'm going to crack out (Just over 3/4 of the Glass with jagermesiter, topped with Baileys poured slowly around the edge to create the white of the Guinness head)

Either leave a comment here or email me - even if there's some that are tried and tested and you think will go down well over here let me 'ave em to!!

Have fun and drink responsibly

My Apartment

Only a few pics taken from inside my apartment in Pyrmont.

The address, for people who want it, is as follows.

N706

233 Harris Street

Pyrmont, 2009

Sydney

New South Wales

Australia

I'm going to be there until at least the end of Feburary I think.

Its weird seeing Christmas tree's basking in sunshine rather than rain!

So the Christmas decorations are starting to be erected all over the place and they include a huge must-be-30-foot Christmas tree in a shopping food plaza in Darling Harbour and also hundreds of flashing lights situated on buildings that leave little other question than 'how the croaking frog did they manage to get them that high up and precariously placed?'

they do for me anyway

Right, to business, I've news, I've a job which does several things....1. takes a huge Razor Ruddock sized weight off my shoulders and 2. gives me an income.
It's situated all of two minutes from my new apartment in darling harbour, reminds me scarily of the Southdowns back home with its atmosphere, regulars and general style of work..everyone I've met so far who works there has been sound, the manager, a mere adult with looks of at least suggesting 30 years old and always game for a laugh is reflected throughout the rest of the staff with a fun atmosphere to work in, i was at home in no time. I only initially went in for a trial from 4.30 to 5.30 but towards the end of that trial it started to get busy and he suggested i could stay on should i want to and help out, i eagerly jumped at the suggestion with focus on impressing the big man and i was flying, it was a beautiful thing. Only two problems I'm experiancing at the moment, the till system and the bloody lingo for everything...schooners, middy's, pots, cups, bonde, dry...and then when you put these words in a sentence, say, 'G'day mate, can i get a cup of blonde please' i think you've every right to stand there with an expression your face that suggests something in between 'shit what am i doing here and is he actually talking to me?'
But come 8.30 when things settled it was as easy as describing Titus Bramble being just as useful as a chocolate teapot.
I have another shift there on Saturday at 6pm, which apparently isn't as busy as busy as you'd think for a bustling place such as Sydney and in fact Thursdays and Fridays are there killer nights.
So all that's left now is to tell the Greek that I'm leaving, maybe smash a few plates for effect and bask in the sunshine that spills in over my balcony on my new 7Th and top floor apartment room with a pot of VB in hand.

Life is sweet.

Lack of updates

I'm sorry people about the distinct lack of updates on this 'ere blog but, to be honest, theres not been allot going on....because i haven't been working (as of yet) I'm resigned to not spend my money on much activities besides the necessities such as going out on the town....
As of next week I'm hoping the situation will change because as of next week my first pay packet should be sitting nicely in my bank account thus enabling me to survive for the following week...its all goooood!!
Anyway, i have work in precisely 55 minutes of writing this blog so in 25 minutes i will set on my merry way and be a good boy, show up nice and early to re-enforce my eagerness for the job with the Boss, not just a pretty face!
So far i have failed to learn all but around 20 of the cocktails/shots the bar sells which is kind of a problem due to the fact that they sell around 20 of them....still, the head honcho believes i can pick it up within half an hour so it can't be THAT hard.
I will update again tomorrow on how it goes.

I'm also counting down the days until i move into my apartment, I'm excited about the fact that there is a gym within 2 minutes walking distance of my front door and also a fair size swimming pool in which i can impress with my inability to swim (I'm counting on my vast amounts of thrashing about in the water trying to stay afloat being more than enough of a work out!!)

Also I'd just like to say Happy Birthday to Dex and I'm hoping my present to you doesn't get lost in the mail like yours did to me ;) had a good night and have a drink of your choice on me (Matt, can you sub me? cheers!)

