Final week of classes!

I've got some time to kill just now before I head to airport to fly to Cairns later this afternoon, so I am going to quickly get caught up on the events of the last week.

Last Monday I had my usual full day of classes and enjoyed my lunch outdoors, enjoying the 31 degree afternoon heat. I've actually had lunch outside every day that I have been at uni, to be honest - it's a hard life. I spent the night after class chilling out and watched an Oasis documentary on YouTube which was interesting because I hadn't actually seen it before, although I thought I had seen all of them. I had a fairly night since I had an interview for Jeanswest, a clothing store with branches all over Sydney, on Tuesday. The next morning before the interview I headed off to the university library to print off the details of my employment references as well as a clean copy of my CV. Afterwards I also had to stop by the General Post Office in the Broadway Shopping Centre in order to have a passport-sized photograph to take along to the interview with me. The photos set me back something crazy like $18 which I thought was mental, but apparently passport photos are very expensive, since there isn't really any other option - there is definitely a competition issue there! See, that's an example of my legal education being practically applicable!

The interview itself went quite well and I tried my best to make an impression and participate. It was a group interview style process and involved a lot of group work and team activities; I hadn't really done a group interview before, so it was all a bit new to me really, but fingers crossed I did alright and might hear back from them soon. One minor issue though is that they told us the induction for successful candidates will be Friday the 1st of November, which is when I will be in Cairns, so I hope that won't be a problem. The other big news on Tuesday was the launch of Sir Alex Ferguson's new autobiography, which I cannot wait to get my hands on; it sounds like he has really torn into certain people and it should be a great read. If his first book was anything to go by, then it will certainly be worth reading, even if you aren't a United fan.

On Wednesday I had another day of class, the most interesting of which was definitely my Intellectual Property class, where I decided that I would quickly download and install the new OSX Mavericks on my MacBook. I assumed that the install wouldn't take too long so I started it during the 10 minute break in the middle of the class, however it obviously took quite a bit longer than that and I spent almost half an hour of the class taking notes frantically on my phone instead. Lesson definitely learned. The other big news on Wednesday was that the on-going battle between the Ineos management and the Unite Union had resulted in the Grangemouth plant being closed down - a massive blow to the town of Falkirk and an income-killer for many, many families. Some of my own friends who work there had their jobs under threat. Not a good state of affairs at the moment, by any means. On a happier note, I heard back from Jeanswest that the interview had been successful and that I had passed into the next stage and would hear more shortly. Great stuff. Oh, the other thing which happened on Wednesday was the announcement that Still Game would be coming to the Hydro in Glasgow next September for a run of live shows, which I was very keen to get tickets to go and see!

Wednesday night's dinner. I am a top chef.

Early on Thursday morning, around 5.30am, my alarm went off and I got up out of bed to watch Man Utd playing against Real Sociedad in the Champions League. We started really well as Rooney scored inside two minutes and we held on to win 1-0 - pretty happy with that result and another 3 points gained in Europe. The game also saw the first trial run of the 'singing section' at Old Trafford and by all accounts it was a roaring success. After the game, I went back to bed to get another couple of hours sleep. When I eventually got up, I had a shower and breakfast and sat down to start getting my preparation work done for my assessed Commercial Dispute Resolution class; it involved another mediation role-play scenario and this time I was the acting counsel for the vendor of a large retail shopping property. In a break from my work I also managed to catch up on Match of the Day from the weekend - I wasn't exactly delighted to see Jack Wilshere round off a stunning Arsenal move which will probably go down as the goal of the season. I cooked some grilled chicken and peppers with some salad for dinner and then relaxed and watched TV for a little while. Whilst browsing Facebook at one point, I noticed someone on my news feed who had managed to get pre-sale tickets for Still Game, so I went on to the website, signed up with my email address and managed to get myself, Mum and Dad tickets for next September. Superb!

