Sydney Southside!

Hey all!

Quick update...I amazingly woke up at 730am today. For like the first time EVER. Then after laying in bed for half an hour, got bored, and got up. I was faced with a horrible dilema with what id do for the rest of my day, because everyone knows that the mornings are filled with demons, and are REALLY best ignoring.. :P

Then one of the blokes in my room had a great idea. We were just chatting, and he was like 'hey! why dont you borrow my van (1970 bright yellow toyota Hi-ace called Trevor. VER cool). So i was like 'AWESOME! YES!'. But couldnt get it started. Well, I COULD just about get it started after 20mins of messing around, because you have to perform some sort of satanic ritual on it to get it going, and slaughter a goat. And a dingo. but THEN i realised that it had some strange stick shift system, and I really wasnt going to get the hang of that at 9am. It was stupid. 1st - 3rd and 2nd - 4th - reverse appeared to be EXACTLY the same gear..So i gave in. I had images of me stalling it in the middle of an intersection, and just having to leave it there because id ran out of goats and dingos to start the thing again... :P

So then i sat down with my tea, dejected. Before realising that Louisa, who im travelling up the coast with on friday got a cheap car from budget. So i tried them, and managed to blag a 3.0l Vauxhall Omega for $55 (it was supposed to be an astra, or whatever theyre called over here). Which was cool. But HUGE. And doesnt fit in the shity sydney streets (the lanes are about 1/2 the width of a car, and theres 3 of them). Still. It had a really good radio, and a really good rock station. And a jazz station. And an alt-country station...

So yes. Long story short I headed down the south coast. Out of syndey, down to Kiara, then I went across to a rainforest in...maybe minnamurra, then went back via a crazy mountain road, which would be AMAZING on a motorbike, with hairpin bends, and "Soft Edges" (which is polite Aussie for 'Sheer f***ing 200ft drop'). Then back into sydney. Got lost in sydney CBD for about 300 years, then came back home..

It was nice. The road i followed went STRAIGHT along the sea, so you had amazing views all the way along it, then i stopped at a pub in a village called scarborough for lunch, which had the most amazing view out the back of it, straight over the ocean. That was really nice...Then just carried on down, stopping here and there...

I nearly got trapped in the rain forest too...they close the national parks at 5pm. So theres me at 4.55pm doing about 100kph down essentially a farm track to get out out of there in time, because theyd already locked the footpath i was supposed to take, so i had to find a new way out, and climb over a few fences, and over a few 'DONT TREAD HERE. SPECIAL RAINFOREST' signs. Thanks guys! ..It was nice though. The mountains reminded me a bit of the lake district, but the flat-lands looked just like Devon...definately an improvement on sydney..

I dont like these stupid speed limits though. 100kph. YOU try making a 3.0 v6 0r v8 or whatever JUST do 100kph. you tapped the accelerator, and it was like BWAAAAAHHHHHHHHH'M DOING ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY HAHAHAHAHAGGGHH!.

So yes. Long story. Probably quite boring to read, but it was a really really nice day. I enjoyed myself...

*Sings* MOVING ON UP, IM MOVING ON UP...okay, okay! Ill stop!

Just a quick update. Ive finally made something vaguely resembeling a travel plan! I was going to stick around in Sydney, but i just want to see a bit of Australia, and not get stuck in one place. So im moving up to Brisbane..

Im heading off next friday with 2-3 girls from the hostel (score!! :p), and probably stopping off in Newcastle for Lunch / a chill out on the beach, then im heading onwards to. Well, eventually we'll stop in byron bay for a night or two, head on over to Nimbin, on the reccommendation of Debbie and Max, stay there for a bit, then head into Brisbane.

Then, once im there, theres a few people from the hostel here in Sydney (everyone seems to be migrating north) are going for a few nights on Fraiser Island, so im going to jump on the tour with them, and spend a few nights sleeping on the island. Which is going to be awesome. (lol, its going to be like one of those f*****d up american road-trip movies isnt it?? Me being the token black guy! :P)

THEN im going to work!

WEEK 2 - AAAAND RELAX MKII :P

Forgot to mention yesterday that Ive had my 1st Roo steak! Mmm. Well, i did one with a peppercorn sauce, which was well nice. The 2nd one i mixed into a stirfry with 3 Thai Chillis, which nearly killed me!

The moral of this story, is never give Stotty 30 chillis for $1, and an oven. :P

On the upside it cleared my cold / hayfever / black death / whatever ive got! :P

WEEK 2 - AAAAAAAND relax!

BUSKING TIME -5mins. when bored
BUSKING $$$ - 30c.
TIME NEEDED UNTIL RICH - 2'000'000 years.

Hey, just updating you on my second week...Ive been a bit more chilled out this week. Doing a bit more job hunting, and less going out, because my bus pass expired, and im too lazy to fill it up again.

