TWO-UP and and more money down the drain!

Last weekend was BRILLIANT!! It started off with the usual 5pm run when Nick gets home, a wash and brush up after that and then me, Lee and Nick headed out to meet up with Nicks girlfriend (Kerryn) and her friends at a bar in Circular Quay! However, we had to make a stop on the way to meet a Friend of Lee's, Toby, and as it was St. Georges day we met him for a beer in the George pub on George Street, which was pretty fitting! Not much fuss was made about the day by the locals, but all 3 of us Englishman plus Nick raised a glass and when we'd finished up we headed on to meet the girls. The other bar wasnt far so we were drinking again in minutes and after a few more beers Nicks boss Dominic turned up and then after that Tobys girlfriend joined us. With a decent crowd formed the topic of conversation was......where to next! A bar in a pretty vibrant part of town was decided upon and so we all jumped in cabs and headed off to "The Clock" in Surry Hills.

The Clock is a huge bar over 2 floors and was a pretty cool venue and even though there was a big crowd of us we still ended up speaking to lots of random locals and the few hours we had in place flew by. The bar shut at 12 so again another venue conversation was had and a bar called "Fringe" seemed to be the winner......however, there was a mix up in communication and so 1 cab ended up at Fringe and the other cabs ended up across town at Kings Cross, which is a well known bar street. I was 1 of the group that ended up at Fringe and decided to stay put and make the most of the place. Even though we had been split up it was a great night seeing some new places and met some really cool new people!

Due to the heavy Friday night, Saturday was a slow start, but we couldnt feel sorry for ourselves too much as we had tickets to the afternoon AFL game at the SCG to watch the Sydney Swans play the East Coast Eagles. Lee opted out of the AFL, feeling Fridays effects pretty badly, and so Me, Nick, Kerryn and our friends Mike and Renee went to the game and had a nice relaxing time slowly drinking beer and watching the Swans to a comfortable win. Nobody really fancied a big night so after the game we headed to a local 10 pin bowling alley for a game (I came 2nd) and then went home. Nick decided to stay at Kerryns and as Lee headed out to watch the Man Utd Vs Tottenham game I was home alone on a saturday night watching TV with a Pizza.......and couldnt have been happier.

On Sunday Nick came over around lunch time and picked me and Lee up and we then headed to a pub in Balmain, picking Kerryn up on the way. The main reason for going to this pub on the Sunday was due to the fact that its well known on ANZAC day to be a great place to play the traditional Ozzie WW1 soldier (aka Diggers) game of Two-Up! Two-Up is played by tossing 3 coins into the air and betting on how they land, either heads (all heads or 2 heads 1 tail) or Tails (all tails or 2 tails 1 head) and is only allowed to be played outside of casinos once a year on ANZAC day! I didnt quite see the appeal before arriving but once I saw the commotion and just how many people were playing it was hard to understand why it isnt played all the time. There was a 6ft square hardboard "area" in the middle of the room with around 150/200 people gathered around it on different tiered levels. Only 3 people stood in the central area. 1 guy all mic'd up to announce the result of the toss, his mate who for all intense and purposes didnt do much except drink but did try to keep the spectators off of the area and then the 3rd person was a random spectator picked from the crowd to do the tossing. The 3 coins were placed heads down on small wooden plank (basically a ruler) and then on the callers command the chosen spectator tossed the coins above his/her head and then the crowd scrambled for a look to see the result before the caller shouts the results. All very simple.......and the betting on it is even simpler. Everyone in the room can bet with each other, so, if you believe the toss will lands predominantly heads then you hold however much you want to bet in your hand while tapping your head with it and shouting what bet you want, for example $20 heads!! If someone else wants to take your bet, they shout $20 Tails to match your bet, and once eye contact is made you both work out the deal, the person who bets Tails keeps hold of the money and then you both wait on the result thats shouted out and however wins keeps the cash!! Being there and playing was a combination of east end dog pit fighting, mixed with a busy trading floor in a small roman colosseum!! The room was roasting hot, drink and money flying all over the place and the noise was electrifying (especially when a bad toss was done and so didnt count and a huge BOOOOOOOOOOOOing would ensue) and it was amazing!! Me and Lee instantly shoved our way through the crowd to the edge of the main area and after a few test runs we both started to bet!! Its a 50/50 game and we both won and lost our fair share and had a great time playing, however Lee had a better time and walked away $70 up while I ended up $50 down. The good thing was though, I didnt care! It was such a good laugh playing I wish we could do it every weekend, but I guess thats why everyone gets into it so much as it is only a once a year thing, and also if I played it more than that I dont think my savings would last much longer. The game has to finish once the sun has set so after a couple more pints we headed to a different bar to party the night away, and it was a good end to a great day!

