Some nice walks, Scottish food and Vivid Sydney!

After my weekend in Brisbane, it was back to uni on Monday morning. This stage in semester is always tough as you approach the end, seemingly just rolling from one deadline to the next and generally always having something which needs done. It's not much fun. The week passed by without event really, though I did receive the result from my Private International Law exam; I got 73% which I was fairly pleased with. Most of my time in between classes was spent reading and researching for my Criminology essay which was due the following week and had - at the beginning of the week - not yet been started.

On Friday, Jessica and I visited Parliament House near the Botanic Gardens in the city. It is the building where the Parliament of New South Wales is found; the state government being entirely separate from the national-level government which is found in Canberra. In truth, the building itself was a little underwhelming and whilst it is 'open' to the public, many of the interesting parts were closed. In fact, if it weren't for a large gallery of photographs which were being displayed as part of a competition, there wouldn't have been much to see at all. There was an extremely cool water-feature in the centre of the main lobby though.

The aforementioned water-feature and some of the photographs which were on display.

The Legislative Council Chamber, inside the Parliament building.

The Vice Regal Chair, in the Legislative Council Chamber. This is where the representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth, sits. The position is currently held by Professor Marie Bashir and she lives in Government House - which we visited next.

We walked through the Botanic Gardens on our way towards the Opera House, which sits just in front of Government House.

This is the huge glass, pyramid greenhouse which sits in the Botanic Gardens. Unfortunately, it was also closed on the day.

Government House is located within the Botanic Gardens and feels totally secluded from the city itself. It's clearly an old building, but also has some modern touches and the garden has a swimming pool. They conduct tours of the building on Friday each week and I'm planning to go back and see inside before I go home, since it looks amazing through the windows!

This is essentially the view from the gardens of Government House. Not a bad place to live, by any means. The Opera House is just behind the trees to the right of this picture. 

Afterwards, we headed to the Cafe on the Rocks and had cake and coffee. The lemon meringue pie was majestic again. Feeling suitably stuffed, we caught the bus back to Railway Square and headed home to book our flights to Melbourne and Tasmania. The plan is to fly from Sydney to Melbourne after my exam on the 21st June, then a few days later we'll fly over to Tasmania from Melbourne. After another few days in Tasmania, we'll catch a final flight back to Sydney, before Kerry arrives in Sydney the next morning. After sorting all of that out, we headed out for dinner in Chinatown. I had honey chicken, which was excellent, but Jessica managed to top that with prawns in black bean sauce, which was even better. We moved on to the Hotel CBD for a drink after dinner before Jessica caught the train home.

The next day, we planned to walk to Manly Head. Jessica arrived in the morning and we headed to Woolworths to get some food and grab a coffee for breakfast. Fed and watered, we took the ferry from Circular Quay over to Manly. It was a stunning day and we began our walk from near Manly beach, which was as nearly busy as I have ever seen it, even though it is now technically winter.

Yeah, winter...

Not long after we started the walk, we spotted this little penguin perched on a rock. Very cool!

At first, the path was dusty and rocky, as it wound through bush and scrub. There wasn't much to see and it was so hot and sticky. Every once in a while, there was a little break, affording pretty brilliant views from the cliff tops. We also came across some old army bunkers and gun turrets, which were quite cool.

Horizon as far as the eye can see.

In truth, the walking was getting a bit tiresome without much to see and I was starting to wonder what the fuss was all about in regard to walking to Manly Head. However, we eventually reached the other side of the peninsula and suddenly the whole walk had been more than worth it. I really feel that the pictures won't do the views justice, but I'll do my best.

We stopped and had lunch here, before snapping some more photos. Apparently, it has been noted that I do the same pose every time I have my photo taken in a nice place, but I don't care.

In contrast, here is Jessica acting like Carol Vorderman on Countdown!

We continued our walk around the cliffs before circling back and heading towards Manly again. Feeling suitably exhausted, we went and had ice cream and chilled at the beach for a while before catching the ferry back to the city. Jessica caught the train back home and I headed back to Iglu, eagerly anticipating the FA Cup Final and La Liga conclusions later that night.

Since it was International Whisky Day, Jack insisted that he and I head out for a drink. I agreed to one, so that I could get some sleep before the football started. We went to Freda's and enjoyed a really nice 11 year old Oban single malt. After Jack took his obligatory Instagram photo, we walked back to Iglu and I got off to bed for a power nap. The football was kicking off around 2am and I seriously considered rolling back over and returning to my sleep when my alarm went off to get me up. It's always much easier to get up when it's United who are playing; I was far less motivated by the prospect of getting up to watch Arsenal potentially win a trophy. However, the potential that they might lose was too good to miss, so I dragged myself out of bed.

Here is Jack in high spirits shortly before kick off. Needless to say, he was less enthusiastic when Hull City took an early two-goal lead. Oh, how we laughed!

Unfortunately, Arsenal got back into the game and eventually took the match to extra time, when Aaron Ramsey scored a winner. Over in Spain, Atletico Madrid managed a draw at the Nou Camp against Barcelona to win their first title since 1996 and disrupt the Real Madrid-Barcelona duopoly for the first time since 2004. An incredible achievement. After the football finished, I was faced with the prospect of staying up for another two hours to watch the German Cup Final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund or getting to bed to get some sleep. The next morning, when I discovered that the German game had finished 0-0 at full-time, I was pleased with my decision to go to bed. Sunday was spent doing uni work - the joys.