On Friday, I got up and headed to my Commercial Dispute Resolution class, which went well and I think we got a pretty good deal from our mediation process. I would definitely say that CDR has been my most enjoyable class this semester and I have found that it is quite rare to genuinely enjoy every part of an entire course. After class I headed home, got changed and then returned to Victoria Park for the Friday football game. I played for around an hour or so there before moving on to St Paul's College to meet the other guys and played for over an hour there too, so Friday was a really good workout. Earlier in the day, Jessica had text around to suggest we go out for some drinks that night and the plan was decided to meet at a bar called Palmer & Co, near the harbour. I walked home from football, got showered and changed and caught the train to Circular Quay, before finding my way to the bar. However, by the time I got there - I was running fashionably late - they had decided that it was too expensive to spend much of our night and had left, so I caught up near the Apple store on George Street. We eventually headed back to the Noodle Festival in Hyde Park where we enjoyed some Rekoderlig cider and tried some Himalayan food - which was surprisingly fantastic! We began walking back towards home and stopped in at one or two other bars, before I landed in my bed shortly after midnight.

This is a picture of the Himalayan food. There's chicken and potato curry, with some rice and noodles underneath. It sounds like a crazy combination, but I didn't actually chose it, the dish came like that.

Once again on Friday, I was awoken in the middle of the night by my alarm which I had set in order to get up and try to buy the new Rosso Bianco Nero hat, which was being released at 8pm back in the UK. The company make Manchester United hats, scarves and t-shirts, but all of the products are very limited in numbers, so they are very desirable - even more so because they are really quite cheap. Anyway, I had roped in both Mum and Kerry to help try and secure one, which paid off when Kerry managed to buy one on her iPad shortly before the 8pm release time! Some panicked Tweets were sent before it was confirmed that our order had been received and would be honoured, so I was delighted. I found out later that the website had received 10,000 unique hits and there were only 100 hats available for sale - and I am now the proud owner of one! It will be perfect for cold days when I travel down to Old Trafford to watch United next season, which I am missing terribly!

Saturday was a very chilled day, spent mostly watching the West Wing and sitting around the flat. I was pretty tired from my late night shenanigans through the week and I knew that I had another late one on Saturday night for another Man Utd match, so managed to get myself an early night for once. Back home, Cameron and Ade were heading down for the game today and their excitable updates as they travelled down on the bus and had a few pints in Sam Platts was making me extremely jealous. The game itself was very poor for ages, as our team went in at half time losing 2-1, however we managed to turn it around and won 3-2 in the end. When Chicharito headed in the third goal to put us ahead for the first time in the match I literally did a silent lap of the flat, going mad, but being careful not to make any noise since it was nearly 3am by this point. There is nothing quite like grabbing a win from the jaws of defeat. Sunday was another quiet day, where I caught up on some household chores - getting the washing done, cleaning the bathroom and hoovering the carpets. I headed out to Paddy's Market for a while too since I needed some fruit and veg - it is much cheaper there than the supermarkets and I've decided to stop buying fruit, veg and eggs from the supermarket entirely. At night I sat and watched Zero Dark Thirty, which I had copied over from Max's hard drive whilst at home in the summer. It's the film which shows the USA attempts to locate and kill Osama bin Laden and makes for some very intense viewing at times - it's almost 3 hours long too, which would be a lot to handle even without the tense subject matter.

Monday brought more classes and afterwards I headed home, made dinner and watched the X-Factor final, including some decent performances by Katy Perry and Fall Out Boy. The news doing the rounds today was that Lou Reed had died; truly a musical legend, although my mum didn't know who he was. Oh dear. On Tuesday I had planned to go and get a suitcase and a Halloween costume from Paddy's market however quickly remembered that it is closed on a Tuesday. There was also a bit of a shambles sorting out the tour which we had booked in Cairns for Friday, so I ended up spending the much of the day trying to get that sorted out. By the time it had all been fixed, it was almost 3pm so I got changed and headed to the park to play football; I played a blinder and scored some nice goals. It's always nice when you have those days where everything you try seems to work. However, before the game I did have to stop by Rebel Sports to buy new boots since my Nike ones were finally at the point where they could not be worn safely without serious danger of broken toes. I paid $50 for a pair of Messi Adidas boots, which didn't please me very much and I'm planning on picking up some decent boots at a later date. For anyone who is interested, Ronaldo over Messi, every single time.