Monday was a nice quiet chilled out day, and was well needed after the last few days and nights! We were supposed to all be going away camping over the weekend but it never got arranged, and im quite glad it didnt as the spontaneous things we got up to were brilliant!

This week has seen me back on the job hunt.........and the good news is, I got 1!!! I start this Friday at 9am in the city centre (known as the CBD, Central Business District) at Bankwest as support on a new 8 week project. The role will involve lots of data management and analysis and seems right up my street! Not sure if Friday will be a a full day or just a meet and greet and get used to my surroundings day, but 1 thing I do know is that me, Lee and Nick will be going out for a few celebratory drinks Friday night as Lee also picked up work this week too. Its only for 2 weeks at an events company but its a step in the right direction and may lead to bigger and better things!

1 thing though about getting this job means my planned trip to Melbourne on Wednesday next week until the following Monday will have to be scrapped. So thats another $80 plus my $50 loss at Two-Up to add to the money down the drain fund!! Im not bitter though, I'll earn that all back over the next few weeks!!

Another week and another missed flight!

The 2 agency meetings went well on Wednesday and I still feel positive about finding an interesting role rather than just doing something to get by. The remainder of the week was pretty chilled with us 3 lads just going out for runs in the evenings. Nick has shown us a decent 8km route around the harbour wharfs and doing it when we do in the evenings means its nice and cool and we also get a great view of the harbour bridge at night (I'll take a pic soon to prove it to you all).

As me and Lee would be heading to Melbourne on Saturday we all had a quiet night round Nicks girlfriends place on Friday night, who cooked a great lamb dinner and after polishing off a bottle of red win each through the evening we all ended crashing there for the night.

Our flight was at 1.30pm on saturday and, as usual with us, we made it with about 15mins to spare. I dont particularly like cutting things this fine but all the ozzies are pretty relaxed about catching internal flights and always tell us "not to worry" while we're chewing our nails off on the way to the airport. We did make it though and were in Melbourne by 3pm. After a bus from the airport to the city centre we jumped on a tram to our hostel in St Kilda, the suburb where we would be going out that night. The room was basic but all we needed, so we dropped our gear off and went for a stroll round St Kilda. Its a nice place and reminded me alot of the Ibiza coastline strip with all the bars and restaurants over looking the harbour, the weather probably helped aswell as it was about 28c!!!! After chilling out over a few beers in the sun we headed back to get spruced up for the night ahead.

The whole reason for the trip was to celebrate Lee's friend Jon's 30th birthday, so we met him and some of the other lads in a local pub so that the they could watch abit of the AFL game that was on before dinner. At about half time we all made our way up the road to the restaurant, which was a middle-eastern cuisine place that was well known in St Kilda for being pretty good......and I agree as the food was great!! At dinner there was about 20 people, and it was a great crowd. Everyone was really friendly and after the usual "pommie bashing" the conversations covered most subjects and didnt stop until we left. When we moved on at about 11, the alcohol had been doing its job and everyone was in great spirits and ready to carry on going all night/morning. We ended up queing for a bar called Big Mouth which was worth the wait as the music was great and it wasnt even too difficult to get served at the bar. We all danced and drunk the night away and then made a move/asked to leave at about 3am! Most of the gang wanted to carry on but as it was 3am nowhere was letting anyone in so 1 of the couples invited us back to their place to keep on going. Lee wanted to call it a night and walked back to the hostel, but as I was getting on so well with the group and didnt wanna stop either I jumped in 1 of the cabs to the house! A typical house party ensued and at around 6am most of us had passed out somewhere!

