Australia - Manly

  Manly, Australia
Thursday, July 27, 2006

So...its been a while since our last entry and you may well be asking, "What have they been up to?"..."Are they still alive?". Well, to cut a long story short...YES, we are still alive and what have we been up to? Read on......


Andrew started work at the beginning of June and actually began on the same day as someone he knew when he was working in the UK; Rachel was over for a 6 week contract and would be working in the same office as Andrew. Rachel had a hire car so was able to take Andrew back and forth to work each day.

Verdi was unavoidably a lady of leisure, trying to find a job and taking advantage of the lie-ins. The job market was proving to be less than fruitful and it took a few weeks to get even a sniff of a job. A contact that she had worked with in the UK was based in Melbourne and the Sydney branch of his office said that they potentially had a position for her....as we write nothing has materialised!

We spent our out-of-work evenings relaxing in our apartment with its lovely views over the ocean (PICS), taking walks along the Manly beachfront and watching DVDs.



The video store near to our apartment had an offer allowing us to get new releases for less than 1GBP so we caught up on every movie we had missed over the last year or so! We also spent time with Rachel, chatting about our exploits throughout Australia and just generally 'hanging out'. Rachel was alone for the first four weeks of her stay in Oz so we kept her busy and recommended some local attractions and must-do's.

A couple of weeks into our stay we took our first trip back over to the Sydney city centre (PIC), mainly so that Andrew could revisit the "Sounds of the Outback" show (PIC) and pick up some tips for his didgeridoo playing - which was coming along pretty well. We wandered around Darling Harbour and met up with Rachel, watched the show and then sat in the harbour eating fish and chips while music from some sort of jazz festival blasted out around us.

The following weekend we were invited to one of Andrews colleages house for Sunday lunch. Rachel joined us as we joined Roger and his family (another ex-Prysmian-UK employee) in their huge house for a fabulous Sunday dinner, one too many drinks and a game of Cluedo (which Verdi won!). This happened to be the same day that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban got married in Manly. We couldn't get close to the place if we had wanted to, but we could see the location of the wedding and reception from our apartment (PIC).



Being winter, the weather was a mixture of types. Cold and wet at times but also lovely and warm at others. A large part of the time it was comparable to a warm spring or autumns day in the UK; the only problem being that it was dark by the time Andrew would finish work at 5-6 o'clock so we couldn't take advantage of the sunshine. We would still try and get down to the spotlit pathway along the beachfront a few times a week to have walk and 'clear the cobwebs' - it was amazing to see how many other people were out walking, jogging, with their dogs or with their kids. It is a much more active way of life over here and even goes to the extreme with people surfing in the ocean every morning and evening as we go to / return from work!

About a month into our time at Manly the weekend weather took a turn for the better and it was both sunny and surprisingly warm. We took advantage of this weather and spent some time down on the beach; reading books, listening to music and playing frisbee. Andrew even took a dip in the ocean despite it almost taking his breath away as he got deeper.

With a couple of weeks remaining of her stay in Australia, rachels boyfriend Steve came out to visit. The four of us decided to meet up in Sydney for a night out and to visit a special bar that we had spotted a few weekes earlier. We met up in Darling Harbour and popped into one of the restaurants there for a bite to eat before watching a music gig at Darling Harbour, some fireworks (PICS) and finally heading over to the bar. The bar is called Minus5 and as the name might suggest it is a chilly place to drink! It is one of a few bars of its kind in the world where the entire place is made out of frozen water. The bar, the walls, the chairs and decorations and even the glasses are all carved from ice (PICS).



At Minus5 Click here to find out more you book in for a 30 minute visit and join around 30 other people in the bar, kitted out with sheepskin lined jackets, gloves and booties, and are then served with your vodka cocktail in your own ice glass. You can chose to have up to 3 vodka cocktails in the half hour (we chose to have 2 - and only just managed to finish the second in time). Of course this is more of an experience and a gimmik than a usual Friday or Saturday night haunt but for a one-off addition to a special night out it is fantastic. The ice sculptures are brilliant, the freezing atmosphere an exciting shock to the system and the cocktails are actually pretty tasty too!

This was a comparatively busy weekend as on the Sunday we went to the theatre. Now I know this may sound very high-brow and not the type of thing that we would normally do but it wasn't some stuffy play or an opera that we went to watch. We travelled across Sydney to watch a new, exciting dance show called 'Break'. The show is put together by a crew of dancers and musicians who have worked with the likes of Usher, Eminem, Will Smith, Pink, Boyz 2 Men, Black Eyed Peas, Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. The show covers many forms of urban styles such as breakdancing, body-popping, crumping and beatboxing to name but a few.

The whole show was incredible - a feast for the eyes and the ears, and featured things that you really only see on TV and wonder if they are actually possible or just camera trickery. We left the theatre with wide smiles on our faces and a continuing thumping in our ears!

Verdi finally began work a couple of weeks back at a recruitment agency about halfway between Manly and Dee Why. The first week she was training in Bankstown (on the other side of Sydney) and then just getting to grips with the job that she will hopefully be doing for the next few months.

Thats really it so far, our other weekends were spent relaxing and enjoying the sights and sounds of Manly; which basically means strolling around the Corso (the main stretch of shops and cafes) and the beachfront, and chilling in the apartment in front of the TV or a good book. With Winter over halfway through we are now looking forward to longer days and warmer weather so we can enjoy the beautiful surroundings and desirable outdoor life that the area provides...fingers crossed!