Another meal picture - this one was Monday's dinner. Go on, admit that you've never seen an omelette folded in half and quartered as perfectly as mines!

Yesterday was my last day of classes for the semester, crazily enough! Time has flown in! I was supposed to have one final Commercial Dispute Resolution class on Friday, but I had decided that it would be alright to miss one class, since I had only missed one other class during the entire semester across all the four subjects which I am taking. It has been miraculously good attendance from me so far and a bit of a contrast to Glasgow where often delayed or cancelled trains, bad weather and long lies(!) can get in the way of making some classes. I was very pleased knowing that the next time I will have a class at uni will be in March - quite unbelievable seeing as it's not even November yet - just! After class I walked home to get my bag packed and other things all sorted out for going to Cairns! Passport looked out, flight ticket printed off, suncream packed.

This morning I woke up around 10 minutes before my alarm was due to go off, which is just the worst - you can't really go back to sleep but similarly you don't want to actually get up earlier than you had already planned. However, a quick browse of Twitter and Facebook, as well as checking the latest scores from the League Cup games which had went to extra time, meant that it was soon time to actually get up. I headed downstairs to go to the shops and get some milk for breakfast, but rather than heading to the local shop across the street which is a complete rip-off, I headed to the new Woolworths which opened today at Central Park. Once inside I realised that it was quite a fancy new place they had built and there were lots of security guards and people in smart attire milling around, then there was me in shorts, hoodie and flip-flops, not long out of bed and not even showered yet. Upon getting my milk in the supermarket, I was handed a free goody-bag at the front of the store which contained some chocolate, fruit, a bottle of water and a pen. The chocolate was eaten before I reached home. After having breakfast, a shower and a shave I headed down to Paddy's Market to try and find a Halloween costume for going out in Cairns tonight. After having several ideas which I quickly dismissed, I managed to find myself a Chicago Bulls basket ball shirt and a snapback - costume sorted! I returned home, packed the remainder of my bag and I'm now writing this before we leave for the airport. I think we might go back to Central Park first though to get a free burrito which one of the food places is handing out today. As students, free food is not to be shunned.

Oh, I also called Jeanswest back and they told me that I have to provide them with email addresses for my references since the time difference means that they can't phone overseas contacts. Once my references are all sorted though then there is a position open for me and they should have a contract ready next week. Furthermore, they've pushed the induction date back to next Friday which means I can actually attend it and I should be officially employed once again in the next week or two! I cannot wait to have some spare pocket money once more!

The next blog post should hopefully be one of the best, with lots of exciting things going on and plenty good pictures. Apologies that nearly all the photos in this post are food, I simply haven't taken many photos in the past week or so, but hopefully the next blog will make up for it! I need to leave soon - buzzing!!

Until next time,
Jamie

A long overdue catch-up!

This post is likely to be quite long and also quite patchy in places since it's been almost two weeks since I've written an update, so there may prove to be some difficulties in remembering everything that has been happening in the mean time. 

My last post was Tuesday, 8th October and since there was a law school reading week it meant no classes until the following Monday, however on Wednesday there was an optional revision lecture in my IP class. There was strong internal conflict of whether to attend it or not, but eventually I got the preparation work done and went along; I was quite happy that I did since it turned out to be quite useful in covering some of the more difficult issues of the course. I hope that my eventual decision to put a bit of effort in even where none was required might pay off when it comes to exam time! After class I headed to the Post Office on campus to enquire about the cost of posting my football boots back to Sports Direct in the UK because they had burst open around the front seam on the right boot after only three months of use! I sent a firmly worded email to the customer service department and they suggested that I post the boots back for inspection - clearly, they didn't read my email properly and missed that part where I said I was currently in Australia since they provided me with a free-post address which only works within the United Kingdom. It turns out that the cost to ship the boots home would have been around £50, which seemed crazy since the boots were only worth a little over £50 themselves. I emailed Sports Direct once more and suggested that a refund may be more appropriate, which was then sorted out for me. I'm now looking forward to going to find myself a new pair of boots. I also spotted these Harley Davidson motorcycles, parked just outside the Quadrangle at uni - very cool!

