Where's my change?

After a week, which seemed to drag for an eternity (especially the Friday which saw me suffer with a hangover), the weekend seemed to fly by – don’t they always? Saturday was a day of relaxation – Lucy headed into the City, whilst I headed out for breakfast, had a bit of a walk & then chilled at home.

Sunday had more substance, with first a trip to the SCG to watch the Sydney Swans hammer Port Adelaide (AFL for those unfamiliar with the teams) on a day of bright sunshine. I’m not yet 100% familiar with the rules, but it’s an excellent sport to watch – much better live than on TV – and the fans are much more similar to footie fans than they are in other Aussie sports. For a start, a lot more people wear the team colours… then there’s the fat bloke at the front (not me) who leads everyone in the singing…and an old bloke who randomly shouts out “Come on the Swannies”. And just like with the Boro the Swans only have 1-2 different songs…in fact with the red & white scarves, the pies & the singing it could well have been a day at the Riverside (if it wasn’t for the sun!). Of course, there was also the women who appeared to be taking a day off from the cast of “Kath & Kim” - they seemed to say “Swannies” an awful lot & speak with the worst whine.

After the game, Lucy & I headed into the CBD to watch Dame Edna Everage. Stopped on the way for a hot dog at Harry’s Café de Wheels….went for the Hot Dog de Wheels which basically has everything – chilli, onions, cheese and peas! Tasted as good, if not better than the dogs in Copenhagen. Dame Edna was amusing if not spectacularly good, and the 2nd half of the show in which several audience members were dragged on stage was much the better half. In fact, the woman in front of us managed to fall asleep & start snoring during the 1st half! I wouldn’t go out of your way to watch the show, but anyone who is still going after 50 years on the stage has to have some quality.

Most amusing statement of the week came from Lucy. After going for some shopping at Harris Farms (local food place – bigger than a grocers store, smaller than a supermarket) Lucy arrived home in a bit of a fluster…. Having been annoyed with the service received from a member of staff (generally the service here is much, much better than the UK) Lucy got to the till and was charged $32.88 & was even more annoyed upon receiving just 10c change. Turns out, we’ve been here since September & Lucy had failed to realize that they don’t actually have 1c & 2c pieces! In fact, they haven’t had them since 1995! Very observant my wife! And rumour has it the coins were melted down to make the bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Finally, last night (Monday), we watched a TV show called God On My Side. Presented by Andrew Denton, this followed the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas, Texas. It is amazing how blinded people can be by ‘faith’. One bloke tried to convince the presenter that perspiration on his fingers was in fact a message from God! Andrew Denton deserves credit for not bursting into laughter at some of the comments – and at one of the worst efforts of a wig I have ever seen (a brown ‘comb-back’ with brown sides – looked like a dead animal). If the show is on in the UK – or you can find the DVD – then it’s worth a watch, if only to show you that there is some damn crazy people out there, and one of them has got his hand on trigger of the largest atomic arsenal in history.

28 Weeks Later, Pink & The Science of Sleep

On Saturday evening, Lucy went into town to catch up with some colleagues, so I headed to the cinema to watch 28 Weeks Later. Despite having an interesting concept, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first movie – 28 Days Later – but some good reviews & the fact that the only other movie showing was Spiderman 3 meant that I gave it a go. Starring Bob Carlyle (aka Begbie), the movie is set 28 Weeks (no surprise there) after the outbreak of the Rage virus, and the population is just starting to return to a militarized zone (which happens to be Canary Wharf!). I won’t give away the storyline, but I will say it’s worth a viewing – another interesting concept, some decent acting, startling to see London depicted as empty, and a twist in the tail. Also spent much of the movie thinking where things where in London.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day….. breakfast at the Diggers (good value, but not the same quality as most other places serving breakfast….starting to think I should write a ‘good food’ guide on breakfasts) and then a bit of reading & lazing about at home. Then on the evening we headed to the CBD to watch Pink! Now I’m not certain why I decided to get tickets for this, but it’s fair to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. The support band – The Androids – were not really anything to write home about, but Pink’s arrival on stage in a leather outfit (no doubt aimed very much at the lesbians in the audience!) made up for it. Unconventionally attractive, Pink strutted about the stage in tiny outfits, as the crowd went wild – it was probably the most noise that I have heard from an audience since I got here. The whole show was very well staged, and I was surprised at how many of the songs that I recognized – she even threw in a couple of cover versions (Bob Marley’s Redemption Song amongst them). Pink’s “big” voice, coupled with her amazingly toned body doing some cool acrobatic moves well above the stage (1st with a net & then with a couple of lengths of fabric) kept the audience riveted. If her voice ever goes, then I’m sure that she could get a job at Cirque d’Soleil! There was also an ‘acoustic’ part of the show – one of the songs was a political piece about George Bush & accompanied by some of the events which have occurred during his term in office (9/11, Katrina, Iraq)…..the last words were “Blair’s resigned, so why can’t you”….. could not agree more. Admittedly Pink is a commercial act, but she held the stage well, put on a great performance & if you get the chance to go along I don’t think you’ll regret it. Even Coyney…..

