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
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