My last post left off before I sat my final two exams of the semester, though I was finding it difficult to concentrate on studying for my last exam after I bought tickets for another two upcoming concerts! I've wanted to see Queens of the Stone Age for ages now but an opportunity to see them has never presented itself to me before now - made even worse by the fact that I came to Australia and the band announced a UK tour with a date in Glasgow. So when I found out that they were coming to play in Sydney in March it seemed like a no-brainer! The only problem proved to be finding someone to go along with me, since they aren't exactly a mainstream, popular band which is strange given how fantastic they are. Eventually, Jessica and I decided to help each other out and she agreed to come and see Queens of the Stone Age with me as long as I would accompany her to go and see Paramore, which sounded like a fair deal to me; tickets were bought for both gigs and another two dates were added to the diary!
As far as the exams themselves went, gladly both Anti-Discrimination and Intellectual Property produced no major issues and I was quite happy with my submitted papers in each. Again, the invigilators were a bit intense in the Anti-Discrimination exam, although there was almost an element of "good cop/bad cop" going on, which was quite amusing. Whilst on the one hand, one of the invigilators told us that even though the exam was open book, she would still need us to avoid communication with other students. I thought that silence was an obvious requirement, but she seemed very relaxed about the whole thing. In stark contrast however, her colleague was like a Gestappo Officer and insisted upon silence even before the papers had been handed out and was enforcing a rule where no water bottles were allowed on desks. You can't help but feel that some greater common sense could be applied in these situations.
Friday, 22nd November was the date of my final exam and whilst it started at 9am, that turned out to be the only occasion where I was in uni before 10am during the entire semester. Rather good when compared to Glasgow where you might have two or three 9am lectures or tutorials every week. Since I had opted to complete the optional assignment some weeks earlier, my final exam was only one hour long and the time raced by as my wrist ached from the relentless scribbling. Sometimes law exams can feel more like a test of writing endurance rather than actual legal knowledge. Afterwards, I left campus, enjoying the warmth of a quintessential Sydney afternoon, looking forward to the prospect of a whole summer to simply immerse myself in the surroundings of my current home, free from lectures, exams, essays and deadlines.
On my way home, I stopped by Woolworths and bought a couple of cans of Irn Bru as a post-exam treat - a true taste of home!
After returning to the flat, having some lunch and getting changed, I headed to the Broadway Shopping Centre in order to hand my signed contract into Jeanswest. I was looking forward to having a job again and the money was very welcome too. I'm certainly earning far more here than I would have done working the same hours back home which is great! Once my paperwork had been sorted out and a few of my questions answered, I headed home excitedly looking forward to playing football later. Relentless studying and exams meant that there hadn't been too many opportunities to play in the past few weeks and even though the weather forecast wasn't too great, I certainly wasn't going to be deterred by the prospect of getting wet. Earlier in the week, the Ashes series had began up the coast in Brisbane, as Australia took on England at the Gabba, so I spent the early afternoon on Friday relaxing in the living room, watching Australia take charge of the first test. After lunch, I got changed and ready to leave for the football; the weather had largely held off during the afternoon, but it didn't take long before the clouds moved over and the rain started; a light shower as we began playing got gradually heavier and heavier until large, black storm clouds dominated the sky above us and the sound of roaring thunder filled the air. We were already soaked through to the skin and as such the decision was made to continue playing for a while longer. However it was becoming increasingly difficult to play properly, as the ground became water-logged and the ball was slippery and difficult to control - we called it quits shortly afterwards. Luckily, I had brought along a change of clothes and a waterproof jacket, so I was able to get changed into some dry gear, stick my jacket on and began running home. The plan for the evening was to meet up with Alex and Jessica to go out for a drink and celebrate the end of semester and completion of our exams. As I was running home, I bumped into Alex, who had also been drenched by the rain storm overhead on his way home from the gym. The pounding rain wasn't stopping anytime soon, so we didn't stick around to chat for very long; we agreed to meet up later at Bar Broadway once we had been home, dried off and changed.
