It's Christmas eve and it's mine and Loz's 7 month travel-anniversary! I can't believe we've been away and out of England for 7 months, I also can't believe it's December 24th, it's still May isn't it? Doesn't time stop still when you go travelling??
A lot has happened in the last week, 2 have become 4 with Michelle (my mate from the uk) and Damien (Loz's mate from Paris) joining us in the Sydney flat and 4 will soon become 6 when Damo (Loz's brother) and his girlfriend Jess arrive on the 29th.
Something at the forefront of our minds has been preparing for Christmas in our own special way, we've been trying to work out what we want to eat, when we want to eat it and where all this eating will take place!
The original plan had always been to head down to Bondi Beach on Christmas Day and drink away with the other Brits sunning themselves on the sand until the weatherman put a stop to that and predicted glorious temperatures of 22 degrees and rain. RAIN!
For the relatively long 25 years that has made up my life there has not been one white Christmas and then the one bloody year I up and leave to travel a world renound hot country...it rains.
Anyway, life goes on and change forces adaptation so we've decided to do the Bondi thing today as it's hot and dry. Michelle, Loz, Damien and I have bought and prepared an extravagant picnic to lug down to the coast and delve into, and tonight, for the first and probably last time ever I am going out to the clubs on Christmas Eve. Normally I would be laying the presents under the tree in Brighton with Nicola, watching festive films round a real log fire and strolling up to midnight mass but tonight we're hitting the Sydney nightlife.
The past week we've been really busy exploring Sydney to the max and have walked some insane distances without quite meaning to. Last Tuesday Michelle arrived into Australia and it was my duty to head down to the airport at 6am and collect her. I was slightly unnerved by how quiet the families were in the arrivals area when greeting their loved ones, a gentle hug here, a tear of joy there...the tension in me mounting as flight BA15 emptied its passengers into the luggage lounge.
Finally I saw her walking towards me and let out an involuntarily high pitched half-scream in the word 'TINAAAAA!'.
After some coffees and a catch up at a little local place in Surry Hills we spent the day walking around the CBD and getting acquainted with the city in more detail, we actually ended walking 7 miles and needed a big cup of tea and multiple tim tams when we got back!
Tuesday we headed down to Coogee beach which looked very different in the summer sun, the last time I was there was in the Winter months when Loz and I first arrived into Sydney and although the skies were crisp and blue back then the beaches were empty of sun worshippers and only the brave adorned their wetsuits to catch a wave.
Tuesday however was very different, the sand looked like a multi-coloured patchwork quilt of bikinis and the sun's rays heated the sand up like hot coals.
Wednesday was another epic day of walking with the route beginning at the flat in Surry Hills, going down Oxford Street (a fashionable road lined with high end boutiques and vintage shops), moving through Kings Cross (backpacker and hostel central), around Wooloomooroo (the only suburb with 8 o's), round the Botanic Gardens, pass the Sydney Opera House and over the Harbour Bridge! This time our 8 mile walk landed us a little lost in a North Sydney suburb and we were forced to take the train back to our starting point.
On the Thursday the heavens opened and we had our first significant downpour since being here, it was a good thing really as there were a number of large scary bushfires raging in South Sydney and the fire fighters needed all the help they could get.
Tina (Michelle's nickname) and I utilised the grotty weather by going to Max Brenner for their INFAMOUS chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream and then walked up to King's Cross to buy some of the tours we'll be doing on this trip.
3 hours later...we walked out of 'Wicked Travel' having spent over $2,300 dollars on a number of very exciting and hopefully fun experiences! Some of the things we've booked onto include the Kiwi Experience tour bus for our time in New Zealand, a 3 day Melbourne to Adelaide coach trip along the Great Ocean Road, a 3 day/3 night camping trip in the middle of the desert to see sunrise and sunset at Aires Rock, 3 days hiring a 4x4 to drive around Fraser Island and 2 days/2 nights on a trimaran sailing boat cruising around the Whitsundays! We're also going to do a sky dive further up the coast but nothing's booked for that just yet :/!
