Of Tiredness and Antisocial Behaviour

I don't know if it's Sydney's atmosphere, the gaping blinds, or the fact I sleep in a bunkbed, but I cannot sleep past 9:30am. And that is not like me. Seriously.

I am so TIRED. Oh my god you have no idea. This morning at work I was doing some laminating (I am very much overworked here) and the hum of the machine was slowly sending me off to sleep. I had to get up and go to the bathroom a few times just to fluff my hair or something, because if I stared at my computer screen too long, I got a little bit cross eyed, and then a little bit closed-eyes-ah-everything's-gone-dark-what-happened-oh-yeah-open-eyes. My plan for lunchtime was a nap and then an energy drink.

Anyway, poodling on, I need to recommend something. And it's going to be kind of obvious but I'm going to do it anyway. If you find yourself in Sydney at some point in your future, one friday night when it's still a little bit warm, go to the Sydney Opera House Bar. I've said before how sometimes I find I could easily forget I am in Australia because of how mutlicultural my house, and even the city itself, is. Well, if you sit on the stone benches that run along the harbour wall by the Opera House with the amazing building behind you, Harbour Bridge in front of you, Luna Park all lit up, and the city glowing on your left, you will know you are in Australia.

Drinking there is expensive (Saki's boyfriend forked out $65 for a bottle of wine. c.r.a.z.y.) but there are some cheaper options, so just hand over that money baby, because you are also paying for a one of a kind view which is pretty spectacular and definitely worth it. And dress up a little. Everyone else has. So sit and stare at the view, chatting with your friends, and then around 11pm turn around to face the Opera House, and judge the outfits of all the people who spill out of its doors after watching a concert of some kind, and try and work out which ones are the rich people with the real Louis Vuitton and not a copy from Thailand. Or Paddy's Market.

That's how we spent Saki's leaving do (temporary abandonment, she comes back in a month). We also celebrated Jee Eun's birthday early, which I think she was both pleased and horrified by as Saki had bought candles shaped as the number 30.... so her age was displayed for all to see. They didn't last long once they were blown out. Seriously though, she looks 22 so she shouldn't worry.

Right now I am being epic-ly antisocial and lazy. It's Anzac day and to celebrate a holiday which means very little to anyone in this house seeing as we're not Australian, we have hosted an International Cuisine Night. I hate these things. What am I supposed to bring? Or cook. A roast dinner? I can barely cook that for one person. I thought about crumpets.... but then the laziness kicked in and I couldn't be bothered to go to Coles and get some. Maybe next time. There's bound to be another Internation Cuisine Night in my future. Oh, the antisocial bit is because the party is downstairs and I am sitting in my bunk, typing this. It's strange how I revert back to old habits now. When I first got to Australia I was so bored and lonely by myself I was willing to share a room with 3 other people (which worked out very well as it turns out). Now that I have made friends, I am once again uncomfortable in large crowds of people drinking beer. And parties, even at my own house, seem like too much effort. I'm such a partypooper right?

Okay okay, you've bullied me into it. I'll make a dash downstairs and grab a sprite and cross my fingers that I can make it through the night without having to explain, for the fifteen thousand millionfrillionjillionakduhakwbfkjawf time why I am not drinking the beer.

BEER TASTES BAD, OKAY???

TTFN!

                                                        Oh yeah, and I'm a brunnette now

Rain, Birthdays, Abandonment, and MORE RAIN.

Sydney is one giant puddle today. In some ways it is quite a lot like Mississippi. When it's sunny, it's very dry and warm. When it rains, it's everyone for themselves to get to the ark before it's too late. This morning when I got into work I spent the first 15 minutes drying myself pathetically with paper towels.

It may be that we have seen the end of the good weather in Sydney, as the rain is apparently going to continue for at least all of this week. I daren't look up next week or I might get depressed. I have to walk everywhere in this city so rain is a nightmare.

Enough about rain! I just wanted to update the world on my post-birthday celebrations and the fact that SAKI IS LEAVING ME! More on that later.

So, as I said in my previous post, we just went to the cinema on my birthday because the big day was Friday. We went to the Sydney Rowing Club for my birthday dinner (shared with Saki whose birthday was the 15th, and Jee Eun whose birthday is the 26th), which is in Abbotsford, and is a very nice place to have dinner if you're ever in Sydney and want a harbour view that's not The Harbour View. We have friends that work there, so as per their instructions we took the 438 bus to meet them there.