The 6 of us who were there when I woke up all pieced together what had happened the night before over a great home made fry up and then the birthday boy and his wife arranged for a lift home, where they then picked up their car and we headed off to get Lee and then onto the airport. Unfortunately we arrived too late at the airport and had missed our flight back to Sydney. The most annoying thing was that the flight hadnt left yet and had 20 mins still to go and both Lee and myself only had hand luggage, so we didnt see the problem with being let through! However, the Tiger airways employee wouldnt have any of it and charged us $70 each to get on the next flight an hour later. This was the last straw for Lee who begrudgingly paid the money but vowed there and then to never fly with them again. I was disappointed in them too but just coughed up the money a vowed to make my own way too airports from now on, so it can only be my fault from now on. I took the missed flight in my stride but Lee wasnt in the best mood for a while so I ended up chatting to a guy next to me on the plane who was a NUCLEAR SCIENTIST!!! A very interesting guy and helped pass the time on the flight! When we reached Sydney we waited for Nick to pick us up and then we headed home for a well deserved sleep as the lack of sleep was definitely catching up with us by then!

So far on this trip I have worked out that I have literally thrown away $260 which is nearly 160 quid!!!!!! Thats the 2 missed flights and the dropped $50 in the bar! Not good at all!!!!

Monday was a relaxing day with an 8km run in the evening and Tuesday so far has been chilled but plan to go out for dinner tonight and then to the pics with Nick and Lee to see Kick-Ass as its "cheap Tuesday" at the local cinema!

One other thing to mention about Saturday is that the couple who invited us back to theirs, Drew and Jemma, are having an engagement party on May the 8th and they invited Me, Lee and Nick along if we fancied it. I think I will go but Lee and Nick arent sure yet. Whatever happens tho................IM NOT MISSING ANY FLIGHTS THIS TIME!!!!

This weekend coming is Anzac weekend. Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. The plan is go out in Sydney on Friday night and then go to a place called Jarvis bay and camp on Saturday and Sunday and come home Monday. However, as yet nothing is booked so we'll see what happens.

Horses and Hangovers!

Well the quiet Friday night never happened (as usual). Nick got a call Friday afternoon from his mate Mike who was going out for a few drinks and Nick wanted to go along for a few just to catch up with him and a few other friends. Both Lee and I were invited along but Lee had to decline as so far he had spent most of Friday on (or always very close to) the loo, as either something he had eaten the day before had disagreed with him or had just picked up a bug. So when Mike turned up only me and Nick headed out with him leaving a depressed looking Lee behind. The night was great fun and included a couple of bars and a late night kebab, so a quiet night was definitely not had, but as always with the quiet nights, they turn out to be great fun.

Saturday morning arrived and me and nick woke with a headache (understandably) but knew we had to shift them as today we were going to Randwick race course for around 2pm, then onto the Sydney Swans Vs Richmond Tigers AFL game and THEN out after that!! Just by looking at Lee we knew he wasnt going to make it, not only by the colour of his face but that fact that he hadnt really eaten in 2 days and still couldnt face it! As Mike had left his car at Nicks the night before we drove to meet Mike but on the way stopped off at a local chemist so that Lee could jump out and get the most powerful drugs he could to see if he could make the AFL game later that night as we'd already paid $50 each for the tickets to the races and the game. After dropping Lee back it wasnt long before we were at Mikes, then me, Nick, Mike and his wife and her friend headed to the races. When we got there we found out that is was "Fashion day" (basically our ladies day) and that us 3 lads were the only guys in the place in shorts! Smart shorts, but still shorts! However, considering how hot it was though Im glad to not be in a suit! We headed straight for the betting room as nick had a tip on race 6 from a friend, and as much as I wanted to put $50 on a win we ended up putting $20 each way on Xavier instead! Amazingly it actually won!!!! So for the rest of the day Nick was kicking himself on not agreeing with me on the $50 win.......and I spent the rest of the day kicking Nick. We had a few more bets through the day but had no joy, but after a few hours drinking and the bets, me and Nick walked out without spending a penny due to our win, so all in all a great day so far.

After we left the races we headed to a pub near the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) where the game was being played (N.B AFL games are all played on cricket grounds). There we met some other lads who were also going to the game and amazingly Lee called us and met us at the bar too. The drugs from the chemist had kicked in and finally Lee could go further than 15 meters from the Loo. So after topping up on some food and a few more drinks we strolled to the SCG. Ive been watching alot of AFL since arriving, Ive even decided on supporting the Geelong Cats, but as with most sports going to the game was totally different to watching on TV. We were pretty close to the action and you can really see how brutal the game is. Fights off the ball are well within the rules, amazingly, and sometimes watching the rows going on off the ball was even better than the actual game. The game is really easy to follow so I was engrossed through all 4 quarters and it ended with the Sydney Swans beating the Richmond Tigers comfortably 106 to 81. However, the best bit of the game was at the end, because..............they let you on the pitch and your allowed to kick a ball around!!!!!! It was great fun even tho we had to improvise with a volvic bottle, but occasionally other peoples footballs would bounce across and we could grab them and kick them back. Finally a buzzer went and we were all escorted from the pitch and we moved on to another local bar.

