On Wednesday morning, the Royal couple - Kate and Wills - arrived in Sydney with Prince George, though I didn't go down to the harbour to greet them since my interest in them is limited, to say the least. Instead, my day began by doing some chores around the flat before I took the short walk to Broadway to finally buy Jessica's birthday present. I had already decided to get her an iPod, but choosing a colour was proving difficult beyond measure, though eventually purple was selected. In the afternoon, I watched a replay of the Arsenal game from the previous night, which nearly bored me to tears and it wasn't long until I resorted to playing some table tennis with Alex instead. Funnily enough, this is yet another Alex; female and Australian this time - I honestly believe I've met more people called Alex this year than I have done before in my entire life! Once I'd had dinner, I returned back downstairs to watch a film - unfortunately it was "chick-flick night" and we had to endure 'She's the Man'. Believing the torture to be over, Manisha insisted on then watching 'The Hot Chick' so most of us headed off to bed!
When I woke up on Thursday morning, I had a text from Mum telling me that she and Dad had bought a new car. Having been looking for a new, smaller tow-car for the motorhome, they had settled on a Fiat 500S which turned out to be a really nice looking car, somewhat to my surprise. In other news through the night, Manchester City had drawn with Sunderland, giving Liverpool another boost in the chase for the league title, whilst Gareth Bale had scored a wonder goal in the final of the Copa del Rey to give Real Madrid the first trophy of the season, at the expense of Barcelona. Seriously, if you haven't seen the goal yet, go and find it on YouTube - it's immense. Apparently, he was clocked at a top-speed faster than Usain Bolt managed in his 100m world record run. Stunning. Later in the afternoon, I met up with Jessica, Alex (from Glasgow) and Sam to go for a drink after they had all handed in their take home exam for a class. We went to Freda's and had a couple of drinks before everyone headed home; meanwhile, I went to get some food before the Iglu FIFA Tournament later that night. It was also Ghazi's birthday, so the plan was to play FIFA, pre-drink and then head out in the city for the night.
Ghazi receiving his birthday cake, before the madness ensued.
It's fair to say that FIFA was very mixed for me personally: I beat a guy by two goals to nil, who plays competitively for money, but also managed to lose one-nil against Jack. I think he managed one shot on goal, after a long clearance which my goalkeeper completely screwed up and he subsequently rolled the ball into an empty net. Needless to say, he was rather smug and pleased with himself. I was far from impressed. After that shambles, we all had a few beers and then headed for the Scary Canary. Unfortunately, Ghazi and Steph had enjoyed a considerable amount of alcohol by this point and we were promptly refused entry. We quickly formed a back-up plan and made the short journey to Star Bar, where once again Ghazi was refused entry. Eventually, we managed to gather everyone together and headed home, via McDonalds of course and chilled downstairs for a while - most of us almost entirely sober, whilst Ghazi and Steph passed out on the couch together. We did manage to gather an impressive amount of selfies once again though...
I awoke feeling fresh on Friday morning after our relatively early night and I was amused to hear via Facebook that Ghazi was suffering a bit! Haha! The morning was spent chilling out and catching up on some washing which needed done; I also got round to wrapping Jessica's present for the next day. In the afternoon, I went to play football in Victoria Park, meanwhile Jessica was off doing the Harbour Bridge Climb and we planned to meet afterwards; I was joining her to head down to Como for the night and start her birthday celebrations. We caught the train from Central and flicked through the brilliant photographs she'd had taken at dusk on the top of the bridge - absolutely superb! When we arrived at Como, we took on the uphill battle from the station to arrive at her Auntie's house with burning legs. It was the first time I had been down to Como and it was already dark, so I didn't manage to see much of it that night, though I was to receive a quick tour the next day. After dinner, we watched the Avengers movie and just about managed to stay awake until midnight to see in Jessica's birthday.
On Saturday morning, Jessica got up early to FaceTime her family back home before opening her cards and presents. I'm happy to report she was pleased with her gifts from myself, which is always a relief! We kicked off the day with some champagne and lazed around for a while before walking down to the local Thai restaurant near the waterfront to have lunch.
