Cairns - Finding Nemo, Crisps and Crocodiles

It hasn't been that long since I last updated the blog, but so much has happened since Thursday last week that I thought it was worthwhile writing a new post. This one will be detailed with lots of great photos and lots of interesting adventures - it may very well be the best post yet.

I left off my last post on Thursday, just a few hours before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Cairns. I met Jordan and Alex at Central Station around 3pm and caught the train to the domestic airport not too far from the city, although it still cost us a little over $11 for a single journey with a student concession card - typical airport public transport! We met Jessica at the airport and got checked in for the flight; Jordan and I had decided to check a bag, however we didn't have any check-in baggage allowance which meant that it was going to cost us $40 for the privilege. In a rather fortunate stroke of luck though, when I attempted to pay my baggage charge with my card there was some sort of issue with the card machine and the guy at the desk told me that he would waive the fee on this occasion. After passing through security and getting some food from Subway, we found a table and enjoyed a beer whilst chatting about the forthcoming adventures over the next few days. Our excitement had slightly dulled by the time it came to board the plane, as our flight was delayed by around 45 minutes - we then spent a further 15 minutes on the tarmac before we actually took off. Flying can be a bit of a chore at times and I'm not a massive fan of aviation as a form of transport; it doesn't scare me or anything but I usually just put my iPod on and try and sleep for the majority of the time. 

Our delayed flight meant that we landed in Cairns a little later than expected, although we gained an hour back due to the time difference. Whilst we had travelled almost directly north, therefore not moving between any actual timezones, there was still an hour difference since the clocks are moved in New South Wales for daylight saving, whereas the state of Queensland don't move their clocks. It was around 9.30pm local time when we eventually landed, collected our bags and made our way to the arrivals exit. We enquired about an airport shuttle bus to take us to the hotel we had booked into at Holloways Beach, north of Cairns but the gentleman on the desk was kind enough to tell us that a taxi would be a cheaper option. We appreciated his honesty and headed outside to find ourselves a cab. Upon stepping outside of the airport for the first time, the pleasant warmth and humidity of the night was fantastic - the area around Cairns essentially has a tropical rainforest climate and it was immediately noticeable. We arrived at the hotel shortly before 10pm and found the reception was closed for the night. Luckily Jordan had been clever enough to realise that would happen and had managed to secure himself the code for the safe at reception, let himself in and retrieved our room key which had been left there for us. The fact that the reception was closed for the night actually worked out very well for us since we had been a little bit naughty and only booked in for two people in the room, when in reality there were four of us. It's only illegal if you get caught, right? Actually, as a law student, I probably shouldn't abide by that rule. 

Our apartment on the night we arrived.

Rather annoyingly, due to our slight delay in getting to Cairns, the local supermarket had closed shortly before we arrived at the hotel, meaning we had no food and hadn't eaten since the early evening. After making a call to the Pizza Hut in Cairns and being told they wouldn't deliver to our accommodation, we wondered if we would manage to find ourselves something to eat at all. Eventually, we decided to call another taxi to take us into Cairns in an attempt to find a supermarket, or takeaway which would be open late on a Thursday night. The taxi driver turned out to be a really decent guy and turned the meter off for us and waited outside whilst we went in to get ourselves something to eat. Since none of us could be bothered to start cooking so late at night, we each got some super noodles and big bags of crisps - the first of many bags of crisps consumed over the weekend - as well as some milk and cereal for a few days of breakfast. We got back, demolished a truly rubbish dinner by any reasonable standards and headed to bed. I drank a can of Mountain Dew with my dinner, which was a poor idea in hindsight, since the sugar kicked in just as we were going to bed; I couldn't sleep and didn't eventually go to bed until almost 1am having a carry on and keeping everyone else up too. I'm sure everyone appreciated it though, especially with a 6.30am alarm set for the following morning. 

I was surprisingly quite sharp and alert soon after my alarm went off. I think mainly because Jordan had cracked the blinds open and it was a beautiful sunny day, I remembered where I was and immediately felt energised looking forward to what we had planned for the day. This was the view from my bed when I woke up.

We were due to meet our bus outside the hotel around 7.30am, which would be taking us on a tour of some of the sights along the coast, north of Cairns. We were the last people to be picked up from our respective hotel and found ourselves the only four remaining seats along the back row of the small bus. The driver had a microphone attached to the speaker system in the bus and talked us through the itinerary for the day and explained what would be happening at each place. One of the first things which he said was, "I won't talk too much, just a little bit of talking, but most of the time I won't be talking and I'll just let you relax and enjoy the journey" which was followed by him talking for the majority of the day. Now, usually it would be great to hear lots of information and interesting facts about a place which we had never visited before, but often it was quite difficult to hear what he was saying which meant his commentary was relegated to the status of annoying background noise. Fortunately, the scenery spoke for itself - the green mountains, fields of crops and fruit and amazing coastline meant there was plenty to see. 

The first stop of the day was at the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat, around a one hour drive from our hotel. It was a great little place and I actually enjoyed it more than the Taronga Zoo in Sydney; the animals seemed like they were in a more natural environment and it was amazing to get up close to some of them. Particular highlights were the wallabies, crocodiles and kangaroos - I actually had the surreal experience of two kangaroos eating out of my hand, before a bird approached also looking to be fed. The bird pecked my leg and the kangaroo jumped to my defence and scared it off! Of course, it was only looking after the food for itself, but it was still amazing to see! The crocodiles were also one of the most amazing things which I had seen - such powerful, menacing creatures - but the Wildlife Habitat wasn't to be the best, or closest, crocodile experience of the day. 

