Christmas and the final post of 2013!

My last post was on Sunday, 15th December - it's been a while - and that night brought another United fixture to enjoy. Gladly, we won 3-0 away to Aston Villa, but the best part of the game was the late substitution which saw Darren Fletcher make his return to the team after almost a whole year out because of his illness. It was great to see him on the pitch again. I got off to sleep soon after the game and immediately checked the other scores around the league when I woke up; I was absolutely stunned to see that Liverpool had beaten Spurs 5-0 at White Hart Lane, in a game that would ultimately prove to be the last for Andre Villas-Boas.

On Monday, I crossed off another item from the "to-do list" as I visited the Museum of Sydney, near Circular Quay, with Jessica. The museum itself stands on the site of the First Government House, first occupied by Captain Arthur Phillip, who was the first Governor of New South Wales when he arrived with the First Fleet of convicts from England in 1788. The museum itself was enjoyable and interesting, but there is a severe lack of history compared to some of the museums and exhibitions which I have seen back home in Scotland and whilst on holiday in England or France, amongst others. Australia simply doesn't have a long and glorious history, although the interaction and relations between the Aboriginal occupants and the European settlers was a fascinating story of which I knew little about before my visit. One of the things which I was most surprised to hear was that the first Governor actually went to great lengths attempting to build relations with the Aboriginal people and there was strong social integration. Eventually, one of the Aboriginal men became so accustomed to English dining etiquette and politeness that he later travelled to England and was widely considered to have better manners than most of the English upper classes who he dined alongside.

Outside the museum, on the site of the First Government House.

After a few hours in the museum, we headed up George Street to find somewhere to have lunch. After wandering rather aimlessly for some time, eventually a decision was made to go to Wagamama in The Galleries, not far from Town Hall. This particular little collection of shops is home to the spectacular Kinokuniya book shop, where I had done some Christmas shopping and another hour or so was spent simply wandering around the shelves once again. After heading home, I got changed and played football in the evening. The entertainment for the night was supplied by the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League and the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special, which is by far my favourite Christmas Special of any TV show. United drew Olympiakos in the draw, which I was pleased with, especially since the away leg is first - a good day all round.

On Tuesday morning I had a shift at work, though luckily I was finished by 3pm. I headed home and ate lunch whilst watching the final day of the third Ashes Test. Although England still had a slim chance of turning things around, ultimately they collapsed again and Australia won the match, taking a 3-0 lead and therefore regaining the Ashes urn for the first time since 2009. England have been abysmal from start to finish and there was now a real danger of Australia thrashing them 5-0, with Tests in Melbourne and Sydney still to come.  received some Christmas cards from home, which was a great surprise; they certainly helped to create some additional festive feeling to my room and proved to be far more pleasant than the email received from Glasgow on the same day. The email concerned choosing dissertation questions and gave us some information about the process and a deadline date. I can't believe it's time to think about that already.

I had another day off work on Wednesday and spent the morning doing nothing at all. In the afternoon, Jess and Claire were heading out for lunch with Jess's friend Mai, from Vietnam. We went back to the Korean restaurant where we had been a few months before for Claire's birthday and it was just as excellent as I remembered. I'm totally useless with trying to understand the menu so took Claire's advice on what to order; I had a kind of beef and noodle soup and it was an excellent choice again.

On our way home, we stopped by the dollar shop in World Square to try and get some more Christmas decorations for the flat, as well as another Christmas tree. Unfortunately this shop wasn't nearly as good as the one at Bondi Junction and we didn't manage to find a tree, though we did get some more tinsel. I also bought a large Australian flag to hang up on the wall in my room, which I was very pleased with!

After arriving home and chilling out for a while, Claire, Jess and I began cleaning the flat for our re-inspection the following morning. We did a great job and the place is now truly sparkling, even though I feel like it was up to an appropriate standard first time around anyway. I know when something can be considered clean, you need only see how well kept my car is for proof of that. After we had finished our clean-up job, I hooked my laptop up to the TV in the living room and watched Angles Share, which was fantastic! I watched in on the American Netflix site though, which meant the Scottish dialect was subtitled the whole way through!

I headed off to bed in anticipation of another early rise to watch the football the next morning. United were playing away to Stoke in the quarter final of the Capital One Cup and a win would give us a semi-final place and a huge opportunity to go on and win a trophy in Moyes first season. The game was really quite boring for the duration of the first half and there was nothing noteworthy or controversial in the match until a massive hail-storm swept over the stadium, prompting the referee to temporarily abandon play. After half time, United scored two great goals through Ashley Young and Patrice Evra and we were safely through to the next round. The draw for the next round gave us a home and away tie against Sunderland, which seemed to be the best possible draw for us, so I headed back to bed for some more sleep with a smile on my face.

We had been told that our re-inspection would be taking place at 10am, so those of us who remained in the flat were up and ready, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the person charged with inspecting our living area. Predictably, there was no sign of anyone as time wore on and as we approached 11am, Claire decided to email and find out what was happening. I don't see why people think it's acceptable to have you waiting around all day after previously giving a very specific time, as if none of us had any other plans for our time. Eventually, I got bored and went to have a shower and get dressed and typically, the inspectors turned up whilst this was happening. I came out the shower to find a Facebook message in our flat's group chat to say that we had passed successfully.

I decided to make the most of another gloriously sunny afternoon by walking across the Harbour Bridge for the first time. I caught the free shuttle bus from Railway Square down to Circular Quay, walked around the front of the harbour-side, underneath the bridge and headed along the Rocks to find the stairs up the the bridge. Although I had a perception that the bridge was big, I had no idea it was so high; you can see for miles around, in all directions and it provides a great place to take photographs. After crossing the bridge, I stopped by a small bakery to get some lunch and found myself a bench by the water, looking back towards the Opera House and the city. It was absolutely scorching and a really relaxed afternoon. I also walked along to Luna Park - the fairground on the waterfront - and the Olympic swimming pool, which is superb! Here are some photos which I took along the way.

A busy harbour from the bridge, looking north-east, towards Manly in the distance.

The Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, city and a cruise ship - again, taken from the bridge.

Looking back towards the city and Opera House on the south side of the harbour, from the spot where I sat and had lunch.

Beneath the bridge itself.

The Olympic swimming pool, not far from the bridge on the north side of the harbour.

The entrance to the Luna Park fairground.

I decided that I couldn't really be bothered walking all the way back over the bridge and also quite fancied taking the train back over - the Harbour Bridge carries cars, trains, pedestrians and cyclists, all on separate sections. It also gave me a chance to see the other side of the harbour from the bridge.

This photo was taken from the train, whilst crossing the Harbour Bridge.

I was working again on Friday, though it was another good shift, starting at 9am and finishing for 3pm; it ended up finishing at 2pm though since it was 37 degrees celsius outside, obviously the shop wasn't busy, so I was sent home. After arriving back at the flat and having some lunch, I got my football stuff ready and headed up to Victoria Park to enjoy the sun for a while before meeting the guys at the College for a game. Even though it was still really quite warm when we began playing at around 4.30pm, I didn't suffer too much in the heat - I've clearly grown used to the weather here now, which isn't going to be much fun when I eventually go home to Scotland. As I arrived home from football, there were a few people having a drink downstairs in the common area and asked me to join them, so I headed upstairs to get showered and changed. We had some wine and the treat of some Smirnoff vodka, which we rarely buy here because it's too expensive and played some interesting games before heading to bed around midnight. I realised I'd eaten no food since playing football in the afternoon, so a few drinks had really hit me hard; I had some food and a couple of big glasses of water before bed, knowing that I had to get up early the next morning again.