On Monday I had a bit of a headache, so I decided to stay at home and do some work on my Criminology essay rather than going in to class. There isn't an awful lot of incentive to go to class at this point in semester, especially when I have essays instead of exams in a couple of them. In other news, Man Utd finally had a new manager after Louis van Gaal was finally announced officially, although it was coupled with the bittersweet news that Ryan Giggs would be retiring from playing to become the assistant manager. I don't think his achievements will ever be beaten in the modern game. The ultimate professional and the ultimate legend of our club. I'm very glad he'll still be around though. I took another step towards the conclusion of my university life on Wednesday, as I finalised my dissertation subject. After much consideration, I decided to enquire about the possibility of building a question focused on contract law, specifically looking at footballers contracts, movement of labour and transfer markets. I was informed that it was a much more original idea than my original criminal law proposal and that it would be far easier to make this new topic stand out from the crowd. That's that decided then. After uni on Thursday, I spent a while (admittedly with the help of Jessica, which was very much appreciated!) cleaning my flat, ready for our inspection the next day. I have to say, I keep the place clean and tidy anyway, but the inspections are meticulous, so everything needs to be spotless.

Jessica and I had plans to tick another few things from our respective to-do lists on Friday. We caught the train and bus out to Bondi beach where we went for breakfast, before beginning the walk from Bondi to Coogee. I'd done the walk before, in the opposite direction, but was looking forward to doing it again, hopeful that it might be less busy than the previous occasion. It was another brilliant day and I snapped some great photos.

Breakfast by the beach.

Bondi beach in the morning.

Surfers making the most of fairly calm conditions in a bay just around the corner from Tamarama beach.

Here's me not far from the part of the walk which goes by a cemetery on the cliffs. Very strange.

When we got to Coogee, I jumped into the rock pool baths for a swim, which I had planned on doing for a while. It was rather chilly, so I didn't stay in for long, although it is winter. Try doing that in Scotland in winter.

After some time was spent relaxing on the beach at Coogee, we caught the first of two buses out towards Maroubra, where we were going to visit the Scottish butcher. After some solid navigating, we reached our destination and struggled not to go over the top on food from back home. Eventually, we settled on a steak pie, some black pudding and tattie scones. Superb! We caught the bus back to Central, eagerly anticipating dinner! We stuck the steak pie in the oven and made mash potatoes, carrots and gravy to go with it - all topped off with a couple of cans of Irn Bru! Amazing!

Needless to say, dinner was immense. Breakfast the next morning was pretty good too, as we enjoyed black pudding, scrambled eggs and tattie scones.

Saturday was spent in the library, writing my Criminology essay, ready to be handed in on Tuesday. After a good day of work, I headed home and had dinner, followed by some FIFA with Jack in the evening. I got an early night because I was getting back up early to watch the Champions League Final. Typically, given that I was hoping to get back to bed at a decent time so I could get on with my essay again on Sunday, the match went to extra time, after a late Sergio Ramos header levelled the scores. Eventually, Real Madrid banged in three goals in the additional time to win their tenth European Cup. I was pleased for Ronaldo and happy that Diego Simeone didn't get his hands on the trophy given his history with David Beckham and Manchester United. It was back to the grind on Sunday, after a long lie; more essay writing.

I was back to classes on Monday morning, although since some of them had now finished, I only had one each day. That meant I had IP and then it was off to the library again to complete my essay before the next morning. Gladly, it was all but finished by the early evening, leaving me just needing to read over my work for typos and spelling errors. I submitted it online the next morning and also received my grade for the presentation which I had made a few weeks previously in Criminology class; I got 8 out of 10, so I was pleased with that. In the afternoon, I had my penultimate Evidence class, after which I played football in Victoria Park, followed by some FIFA back home at night.

On Tuesday night, Jack and I were going to play FIFA but found one of the controllers was sticking. We took the brave decision to unscrew the back of it, open up the insides and attempt to fix the sticking button.

Incredibly, we managed to fix it somewhat, without it being as good as new and put all the pieces back together and it still works. If I were to apply for some sort of engineering job, I'd be putting that achievement down on my CV!

On Wednesday night, Jessica and I decided to finally go and see the Vivid Sydney festival lights. The festival has a huge array of lights, lasers and interactive zones throughout the city centre for a number of weeks each year. This building was illuminated to look like a large tree, with birds and animals living in it.

This is the Museum of Contemporary Art, near the harbour and it was lit up with an amazing set of projections, set in time to music. I thought the people with the cubed heads were quite Daft Punk-inspired!

Finally, the highlight of the festival for everyone - the Opera House!

Unfortunately, my photos of the Opera House aren't particularly good. After seeing the lights, we went for a drink at Opera Bar, though it was pretty cold, so we didn't stay long.

I woke up on Thursday morning to the news that Malcolm Glazer, the former owner and general parasite of Manchester United has passed away. The less said about Glazer and his legacy the better, I think. After getting up and having some breakfast, I began writing this post, since I didn't have any classes. There was supposed to be one more Evidence class in the afternoon, but I went to play football instead, which meant that classes had now finished in Sydney. The next time I'll sit in a lecture or tutorial will be back in Glasgow! The football started around 2pm in Wentworth Park and it was to be a full 11-a-side game against the Korean Society from uni. I started the game with a goal inside the first minute and doubled our lead with a second goal shortly before half time. We finished the half leading two-nil through my two goals and we were playing well. Some changes were made at half time and the second half descended into a bit of a shambles, with the score finishing something like 6-5 or 6-6. I'm really not sure since I lost count, amidst overriding fury at the incompetence of our defensive efforts.