On Thursday the weather was supposed to be excellent - as warm as it had been since I arrived in Australia - so Jordan, Jessica, Alex and I decided to head to Manly Beach. Although they had each been previously, it was my first time venturing over to the other side of the harbour and I enjoyed the short ferry ride from Circular Quay, taking in views of some truly amazing houses on the waterfront. The temperature was around 35 celsius for most of the day, but the water provided a welcome cool down; it was actually the first time I had been swimming in the sea in Australia - taken me long enough! We headed to a little burger place for lunch which did a deal on Tuesday and Thursday where you can get a burger, fries and a drink for $10 - the burgers are great and the portion of chips is almost too large to finish comfortably, but of course I managed them. After another hour or two at the beach, we got changed and headed back towards the ferry terminal, although we stopped at the Four Pines Micro Brewery before catching the boat back to Sydney. The beer sold in the pub is brewed at Manly and they have a range of different beer types as well as some ciders - they do offer a taster selection, however I opted for a pint of Pale Ale which was fantastic! Might just have to make time and go back to try the taster menu I think! We headed back on the ferry and then caught the free bus from Circular Quay to Central Station; Jordan headed off to go and meet his friends from the airport who were arriving from Brisbane whilst Alex and I went to the Prince Alfred Park to relax at the swimming pool for the rest of the afternoon.

It's a hard life!

Here is a picture outside the brewery and then one of Alex and Jordan enjoying a beer at the Four Pines Brewery, in Manly.

On Friday, I spent most of the day just chilling out in the flat after having a long lie. I've started watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix, which is alright but it isn't great - I really need to find another good TV show to watch. The plan on Friday night was potentially to go to Jordan and Connor's place for a party, but Alex, Jessica and I met up for a drink before we headed there. We went to Bar Broadway, just near my flat, then went to a liquor store to pick up some wine for the night - I also spotted a bottle of the Four Pines Brewery Stout which Jordan enjoys so I bought him a bottle. Unfortunately, they didn't have the Pale Ale which I prefer, which was a shame. Jordan's friends, Joe and Tiffany, from back home in America were there since they were visiting from Brisbane for the weekend and Connor also had three friends over who he also knew from back home - Alex and Mike also joined us too. The night was really good and I think everyone had an enjoyable night - I was a bit worse for wear the next morning, so it must have been a big night. Moving on.

The plan for Saturday was to go to Coogee and spend the day at the beach - another place which I was yet to visit. Most of the people who had been at the party the night before came along and it was another scorching day. It was great to just chill out and relax on the beach; although I did go in the water and have a swim for a bit, I spent most of the day half-asleep on my beach towel with my iPod playing. Afterwards, we caught the bus back to Central, although we ended up on a bus which took us to Newtown, where the driver informed us that it would be the last stop. We got off and headed towards the train station to take the short journey to Central using an alternative mode of transport, only to find that the trains were not running due to track works - some orientation work was required but we soon found the correct temporary bus stop to take us back towards home. Whilst waiting on the bus, an Australian bloke approached us to ask for directions, to which we did our best but pointed out that we were not locals and should really have been asking him for the directions. He said he was from Tasmania and asked where we all came from - which was a bit odd since Mike was wearing an 'I Am Canadian' t-shirt. Seriously. The conversation went something like this;

Tasmanian bloke: "Ahhh where you all from?!"

Connor: "Some of us are from the United States..."

Mike: "I'm from Canada, as you can see." (pointing towards his t-shirt)

Tasmanian bloke: "Woah! How's that going?"

Connor: "It's alright."

This was followed by 30 seconds of total silence as we looked at the guy and he looked at Connor, each waiting for someone to say something. Mike and I just gutted ourselves laughing and the guy walked off; it was such a strange experience and the guy had such a weird, uneasy manner about him. In hindsight, it won't seem very funny to anyone reading this, but I'll always look back and remember the total awkwardness of the entire situation - it still makes me laugh now, just replaying it in my head. 

Anyway, here is a picture from Coogee. 