This photo was taken from the little pavilion next to the cricket pitch where we play football. It provided some welcome shelter to get dried off and changed after the game!
After arriving home and turning my bathroom into something of a wet-room by hanging up my dripping clothes and shoes, I had some food and headed down to Bar Broadway to meet Alex and Jessica. We enjoyed a few drinks and Alex and I spent some time essentially presenting Jessica with a sales-pitch for a MacBook, since her laptop had recently stopped working. My inability to get a job in the Apple store here is genuinely a mystery to me! Haha! We had been intending to check out the Agincourt Hotel for quite some time and finally decided to go and see what it was like; it often looks very busy and they advertise fairly cheap drink prices outside, so it seemed like a winner. When I approached the bar, the guy informed me that they did not sell their $10 jugs of beer after 10pm due to licensing laws, which meant drinks weren't really very cheap after all and furthermore, the place was full of Hells Angels-type biker dudes. Very strange crowd. I don't think we'll be back in a hurry. There was also a seriously heavy metal band playing in the basement downstairs; such was the volume and ferocity of their sound system, the chairs shook in the bar above. We only stayed for one drink before moving on to the Palace Hotel on George Street where we had another drink, walked home via KFC - which was awful, it has to be said - and got home to bed. I was shattered and in need of a long lie on Saturday morning.
We saw this painting in a pub on Friday night, which I thought was really cool. It's strange that it does not feel like Christmas yet. Though given that the weather is getting warmer, I'm not really sure it will feel like Christmas at all this year over here. Give me the beach over rain, sleet and sub-zero temperatures, every single time though.
The first weekend of my summer holidays ended up being quite low-key really, as I spent most of Saturday watching the cricket and trawling the internet in search of a local football team who might be looking for players. It's been quite a while since I played competitive 11-a-side back home (around 3 or 4 seasons, I'm sure) and I was very keen to get back into it. After asking some people on RedCafe - a Manchester United forum which I use - I came across the New South Wales state football website, which had a list of teams who were advertising trials for new players. Whilst many of the trials had already been held, there were one or two teams who still had upcoming opportunities for players to go along and try out for their squads; eventually I read an advert posted by Hakoah Sydney City East FC who had squad places for the under 20s and men's teams. The trial was the next day, on the Sunday, at Centennial Park, so I decided that I would go along. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching some more of the cricket, which Australia totally dominated - quite a change in fortunes since the last Ashes series over in England a few months back! At night, I watched a film called "Flight" starring Denzel Washington; he's one of my favourite actors and whilst it was a decent film, it wasn't one of his better efforts. Still worth watching, I would say.
I had another long lie on Sunday morning, then got up had breakfast and chilled out watching the early part of the cricket. Australia ended up dominating England so much that they won the Test after only four days, with an entire day of play to spare - crazy stuff! I cooked myself some pasta for lunch, in anticipation of the football trial later in the day, cleaned my boots and set off to catch the bus to Centennial Park. It was actually the first time I had been to the large parkland in the middle of the city, but it is quite an amazing place and I'm sure I'll visit more regularly in the next few months. The sheer size is possibly the most spectacular thing as footpaths, cycling tracks and horse trails wind between playing fields and around numerous ponds and streams. Since it was a Sunday, the car parks were all completely full as people enjoyed the weekend sunshine and high 20s temperatures with barbecues, beers and ball games - Glasgow Green, it is not. The trial itself involved the squad of guys who had turned up being divided into teams of 7 players and competing against each other in small sided matches and games of possession. In a strange coincidence, there turned out to be several Scottish lads in the team and three of the coaches were also from Scotland, which was very strange but also quite welcome as it was a great way to get chatting to people. I played alright I think, even though the afternoon heat made it a sore shift at times and at the end I was one of the players chosen to come back and train with the men's team. Happy days. I got home, made dinner and collapsed into bed.