I headed home after the game and went straight in the shower. Whilst you don't get muddy from making tackles here, you do get covered in a sort of dusty dirt instead. You end up looking like a coal miner, which is pretty horrible. Jessica had been in uni and headed over to my place afterwards; I cooked fish and chips and made apple crumble too, which was again finished within 24 hours! It must be good! We had a lazy day yesterday, spending most of the day doing nothing, except watching Deja Vu which is a brilliant film! Jessica headed home in the afternoon and I played FIFA with Jack for a while. Later on, there was a party on in Iglu and we played beer pong, which I won, for the first time ever!

Today has been spent in the library. Not how I would spend my ideal Saturday, admittedly, but needs must since I have a take home exam that needs to be completed by Wednesday. That'll be taking up the majority of my weekend.

Until next time,
Jamie

Sydney Harbour Bridge climb and a new job!

My last post left off from Friday, 31st January - another month gone, scarily enough - which began with a trip to the cinema. Myself and a few other residents here at Iglu had planned on meeting up to go and see the new Leonardo di Caprio and Martin Scorsese film, 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. Shortly before leaving for the Hoyts cinema, at the Broadway Shopping Centre, I got a follow-up phone call from the guy who had passed my CV on to his sales team, inviting me for an interview on the coming Tuesday. Rather pleased to have landed an interview, with the potential for a new job, though still wary about the legitimacy of the whole thing, I headed off to see the film. Since 'Shutter Island' - the last production from the Scorsese/di Caprio partnership - is one of my favourite films, I had very high expectations of 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. I'm very glad to report that it did not disappoint. Granted, it was one of the longest and wildest films I have ever seen, but it was awesome. I'll be clear - it is fully deserving of it's 18-rated certificate. After the film, I headed off to play football for the first time in a few weeks; I had been desperate on a game, though the effects of a week or so of excessive and indulgent eating and drinking whilst Mum and Auntie Jean were visiting were undeniable. Afterwards, I began watching Game of Thrones, on the advice of several people; 5 or 6 hours after starting the first episode, I dragged myself off to bed.

Saturday morning was spent chilling out before watching some more Game of Thrones for most of the afternoon. I'm not hooked on it yet, though it is very good, but I still think it will struggle to top Breaking Bad for me, personally. After making dinner, I got an early night since I was getting back up at 3am to watch the football, though once again I might as well not have bothered. United spent the entire game, in horrible windy conditions, lumping the ball forward and swinging in crosses against Stoke, who are one of the tallest and most physical sides in the whole league. We literally played to the strengths of the opposition and were beaten 2-1 in a worrying comfortable fashion. The misery was compounded by the fact that Charlie Adam scored the two goals; the very same Charlie Adam who couldn't get a game for the club formerly known as Rangers. Useless. (I know some people won't appreciate that Rangers joke, but it's funny winding folk up.)

Sunday was another quiet day, as I headed out to the supermarket around lunchtime to do get some well-needed groceries before returning to watch another handful of episodes of Game of Thrones in the afternoon. Later on, I caught up with home on FaceTime and was delighted to hear that there was a new series of Top Gear starting that night. Surely it's the best programme the BBC have ever produced, except maybe Match of the Day and even it has questionable guests and dodgy, incredibly simple analysis. Alan Shearer, I'm looking at you. Again, it was an early night, since the plan for Monday morning was to head down to Ivy for brunch and beers whilst watching the Super Bowl.

After a bright and early start, a group of us left Iglu and caught the free shuttle bus down George Street, jumping off just before Ivy. We had decided to book a table, in expectation of it being busy and it turned out to be a good decision, as practically all of the tables with a good view of the big screen had been taken. We ordered some American hot dogs and Budweisers and enjoyed an incredibly one-sided match, as the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos 43-8, a result which was never in doubt, seemingly.

Whilst the game was very one-sided and therefore not a great spectacle for us neutrals, it's fair to say that the highlight in the eyes of most of the girls in attendance was the half time show performed by Bruno Mars, who was great it has to be said. Whilst there was also a guest appearance from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, they only played one song and it later transpired that they hadn't been playing their instruments live, which was a bit disappointing. We headed home after the game and I played football in the afternoon, before returning home and watching Top Gear at night.

Tuesday meant it was time for my interview at the mystery internet company, though after some strategic Google searching, I discovered that the company was called Netregistry and they sold domain names, website hosting, web design and web security packages. It gave me a bit of peace of mind having some knowledge about the company itself before the interview, so I didn't get caught like a rabbit in the headlights were I to be asked a tricky question. I had a long lie in the morning, before getting up and having breakfast. It was unfortunately raining rather heavily, which was untimely since I needed to head to the university library in order to print off a copy of my CV and references, just in case. With no real alternative, I stuck on shorts, flip-flops and a jacket and headed off to campus, plastic folder at the ready.

In the pouring rain, outside the library on campus, there was some kind of filming going on, though I didn't stick around to find out what was happening since it was so miserable outside.

Eventually, it turned out to be a good decision though, since the guy who interviewed me had misplaced the CV which he had been given. The interview itself went well and I was told that I had a job - doing outbound tele sales to existing customers - as long as there was enough space and budget for me. A phone call would be coming my way within a week if there was a job available; I left happy with how things had went but not totally sure whether I would need to continue my job hunt yet. When I arrived back at the flat, Claire was over visiting, after arriving back in Sydney. We chilled out in the afternoon, before having dinner and I then finished season one of Game of Thrones. Safe to say, I'm pretty much hooked now.