The best way to start any 21st birthday.
The waterfront at Como - definitely one of the nicest suburbs of Sydney which I have visited so far.
After lunch and a walk around some of Como, the afternoon was spent relaxing. Later on, we caught the train back into the city, got changed and ready to go out for dinner. We went to the 360 restaurant in the Westfield Tower, which is the tallest building in the city and the restaurant is located in a large, circular room with floor to ceiling windows. As it turned out, the restaurant actually slowly rotated to give you a view of all the different parts of the city - truly a 360 experience! Amazing!
Excuse my scary reflection in this picture, it was really difficult to get a good photo because of the glass and the lights. Unfortunately, the photographs don't do it justice.
The chocolate brownie birthday dessert was only barely able to be finished.
Once dinner was finished, we headed to a couple of bars for a few drinks and ended up in StarBar; we vacated the dance floor around 2am and dragged our weary selves home. The next day was Easter Sunday, so after breakfast we boiled eggs and rolled them down a hill in Victoria Park like mature adults. Has to be said, it was fun and a great laugh!
Decorating my egg - "On the 7th day, God created Man Utd" seemed appropriate.
However, my work was vandalised - "Liverpool will win the league!" Highly unimpressed.
The results off the egg rolling. I'm pretty sure I won, though does anyone actually know the rules?
We headed back to the flat and Jessica went off to catch her train back to Como, whilst I started making dinner for myself. The evening meant that it was time for the Easter "Super Sunday" football marathon to begin. There was a decent collection of us who started off watching Norwich v Liverpool, which was unfortunately won 3-2 by Liverpool, however by the end of the Hull v Arsenal game, far fewer remained. Even later, by the time Man Utd were due to kick off, it was only Alex and I left and he left for bed soon after. Having stayed up and sat through over three hours of football already, I was really looking forward to the United game. It was the first time that David Moyes would be returning to face his old club at their stadium and I was hopeful that we would turn in a good performance. In reality, we were a shambles yet again and went in at half time facing a two goal deficit. I'd had enough and feeling shattered, decided it was time for bed. I awoke on Monday morning, pleased to find that the result hadn't gotten any worse, but we still couldn't make any significant impact on the match. Everton had made us look amateur; it was easy for them. Maybe this job is too big for Moyes, I finally questioned for the first time. Never before had I given up on my team and not watched the end of a match, never mind turned it off at half time.
After checking out the score, I dragged myself out of bed, got a shower and gathered up my football gear. The Soccer Society had a game in the afternoon against the Soccer Society at UNSW. We had been asked to meet at 10am in Victoria Park to work on some tactical stuff as well as set pieces, before heading across to the pitch together. Our preparation work was pretty good, but it was really hot and I felt like we might suffer from heavy legs by the time the game kicked off, having been out in the sun all morning. Personally, I would have chosen to be chilling out at home, but of course, you can't argue with the boss! We got some lunch together and then went to catch the bus out towards Daceyville, where the match was taking place. After a brief warm up, we lined-up and the game kicked off. The sun was properly beating down on us and it was really hot; we started quite well though and won an early penalty which was weak and missed. Shortly after, we conceded the first goal, followed by another two before we pulled one back after a nice assist by myself. In the end, we were well beaten and I didn't feel like I played particularly well - I missed two or three decent chances and though they weren't clear-cut or sitters by any means, I would usually have expected to score them. Poor day at the office.
Some of the lads getting warmed up.
Shaking hands before kick off.
One of those chances which I had. Just after this photo was taken, I stretched to get a shot away which the keeper saved with his face. I really thought I had managed to sneak the ball over him and get a goal, but it wasn't to be.
