Bowls and Bill

Still getting up-to-date on the past couple of weeks at the moment - Valentine's Day we went for a romantic surf ski lesson (the second week of four) - the weather was much better than the first week, and it was highly amusing paddling up to supposedly deserted beaches and suprising amorous couples there.

Then we raced back home for a quick shower and change before heading out for dinner at Sean's Panaroma, Bondi's only 2 hat restaurant (The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awards 1-3 chef's hats for the restaurants it rates the best. There are only about 5 or 6 with 3 hats!) V nice, but sooo much food on the set menu. Have to go back sometime and order about a quarter as much!

Thursday was Barbara's birthday Teppanyaki meal - all good, but carrying on with the red wine in Darling harbour until 1am was not good for my Friday. Friday night involved a Bhanglassi strategy meeting for Alex (in the pub), with girlfriends permitted to turn up after the main business had been sorted. Luckily Matt was able to summarise the main points covered in a Powerpoint presentation for us when we arrived. I managed about one beer in my fragile state, while Alex, who had been at band practice the night before, managed to put away a large amount of Coopers and a pathetic amount of laksa, resulting in high levels of memory loss.

Saturday I was up for swim training with Bondifit at 8.30 (and may have subsequently gone back to bed). Then Barefoot Bowls at North Sydney Bowlo for Mark's birthday in the afternoon - they are rebranding lawn bowls massively to appeal to a younger market - it's the cool thinig to do at the moment. Norths Bowlo does have a pretty good view though!

Unfortunately, we could only stay for the first hour or two, due to our hectic social lives. We had to grab a cab over to Sydney uni for the Durham University 175th Anniversary Alumni dinner. Random - but we were mainly going to hear Bill Bryson (now chancellor of the university) speak. Which he did, but not for very long! Still, the meal was great, we were there with lots of freinds, and he was very friendly when we chatted to him later:

Again, this evening could have ended at a civilised time, but we decided to head back to Alex G's flat in the city, where drinking was continued until 3am. Excellente. We still managed to go and practise kayaking on Sunday though - I think it actually helped the hangovers! And then to the Domain in the evening for Tropfest, the annual openair short film festival. All good (well, some were more than slightly odd), and a good end to a busy weekend!

This week and weekend were a little quieter - although we managed to fit in a trip to the other open-air cinema in Centennial Park to see Happy Feet, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at the theatre on Friday (woohoo - just as good as I remember!), and a very nice dinner at Alex G's on Saturday to drink up all the wine we have won at various quizzes. Another 3am night!

This evening Alex's cousin Leila is coming to visit from Perth for a couple of nights, and hopefully the rain will stop!

Wigs and Peppers

I can't believe it's three weeks since I last posted anything! We've just been doing so much - sitting down at the computer and writing about it just hasn't featured. Think I'll be adding more pictures later on - most of them are still on Alex's phone at the moment (no time to upload them either!)



So, two weeks ago yesterday was Andy Halls' 30th birthday - celebrated at his and Lorna's lovely flat in Pyrmont with a wig party. There were many styles of wig present, including some excellent mullets in various styles, as well as a bald wig and a Pocahontas effort. We fitted in very well.

We managed to restrain ourselves from drinking too much, as we had to get up the next morning for a four-hour drive north - to Port Stephens, an area north of Newcastle, which is a big natural inlet, about two and a half times the size of Sydney Harbour. We were staying at Peppers Anchorage, a lovely little resort hotel with its own marina. One night and dinner was a Christmas present from Alex's parents, the other night was paid for with a voucher given to everyone in Alex's group at work at the end of last financial year. Nice!

We rocked up in the ute after a sit-down pie from the award-winning drive-thru pie shop in Heatherbrae (highly recommended), had a rest and enjoyed the view over the bay from our balcony.