The plan for Saturday was to catch the train down to Cronulla, past Como where Jessica would jump on, and go to the beach for the day. I caught the train from Central Station shortly before 11am and arrived in Cronulla around one hour later. The train journey was quite enjoyable after Como, where the scenery becomes quite nice and I realised as I headed south out of the city that when I reached Cronulla, it would be the furthest south I had ever been on the planet - how amazing! When I had got on the train at Central, I mistakenly text Jessica to tell her that I was on the second carriage from the front so she could meet me when she got on the train at Como - where she lives with her Auntie - though it turned out that I was actually on the third carriage from the front, so we didn't meet up until we both arrived in Cronulla. Very poor counting skills from me!

The beach at Cronulla, where Jessica claimed she went in the sea for the first time in Australia - even though she had previously been surfing, as well as snorkelling in Cairns. Oh dear! Haha!

After a few hours at the beach, battling the wind and flying sand - one group of girls had erected a beach-tent which eventually broke and collapsed, which was extremely funny, since one of them was still inside it - we headed off for some lunch. We went to a place called Northies, which seems to be the place where everyone goes in Cronulla at the weekend, and enjoyed some Rekorderlig cider with lunch.

Here is a photo of me at the marina at Cronulla, as it was starting to get cloudy. It looks like I'm holding an invisible bottle of beer or something!

We caught the train back towards the city and Jessica got off at Como again. I arrived back at the flat and made myself dinner, before watching Netflix for a bit. I got off to bed early for the football once again, United kicking off at 3pm back home which meant setting my alarm for 2am here. Another win was duly delivered, as we beat West Ham 3-1 at Old Trafford - a stunning goal from Adnan Januzaj was the pick of the bunch. I got back to bed and enjoyed a long lie on Sunday morning. Sunday itself was a very lazy day; I went out to the shops for a little while and then stopped by the supermarket and headed home again. I spent the afternoon watching a film called "The Way Back" about a group of men who escaped a Siberian POW camp during the Second World War, before reaching safety when they crossed the border into India. Later on, I made dinner and then watched "Elf" - possibly the funniest Christmas movie ever.

The Monday before Christmas meant a busy shift at work for me, starting at 9am until 3pm in the afternoon. Around 5am that morning, I had woken up with a dry, sore throat which seemed to be solved with a drink and a Strepsil - though I knew a cold was on the way, arriving just before Christmas with the kind of poor timing usually associated with Paul Scholes tackles. I got back to sleep before my alarm went off around 7.30am, which was time to get up and ready for work. As expected two days before Christmas, the shop was packed with customers and my shift passed really quickly - always a welcome relief. After work, I got changed and headed to go and play football again. When I came back, Claire and I went and did our food shopping for Christmas Day, in Woolworths, getting most of the stuff we needed in one go. The other important event on Monday was the extension of my lease here at Iglu; after much debate, consideration and weighing up of the various factors, I've decided to stay where I am living just now until I go home, rather than finding new accommodation. My flatmates are all nice and I'm in a really convenient location, so I'm pleased to be staying where I'm settled in and avoiding the need to move all of my stuff again.

I was delighted to find that I wasn't working on Christmas Eve, for the first time since I started working in electrical retail at Comet a few years ago. In an effort to get rid of my developing cold, I had slept with the air-conditioning off for the entire night, which led to a bedroom like a sauna and a night spent tossing and turning. I woke up fairly early again and remembered that it was Christmas Eve, so I had a couple of early presents to open which had been posted to me from home. After some breakfast, I opened an "Aussie Night Before Christmas" book and a pair of Santa Claus boxers, whilst on FaceTime to Mum, Dad and Kerry. Since all of my present shopping had been done and the food shopping virtually completed the day before, there was very little left to do except relax and play Pro Evo on the Playstation. I did venture out to the shops briefly in order to buy some ice-cream, a box of Celebrations chocolates, some cough medicine for my cold and pigs in blankets for Christmas dinner. I didn't manage to find the pigs in blankets, they don't seem to have them in supermarkets here, even for Christmas - same thing with Brussels sprouts actually - though I managed to get everything else. I also did some final present shopping, picking up some little gifts for my flatmates, before heading home to wrap them. Present shopping completed.

Presents for various people, all wrapped and ready to go!

I headed home, chilled out for a while and ate some Celebrations before making dinner. Alex, Jessica and I had earlier arranged to meet up for a drink later that night, when we would also be swapping our Christmas presents. After dinner, I went downstairs - almost literally - to Bar Broadway to meet Alex. We had a beer and caught up on his trip up the Gold Coast and down to Melbourne, where he had been road-tripping with his dad for the last few weeks. After finishing work, Jessica also joined us, which meant it was time to swap presents! I had got Alex some beers, a book of photographs of Sydney and the surrounding area and a Sydney engraved bottle opener; whilst I got Jessica some perfume, the Trainspotting book, some Crunchie chocolate and a bottle of wine. It's after Christmas now that I'm writing this, so I'm not giving anything away! After a few more drinks, the barman hurried us along, Jessica headed home and Alex and I went back to my flat to have another few beers before he headed off home too.

I stayed up late watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special again, followed by the Still Game Christmas Special. Once I was off to bed, I had another terrible sleepless night, first waking at around 5am once more, which is a nightmare on Christmas morning because you don't actually want to go back to sleep very much! I'm still like a big child when it comes to Christmas! Haha! Eventually I did get another few hours, before waking again around 7.30am, but this time there was no going back to sleep, no matter how hard I tried. I stuck my iPod on for a little while and lay in bed listening to Noel Gallagher before finally admitting defeat and getting up. I had breakfast and then spoke to Kerry and Cameron on FaceTime for a while, whilst Mum, Dad, Ade, Cors and Rebecca were all at the midnight carol service at the church. Once they came back, it was time for me to open my presents, which was exciting! Again on FaceTime, I delightedly opened up a Kindle, case and charger - much to my surprise - as well as a book of Sir Alex Ferguson quotes, new boxers and socks and a bottle of Honey Jack Daniels. I also got a Man Utd desk calendar from Gillian, Colin, Rachel and Emily; a personalised, Scottish-themed "Where's Wally?" type book from Auntie Jean, Uncle Brian and Abigail; a collection of superb Sydney-themed items from Jessica, including a much needed beach towel, and a "Hangover Cookbook"; a great t-shirt from my flatmate Claire; a bottle of Korean wine and an Australian bottle stopper from Jess; and I also got a card with dollars inside from David and David - all much appreciated! I was delighted with my gifts, particularly my Kindle which I had been thinking about for a long time, and unknown to me, the decision was made and I'm completely loving it!

After I had chatted to everyone at home for a while longer, they all headed off to bed and I spoke to some of the troops back home, who were at Aaron's pre-drinking before going out on Christmas Eve. It was great to see so many of them and reminded how much I was missing them all, especially on that night since Christmas Eve is always a great time to all go out together and bring in Christmas with everyone. It was only Claire, Lin and myself in the flat for most of the morning, so Claire and I began preparing the food for Christmas dinner, which we would be having later on when Jess arrived home and Andy turned up also. We watched "Four Christmases" which is an awesome film as well as another Still Game Christmas Special, which was appreciated even though I did have to translate and explain several parts! Unfortunately, it was raining on the day, which meant our plans to go to the beach never materialised. It felt just like being at home - cloudy, grey and drizzly!