My 20th Birthday

I managed to have a wicked birthday out here with a group of friends that i'd made within just a couple of weeks. The day started however with Helena and I going to Sydney Aquarium and then the Wildlife centre and then it was out in the evening at 6 to kickstart the night...instead of writing a huge essay on the events im simply going to upload photos taken from the day ONTO MY FACEBOOK due to the vast amount of photos taken....

Early Birthday Present...

My luck has turned plain and simply....i had a viewing of an appartment in 5 minute walk from Darling Harbour.

The appartments on Harris Street, Pyrmont and low and behold i got it, its $130 p/w which includes a (Small) gym, sauna, swimming pool and also a stunning view seeing as how the room is on the top floor.

And, whilst waiting, i got a call from a guy called Dimitri who owns a mediteranian bar near the Opera House and he offered me a trial at his place called Aesop's, it looks pretty cool and i start at 11.30 tomorrow morning, so, from weeks of looking and having no luck i get both things im looking for in with in an hour..

f'ing get in!

Easy as 1..2..3......or not.

You hear about loads of people going to Australia travelling around and finding work to keep the funds respectable....the thing is that literally EVERYONE is doing that so the precomception of finding a job being easy is, in reality, bloody hard.

I admit the first week we arrived i wasn't really looking, i was to busy finding my feet and getting settled but now for the last two weeks everyday i've been looking and asking in what seems like every pub/bar/hotel in Sydney, soon im gunna have to move state just in order to find a job and not see me come home through no choice of my own besides no monies..

people i've spoken to about looking for a job said that there are loads of places looking for people and that, with my experiance in the field, i'd be snapped up, now i cant work out whether they've just moved to sydney form another state and are suffereing from memory loss or something but these 'loads of places' seem to be 'loads of miles' from everywhere i 've walked so far...

As for the appartment in bondi, we looked at it, it was very nice but it was also to far for Helena as it would take easily 1 hour travel each day to and from work add to that the time of day she'd have to get up in order to get to the bus stop and she really didn't want to stay there which was a shame and because of this the rent for a single person would be $190 p/w which is more than i can afford, probably even with a job so it was back to the drawing board and classified ad's.

Oh, and although we'd planned to make a day or if at Bondi, do the whole beach thing after we saw the appartment it pee'd it down, ya know, just to rub it in im sure, anyway the pic of the beach is bondi and at least i can say i've been there...the other pics just a lush toilet..

i've had a good couple of leads so far but they either get taken really quickly or you end up speaking to a chiense guy on the end of the phone who seems to not understand a word i say let alone the other way round, all i could get out of him was the room number (which is was usluse due to the fact that he didnt understand i needed to street name and building number as well) and something about asking if i wanted to buy dvd?!?!?

Anyway, mid-writing this blog i'm in the middle of updating my CV with the acknoledgement that i've now got my RSA license, the course was easy and if you fail you have to be a complete retard due to the fact that you have the answer booklet infront of you anyway. Even so i need it before i do anything in bars so meh, spend money to make money and all that rave.

Living in Bondi??

From posting my advert on the internet site gumtree.com.au we had a reply from a guy called Afir or Ofir or something...saying that there is a 3 bedroom appartment available in bondi so i gave him a call earlier and we're booked in to view the place tomorrow at 10.30
I forgot to ask how much p/w he wanted but im sure he wouldnt have emailed back if it was anything excesivly over the $150 i stated so fingers crossed.

Also, the job hunt seems to have picked up, I've booked my RSA course (Responsible Serving of Alcohol) which everyone needs first before being able to serve/sell alcohol anywere in Aus so come Tuesday evening i should be eligable to work straight away anywhere, the course takes a day and from speaking to a couple of people who have already completed it its more common sence than brains so it sounds right up my street!.
A couple of pubs have also taken my CV so alli I can do now is wait and see.

I also recommend that people listen to a band called Sly and The Family Stone and in particualer there most recongised track 'Stand!' - there an old 60's heart and soul funk band and are quality
!!