I think we finished the day with some fajitas and a couple of beers, what could be better.
The weekend was fairly chilled with Saturday spent perusing around Paddington Market, a very artsy crafty type of place. I think I ate the best cupcake of my entire life on that day, it was banana, pecan and butter icing and was simply AMAZING. Infact, I would go back to that market just to find that stall and eat it all over again.
On Sunday I donned the old running trainers and attempted a little jog around a local park. However when I got there I realised that most of the park was sealed off by construction fencing for building work so I ended up running up and down the same path and then round and round in a circle 6 times.
I had aimed to do it 10 times and then jog home but a tramp appeared on his little bicycle and set up camp right by the path on lap 6 which really put me off and I headed back early.
I was also aware that the passing pedestrians had no idea I was running round and round in a circle as they were coming and going all the time but the tramp...well he would soon discover my little secret.
I also looked particularly orange compared to the other city dwellers that day...
That afternoon Tina and I hired the movie 'Into the Wild'. If you haven't seen it, see it. It's truly one of the best films
i've seen, defo in my top 3. You'll really appreciate it if you're either a deep thinker, like travelling, appreciate there's more to life than work, the concept of breaking free from society etc. etc.
So that brings me to Monday when Damien (who arrived on Sunday), Michelle, Loz and I trekked down to Bondi Beach for the day. Bondi is a nice beach, a crescent shape with houses built into the rocks around it and a line of shops backing onto the promenade. When the clouds started to move over in the afternoon we packed up and began the 5km walk from Bondi to Coogee over the cliff path which I would highly recommend. It was very scenic and reminded me of the drive up route 1 from LA to San Francisco.
We were knackered by the time we got back to the apartment but missioned it round the supermarket and bought all our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day food.
Tuesday was one of those unexpected lovely days, Mary (my relative in Sydney) drove into the city with her sons Hugo and James to meet the 4 of us for lunch. We ended up piling in the car and going over to Darling Harbour to a gorgeous restaurant called Yots where we sat round a large wooden bench type table with a Christmassy centrepiece and white floaty drapes to protecting us from the sun's heat. I sipped chilled white wine and ate a barramundi and mango salad while watching powerboats cruise past a replica of Captain Cooks Endeavour ship and was very, very happy.
After lunch we all played about in the water fountains, pretty much drying instantly afterwards, and then after Mary left began walking up to The Rocks by the Harbour Bridge to scope out the perfect viewing spot for NYE.
So that brings me up to date with yesterday! We ended up going down to Coogee again for some sun bathing, I got to meet Michelle's friend from the UK and some others girls and then in the afternoon we caught a bus up to the Botanic Gardens to try and get our faces on GMTV! They had asked Brits abroad to come down and send messages to their families etc and I had hoped to get on but there were too many people and in typical British fashion when the camera started rolling the crowds started heaving towards the lens crushing everyone.
I took to taking off my sequinned santa hat and swinging it manically above my head while yelling 'Brightonnnn' to get their attention!!!
Apparently you can see me very briefly, job done. :)
Right, so better go, we've got to put this picnic together...I can't believe it's Christmas Eve!
xxx
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Sunday 13 December 2009
Going...going...gone?
Well it's now Sunday December 13th, we've moved on from Surfers, tied up the loose ends, shifted routines and moved into the new once again. It's meant saying goodbye to friends, jobs, the Gold Coast and all familarity while embarking on a new adventure in a new city.
I really had that itchy feet feeling where there's a million things to think about but you're not sure what to sort out first,
I find it hard to believe that we'd been in Surfers Paradise the same amount of time as LA and Maui combined but it just goes to show that when you stay in one place and routines start forming, time speeds up.
What i'm noticing and really love about Australia is the constant joy people get from being out in their natural environment. They're so so lucky, the locals here have grown up with dramatic cliff drops at Mount Tambourine, forests in the Hinterland, Waterfalls at Springbrook, neverending waves up and down the coast and over 300 days of sun every single year.
Jealous? Me? YES. And that's just in a small area of Queensland.