This is a photo in Centennial Park. It's also where Avicii is coming to play in January, which could be tempting - we'll see!
After my early night, I was back up around 3am to watch United playing Cardiff. The game was crap and I dozed off again for about 25 minutes during the second half. We were leading 2-1 until the last minute when Cardiff scored an equaliser to snatch a draw; I was not best pleased and went back to bed in a terrible mood. I spent much of Monday doing nothing in particular, although I did watch the Broncos and Patriots NFL game on TV. It's pretty cool that Sunday and Monday Night Football coverage from the States is shown here and it starts in the middle of the morning. It's actually quite practical to watch the matches.
On Tuesday I had my first shift at Jeanswest, which meant all the usual training and getting to know the job stuff had to be done. The shift went by fairly quickly though and it was a fairly relaxed, casual shop to work in compared to what I was used to previously in Currys, so that was a pleasant change - although I'm not convinced that it might not become boring after a while. I also spotted a t-shirt which I decided would be bought on my next shift - I hadn't even finished my first shift and had already began mentally spending my wages! Typical! The first hour or so of my shift was also spent trying on various sizes, fits and shapes of jeans so that I had an understanding of the differences and would be better placed to advise customers. Apparently because I am tall, pretty much all of the different styles suit me, which was great news! Haha!
The first beach-day of the summer was instigated on Wednesday when I woke up to a super-early text from Jordan suggesting that we should go to Bondi. I didn't have to be asked twice and shortly after breakfast and a shower I found myself on the bus heading to the beach to chill out for the day. Scarily enough, Jordan only had a few days left of his time in Sydney and we had a laugh talking about how quickly it had gone by and all the things which we had done. The months have raced past, but at the same time we really have packed in so many things in that time. After a few hours lying on the beach, we headed to get some lunch at a fishmongers which sells fish and chips, except they also sell grilled barramundi or grilled tuna steak and chips - and it's quite cheap too! After battling seagulls in an effort to guard our chips, we headed back to the beach and discussed our plans for the rest of the week. We decided to suggest going to see the new Hunger Games film to Alex and Jess and maybe going for a drink or something afterwards that night. Since Jessica was at work at Bondi Junction, we stopped by on our way back to Sydney to discuss the plans.
Bondi Beach on Wednesday afternoon.
The four of us met up later at the Three Wise Monkeys pub on George Street, where we had a drink before taking the short walk down the street to the cinema. The Event cinema on George Street has a VMax screen, which means you can see some films on an even bigger screen and we were glad to hear that our film would be included. We weren't so delighted to hear that a student ticket for a VMax showing was $20, which seemed expensive even by cinema standards. The film itself was absolutely fantastic and I would recommend it to pretty much anyone; even Jordan enjoyed it after earlier suggesting it would just be, "Fantasy bullshit." Hahaha! It was almost midnight when the film finished and we all headed straight home - I got straight to sleep since I was getting up early once more to watch United. Even though we had plans to go to Manly beach the next morning, it was well worth the lack of sleep as my team won 5-0 away to Bayer Leverkusen - our biggest ever away win in the Champions League! Get in there!
We had planned and agreed to meet at Circular Quay to catch the 10.30am ferry across to Manly, however I ended up being late and we had to catch the later one at 11am. The journey was typically enjoyable as we sailed by the multi-million dollar houses and chatted about which one we might buy following a Euro-Millions win - it's funny how you can start to pick faults in some of the worlds nicest houses given an imaginary super-fund! Another great day was spent practically asleep on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and heat; I have to constantly remind myself that it is almost Christmas, since the weather just does not match up! We went for a swim as well, although Jordan had become a bit paranoid about jellyfish since his last trip to Manly when the lifeguards had told everyone to get out the water after a large group of a particularly dangerous species had been spotted in the water. Every single time something moved under the surface, he would be on edge. I swear he cracks me up sometimes! Hahaha!