Only Me, Lee, Mike and Nick went to the bar so had a good chat and the live band there were brilliant. Later on we were told by a couple of locals we started chatting too that Hugo Weaving was drinking 5 meters behind us. If you dont know he was Agent Smith in the Matrix films and Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, amongst other things. We never went up and spoke to him but it was our claim to fame for the rest of the night! At about 11ish we moved on to try and find somewhere a little more lively and ended up in the Bondi Hotel on Bondi beach. It was a good place but not too busy, so at about 2am we made a move home, which was probably a good idea after 12 hours out drinking!

As you can guess we all felt pretty rough on Sunday! So the whole day was spent on the sofa watching films and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty lazy days too, mostly spent watching sport on TV spent applying for jobs but also being healthy with all 3 of us going for an 8km run on both days. The plan is to continue doing the same run every few days and once we have jobs we'll join the local gym. Me and Lee also purchased an AFL ball and also a normal football so plan on have a few kick arounds in our local park as much as possible.

Finally, tomorrow I have 2 meetings with agencies so hopefully they will lead to something.

The last 14 days - Bear with me!!!

So its been a busy 2 weeks, and ive finally got a bit of time to write up whats been happening! Its just gone 7am when im starting this and ive been up since 5am so I could watch Liverpool play in Europe..........and for once it was worth the effort!!

So as I mentioned before on Friday 26th March Alexa (an old Fitch colleague) arrived from the UK on a 2 week trip to Sydney and to welcome her we all decided to go out drinking in an attempt to help her with the jet lag! It was a great night out with numerous bars and even more drinks and by the end of the night our group had expanded to about 10, consisting mostly of Nicks friends who we met along the way, and after the customary 3am kebab we all went our separate ways and headed home in a cab! Saturday morning I was abit tender but knew that another mate of mine, Mike, was travelling up for the weekend so I got myself in order and met him in Sydney at 3pm. Both Lee and Nick declined to join as they just couldnt face anymore drink! It was great to see Mike and have a good catch up as we hadnt seen each other in months as Mike used to live in the UK but moved home with is wife late last year. By 7pm we made our way to 1 of Mike's favourite restaurants, a German place called "UNA's", and as we knew we had a long night ahead we had 2 huge meals washed down with a couple of German beers. Due to Mike wearing thongs (dont worry, its what Ozzies call flip flops) we couldnt get in many bars in the evening, but we got into 1 half decent place and decided to see the night out there. As the evening went on we both moved away from beer and onto Mojito's, and while holding a $50 note in my hand ready to order 2 more I was accidentally bumped into by a guy pretty hard. He did apologise but the damage was done...............i'd dropped the $50 (about 30 quid) over the bar and there was no sign of it!!!! The bar staff near by tried to help me find it when I explained what had happened but it never reappeared..............so as it was still my round I ordered the Mojito's and when you include the $50 i'd just dropped, the round came to $83!!!!! Very painful, and something I think i've only just got over. The night ended with Mike walking home 1 way and I headed to the harbour to get the last ferry home. Despite the $50 incident it was a great night, so CHEERS MIKE! Hopefully see you again soon!
Sunday was a VERY lazy day due to the previous 2 nights and luckily enough it was a grand prix weekend, so all 3 of us laid on the sofa's watching a great Melbourne grand prix.