For someone who thrives on exercise, nature, sports, sun and generally feeling happy and productive I'm very aware that England just can't compete with Australia, America or pretty much any country with a good climate and a passion for the outdoors, and it's bloody depressing. I'll tell you what's brought this on, I was watching an Aussie show called 'Getaway' in which a selection of presenters travel to different areas of Oz and review towns, campsites, things to do, hidden gems etc and it really is unfair. There are white sands, coral coves, red deserts, lush jungles and the Great Barrier Reef on the doorstep for gods sake!!! The attitude is different here, kayaking, climbing, skydiving, surfing and hiking the norm. I don't really know what i'm getting at, do I want to move countries, emigrate? Well yes, maybe I do. I've always felt instantly home in the heat and the positivity it brings to the population.
So a couple of weeks back Jules, Martin and I hired a car for the day and drove over to Nimbin, known only for one thing (it's green and you smoke it!) but still on all the sight-seeing tour circuits and an interesting place. It's pretty much just a high street with a few shops and cafes which can be 'seen and done' in 10 minutes but I guess the charm begins to flow when you allow yourself to sit in a cafe for a while and watch the 'unique' locals stumble by. So just to sum it up, Nimbin is a real time warp town with the majority of people in it being dreadlocked, long wavy haired, weed smoking, pipe puffing wrinky weirdos.
After some exploration inland we drove to the most Easterly point on the east coast and spent the late Afternoon sipping a strawberry ice-cream smoothie in the beautiful Byron Bay. We only had a couple of hours to soak it in before having to head back north to Surfers but I very quickly felt that if i'd discovered Byron before Surfers I would never have left it.
On one Sunday night Jules and I had another really nice chilled night at Swinging Safari, the random place I mentioned in the last post. We had some wine and listened to a Bob Marley tribute band play reggae while the crickets hissed and palms swayed in the warm breeze, it really took me back to my holidays in Antigua. It's a real shame we didn't get to hang out there more but i'm sure there will be plenty more little gems dotted around the coast to discover.
The following Monday Amanda, Loz and I went for trip number 4 to Max brenner which was to be my last up on the Gold Coast :(! I had the most incredible, obscenely amazing, indescribely delicious chocolate brownie though, the best i've EVER tasted and will be 100% going back for another in Sydney.
Unfortunately the last couple of weeks did not provide much in the way of work, the dreaded 'schoolies' kept away
tourists and the shifts at Bear were slashed. This meant our last couple of weeks wasn't as fruitful as hoped and
after leaving both Bear and the Club last weekend it's back to outgoings only, argh!
Something else Jules, Martin and I did to end things was visit Perle one last time...though to our shock horror the $6 tapas menu and $9 cocktail menu had been removed! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. After much deliberation we decided to buy a drink there anyway and soak in the vibe, I asked for an Amaretto coffee (my usual treat) and the waitress came back with the most unusual version of one i've ever seen. Basically a shot of espresso, shot of Amaretto and brandy glass full of vanilla ice-cream. I guess it was more of a dessert than a drink but still pretty good.
Our last night out was in Broadbeach for the Bear Christmas work party and it was a great way to end our time on the Gold Coast. The crew decended upon Aztec's Mexican Restaurant like a pack of drunken Hyena's and didn't leave until we'd drunk the magarita reserves dry 3 hours later. The secret santa presents went down well and I didn't have to sit next to the douchbag of the group (we all know who that is!) so all in all a great night.
So eventually the day came to pick up our hire car and begin road trip 3, Surfers Paradise down to Sydney. At 8am sharp we walked over to Hertz and were presented with our little red Yaris beast, opened the map (thanks Amanda) and popped on our John Farhnam mix cd (thanks Zach). We knew it was gonna be a tight squeeze to do this trip in 2 days so set off towards the half way point in Port Macquarie straight away.
Our first stop was Byron Bay where I managed to blag the best bargain EVER! A perfect dress for NYE reduced from $170 to $34..amazinggggg! We walked around the town and ate some boiled eggs on the beach, as you do, before setting off again towards the tarmac.