Tuesday (tonight) is “Tight-arse” Tuesday – the day when cinemas offer half price tickets to all. So I’m meeting Lucy after work to watch The Silence of Sleep – hopefully a bit of sushi beforehand.

Just back from the movie.... weird & wonderful would be the best way to describe it. Love the way that the lead character's brain is thought to be a TV studio with the walls made from egg boxes & the camera made from cardboard boxes. Favourite quote: "It's like you're dead & as you're getting cremated your friend tries to sleep with your girlfriend. Apart from I don't have a girlfriend.....and I'm not dead". Watch it if you get the chance.....

It's been a while.....

...a couple of weeks in fact since I last updated the Blog. It's not as if Lucy & I have been massively busy, but I just haven't got round to it. Since the clocks changed, it gets dark pretty damn early on an evening (in fact nearly always before I leave work) and with the majority of activities here been of an outdoor nature it's quite tricky to find things to do.

We've been to the cinema to see Shooter (an average 'thriller' starring Marky Mark & Danny Glover) & History Boys (not quite as amusing as I'd hoped - but it does have Richard Griffiths playing a very similar role to that he created in the classic Withnail & I). Thinking about it, the cinemas here are a bit weird...sometimes we get movies at the same time as the rest of the world, but more likely months behind. Some movies play for ages (The Queen was on for months) whilst some come & go after a week (Letters from Iwo Jima....very good). But the most annoying is when a movie review appears in the paper...you think to yourself "Hmmm...that looks good" and then it never shows!

The last weekend or two has been pretty relaxing - having friends around for dinner (I cooked lasagne & we made a good dent in our wine stash), walking around the local area & discovering beaches we didn't even know existed and watching some fantastic thunderstorms. Watched the de la Hoya v Mayweather fight in the Diggers last week - awesome fight and then a lovely roast dinner (although they don't have Yorkshire puds here which is a disappointment)

Wednesday was awful - woke up and it was still dark outside....really did not make me feel like getting out of bed! The bright starts really help one get on with the day, and I'm hoping the dark mornings do not become a regular feature of the forthcoming winter.

On Thursday we went for dinner with Raefer & his girl (definitely batting above his average - as some might say am I!) at Kingsley's CrabHouse in Woolloomooloo. Great food (I had a 'carpetbag' - steak cut open & stuffed with Oysters!), top wine & good chat... a really enjoyable evening and home before midnight - can't complain at that!
Fortunately, I managed to escape the hangover on the Friday - but it's fair to say that Lucy was not looking to hot on the bus into the CBD.

Yesterday (Friday), I left work a touch early and how nice was it that the sun was still up! A ferry trip over to Manly with Jamie, Doggie & others, a quick cab ride and we were at the Brookvale Oval - home of the Manly SeaEagles. Finding a perch on 'The Hill' we settled in for an evening of canned lager, shouting "get 'em onside" & admiring the cheerleaders (hot!). Thankfully Lucy had managed to recover enough from her hangover to come and collect me.

Today (Saturday) we had a bit of a sleep in & got to Angel for breakfast around 9am. The love of breakfast really is a fantastic Aussie trait, and it's so nice enjoying the view, eating nice food & chilling out to start the weekend properly. Something which we hope to continue when we get back to the UK. After brekkie we headed to Kuringai Chase National Park for a bit of a work - spotted some kangaroos, caught some rays & on the way home stopped off at Governor Phillips Lookout (see pic for the view). Tonight, Lucy is off to a bbq & then to meet work colleagues in Circular Quay. I'm taking the opportunity to catch up with some admin (including this) and then heading to the cinema later on... maybe even treat myself to some thai food.

Thinking of that, it's really not that long until we come back to the UK on vacation. Looking forward to seeing friends & family (Spot too of course) and spending time at home, at Glastonbury & in London. Hoping to be back by Saturday 16th and in London from Wednesday 27th (i.e. post Glastonbury).

Of course, we've also been thinking a lot about the future and what we're going to be doing over the next few months plus. We're loving the Sydney lifestyle, but as many of you know work is hardly going as planned...so there are definitely issues to be addressed. One thing we've ALWAYS wanted to do is travel & there are so many places to see and experience that we are thinking closely about how we can go about doing this. A whole bunch of things are going around our heads at the moment - but hopefully we'll have some resolution in the coming weeks.

Also have to admit that we've watched a few episodes of Big Brother over here...the housemates are as weird as the ones in the UK - but none of them over the age of 30 (I think) and it's interesting that all but one of the female contestants is blonde (not near as much diversity as the UK and I'm not sure the house is very representative of the population).

Oh - one final thing - we went to see the UK comedian Stephan K Amos a week or so ago. We'd seen him do a set at "Up the Creek" in Greenwich & he's been on the TV a few times here - very funny - so we thought we'd go along (the fact he was playing round the corner from work helped too!). Yet again he was very funny, helped along by some amusing audience members (at times he didn't have to make jokes given some of the audience answer!).... particularly noteworthy is his joke about glasses (Lucy loves that) & his comments on a brand of cheese called 'Coon' (unbelievable Aussies don't know about the connotations of that word - he's black btw) and somehow this led on to him talking about the Ku Klux Klan selling bedsheets....if you're in London pop along to the Comedy Store of Up the Creek to see him, it's worth it.