The other side of the world

And just in case you didn't believe we were actually in Australia (you know, down under), here are a couple of pictures to prove it...

(Sunnier) Sydney

OK, so it snowed in Melbourne, but at least it was outside and didn't actually affect us as we left, to go straight into the bloody coldest November day in Sydney for a 100 years. This certainly was not in the brochure, and Tina had to go and buy a fleece from the chinese market around the corner to keep warm!!!!!

To its credit, it did get a bit warmer (so much so I could wear shorts on the last day), but waiting a week for the warm weather was not what we wanted.

We were a bit keen on the first day, as we actually got to the visitor information shop before it opened (stupid lazy Australians not getting to work before 9:30).

So anyway, we're in Sydney so we visit all the places you might possibly expect, Hyde Park, Kings Cross, Oxford Street, Liverpool Street etc., and also some you might not, Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach. Here's some pictures from the latter three, note Tina looking not too warm at the beach.






We went on a tour around the opera house (something to do I suppose), and went in most of the theatres. One had some ballet types doing a warm up, they are so stretchy. The only real bit of info I remember from the tour guide was that the largest crowd was for Crowded House's farewell concert, about 110,000 people, and he seemed quite put out that the record was for a 'rock concert', and that kind of thing would never happen again. Also he was the first person I have met in many years to use the word 'Negro'.

We also went into the Aquarium (mostly because it was inside, but also so Tina could 'find Nemo', she even bought a t-shirt that pretty much says as much). We saw some usual fish type things, and also some tropical fish type things. Here's some interesting(?) fish type pictures.








We also went into a small Animal type place, although Tina rushed through the first section as it was filled by bugs, which she didn't really want to look at. She was a bit better with the reptiles, but not so much.

To keep up the tall tower theme started in Melbourne, we went up Sydney's version too (no song to accompany us this time though).





We also went to the Australian museum. We saw lots of Aboriginal stuff, and lots of skeletons of various animals. I think that's it, it didn't really leave a big impression......ooooh, except they were excavating a Dinosaur in Canada (Dinosaur Park or something) and had brought bits of it back in a special display which you could touch.

On one of the days I wanted to eat here (for reasons obvious to some), but it was a bit pricey so I settled for a photo instead.



One of the best bits of Sydney, though, was walking along the street in my Spurs shirt, and having a cyclist shout 'Come on you Spurs' as he cycled past.

Party time

T'was the work Christmas party yesterday.

It wasn't as good as last year, but it was good all the same. We went to OL for lunch (it is a steak bar, no steak on the lunch menu though), and I didn't actually find the food as good as it normally is, although the warm bread was just as good.

We then went to (Vodka) Bar Revolution around the corner for about 6 hours, played some games, did some dancing, talked to lots of people, you know, the usual things. Only had a few vodkas though, which I think was very sensible of me. One good thing was that they had a promotion on where you could pay a pound to the bar staff when buying your drinks, and then, if you win a toss of a coin, you get your whole round again for free (well, for the pound you've already paid). I saw at least two thirty pounds plus rounds being doubled for us.

Afterwards we went to Baraka (at Mel's suggestion) which was playing hard house music (very Christmassy, Mel seemed to like it though), so I didn't last long at went home about 12.

It's funny, I was pacing myself to drink all day, and when I left I really didn't feel that drunk, just tired, unlike some of the other people who had got that far, and today I feel tired, and my head and stomach aren't right, but I'm well enough. Tina told me not to get toooooooooo drunk (she described an act that would constitute toooooooooo drunk) so I was good(ish).

I thought this would be it with regards to work for me this Christmas, but I have to go in on 1 day next week to support our offshore partners in India, hopefully they won't bother me much.

Don't Shoot!!!!!

Still no pictures, and I don't know what to do about it really, maybe I'll copy them and take them into work and upload them from there.

On Wednesday Tina (yes, you heard correctly) came with me to see the Rifles at the Electric Ballroom. The ticket said doors at 7, when in reality they opened at 7:50, which is fine in the summer months, but not in cold December, and particularly when we weren't dressed for standing outside (although we did see a couple of touts having an argument, which lightened the mood albeit briefly).

We were still one of the first in, and obviously everybody was too cool to pick a position to watch the gig as the whole 'dance floor' area was pretty empty, save for us and another couple, until the first band came on.

We had two support bands to see, the first being Speed Circus, who I thought were very good, entertaining on stage (they had santa introduce them), good rapport with each other, a bassist who needed to pull his trousers up, and some toe-tappingly good music.

The second support act was the On-offs, who, with a lead singer who looked like he was on drugs, knocking over the guitar player after about 30 seconds, and basically being a tad erratic through the set, didn't really have the tunes to pull it off.