Carrots and potatoes ready to go in the oven.

The chocolate brownies which Claire made for dessert; we had them with vanilla ice cream and they were fantastic!

Later on, Jess arrived back and Andy also came along, which meant it was time to eat! Claire and I had been snacking on chocolate and crisps pretty much the whole day, but we were still very much looking forward to dinner! We had cooked a whole roast chicken, a beef joint, roast potatoes, roast carrots, as well as a seafood dish, as well as cranberry sauce and gravy. We had also gathered up a generous collection of wines and beers to keep us going for Christmas Day and beyond!

Ready for dinner!

After we had eaten, we cleared up and relaxed for a while before pudding; Andy and I played some super-competitve games of Pro-Evo on the Playstation, as he took Liverpool and I stuck with United. Grudge match. After pudding, and another beer, I caught up with home on FaceTime again, as Mum, Dad and Kerry had opened their presents from Santa and were now going to swap each others presents, including the ones to Mum and Dad from Kerry and myself. Mum was delighted with her onesie, mug, Sydney fridge magnet and butter dish - what a strange gift, but that's what she wanted, so there you go - and Dad was similarly pleased with the Still Game DVD box set, a 'Keep Calm I'm a Bus Driver' t-shirt and a couple of bottles of nice Australian red wine. My presents to Kerry included some perfume, a tartan shirt she wanted as well as a choice of two envelopes from a possible three, with only the knowledge that each one contained an activity for when she comes to Australia. She was only allowed to open two and the third would be revealed when she arrived here; she picked the envelopes with a whale watching trip and another with surfing lessons. She's petrified of being eaten by a shark now, or being stung by a sting-ray, which is hilarious! The third envelope will be revealed in a few months! I got off to bed shortly after midnight, having had a far better Christmas than I could ever have hoped for so far away from home - there was great company, great food and wine and great presents too! Superb!

On Boxing Day, my plan was to head out to the coast in order to watch the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Each year on the 26th December, a fleet of some of the worlds finest racing yachts departs Sydney Harbour on course for a finishing line in Hobart, state capital and largest city on the island of Tasmania. The race usually takes around four or five days to be completed, meaning that many will arrive in the early hours of New Years Eve. I caught the free shuttle bus down to Circular Quay and then another bus out to Watsons Bay, where I found myself a spot out on the headland to watch the start of the race. Once the yachts had raced off the starting line at an incredible speed, which totally took me by surprise, I followed their progress around the coastal path along with a huge crowd of other spectators to see them sail out of the mouth of the harbour and into the open sea. I got some great photos and it was a brilliant day standing out in the sunshine, seeing a part of Sydney I had never visited before.

The beach at Watsons Bay, with the city in the distance.

Just part of the huge crowd gathered to watch the beginning of the race.

Some of the yachts - the big black sail was one of those competing in the race - as well as hundreds of spectator boats.

A few minutes after the starting gun had fired. The larger yachts took off like sprinters, it was quite amazing to see!

Some of the smaller yachts in the fleet sail out past the headland on their way to the first buoy marker.

A classic selfie-shot with some of the yachts nearing the horizon.

A photo taken from Christison Park, above Watsons Bay.

Another shot from Christison Park, looking south, along the coast in the direction of Bondi Beach.

On my way back, I jumped off the bus at Circular Quay and decided to walk back along George Street. I had intended to stop by some of the shops and see if there were any bargains in the Boxing Day sales, though the sheer numbers of people out shopping put me off completely and I didn't bother. Many shops had people queued up around the block just waiting to get inside! Crazy!

This photo was taken outside Topshop, where police were patrolling the pedestrian crossings to ensure people weren't walking out in front of traffic.

After arriving back at the flat, I chilled out for a while before having dinner. Afterwards, I spent some time downloading some books onto my new Kindle, which is just great - I can't stop going on about how good it is. What an excellent present! There was another United game kicking off at midnight - I love this time of year, when there just seems to be football on every two or three days! Even though the game started really badly, United went 2-0 down to Hull after only 15 minutes or so, we staged a brilliant comeback to win the game 3-2 eventually - including a stunning volley by Wayne Rooney. Three points on Boxing Day, what better Christmas gift could you ask for? I got straight to sleep after the game since I had work the next day, which meant there would be sales on. The joys of retail.

As it turned out, work wasn't too busy and I didn't actually start my shift until 3pm, which I hadn't initially realised. I spent the entire morning doing nothing at all, except reading some of "The Promised Land" by Daniel Harris, the first book I chose to read on my Kindle. Predictably, it's about Man Utd and tells the tale of the historic 1998/99 Treble-winning season; it's a great read and I would recommend it to all United fans. In work, there were enough customers to keep us busy, but nothing that wasn't manageable and the shift came and went fairly quickly. I got home, made dinner and watched "Class of '92" - a Man Utd film about the amazing group of players including Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham who went on to make history playing for the club. Again, it was just fantastic and any football fan should make sure they don't miss it!

On Saturday, I had a quiet morning before meeting Jessica in the city in the early afternoon to go shopping for a while. I was looking for sunglasses, a new belt, aftershave, a watch and possibly some new shoes. I ended up not getting any of the things I went for but did buy two new t-shirts. Typical. Once we had called it quits at the shops, we walked down to Darling Harbour where we had an early dinner before meeting up with Alex, having planned to see the new Hobbit film at the cinema that night. We wanted to go to the IMAX at Darling Harbour to see it - they have the biggest screen in the world there - but it was already sold out. The back-up plan was to go to the Event cinema on George Street, where we bought tickets to see the film in regular 2D; I enjoyed the film, but much the same as the first Hobbit film, I didn't think it was fantastic. Certainly not in the same league as Lord of the Rings, but not many films are, in hindsight. Again, I headed home afterwards and got straight to bed since there was yet another football match that night. I set my alarm for 2am in order to get up and watch it, though when 2am came around I was simply too tired to get up. I put the alarm back on in time for the second half starting and went back to sleep. What felt like 10 minutes later, my alarm went off again, at 2.50am and I dragged myself out of bed to see that it was still Norwich 0-0 Man Utd. Hadn't missed much anyway. The second half wasn't very good either, though Danny Welbeck did steal a nice goal and it finished 1-0! Another good away win and our fifth on the bounce!

I had another chilled morning on Sunday after a well-needed long lie. I was supposed to be working later in the day, but received a text from one of the managers at work to say that since the shop was really quiet, I didn't have to come in for my shift. Instead, I headed out to the shops at Broadway to try my luck at getting some of the things I had been looking for in the city. I did finally get myself a new belt as well as another new t-shirt, but nothing else. Shockingly bad effort. I spotted a Facebook message on my phone and saw that Robert had asked me to go and play football down at Wentworth Park again at 3pm. I decided that would be a good way to spend the afternoon, so got changed and headed down shortly before the time when I knew the guys usually arrived. Only Robert was there and we sat around until almost 4pm waiting on some others to arrive; eventually a few lads turned up and we had enough bodies for a short-sided game of fives. Fives on a Sunday afternoon - it was almost like being at home! After a few hours in the afternoon heat, I grabbed my stuff and walked back home, completely shattered. Upon arriving home, I discovered that Australia were once again dominating England in the Ashes and were merely 30-odd runs away from taking a 4-0 lead. No prizes for guessing that they took a mere half an hour to gain the required runs and embarrass England once more. Abysmal from them, awesome from the Aussies.