Wednesday morning started off with me lying in bed, scrolling through Twitter, when I saw a retweet by Kevin Bridges which mentioned tickets for his show in Sydney. Springing to life, I jumped out of bed, fired up my laptop and got on Ticketek to see what was happening. It turned out that he is coming here to play the Sydney Comedy Festival in April, so tickets were purchased and I'll be going to see Kevin Bridges for the first time, right here in Sydney! Looking forward to it already! Later in the afternoon, I received a phone call to offer me the sales position at Netregistry, which I was delighted to accept! Then, a few hours after that, I submitted my dissertation question proposal form - which seems like a huge step in my time at university. Freshers week in first year seems like no time ago at all. After watching some stupid videos on YouTube, I got off to sleep with an early start ahead of me the next morning. Whilst nothing remarkable happened, Wednesday had been a good day!

On Thursday, Emma and I had booked up to climb the Harbour Bridge before she flew home the next day, whilst Jessica planned to also do the climb, but not until her birthday in April. Jessica and Emma had arrived back in Sydney from their trip the day previously, having left around two weeks ago. We met at Railway Square, where Emma and I caught the bus to Circular Quay, before walking along the Rocks to the Bridge Climb centre. We had a safety briefing and everyone participating was given a breathalyser test, which just required you to speak, "One, two, three, four, five" into the machine. I could barely keep back the laughter as a Scouse bloke went first, with the thickest accent I have heard other than maybe Jamie Carragher. It was spectacular. Soon, our guide - who's name I can't remember, but he was a bit strange - had us all kitted up, ready to start our climb and we set off. Even though it was fairly cloudy, the views all the way up were spectacular and it was great to get such an amazing perspective on the city I had been calling home for the past six months. We stopped at various spots where we had photographs taken; nobody is allowed to take any loose items, including phones and cameras up on to the bridge, for obvious reasons, so you have to rely on the photography provided.

Emma and I with the Sydney Opera House in the background.

Myself with the CBD in the background. One of the more amazing bits of information we learned on the climb, was that at the time of the construction of the bridge, the general post office building was the tallest structure in the city. The building itself can be seen in the photo below, though it's quite difficult to spot. The tall glass tower just to the left of me is the Credit Suisse tower, then around half way down on the left hand side of that building there is a clock tower - that is the old post office building. The Sydney Harbour Bridge really was a piece of engineering brilliance when it was built.

Myself and the Opera House.

Along the way, our guide gave us commentary in the headphones which were provided, which started off really great, as we heard tales about the plans to build the bridge and the history the harbour itself. However, after a while, it seemed that every fact he was telling us centred on either someone being killed or severely injured whilst constructing the bridge. Very cheery!

Our group photo at the top of the bridge.

Here is me at the summit of the bridge, looking remarkably like a clown in the daft suit. It made my mind up forever against getting a onesie.

After the climb, we bought some souvenir photographs and collected our certificates, before heading back to Railway Square to meet Jessica and we headed for some lunch. Afterwards, I left the girls and went home as they headed off to Victoria Park for the afternoon. There was another Iglu event planned for that night, where the plan was to meet up and head to a karaoke bar in the city. I had my doubts about karaoke, but after a few beers and some peer pressure, I eventually took my turn and smashed a beautiful version of 'Wonderwall' by Oasis! Haha! There was also a great team effort at singing '500 Miles' by the Proclaimers - apparently my authentic accent really set it off nicely!

On Friday morning, Emma was flying back to Scotland, which meant she and Jessica had to say their emotional goodbyes at the airport, around 4am, quite literally the middle of the night. Several tissues and a few extra hours sleep later, Jessica and I headed out for some breakfast. We headed to the 24-hour French cafe, which I had never been to before, even after walking past it numerous times; I'm pleased to report that the croissants were magic and I'm sure I'll be back. After breakfast, we took the short walk along George Street to the Event cinema to see 'The Wolf of Wall Street' - second time in a week for me and it was equally as excellent. Later in the afternoon, I headed off to play football with the guys at St. Paul's College. I arrived home to a text from my mum informing me that Vidic wasn't renewing his contract at United, so he would be leaving at the end of the season. His leadership and experience will be sorely missed I think, not to mention his sheer quality; he and Ferdinand were comfortably the best centre backs in the world for around two years from 2008. Awesome defender when in his prime. At night, I watched 'The Conjouring' which was incredibly scary, so it was followed by 'Shutter Island' before I headed to sleep.

On Saturday, Jessica and I headed to the pool at Prince Alfred Park - my tan was seriously needing worked on again. Jessica claimed that she swam a few lengths, however I tried to suggest that walking around the shallow end didn't exactly count - she disagreed. After stopping by Woolworths for some shopping, we headed back to my flat and I cooked up an excellent stir fry. Chef skills. At home, Mum and Dad were off to Edinburgh with the new motorhome for a week or so, whilst Kerry was away in Paris on a school trip.  On Sunday morning, a group of us from Iglu went to Pancakes on the Rocks for breakfast, which was absolutely fantastic but the portion was once again too large to finish.

After breakfast, we took a walk around the markets at the Rocks and Ghazi took an excellent group selfie.

Once we had walked off our breakfast, we caught the bus back to Railway Square, popped home for some water and suncream before leaving again to Victoria Park, for the Mardis Gras Fair. As expected, it was a crazy collection of people, wearing some mad outfits, including the shortest shorts I have ever witnessed.