A few hours later we passed through Coffs Harbour which to be honest we wern't all that impressed with, we didn't even see the big banana which I was looking out for. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, all grey and cloudy and the sea looked dark and a bit menacing, definetely not ideal for a swim. We drove to the jetty and stretched our legs before I took over the wheel to take us down to Port Macquarie.
As this point Loz fell asleep for over an hour and left me alone to sing my heart out to some Backstreet Boys and N' Sync until he convieniently woke up as we approached the stop over.
The tiredness must have been starting to kick in as we both used up 2 more of our 9 lives that night. I must have been so keen to get to the campsite that I unintentionally drove staright through a stop sign intersection and missed a full on collision by maybe 3 or 4 seconds. When I realised what had happened the shock sent me into a trance and I grabbed onto Loz's shoulder for a full 60 seconds before loosening the claw like grip and letting go. Later on that night it was Loz's turn to tempt fate as he started driving THE WRONG WAY down a dual carrageway towards an oncoming car. There was quite a bit of yelling and more gripping of body parts before we decided enough is enough, our brain's are fried and need to switch off!
Day 2 wasn't supposed to be as hardcore because we'd covered more than halfway on day 1 but we ended up taking some slow roads in the hope that they were more scenic..but they weren't. We kicked ourselves into gear with coffees and a cinnimon pastry and then hit the road again stopping off at a nice beach at Pacific Palms for a quick swim.
It was 7pm by the time we found ourselves driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and heading towards our new apartment in Surry Hills and when we stepped out of the car both felt the strangest sensation of being plonked in the middle of cosmopolitan city vibe without being ready for it. There we were in flip flops, swim wear and beachy caps while young professionals power walked past in their trendy suits staring in disbelief at the colour of my skin.
A few days has passed now and we've had the chance to adjust to the new climate and explore the area, and we LOVE it. Surry Hills really reminds me of Islington in London, endless boutique shops, quirky cafes and quaint restaurants. Everywhere you look there's a nook or cranny with some tiny secret thing hidden away for you to find and multi-coloured terraced houses brighten up what should be an average road. The city is so clean and fresh, new
modern architechture blends in with the older historical sights and the bright blue skies make everything look great. The other thing i've noticed is the amount of greenery around, every road, pavement, park and garden is bursting with vegetation and makes the city feel so summery and natural!
On Friday Loz and I took the bus down to Coogee Beach which was bursting with people, slightly worrying considering it was a week day. Apparently there's normally around 50,000 people down on Bondi on an average summer Saturday, god knows how many will be there for Christmas day! We're hoping it'll have the July 4th Independance Day vibe to it, not sure that day can be beaten though.
...and on Saturday morning we took the city rail train to Turramurra to visit my relatives the Dobree's! We stayed with them for our first week in Australia and it was so good to return to that family atmosphere and be welcomed into the fold like one of their own. Mary produces the most amazing meals and we've been treated to some of the best food i've had all year in the last two days. Fresh prawns, oysters, sundried tomato and cheese breads, amazing salads full of red and yellow peppers, avocado, celery, cucumber, carrots, rocket, onion and juicy tomatoes. Then there's the mangoes, cherries, apricots, peaches, feta and spinach dips, hommus and cous cous. We've even been treated to date scones with double cream and raspberry jam with cups of tea by the pool. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
We thought we'd only be here for a day but we've been asked to join the family to a Christmas carol concert and fireworks display tonight and can't wait, maybe it'll get those Christmas feelings flowing a bit more!
Tomorrow (being Monday) we're heading over to Bondi for the day, Loz is checking out a possible new apartment for once i've left Sydney and then it's more beach time for the two of us.
Bring. It. On.
I really had that itchy feet feeling where there's a million things to think about but you're not sure what to sort out first,
I find it hard to believe that we'd been in Surfers Paradise the same amount of time as LA and Maui combined but it just goes to show that when you stay in one place and routines start forming, time speeds up.