After drying off and having some sandwiches for lunch - except Jordan, who outdid us all when he went and ordered kangaroo steak and sweet potato chips - it was time for me to leave. Since I had a football training session back at Centennial Park, I left the others to enjoy the rest of their afternoon as I headed off to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay. The football went quite well again, although unfortunately the final trial session would be on the following Sunday, which I couldn't attend due to Stereosonic. I hoped that I had shown enough to be picked for the squad in the first sessions which I had taken part in - fingers crossed!
After training, I caught the bus back to Central and quickly got showered and changed since we had planned to go out to Ivy that night. After a lightning fast dinner, I left the flat and caught the bus outside up the street to Jordan's flat where Alex and Jess were already enjoying pre-drinks - a very lazy move from me but I was in a hurry. We enjoyed some wine, played 'Ring of Fire' and blasted Avicii's set from the iTunes Festival - if you haven't heard it already, find it on YouTube because it is phenomenal! We caught the bus down George Street towards Ivy, walking the last few hundred yards and stopping off to have our photo taken with the big Christmas tree.
It was actually the first time I had been to Ivy, after a couple of previous failed efforts, however I honestly didn't enjoy it that much. The music was pretty good, as you would expect, but the crowd was a bit off-putting and there were so many posers that it was difficult to really have a good night. I did enjoy myself, but I've had better nights out for sure. We headed home around 3am with the intention of going to get some pizza, however we couldn't find somewhere which was open so it was straight home to sleep. The next morning I had one of those horrible experiences when you wake up and feel great after a night out and then slowly, but surely a hangover takes over - awful. Jordan suggested we go out to breakfast at a place called Toby's Estate, which is a nice little coffee shop and cafe near where he lived in Sydney but I couldn't eat anything. I'm also convinced we looked like the roughest three people on the planet and I will not be going back there in a hurry! After the failed attempt at breakfast, I walked home to get showered and get some more sleep before I started work at 4pm. Meanwhile, Jess and Jordan went off to do some shopping; Jessica eventually bought a MacBook - I guess the sales pitch by Alex and I worked quite well! The time before work raced by and I was still feeling tired when I arrived - although I was 10 minutes early for my shift, which was popular with the manager. Kudos to me.
After work I walked home, suddenly energised and excited by the prospect of Stereosonic the following day! Since Jordan was heading to the airport to catch his flight home early the next morning, it was straight to sleep for me after dinner. My alarm erupted in the darkness before 7am and I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. The plan was to be at Jordan's flat for around 8.15am to catch a cab to the airport, so I was careful to ensure that I wouldn't be late, arriving with plenty of time to spare before 8am. The "cab" which Jordan had booked turned up to be a black Mercedes town-car, complete with driver dressed in a formal suit and a hat. Not what I had been expecting whatsoever! We met with Jessica in the airport and found the desk for Jordan to drop his luggage off. Alex and I could barely contain our laughter after we had helped carry the bags to the airport and found out that they were supposed to be under 24kg! Just as predicted, Jordan ended up paying an additional $100 for the privilege of checking-in his collection of baggage. Once that was all sorted, we found a seat in one of the airport cafes and ordered a coffee, as we chatted about our time in Australia so far. I still don't think it has really sunk in that half of the time is nearly gone already. We said our goodbyes at the security gate and made our way to catch a train back into the city.
Once we had returned to Central, I headed to the supermarket to get some food and a few beers to have before leaving for Stereosonic. Jessica came over around lunchtime and we had a few glasses of the infamous Goon along with a bag of Grainwaves - the first crisps I had eaten since the carb-binge weekend in Cairns, but they are just fantastic. After a few drinks we took the short walk over to Central Station, which was packed with people who were clearly all heading to the same place as we were; the queues for tickets were huge and trains were departing the station every few minutes. We jumped on a carriage which turned out to be full of incredibly drunk Irish lads who didn't take long to start sing-a-longs to Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger. The journey out to the Olympic Park where the festival was being held didn't take long and it wasn't long before we had passed the ticket and security checks and made our way inside the main arena.