Another strong team photo!

After dinner, I got off for an early night since I was getting back up around 4am to watch United against Fulham at Old Trafford. It was another crap game, as Darren Bent headed in a stoppage time equaliser to square it up at 2-2, which is how the game finished. In some ways though, I'm actually glad we're not enjoying too much of a vintage season, since I'm missing out on going to Old Trafford.

I awoke bright and early on Monday morning for my first day of work - to say I wasn't used to 7.30am starts was an understatement. I headed to the office, just off Broadway, with some time to spare and took a seat in reception. Shortly after, another girl arrived who was starting her first day at the same time as myself. The morning was mostly spent doing some training and learning more about the specifics of the job we would be doing; it turned out that we would mainly be selling website security packages to customers who already paid for website hosting with the company. The process seemed straightforward and after morning break, we were paired up with existing employees to listen in to their calls and get a feel for the way to sell most effectively. I was paired up with a guy called Charlie and after listening to a couple of his calls, he got me to take over and do one myself - which resulted in my first sale, from my very first phone call. I also made a sale on my second call and I immediately realised that I was very much looking forward to making some commission through selling once again. After I finsihed work, Jessica and I went out for dinner to the Italian place in Darling Harbour.

I worked again on Tuesday - whilst Jessica left for her trip around Asia. My job at Netregistry is Monday to Friday and 9 till 5 at the moment, which is great for making some pocket money whilst I'm not at uni, but it's a bit of a shock to the system After work on Wednesday, some of the guys at Iglu were watching Game of Thrones with a few beers, so we turned that into a drinking game. The night ended around 2am after a game of Twister and heaps of Jay-Z. Needless to say, work on Thursday wasn't a lot of fun, though I soldiered on and made a few sales regardless. In the early hours of Thursday morning, United managed a respectable 0-0 draw away to Arsenal - most seasons that would be a satisfactory result, though it really didn't do us much good in our current situation. I worked my final day of the week on Friday, before heading off to play football in the evening, which I had been looking forward to all week. The weekend was a fairly quiet one, though I did start watching the new season of House of Cards on Netflix, which kicked off with a truly shocking first episode - I won't spoil it, but ouch! On Sunday afternoon, a group of us from Iglu went to Max Brenner's Chocolate Cafe, where I had Belgian waffles with a chocolate and banana milkshake - it was sensational. Afterwards, we had a few drinks and ended up playing a few rounds of Kings, or Ring of Fire, or Kings Cup as people seem to call it here. It was another late night and Monday morning came around far too quickly once again. The only other news from the weekend was that Alex and I have booked up to go skydiving next Sunday - cannot wait!

It is now Wednesday again and I've been working on Monday, Tuesday and today as well. Also, rather unfortunately, since it rained for much of the weekend, the oval on campus was closed on Monday, which meant we couldn't play football on it. Tonight, after dinner, we've played some FIFA and table tennis, whilst having a reminisce over some mid 2000s British guitar music: Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, early Kasabian - top stuff!

That's me pretty much all caught up now, I apologise that it has been rushed and once again I shall endeavour to update the blog more frequently in future. The next post will include our sky-dive, so that should be something to look forward to! Either that, or this will be the last blog post you read from me...! Haha!

Until next time,
Jamie

Mum and Auntie Jean in Sydney!

The past two weeks or so have been crazy busy in the land of Oz, so I have decided to try and condense this blog post somewhat by just catching up on the main events, rather than a day-to-day account. It should still be fairly long though and there will be lots and lots of pictures to enjoy too!

Paramore and You Me at Six

It truly does seem like months ago now, but Saturday the 11th of January meant it was finally time for the Paramore gig we had been looking forward to since purchasing tickets some months ago. I didn't do much for most of the morning, then afterwards met Jessica once she had finished work; before heading for the train, we stopped by Mad Mex to get some pre-gig food and a Corona. I hadn't been to Mad Mex here before but it was excellent - just like Taco Mazama in Glasgow. We caught the train from Central out towards the Olympic Park, whilst taking some cruel pleasure in spotting the emo-teens who were clearly also on their way to see Paramore.

Once we arrived at the Allphones Arena, we made our way inside and headed straight to the arena floor where You Me at Six had already started playing their support set. I hadn't seen either of the bands before and though I had heard that YMAS were very good live, I wasn't too impressed - they were pretty decent but not great. After they went off stage, we went and grabbed a drink before heading back into the arena, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Paramore. Fairly soon, the lights dropped, the music started and the curtain dropped to reveal Hayley Williams on a huge big podium smashing out the opening lines to "Grow Up." The whole set was fantastic and they totally outshone YMAS; it was a really good gig and I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, to be honest.

I did also manage to capture a few decent snaps during the show.

The next day, we headed to Watson's Bay to spend the day at the beach. I also enjoyed my first Doyle's fish and chips - well worth the wait, it has to be said - as well as seeing a cruise ship sailing out between the two heads from the harbour.

On Tuesday night, Claire, Jess and I headed to the Rose Pub near the uni campus to take advantage of their cheap pizza night. We were out to celebrate Claire's final few days living in the flat before she headed home to Singapore, before moving back to her new apartment in Sydney. We had a few drinks and our pizza and took part in the pub quiz which was great fun, although we weren't particularly successful and relied on Google almost entirely for many questions!

