Hostel Surfing? Too Easy!
G’day possums – I can’t believe it’s nearly a month since my last post, apologies for that – I will try and keep things a bit more up to date with some smaller updates now and then rather than saving myself for one big blog.
Well, what have I been up to? I’m still working (hooray!) and I’ve even been paid now – it all looks very impressive when you see the amount in Aussie dollars paid into your account! The Aussie dollar is getting stronger actually, which is alright for me earning it, but not so good for all the tourists; it’s up (or down depending on your POV) to AU$2.05 to the £ now. Wow, that was a thrilling intro to a posting wasn’t it? It’ll get better, stay with me! While I’m getting my apologies out of the way, my camera so enjoyed its travels around New Zealand that it went back over to NZ with Lucy who’d lost hers to do another lap with her – so I’ve not had a lot of photos lately (certainly not ones outside of a pub!) but that should be resolved shortly.
OK, well outside if work I guess the reason I’ve not done any blog posts has been the reason that I’ve just been really busy! I met a lovely young chap called Rob from Oxfordshire who is a rather talented chef (working at Claridges for Gordon F*&#@%g Ramsey when he gets back, and for Bill Grainger here, who I’m led to believe is the Aussie version of Jamie Oliver) and as we had a bit of time in hostels before he leaves and I move into my flat, we decided to try out a few hostels in Sydney rather than getting stuck in just one – I could probably write a guide to them now! Living in a hostel and working isn’t ideal, but it’s not really too bad, I’ve not been living in any of the party hostels really, and life is quite pleasant when you’ve got a bevy of nice young people all trying to make friends with you. The standard has been variable – I think Rob liked the one in Kings Cross where he could watch three hookers working from the comfort of his own bed! The only difficulty is that it’s hard to just do nothing in the evenings. You don’t have anywhere to just hang out and watch TV while you wear your PJ’s or cook your own tea – Big props to Ruth for cooking tea the other night and letting me stroke her pussy. Oh matron! I actually miss Das Missy, which is a bit sad. Indeed I’ve found myself eating out almost every night unless Rob decides to cook something tasty for us. Back at the YHA he found himself cooking for just about the entire hostel for $5 a head – and it was fab. It’s not really a problem, as there are so many places that are cheaper to eat than cooking (Sushi is really popular here) and the food is good. It’s not good for the old waistline though – I need to hit the gym again after losing some weight in New Zealand…
Last weekend Rob, our American friend Alison and I went to the rather lovely (!) town of Newcastle for the weekend. I can’t really say why we went, other than it had a train station and I thought it would be funny BECAUSE IT’S ALSO SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND! HAHAHA. Ahem, but anyway, it was a good weekend – the second biggest city in New South Wales and it really rather reminded me of Newcastle back home. Then Sunday was wine tasting in the Hunter Valley – one of the major wine producing areas in Australia. I actually really enjoyed the wine tasting – it’s not something I’d done before on any real scale, but I’d picked up a bit of a taste for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc while out in New Zealand (I challenge anyone to try a glass of that and not to be reminded of fresh passionfruit juice) and was keen to give it a crack. Tex our driver picked us up bright and early at 9am, and I think the alcohol content in our blood was still fairly high from the night before – however this soon cleared at about 10am with our first tastings! You get to try loads of wines at these places, and we all chose to swallow our wines, as it’s not good form to spit really, is it? As well as some more famous places like Lindemans and Rosemount Estate there were some amazing little places among the 150 wineries. The undisputed highlight was the Brokenwood winery, a small family run place with some fantastic wines. My stand out was probably their Shiraz Viognier but I had a few glasses of their famous drop – Cricket Pitch. It’s called Cricket Pitch because the grapes are grown just outside where we were tasting on what used to be a cricket pitch. This dismayed me a bit, to lose a pitch in such a beautiful area, but I think Ian Botham would be proud to see that it wasn’t all in vain – the wines were simply fantastic (at about $20-$30 a bottle) and the lovely Mandy knew all about them, and she gave and she shared (the wine) without taking. Oh Mandy!
I’ve found it really easy to make friends out here – I don’t know why, and it’s not just me that’s found the same. Of course I haven’t really got any “best friends” as such yet, but everyone is just really friendly, and I think the whole ambiance of the place just lends itself to a friendly vibe. I think it’s a combination of the fact that almost all the expats out here are either in the same boat as you with regard to starting out in a new country, or have done so recently and know what it’s like, and the Aussies are generally a well-travelled and friendly bunch, so it’s the same for them. I’ve had a couple of calls out of the blue from people who I’ve not seen for years, but because we’re out here together, it sort of feels like you should meet up! Firstly was Matt from my old school (4reel), Skinners’ in Tunbridge Wells. I’d not seen him since I was 16, and even then we didn’t hang out that much together – he did play for Uckfield RFC, who were the bitter rivals of my old club, Crowborough, so I suppose I wasn’t suppose to fraternise with the enemy. Anyway, he is now the captain of Mosman rugby club here, a big old club with 8 teams and he’s a good man to know for getting tickets to Waratahs games, and we’ve been out for a few drinks and all that. Then as fortune might have it just as I was deciding on something to do for the weekend, Sarah from Tunbridge Wells got my number from the magic of Facebook and invited me to go and stay up at her place in Terrigal for the weekend. Bonza! She’s working out here as a doctor and we had a great weekend, she’s got a flat with an amazing sea view so after a quick bash at surfing (mainly bobbing around and then looking cool with a board on the beach) a few sundowners were called for. Well, a couple of sundowner drinks soon turned into a full-on session, taking in a restaurant, a few pubs and then a brilliantly tacky bogan nightclub and finishing with the British tradition of a 4am skinny dip in the sea. I’m glad to see that doctors are even less sensible than the rest of us! Today had a bit more surfing then catching the train back to Sydney. You know the old expression that “there’s always someone worse off than you”? Well, it’s days like these that make you realise that no matter how nice you think where you live is, there’s always someone better off than you too! I’ve pretty much decided that I’ve got to live somewhere near the beach for my next place!
OK, well that will do you for now – Friday was the rather special ANZAC day, but I’ll save that for another post. I hope all is well with you and yours, thanks for stopping by, and once again – thanks for those of you that take the time to read and sometimes even to comment or send me an email!
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