When we met with Alexa on Friday she mentioned that she fancied doing the 5km walk from Bondi to Coogee beach on Monday so Me and Lee decided to join her and we got the bus from Circular Quay (the main city harbour transport hub in Sydney) to Bondi and started the walk at about 11. The weather wasnt great but it was still warm and probably the best kind of weather for a long walk along the coast rather than blaring sun. The views along the way were great and the walk goes past a number of other bays, beaches, a huge cemetery and also a coast line bowls club which im sure my nan and grandad would LOVE (see below)!! With a few pit stops along the way the walk took around 4 hours and once we reached Coogee, which is a really nice place, we jumped on a bus back to Circular Quay had a drink with Alexa and then said our goodbyes as we would be heading to Melbourne on Wednesday and Alexa would have headed home by the time we got back. Tuesday was a day spent cleaning the Clontarf house ready for us leaving that night and moving into Nick's apartment in Prymont, near Darling Harbour, for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday was a quiet day as we (Me, Lee, Nick and Kerryn) were flying to Melbourne that evening, and even though it was touch and go with missing the flight due to traffic, we made it and landed in Melbourne at around 7pm. After a cab ride to Kerryn's parents place to pick up a car for the weekend we then drove to Nick's parents place and stayed the night. As we werent heading off camping until Friday we spent Thursday in Melbourne seeing a few of the sites but mainly spending a nice hot afternoon in a great beer garden (the size of a park) in the city! The days drink helped us sleep well and get ready for an early start the next day. As we'd packed the car the day before we all woke at 6am and were on our way by 7. It was about a 4 hour drive in a pretty cramped car as Nick's sister had joined us for the trip to Apollo Bay but we all dozed most of the way. Melbourne weather is supposed to be very different to Sydney weather, and it was. Even though still warm it was very overcast, and as it was on the coast the cool breeze did make it nippy at times. When we arrived most of the other campers (Kerryn's friends) were setting up and after introductions we did the same. The rest of the day was very chilled but when the evening came the BBQ and beer came out and it was a raucous but hilarious night. Kerryn's girlfriends are great and there fellas even better, even with the usual pommie insults being thrown about! After a nice lie in on Saturday, we spent the afternoon in the local pub betting on the horse races as 1 of the lads knew his stuff, and by the last race the syndicate total meant we'd all get our money back. However, we decided to put the lot on 1 horse in the last race..................and lost (of course), but it was great fun and for a $20 whip it kept us entertained all day. We had another BBQ when we got back but due to the over indulgence the night before not many people stayed up drinking other than the hardcore. As Sunday was a much better day weather wise me, Lee, Nick and Kerryn went for a drive along the great ocean road to see the 12 Apostles, a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Cambell National Park by the great ocean road. However, due to erosion, there are only 7 left now, so glad I got to see them before it was too late. Its an impressive site and well worth the trip. After seeing the Apostles we headed to the nearby Great Otway National Park so we could go on the Otway fly tree top walk which is a 600 metre long 25 metre high elevated tree top walk through the forest. Its another impressive site and feels alot safer than you expect except for the spiral stair tower which is 45 metres up and sways alot!!

The walk took about an hour and when we were done we headed back and had ANOTHER BBQ (not that im complaining) and again had a few drinks before bed. Also the clocks went back over night so this now means that there is only 9 hours difference between here and the UK.

We all woke on Monday morning and started to dismantle the tents until Nicks sister Claire received a call from her mum saying had we missed our flight??? This didnt make sense as we were all sure the flight was on Tuesday the 6th at 6am rather than Monday the 5th at 6am. However, after checking we found out that unfortunately the flights were booked incorrectly and we had missed the flight, but instead of letting that get us down we finished packing up and took a road trip for the day through the coastal towns of Lorne and then......TORQUAY!! It has nothing on our our one tho (cough)! After the pit stops we headed home to Nicks parents and stayed there again and booked flights for the next day at 7pm.

As Kerryn is from Melbourne she was staying for the rest of the week so me, Lee and Nick had a walkabout in Melbourne in the day and then made our way to the airport for our flight back to Syydney. Melbourne' is a great town and totally different to Sydney and it definitely reminds me more of London. Hopefully i'll get a chance to spend a decent bit of time there in the future but all 3 of us are heading back on the 17th April foe the night for one of Lee's mates birthdays, so im looking forward to seeing what the nightlife is like. Luckily enough we were at the airport early and were bumped up a flight so got home earlier than planned, but we all hit the sack as soon as we got in as the long weekend had finally taken its toll!

So far this week Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have turned out to be pretty lazy days spent on the net looking/applying for jobs. I visited 1 recruitment company which was positive and have a lot of leads to follow up so im sure a job isnt far away. However, the call regarding the job I mentioned in my previous post still havent called so I have sent a chase e-mail and will hopefully get some news today. Fingers crossed. Also we've been making the most of the chilled time by getting out for runs which has felt good as it seems like I havent done anything but eat and drink for months!! Tonight I think will be a quiet night, either watching the AFL game (Nicks team is playing) or going to the pics as tomorrow we are off to the races for a 10am start and then on to a livel AFL match (Sydney Swans Vs Richmond Tigers) so its definitely a "Calm before the Storm" evening tonight! I'll let you know how we get on ASAP.