Here are some photos of the animals from the Wildlife Habitat.

Very close to some small wallabies - a few of which even had little joeys in their pouches - amazing!

A rather large crocodile, who had been removed from the wild because he was considered a serious threat to human life. He was essentially in crocodile prison - such a boss!

Jordan making himself a furry new friend! Also, one of the birds which pecked me, just to the right.

Finally, a kangaroo - not a wallaby - eating from my hand!

We all really enjoyed the Wildlife Habitat and enthusiastically flicked through all the photos we had shot as we boarded the tour bus once again. I have to admit I haven't really done very many tour-type trips before and usually tend to explore places and visit tourist locations without the help or interference of a tour company or guide when travelling, however the tour was small - maybe around 20 people - and it was great to see so much stuff in the same day. There is no way we could have achieved as much in the one day on our own. The next stop wasn't too far away and we disembarked once more to find ourselves at the Mossman River Gorge. We took a short walk around some raised walkways through the forest and stopped at the side of the river to snap some photos of the mesmerising, crystal-clear water which was home to a substantial number of fish, which seemed quite at ease with the odd tourist who had decided to take a dip in the waters. 

We didn't spend too long at the gorge before we boarded the bus again and headed further north towards the Daintree River. When we reached the river, it became apparent that we would be taking a ferry crossing before travelling any further; we were given a quick chance to get out and stretch our legs as we waited on the ferry, which crossed on wires over the river and we wondered why there wasn't a bridge since there seemed to be a fair number of cars waiting to cross. As we got off the bus to take a walk around, the driver warned us not to get too close to the water since there were crocodiles. I didn't get too close, but I also didn't take his advice too seriously and brushed it off as a bit of a joke - although I would later discover that he was being deadly serious. 

A photo whilst we were waiting on the ferry, which can be seen at the other side of the river.

We probably travelled another 30 minutes or so, before the driver informed us that we would soon be stopping for lunch. Earlier in the day, a clipboard had been passed around asking us to tick whether we would prefer a steak, barramundi fish or a vegetarian option for lunch and I had opted for the fish. We arrived at a place where there were several wooden chalet type buildings offering accommodation scattered through the forest and we walked down from the car park near the road towards the water-front. We ended up at a large area where there were tables set up, underneath a large canopy and beside a small swimming pool; it was really warm and a great place to chill out and have lunch although we couldn't actually see the water since the trees were so thick they blocked out the view. Lunch was really good and our food was followed up by plates of fresh fruit, which provided a welcome refreshment in the afternoon heat. 

Jessica and Jordan at the place where we had lunch.

After lunch, Jordan, Alex and I got changed into our swimming shorts and headed towards the beach. We emerged from the edge of the trees, taken aback by the majestic scenery of the beach and the sea - quite simply one of the most amazing places I had ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It was almost completely quiet, except the gentle sound of the waves on the perfect white sand, and the overgrown, wild forest intruding on to the beach made the whole place feel like something from 'Castaway' or 'Lost'. Breathtaking. 

This sign greeted us just before reaching the beach. I think the presence of the bottle of vinegar gives a fairly strong indication of the danger of jellyfish and sting rays in these waters.

 Alex and I floating around in the sea, which was quite literally the temperature of bath water. The day we were there, the water temperature was around 25 degrees celsius, but it gets up to around 28 degrees in the peak of summer. It's very odd to go in the sea and for it not to even be a little bit cold initially.

After drying off and getting changed, we got back on the bus and retraced our steps back towards the ferry at the Daintree River. Along the way, we stopped at the Alexandra Range lookout point, which provided some spectacular views across the forest, out to the sea and down to the river. The small island which can be seen near the centre of the next photograph is actually very close to the location where Steve Irwin, the famous wildlife expert and crocodile hunter, was killed when he was stung by the barb of a sting ray. A high profile reminder that these waters can genuinely be quite dangerous. 

Upon reaching the river once again, we got off the bus and boarded a smaller boat in order to enjoy a cruise along the Daintree River. Our expectations of the cruise were quite tame, and we thought we were likely to motor upstream, with our guide pointing out any wildlife and some of the more interesting plants and trees. However, what we experienced was quite literally crocodile hunting; our tour guide was a very interesting character and I expect he had several outstanding croc-tales. There was no planned route on the "cruise" as he used his experience and knowledge of the area to chase down the likely hiding spots of the river monsters. He was also quite funny and shared a lot of thought-inspiring facts and information as he captained the vessel - I was totally intrigued by the crocodiles and quickly typed up much of what he was telling us on my phone. He let us know that there were only a few hundred permanent residents north of the river, which was why there was no bridge and also that the river was too shallow for a large boat to be powered by propellors, which is why the ferry ran on cables. Another astonishing fact was that the during the wet season from November to April last year, the area experienced over 5 meters of rainfall - absolutely crazy! We did also manage to spot two wild crocodiles, and I got a couple of good photos in between typing.