A wee update...

Its been a couple of days since I've written anything on this so i thought I'd give you all a quick update on what events have unfolded.

I've decided to compromise with myself and not go WWOOFing just yet, i still fully intend to do it but it was clear to me that Helena didn't want to leave Sydney and was only saying that she would come with me because she didn't want to be by herself, which is obviously fair enough.
So, the compromised deal is, we stay in Sydney until at least January which, in some ways, is awesome because Sydney is pretty much the best place to be come New Years Eve.
So to avoid not being able to find a hostel or somewhere to stay not on a permanent basis we are back on the hunt for shared accommodation.
And again the same problems are arising in the hunt, loads for single females, a couple for single males and hardly any for two people but, in a last ditch attempt to find a place for two people I've posted a couple of ad's on t'internet in the hope that it catches someones attention and they get in contact.

Away from accommodation the job hunt is back on but it seems everywhere that I've been asking so far want people who will be in Sydney for longer than just a month and a half but i am hoping that, with the build up to Christmas more and more places such as pubs and bars will be hiring more in order to handle to the influx in customers.
I even made an audacious attempt at Australia's SONY/BMG headquarters which would be totally awesome to get a job with but in reality I've more chance off seeing Matty Taylor get a kiss from Jessica Simpson.

So, in between all this theres not alot else to do apart from sunbathing, clubbing, and getting to know the locals, we've a pretty cool room even if it is ever changing but currently its home to a guitar-playing trial-biking loves-classic-70's-rock-and-roll-such-as-Zeppelin french guy who is pretty cool, Andrew still, the guy we met quiet early on in our stint at Maze and although he had to at one point check out and live in another hostel he checked back into Maze a couple of days later and crazily enough ended up in the same room with the same bed just by pure coincidence. There's a french girl who is quite quiet but easy enough to strike up conversation with and, as of yesterday some fella from Wales who seems like a bit of a geezer but i haven't had alot of time to get to know him yet.

Anyway, as Andrew flies to Japan tomorrow with his stint in Australia drawing to a close it was only right that we went out and had a few drinks to, i dunno, celebrate that he didn't get bitten by a shark or something. Anyway, it turned into a heavy night, which in a way is good because the pictures on your camera in the morning are always ten-times better and more often than not make you think 'when did i take that one???' and i managed to get some nice shots.

I've made a deal with myself that i wont come back to the hostel tomorrow without a job even if it means i have to go in one pub/shop and then go straight next door and repeat this process all the way down the street!! i won't be beaten!!

(In the pic's - The Wine, or 'Goon', is a $10 4 litre way to have a very cheap night out and the guys (in green) Colin, Helena and Andrew)

Just a few pic's

A few more pics of the sights of Sydney...

'Woody'??

Australia's Night Life

Yesterday was Helena's first day working at her job and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I will be WWOOFing it at some stage so set about at looking at likely destinations and hosts across southern, western and central Australia.
I walked and sat in Hyde Park, plugged myself into my Ipod and proceeded to map out in my mind and using my lovely planet guide book map at the front of the book to visually give me a picture of just were abouts i will be travelling and how.