The main act were very, very good. I might be biased as I really like the album, but all the songs they played were great, and I really liked Local Boy, Peace & Quiet and Narrow Minded Social Club. The crowd was a bit more jumpy than I expected, and being at the front we got squashed and covered in beer, but it was good. Also I was impressed with the guitarist's outfit of a frilly shirt (still with its out-of-the-box creases), sunglasses and top hat. It actually looked pretty cool.

Oh, we also bumped into Tim Lovejoy, Tubes and Fenners off of Soccer AM (This is a fan site link, it is more interesting than the official one). Very brief conversation though as they were surrounded by people wanting pictures.

He's got no hair but we don't care

Martin, Martin Jol!

It seems if you google image search Martin Jol (current Spurs manager), the picture of him with me comes up as the 8th one found

It's only words

So I'm having problems with pictures, so until further notice this will be just words, which is quite annoying as I have some things to say about Australia that really need the pictures to accompany them.

Not a lot going on recently, I went to see the Levellers on Sunday, they were OK, despite the fact I only knew two songs. I liked the support acts too, Benji and Three Daft Monkeys. I'm not really sure I should be admitting to enjoying the concert as it was really folk music, and it could be a slippery slope from here. I was mostly enjoying the violins I think, I'm sure it never sounded like that when I played one. There wasn't as many old hippy types there as I expected, but there were still a few, face painted, drinking cider, but, you know, whatever makes you happy I guess.

We've also pretty much finished Christmas shopping, I hope everybody likes boomerangs!

Stupid pictures

I have a problem uploading pictures, they all end up like this, anyone got any ideas what is wrong?

Laid back Australians

Obviously nobody told the stewards and police at the cricket about the laid back Australian stereotype. Here are a few examples of the 'strict' rules put in place at the first test at the Gabba in Brisbane.

1) The official 'Barmy Army' trumpet player was evicted on the first morning for causing a disturbance.
2) Three guys were prevented from entering the ground as they had 'water melon' hats which apparently could have been used as weapons
3) Backpacks were a complete no-no due to terrorist fears
4) Anyone found singing too loudly were asked to sit down and be quiet, if not, eviction was the order of the day
5) And god forbid if you tried to start a mexican wave

Melbourne

I was going to start these Australia updates with an adjective describing the place, starting with the first letter (e.g. Magnificent Melbourne), except I couldn't think of one, hence the rather uninspiring title. Murky maybe could have come close.

So, you've probably gathered by now that Melbourne wasn't our most favourite place. I think what did it, really, was the awful, awful weather, which meant we both had to wear the jumper and coat we were each reserving for our return journey (knowing we would be landing here in December). As it turns out it is actually warmer here today that the day we landed there.

We met up with Brian, who is notionally on sabbatical there for a few months having failed miserably to find any work, and he showed us the, erm, sights I guess you can call them. We walked through the Casino (as it was inside), we went to the library (inside), travelled around on the tram (inside), went up a tall tower with an observation deck (guess where) and also visitied the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG, or 'The G' as locals call it). Here is a picture of me on the pitch



We weren't allowed in the changing rooms as there were players milling around from the match the day before or something (maybe it was just their dirty underwear that was milling around), which I was a bit disappointed with, but we did see all the other areas, it's a long way down from the top row of seats (The stadium holds 90-odd thousand or something, which is a ludicrous amount of people for a cricket match, though the ground does host other sports too).



We were also supposed to meet up with my step-cousin (that's correct isn't it, cousin sort of by marriage), but an ice-cream emergency at her workplace meant she was called in, or something.

We were only there two days really, and the second day jet-lag really hit and we basically slept during the day, missing out on the acquarium which we had saved. We went out and at at the docklands area which was quite trendy, if a bit empty (I blame the weather). It actually snowed just outside Melbourne on the day we left!!!

Oh, one more thing, at the Rialto tower, there was a 20 minute video thing afterwards, which I'm guessing was intended to show all the things to do in Melbourne (Grand Prix, Aussie Rules Football, fairground etc.). All I remember (and I say that loosely) is the accompanying song that went something like this: -

"Oh yeah, Melbourne, it's so great, ooooooooooooooooh, it's the neverending city, such a great place, Melbourne, there's so much to do, do, do, do, do, yeah, it's the best, get out there and do stuff, yeah, yeah, yeah, doobie, doobie, do, Melbourne, whoooaaaah, come on, did I tell you its neverending? Oh yeah"

or maybe it was worse than that, all I know is that Tina was pissing herself laughing after about 10 seconds of it.

Oh yeah, I also had a drunken argument with a Scot in a pub after he accused me of cheating at our pool game, I hate that, I m so honest (that isn't to say that I wasn't accidentally fouling the ball, who knows).