Here are some of the better facts which our tour guide shared with us:

• In this particular stretch of water, there are around 70 crocodiles which are over 2 metres long and many more which aren't as big.
• The crocodile in the second picture, above, is around 4 metres long and estimated to be around 50 years old.
• It is a male and could potentially grow to over 7 metres and live for over 100 years.
• Whilst that particular male is a large, powerful, killing machine, it is not the dominant male in the area - our guide could tell by the shape and size of the head.
• The crocs in the river are used to the boats, so they aren't threatened by their presence, but that doesn't mean that the animals can be trusted and it's important not to get too close.
• Whilst camping near rivers, it is important to set up camp at least 100 metres away from the banks, since the crocs will roam on to land - especially if there are food scraps to be found.
• The biggest crocodile ever found in Australia was 8.63 metres long and weighed over 2 tonnes. In comparison, our boat was only 10 metres long!
• The biggest crocodile in the Daintree River at the moment is around 6 metres long. 
• Finally, if someone were to fall into the water, the guide said that the best thing which he could do would be to film the events on his phone and upload the video to YouTube.

I thoroughly enjoyed the river cruise and felt like it had been a really great day overall. We boarded the bus once more and headed back to Cairns, only making one last stop at a view point on the road back in order to take some photos and stretch our legs again. Another stunning view.

When we got back to the hotel, we popped into the supermarket across the street to get ourselves some dinner and a few beers from the Liquorland next door. We bought some pasta, vegetables and a jar of tomato sauce along with another few bags of crisps, before picking up a pack of pale ale and heading back to the apartment. After our long day of travelling and sightseeing, Jordan, Alex and I decided to go and take a swim in the pool before dinner - it was just about getting dark, but the pool was lit up with bright blue lights and it was still a great temperature. We relaxed in the pool for a while until we were hungry and returned to the apartment to get showered and changed.

After showering, we cooked our pasta and ate outside on the little balcony, enjoying the warm night and the somewhat unusual silence - it's practically impossible to find a quiet place in Sydney of course. Once we had cleared up our plates, we opened our beers and were happily enjoying a game of "Ring of Fire" when suddenly there was a power-cut! I went through into the bedroom to check the fuse box, but everything was normal there, so I headed downstairs and outside to check whether the entire complex was out. Most of the communal areas were still lit as normal, however it seemed that the entire grid had lost power. With no power and no plans other than chilling out, we simply sat around in the darkness, finishing our beers and using our iPhone torches for light. We stayed outside for a while watching a huge tropical rainstorm, complete with some thunder and lightning, which was a truly awesome experience - the water was pounding down as it bounced off the ground below us. At the stroke of midnight I greeted my 20th birthday in the darkness, before we all headed to bed. We also endured Jordan complaining about the heat for quite a while, caused by the lack of air conditioning after the power shortage - "Ugh! It's too hot!" became quite a catchphrase over the weekend actually! Luckily enough, around 12.15am the power returned and all the lights came back on, which meant we fired up the air-con once again and got off to sleep.

The next morning we had another early rise; Saturday 2nd November was my birthday and we had a great day ahead of us. Another 6.30am alarm call was quickly shrugged off when I realised that today I would be heading out on a boat trip to go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef! We had to be at the harbour in Cairns itself for 7.25am, which meant catching our taxi not long after 7am. Fortunately, there was plenty of time to spare when we arrived at the harbour, so we took the opportunity to go and buy some bottled water for the day ahead. The forecast for the day was for clouds and rain, although it was still very warm; regardless, it remained dry for much of the morning and we kept our fingers crossed that the worst of the weather had passed over during the night.

Heading down the jetty towards the boat - the one just behind the small, yellow Coastguard boat on the left.

Upon boarding the boat, we paid the remainder of the money which was due for the trip, got a mug of coffee and a muffin and found some seats where we could leave our bags. The trip we had chosen to take was with a company called Seastar and all of the staff were really friendly and helpful as they came around the boat sorting out fins and masks for everyone, before calling everyone to the deck on the bow of the boat for a safety briefing. The sailing out to the first location, at Michaelmas Cay, was going to take about an hour and a half, and we stood out on the deck in the breeze for much of the journey. It was incredible to be standing out in the open air, in a fairly rough sea, with a dark, cloudy sky overhead and not feel cold, whilst only wearing shorts and t-shirt. It's fair to say that my experiences of the seas around the West Coast of Scotland didn't exactly compare. Soon enough however, the skies opened and rain began lashing down around us; we made a move to the back of the boat in order to stay dry but avoided going inside the cabin of the boat for fear of getting sea-sick. I've learned that fresh air does the trick for me and I felt perfect all day, however Jessica did briefly succumb to the rolling, pitching waters on the journey out from Cairns.

Photo taken from the back of the boat, looking out at a rather miserable day.

Just to prove that it was still an incredibly warm day - the water temperature was around 25 degrees once again - here is a picture of Alex and I chilling on the boat wearing shorts and t-shirt.

We eventually arrived at Michaelmas Cay, which is essentially a large sandbank in the middle of the sea. It is a wildlife sanctuary, home to many hundreds of birds and surrounded by tropical coral reef. We were each sized up with stinger suits, to prevent jellyfish or sting rays from harming us - although I'm not convinced the thin material would have done much, in truth - before jumping into the water wearing our snorkel masks and fins. Mum had advised me to take a life jacket or buoyancy aid if they had them, since she had found snorkelling in open water very tiring without one when she had been on holiday in Mauritius with Dad a few years ago, however I opted not to bother anyway. In hindsight, I managed alright without one, but I totally understood where she was coming from since the fairly large waves and choppy sea made it difficult to stay composed and control your breath in the water. Eventually, I got used to it though and after spending around 30 minutes in the water, the wind died down, the water became much flatter and the sun came out.

I didn't have an underwater camera myself but some of the staff working on the boat were carrying one and they managed to snap some great photos whilst in the water with us.