This is Wentworth Park, where I played football on Sunday.

This morning, I got up around 9am and had some cereal, before lying back in bed to watch Match of the Day. Incredibly, towards the end of the football highlights I fell asleep again and didn't wake up again until shortly before noon! I must have needed it, since I don't think I've ever slept for anywhere near 12 hours before! Very out of character for me! After jumping out of bed in shock at the time, I sat down to start getting this blog post written, before heading out to play football this afternoon. Unfortunately, very few people turned up, so we called it quits and I decided to do a running session instead. I followed a routine which Andy had showed me at home some time ago, essentially HIIT cardio work - it was absolutely killer and the heat didn't help. I walked home, legs like jelly, had some dinner and sat down to finish this post.

It's now just past midnight on Tuesday, 31st December, which means there are less than 24 hours of 2013 remaining. It seems to be fashionable to complain about the year that has just gone and make promises of a "new start, new me" on Twitter and Facebook, but I have to say that 2013 was another awesome year in my life. I cannot wait to see what 2014 has in store.

Our plans for tomorrow are to head down the Harbour fairly early and get a good spot to see the fireworks at midnight and bring in the bells! I'm looking forward to the world-famous Sydney Harbour fireworks, so I hope they don't disappoint! I hope everyone in Sydney, friends and family at home, as well as friends who have now returned to their own part of the world have a fantastic New Year when it comes and a brilliant 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Until next time,
Jamie

It's beginning to feel a lot like...summer!

There is a bit of an overlap from the last post which I need to catch up on...

On Sunday night, after returning from Stereosonic and stopping by McDonalds for some food, I battled to stay awake through the Man Utd game as we drew away 2-2 away to Spurs. I was so tired from the weekend and it was bedtime for me as soon as the final whistle blew; my head had barely hit the pillow before I was asleep. Monday morning brought a well needed long lie, after which I got up and did absolutely nothing all day except watch Netflix and eat. The most productive part of my day was sorting out the various photos and videos from the weekend and compiling some of the better clips together to make a YouTube video. Here is the link to it, if anyone would like to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH5W26lISxs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUYFev9KKJGt7jKnRlQlJEuQ

On Tuesday, I started picking my classes for next semester. Although we won't have them confirmed for quite some time yet, we are still required to submit the list of classes we want to take just now - in fact, it was supposed to be done before the end of the semester, mines was late. After strategically picking through the timetable and reading some of the class descriptions, a final selection was settled and I headed into uni to hand the form into the International Office on campus. In the afternoon, I decided to update and add to my list of things which I want to see and do in Sydney whilst I'm here - given that it is summer and I'm not at uni at the moment, now seems the best time to see some of the sights. After drawing up my list of sights and places to visit, I finally got my last blog post finished off and posted online.

Inevitably, when you first finish a semester at uni after an exam period, or back in the school days as well, you seem to spend a lot of time doing nothing at all with your time. It is sort of enjoyable at first to just be free from any obligation to study although it does get boring quite quickly. On Wednesday however, I was still happily procrastinating my days away and spent most of the morning after breakfast watching the Sound City documentary, on the recommendation of Andy. It turned out to be a very strong choice and I really enjoyed it - well worth watching if you're into music at all. Later in the day, the first headliner for the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2014 had been announced as Blink-182 and it looks as though there may be a few of us going to it next summer after I arrive back home. After cooking dinner and catching up with home on FaceTime, I got an early night since the football was on early on Thursday morning again. It was another poor result as United lost 1-0 at home to Everton, so I was happy to go back to bed and get some more sleep when the match finished.

The sport continued after I got up again the next morning, as the second Ashes test began on Thursday morning in Adelaide. I'm starting to quite enjoy cricket, even though I've always taken a slight interest in the Ashes when they've been contested over the past few years and I found myself watching most of the play up until lunchtime. Since food supplies were running a little low in the flat, I headed out to the supermarket in the afternoon before returning to watch some more of the cricket. One of the best things about watching cricket is that you can do other things whilst it is on, unlike most other sports - I guess that is why many people find it so boring really. Whilst the match was going on, I sat and downloaded some new music, particularly the back catalogues of Paramore, You Me At Six and Nine Inch Nails in anticipation of seeing them next year. In the evening, Claire, Jess, Khurram and I went to Pancakes on the Rocks, the 24-hour restaurant near Circular Quay, famous for their awesome pancakes. I had chilli beef nachos and a chocolate pancake which was to die for, but so incredibly heavy that none of us managed to clear our plates. Later that night I watched 'The Usual Suspects' on Netflix; I had never seen it before but it was really excellent and I'll probably watch it again sometime soon, which is unusual for me. The big news event of Thursday, 5th December however was the passing of Nelson Mandela, the influential and brilliant former President of South Africa. Tributes poured in from across the world and the television was dedicated to stories of his life and achievements. What an incredible individual.

We saw this tall ship sailing into Circular Quay when we were trying to find Pancakes on the Rocks. I still haven't got tired of going down there and seeing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

On Friday night, we were planning to have an early Christmas dinner of sorts, before Lian left to travel around New Zealand, after which she was heading home to Singapore where she would be getting married. We had divided up various parts which we would be responsible for, so on Friday morning I headed down to Woolworths to get potatoes and some wine from the liquor store nearby. I was also tasked with picking up a bottle of champagne to go with the Vera Weng glasses which the girls had already got as part of a wedding present. I ended up buying two bottles of Promised Land Moscato - which turned out to be lovely and we've since bought more - as well as a nice Australian champagne on the advice of the shop assistant. I returned to the flat to peel and prepare the potatoes since I had a shift at work from 4 until 7 in the evening. After getting my part of the dinner ready, I had some lunch, got ready for work and headed to Broadway for my shift. Work went by fairly quickly and when I returned home the dinner was almost ready to go - always welcome immediately after work! When I checked my phone though, I discovered that our exam results were out and the inevitable nerves sunk in; it doesn't matter how good or badly you think you may have done, the moment of actually getting the results is always pretty horrible. Gladly, the three results which were available were all decent enough and I was relieved to have safely negotiated another semester of exams. One more result to come still, but it was good to have the majority out of the way and I was looking forward to our evening of food and wine as a small celebration. We enjoyed some roast chicken, potatoes, carrots, baked fish and a takeaway pizza followed by a brilliant chocolate cake. Lian really appreciated her gifts and card too, which was great! We ended up staying up until around 2am before calling it quits; I was totally stuffed and ready for bed, especially with work again the next day.

I was starting work at 12, so at least I had time for a decent sleep before needing to get up, having some breakfast and a shower and getting ready to leave. Once again, my 6 hour shift went by fairly quickly and it even included a break long enough to go and get a sandwich from Subway. I had found out the previous day that Alex was back in Sydney for a few days after his trip to New Zealand, so we planned on having a night out on Saturday before he flew back to the USA on Monday. After work, I headed home and made myself some dinner and chilled out for a while before we were due to head out. Jessica came over to mines for a drink and we were then going to head out to Kings Cross. Although, Alex didn't get into the club where we were meant to be going, so Jessica and I ended up finishing our drinks and not going out. I ended up going to McDonalds around midnight and watching the football on my laptop; unfortunately United lost at home for the second time in a week.

