Nights Out Can Be Contagious

Last night I was mildly peer pressured into going out for Sjerai's birthday, resulting in me being mildly hung over at work today. We all trotted of to World Bar after a few cheeky goons at the hostel and... well, my memory gets hazy soon after that, there was beer, dancing and I met some Aussie girl called 'Matilda' (She wasn't waltzing) who decided she 'really' liked me based on my accent alone, which was nice. But, as is customary with nights out, a camera or two were hovering around and so here are some of the less embarrassing moments captured on mine.

Spot the birthday girl...

All good fun, unlike the previous evening in which I (and a few hostellers) went to see Contagion. Those who have seen my Facebook status will know my opinion of the movie and all of the others in attendance were in agreement that Contagion was not the dramatic ride we were hoping for. Here's my review for those that didn't see it, also spoilers, not that that matters seeing as nothing much happens so there isn't much to spoil.

Just got back from Contagion, Plus points: Paltrow dies early on. Cons: IT'S SO BLOODY BORING! You remember how swine flu was boring and SARS didn't amount to anything? Well this movie is a dull as watching a documentary about how vaccines are made, because that's exactly what it is most of the time. After an hour or so it teases you into thinking something interesting will happen by showing some looting, military road blocks and fighting, but that dies down pretty quickly. Matt Damon sees flashes from gunshots being fired in a house, but that scene is only there to show that the 911 service doesn't work properly any more. When a main character died it provided as much impact as a grain of sand on a beach. And at the end of it all America saves the world and nothing happens for 20 minutes and roll credits. No twist, no thought provocation, just a message for chefs to wash their hands after touching raw meat.

Next week we're hoping to see 'In Time' in which Justin Timberlake pretends to be 25 and tries not to die because his watch runs out of battery power, or something?

A Night at the Cross and Car Shopping

Yes the title says 'car shopping'. I went to look at a car today, but more about that later.
Last night was Saturday night, so after a 10 hour day at work I saw England let the French win something because they realised it must suck being French all the time, so we let them have a little confidence booster. Later the 311 (eventually) walked up to Kings Cross to go to The Cross Hotel. I hadn't been there before, which is odd because it's actually kind of good. Balconies and dance floors spread out over 5 floors and $6 Heinekens. One thing that did seem odd was when the DJ played 'Bonkers' the floor seemed to empty, very strange. So we drank and danced, walked around the street of sin and after not finding anything better we returned to the Cross Hotel (after ice cream) to see out the evening.

Nothing like 'The Cross' on a Saturday, much like how there is nothing like a herpes diagnosis on your birthday.

Jose 'really' likes ice cream

The 311's current line up

A drunken evening results in a morning of hang overs and hazy memories, but that didn't stop me going to a certain bar on Darling Harbour to hand in a CV (or resume, depending on where you live) thanks to a tip off from Jena, who will receive a cupcake if I get the job and not one of those lame 'mini' cupcakes from Starbucks, I'm talking a full on cupcake at least two times as big as a mini cupcake!

This woman has really tiny hands.

After handing in my CV I strolled over to Broadway to meet Zoe and Wiebke. Zoe was buying stuff for the room she's just moved to and Wiebke had to leave after about 10 minutes because she's a student and apparently students have to do work, it seems a lot has changed since I was a student.

Pictured: Studying

Zoe's new place is pretty cool, the view alone is interesting enough.

But of course you have been reading this whole time thinking about 'cars'. I looked at one and I took it for a test drive. It was a Toyota Landcruiser with a short wheel base, snorkel and personalised plate but it was a bit smaller than I had hoped, plus it barely moved, not a good example...

I'll have to keep looking but at least I know that GumTree ads are not very honest...

The ad said it was red!

Brazilians, Rugby, Karaoke and Belgians

Sunday, after a few hours at work, Matteo and I went to meet Zoe at Darling Harbour to see some Brazilian festival and maybe watch a bit of rugby. The Brazilian thing was ok, a bunch of food stalls at one end of the area with a stage at the other end, not my sort of thing really, all that samba and odd looking mascots isn't my bag, baby.

Seriously, this has something to do with meat.

So we had a bite to eat at Pontoon and wandered around towards some big screens that were showing the England match, but we stopped off to watch some muscular men do muscular things (no homo)

And then we watched the first half of more muscular men doing muscular things before going to Helm (not a gay bar) to watch the second half in which England prevailed, but not before knocking some Georgian guy out and worrying everybody who was watching.

Work on Monday was probably the easiest day ever and... that’s about all that happened.

Tuesday was a day off! Hooray! I met Zoe on Manly beach and we were shortly joined by Jena and then Matteo, but they were not the only people I met there. I should probably mention I had a day off, I already did? OK, but some people didn’t, namely John and Phillip, now can you guess who happened to be working near Manly and sitting by the beach as I walked passed... No, not Dame Edna! It was John and Phillip! Before bumping into those guys I also bumped into Sebastian from work at the ferry terminal, which was kind of weird.

The beach was very windy, which was a problem, and a bit cloudy, so much like the beaches at home and like the beaches at home we stayed there regardless. The four of us went for a meal at the Ivanhoe as we watched in awe as Italy took Russia by the scruff of the neck and booted their arse out of the stadium.

We got the ferry back to Circular Quay, went our separate ways and that was it for the evening.

Or so we thought, as Matteo and I walked into the 311 we were greeted by our three Belgian lady roommates who informed us that they would like to go to World Bar. As we are gentlemen and all round nice guys we decided to accompany our roommates as we were well versed in the Tuesday night happenings in Kings Cross. First up, free drinks in Trademark, in which I met two more people from work (Gary and Tom, which means in my day off I met over half of the people I work with) then onto World Bar, where the Elephant Backpackers were in attendance and showing the Cross how we roll in Woolloomooloo.

Coolest kids in the building

The Belgian girls went back to Trademark with Matteo, I stayed as I promised a certain liebling that I would take to the stage with her. Now I’m not saying we were the best of the night, but when Amanda and I sang ‘Come Together’ (Amanda’s choice) we were awesome and when a few of us sang ‘Wild Thing’ (Amanda’s choice) we were straight up steak sauce!

I think the t-shirt helped

The karaoke stopped but we didn't, Matteo and the girls had since returned and as 2am crept around the corner the numbers dwindled and we walked back to the hostel. Today I have so far been to Coles, written a blog post and I am currently considering sitting in the botanic garden and reading a book in the glorious sunshine!