Just a quick update to say the weekend with Alexa and Mike around was great! We all went out drinking with Alexa on Friday, who drank through her jet lag until the bouncers wouldnt let her drink anymore, and on Saturday me and Mike had a proper drinking session starting at 3pm with a visit to a German restaurant around 7ish and then carried on until the early hours.....which included me losing $50!!!!!!!! (I'll explain in more depth when I can)! Sunday was spent recovering and watching the excellent Melbourne grand prix at the Clontarf house and then on Monday Alexa, Lee and I did the 5km walk between Bondi beach and Coogee beach. The weather wasnt great but some of the views, bays and beaches along the way were still great to see. Tuesday me and Lee cleaned the house ready for all of our departure on Wednesday when we are all jetting off to Melbourne to go camping for a week down in Apollo Bay, which is along the great ocean road. Cant wait and will report back with all the info and pics ASAP.
P.S Got a call this afternoon about a job, so hopefully will have some good news about an interview by the time we get back!
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Thursday 25 March 2010
1st week and a bit in Oz!
So after another sleepless 12 hour flight we finally landed in Sydney! Stepping off the plane at 9am and feeling heat for the first time in a long time was great, but also daunting!! If this is the temperature at 9am, whats it going to be like mid afternoon!! My fears were right and so far in the 8 days here I doubt we've had a day under 25c and hitting 35c+ on the hottest afternoons!
Immigration was simple and within 20 minutes of stepping off the plane both Lee and myself walked through to arrivals where we met our Ozzie mate Yax (aka Nick) waiting for us. Yax is the main reason both Lee and I came to Sydney as Yax is a mutual friend of ours and is based in Darling Harbour in Sydney and always promised that if we were to EVER come over he would put us up at his place for a while. However, Nick being Nick meant that we weren't actually going to be staying at his place for the 1st 3 weeks of our stay but instead he was housing sitting his boss' house in a VERY NICE part of Sydney called Clontarf, and when we saw the place we realised that Yax had landed on his feet......AGAIN! The house is set back on a hill in a very affluent part of town and if the fact that the place had its own pool didnt put the price up then im sure the view did even more. The view of the bay below when the sun is setting, as u can see, is amazing!
After a few drinks at a bar in the local town of Manly we headed home and ended our first night in Sydney with an evening BBQ on the patio with a few beers and had a good catch up and also met Nick's great girlfriend Kerryn. As she works for an Oz telecoms company she had arranged phones and credit for both me and Lee, so Kerryn quickly became our new best friend.
Tuesday morning Nick's parents turned up to check out for us and we said goodbye but will be seeing them again in a week or to when we head their way to go camping. As Tuesday was Nick's actual birthday, after a trip to Bondi Beach in the day, me, Lee, Nick, Kerryn and her friend Chrissy went out for a steak dinner in Manly. The meat was great and the company wasn't bad too. All in all Nick had had a birthday weekend and a nice quiet meal out wasn't a bad way to end it. As Nick's parents had gone we all came back to the Clontarf pad and I crashed back in my old room again.
Wednesday was the coolest day so far and so because of this Lee and I walked to the local shop (which isnt that local really) and got provisions for the rest of the week, and then when Nick got home as it was still cool all 3 of us went for a run. It was hard work as about 1km of the 5km was flat, but it was good to get back running again. Hopefully this trip to Oz will finally get me back in shape, but need to do more running than beer drinking which looks difficult.
After the cool Wednesday Lee and I decided on a walk to Manly around the coast on Thursday. However, it wasnt as cool, rather the opposite, but the 2 hour walk wasnt too bad due to the cool breeze from the Sea. The walk was great and some of the views were brilliant.
In the evening Yax got home from work and declared that we were going fishing as it was a "man thing" he had been waiting for ages to do with us, so we grabbed the rods, bait and enough beer to keep us going for an hour or 2 and ventured down to the beach. It was a treacherous walk and climb down but well worth it. We were the only people on the very secluded beach and after 2 and a bit hours ended up catching 2 fish each and having a great time. The walk back in the dark was a nightmare but the whole trip in a nutshell was Male bonding at its best.
Friday see's my friend Alexa arrive from the UK for a 2 week visit to Sydney and also my friend Mike who lives in Melbourne is up for a lads weekend, so looking forward to catching up with both of them and finally seeing what the Sydney night life is like.
Immigration was simple and within 20 minutes of stepping off the plane both Lee and myself walked through to arrivals where we met our Ozzie mate Yax (aka Nick) waiting for us. Yax is the main reason both Lee and I came to Sydney as Yax is a mutual friend of ours and is based in Darling Harbour in Sydney and always promised that if we were to EVER come over he would put us up at his place for a while. However, Nick being Nick meant that we weren't actually going to be staying at his place for the 1st 3 weeks of our stay but instead he was housing sitting his boss' house in a VERY NICE part of Sydney called Clontarf, and when we saw the place we realised that Yax had landed on his feet......AGAIN! The house is set back on a hill in a very affluent part of town and if the fact that the place had its own pool didnt put the price up then im sure the view did even more. The view of the bay below when the sun is setting, as u can see, is amazing!