On Saturday night we headed to Darling Harbour to watch the fireworks again, which was actually quite enjoyable. I think when there is less expectation with fireworks the better they are - realistically, firework displays are all a bit too similar really. Afterwards, we headed to the Noodle Festival in Hyde Park, near the city centre, where there is currently lots of market stalls set up with hundreds of tables and chairs set up, under fantastic lights as well as a DJ playing chilled house music. It's all very cool and we were all starving after rushing out after returning from the beach without any dinner, so the noodles were very much appreciated. Once we had eaten, we walked to a bar called Shady Pines which Mike had been to before and highly recommended - it was on Oxford Street, where most of the gay bars are in Sydney, but I took his word for it. On the way, we walked through some 'modern art' in Hyde Park - essentially a whole load of mirrored columns with lights on them, which make for a very strange experience, especially at night! It turned out that the bar was excellent and we decided we would definitely return another time. Later on, a different place was suggested which had a stage where a live band was playing, as well as a dance floor where the DJ had some awesome song selections - including the Bee Gees, which proved to be popular! However, far and away the strangest thing about this place - which I cannot remember the name of - was the glass room which separated the two halves of the building and contained a large, bald headed man dressed up in stockings and twirling feather boas. People were queuing to have photos taken with him and every now and then he would come up to the glass which looked into the dance floor and make scary faces in the darkness. It was all very weird and certainly not anything like I had ever seen in a bar or a club before. I also wasn't brave enough to snap a picture of him, so imagination will have to do the work.

On Sunday I just chilled out and watched TV really - totally lazy day which was well needed after a busy weekend. I also had the exciting prospect of having to go back to classes on Monday, which meant I had to get some work done for those as well. Mum text me some pictures of the illuminations at Blackpool - I'm not really sure why they have chosen to spend a few days of the October holidays in Blackpool because I'm quite sure they hate the place, but there you go. I was delighted to hear that they had spotted a convoy of Focus RS's driving along the promenade but when I asked to see some photos my excitement turned to disappointment upon learning that between mum, dad and Kerry, they hadn't managed to get on single photo which wasn't fuzzy. Some photography classes could be in order for that lot!

Monday brought around the harsh reality of classes once again; the day dragged on and I was very pleased to get home and chill out. The weather had also taken a cold turn and I realised that I am now totally acclimatised to Sydney temperatures when I was wishing I had brought my parka from home and it was only 14 degrees celsius. How times have changed. On Tuesday I spent most of the day writing my Competition Law essay which was due on Friday, as well as doing some more work for Wednesday's classes. I was really looking forward to getting this essay done since it was the last piece of submitted work which I had to hand in before the exams, and it also meant the last deadline which had to be met before our trip to Cairns! On Tuesday afternoon I went to Victoria Park to play football with the Soccer Society lads and got some promising news on the employment front - my friend, Ash, from football works in Harvey Norman at Bondi Junction and he had said to his manager that I was looking for a job. It turns out that the manager is looking for some temporary Christmas staff and I've since passed my CV on to him - so fingers crossed I will soon be earning some pocket money! 

The next day was another long day full of classes, although the pain was subsided somewhat by the news that Still Game is coming back! Fantastic to hear that we are going to be treated to some more of the best comedy on TV! Afterwards, I headed home, made dinner and watched some more of Orange is the New Black before heading to bed - almost finished it already, so needing another thing to watch once more. Thursday meant that I had one full day to get my essay done before the deadline on Friday, so I spent most of the day indoors working behind my laptop screen - always a chore. There were some quite serious bush fires around New South Wales on Thursday, which caused the sky over the city to be filled with smoke, which had an eerie orange glow as the sun shone through behind it - very apocolyptic-like. I didn't manage to go out to get some good photos myself, since I was inside doing my essay all day, but I got this one from the window in the flat, and my iPhone weather app told me there was "smoke" which was quite cool! Also heard the news that mum and dad have been looking at a new motorhome - which is a fairly regular activity, to be fair - but it seems like this time it might actually be happening and the current RV may be going after 7 years. We'll wait and see, I guess!