I met up with my friend for a bit of sushi for lunch on monday, grabbed my phone, which is a little obselete now, but never mind. I cant even use bloody Skype on it, because i need to download it. But it wont let me download, because im abroad. Stupid thing..walked back through the park, and just enjoyed the sunshine..

Was going to go down the beach the next day, but that went tits up, so ended up down another park with a some mates, few beers and a guitar. Playing a bit of football (England V Germany. England lost. Again. Sorry guys! :P). Got my 30c! :P

Then Saturday morning i went over to this other market (carrington fields market maybe??), which was cool. Plenty of free samples of crisps, and wine, and more wine, and cheese, and salsa. Mmm. Salsa. I just had to try real hard not to spend a fortune on stuff there!

Saturday night, I was well impressed, because i found Newtowns version of 'the bear', and stayed for a schooner or two. woohoo! I was starting to get rock-pub withdrawal symptoms! :) And the beer was well cheap (and horrible, but you cant complain too much when its only $4).

Then I went down to Paddys market yesterday, which is...well, its almost like a Chinese market. And it closes from mon-wed. So at half past 4 yesterday, i had to fight my way through a billion people, getting dollar boxes of vegetables (well, come on! A dollar? Its a bargain..). It was quite fun, but bloody exhausting. And now i have more vegetables than ill ever need in my life! I mean, what the hell am i going to do with a bag of lychees ($1). 30 chilli's ($1) some parsnips, and a bok choi?? :P

Just really getting into finding a whole job thing now. Ive had my few weeks chillaxing, now i suppose i best get my game on a bit! :P

Woohoo! My first week! 11 months, and 3 weeks to go! (and 23p in which to do it!)

Woohoo! Ive just about made it through my first week. AND i havent spent ALL my money yet (although im giving it a good go! :P).

I spent a few days in Hong Kong, which were pretty cool, although bloody expensive! Went up to the peak on the tram, and had a pint and some food looking over the harbour while i ate my lunch. Then watched the lights come on on the waterfront, had a few beers (Few being the operative word, because they were like A$10 each) because my hostel in HKG was stupidly cheap. It was also stupidly small, with a bed that was only marginally more uncomfortable than the floor...You could swing a cat in there, but you'd really have to want to hurt the thing! :P

Then I went to the markets in Stanley, chilled out a bit. Got a fridge sticker that said 'You are my love. My Angle. Why you treat me like potato?'. Then went back to the airport to catch the plane. It was completely full, so i had to wait. Then at 11.10pm, (the gates closed at 11.30) they said i could catch the plane. So i had to bloody leg it across the whole of HKG airport. NOT fun...

Then got on the flight. Thought id be sensible here, and i decided to spend the entire flight watching movies, and refusing to sleep...God knows what i looked like walking through the Aussie customs. They let me straight in though! (Bwahahaha Fools!)

Then the past week Ive been chilling out in beaches, Chilling out in the parks. I took a walk around the art museum. And also, in the name of science. Tried the cheap wine here (its all so expensive. Everythings like $35-40 dollars. Its ridiculous! Im almost considering going againt every grain of my english heratage and stopping drinking! :p). Its called goon. Its $10 for 4 litres. and its certainly an experience...It doesnt taste bad. Its just the next day you end up feeling like you're wearing your body inside out, whilst an evil goon pixie-goblin p***es on you from a great hight. It almost puts you off the stuff, until you realise that its the only stuff you can afford! :) AND that all the other stuff is bloody fosters! :P

The hostel im staying in is bloody amazing. The people ive met are amazing, its in a really central spot (40mins walk to the city, and its right in Sydneys version of Camden). Its definately worth it. Ive just moved into a 6 person dorm, because it was $150 a week, as opposed to $450. And everyone here is pretty sound...So ill see how that goes. Lol, my next post'll probably be a 20min long rant! :P

Apart from that the only other thing ive done is thrown caution to the wind yesterday, and took $50 down a casino with a group of people from the hostel..I was going to go to bed, but I thought 'hell. Why not?' It was pretty good. I won $50 on a jackpot on one of the machines. But spent it all again a bit later. Im not that fussed about ever doing it again, but well. Youve gotta try these things at least once!

Other than that, ive got bored of waiting to hear from Autoglass, so ive applied for a few call centre type jobs which are close by, and pay well. Failing that, theres a warehouse job that i could go for, OR some sort of charity thing up on the job-board here.

Ive decided against buying a car straight off, and have decided to work and save the money for a car instead...Pictures'll be coming up soon, as SOON as I work out how the bloody hell to get them on here.

Oh I almost forgot. I FOUND ROO-MEAT! Im not entirely sure how im supposed to cook it. But ive got Roo Meat! Woohoo. Perhaps ill have it with my cheesy pasta / beans on toast. :P