No job, no worries...

Tuesday night (2nd August) was spent at the Trademark Hotel in Kings Cross. A really good laugh with many many people from the hostel, including a certain Londoner who you may recall was a bit ‘bonkers’

Fortunately there’s nothing crazy about meeeeee...

But I'm too sure about Jim (right)?

Also that night (those of you who pay attention to my Facebook statuses will already know this) England beat Australia in the wet t-shirt competiton. A gruelling battle of skill and stamina between many nations was had and as the competition was whittled down England prevailed, beating the Irish, the Spanish and many others, but the Australian was a tough one. On her home turf she had the advantage, but a competition such as this has no loyalty to nationalities as the crowd recognised that the final would be decided by skill. And England had the biggest skills on the stage! Hooray!

Wednesday, I had the day off work so I went to Manly beach with Matteo and Alex. The day started with a butt joke on the boat and there are so many puns plastered around the town that I had to explain ‘manly’ to my comrades just so they could get what I was giggling at.

Vandalism is funnier than Peter Kay.

All together now... WE'RE ON A BOAT!

Oh come on, that's kind of funny.

Unfortunately we were too late for surfing (because it's winter, or something?) but the sun was shining and the weather was sweet, so we opted to stay on the beach and splash around in the sea like three over grown children.

Later we met with some people from the hostel and had some ACTUAL ALE IN ACTUAL PINT GLASSES at a place called 4 Pines! It was cold, but still the nicest (and strongest) beer I have had since being here. I also had some olives, but we all agreed that European olives are much much nicer than the things the Aussies have.

Happiness can be measured in pints!

I even managed to convert a couple of Frenchies to the church of ‘proper beer’ before we grabbed the ferry back to Sydney,

Which looks particularly special at night.

So Thursday was a day of work and it was doomed from the start. My iPod crashed and died on me so I had to listen to the radio on my phone (adverts everywhere!) during the one hour train ride to St. Mary’s which is much like the St. Mary’s in Southampton (if you haven’t been there then you are luckier than you realise). The town was dead, hardly anybody around but I did get talking to some gothy girl with a Wiccan necklace. She confirmed my thoughts that St Mary’s is a dive, but she also recommended a really good Thai place for lunch, the red curry was delicious. So I almost went out with a whimper rather than a shout until Max and I went back to the office for Charlotte’s birthday drinks. After going to a bottle shop to resupply, myself, Keyon and Charlotte stayed up until about 2am, talking non-sense and actually having a laugh (pushing Charlotte along in a trolley through Pitt Street was a highlight), which was nice even if I won’t be working there ever again. So now I have to decide whether to bother staying in Sydney or move on up the East Coast... I think the latter is the best option.

But now for some really important news! I returned to Manly with Alex on Friday morning to go surfing! ‘Finally’, I hear you scream! 

Amen to that Atiller...

...Let's go surfing!

A quick question, have you ever wondered why surfers always look well toned and slim (ie. not like me)? It’s because surfing is really hard work! Upper body strength is a must because most of the time is spent paddling back out to the waves, luckily we were told about rips and sand banks and other things I had no idea existed so the paddling part was ‘easier’. It was a good feeling when I got to my feet and rode a few waves but at the end of the 2 hour lesson I was so tired all I wanted to do was lay on the beach, which was good because there just happened to be a beach right under my feet. However there is another bay called ‘Shelly Beach’ nearby which happened to have some people from the hostel sitting on it so Alex and I went there, swam in the sea and ate some fish and chips (when we were back on dry land, obviously). I know what you are thinking; yes it really was a lovely day and yes I understand why you are struggling to contain your jealous rage.

Rage all you want, we can't hear you.

However, the day wasn't quite over as we took a short walk up a hill to look over some cliffs...

And then Jim, Alex and I went to Hemmingway’s Bar for a beer...

Then back across the harbour to Sydney.

A short while later Alex, Matteo, Zoe, I and a whole bunch of others went out to the Scary Canary! So the day was still not over and your jealously is becoming self aware!

You wish you could be here, Dave!

First we met Zoe at her flat, played drinking games with Zoe and her uni mates, then we all skipped along to the Scary Canary until chucking out time, then onto some sports bar that happened to be the only place we could find that was open until after 4am. The night didn't go on much longer than that for Alex and I as surfing, walking, being on a boat, drinking and dancing all in one day really takes it out of you.

Luckily fatigue magically disappears when buckets of alcohol and energy drinks make an appearance, so we rocked and rolled all night and partied until the early hours the next day!

I did say we had buckets of alcohol! Did you think I was using a metaphor?

And that's the end of this post, I hope that jealous rage didn't do any long term damage! Smell ya later!