On Sunday morning, I had a long lie and woke up to check the rest of the football scores from through the night. Rather fortunately, both Chelsea and Man City had dropped points too which meant the United result wasn't nearly as bad as it might have been. I had been planning on going to the pool at the Prince Alfred Park to spend the day relaxing in the sunshine, but shortly before I was going to leave I received a Facebook message from Robert, a guy I met through the Soccer Society, asking if I wanted to play that afternoon. I decided to play football rather than go to the pool although in hindsight, the pool would have been a far more relaxing day, as the afternoon heat beat down on us as we played. I even managed to get a little sunburnt from the few hours which we played. It was good to meet yet another decent group of guys who enjoyed a game of football though and it was also the first time I had been down to Wentworth Park, where they play. The park is near the Anzac Bridge and not far from another amazing marina on the waterfront - it's a very picturesque place for a kick around. On a related note, unfortunately, there was an email sent out to those players who hadn't been picked for the Hakoah squad and I was one of the people who hadn't made the team. Gutted. I'm still hoping to find another team though.

I was working once more on Monday - a fairly long shift too - which is great for making money but also dreadful knowing you have to get up and go to work all day. The shop wasn't too busy, which was unusual considering how close we are getting to Christmas, even though it was a Monday. I had a bit of a headache in the afternoon and I was glad to be finished work and get home. After dinner, I spent some more time hunting for Christmas presents online to send home, but I was still struggling to come up with an idea for Kerry. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, it was alright bright and sunny and the weather forecast was for a really warm afternoon, so I decided to get up and go to the pool at Prince Alfred Park. Disappointingly, the free swimming there has finished now, but it's only around $3 for a student entry - can't complain at that! Just as I was heading down past the reception in the common area, one of the staff came running after me - I didn't hear him shout on me since I had my headphones plugged in - and told me that I had a parcel waiting for me. He said I could pick it up later in the day, so I headed off to the pool wondering what could have been sent for me. Surely it couldn't be my Christmas package from home, I considered, since that had only been posted around a week earlier and previously my birthday presents had taken almost four weeks to arrive here. I enjoyed my afternoon relaxing in the sunshine at the poolside, topping up my tan which is actually reasonable now, although I'm still far from bronzed. There's still time! When I returned, I discovered that the package was in fact my Christmas gifts from home - I have no idea how they arrived here so quickly, but I'm not complaining. I opened my cards from Dad, Mum and Kerry as well as one present which was labeled "OPEN NOW!" The present turned out to be a Christmas decoration with the dog on it, which I pinned up on the wall for the time being.

My presents and cards from home - including a card from the dog! Haha!

The other brilliant thing which happened on Tuesday was that Jess's boyfriend had visited and she had convinced him to leave his Playstation 3 in the flat for a while. Needless to say, I was delighted when I discovered that there was a copy of Pro Evo Soccer on it and took great pleasure in virtually beating Barcelona a couple of times with Man Utd. As sad as it is, I do miss playing FIFA! Haha! I also received my first wages from work on Tuesday - I have definitely missed pay-days! I got a fairly early night after dinner since United were playing early on Wednesday morning once again; I got up at the usual ridiculous time and watched us beat Shakhtar 1-0 to seal first place in our Champions League group. Happy days.

Playstation 3 and Pro Evo hooked up to the TV in the living room!

Since Jessica and I both had a day off work on Wednesday, we decided to go to Bondi as it was supposed to be another scorching day. We were not disappointed and managed to catch the train then the bus out the Eastern Suburbs shortly before 11am. The beach was remarkably quiet and free of people, since it was before noon on a weekday - I had never been to the beach so early before but it was well worth it. The peace and quiet was promptly interrupted by some European guys blaring dance music from their portable speakers though. It was fairly annoying at first, but then they began playing some decent tunes and it was fairly enjoyable to just relax on the sand with some background music. After a few hours of sun-worshipping, we headed to the restaurant at the pavilion for some lunch and a beer. It was great to sit and look out at the sea as we ate and it was definitely one of those moments where you had to pinch yourself to remember that it was actually real. A Wednesday afternoon in December and here we find ourselves on Bondi Beach. Living the dream. On our way back to the city, we stopped by a shop called Hot Dollar, at Bondi Junction, so that we could both buy some cheap Christmas decorations. We ended up buying quite a lot of stuff and my room in the flat is looking suitably festive now!

This giant turtle, made from recycled car tyres, was in the restaurant where we had lunch at Bondi.

On Thursday back home, my Christmas cards which I had posted finally arrived. Rather unfortunately, only the cards for Dad and Kerry had arrived by Thursday, which was funny since it was Mum who most wanted a Christmas card! Her own one did arrive on Friday morning though, luckily enough. My plan for the day was to finish my Christmas shopping - finally! Just after lunchtime, Claire, Jess and I headed to Paddy's Market to get some fruit and veg which we were all needing in the flat; we headed home and dropped off our shopping and then I headed back out to the city to take a wander around the shops. My shopping trip took me to a few places I hadn't really been in the city before, for example the Queen Victoria Buildings which I had only really passed through once before, as well as the Westfield Shopping Centre near the Town Hall. I also found an amazing bookshop called Kinokuniya, which was comfortably one of the most impressive book shops I have ever seen in my life. The majority of the presents I needed to buy were all done in a few hours, so I spent some time looking for some things for myself as well, although I ended up not buying anything. I always find it easier to spend money on other people, which is unfortunate when you could really be doing with some new shoes!

Friday meant that I could look forward to another game of football in the afternoon. I didn't really do much all day, apart from watching the recently aired ITV documentary, 'Keane v Vieira: Best of Enemies' which was brilliant! Roy Keane is such a legend at United for what he achieved as a player, it's just a shame he feels the need to constantly bad mouth Sir Alex Ferguson and just generally act so bitterly towards the club. In the early afternoon, Jessica dropped by with some more Christmas decorations for me as well as some surprise presents. I had no idea what she was on about, but soon discovered that there had been some behind the scenes chat between her and Kerry on Facebook which had led to Jessica buying some things for me which were from Mum, Dad and Kerry back home. Very sneaky! Jessica was keen to point out just how well wrapped her ones were and I believe she may even have suggested they were better wrapped than the ones I had received from home! Serious fighting talk when it comes to present wrapping! Haha!

After playing football and arriving home, I got showered and changed and ready to head out with Claire and Jess from the flat, to go to the night market down at the Rocks. We walked some way down George Street before catching the free shuttle bus the rest of the way to Circular Quay. The markets were extremely hipster, but also quite cool - there was an old fashioned barber, ghost-walk tours, fortune tellers, a silent disco, stalls selling all kinds of jewellery, masks and other small gifts and even a karaoke machine which had gathered quite a crowd as enthusiastic tourists murdered some well known hits! There was also numerous amazing food stalls and we each regretted having already had dinner before we left the flat.

Here's a photo of the three of us wearing our headphones at the silent disco - we didn't stay long, although some people were really getting into it. Always a laugh!

Even though we had already eaten earlier we decided to buy some cannoli from one of the market stalls. It was a sort of crispy biscuit tube, with a filling almost like ice cream. Again, it was something which I hadn't tried before I don't think, but it was excellent! We walked around the rest of the markets and then began walking home, back up George Street. We also stopped by Chinatown where I bought a few cream puffs again - they're just too good and too cheap to say no - and Claire went to a place which sells Taiwanese desserts and that was also fantastic!