After a few drinks at a bar in the local town of Manly we headed home and ended our first night in Sydney with an evening BBQ on the patio with a few beers and had a good catch up and also met Nick's great girlfriend Kerryn. As she works for an Oz telecoms company she had arranged phones and credit for both me and Lee, so Kerryn quickly became our new best friend.Due to next to no sleep on the flight to Oz we both had a nice long lie in the next day and felt pretty refreshed by the time Nick got home from work at 5pm. Nick had forgotten that he had a client meeting/drinks that evening so Kerryn dropped us all off up the road at Manly again and while Yax went off to "talk Shop" me and Lee decided to do abit of bar research. We decided on the last bar on the sea front (charlies bar) and as im an avid Guinness drinker back home, and its not easy to get a good pint of it over here, I decided to try ALL of the Ozzie beers on option. After trying them all the final verdict was that Carlton Draught was the best and would be my beer of choice over here. 1 thing about Ozzie beer is that you dont get served a pint, instead you get served a "Schooner" which is about 3/4 of a pint. The logic being that as the weather is hotter here a pint would get warm before you finish it, so a Schooner being smaller solves the problem. Great Ozzie logic!! Nick and his work associates eventually met up with us and after a few more pints and a lot of good banter and Pommie jokes at our expense, Kerryn came and picked us up and took us home.
Friday again was a lazy day trying to sleep off the jet lag (& hangover) but again by the time Nick had got home we had recovered and so headed out into the main part of Sydney for some drinks. This time it was Nick, Lee and myself and also 1 of Nick's friends who I have met in the past, Renee. We had a few beers over looking the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House and then moved on to have some dinner at a nice Chinese just up the round. After dinner we all went hunting for the next bar but as Lee and I were in thongs (dont worry....its what the Ozzies call Flip Flops) no places would let us in........except for 1! It was an ok bar and we drank alot while chatting to each other and locals. By the end of the night we were all in a bad state, and unfortunately this time I was in the worst state of the lot. We all "jumped" in a cab and headed home.
Saturday was another lie in day, and I didnt surface until well into the afternoon. As it was Nick's birthday the next Tuesday (23rd), his Mum, Dad & Sis were flying up from Melbourne for the weekend. They had originally planned to stay in a hotel near Nick's Darling Harbour place but due Nick now have this amazing pad with 3 bedrooms they were going to stay at the house and then Lee and I would stay in the hotel they had booked. So Saturday night Nick picked up his family from the airport and me and Lee checked into their hotel and we had a nice quiet evening (for once).
Sunday was the day that Yax had planned to have a birthday BBQ at the Clontarf pad so after picking up some fresh seafood and meat for later he came and got us from the hotel and we all headed to the house ready for the BBQ. There must have been about 15 people, family and friends, in total and it was great day. Me and Lee were able to nip out in the week and get Nick a Collingwood jersey (his AFL team) for his birthday so we handed that over and he was VERY impressed. We also got Kerryn some shopping vouchers for her local Westfield because of all her help so far, and she was well chuffed too. As AFL (aussie rules football) is massive over here I have had to pick a team as Nick is Collingwood and Lee is a Brisbane Lion (he picked them when he 1st came to Oz 5 years ago). Not knowing much about AFL I basically went with the team that meant something to me, and as back home all the boys call me "Matt the Cat" I have decided to go with.....the GEELONG CATS!!!! Luckily enough they have won 2 out of the last 3 leagues and grand finals, so even though I didnt pick them for that it looks like I may be in luck (more than with Liverpool FC back home anyway)!! At the end of the night 1 of Kerryn's friends gave us a lift home and we both sat up until 1am (due to the time difference) and watched Liverpool lose to Man Utd!!!! As I said above, I just hope the Cats win something this year!!
Tuesday morning Nick's parents turned up to check out for us and we said goodbye but will be seeing them again in a week or to when we head their way to go camping. As Tuesday was Nick's actual birthday, after a trip to Bondi Beach in the day, me, Lee, Nick, Kerryn and her friend Chrissy went out for a steak dinner in Manly. The meat was great and the company wasn't bad too. All in all Nick had had a birthday weekend and a nice quiet meal out wasn't a bad way to end it. As Nick's parents had gone we all came back to the Clontarf pad and I crashed back in my old room again.