And got dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

Seriously, the guy said "Last stop" so we all trundled off the bus and were already lost. Someone who overheard us/eavesdropped explained that there was a 438 that went to Abbotsford, and a 438 that runs the same exact route and stops halfway. Of course! How did we not realise! . . . . . . . .

Once I explained our dilemma to the bus driver of the next 438 to go by, he very kindly let us on for free (puppy dog eyes for the win!) and we reached the Sydney Rowing Club without any more drama. The meal was fantastic. There were 10 of us and we sat by the harbour side eating mostly fishy meals (you have to by a harbour!) and the guys even arranged for a birthday cake for us with sparklers! It was a passion fruit cheesecake.... so I just ate the buttery biscuit base (inside joke for my mum there) and Arnaud vacuumed up anything that was left by anyone.

So, I'm 23 now, which means I'm old and tired......... okay, so my tiredness comes from work, not age, and on the bus on the way home I was pooped out from a week of early mornings and wasn't in the mood to go clubbing (old!), and we all agreed to go to a local pub instead (called Abercrombie on George Street, it's an interesting sort of place so you could check it out if you were nearby. Cheesy music on Friday nights!).

I got a birthday drink from Kirra, and there was a discussion about how we all knew how to get by on a night out with guys buying us drinks the whole night, and I was sitting there thinking "no........" sad face. Not even my accent gets me free drinks! Although this is probably because as soon as someone makes eye contact I suddenly become interested in the funny hair of the barista/the wine list even though I hate wine/how small my hands are.

I digress. The night was awesome and muchos pictures were taken (mostly by me and people stealing my camera to take pictures of hats....) and then at 2am I went home because I'm so old and it was way past my bedtime.

On a somewhat unrelated but related topic, I've noticed that I keep eating out a lot here. I'll plan something for dinner (I go to Coles for one meal at a time, it's just so near) and then won't eat it for a week because I'm always out. My memory is fuzzy about the Saturday night (because of age) but Sunday night we went to Wagamamas for Saki's birthday dinner, Monday night I went to a Thai restaurant with other housemates, and then last night went to Saki's restaurant for a goodbye dinner. Well, I can't spend my money of stuff because I was already over the stuff weight limit set by the plane people before I came to Australia, so I guess I'll just spend it on food.

And, SAKI IS LEAVING ME! My Japanese friend is selfishly leaving us to go travel round Australia with her cute boyfriend. Surely Jee Eun and I should mean more to her! I mean, she's known me for all of a month already! I will be consoling myself tonight with chocolate and her bed. Hmm, better explain, I was a top bunker and she was on a bottom bunk, which I am now stealing since she is ABANDONING ME, so that I can stop performing acrobatics to get in and out of bed. And asking people to fetch me things when I'm lazy.... maybe I should stay there....

It's still raining. Rain rain go away, come again another day... no, go to England where you belong.

I'm going to start planning my last month in Sydney soon. June seems to be rushing at me like an American football and as yet I'm not wearing a helmet, so I need to get my act together and plan some stuff to do. Sightseeing on my own will be an interesting experience, but I shall be vlogging and blogging the whole thing so I shall pretend everyone on the internet is there with me.

STOP RAINING!

TTFN!

Of Easter Fun and Frolicks

I never usually make plans for the Easter weekend, because it has always fallen on a school holiday, so a those few extra days off were nothing special. However, I am now a grown up in the world of work, and so there was no way I was going to sit inside and do nothing the whole weekend.

My boss very kindly let us leave an hour early from work on the Thursday (which was fantastic because the last hour at work always takes about 3 hours real time) and when I got home I was immediately pounced upon by my roommates with an invitation to Clovelly Beach for some moonbathing (as opposed to sunbathing, that is, there was no way I was going to be doing any 'bathing' in the freezing sea at midnight). Of course I said yes, as one of my new years resolutions was to say yes more often to invitations as long as they don't pose a risk to my life (like bungee jumping, or skydiving, that would be a no).

I can't say much for Clovelly beach itself, because it was dark so I couldn't see anything, but about 10 of us sat on our jackets on a cliff watching the sea and the moon, which is something I've never done before, but am SO going to do again. We met an American there as well who had wandered by with his friend, and I had a great conversation defending Mississippi to him (I don't think he was convinced of MS's wonders even at the end of our conversation, but oh well). I miss the American accent hugely so it was just nice to listen.