An awesome turtle, one of two which I spotted. Potentially one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed with my own eyes.

Jordan and I snorkelling.

An amazing little clown fish, for all the Nemo fans!

Another photo of Jordan and I under the water.

Finally, all four of us bobbing around on the surface, with the boat in the background.

We got back on the boat full of excitement and sharing stories of all the amazing sights we had spotted under the waves - what an experience! The staff on the boat told us that the second reef was even bigger, better and deeper than the one we had just dived though, so we were anxious to get going and see more! First things first though, so we enjoyed some lunch on the boat before moving off again.

I managed to get a quick photo with Michaelmas Cay in the background after the sun had started to break through the grey skies.

We sailed for around another 15 minutes and arrived at Hastings Reef, where there is no land or beach, just coral reef in the middle of the sea. Once again, we donned our stinger suits, masks and fins and plunged into the water, where we spotted a plethora of sea-life including fish, turtles, hard and soft coral, clams, sea cucumbers and turtles. It was simply astonishing. However, the highlight of the adventures at Hastings Reef was comfortably the 4 foot barracuda fish which we spotted floating perfectly still beneath the hull of the boat. Apparently it often swims around under the hull of the tour boats, possibly because it treats the large object as a kind of coral shelf, affording it some protection. I dived down to a depth where I could look at it horizontally under the water and was completely mesmerised by it - the pure size of it, coupled with the fine collection of razor sharp teeth was totally astounding. I must have returned down to look at it four or five times and could have kept doing so all day, it was just awesome! How cool!

We got back on the boat, got changed into some dry clothes and began sailing back towards Cairns. Luckily the sun shone for the vast majority of the trip so we spent the full time out on the deck enjoying the views in the sea breeze. As we entered the harbour back in Cairns, we saw a massive private yacht, including a helicopter on top of it, which must have been worth a few hundred million - proper silly money. We took a walk around some of the shops in Cairns and I was shocked with the news that we had a table booked at a restaurant in the city that night for my birthday, which was a fantastic surprise. After walking around the shops for a while, we caught the bus back to the hotel, took a quick swim in the pool again and started getting showered and changed to go out.

We went to a restaurant called Dundee's, on the waterfront, not far from where we had left on the boar cruise that morning and enjoyed a really great meal. Jordan and I shared oysters as a starter, which were fantastic and I followed that up with mussels in a white wine sauce. I also tried a local Cairns beer, which was really good as well. After our food, I had another surprise in store as the waiter came to the table with a large plate of chocolate brownie, ice cream, and sparklers with the words 'Happy Birthday' written on the plate in chocolate. It was also fantastic and the four of us shared it together, although I think it would be fair to say I had a little more than my fair share. It was just too good!

After the meal, we headed out into Cairns for a night out. The first place we went was called Sugar Hut, which seemed to be packed to the rafters with teenagers who must surely have been underage. The tunes were great when we first arrived and we enjoyed a few rounds of drinks - for some reason, Midori was quite cheap at the bar and it reminded me of the Still Game episode with Big Innes! Haha! Sugar Hut seemed to die down quite early and the DJ started to play some crap tunes, so we left and headed out to look for another place, eventually ending up at a bar called Society. Again, it didn't seem to busy but the DJ was excellent and it was a lot of fun - vodka and cranberry was also only $5 which is as cheap as I have seen any vodka in Australia so far, so we enjoyed a few of those. One thing which I definitely miss about being at home is going out in Falkirk or Glasgow and enjoying £1 drinks! The night ended back in the hotel at around 3am with a box of super noodles and some more crisps before we headed to bed. I checked the Man Utd score on the BBC Sport website and saw that we had beaten Fulham 3-1 - a very happy birthday indeed.

On Sunday morning, we woke up fairly early again and headed over to the small cafe across the street to get some breakfast. I had French toast, which came with hot peaches, cream and icing sugar, which is quite unusual but it tasted superb - definitely one to remember. After breakfast, we spent the vast majority of the day at the pool in the hotel, relaxing, recharging and enjoying the warm sun. Remarkably, at one point an older guy approached us and asked where we were from; I immediately recognised his Scottish accent and learned that he came from Dundee. He was a footballer who had moved to Adelaide in 1987 and used to play for Falkirk - what a small world! The only other plan for the day was to have a barbecue later that night, using the communal outdoor grill by the poolside. Jessica and Alex headed to the local IGA supermarket to get meat, corn, rolls and even more crisps, whilst Jordan and I trotted off to Liquorland to get some Rekoderlig cider for us to enjoy with dinner. The food was really tasty and I feel like we are beginning to totally perfect the art of Australian outdoor cooking - the corn on the cob was particularly good.

We spent Sunday night chilling out on the balcony and talking over the events of the past few days; we had certainly been busy and there were countless photos to be enjoyed too. A fairly early night was required by all, but typically we didn't head off to bed until around midnight once again. Monday morning was another bright, beautiful, sunny day and we returned to the same cafe for breakfast again. This time I opted for sausage and fried eggs and it hit the spot just perfectly. Our flight wasn't until around 4pm and the taxi was booked with plenty of time to spare, so we spent our final few hours relaxing by the pool again. Although I had managed to avoid any real sunburn throughout the weekend and the entirety of my time in Australia so far, on Monday morning I did find myself rather red looking - I think it was just a case of last-day carelessness. We packed up our bags and caught the taxi to the airport, where we departed Cairns and headed home to Sydney. I love the fact that I currently call Sydney "home" - it never fails to make me smile. What an amazing weekend we all had.