Sydney 6ers v Hobart Hurricanes at the Sydney Cricket Ground

After spending quite some time in an attempt to find a cricket match which everyone was available to go and see, tickets for the T20 Big Bash League match between Sydney and Hobart were finally purchased for Wednesday. We headed along quite early, collected our tickets and made our way to the 'Entertainment Quarter' where we found an Irish bar and enjoyed a drink before the game. With some time to spare before the match was due to start, we headed to the stadium and found our seats; it had only cost us $20 each for gold level seats, as students, which was amazing value for money and the view did not disappoint.

The two teams warming up before the match, with a great view of the city in the background.

Unlike Test cricket, such as the recent Ashes series, Twenty20 cricket is a lot more casual. Music is played during most of the match and there are cheerleaders and lots of colourful flags and beach balls in the crowd. It's very American - including a Dance-Cam and a Kiss-Cam which were shown on the big screen! At one point, two familiar faces popped up on the giant scoreboard and we quickly realised that Jay and Simon from the Inbetweeners were in attendance. They're currently in Australia filming their new movie.

After the match finished - which Sydney won after taking a handful of late wickets - we caught the bus back to Central station and I headed off to bed, expecting an early airport run in the morning to meet Mum and Auntie Jean. However, after waking to the sound of my alarm, I discovered a message informing me that all of the flights to Sydney from Hong Kong had been full and they were still in the airport. Disaster. I immediately got up and started browsing the web for flights, but to no avail - at least initially. Eventually, after some hours of searching, various phone calls and attempting to create some kind of back-up plan, two seats were found on a flight leaving Hong Kong on Thursday night. I went to work on Thursday evening then had an early night, in preparation for heading to the airport at 7am the next morning.

Mum and Auntie Jean arrive in Sydney!

Another early rise, but at least today there was something to look forward to! I caught the train out to the airport and made my way to the international arrivals gate; after a short wait which felt like hours, my mum and Auntie Jean appeared and we had a big catch-up cuddle. Gladly, everyone was in control of the water-works and there were no tears - happy days! Haha! We caught a taxi from the airport to the hotel where they would be living for the duration of their stay, the Novotel at Rockford, next to Darling Harbour and the Chinese Gardens.

After they were both showered, changed and freshened up from the gruelling journey across the globe - they spent around 30 hours in Hong Kong airport alone - we headed out into the city to see some of the sights. We walked along a large part of George Street and out to the Royal Botanic Gardens, down the the Opera House to see the harbour and the bridge, where we stopped for some brunch at the Opera House Bar - which was enjoyed with a glass of champagne. Not a bad way to start a trip in Sydney. Once brunch was finished, we walked back through the city, stopped off at Paddy's Market to buy some fruit and then back to the hotel. The travellers were pretty jet-lagged and generally exhausted, I think, so we agreed that they would have an hour or two of sleep, whilst I headed home. Two hours later, I arrived back at the door of the hotel room and nearly had to knock it down before I got a response - both Mum and Auntie Jean clearly enjoying their sleep! We headed out for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Criniti's in Darling Harbour, before they returned to their hotel, still very tired, and I walked back to my flat.

It was a beautiful, sunny day the next morning, so the three of us caught the ferry over to Manly from Circular Quay. After taking a walk along the main street and wandering into some of the shops, we found a place to have some lunch before making our way to the Manly Sea-Life Sanctuary. Whilst it was considerably smaller than the other aquarium in Darling Harbour, I really enjoyed it and saw an abundance of amazing and unique creatures. Again though, the sharks were the clear stand out.

An amazing little fish, with zebra-style stripes.

Probably the best shark photo which we managed to capture - they really are difficult to get on camera.

After the Sea-Life centre, we spent some time chilling out at the beach before we made the obligatory trip to the Four Pines brewery for a beer. After our drinks, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and headed home.

Back to the Blue Mountains

Whilst discussing exactly what Mum and Auntie Jean wanted to see and do with their time in Sydney, the Blue Mountains jumped out as an early favourite. Although I had been before, I was looking forward to returning to Echo Point and Wentworth Falls, which had been so enthralling the first time around. We caught an early train out of Central Station, our destination Katoomba, almost exactly two hours away; not only is the public transport far better here, it's virtually always exactly on time as well. After arriving in Katoomba - having eaten nearly all of the food we had taken along with us - we first headed for a shop to buy more. Once the priorities were sorted out, we began walking out the Echo Point lookout, where you can see the Three Sisters rocks.

Auntie Jean and I with the mountains in the background - check how tanned I look here! Excellent!

It wasn't as sunny as the last time I had visited the Blue Mountains, so the blue haze was actually even more visible than before.

Mum and Auntie Jean with the Three Sisters rocks just behind them.

We stopped off for some ice-cream, before heading back to Katoomba and picking up a bottle of wine in Dan Murphy's to have with lunch - a drive through liquor store, still fantastically strange. We enjoyed some bread and cheese with the wine before catching the train a few stops back towards Sydney, alighting the train once more at Wentworth Falls. Apparently sick of walking in the sunshine already, the auld yins decided that we should catch a taxi down to the falls themselves to save us around another hour of trekking. The waterfall was just as spectacular as I remembered and it was really great to go back.

Wentworth Falls from one of the lookout points.

We also spotted this fantastic wild parrot in the trees - superb!

In hindsight, the taxi turned out to be a great decision since a huge storm passed over not long after we were back on the train heading home for Sydney. Much of the train journey home was spent sleeping; it had been another long day.