That night we had arranged to go out to a club with two people we'd met out her, one was a room mate and he'd met someone travelling who he introduced to us and we'd been getting along with quite well.
We mapped out a rough plan in the afternoon and come 6 O'clock we kicked into action.
because Helena was still at work so the three of us went and got something to eat and then on the way back we would pick up some Goon - 4 litres of the nastiest tasting wine your ever going to have but for $10 its no surprise that its a student/travelling favourite - and set about trying to act marginally civilised whilst drinking (crap) wine out of a tin and plastic cups.
WE then proceeded out on the town, we went originally to a place called World Bar - the scene of my bikini clad escapade - but didn't want to pay the entrance fee as we were only going to have one drink and then move on so we decided to walk around the corner towards the club when we walked past a club called B.A.B, we were sold the story by the bouncer trying to Usher us in that this was Australia's finest strip club, so, being lads on tour and at that time Helenaless, Andrew presented the idea that we, you know, 'treat ourselves'. For the same price it would have cost to get into World Bar we dutifully agreed with Andrew and walked in.
Now, up until then I'd never been in a strip joint and wasn't to sure what to expect but what it turned out to be wasn't that much of a surprise...if that makes sense..
The obvious scantily clad women were in there droves either walking around offering to dance with some guys, i some how thing it wasn't as clean cut as you dancing? you asking? I'm asking...I'm dancing....I've a slight incline that it was a little more....ya know..
Anyway we were told to sit and that the bar lady would bring over our drinks so we got a nice little secluded spot in the corner and observed the show....
It was alright, out of the six girls who got on stage only two looked remotely female whilst two looked a little...not very nice...and one was about 4ft and looked like a kid, not cool.

It was funny looking around though at the other people in the place and you can kind of break it down into three categories, 1. the kids around my age who are sitting there fascinated and in awe but as soon as they walk from there chair to the bar or toilet they'd immediately put on a kind of strut that implied yer, I'm cool with this, this is like a hobby of mine whilst all the time avoiding eye contact with anyone afraid that they'd give off a 'my girlfriend would kill me if she knew i was here' look. Number 2 consists of people (Hi Granddad) his age and they would generally sit on the outskirts of the room by the tables and as soon as a girl would be on stage that they liked they'd move up to the seats situated directly around the stage and proceed to be mocked by the girl dancing on stage as they chucked away $50 at a time just to get the girl to dance for, that little bit longer, in front of them...the third is your typical 30-40 year old who looks the business, trimmed, well groomed, daft little goatee bit, diamond earrings, usually with another girl they brought with them in arm sitting about being laddish as if this was nothing more than a normal bar...

Anyway, we stayed for about half an hour, got asked for $80 between the three of us for a dance from this podgey little fat girl dressed in a latex maids outfit, I made the excuse that I had to meet Helena, which i actually did, but i also wasn't prepared to pay my share of the money to be danced on by an umpa-lumpa

so we left, procceded to the club, had a really good time there....but this is the interesting part..
We left the club in the small hours, we were all a little intoxicated but we decided to walk home, whilst walking along a stretch of road there was a group of guys walking towards us who were staring people out, firstly they stared out Helena, who was actually oblivious, then Colin the other friend with me and then me and now me being me continued to stare at him to even to the stage were i had to start walking backwards to keep eye contact, he obviously didn't like this so stopped, started shouting something so i gave him some friendly mouth back he walked up towards me and we were nose to nose, or more it was my nose resting on top of his head as he was about a foot smaller, and then his even shorter ass of a mate twatted me a good'en on the side of the head with a nicely connected punch, the fact that couldn't see it coming due to my eyes looking at the bonce under my nose kinda didn't help, i obviously wanted to kick ten tons of S*&% out of him...and his five mates but for some reason Colin wouldn't let me and dragged me off.

All in all I've probably got a lot worse a headache than i deserve from just the alcohol and my neck hurts once more but for an entirely different reason...

WWOOFing and Couch Surfing

Before i left England i was told about these two ingenious ideas on how to live in and around Australia for free, the concept is brilliant and I'm seriously thinking about getting involved in some of the action.

WWOOF: Willing Workers On Organic Farms - the concept is simple, you work 4-6 (varies) hours on a farm doing things such as fruit picking, painting, house cleaning, gardening and so on for 'free' and in return you are given accommodation (usually the family home) and food. There are hosts all across Australia and even the world, the best thing about being in Oz is that there are fruits that need harvesting all year around all across the country thus enabling you to travel all across the country, theoretically just paying for transportation such as flights or a bus, to go from one spot to the next - as it says on there website you'll learn not only about the ways of farming what ever it is your harvesting but also Australia itself.
After i complete writing this post I am going out to buy myself a WWOOF directory which basically does what it says on the tin, it gives you contact information for participating hosts all over Oz.

