The Following Week

Monday found me at work conversing with colleagues trying to piece together the previous Friday night. It took quite a long time =) After work I headed back up to Watson's bay for dinner with Ethan and his colleagues. The following is what I love: E told me to show up at 8PM. I arrived, knocking at the door at 7:59 with another girl invited to the dinner. I timed the buses perfectly! A few hours later I was speaking and listening to French, talking to people from Venezuela, Italy, Mexico, Australia and the US. Us francophones were probably the majority, with about 5 of the 14 of us there. Many beers and a giant meal later and I was on my way home via bus from good international conversation with people from 4 differnt continents. I love it. Monday night reminded me so much of London, yet so different because it is Sydney. I am coming to realise that i am having a much different experience here than in London. I'll post more on that later.

Tuesday night I was pretty tired and wound up on my bed most of the night. I got a random phone call and 20 minutes later was meeting my friend from Vancouver, Barez, at a delicious Vietnamese Restaurant. Hold on, I have to go get some more Wine. OK, killed the bottle. I had Pho soup for the first time. I don't think this is has reached the US because I never see it at the Vietnamese Restaurants when I go. It's nothing more than glorified ramen when they bring it to you, but after that they bring piles of vegetables and sauces you dish in and wow, is it good stuff. Cheap as chips too.

Most of the rest of the week is a blur except for going out for Mexican food, which is a novelty thing down here = expensive and not much for your money. It makes Chipotle look like the real deal. I miss Pepitos and Lake st. but am inspired to start making my own Mexican food at home.

It is Saturday night, and I have obviously just had a bottle of wine. I'm not out getting crazy because I am getting tired of it (only took a year and a half of drinking...). I went surfing today and that is just such a much better use of my time. Adam, you are reading this: we are going surfing at Bondi when you first arrive. I can't wait to show you Sydney like you and I can't wait to show people London. I can barely stand up at the moment but am completely hooked on surfing, and I don't think there is a metropolitan city more suited for the surfer lifestyle.

On the way home from Bondi today, Ethan, his colleague Gian (John?) Carlo and I had a long conversation on LEED certification, the moral responsibilty of architects and sustainable design. Sweetas. (I hope you are enjoying my incorporation of Aussie and Kiwi lingo into my posts). I need to stop typing in the blog.

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.

A Revelation

A couple weeks ago I found myself attempting to surf for the first time in my life. This is what I thought after a few minutes of struggling in the rip: Fuck drinking. I'm going surfing!

Since then I have drastically cut back my alcohol intake and mornings spent sleeping in and have been out at the beach a lot more. Choice.

Summer

December 1st officially marked the first day of summer. Sweet. I get two weeks off work to do whatever I want for the holidays, so there will be much sleeping in, beach trips and possibly a camping trip. That's two weeks of lost income though. Two weeks is more than enough for a week in NZ or a trip to the south Pacific. Damn! I will look for someplace to work halftime I think. A bar or cafe or whatever. Most likely just end up sleeping a lot though; and being incredibly lazy just as I have been today. Hard to work up any motivation when the weather is shit house. And the washing machine took 20 hours to wash my clothes. Fuck that piece of shit! Ahem. Pardon my outburst, I'm good now =)

Not much new to report. Life has been treating me well, but I still can't find an ultimate game (at least one that is more on the competitive/athletic side) or a league to pickup with. Bugger. I wanted to get down to Melbs this weekend for a hangover hat tournament, but it is a long trip for just two days and no planning. World club champs took place there last week.

England is 6/537 during the first innings in the Cricket. One of their batsmen was batting for over 9 hours. What the hell.