Most of the smoke had dispersed from the skies by Friday morning, but we kept the windows in the flat closed regardless, to save the place getting all dusty - although the fires raged on and even made the news back home in the UK. Must be serious! I headed to my Commercial Dispute Resolution class, then to the library to print off my essay before handing it in to the Law building. It was a fantastic relief to have it handed in, so I went and had some lunch before heading back out to play football in the afternoon. 

I was planning on probably having a quiet night after the football, however Mike and Jordan texted me to find out if I wanted to go out to Shady Pines - the pub on Oxford Street - again, along with Connor. I didn't take a lot of convincing and said they should head over to mines to meet up and have a drink before we headed out. We caught the train from Central to Town Hall and made the short walk across Hyde Park to Oxford Street. We had a strange experience in the line whilst waiting to get in, as a random girl approached us and asked us to keep an eye out for her Asian friend called Peter, who was very drunk, and asked us if we saw him to shout him over and take him into the bar with us. We were quite confused and asked her why she wasn't going to look for her friend herself, to which she responded that she was going back inside and didn't want to stand around waiting. Fairly poor friend, I thought; we never did see Peter either. Again, we had a great night in the Shady Pines - I'm not quite sure why I enjoy the place so much, but it is a great little pub. It's in a strange location and you would never even know it was there if you simply walked by; when you venture inside, you are immediately struck by how dark it is and your eyes take a second to adjust to the dim light. The whole place is quite small and lit simply by candle light, whilst you can't help but notice the enormous moose head and sets of antlers which adorn the walls - the place has character, certainly. There is also a beer menu which would put most wine lists to shame, as well as a fine collection of whiskeys and bourbons. The music is also very appropriate and we enjoyed some Bruce Springsteen tracks - although the highlight was the entire place singing along to 'Sweet Caroline'. What a great bar! 

Here is a picture of Jordan with potentially the most feminine drink on the menu, in the Shady Pines! Haha!

After a long night, which ended up in the Abercrombie, I headed home and got to bed. I will admit that the Abercrombie was really good, even though I have previously slated it and called it a sticky-carpet joint. I had a long lie on Saturday morning and spent the whole day eating and watching TV - I have started watching the West Wing on the recommendation of dad, who says I'll love it. It has a hefty seven seasons and it has been excellent so far, so I'm hoping I can really get into it like I did with Breaking Bad or Lost beforehand. On Saturday evening, a few of us in the flat headed downstairs to play table tennis for a while before dinner - I was totally shattered and could barely concentrate on the game, so got myself some Solo - which is like Fanta Lemon - and a Snickers out the vending machine and chilled out for a bit. I tried to get to bed early seeing as I was really tired and wanted to watch the Man Utd game at 1am, but literally could not sleep; the result of which was that I could hardly keep my eyes open during most of the second half of the football. I was soon wide awake and alert when Southampton netted a late equaliser though and willed the team on to get a winning goal, but it wasn't to be and we trudged to another home draw. It has been a tough start to the season.

Me and Khurram battling it out at table tennis.

Today I have had another quiet day after sleeping in until after noon this morning - must have needed it! I spent the afternoon getting some washing done and then cooking some pasta for dinner. It's also taken me the best part of an hour to write this blog post because it was so long since I last updated it - I seriously need to start doing it more regularly. 

Anyway, only two more weeks of classes until we go to Cairns and I celebrate my birthday - exciting times! Goodnight!

One month gone already!

Mum and Auntie Jean have been pestering me to keep this updated again, so I'm forcing myself to sit down and write another post. I have a week of events to catch up on, but it has been a quieter week really, so it shouldn't be too long!

Tuesday 13th August was the first day after my last update, and I had another chilled out morning after a long lie - no classes for the day. I feel like I keep repeating myself on this with respect to which classes I have but my mum keeps asking me which classes I have on such-and-such day and I don't think she's quite grasped that it's always the same yet; Dad correctly pointed out, "If she read the blog she'd know that!" After my quiet morning, a friend and I met for some lunch in Chinatown in the afternoon. I had sticky honey chicken, which was excellent and there was definitely a huge choice of dishes you wouldn't ordinarily see in any Chinese take-away back home - only solution will be to try them all out, I think! Before our food was served, we were presented with a little tea-pot filled with warm, weak tea, which was pretty strange and not particularly palatable, however I did drink a cup in pursuit of good manners. This plan was promptly wasted when the waiter practically ran over and filled my cup from the teapot once more - thanks for that, mate. Afterwards we bought some cakes from a Chinese bakery and ate them in the sunshine in Victoria Park - excellent afternoon, centred around good food.