Anyway, we left around 2am, and the next day I had a nice relaxing day at home, emerging outside only to purchase food in the form of CHINESE BAKERY YUMMINESS!!!!

Ahem.

The plan to go to Bondi the next day fell through due to poor weather, but instead we went back to the Rocks Market (scene of my sunstroke fainty reactions the week before) and met ex-roommate Emma for a wander round. I purchased the most expensive stick of corn ever ($4 = daylight robbery) and some cards and bracelets. Seriously, if you ever come to Sydney, go to the Rocks Market, it's fantastic and has some very unique and unusual and beautiful things.

We then made our way to the Harbour Bridge, which I wanted to go across to see the view. We walked along the roadside, not over the arch of the bridge which would mean wearing a rather fetching blue boiler suit and spending about $200 (I still kind of really want to do it though... anyone?), but I couldn't convince the lazy buggers I call friends to go across even HALFWAY! We made it maybe a 1/3 of the way and they decided that was enough walking. Sigh.

By the way, don't bother going out for dinner on Easter Sunday in Sydney. Everything, and I mean everything, closes at 6pm. And it started raining. A lot. But we managed to find a little Japanese sushi place (where all the waiters were Korean....?) and then purchased a lot of chocolate and sweetie goodness (and be 'we', I of course mean just 'me'), and took a 30 minute bus ride to Maroubra, which I spelt and pronounced Marlborough until Emma worked out it wasn't just my funny accent and I was just plain saying it wrong. Is there a place called Marlborough?

We put on a movie at her house, which everyone missed because they fell asleep except me and Jee Eun, and the next morning we had to wake up at 7am to catch a bus back to the city. Knacker-ed! I was then able to persuade Jee Eun to come with me to Balmain to collect some things from where I used to live and have some yummerful breakfast (I have used yummy in several different forms in this post haven't I? Overuse. But everything is yummy here) and had a walk down to the wharf to view the beautiful city skyline. The rest of the day was spent at home watching Korean dramas and trying not to fall asleep.

Guess what the next day was.

Go on.

Guess.

It was........ TUESDAY and the first day back at work.

Which is true, but it was also my birthday. People, I am 23 years old. And the best thing is I work and live with people who are all older than me, so everytime someone asked me how old I was they would grimace and comment on how young I am. Hurrah! In the morning I skyped with my parents and opened my presents and cards, which I then displayed nicely in the living room so that everyone was aware of the special occasion. And Jee Eun gave me a little sheepie we'd seen in the Rocks Market. So cute! My colleagues were great, Abi had baked me a chocolate cake and we all sat in the meeting room for an hour eating and chatting. When I got home Roberta had bought me a book with a sweet message inside (in Italian. Hello google translate), and Saki had bought me special cupcakes! We just went to the movies that night because it's Tuesdays cheap night (I still live like a stingy student) and because the big celebration is on Friday.

Birthdays are strange now. Like Christmas they used to feel like magical days. Now they just feel ordinary, and I kept forgetting about it when I was working. It's sad. Growing up is no fun. Well, no, actually it's a lot of fun. You lose some things, but you gain a lot of things too. 364 days until I'm 24, and then I'll be REALLY old.

                                                       x My presents from my girls :) x

Of Possums, Sore Ankles, and Sunstroke

I look forward to the weekend like nobody's business.

I mean, I know everyone does, but I seriously look forward to them. I pack everything - all my plans for sightseeing, eating and socialising - in on a Saturday, and then rest solidly on a Sunday. Sunday you will find my sitting on my top bunk for hours, legs hanging awkwardly over the side, with a cold bottle of coke or water that goes warm in 7 minutes because our room is not the airiest of places, a packet of some kind of chocolate, on my laptop, endlessly sifting through youtube videos and online fiction and vast amounts of manga (hugely addictive to myself and my Japanese and Korean roommates).

Saturdays are my "Tourist" days. Saturdays I am the quintessential tourist with camera permanently attached to one hand, ice cream in the other, and wearing shorts even when it's not all that warm because "it's still warmer than Britain." Luckily this Saturday had the perfect weather for shorts so I wasn't quite so out of place.

I roped Saki into coming with me on my Day of Adventure (Jee Eun escaped by conveniently getting a job that started that morning). The plan of action was to visit as many touristy sights and landmarks as we could possibly fit into the day (before our feet fell off). On my hastily scribbled list, I counted 22 places. Luckily a few are almost right on our doorstep.