Couch Surfing: This is a truly brilliant idea that came about when some fella went to Iceland for a couple of weeks, but didn't have anywhere to stay so he came up with a plan and proceeded to 'spam' 1500 students in the area he was staying simply asking if any had a couch that he could crash on and in return he offered to cook for them and keep general maintenance of there probably grotty little abode. He got several response and not only crashed at a couple of places but also struck up some great friendships and was shown the 'real Iceland' as he puts it, you know, the stuff that they don't put into travel guides.
So, when he returned home he got together with some other mates and made it to what it is today, a network of millions of people all over the world offering couch's for people to stay on for a day, a week and in some cases even a month. In return for the host's hospitality the surfers would cook them meals, clean or in some cases turn up with a gift for there host upon arrival.
The system works a little like EBay to, the host's are given a rating and feedback on how they accommodate there surfer and vis-versa as the host will then give feedback on the surfer on how they were as a guest enabling people to who are in the process of looking for somewhere to stay a heads up on what to expect. In Australia alone there is roughly over 10,000 host's but with allot of them from Sydney 'fully booked' in advance for the Christmas and new years.

You could if you wanted to make use of both WWOOFing and CSing together by, say if you get a placement working in a farm in Perth whilst your in Sydney and you've only enough for a bus ticket you could try and find a couch mid-way between the two that will let you crash just for the night so that you have somewhere to stay....

Talking about being fully booked for Christmas, i think that's a serious problem Helena and I are going to face, as we booked to stay another week in our current hostel although for me it was no problem Helena found that someone had already been penciled in to her bed already, after throwing the bugger out and changing the sheets she managed to sleep peacefully but all the same, we were told that a big party of nearly 30 odd people will be arriving as hostels/hotels and campsites become fully booked for Christmas and as your all away theres no were really better to be at New Years than in viewing distance of the Harbour Bridge...

World Bar

Last night we decided to join tag along to a outing organised by the staff at Maze, it was simply to go to a bar called World bar and, from the posters doted around the hostel to entice people to get involved it made it clear that there would be champagne for the girls, and for guys dressed as girls.....................................................................................................................................

Well what did you expect me to do...having already experienced the female side of life at the Southdowns on our last night before we closed were i dressed up as Geri Halliwell i was a little to easily persuaded to 'get involved' this time around and dress up again.

Helena was more than happy to let me borrow a skirt and top, a bikini top if I'm exact, falsely expressed that i looked fine and not, in anyway out of place....

There was only one other guy from our hostel who dressed up and he ended up missing the bus anyway but luckily about 5-6 people from a sister hostel just across the street were sporting items of clothing ranging from skirts to dresses to boob tubes to god knows what and, whilst I'd drawn the line at wearing make up, again, they seemed to have gone over bored and were verging on dressing as drag instead of as just a girl.

Upon getting to the club we guys who were dressed as girls were given three vouchers to get either a VB (beer) or a vodka and mixer, along with the free champers on entry and also i managed to blag another free drink from the lady organising the event from our hostel as i was the only one representing Maze, noooot bad....

The actual bar was a bit of a mix, downstairs in one room was a mixture of indie, r&b, dance, cheese and electro music but there wasn't really a dance floor whilst in another room there was a karaoke run by a fat Australian who liked to swear a little to much and finally upstairs there was an actual dance floor that was near enough deserted probably due to the crazy ass music being played.

It was a good night and Helena and I spent most of it with a kid in our dorm called Andrew and a mate he had met whilst travelling around, they are both English and Andrew in particular has awesome like-for-like taste in music as me and told me about a club on Friday which plays things like The Strokes, Datarock, Manic Street Preachers, Twangs, Justice and all that usually found in Goo kinda music. b-e-a-utiful!