Here is Jess and I posing with the cannoli - superb!

On the walk back, we also stopped by the Town Hall to see the lights, which never seem to get boring either - they're fantastic! There was also a music performance happening on one side of the building, in time to the illuminations, which was really cool and I managed to catch a short video of it.

This is the side of the Town Hall, all lit up.

Finally, I also noticed that the monkey statues on top of the Three Wise Monkeys pub had been dressed up in Christmas gear, which was funny!

Yesterday, I was working from 12 until 6 again, so I got up in the morning, had a shower and some breakfast and headed off for my shift. The day went past fairly quickly and I also had a break to go and get some food, which was very welcome since I was starving. Jessica and I were planning to go out for a few drinks that night, but eventually we decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe at Darling Harbour. I'm fairly sure the only time that I have been to a Hard Rock Cafe before was when we were in Disneyland Paris years ago and I've never been to the one in Edinburgh, so I was really looking forward to it! We ended up getting a really good table with a view of the harbour, which was great for the usual Saturday night fireworks. I had brisket with coleslaw and chips, whilst Jessica had fajitas and we drank a really nice bottle of Marlborough Upside Down Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. I'll be like a Scottish Oz Clarke by the time I come home.

Hard Rock Cafe Sydney!

The Christmas tree at Darling Harbour.

Inflatable floating Santas on the water.

Afterwards we went to another bar on the harbour-side where we had an awkward conversation with a random Scottish woman, before we moved on to Cargo Bar. I'd never been to Cargo before, but it was really excellent; the DJ was like an old man - he looked like Judge Jules - but he played some great tunes. There was also an awesome guy with dreadlocks and a beard who had some brilliant dance moves - Jessica thought he was the coolest guy in the world and then we discovered he actually worked in the bar! Haha! We headed home around 2am, shattered. What a good night - I'll definitely go back to Cargo!

I woke up fairly early this morning - I can never seem to have a decent sleep after a night out - but since it was around 8am, I decided to use the time to catch up with home. I chatted to Jonny in Valencia on Skype for a while and also spoke to Mum and Kerry for a bit. Afterwards, I went out and finished off the last little bits of my Christmas shopping before getting everything wrapped. Wrapping is such a chore, even more so because I appreciate presents really should be properly and nicely wrapped, but I'm not very good at it. An infuriating task, really. I spent this evening finishing off this post and cleaning the flat since we have an inspection tomorrow; gladly the place is looking like a show-home. We've done a really good job of getting the kitchen and living room looking spotless. Only a few hours until the United game now - big game away to Aston Villa, we could really be doing with a win!

Here's a picture of my decorated Christmas tree - thanks to Jessica - with presents underneath!

Only 10 more sleeps now!

Until next time,

Jamie

Summer holidays and Stereosonic!

There has been a lot happening since I last wrote on here, which is why I haven't managed to find some time to do an update before now, however it should mean that this will be a nice, long update including plenty of photos!

My last post left off before I sat my final two exams of the semester, though I was finding it difficult to concentrate on studying for my last exam after I bought tickets for another two upcoming concerts! I've wanted to see Queens of the Stone Age for ages now but an opportunity to see them has never presented itself to me before now - made even worse by the fact that I came to Australia and the band announced a UK tour with a date in Glasgow. So when I found out that they were coming to play in Sydney in March it seemed like a no-brainer! The only problem proved to be finding someone to go along with me, since they aren't exactly a mainstream, popular band which is strange given how fantastic they are. Eventually, Jessica and I decided to help each other out and she agreed to come and see Queens of the Stone Age with me as long as I would accompany her to go and see Paramore, which sounded like a fair deal to me; tickets were bought for both gigs and another two dates were added to the diary!

As far as the exams themselves went, gladly both Anti-Discrimination and Intellectual Property produced no major issues and I was quite happy with my submitted papers in each. Again, the invigilators were a bit intense in the Anti-Discrimination exam, although there was almost an element of "good cop/bad cop" going on, which was quite amusing. Whilst on the one hand, one of the invigilators told us that even though the exam was open book, she would still need us to avoid communication with other students. I thought that silence was an obvious requirement, but she seemed very relaxed about the whole thing. In stark contrast however, her colleague was like a Gestappo Officer and insisted upon silence even before the papers had been handed out and was enforcing a rule where no water bottles were allowed on desks. You can't help but feel that some greater common sense could be applied in these situations.

Friday, 22nd November was the date of my final exam and whilst it started at 9am, that turned out to be the only occasion where I was in uni before 10am during the entire semester. Rather good when compared to Glasgow where you might have two or three 9am lectures or tutorials every week. Since I had opted to complete the optional assignment some weeks earlier, my final exam was only one hour long and the time raced by as my wrist ached from the relentless scribbling. Sometimes law exams can feel more like a test of writing endurance rather than actual legal knowledge. Afterwards, I left campus, enjoying the warmth of a quintessential Sydney afternoon, looking forward to the prospect of a whole summer to simply immerse myself in the surroundings of my current home, free from lectures, exams, essays and deadlines.

On my way home, I stopped by Woolworths and bought a couple of cans of Irn Bru as a post-exam treat - a true taste of home!

After returning to the flat, having some lunch and getting changed, I headed to the Broadway Shopping Centre in order to hand my signed contract into Jeanswest. I was looking forward to having a job again and the money was very welcome too. I'm certainly earning far more here than I would have done working the same hours back home which is great! Once my paperwork had been sorted out and a few of my questions answered, I headed home excitedly looking forward to playing football later. Relentless studying and exams meant that there hadn't been too many opportunities to play in the past few weeks and even though the weather forecast wasn't too great, I certainly wasn't going to be deterred by the prospect of getting wet. Earlier in the week, the Ashes series had began up the coast in Brisbane, as Australia took on England at the Gabba, so I spent the early afternoon on Friday relaxing in the living room, watching Australia take charge of the first test. After lunch, I got changed and ready to leave for the football; the weather had largely held off during the afternoon, but it didn't take long before the clouds moved over and the rain started; a light shower as we began playing got gradually heavier and heavier until large, black storm clouds dominated the sky above us and the sound of roaring thunder filled the air. We were already soaked through to the skin and as such the decision was made to continue playing for a while longer. However it was becoming increasingly difficult to play properly, as the ground became water-logged and the ball was slippery and difficult to control - we called it quits shortly afterwards. Luckily, I had brought along a change of clothes and a waterproof jacket, so I was able to get changed into some dry gear, stick my jacket on and began running home. The plan for the evening was to meet up with Alex and Jessica to go out for a drink and celebrate the end of semester and completion of our exams. As I was running home, I bumped into Alex, who had also been drenched by the rain storm overhead on his way home from the gym. The pounding rain wasn't stopping anytime soon, so we didn't stick around to chat for very long; we agreed to meet up later at Bar Broadway once we had been home, dried off and changed.

This photo was taken from the little pavilion next to the cricket pitch where we play football. It provided some welcome shelter to get dried off and changed after the game!