On Monday, I unfortunately had to work for almost the entire day, so Mum and Auntie Jean went off to see some more of the city on their own. In the evening, after my shift, I met Jessica and we caught the train from Central down the harbour where we caught up with Mum and Auntie Jean. We went for dinner at the Waterfront restaurant - where La Masquerade was still moored! My personal highlight of the evening was the 'chocolate tasting' dessert which was spectacularly good. Afterwards, Jessica and I headed to the Three Wise Monkeys for a few drinks.

Tuesday was spent doing some more sight-seeing in the city: Auntie Jean, Mum and I first heading to the Art Gallery of New South Wales which was a bit underwhelming, if I'm honest. There were some interesting pieces - mostly the older artwork - whilst the "modern art" was largely awful. You have to wonder how this period in art history will be viewed centuries from now; it's almost certainly not going to be revered in the same way which we view work from the time of Da Vinci, Rembrandt or Van Gogh. We also had some lunch at the art gallery and I had the unpleasant of experience of being served some salmon which had clearly gone off - luckily I realised before eating any and enjoyed some complimentary cake, as well as a refund. Not exactly what I had been hoping for from my sandwich. Afterwards, I took the three of us on a quick tour of the uni campus and we stopped by the pool at Victoria Park to relax with a swim before dinner.

Mum and I outside the main university building on campus - I swear we were both happier that she was in Sydney than this picture might suggest!

Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour

At some point earlier in the week, the three of us had booked a day trip to the Hunter Valley, where we would be visiting some of the numerous vineyards; the trip involved visits and tastings to around three vineyards, as well as lunch. I made my way down to the hotel where we would be picked up by the mini-bus which would take us to the Hunter Valley, around two hours away. It was another grey, rainy day - unfortunately there were a few of them when Mum and Auntie Jean were here - so the journey didn't exactly make pleasant viewing. We were told that there is usually a lot more to be seen, which we didn't really need to hear, I felt - ignorance is bliss, right? We eventually reached the first vineyard where we enjoyed some fantastic red and white wines, grown right there, on the outskirts of Sydney - and mostly only sold at the cellar door, not to be found in liquor stores or even restaurants.

Inside the first winery which we visited.

Some rows of vines, complete with an entirely untypical Sydney sky.

Some barrels of wine which we saw on the 'behind the scenes' tour at the first winery. Note the fashionista who got in the way of my picture, who's outfit was completed by the worst shoes I've ever witnessed. There are no words.

After visiting another vineyard where we enjoyed the two standout drinks of the day - a fermented Port-style red wine and a Creme de Vin - we stopped for some lunch. The spot for lunch happened to be the location of the McGuigan winery, one of the largest producers in the Hunter Valley and across Australia, where I bought a bottle of their Noon Harvest red. Lian had brought a bottle back to the flat when she visited and it was excellent; again, I learned that it can only be purchased at the cellar door, which explains why I have never been able to find it in Sydney.

We headed home having enjoyed a really great day, once more I slept for quite a bit of the journey back. Later that night, I met up with Jessica and her friend Emma who is here visiting from Scotland, we had some drinks at my flat before heading out to a place called World Bar at Kings Cross. I hadn't been there before but I really enjoyed it and we encountered some real 'characters' inside. At the end of the night, we caught a taxi to McDonalds and then back to my flat, staying up to some stupid hour. It was so late by the time I eventually went to sleep that I was seriously considering staying up the extra hour or so until the United game kicked off. When I awoke again, I found the game on the internet and watched Sunderland beat United on penalties to dump us out of the Capital One Cup semi finals. This season seems to go from bad to worse at every possible opportunity just now.

Thursday was spent nursing a hangover on Bondi Beach with Mum, Auntie Jean, Jessica and Emma, before I headed home to get ready for work in the afternoon. After work, I joined the girls again as we went out to Bar 100 and then Ivy; we didn't last long and jumped in a taxi home around 1am, all shattered. The next morning, Jessica and Emma were off to begin their trip up the Gold Coast.

River Cruise to Parramatta

Friday started with breakfast at Bill Granger's restaurant in Surry Hills, with Mum and Auntie Jean, where I had a 'Full Aussie breakfast' - my first fry-up, of sorts, in six months! It was well worth the wait and I'm sure I'll be back to Bill's before I fly home. Afterwards, the three of us headed to Circular Quay where we jumped on a ferry up the river towards Parramatta, and back again. The cruise took around 3 hours in total and it was interesting to see some different parts of Sydney from the water. Unfortunately, the sky was rather cloudy once more, so it may have been nicer on a sunny day - but on the other hand, we managed to avoid sunburn!

Full Aussie breakfast at Bill's - delicious!

We spotted some amazing houses along the river cruise, many of which had stunning boats moored outside them.

A huge pelican which we saw quite far up the river, towards Parramatta.

We also stopped off at a cafe in the Rocks where they served genuinely massive slices of lemon meringue pie. I promise they tasted just as good as they look.

Upon returning to Circular Quay, we planned on getting a different ferry out to Watsons Bay. However, there was some confusion over which ferry we were supposed to be on and we ended up taking the short journey to Rose Bay, where the boat about-turned and headed straight back to Circular Quay again. I gave up at this point and suggested we throw in the towel, feeling exhausted and getting increasingly crabbit. We headed home and I had a sleep for an hour or so, before heading back out to go and watch Nadal v Federer in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. We only watched the first set then decided to go and get some food - which ended up being takeaway pizza - and then headed home to bed. I was in serious need of a decent sleep.