After the game, I headed home and relaxed for a while, before having dinner. We were planning another "pot luck" in the flat, where everyone cooks one dish and we have a buffet-style meal, though with a few other fancy dishes already being offered up by Lian and Lin, I only had to contribute a big bowl of oven chips and we still didn't get close to finishing everything. Shortly after finishing our dinner, I headed to my room to chill for a while, though my eyes were heavy and I was soon snoozing. I drifted in and out of sleep for a while, before waking and checking my phone to see that it was 4am - I was still fully dressed and all the lights were on. I must have needed it. I got changed and climbed into bed properly and slept through until 11am, which meant almost twelve whole hours of sleep.
On Tuesday morning, I woke up to some lovely photos of my sparkling, clean car back home, washed courtesy of Mum. It was much appreciated and it looks like she did a job worthy of my usual standards, which is just as well, otherwise she would have had to do it again! I'm only joking. Actually, I'm probably not joking. In other news, it seemed that there had been some serious developments with respect to David Moyes' position at United, since most of the major UK newspapers had broken the story that he was set to be sacked around the same time. It clearly pointed towards a press briefing by the club and before long the rumours were everywhere. I spent the majority of the morning reading RedCafe for the latest news and reactions, although nothing was official yet. I did also find time to make an apple crumble - I had a pile of apples which were going soft, didn't want to throw them out and apple crumble is by far one of my favourite desserts, so it seemed like the best plan. Even though I do say so myself, it was fantastic and it got rave reviews from everyone who tried it. It lasted less than twelve hours once it was out the oven too, which speaks volumes I think!
Later that night, Jessica and I were going to see Kevin Bridges at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown; she arrived at my flat around 5.30pm so we could go and get dinner before the show started. Quite literally minutes before we were going to leave, the news flashed up online: Moyes had been sacked. I have to say, as poor as we have been this season, it was still a surprise for him to have been sacked at this stage and at this point of the season. Time will tell whether it was a wise move, I guess, but for the moment most fans seem to be feeling much better about the future.
Anyway, we caught a train from Central to Newtown and made our way towards the theatre, stopping by at a small restaurant for a pizza. After queuing outside the venue, we eventually made our way inside and found our designated seats; it was very surreal to be surrounded by Scottish people and hear Scottish accents everywhere. I think it makes you realise just how big a place Sydney is when you see just how many Scottish people had come out to see Kevin Bridges - and he had a second show later that night at 9.30pm! Needless to say, the show was absolutely awesome and time raced by as he had the audience in stitches time and time again. I had heard a few of his jokes before from his last DVD, but the majority of his stuff was new material and it was really excellent!
I managed to sneak a cheeky photo of him, but it's really blurry! Take my word for it, that really is him!
Yesterday, Jessica and caught a bus north, around an hour or so out of Sydney to Palm Beach, where Home and Away is filmed. Incredibly enough, on the bus journey there, we met Camille - a friend of ours from France, who just happened to also be going to Palm Beach on that day! What are the chances?! Once we arrived at the beach, we took some photographs and gazed at the amazing houses on the hillside. We decided to walk up the cliffs to the lighthouse where we had some lunch, before descending again and spending the rest of the day on the beach, taking an opportunity to top up our tans once again! It was another scorching day and the scenery was spectacular.
Palm Beach, where parts of Home and Away are filmed.
Looking out to Summer Bay from Palm Beach.
Looking back from the cliffs and the lighthouse, with Palm Beach on the left.
A couple of dedicated surfers still waiting for a wave, even as the sun began to set.
I was getting a bit chilly myself by the late afternoon, so wrapped up in my towel.
We jumped on the bus back home, Jessica caught the train back to Como and I had an early night again. Absolutely shattered from our day trip to the northern beaches.
This morning, I had a long lie, after which I got out of bed and tidied up around the flat, then started writing this blog post. My plan for the afternoon is to get my bag packed and ready to leave for Canberra tomorrow morning; there is a group of us from Iglu heading down on the bus to stay with Chloe for the weekend. It should be good to see another new place and it'll be another thing ticked off the Australian to-do list as well. It's ANZAC Day tomorrow, when Australian and New Zealand military losses are remembered across the country and Kate and Wills are due to be in Canberra at the same time as us, so it should be a busy and exciting day! My next post should be full of photos and some interesting stories hopefully!
Until then,
Jamie
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