Wednesday was another day of classes, however Competition Law was cut short half way through as the lecturer had a child minder issue; in truth it had been a long day and I was glad to get home sharp. I went into Coles on my walk home and did some more food shopping. I feel like I'm in the supermarket every other day or so, picking up odd items for the flat. Wednesday night was spent watching some episodes of Still Game after cooking dinner - I had totally forgotten just how funny a programme Still Game is since it had been so long since I watched it. I've stayed up late three nights this week watching it and I've seen nearly 4 full series worth of episodes!

Early in the week I also had a look around the University of Sydney Social Societies website to see what clubs and societies there were to join during my time here. I saw quite a few which caught my attention - mainly the Soccer Society (obviously!) as well as the Wakeboard and Water-Ski Society. The Soccer Society play every Tuesday and Friday and the lads I've been playing with the last few weeks play Monday and Thursdays, so it means I can play 3 or 4 times most weeks which is great in this weather! The Wakeboard and Water-Ski Society is something which I'm really keen to try once or twice before I go home but I think it's too expensive a hobby for me to be taking part on every trip to the water. Must get a job soon!

Thursday brought another long lie and a chilled out day before doing some shopping - again! - and then some uni work in the afternoon, followed by some TV at night. I caught an old episode of Australia's Got Talent, before the new series started on Sunday; it's a totally mad programme over here, Dawn French is on the judging panel and it's hilarious! Thursday night also brought about the FA Centenary match between England and Scotland at Wembley, but I decided not to stay up late to watch it since I had my 10am class at uni the next morning. Turned out that Scotland did alright and lost 3-2, but the biggest positive for me was that the United players did quite well. That reminds me, in order to try and keep any football chat in this blog to a minimum, I've started another United-specific blog to share my thoughts and views on the team this season and beyond. I'll post the web address at the bottom of this post if anyone fancies reading it. Friday brought my final day of classes for the week at uni and on Friday afternoon I met up with the guys in the Soccer Society for a game in the afternoon.

The plan on Saturday was to go to the Morrison once again so we could keep taking advantage of the $1 dollar oysters for the month of August and get some cheap drinks into the bargain. Afterwards, my plan was to meet up with the people from the Soccer Society once more to go to a different pub, not far from campus, in order to watch the first match of the Premier League season. However, I ended up going out with some mates to a few bars instead and arrived home at a pleasant 4am. We went to one place called the Scary Canary near Darling Harbour, which was a great little bar/club and I actually met a girl there who was in my school year at Beaconhurst - unbelievable! We had a great night and after a trip to McDonalds I arrived back in the flat to watch the United game; I managed to find an online stream showing the game, saw we were 2-0 up and decided that it was time for bed. Poor effort from myself, but it had been a long night, in fairness.

Sunday brought a bit of a hangover after our long night, and I spent the day watching TV - Australia's Got Talent and X-Factor were the highlights. I'd urge everyone to go onto YouTube and search for the video from Australia's Got Talent of the guy in the wheelchair who does acrobatics - and yes, you did read that correctly. It's amazing, go watch it! Today is now Monday and I've had another day of classes today, except Intellectual Property where we have a reading week this week. I came home after class, watched the new episode of Breaking Bad and made some dinner. It feels like this post has been a bit rushed and I've promised myself once again that I'm going to keep it updated more frequently to make it easier to remember all the things I've been doing. I'm not sure what my plans are for the rest of the week, but I also promise that I'll get a few photos for the next post too!

Today marks exactly one month to the date that I landed in Sydney, and I've had so many great experiences already - several months more of a similarly brilliant time would be great!

Here's the address for my United blog:

keeptheredflagflyinghigh.blogspot.com

Until next time,
Jamie