Saturday was Mum and Auntie Jean's last full day in Sydney, however I had to work for a few hours in the afternoon, so they went off to do some final shopping. After work, I got changed and headed to their hotel in order to help them move to the other hotel they would be staying in on Saturday night; due to extending their stay by a few days and it being Australia Day weekend, they couldn't get a room in the hotel they were already in. The plan for the evening was dinner at the Meat & Wine Co in Darling Harbour, which I had heard good things about, as well as hopefully taking in the fireworks.

We were very fortunate to have an outstanding table, allowing us to see the fireworks without even having to leave our seats, whilst enjoying an excellent steak, accompanied by a bottle of red wine. An excellent way to end a trip in Sydney - it had been a fantastic and busy week.

Our view from the table at dinner.

Afterwards, it was time to go home and get to bed, since we all had an early rise to go to the airport the next morning.

Mum and Auntie Jean head home and we celebrate Australia Day

Up early again, I headed to meet Mum and Auntie Jean at their hotel; they checked out and we caught a taxi out to the airport. After checking-in at the desk and dropping their luggage off, we found a seat in a cafe and had a coffee. A short while later, it was time to say our goodbyes, as Mum and Auntie Jean headed off through to their departure gate. It was a strange experience waving them off again after six months, knowing it would be a further six months until we saw each other again and it felt odd as I walked away to catch the train back to the city.

After a brief tidy around my flat, I had a look online to see if there was anything interesting happening in the city for Australia Day and I came across a car event, described as the largest meeting of vehicles in the southern hemisphere. Well, that was a decision made. I caught the free bus down to Circular Quay, which was as busy as I had ever seen it before, packed with people flying Australian flags, wearing Australian t-shirts, complete with face paint and hats. It was quite a sight! I made my way around to Macquarie Street where the CARnivale started, stretching for at least a mile or two towards Hyde Park.

An incredibly well kept 1967 Shelby GT500. This particular car had won a couple of Australian national-level concours competitions around 2001.

One of the famous 1965 Shelby GT500E models, better known as Eleanor, from the movie 'Gone in 60 Seconds'. This car even had the registration plate 'LN00RR' and a paint job that must have taken literally tens of hours of work - it was gleaming.

An original 1971 E-Type Jaguar, complete with the registration 'JAG 71E' - very, very nice.

There were also some modern-day cars on display, the highlight of which was certainly this matte black Lambourghini Aventador - costing somewhere in the region of $500,000 US Dollars, depending on the particular specs.

After spending the best part of three hours wandering along the rows of cars, I spent some time at the markets in the Rocks, before heading back to Circular Quay and jumping on a train home. The evening was spent chilling out, before Jess and I decided to order a Dominos pizza to the flat, before the final of the Australian Open started. We sat on the couch with a few beers and our pizzas watching the tennis, which looked as if it was going to turn into one of the all-time great comebacks, as Rafael Nadal played on whilst two sets down and clearly badly injured. However, in the end, his efforts were in vain, as Wawrinka saw him off to win his first major title.

Here's a photo of our Dominos and Nadal having some treatment on his back.

Beady Eye

On Monday night I was off to finally see a Beady Eye gig for the first time; though I had seen them playing an acoustic set at the signing for the last album in HMV, this was the first proper gig. I caught the train to Newtown station and walked a short distance to the Enmore Theatre, where I had to collect my ticket. I was immediately struck by how small the place was and knew it was going to be a great night to see the band up close, in such a small venue.

The Enmore Theatre, beginning to fill up before the gig.

Liam Gallagher and Beady Eye.

Believe it or not, this is only the second closest I've ever seen Liam perform!

The gig was excellent; it had been a long wait to see Beady Eye and gladly, they didn't disappoint. Whilst their own catalogue of songs was great, the clear highlight of the night was when they played a couple of Oasis tunes. On this tour, they've usually been playing 'Rock n Roll Star' as well as 'Morning Glory' however on the night they actually played 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' and 'Wonderwall' - I couldn't believe my luck! I believe since splitting up Oasis, Liam has only sang 'Wonderwall' on two occasions: once at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the other here in Sydney. What are the chances, seriously? The band even played an encore of 'Gimme Shelter' by the Rolling Stones, which went down an absolute storm; it has to be said, I think Liam does it even better than Jagger himself, which is quite something. I caught the train home after the gig, another awesome night to remember from my time in Sydney.

On Tuesday, I slept in until almost noon, well in need of some catch-up sleep after my mad week. When I did eventually get up, I headed to Victoria Park pool where I spent most of the afternoon sunbathing and reading. Afterwards, I headed home, made dinner and began writing the bulk of this blog post, which has again taken me far longer than expected to finish. Yesterday, I got up and headed out to hand some more CVs around to local shops and restaurants in the hope of finding a job for the remainder of my time here, but I've had no luck so far. Although, after dropping by Dick Smith - an electrical retailer - a random guy approached me in the shopping centre to ask what kind of job I was seeking. We had a brief chat and he explained that he ran a business doing some kind of internet service sales and was looking for someone to add to the team; he took a copy of my CV and said he would pass it on the relevant people. A bit surreal, but I won't be complaining if it lands me a job. Last night we had an Iglu event where we had to wear Rubix cube colours, which led to some truly wild outfits! It was great to meet some of the new people who have moved in over the past few weeks though and there are plans for a few more events this week.

That's me all caught up now! I promise that I am going to start writing the blog more regularly again - even I'm getting sick of these huge posts which cover two weeks of events. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting things to share soon!

Until next time,
Jamie