What i'm noticing and really love about Australia is the constant joy people get from being out in their natural environment. They're so so lucky, the locals here have grown up with dramatic cliff drops at Mount Tambourine, forests in the Hinterland, Waterfalls at Springbrook, neverending waves up and down the coast and over 300 days of sun every single year.
Jealous? Me? YES. And that's just in a small area of Queensland.
For someone who thrives on exercise, nature, sports, sun and generally feeling happy and productive I'm very aware that England just can't compete with Australia, America or pretty much any country with a good climate and a passion for the outdoors, and it's bloody depressing. I'll tell you what's brought this on, I was watching an Aussie show called 'Getaway' in which a selection of presenters travel to different areas of Oz and review towns, campsites, things to do, hidden gems etc and it really is unfair. There are white sands, coral coves, red deserts, lush jungles and the Great Barrier Reef on the doorstep for gods sake!!! The attitude is different here, kayaking, climbing, skydiving, surfing and hiking the norm. I don't really know what i'm getting at, do I want to move countries, emigrate? Well yes, maybe I do. I've always felt instantly home in the heat and the positivity it brings to the population.
So a couple of weeks back Jules, Martin and I hired a car for the day and drove over to Nimbin, known only for one thing (it's green and you smoke it!) but still on all the sight-seeing tour circuits and an interesting place. It's pretty much just a high street with a few shops and cafes which can be 'seen and done' in 10 minutes but I guess the charm begins to flow when you allow yourself to sit in a cafe for a while and watch the 'unique' locals stumble by. So just to sum it up, Nimbin is a real time warp town with the majority of people in it being dreadlocked, long wavy haired, weed smoking, pipe puffing wrinky weirdos.
After some exploration inland we drove to the most Easterly point on the east coast and spent the late Afternoon sipping a strawberry ice-cream smoothie in the beautiful Byron Bay. We only had a couple of hours to soak it in before having to head back north to Surfers but I very quickly felt that if i'd discovered Byron before Surfers I would never have left it.
On one Sunday night Jules and I had another really nice chilled night at Swinging Safari, the random place I mentioned in the last post. We had some wine and listened to a Bob Marley tribute band play reggae while the crickets hissed and palms swayed in the warm breeze, it really took me back to my holidays in Antigua. It's a real shame we didn't get to hang out there more but i'm sure there will be plenty more little gems dotted around the coast to discover.
The following Monday Amanda, Loz and I went for trip number 4 to Max brenner which was to be my last up on the Gold Coast :(! I had the most incredible, obscenely amazing, indescribely delicious chocolate brownie though, the best i've EVER tasted and will be 100% going back for another in Sydney.
Unfortunately the last couple of weeks did not provide much in the way of work, the dreaded 'schoolies' kept away
tourists and the shifts at Bear were slashed. This meant our last couple of weeks wasn't as fruitful as hoped and
after leaving both Bear and the Club last weekend it's back to outgoings only, argh!
Something else Jules, Martin and I did to end things was visit Perle one last time...though to our shock horror the $6 tapas menu and $9 cocktail menu had been removed! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. After much deliberation we decided to buy a drink there anyway and soak in the vibe, I asked for an Amaretto coffee (my usual treat) and the waitress came back with the most unusual version of one i've ever seen. Basically a shot of espresso, shot of Amaretto and brandy glass full of vanilla ice-cream. I guess it was more of a dessert than a drink but still pretty good.
Our last night out was in Broadbeach for the Bear Christmas work party and it was a great way to end our time on the Gold Coast. The crew decended upon Aztec's Mexican Restaurant like a pack of drunken Hyena's and didn't leave until we'd drunk the magarita reserves dry 3 hours later. The secret santa presents went down well and I didn't have to sit next to the douchbag of the group (we all know who that is!) so all in all a great night.
So eventually the day came to pick up our hire car and begin road trip 3, Surfers Paradise down to Sydney. At 8am sharp we walked over to Hertz and were presented with our little red Yaris beast, opened the map (thanks Amanda) and popped on our John Farhnam mix cd (thanks Zach). We knew it was gonna be a tight squeeze to do this trip in 2 days so set off towards the half way point in Port Macquarie straight away.