When we landed I finally got some decent wifi on my phone for the first time since Thursday. I found lots of lovely birthday messages, Tweets and Facebook posts and managed to catch up on all the latest football scores and news from back home. I also found some lovely cards waiting on me when I reached my flat, although unfortunately the parcel which Mum, Dad and Kerry had posted hadn't arrived yet. It was great to be know that people had went out of their way to send me cards all the way across the world and I really appreciated getting them.

Later in the evening I chatted to Mum and Dad on FaceTime and told them all about the things which we had been doing up in Cairns. Unfortunately though, I returned home to the very sad news that my Gran Rita had passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning. I feel a little bit helpless and far away at the moment and wish I could be at home to spend time with loved ones.

Rest in peace, Gran - much love. X

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!

Spring break!

This week I have enjoyed my spring break from uni - although unfortunately Chad Hogan was busy so he didn't manage to throw a party. The weather has been pretty good all week and I've tried to make the most of it and continue to attempt to catch a tan.

After the football last Tuesday night, I enjoyed a quiet morning on Wednesday before quickly becoming bored of having nothing to do. It's always really strange that when you are incredibly busy and have lots of deadlines to meet, or tasks which need completed, you can't wait for some time off to simply do nothing and when that time eventually comes, you inevitably get bored after only a few hours. By the early afternoon I had decided to go for a swim at the free swimming pool nearby which one of my flatmates had been telling me about a few days previously. A quick bit of research on Google told me that the Prince Alfred Park, and swimming pool, was literally just at the other side of Central Station and only around 5 minutes walk away - and it was totally free! Superb! I headed over and enjoyed a few lengths of the large, outdoor pool before finding a place on the grassy hill to lie and chill out with my iPod plugged in for an hour or two. Excellent afternoon spent in the sunshine.

On Wednesday night in my pursuit of a new TV show to watch after Breaking Bad (which mum and dad have just started watching on my insistence) I began to watch the Walking Dead. It had been recommended to me quite a while ago by Cary and Fraser; the first four episodes were watched consecutively before I had to give in and go to bed since I was getting up around 4.30am to watch the football. It always amazes me that when my alarm goes off in the middle of the night, there is no hesitation in jumping up out of bed and getting my laptop powered up, excited by the prospect of the football - if someone woke me at that time for practically any other reason I would be beyond crabbit. Just remembered that 'crabbit' is one of the words on my Scottish dialect dish towel which Kerry, mum and dad gave me before I came to Australia and I've been using it to teach my flat mates some words! So far we've nailed "eejit" as well as "braw" and "wheesht" - all the key stuff really. The word "yes" has almost entirely been replaced with "aye" too, which really helps the place feel like home I think!

Speaking of home, I also found out on Wednesday that whilst Auntie Jean has booked her flight to come out and visit me as planned in January, my mum is also coming with her! Brilliant news, very much surprising to hear and it'll be great to see them both before Kerry is here next July. Wonder if dad will manage to land himself a Fitzcharles trip to Australia at some point...? Haha! Anyway, the football was a moderate success as United drew 1-1 away in the Ukraine to Shakhtar Donetsk and played fairly well. I went back to sleep for a couple of hours satisfied with both result and performance. On Thursday it was raining and pretty windy, which wasn't much fun so I spent the morning watching some TV, then made lunch and headed out to hand out some more CVs to some shops on Broadway as well as some coffee shops and cafes near Central Station. I also took a walk up to Coles to pick up some groceries which I needed; it's funny that as soon as there is a little rain here I seem to go into complete shut-down and hardly get anything done. I'm already completely used to the sunshine and have no idea how I will handle going home to the harsh Scottish winter next year!

On Friday I had another relatively quiet day; watched some more Walking Dead after having a shower and breakfast in the morning, caught up on some of the latest football news from back home and then had lunch and headed out to play football. I'm currently playing with a pretty large hole in the front of my right boot and I've emailed Sports Direct to try and get them to send me a new pair - I only bought the boots back in July before I left the UK and I've been using my law skills in order to try and force the issue a bit! Hopefully I'll have some new boots soon enough. After the football, a few of the guys were chatting about the plans for that night and suggested we meet up, go for some food and head out for a few drinks in Newtown. I hadn't been out in Newtown at all yet so I was definitely up for it and headed home to have a shower and get changed.

We decided to head to a Thai restaurant on the main street, but went to the liquor store along the street first and bought a bottle of wine. In Australia, restaurants either sell alcohol or allow you to simply bring your own and don't serve any alcohol themselves, which is quite cool and certainly helps keep the cost down when dining in restaurants. I enjoyed a dish which I seem to remember was called chicken pad kapao - sort of spicy chicken and veg stir fry with chilli and basil - it was excellent even if I can't remember the proper name. Afterwards, we headed to a bar above the Marlborough Hotel called Miss Peaches, which was a really cool place, although the music was very hipster and retro and there were quite a few middle aged women who were pretty drunk, which was strange. We then headed to another bar which I can't remember the name of at the moment, but the bar tender was a nice guy. Finally, we ended up in an Irish bar called Kelly's which was great, as are most Irish bars - they had pretty decent Guinness and the first song which was playing as we walked in was "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" by the Smiths. I knew I was going to like it from that moment. I headed home not long after 3am, quickly stopping into the local shop to get some milk for breakfast the next morning.