With that I'm going to love you and leave you and catch some well deserved zzz's after a night out, i appreciate its 1.27pm but I'm a lazy git and no amount of red bull is keeping me awake...

The day I met my first PROPER Aussie...

So, I've been in Sydney exactly a week today and so far everything seems to be happening at 100mph, that is everything except finding work....getting around to getting my bank account and also TFN, but besides that were has the time gone??
Gawd knows!
Anyway, the latter has been done and the former is in the process of being found.
My general feeling of Sydney is that its not very Australian, i mean there is the occasional Australian person doted about but they come few and far between, everywhere is fast food deli's and 24/7 conviniance stores run by Asians who speak very little English let alone with an Australian twang to there accent....
Earlier i decided to go and grab a coffee, actually, to be precise a Mocha - a nice lil coffee-come-chocolate combination - and walked until i found a suitable, non-Starbuck run coffee shop and proceeded to sit and sort out my documents into a easily readily accessible and easy to find order such as flight information (outbound and inbound), my medical information (which has recently been updated thanks to my own stupidity of being unable to determine were the floor began), hostel info and other important pieces of paper that i would be stupid to loose. Anyways, whilst sifting through the papers a mid 40ish something (I'd guess) fella sat next to me and, not right away, but after a couple of minutes popped the question of 'where you from', thus entails a healthy conversation of my life back home and his life from up the east coast in Cairns. Turns out that he was down in Sydney in a legal tax battle with something to do with his Yacht that he has harboured back home, he's had a heavy day at Court which had ended up costing the poor fella about $6000. I'm surprised he wasn't drinking something stronger.

The natural progression of questions ranging form what was i doing in Sydney to what else will i be doing whilst in Aus followed and i eludicated that i would be staying in Sydney for a while doing the classic working and shared accommodation combination.

He shed some light on his youth and his hometown and said that it was a wasted trip to stay in an un-Australian run town such as Sydney and that i should venture north not only for the surroundings and scenery but also for work, which was allot easier to come by especially as it was just going into fruit picking season. It made sense to me.

With our visa we were given a platinum card which enables a free night stay in hostels and apartments dotted up the east coast and southern Australia (well a free night should you book 3-4 nights with them first) and today (because we are waiting on our Bank card to be sent through the post which can take up to 5-7 working days and which we had to give out an address for) we had to book another week's stay in the hostel, because of this it was worth while getting something called a 'Mad' Card (short for Nomads, the hostel company we are with) and this, just like the visa card, enables free nights, money off bookings and also up to $400 worth of vouchers ranging from free meals, free entry to clubs, free drinks and also money off attractions and events and there are hostels that this card lets you stay in all over the Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tasmania so i believe it would be stupid to let such opportunities go to waste.....


The fella also highlighted that, unlike Sydney, people up north are allot more talkative and friendly and are more likely to help you out and generally be more 'human' towards you, it was funny for an Australian to highlight the fact that in Sydney everyone pretty much keeps them selves to them selves and that on several occasions you will look up from reading a paper or book or having a sip of your tea to see a small number of eyes staring at you from various places in the room, its weird but because of they number of eyes looking at you it leads you to believe that you may have something on your face such as a huge spot that's appeared in a matter of minutes or someone behind you is pulling faces over your shoulder.....its a little off-putting....


Anyway, besides his inspirational talk and knowledge of his hometown he was actually using proper Aussie lingo and on several occasions i had to ask what it was something meant after he'd say a word, it was cool and reassured me that all the slang terms I'd read about in the Lonely Planet guide hadn't totally died out, up until that point the only slang I'd heard had been 'schooner' which is not quite a pint but more than a half when ordering a beer...


Finally here are a couple of pics of nothing in particular but it will give you guys something to look at anyway, the graffiti I've been doing to pass the time (tilt head to the right), theres a picture of a billabong from the Blue Mountains and also a pic of some ugly git (small children be advised).....