Spring in Sydney

Vicky's birthday night out No.1. The Cricketers Arms, Surry Hills - Wednesday 5th September

Friday 7th September was a public holiday due to the APEC summit which was being held in Sydney (George Bush and his entourage whizzing past our offices the previous day had caused hysteria). Gavin and I went to see Snow Patrol perform at the ACER Arena on the evening. They were absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately we have no pictures as we were the only two people out of thousands that abided by the no cameras rule. It's a little strange going to a concert in Sydney though as the crowd are so subdued. We have spoken to a number of people about it since and that simply seems to be the way people are at concerts here. I found it odd that the people in the seated area stayed seated for the entire concert - we were in the standing area and bounced around like lunatics as you would expect. I hope the crowd are a little more enthusiastic when I go to see Justin Timberlake next month! He's bringing sexy back!

Vicky's main birthday night out was on Saturday 8th. it was a great evening although I realised it was time to go home when I found myself in a 'dance-off' which involved me break-dancing, spinning around on the floor like a mad woman. Sadly I did not win said dance off as my opponent wiped the floor with me with her double commando roll. Note to self: must learn more moves.

Vicky's birthday night out No.2. Cargo Bar, Kings Wharf - Saturday 8th September

The following weekend was spent walking some of Sydney beautiful costal walks. It's excellent as we can jump on a bus or a ferry and be at a beach in less than 30 minutes.

The Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk - Saturday 15th September

The South Head Coastal Walk - Sunday 16th September

The South Head Coastal walk ends at Watson’s Bay where it would be simply rude not to sample the fish and chips from the famous Doyles restaurant.

Views from the ferry port in Watson’s Bay

On Friday 14th we jumped on the train after work and headed to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for a weekend break (I know, a weekend break during a year long break!). The mountains are spectacular. We had such a lovely time. It's fair to say we had to drag ourselves away on the Sunday. We stayed at the cutest little hostel called No. 14 which is a restored mountain guesthouse with lots of character and a lovely fire burning in the communal area (it's pretty cold in the mountains at night).

On Saturday we walked from our hostel to Echo Point, the starting point for our Echo Point to Scenic Park bush walk which incorporates The Three Sisters and the Giants Stairway along its 2 1/2 hour duration.

Blue Mountains bush walk - Echo Point to Scenic Park

Like the big kids that we are we had to buy the unlimited pass for the two cable cars and the funicular railway at Scenic Park so that we could go on everything in both directions!

Scenic Park at the Blue Mountains

Views of the mountains from Scenic Park

On the way home from the mountains we decided to visit the Zig Zag railway which is also in the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately we missed our connecting train for our return journey and had to wait for over two hours at the Zig Zag's Bottom Points station with the company of an exceptionally annoying family - Mr Know-it-all, his wife, Mrs Man-Woman, and their kids, Rudee and Ruder. (shudder)

The Zig Zag railway

On Thursday 25th PwC hosted an event for PAs and clients PAs. It was a such a fun night with a fashion show and lots of champagne. I'm pleased to say that I was relatively well behaved and was not one of the girls that got locked in the stairwell whilst having a cheeky ciggie, or the girl that knocked a whole table of drinks over - twice, or the girl that was placed into the sick bay by a Partner who had found her slumped over her desk in a drunken stupor. The same girl woke up at 3am and called the police as she had no idea where she was (she rang in sick the following day unsurprisingly). No siree, not me. I was of course one of the ones who insisted that the night could not end when they closed the free bar and switched on the lights. "Who's up for carrying on?" - said in a loud Brummie accent

One of the guys at work invited us along to a private party that was being held at Bungalow 8's bar in Kings Wharf on Thursday 27th. It was a great do that had attracted a huge crowd and had DJs, live PAs, entertainers and a free bar. We managed to get our photo in the social pages of the Sunday Herald which my work colleagues found very entertaining! Fortunately the photographer managed to take our picture before we commenced our drunken dance routine to Salt 'n' Pepa's "Push It".

The Sun Herald, 30 September 2007

On Saturday 29th Sarah, Conor and their gorgeous little son Finn invited us over to their home for our first Aussie BBQ. I think they were a little surprised that our contribution to the BBQ was kangaroo meat. But we wanted to try it! It's a bit like tough lamb and I probably wouldn't buy it again. Following the BBQ Gavin and I headed to their local pub which Sarah had promised served the best Guinness in Sydney - Gavin is in full agreement. There was an Irish Band playing and lots of dancing too which made it a great evening.

As it was a bank holiday weekend, on Sunday 30th we headed to a night called Godskitchen at Home Club with Vicky. The club went on until 7am....we did not. Why, why, oh why do people bring glow sticks to clubs? You look silly, stop it! We left at around 2am.

The weather on Monday 1st was gorgeous. We spent the whole day in Darling Harbour for the Darling Harbour 'Fiesta' which was a celebration of all things Latin American. There were three different stages with performances from dancers and musicians along with stalls selling crafts and food. The children's Flamenco performance was excellent, however, the funniest thing I have seen in ages was the 'Learn to Salsa' session. Two dancers on stage gave instructions to the crowd and we all had a go at learning a few Salsa steps. We were really surprised at how many people got involved. Everyone was really up for a laugh and didn't care how silly they looked and boy did they look silly. It was very funny indeed.

These two little darlings were having an excellent time dancing to the salsa music (yep, still obsessed with Asian kids!)

And so the end of the bank holiday weekend and the end of this installment.

We'll update again at the end of October by which time we'll be finishing up at work and set to head off on our travels again (can't wait!).

It's Wallabies v England in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday. I do hope England win as we've been getting no end of stick from the Aussies. C'MON ENGLAND!.

Ta-ta for now.

Gav & Cardie xxx