On Saturday morning, I hauled myself out of bed with a little bit of a headache, had some breakfast and a shower and soon felt spot on once again. Since it was such a nice day, I decided to head back to the pool at the Prince Alfred Park and enjoyed an afternoon in the sun with my iPod and my car magazine which I brought with me from home. The plan for that evening was to have a barbecue with my flatmates, which had been organised by Claire since her sister was visiting from Melbourne with her boyfriend. She had booked the communal cooking area downstairs for us and we were all chipping in with some contribution to the night. After returning from the pool, I got showered and headed to the Broadway Shopping Centre in order to pick up some food and wine - I also went to K-Mark to buy some more boxers, since I seem to have plenty of clothes, except underwear which is a bit annoying. I picked up some food in Coles and was pleased to see that my receipt had another 'Buy One Get One Free' deal for some particular bottle of wine in Liquorland, so headed off to find it; I'm still not really used to the supermarkets not serving alcohol. Anyway, I got two bottles of Counting Sheep Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand for $14 and headed home. It turned out to be really nice, especially once it had been chilled in the fridge for a while.

The communal area where the barbecue is here also has a ping-pong table which we made great use of throughout the night. The food was excellent and it was good to meet a few new people once more - I've found out through meeting such a number of new people since I've been here that I am very good at remembering people's faces but horrible at keeping track of all the names. I'll need to work on that. My personal highlights from the night were the baked potatoes, complete with sour cream, chives and bacon pieces, as well as one of Claire's friends arriving with two big bars of Toblerone - fantastic!

Before heading back upstairs, two other lads arrived in the living room and put the football on the TV, so I sat and watched the second half of Man City v Everton with them. I had never met them before, even though they live here too and it was good to once more meet some decent guys who enjoyed football. I went off to bed just before midnight since United were playing at 5.30pm at home, which meant a 2.30am kick off here! However, the clocks moved on Sunday night, which meant that at 2.30am it would actually be 3.30am and I had completely forgotten! Luckily, my iPhone is an incredibly useful piece of technology and not only corrected the time, but adjusted my alarm to the appropriate time too. I was very impressed when I woke up thinking that I had missed the first half of the game, but had simply been tricked by the clocks moving. At home, dad was driving a local youth football team down from Falkirk to go and watch the game, however he didn't manage to get himself a ticket unfortunately. It was a great game, even though United went 1-0 down, as Adnan Januzaj marked his first Premier League start with two stunning goals to win us the match! What an impact from a guy who is only 18 years old! Incredible!

On Sunday I had another quiet morning before heading to the pool for another day of swimming and sunbathing, since it was a scorching day. Afterwards I headed home, made dinner and watched some more Walking Dead - finished season 2 already! After showing mum this picture of my dinner from Sunday, she said that I'll be cooking more when I come home. So I reckon I'm going to stop showing her my excellent meals. Later on, I was on FaceTime chatting to Kerry as she baked at home but I was almost asleep whilst talking to her since I was totally knackered from my weekend, so headed to bed.

I must have been even more tired than I thought from my busy week, since my alarm went off at 9am on Monday morning and unfortunately, after turning it off, I closed my eyes just for a minute and next thing I knew I woke up again and it was almost 12 noon. I hate when that happens. I checked my phone and had a text from Jessica to see if I wanted to join her and Jordan for some lunch - I hadn't had breakfast yet. I jumped in the shower and after drying off, found another text to say that the plan was to meet at Town Hall station at 1pm which was only 20 minutes from then. I got dressed in super-fast time, made my way to Central and jumped on a train to Town Hall; we decided that I would just meet them wherever they decided to pick for lunch at Darling Harbour, so I arrived at a place called Margaritaville where the pair of them had already found us a table. There are still several tall ships and navy boats in the waters around Sydney Harbour at the moment after the International Fleet Review on Saturday, where Prince Harry was attendance marking 100 years since the naval fleet arrived in Sydney. I managed to snap a picture of one of the tall ships, which you were able to go on board and explore, except the queue was massive and the boat was so busy it looked like you could barely move, so it seemed totally pointless.

We ended up waiting quite some time on our food and after questioning how long it was taking to our waiter, another guy - who I assume was a manager - came out and suggested that he would sort us out with another round of drinks, which we were quite happy with. We weren't in any rush to go anywhere and the food barely took another 5 minutes after that. Lunch was really good; I had grilled barramundi fish with rice and salad and enjoyed a nice cold beer sat looking over the harbour. We headed home afterwards and the girls in the flat fancied another game of table tennis, so we played until late in the evening before moving back upstairs and making dinner. I watched some more Walking Dead and retired to my bed. Shattered once again.

Today it was supposed to be raining so it was pleasantly surprising to wake up and find that not only was it dry, but it was quite sunny outside. However, since there had been an expectation of rain, my motivation to do what I had planned to do quickly drained. It ended up taking me until shortly after lunchtime to get showered, have breakfast, put some washing in the laundry downstairs, tidy up my room and watch a couple of episodes of the Walking Dead. Around 1pm there was a post on the Soccer Society Facebook page asking if anyone fancied a game this afternoon, so I decided to head up to Victoria Park shortly after 3pm to see how many people would turn up. There ended up being 6 of us there so we played three-on-three with a short pitch and small goals; it was surprisingly good fun and a really good workout in the heat.

Until next time!

Lots of work and Extreme Gelato!

It feels like ages since I've written and yet it has only been a little over one week since my last post. In that week I've been working hard and kept very busy with work at uni, however I haven't really been up to much else unfortunately. I'm going to try and remember the interesting parts of the past seven days - those moments where I wasn't stuck behind my laptop writing assignments!

