So having just got back from Brisbane a couple of days ago and with nothing to do for a couple of days before work starts again on Friday I thought I would do a couple of blog entries about my first holiday overseas without the parents (woohoo!!) to alleviate my boredom - I mean it's not like I am going to be doing much for the next month or so when my bank balance is $1500dr heh. So first up on my holiday was one of the most beautiful cities in the world - Sydney, It isn't beautiful in the classical sense like say Athens or Rome but the geography of the place and some of it's buildings like the Opera House make it absolutely worth visiting.
Because I'm a student we got the cheapest flight possible over which was a $212 LAN Chile flight - not bad for the money considering they gave us breakfast and we got in-flight entertainment, even if it didn't work properly compared to the $300+ we paid for the return trip from Brissie where you had to pay $ to get water let alone movies. Flight left at 5.45am so we had to be up really early in order to get there on time - I almost ended up going back to sleep because the website was saying the flight had been delayed - good thing Richard persuaded me that we should head in anyway otherwise we would have missed the flight - not cool.
Arrived at Sydney around 8am and got picked up kindly by Richard's old friend Reese. Dumped our stuff at Richard's rellies in Forrestville and then headed out to Blacktown for some breakfast - got some yummy pancakes with maple syrup for a decent price. After that we headed into Darling Harbour because as it was Australia Day we knew the place was going to be packed out beforelong - walked around there for a bit then caught the train to Circular Quay to perv at the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge before having a couple of beers by the water. Hung around and watched a jet cane around the harbour which was impressive and then watched some parachutists jump out of a plane a few thousand feet above and then land in the middle of Circular Quay - not the sort of stuff you see on Waitangi Day thats for sure. It was amazing the amount of flag-waving and general cheeriness that was around during the day, that sort of nationalism is part of why they are so damn good at sport but it has it's downsides too.
People by the Sydney Harbour Bridge watching all the boats go by - Australia Day 2007.
Headed back around to Darling Harbour and watched all the boats parading around even some older 17th century ones - would have loved to go on one of those but ah well. Then we headed back out to Blacktown and grabbed some beer - A 24 pack of Pure Blonde. I have no idea why they don't sell 12 packs over there much really - it's either a sixer of you have to go all out and get 24 - what about the people who just want to have 6 each?! 24 is a bit exessive but even so we got through them all well before we left Sydney. So yeah had a barbie on the rooftop of Reese's apartment then headed back into town for the fireworks - which we kind of missed because we were too late for getting a park so had to content ourselves with watching from the car - got a decent video of it though. We were thinking of partying it up but both me and Richard were too tired so ended up falling asleep before midnight! shh, don't tell anyone!
Saturday we slept in and had bacon and eggs for brekkie then Reese picked us up again and we went to the Beach although it was really windy and a bit overcast so didn't go for a swim - did get some cool pictures of the swimming pools they have by the rocks on most beaches and of the view near Bigola Beach. Stopped off at Wahroonga mall for lunch then headed home for a few hours before going out to Darling Harbour - we went to a really nice cocktail bar and had a couple of caipirinhas and a zulu warrior which was very fruity but very nice then headed to Pontoon and then Pier 26 before eventually heading home around 2am. It wasn't a huge night (that was to come when we got to Gold Coast heh) but it was an enjoyable relaxing one.
Sunday we pissed around at Richards Aunt + Uncles for far too long - probably because we were playing Topspin on Xbox trying to get our ranking to number 1 before we left the next day (We ended up at number 3 - Pete Sampras was just too damn hard). Eventually we got around to leaving the house and headed out to Dee Why beach - the weather was better but the swell was still a bit rough so I didn't bother hiring a board, instead just went for a bodysurf in the reforms. Was a nice little beach but next time I head out to Sydney I am definately making sure I get to Bondi. Got back to Forrestville at 7pm and then headed over to the local RSL (Equivalent to NZ RSA) which make the ones over here look like tinhuts - they have really cheap beer, pokies, big screen tv's playing tennis, cricket, football, rugby etc and a buffet to get decent priced food from. Unfortunately we got there too late for a feed but did take advantage of 4 person rounds costing $15 heh. Grabbed Dominoes for dinner and then watched the cricket where Jacob Oram almost pulled off an amazing run chase against Australia. In the end we lost by 8 or 9 wickets but it was a good effort.
Monday was the last full day in Sydney and as Richard had to go to a lunch thing with a prospective employer I headed over to the cbd to see my first movie of the holiday,
Breaking and Entering a drama starring Juliette Binoche, Jude Law, Martin Freeman and Ray Winstone directed by Anthony Minghella - also scripted by him for the first time in ages. I enjoyed the film but wasn't awe-struck. Pacing was a bit off and the overall story was too generic - it has been done better in other films eg
Dirty Pretty Things for the whole immigrant struggle in 21st century London thing etc or
Closer for the whole relationships falling apart thing. So yeah after that I met up with Richard at Darling Harbour and we went to the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World where we saw all sorts of species local and exotic - from Moon Jellyfish to Koalas it was certainly better than Kelly Tarltons thats for sure. The only let down was the penguin exhibit because our aquarium over here does that one better. Headed back out to Parramatta after that to see Reese one last time before we left for a meal. Went to Hooters which is a massive restaurant chain over in America and other parts of the world - in fact I hear one is opening in Newmarket fairly soon. Really though it's just a glorified Dennys with chicks in hot orange shorts. Was a decent meal though and good to eat out for a change.
Tuesday was our last day in Sydney - had to get into town around mid-dayish to put our baggage away intime for the 4.20pm departure to Gold Coast. A word of warning to anyone thinking of taking the train up to Brisbane - never ever take it at night - it was one of the worst journeys I have taken, especially the time from around 10pm till getting off at Casino at 3.45am. The seats are really uncomfortable and it is really hard to get any sleep with all the stopping and people hitting you as they walk past in the aisle. The first few hours were alright though as we got to see some pretty scenery. So after a 16hour coach and train journey from Forrestville in Sydney we arrived at the Gold Coast - which I will blog about soonish - complete with more pics and maybe a couple of youtube vidoes hehe.
The Good Shepard is the second effort from Robert De Niro as director (his first being 1993's A Bronx Tale). Combined with a talented screenwriter (Eric Roth; Munich, Ali) and an awe-inspiring cast including Matt Damon, William Hurt, Michael Gambon, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie and even Joe Pesci in his first appearance on screen in eight long years the film announces its lofty intentions early on.
