Hot Holidays

I haven't had access to a computer to update my blog or check my email in a couple of weeks - Ethan has been house-sitting for his boss so my access to email and internet communications has been severely lacking. Nights of debauchery and days of sun and surf have taken place over this time period. Just the other Friday was the company holiday outing. The group kicked off about noon and went down for a day of drinking with lunch. Too bad it was raining because we got to sit outside on Darling Harbour and nice weather would have made for a good ambience. Eleven hours later we had all split and I was wandering to the next bar to meet up with my backpacker mates. I finally got home about 3 or 4 the next morning and miraculously woke up without a hangover (I credit the pizza and ice cream I ate on the way home).

The stories from the previous day came out over the course of the next work week. It all got pretty sloppy! Once we abandoned our lunch table for a position closer to the bar, the Sydney Swans walked in. Imagine an NFL football team walking into the bar you're at and just going about their business. Does this happen? I have not seen it. The Swans are the AFL (Aussie rules footie) team up here. AFL is mostly a Southern sport and RU (Rugby Union) is the Northern sport, but the two are starting to venture into each others geographic territory. Whilst at the bar, my colleagues pointed out a player to me named Barry Hall and said I should go talk to him. Normally I don't walk up to national sports icons who are 6'5" weighing 220" and built like a brick shithouse to strike up a conversation. But I was slightly pissed so I did. After some chaotic dancing and handshakes (I've got new moves) I pinched one of the players' bum. Twice. My sight level is right at these guys' biceps. Fucking massive! Weird how this is probably my most Aussie experience so far: chatting with AFL players at King Street Wharf. Not every day that happens!

Next we were off to Star City casino. This is where the two bottles of wine and 5 beers really hit me. I threw my last $20 at a colleague and the next morning I found $30 in my pocket. Guess we won? Not really sure what happened between entering and exiting, all I remember for the next hour was wandering around the casino holding something. We made a graceful departure with the aid of security after one of my colleagues, when asked where his bet was by another player, that it was "shoved up your ass mate." HA! At least we thought it was funny. The large woman behind the counter was not impressed and got on her high horse and let loose with some bogus spiel, pissing me off in the process. A few minutes later we were (once again) asked to leave. On the way out I got in a little squabble with a glass door. The door won. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out why my forehead wouldn't quit bleeding. During that time we made several attempts at getting our extremely intoxicated colleague (not me) into a cab to take him home, but everytime we got a taxi to stop he would run off and hide! This was solved with a head lock and a shove into the next available cab. More bars and more alcohol, which I somehow managed to not pay for, and I was striding home.

Sunday -the day of meat- was a perfect day so I met up with Ethan at Bondi for a surf, went to his coworkers house for a massive BBQ lunch, went in to town with Ethan to buy his surfboard and went back to Watsons Bay where he was house sitting. We BBQ'd again that night and I finally made it back to Newtown, cut, bruised, banged up, salty and tired but not hungry just in time to hit the hay for work the next day.

This is the life. Only made better by having the next two weeks of work. Fiji's recent coup has left its tourist economy crippled, so it is cheap now. Perhaps I will go after new years? 4-5 days lounging in the South Pacific sounds great to me.

Merry Hannukah, Happy Christmas and Jolly New Years everyone.