Wednesday was the coolest day so far and so because of this Lee and I walked to the local shop (which isnt that local really) and got provisions for the rest of the week, and then when Nick got home as it was still cool all 3 of us went for a run. It was hard work as about 1km of the 5km was flat, but it was good to get back running again. Hopefully this trip to Oz will finally get me back in shape, but need to do more running than beer drinking which looks difficult.
After the cool Wednesday Lee and I decided on a walk to Manly around the coast on Thursday. However, it wasnt as cool, rather the opposite, but the 2 hour walk wasnt too bad due to the cool breeze from the Sea. The walk was great and some of the views were brilliant.
In the evening Yax got home from work and declared that we were going fishing as it was a "man thing" he had been waiting for ages to do with us, so we grabbed the rods, bait and enough beer to keep us going for an hour or 2 and ventured down to the beach. It was a treacherous walk and climb down but well worth it. We were the only people on the very secluded beach and after 2 and a bit hours ended up catching 2 fish each and having a great time. The walk back in the dark was a nightmare but the whole trip in a nutshell was Male bonding at its best.
Friday see's my friend Alexa arrive from the UK for a 2 week visit to Sydney and also my friend Mike who lives in Melbourne is up for a lads weekend, so looking forward to catching up with both of them and finally seeing what the Sydney night life is like.
Friday 19 March 2010
1 Week In China!
After a choked and emotional goodbye (mainly on my part) I walked through heathrow security at 3.30pm and the adventure finally began! The plane took off on time despite a fire alarm scare in departures and even though I didnt get as much sleep as I would have liked the 10 hour flight passed relatively quickly and we landed safely in Beijing at lunch time on Wednesday the the 10th of March.
After a quick, cheap and scary cab ride to the hotel both Lee (my mate im doing the trip with) and I felt pretty hungry so decided to throw ourselves straight into the local delicacies....................Lee went for a Big Mac and as I felt adventurous I went with the "Big N Beefy" burger (which was pretty good)! As we weren't far from the Olympic park we decided to take a stroll and walk off the food, but headed back pretty quickly after we took a few pics as the jet lag was kicking in and we both felt shattered! We were in bed by 8pm Beijing time but set our alarms for 4am as Lee wanted to get up and watch the Man Utd Vs AC Milan (Lee's a Man Utd fan unfortunately)! After watching them win we went back to sleep, and were up about 11ish to check out at 12.
We decided to stay in the 5* hotel just for 1 night so that we could get a good first nights sleep but the rest of the trip we would be staying in a hostel in a much busier part of town. It was my first trip to a hostel and I was amazed by the standard and even Lee was impressed with the place and he's stayed in alot of hostels on his travels over the years.
After a quick, cheap and scary cab ride to the hotel both Lee (my mate im doing the trip with) and I felt pretty hungry so decided to throw ourselves straight into the local delicacies....................Lee went for a Big Mac and as I felt adventurous I went with the "Big N Beefy" burger (which was pretty good)! As we weren't far from the Olympic park we decided to take a stroll and walk off the food, but headed back pretty quickly after we took a few pics as the jet lag was kicking in and we both felt shattered! We were in bed by 8pm Beijing time but set our alarms for 4am as Lee wanted to get up and watch the Man Utd Vs AC Milan (Lee's a Man Utd fan unfortunately)! After watching them win we went back to sleep, and were up about 11ish to check out at 12. We decided to stay in the 5* hotel just for 1 night so that we could get a good first nights sleep but the rest of the trip we would be staying in a hostel in a much busier part of town. It was my first trip to a hostel and I was amazed by the standard and even Lee was impressed with the place and he's stayed in alot of hostels on his travels over the years.
As we only really had some of the afternoon left and still didnt feel 100% on Beijing time, we decided to take a walk to Tienanmen Square. Typically, it was closed off to the public due to an upcoming "flag raising" ceremony but we could see it from a distance and knew we'd probably go back again later in the week. Right in front of the square is the Forbidden City, which used to be the Chinese imperial palace, so we decided to venture inside as we were there. The place was amazing and the sheer scale of the thing is unbelievable! Every building inside is huge and they just keep on going. You walk through 1 and in the distance over a massive courtyard or walk way is another. It was an amazing place to visit and even if i'd just done that in China it would have been worth the trip. We had signed up to a trip to the Great Wall through the hostel for the next day so decided a few drinks would help us sleep better but didnt have too many as the trip started at 6am!!!
Getting up at 5.30 wasnt easy but we knew it was a 2.5 hour drive to the Wall so dozed most of the way there. As we got close you could catch glimpses of it in the distance which blew me away but when we finally got there and you stand on it and look for miles and its all you can see, it really is unbelievable. Since being in China the days were cold and the nights colder but the day at the Wall was the best we'd had yet! Not a cloud in the sky and even though we're in our coats in the pic it was more due to the wind and needed to take them off when we sat for lunch in the sun. I wish I could describe in more detail how amazing the place is, but I wouldnt do it justice. I think the pictures speak for themselves really; just jaw dropping. We did an 8km hike (and it was a hike at times, not easy on the legs at all) but it was worth all the effort. Definitely the best experience of my life so far and doubt it will ever be beaten. We ended the 5hour walk in style to by taking a zip wire down to the base, which you dont need much convincing to take when they say you either do a 45sec zip wire trip or more walking down the hill! It was a brilliant day and I slept well that night; we were shattered!