Our first stop was Byron Bay where I managed to blag the best bargain EVER! A perfect dress for NYE reduced from $170 to $34..amazinggggg! We walked around the town and ate some boiled eggs on the beach, as you do, before setting off again towards the tarmac.
A few hours later we passed through Coffs Harbour which to be honest we wern't all that impressed with, we didn't even see the big banana which I was looking out for. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, all grey and cloudy and the sea looked dark and a bit menacing, definetely not ideal for a swim. We drove to the jetty and stretched our legs before I took over the wheel to take us down to Port Macquarie.
As this point Loz fell asleep for over an hour and left me alone to sing my heart out to some Backstreet Boys and N' Sync until he convieniently woke up as we approached the stop over.
The tiredness must have been starting to kick in as we both used up 2 more of our 9 lives that night. I must have been so keen to get to the campsite that I unintentionally drove staright through a stop sign intersection and missed a full on collision by maybe 3 or 4 seconds. When I realised what had happened the shock sent me into a trance and I grabbed onto Loz's shoulder for a full 60 seconds before loosening the claw like grip and letting go. Later on that night it was Loz's turn to tempt fate as he started driving THE WRONG WAY down a dual carrageway towards an oncoming car. There was quite a bit of yelling and more gripping of body parts before we decided enough is enough, our brain's are fried and need to switch off!
Day 2 wasn't supposed to be as hardcore because we'd covered more than halfway on day 1 but we ended up taking some slow roads in the hope that they were more scenic..but they weren't. We kicked ourselves into gear with coffees and a cinnimon pastry and then hit the road again stopping off at a nice beach at Pacific Palms for a quick swim.
It was 7pm by the time we found ourselves driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and heading towards our new apartment in Surry Hills and when we stepped out of the car both felt the strangest sensation of being plonked in the middle of cosmopolitan city vibe without being ready for it. There we were in flip flops, swim wear and beachy caps while young professionals power walked past in their trendy suits staring in disbelief at the colour of my skin.
A few days has passed now and we've had the chance to adjust to the new climate and explore the area, and we LOVE it. Surry Hills really reminds me of Islington in London, endless boutique shops, quirky cafes and quaint restaurants. Everywhere you look there's a nook or cranny with some tiny secret thing hidden away for you to find and multi-coloured terraced houses brighten up what should be an average road. The city is so clean and fresh, new
modern architechture blends in with the older historical sights and the bright blue skies make everything look great. The other thing i've noticed is the amount of greenery around, every road, pavement, park and garden is bursting with vegetation and makes the city feel so summery and natural!
On Friday Loz and I took the bus down to Coogee Beach which was bursting with people, slightly worrying considering it was a week day. Apparently there's normally around 50,000 people down on Bondi on an average summer Saturday, god knows how many will be there for Christmas day! We're hoping it'll have the July 4th Independance Day vibe to it, not sure that day can be beaten though.
...and on Saturday morning we took the city rail train to Turramurra to visit my relatives the Dobree's! We stayed with them for our first week in Australia and it was so good to return to that family atmosphere and be welcomed into the fold like one of their own. Mary produces the most amazing meals and we've been treated to some of the best food i've had all year in the last two days. Fresh prawns, oysters, sundried tomato and cheese breads, amazing salads full of red and yellow peppers, avocado, celery, cucumber, carrots, rocket, onion and juicy tomatoes. Then there's the mangoes, cherries, apricots, peaches, feta and spinach dips, hommus and cous cous. We've even been treated to date scones with double cream and raspberry jam with cups of tea by the pool. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
We thought we'd only be here for a day but we've been asked to join the family to a Christmas carol concert and fireworks display tonight and can't wait, maybe it'll get those Christmas feelings flowing a bit more!
Tomorrow (being Monday) we're heading over to Bondi for the day, Loz is checking out a possible new apartment for once i've left Sydney and then it's more beach time for the two of us.
Bring. It. On.
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