Paddy's Market is a hop, skip and a 10 minute walk away, which is where we started. I bought a phone charm there, because I always have to buy something whenever I go there, and then we moved on to China Town where we entered pastry heaven. I love Chinese bakeries, everything tastes sweet and good. Except the red bean stuff. Bleurgh. Weird.

From there we went to World Square Shopping Centre which is pretty unexciting as tourist destinations go - and even as shopping centres go - except for a random art piece statue thing in the middle which reminds me of a dragon. I quite like it. On the other hand, Hyde Park is very pretty, and I do recommend going there. It is the most perfect piece of shade, and also great for watching skateboarders practice every Saturday. There are also always buskers and random entertainers such as the bubble-man we saw. At 22 (and 11.8/12) bubbles are still AWESOME. It's right next to St Mary's Cathedral, landmark no. 4 on the list (tick!).

We then meandered along until we came upon the Art Gallery of New South Wales (which we didn't go in - not a big art fan) which sits in part of the Botanic Gardens. Some of the best views of Sydney Harbour are from the Botanic Gardens, especially from Macquarie's chair. The first time I was in the Botanic Gardens I happened to overhear a tour guide explain how tourists always mistakenly sit on and take pictures of the sign for Macquarie's road/chair (I quickly hid my camera as that was what I was doing) which is also carved into rock, and in fact just around the corner is the unassuming rock chair. I was able to impart this information to Saki and sound knowledgeable instead of an eavesdropper. We could also see Fort Denison from there, so I felt like we could tick that off as I wasn't about to swim to it.

It was in the Botanic gardens that we saw a possum. A POSSUM!!! A Real Life POSSUM! Just wandering around as would you do if you were a possum. And it was so cute! A lot of people hate them and think they look like rats, but I like them! Well, I don't want to stroke one, but I still think it's cute.

Sydney Opera House was next, because to leave it out would be ridiculous, even though I've seen it SO many times by now. In Circular Quay we got yummerful ice cream and passed the Museum of Contemporary Art (which we didn't go in as it combines art - which I've already said I have a distaste for - and museums, which I feigned enough interest in in school to last a lifetime. I'm not very cultured am I?) on our way to The Rocks.

In The Rocks, I saw no rocks to speak of, but there was an awesome market which I will be returning to at another time when I am not fainting all over the place. Yes, a combination of sunstroke and dehydration I believe. I felt sorry for Saki who would be with me at a market stall one minute and the next I completely disappeared. I didn't all out faint, but she kept finding me sitting on a kerb with my head between my knees at various points (I don't know why 'various' is in red, but I can't get it off... damn you!). Apparently a pasty complexion is safer for me for numerous reasons.

The Rocks is interesting because it is beautiful and vibrant in some parts of it and completely empty in others. We were trying to find the Sydney Observatory and catch a glimpse of the Anzac bridge (which we managed, tick!) and ventured into areas that apparently no one, not even Sydneysiders, go to. Strange, for such a prime location.

Saki and I made our way back into the city to find Australia Square (tick!), and were came across 6 men in their 20s wearing dresses. When they passed by, one of them acknowledged our stares with "ladies," and so I replied with "ladies." How about that for quick witted comebacks?? Well, I'm proud of me, I usually think of a response 2 hours later.

Westfields and a glimpse of Central Tower was next (tick!) and then we passed the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) and Town Hall, which I think are very pretty buildings. And then, of course, the Imax theatre and Darling Harbour, which is always GORGEOUS in both the daytime and the nighttime. And then we had basically made a full circle of the city and it was home time (past the Chinese Gardens - last tick!).

My ankles have only just forgiven me for walking around in flip flops for 5 1/2 hours. It was the best way to get in some exercise too, as you won't be finding me in a gym here (or at any time). Thing is, I work with Australians, of course, but in my office there is me, and Abi, who is also British. And then I come home to awesome but purely international people, so it can be easy to forget exactly where I am. It does occasionally feel like I could be in any country in the world (there are enough accents around me to confuse the matter), so I really love doing these weekend jaunts, because I am able to look around and say..... "Holy crap! I made it to Sydney!"

             ^_^ Here is my video so that you can not only enjoy my day through writing, but also in the form of various clips ^_^