My week started pretty poorly after the fantastic trip to the Blue Mountains; after returning home, having dinner and writing my blog post, I headed to bed early and set my alarm for some daft time in the middle of the night in order to get up and watch the Manchester Derby. At some unknown time, I stirred and realised that there was a fair amount of light behind my blinds; I immediately knew I had slept through the football - gutted! How had I even managed to do that when the last thing I did before falling asleep was to set my alarm?! When I checked my phone, I realised that the alarm had in fact went off properly and I had simply slept right through it - must have been seriously shattered from the weekend of walking. It was now around 6am and the game was over, so I opened up the internet on my phone to check the BBC Sport website and find out how my team had got on...only to be met by an absolute horror-show result. Disaster. We had lost 4-1 to one of our biggest rivals. I didn't read any further and in a foul mood, I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Monday morning brought my first day of a full timetable for a few weeks, due to having various reading weeks in the different classes. Given the result from the football I wasn't in the greatest of moods and really didn't feel that six hours of class was going to make me feel any better. The day plodded along and was largely unmemorable. It's amazing how much a football team impacts your mood and feelings, some people obviously won't understand that and never will truly get it, but there will be other people who know exactly what I mean. I was delighted to get home and fired up Netflix on the laptop to watch my weekly episode of Breaking Bad; couldn't quite believe there would only be one more to go. It was brilliant as always and I keep finding myself preaching about it to everyone who will listen. Just watch it and thank me later - it simply is that good.

On Tuesday morning I got up quite early again, pleased that I had managed to maintain my habit of quite early rises since the weekend in the Blue Mountains. I always prefer it when I am in the habit of getting up at a decent time and making more of the day, but it always proves difficult to actually start that habit and stick to it for the first few days. I didn't have any classes for the day, but on the horizon was the peer review for Competition Law which was due on Wednesday, an assessable workshop for Commercial Dispute Resolution which I had to prepare for by Friday and also some assessed problem questions in my Intellectual Property class due on the following Monday. Busy busy! I cracked on with getting my peer review written before also completing some preparation for the following day of classes. The routine requirement to meet deadlines and complete work gets quite tedious at university sometimes, when we are so often not required to do any substantive work whatsoever, it seems to always arrive all at once. I should be clear, I'm not complaining about student life - it's very enjoyable and very easy I think. Every stereotype about students pretty much rings true, however on the occasions when some real hard work is required it's never fun.

Wednesday brought another day of classes, which was a bit of a nuisance when there was so much work I needed to get on with. Again, they all seemed to be a bit uneventful really, for a number of reasons. I'm sure when I do have work to complete, I often feel like I would rather be at home with a chance to keep working on it rather than be sitting in classes. However, I also haven't found the latest topic we are covering in Intellectual Property as interesting so far; we are covering patents now and I found trade marks to be a lot more engaging and thought-inducing.

On Wednesday night - actually, Thursday morning, around 5am - I got up and watched United again; this time we beat Liverpool 1-0 to restore some kind of normality, which wouldn't last long, although we weren't to know it at the time. It was also an absolutely scorching day on Thursday and I always find myself feeling refreshed and invigorated each morning when I open the blinds to find another day of blue skies and wall-to-wall sunshine. I tweeted, "It's going to be another beautiful day today," before adding, "I love it here." I think that really captures my mood on Thursday - this is a great place and I'm very lucky to be here. It's constantly in my mind to make an effort to take everything in and enjoy every moment. Just shows the difference it  makes to me between United losing 4-1 to City or beating Liverpool 1-0!

Thursday itself saw me make a trip to the library in order to camp out for the day and get some good progress done on my work. I hammered through a large chunk of my Intellectual Property questions and did some good preparation work before the assessable workshop in Commercial Dispute Resolution the following morning. I also went and bought my ticket for the Soccer Society FIFA Tournament, which was being held on Friday afternoon and I genuinely fancied my chances of winning it, even though I hadn't played FIFA at all since leaving home. There was also the small issue of a $100 prize on the line for the winner and since I'm not competitive at all, that wasn't really bothering me and I felt it was more about taking part. Of course, I'm joking, I wanted to know if anyone fancied turning up early for a warm up and some practice games!

On Friday, I got up nice and sharp, had a shower and breakfast and headed into uni to go to my Commercial Dispute Resolution class. Since we were running a mock mediation, where we would have to play roles and follow the process just like it was a real life dispute, a few of the guys turned up fairly smart, with trousers and shirts. It was really warm on Friday, so I arrived wearing shorts and t-shirt and my sunglasses. Awkward. I was certainly glad to see that not everyone had chosen their smart attire and had dressed similarly appropriate for the weather as I had done. Panic over. The mediation process itself went well and I think I made a good contribution; once it was over, my attention quickly turned to the main event of the day - the FIFA Tournament! Priorities right? I was hoping that I would have a great story of how I had turned up and won the $100 however I was beaten 1-0 in the quarter finals and without going into any details, just know that I was cheated out of it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Onwards. On a side note, the tournament was held at a building near the engineering school on campus, where they have these 'pods' which you can book out, without any cost, and use them for whatever purpose you please. They're supposed to be used for group work and productive things such as brain-storming ideas and the like, so the 'pods' are set up with white boards on every wall, and HDMI connections to large screen TVs in order to allow work to be displayed to the group. It's essentially the perfect place to play FIFA, as this photo will prove.