After arriving home and turning my bathroom into something of a wet-room by hanging up my dripping clothes and shoes, I had some food and headed down to Bar Broadway to meet Alex and Jessica. We enjoyed a few drinks and Alex and I spent some time essentially presenting Jessica with a sales-pitch for a MacBook, since her laptop had recently stopped working. My inability to get a job in the Apple store here is genuinely a mystery to me! Haha! We had been intending to check out the Agincourt Hotel for quite some time and finally decided to go and see what it was like; it often looks very busy and they advertise fairly cheap drink prices outside, so it seemed like a winner. When I approached the bar, the guy informed me that they did not sell their $10 jugs of beer after 10pm due to licensing laws, which meant drinks weren't really very cheap after all and furthermore, the place was full of Hells Angels-type biker dudes. Very strange crowd. I don't think we'll be back in a hurry. There was also a seriously heavy metal band playing in the basement downstairs; such was the volume and ferocity of their sound system, the chairs shook in the bar above. We only stayed for one drink before moving on to the Palace Hotel on George Street where we had another drink, walked home via KFC - which was awful, it has to be said - and got home to bed. I was shattered and in need of a long lie on Saturday morning.

We saw this painting in a pub on Friday night, which I thought was really cool. It's strange that it does not feel like Christmas yet. Though given that the weather is getting warmer, I'm not really sure it will feel like Christmas at all this year over here. Give me the beach over rain, sleet and sub-zero temperatures, every single time though.

The first weekend of my summer holidays ended up being quite low-key really, as I spent most of Saturday watching the cricket and trawling the internet in search of a local football team who might be looking for players. It's been quite a while since I played competitive 11-a-side back home (around 3 or 4 seasons, I'm sure) and I was very keen to get back into it. After asking some people on RedCafe - a Manchester United forum which I use - I came across the New South Wales state football website, which had a list of teams who were advertising trials for new players. Whilst many of the trials had already been held, there were one or two teams who still had upcoming opportunities for players to go along and try out for their squads; eventually I read an advert posted by Hakoah Sydney City East FC who had squad places for the under 20s and men's teams. The trial was the next day, on the Sunday, at Centennial Park, so I decided that I would go along. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching some more of the cricket, which Australia totally dominated - quite a change in fortunes since the last Ashes series over in England a few months back! At night, I watched a film called "Flight" starring Denzel Washington; he's one of my favourite actors and whilst it was a decent film, it wasn't one of his better efforts. Still worth watching, I would say.

I had another long lie on Sunday morning, then got up had breakfast and chilled out watching the early part of the cricket. Australia ended up dominating England so much that they won the Test after only four days, with an entire day of play to spare - crazy stuff! I cooked myself some pasta for lunch, in anticipation of the football trial later in the day, cleaned my boots and set off to catch the bus to Centennial Park. It was actually the first time I had been to the large parkland in the middle of the city, but it is quite an amazing place and I'm sure I'll visit more regularly in the next few months. The sheer size is possibly the most spectacular thing as footpaths, cycling tracks and horse trails wind between playing fields and around numerous ponds and streams. Since it was a Sunday, the car parks were all completely full as people enjoyed the weekend sunshine and high 20s temperatures with barbecues, beers and ball games - Glasgow Green, it is not. The trial itself involved the squad of guys who had turned up being divided into teams of 7 players and competing against each other in small sided matches and games of possession. In a strange coincidence, there turned out to be several Scottish lads in the team and three of the coaches were also from Scotland, which was very strange but also quite welcome as it was a great way to get chatting to people. I played alright I think, even though the afternoon heat made it a sore shift at times and at the end I was one of the players chosen to come back and train with the men's team. Happy days. I got home, made dinner and collapsed into bed.

This is a photo in Centennial Park. It's also where Avicii is coming to play in January, which could be tempting - we'll see!

After my early night, I was back up around 3am to watch United playing Cardiff. The game was crap and I dozed off again for about 25 minutes during the second half. We were leading 2-1 until the last minute when Cardiff scored an equaliser to snatch a draw; I was not best pleased and went back to bed in a terrible mood. I spent much of Monday doing nothing in particular, although I did watch the Broncos and Patriots NFL game on TV. It's pretty cool that Sunday and Monday Night Football coverage from the States is shown here and it starts in the middle of the morning. It's actually quite practical to watch the matches.

On Tuesday I had my first shift at Jeanswest, which meant all the usual training and getting to know the job stuff had to be done. The shift went by fairly quickly though and it was a fairly relaxed, casual shop to work in compared to what I was used to previously in Currys, so that was a pleasant change - although I'm not convinced that it might not become boring after a while. I also spotted a t-shirt which I decided would be bought on my next shift - I hadn't even finished my first shift and had already began mentally spending my wages! Typical! The first hour or so of my shift was also spent trying on various sizes, fits and shapes of jeans so that I had an understanding of the differences and would be better placed to advise customers. Apparently because I am tall, pretty much all of the different styles suit me, which was great news! Haha!

The first beach-day of the summer was instigated on Wednesday when I woke up to a super-early text from Jordan suggesting that we should go to Bondi. I didn't have to be asked twice and shortly after breakfast and a shower I found myself on the bus heading to the beach to chill out for the day. Scarily enough, Jordan only had a few days left of his time in Sydney and we had a laugh talking about how quickly it had gone by and all the things which we had done. The months have raced past, but at the same time we really have packed in so many things in that time. After a few hours lying on the beach, we headed to get some lunch at a fishmongers which sells fish and chips, except they also sell grilled barramundi or grilled tuna steak and chips - and it's quite cheap too! After battling seagulls in an effort to guard our chips, we headed back to the beach and discussed our plans for the rest of the week. We decided to suggest going to see the new Hunger Games film to Alex and Jess and maybe going for a drink or something afterwards that night. Since Jessica was at work at Bondi Junction, we stopped by on our way back to Sydney to discuss the plans.

Bondi Beach on Wednesday afternoon.

The four of us met up later at the Three Wise Monkeys pub on George Street, where we had a drink before taking the short walk down the street to the cinema. The Event cinema on George Street has a VMax screen, which means you can see some films on an even bigger screen and we were glad to hear that our film would be included. We weren't so delighted to hear that a student ticket for a VMax showing was $20, which seemed expensive even by cinema standards. The film itself was absolutely fantastic and I would recommend it to pretty much anyone; even Jordan enjoyed it after earlier suggesting it would just be, "Fantasy bullshit." Hahaha! It was almost midnight when the film finished and we all headed straight home - I got straight to sleep since I was getting up early once more to watch United. Even though we had plans to go to Manly beach the next morning, it was well worth the lack of sleep as my team won 5-0 away to Bayer Leverkusen - our biggest ever away win in the Champions League! Get in there!

We had planned and agreed to meet at Circular Quay to catch the 10.30am ferry across to Manly, however I ended up being late and we had to catch the later one at 11am. The journey was typically enjoyable as we sailed by the multi-million dollar houses and chatted about which one we might buy following a Euro-Millions win - it's funny how you can start to pick faults in some of the worlds nicest houses given an imaginary super-fund! Another great day was spent practically asleep on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and heat; I have to constantly remind myself that it is almost Christmas, since the weather just does not match up! We went for a swim as well, although Jordan had become a bit paranoid about jellyfish since his last trip to Manly when the lifeguards had told everyone to get out the water after a large group of a particularly dangerous species had been spotted in the water. Every single time something moved under the surface, he would be on edge. I swear he cracks me up sometimes! Hahaha!

After drying off and having some sandwiches for lunch - except Jordan, who outdid us all when he went and ordered kangaroo steak and sweet potato chips - it was time for me to leave. Since I had a football training session back at Centennial Park, I left the others to enjoy the rest of their afternoon as I headed off to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay. The football went quite well again, although unfortunately the final trial session would be on the following Sunday, which I couldn't attend due to Stereosonic. I hoped that I had shown enough to be picked for the squad in the first sessions which I had taken part in - fingers crossed!