Went on a sunset saling cruise around the harbour in the evening - we weren't actively looking for the local dolphins, as there's an agreement between all the tour operators to give them some time off in the evenings, but we had our swimmers on ready for a ride in the boom-net. Enjoyed a glass of champagne and some nibbles, were the first people to check out the bow net (not actually in the water, but close enough to see the huge jellyfish in the water below, and noted that everyone else was a lot more dressed up than us and there for a romantic evening à deux, or with a few other couples and drinking the bar dry. Not an option for us, as we'd driven down to the marina, so we settled for providing everyone else with some entertainment as we climbed down into the boom-net for a fast and furious ride in the water alongside. I think they thought we were a bit strange!

Then back to Peppers for a lovely meal in the restaurant, and a nightcap and a couple of games of pool in the Captain's Bar. Sunday we got up and went quad biking on the huge sand dunes at Stockton beach - woohoo! Two hours of it does tire you out though, so we spent the afternoon by the pool (and watched a wedding that was basically taking place next to the swimming pool, with everyone in it shamelessly staring!)

A local seafood restaurant for dinner, which was very nice, even after they told us when we got there that they were extremely busy and we might have to wait 20 minutes for a table even though the place was half empty. When we looked a little puzzled, they said they had some big groups arriving later on. No-one came in after us! Was all good though, and then we went back, watched England finally win some cricket, and polished off a bottle of red on the balcony under the stars. Ah.

Woke up to rain on Monday morning, but enjoyed the sumptuous breakfast buffet before driving back to Sydney. The rain has caused flash flooding along parts of the Pacific Highway, so we were quite glad of our big truck. We drove straight into the city, found our usual carpark was full and had to park in the one next door, which didn't look quite as well maintained, but was the same price. A quick change of clothes, and we both headed off to work - Alex to E&Y and me to Channel Ten for my 2pm captioning shift. When Alex got back to the ute in the afternoon, it had been broken into! Boo. Luckily they hadn't taken anything, including the car radio in the glove box, so I guess they were just looking for cash. And the door still locks from the inside. So naturally, we still haven't got round to having it fixed!

Weekend fun

OK, so it's Tuesday now, but what's interesting about work? The weekend was much more fun, starting with a trip to the open-air cinema at Mrs Macquarie's Point in the Botanical Gardens on Friday evening.


It's a bit of a formal cinema, compared to some of the other open-air ones around Sydney in the summer, but it has the great views across the harbour and a proper bar to sit and watch the sunset with a drink in. So that was nice. And then we wandered over to our seats (you get a sticker when you arrive that you can write your name on to reserve a seat whilst you go to the bar), the screen rose up from where it had been lying flat on the water, the bats started flying out of the trees, and we settled back to watch 'Glastonbury'. I've never been, but I almost felt that I had by the end of it! Made me a bit homesick for English festivals in the summer though. Still, someone had thought about that, as they were handing out flyers for the Playground Weekender festival that we're going to in March on the way out!

Saturday was the final Can Too swim training session at the beach, as lots of people were swimming in the Cole Classic at Manly Beach on the Sunday. Was quite sad to say goodbye to a lot of people, although hopefully we'll meet up again at some point. Also let myself get talked into signing up for a 4-week surf ski course with Spot, one of the coaches who also runs BondiFit. Surf skis are kind of like long kayaks - the lifesavers use them and race them (and catch waves with them) - we're going to be learning in the harbour at first - so no waves to tip us up. Have managed to convince Alex to do it too!

Then back to ours for a barbie with some mates, and lots of games - darts, dance mat and finally poker. Our run of house luck finished though, and Mark cleaned us out (although he has been playing in some pub tournaments recently, so I reckon the practice has paid off...)

Sunday, Dom and Mark were heading up to Curl Curl beach for a surf and invited us along. Never been to the Northern beaches before the Big Swim, and suddenly there we were again! You can sort of see why so many people think Bondi is too crowded when you get there - it was great.

Although our surfing wasn't really - the paddling is just so tiring, and the current meant that I only made it through the break once. Maybe the surf ski course will help the old upper body strength. They had to head off, but left us the beach tent, so we spent the rest of the afternoon lazing on the beach with the paper and occasionally going for a dip to cool off.

The bluebottles did start appearing by the end of the afternoon though, so we eventually packed up and headed home to Bondi, for a glass of wine and some more barbecued chicken on the balcony. Ah.