Saturday could be summed up with one word: procrastination. I had the best intentions of getting the bulk of the remainder of my work done before finishing it off on Sunday and relaxing in the afternoon. However, other things got in the way - like Netflix - and I found myself having hardly done any work at all by the time Saturday night came around. Not a day well spent by any means, although I did have a slight excuse since I did have a banging headache in the early part of the afternoon. Unfortunately it proved to be a total progress-killer and a great reason not to go back to my work. Late on Saturday night there was another United game to look forward to - this part of the season is great since the games are so frequent - fantastic! Rather surprisingly we slumped to another disappointing defeat, this time 2-1 at home to West Brom which was very, very poor. However, I did enjoy a good moan about the game as I spent the second half on FaceTime to Cameron at home; it felt like we were sitting at home in one of our houses watching the game and felt very much like being at home. Sunday was much better in terms of getting some work done and I got the Intellectual Property stuff finished off finally.

Sunday night brought about another "pot luck" where everyone in the flat makes one dish and everything is put in the middle of the table. It's definitely my favourite way to eat since it's dead easy to simply make one dish and make a contribution but then I'll get to experience some brilliant dishes from Singapore or Pakistan that the others have made. I hope they feel the same way about my nouvelle cuisine from Scotland. This particular night, since Khurram was making a spicy mince dish and Claire was making sweet and sour fish with various vegetables, it was decided that I should provide some kind of side to go with each. I made the pasta/rice combination thing which my sister showed me how to cook, which she learned from our friends whilst staying with them in Lyon a few summers ago. It's a really easy thing to make but it's so tasty and did go well with both a curry dish and sweet and sour too. Also, whilst incredibly spicy, the mince that Khurram made was insanely good and I'll definitely make sure I write down the recipe.

I totally over ate at dinner and was totally stuffed, so I went to go and watch some more of Long Way Down which I've been watching on Netflix again, after first watching it on DVD a few years back. Great watch and well recommended, along with the first one - Long Way Round. On Monday, I got up and had a lazy morning, reading some of the latest football news from the weekend and having breakfast. I headed into uni in the afternoon, printed my assignment off in the library and handed it in to the Faculty of Law office. I headed home with some time to kill before the LAST EVER EPISODE of Breaking Bad, which would be on Netflix around 6pm for us here. Claire and Jess suggested we take a walk to Extreme Gelato, which is the place which makes ice cream with nitrous oxide, which sounded like a great idea! We headed down through Chinatown towards Darling Harbour to the small ice cream shop, which permanently seems to have strange, smokey ice pouring out the front - quite strange to see. I decided to go for an adventurous choice and picked a chilli chocolate fudge flavour and it was seriously excellent. Here is a picture of my ice cream, including chilli flakes on top!

I'm going to try something I haven't done on the blog before and post a video which we took at the ice cream place. I have no idea if this will work, but I'll give it a go and see what happens...

That didn't work. Forget that plan. Anyway, I don't think I've actually wrote this in the blog at all before now, but Kerry has now booked her flights to come out here and visit next summer, which is great news! I've sort of been making a conscious effort to remember all the sort of smaller things which I need to remember and show her whilst she is here - not simply things like the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge obviously. I've now started keeping a little list on my phone and I'll keep adding to it in the hope that I have a fine collection of potential things to do when she arrives. I've realised so far that the majority of the items on the list so far are either foods, or places to have food - and Extreme Gelato for ice cream was one of the first! I need to branch out a bit. After heading back to the flat, I watched the last episode of Breaking Bad - I'll need to find a new TV show to get attached to now - before making dinner and sitting down to watch the Notebook, which I only watched because it happened to be on TV! I'm still a bloke and didn't lose any man points for it, ok!

This has been a really long post, almost done now...

Today, I had a quiet morning where I watched some more of  Long Way Down and then headed to the Post Office on campus in order to pick up some post cards and an envelope. I also popped into Coles on my way back to get toothpaste, deodorant, some clothes for the kitchen and grass stain remover for my white Man United shirt - it better come out! I made myself some pasta for lunch since I was going to play football at night with the Soccer Society lads. Tonight however we were playing 11-a-side on a full size pitch against guys from the University of Technology of Sydney and I was really looking forward to my first proper game in ages, even if it was only a friendly. I caught the train from Central to St Peters station and took the short walk down to the pitch. Oh, almost forgot, for some reason there was a huge model railway set up in Central Station tonight, which was cool. No idea why it was there, but I snapped a quick picture.

 
Anyway, I really enjoyed a tough shift up and down the left wing of the pitch during the game - it felt incredibly familiar and made me remember how many weekends I had spent running up and down a touchline. I've discovered that I really miss playing proper football and tonight essentially made up my mind that I want to find a team here and may even get back to it when I return home. The game went well as we won 3-0 and I scored the second with a header from a great cross, before claiming an assist for the third goal too. Good work all round.

Headed home afterwards, made some dinner and sat down to watch the last bit of Long Way Down and write this blog post. I'm going to go to sleep now; it's spring break this week and then I have a reading week the following week, so I'm hoping to try and find a job and maybe do some other interesting things in my time off. Jessica has now managed to get herself a job here and that has spurred me on to try and get something too - I would really like the extra money in order to get the new Man Utd shirt, some new trainers and some nice sunglasses for summer. Good enough motivation, I think. I also need to find a new thing to watch now that Breaking Bad is finished and I would welcome any help or suggestions in solving that problem!

Good night troops,
Jamie