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.