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.

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!!

The next day as the hotel was near central Sydney we decided to walk into town and see a few of the sights and get used to the town but also try and set up bank accounts. We walked into ANZ and 30 minutes later had 2 bank accounts sorted, we just have to wait for the cards in the post. Walking around Sydney for the 1st time was great. Some parts remind me of new york but then other parts are totally different and makes it a great city. The iconic things like the bridge and opera house are great to see up close but the botanical gardens next door to the opera house is probably most impressive. To have what is basically a wildlife park in the middle of such a huge city is amazing. The amount of different birds you see and hear is unreal, and then when you see the fruit bats just hanging in the tree's its like your at a zoo. After a long day walking round Sydney we grabbed a burger for dinner and went to the cinema to see the new Kevin Smith film "Cop Out". Im a massive Kevin Smith fan but even though it was funny it was real let down.



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.