After queuing up to buy a drink at the bar - which had to be purchased through the use of $30 vouchers - we went inside the stadium to find the main stage. As we walked in Nicky Romero was midway through his set and the place was bouncing. Awesome!
After watching the rest of Nicky Romero's set and all of Sebastian Ingrosso, we headed back out to get another drink before the main headliners for the night. I took this photo just outside the stadium as the sun was setting in the background. Empire of the Sun were playing at the time but we only caught the end of their set after heading back to the main stage.
After Empire of the Sun had finished and left the stage, we waited eagerly for Calvin Harris to arrive. He was really the main attraction of the entire weekend and even though he had played T in the Park when I had been before, I had never actually managed to see him before now. He turned out to be absolutely brilliant and he totally smashed the entire set - he really was excellent! I've got a few great videos of Calvin, one of which I've already uploaded to Facebook but I am planning to create a compilation video of the weekend and I'll upload it on YouTube.
Immediately after Calvin finished his set, we were treated to David Guetta. Rather fantastically, there was merely a few minutes between one act finishing and the next one beginning, which is radically different to the way things work at other gigs usually. Again, Guetta was really good, but I think it would have been difficult for any act to follow up on Calvin, so it was a little bit disappointing. It started to rain towards the end of his set too, so we left a little before the end and headed for the train station. After having no food since the crisps at lunch time, a well needed McDonalds was enjoyed before getting to bed for some sleep. I spent the entire night struggling to get any decent sleep and must have only had around an hour or two at any one time. I spent most of the morning relaxing and having some food before it was time to get showered and ready to do it all over again.
Neither Jessica nor I had really taken too many photographs on the first day and agreed to try and take some more on the second day. We also got quite a bit more drunk on the second day and ended up snapping selfies on our phones at every possible opportunity, which made for some hilarious viewing the next day! Feeling a little worse for wear, it was decided to head to the Olympic Park at around 4pm with the intention of seeing Bingo Players, then Afrojack, followed by Above & Beyond, Axwell and finally Armin van Buuren headlining. We stayed at the main stage for most of the day, before leaving to go to the bar and get some food, though we were distracted and ended up going to one of the smaller stages where a guy called Andy C was MC-ing with a DJ behind him. It looked like everyone was having such a good time and even though I had never heard of him or his music before, it ended up being one of my most enjoyable sets of the entire weekend. Again, much of it was captured on video, which should be uploaded at some point. Afterwards, in desperate need of some food, we found a Nandos takeaway which was incredibly well appreciated. The food was genuinely excellent too and it was pretty cheap!
After having some food, we headed back into the stadium to see Armin van Buuren playing a headline set to close the festival and finish off the weekend in style. He also played a phenomenal set of tunes and there was a huge firework display around the roof of the stadium at the end. In summary, Stereosonic was insanely good and I would love to be able to do it all over again.
I'm going to finish this post with some of the better photos from the weekend at Stereosonic - enjoy!
One of the drink vouchers which you had to buy in order to get drinks from the bars.
Someone playing the main stage, I'm not actually sure who it is though. I think it must be Axwell though, given how light it still is.
I'm quite positive that this photo was during Calvin Harris' set on the Saturday night.
Again, no idea who is playing in this photo. Decent blue sky going on though!
Sober faces, outside the stadium between acts.
Jessica with one of the numerous topless, Zyzz-lookalikes who we spotted over the weekend. This particular bloke must have though the monkey costume was a winner! Haha!
Outside the stadium just as it was getting dark.
Looking over to one of the smaller stages, where we watched Andy C smashing it!
Armin van Buuren as he finished his set on the main stage. Superb!
STEREO, STEREO, STEREO-SONIC!
What a weekend!