Getting up at 5.30 wasnt easy but we knew it was a 2.5 hour drive to the Wall so dozed most of the way there. As we got close you could catch glimpses of it in the distance which blew me away but when we finally got there and you stand on it and look for miles and its all you can see, it really is unbelievable. Since being in China the days were cold and the nights colder but the day at the Wall was the best we'd had yet! Not a cloud in the sky and even though we're in our coats in the pic it was more due to the wind and needed to take them off when we sat for lunch in the sun. I wish I could describe in more detail how amazing the place is, but I wouldnt do it justice. I think the pictures speak for themselves really; just jaw dropping. We did an 8km hike (and it was a hike at times, not easy on the legs at all) but it was worth all the effort. Definitely the best experience of my life so far and doubt it will ever be beaten. We ended the 5hour walk in style to by taking a zip wire down to the base, which you dont need much convincing to take when they say you either do a 45sec zip wire trip or more walking down the hill! It was a brilliant day and I slept well that night; we were shattered!
On the 4th day we had a decent lie in and then headed to Lama Temple which is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. There were so many people there and only a handful were western tourists and as it is a functioning temple the locals had come to burn incense and pray, which was brilliant to see. When we left there we got a tube to the Olympic park so that we could get some pics of it at night. As it was Saturday and we'd read about the good bar areas in our guide book we agreed that we should have 1 big night out........and it went according to plan. The local beer, Tsing Tao, isnt too bad but is very cheap, so we drunk a fair few of them and ended up having an eventful night!
After dealing with the hangovers we travelled out to the southeastern part of central Beijing to visit the Temple of Heaven. However, over night there was a massive downpour of snow and it was a total shock when we walked outside and saw our local street and roofs covered. We had heard snow was expected but didnt expect to get that much. Again we got the tube (which are great and were mostly put in due to the Olympics so are in great shape) and spent an afternoon walking around the temple and its grounds. Its another amazing place and well worth the trip. As Tienanmen Square was on the route back we jumped off the tube early and hoped it was open this time. It was, so we got lots of pics and then headed back to the hostel.
Day 6 was pretty relaxed but we did head off to the Summer Palace, which is on a huge hill and over looks a massive lake. Im sorry if this blog is getting boring now as im gonna say it again.........it was an amazing place. The buildings themselves were so impressive but the views from the top of hill over the lake was even better. You can understand why the emperor had it built when you stand at the top. We strolled back through the finance district and saw some amazing MODERN buildings for a change, the main 1 below being the CCTV HQ (China Central Television Headquarters) building.
So after a good nights kip, we packed up and headed back to Beijing airport to head on to Oz. Im so glad we decided to do the trip through China, its something I definitely wont forget and would recommend it to anyone. The people are nice, most dont speak english but all signs are in english aswell as chinese (since the Olympics), its cheap and has so much to see and do. Its going to be a world away from what life in Oz is going to be like, but that was the point of going, totally different but absolutely amazing!
See all the pics on my facebook page.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Leaving China
(Posted by Matt's Dad)
Matt has text us today to say that he was at the airport waiting for his flight to Australia. He should arrive in Sydnay at 09:00 (ish) local time on the 17th March.
Matt has text us today to say that he was at the airport waiting for his flight to Australia. He should arrive in Sydnay at 09:00 (ish) local time on the 17th March.
Sunday 14 March 2010
Tiananmen Square
(Posted by Matt's Dad)
Text from Matt today says he is in Tiananmen Square and it's snowing heavily.
Text from Matt today says he is in Tiananmen Square and it's snowing heavily.
Friday 12 March 2010
The Great Wall
(Posted by Matt's Dad)
Today Matt was at the Great Wall of China - text said "absolutely amazing" and he has taken some 500 photos. Expect some postings once he can get to a PC!
Today Matt was at the Great Wall of China - text said "absolutely amazing" and he has taken some 500 photos. Expect some postings once he can get to a PC!
Wednesday 10 March 2010
The Adventure Has Begun
(Posted by Matt's Dad)
Tuesday March 9th - 17:40 Matt's plane took off for Beijing.
He arrived safely at around 04:00 UK time - we know because he sent a text that woke us up just to say he had arrived.
Tuesday March 9th - 17:40 Matt's plane took off for Beijing.
He arrived safely at around 04:00 UK time - we know because he sent a text that woke us up just to say he had arrived.
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