After training, I caught the bus back to Central and quickly got showered and changed since we had planned to go out to Ivy that night. After a lightning fast dinner, I left the flat and caught the bus outside up the street to Jordan's flat where Alex and Jess were already enjoying pre-drinks - a very lazy move from me but I was in a hurry. We enjoyed some wine, played 'Ring of Fire' and blasted Avicii's set from the iTunes Festival - if you haven't heard it already, find it on YouTube because it is phenomenal! We caught the bus down George Street towards Ivy, walking the last few hundred yards and stopping off to have our photo taken with the big Christmas tree.

It was actually the first time I had been to Ivy, after a couple of previous failed efforts, however I honestly didn't enjoy it that much. The music was pretty good, as you would expect, but the crowd was a bit off-putting and there were so many posers that it was difficult to really have a good night. I did enjoy myself, but I've had better nights out for sure. We headed home around 3am with the intention of going to get some pizza, however we couldn't find somewhere which was open so it was straight home to sleep. The next morning I had one of those horrible experiences when you wake up and feel great after a night out and then slowly, but surely a hangover takes over - awful. Jordan suggested we go out to breakfast at a place called Toby's Estate, which is a nice little coffee shop and cafe near where he lived in Sydney but I couldn't eat anything. I'm also convinced we looked like the roughest three people on the planet and I will not be going back there in a hurry! After the failed attempt at breakfast, I walked home to get showered and get some more sleep before I started work at 4pm. Meanwhile, Jess and Jordan went off to do some shopping; Jessica eventually bought a MacBook - I guess the sales pitch by Alex and I worked quite well! The time before work raced by and I was still feeling tired when I arrived - although I was 10 minutes early for my shift, which was popular with the manager. Kudos to me.

After work I walked home, suddenly energised and excited by the prospect of Stereosonic the following day! Since Jordan was heading to the airport to catch his flight home early the next morning, it was straight to sleep for me after dinner. My alarm erupted in the darkness before 7am and I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. The plan was to be at Jordan's flat for around 8.15am to catch a cab to the airport, so I was careful to ensure that I wouldn't be late, arriving with plenty of time to spare before 8am. The "cab" which Jordan had booked turned up to be a black Mercedes town-car, complete with driver dressed in a formal suit and a hat. Not what I had been expecting whatsoever! We met with Jessica in the airport and found the desk for Jordan to drop his luggage off. Alex and I could barely contain our laughter after we had helped carry the bags to the airport and found out that they were supposed to be under 24kg! Just as predicted, Jordan ended up paying an additional $100 for the privilege of checking-in his collection of baggage. Once that was all sorted, we found a seat in one of the airport cafes and ordered a coffee, as we chatted about our time in Australia so far. I still don't think it has really sunk in that half of the time is nearly gone already. We said our goodbyes at the security gate and made our way to catch a train back into the city. 

Once we had returned to Central, I headed to the supermarket to get some food and a few beers to have before leaving for Stereosonic. Jessica came over around lunchtime and we had a few glasses of the infamous Goon along with a bag of Grainwaves - the first crisps I had eaten since the carb-binge weekend in Cairns, but they are just fantastic. After a few drinks we took the short walk over to Central Station, which was packed with people who were clearly all heading to the same place as we were; the queues for tickets were huge and trains were departing the station every few minutes. We jumped on a carriage which turned out to be full of incredibly drunk Irish lads who didn't take long to start sing-a-longs to Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger. The journey out to the Olympic Park where the festival was being held didn't take long and it wasn't long before we had passed the ticket and security checks and made our way inside the main arena.

After queuing up to buy a drink at the bar - which had to be purchased through the use of $30 vouchers - we went inside the stadium to find the main stage. As we walked in Nicky Romero was midway through his set and the place was bouncing. Awesome!

After watching the rest of Nicky Romero's set and all of Sebastian Ingrosso, we headed back out to get another drink before the main headliners for the night. I took this photo just outside the stadium as the sun was setting in the background. Empire of the Sun were playing at the time but we only caught the end of their set after heading back to the main stage.

After Empire of the Sun had finished and left the stage, we waited eagerly for Calvin Harris to arrive. He was really the main attraction of the entire weekend and even though he had played T in the Park when I had been before, I had never actually managed to see him before now. He turned out to be absolutely brilliant and he totally smashed the entire set - he really was excellent! I've got a few great videos of Calvin, one of which I've already uploaded to Facebook but I am planning to create a compilation video of the weekend and I'll upload it on YouTube.

Immediately after Calvin finished his set, we were treated to David Guetta. Rather fantastically, there was merely a few minutes between one act finishing and the next one beginning, which is radically different to the way things work at other gigs usually. Again, Guetta was really good, but I think it would have been difficult for any act to follow up on Calvin, so it was a little bit disappointing. It started to rain towards the end of his set too, so we left a little before the end and headed for the train station. After having no food since the crisps at lunch time, a well needed McDonalds was enjoyed before getting to bed for some sleep. I spent the entire night struggling to get any decent sleep and must have only had around an hour or two at any one time. I spent most of the morning relaxing and having some food before it was time to get showered and ready to do it all over again.

Neither Jessica nor I had really taken too many photographs on the first day and agreed to try and take some more on the second day. We also got quite a bit more drunk on the second day and ended up snapping selfies on our phones at every possible opportunity, which made for some hilarious viewing the next day! Feeling a little worse for wear, it was decided to head to the Olympic Park at around 4pm with the intention of seeing Bingo Players, then Afrojack, followed by Above & Beyond, Axwell and finally Armin van Buuren headlining. We stayed at the main stage for most of the day, before leaving to go to the bar and get some food, though we were distracted and ended up going to one of the smaller stages where a guy called Andy C was MC-ing with a DJ behind him. It looked like everyone was having such a good time and even though I had never heard of him or his music before, it ended up being one of my most enjoyable sets of the entire weekend. Again, much of it was captured on video, which should be uploaded at some point. Afterwards, in desperate need of some food, we found a Nandos takeaway which was incredibly well appreciated. The food was genuinely excellent too and it was pretty cheap!

After having some food, we headed back into the stadium to see Armin van Buuren playing a headline set to close the festival and finish off the weekend in style. He also played a phenomenal set of tunes and there was a huge firework display around the roof of the stadium at the end. In summary, Stereosonic was insanely good and I would love to be able to do it all over again.

I'm going to finish this post with some of the better photos from the weekend at Stereosonic - enjoy!

One of the drink vouchers which you had to buy in order to get drinks from the bars.

Someone playing the main stage, I'm not actually sure who it is though. I think it must be Axwell though, given how light it still is.

I'm quite positive that this photo was during Calvin Harris' set on the Saturday night.

Again, no idea who is playing in this photo. Decent blue sky going on though!

Sober faces, outside the stadium between acts.

Jessica with one of the numerous topless, Zyzz-lookalikes who we spotted over the weekend. This particular bloke must have though the monkey costume was a winner! Haha!

Outside the stadium just as it was getting dark.

Looking over to one of the smaller stages, where we watched Andy C smashing it!

Armin van Buuren as he finished his set on the main stage. Superb!

STEREO, STEREO, STEREO-SONIC!

What a weekend!