Day 43-50: Sydney (Week 2)
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2004
1
13
57
Trip End
Jan 05, 2006
Sydney,
Australia
Monday, November 1, 2004
Monday was my first day back in a gym thank god! My Fitness First trial started today so I jogged from the packers to the gym - thought my lungs were going to explode. Went to a Combat class whilst I was there, instructor was rubbish - not much competition other than the body which was perfect of course. Personality wise I'm guessing it must have fell out on the way to the gym. Hard work tho doing it again after so long, definately need to keep it up coz my fitness has definately dropped. Carlos came to the Combat class too and afterwards we done a bit of weight stuff together. It was a beautiful day, blue sky and all that so he suggested a trip to Bondi so we hopped on the bus and lay on the beach for the afternoon watching all the gorgeous men wander by! It was my first time on Bondi and it was better than I thought, quite a pretty place and not as cheesy as I thought it would be. As it was a Monday the beach was quiet-ish, but still plenty of people around, it wasn't as big as I thought it would be but big enough. Unfortunately the water was bloody freezing, should warm up in a month or two tho so looking forward to a good swim, and I need to get some colour on my pasty english body!! Evening was pretty quiet, well it was a monday....
Tuesday:
Today I done what I should have done on Monday which is wander around the bars and cafes on Oxford St looking for work. Dropped off a few CVs and filled in a couple of applications so it's just a question of waiting. Will probably pay another visit in a couple of days to chase up, no harm in reminding them who I am.
Dan from Sweden
The Oxford could be potentially promising, the manager Matthew was there so got to speak to him personally, got on quite well, he said he wasn't sure if there was anything available but there's always people leaving or sick so who knows. Basically made enquiries with 6 places.....tomorrow I'm gonna try a different area and see what's around. Other than that I just did some grocery shopping in the morning - woohoo!! (see, it's not all a whirlwind of excitement and globe trotting!). In the evening I met up with a guy called Jamie who I started talking to in the UK - he's from the UK too and came over about 6 weeks ago on a working hol visa to work as a Nurse so it was good to meet someone who's done the same thing as me. We chatted about finding work and looking for somewhere to live, he found it difficult too but eventually found a place a bit further out than I want to be, he's gonna stay in Sydney for longer than me tho so it's not so important to be central. We had some drinks nr my hostel and then moved to Oxford St. Toward the end of the night in the Stonewall a guy kept looking over at me, and before I left I finally got the balls to go over and talk to him, his name was Jay and he's from NZ - really nice bloke but didn't have a mobile and couldn't remember his number either! So we arranged to meet somewhere on Wednesday night as he's going back to NZ on Thurs (just my luck to chat someone up and they don't even live in the same country!) - so it was a good end to the evening.Wednesday:
I had to change rooms at the hostel in the morning as the ensuite 4 bed I was in had been booked out - there's a huge group of americans staying in the hostel at the mo.
Fox Studios....yes I know it's just a sign
So I've ended up in a 6 bed with no bathroom, however it does mean I'm gonna save a bit of money as it's obviously cheaper - luckily the room isn't full either, there's only 3 other guys in it. After I'd moved rooms I went to a registration with a management company who work with agencies to look for jobs for people, the only reason I went it because I saw an ad in a paper for this company advertising an IT Helpdesk position with Notes experience so called them and then got sucked into a registration. Walking there was a bit of a nightmare coz it was sooo humid this morning, something I'll have to get used to I guess. Got there for 10am and it was a group registration, loads of travellers all looking for jobs. Filled in a few forms, got some info but no useful jobs for me at the mo. Don't really want any IT stuff tho at the mo but thought maybe the Helpdesk position would be shifts.After that I had a quick coffee with a guy called Ant, he works in Sydney for Quantas on their tech side I think, been talking to him on the net and that went quite well but conversation seemed a bit difficult in person so kept it short and sweet! After that I wandered around Darling Harbour and dropped off CVs at a few bars, worked my way back to the city dropping off more CVs at a couple of other bars on the way. 4pm I had an appointment to view a shared apartment on Elizabeth St, same st as I'm on at the mo but several blocks further out of the city. It's sharing with two blokes, both foreign students, one from Mexico and one from Columbia.
Me and hot chocolate...mmmmmm
The place was actually quite nice, bit dirty but doubt anyone keeps a place as clean as I used too. The room was furnished too which is a bonus, but I'm not sure coz it's a bit further out than I wanna be and it's sharing with 2 students and I'm sure students are the same all around the world - anyways, I'll have to have a think about it. After the viewing I went to another Combat class (jogged to the gym and back too!) - this class was much better, the instructor was v good but I was so shite at doing the situps and pressups I didn't dare introduce myself as an instructor coz he probably wouldn't believe me! Think I'll have to work on that a lot!! Then after Combat was a mad rush to eat and then go view a flatshare nr Oxford St at 7.45pm. The place is really nice, the girl who advertised it, Nicky, isn't in it yet but she's taking on the lease and is moving in Saturday so is subletting a room. The location is absolutely perfect and the apartment has the usual wooden floors (tho my room would be carpet), decent kitchen, balcony, loads of space. It's not furnished at all but Nicky will be supplying the furniture for everywhere other than my room. Of course again she's got loads of interest and was doing a lot of viewings that night, I overlapped with an american girl who arrived at 8. So it's just a question of whether or not Nicky liked me and the type of person she wants. It's a pain in the arse really, such a lottery but I'm not gonna just go for something unless I'm completely happy with it - seeing Nicky's place made me realise that I didn't really want the one with 2 students.....so fingers crossed, may chase up tomorrow.
Then after that I hooked up with Jay, we arranged to meet at 8.30 in Taylor Sq.
Sydney Food & Wine Fair
I wasn't sure whether he'd be there as it was late and it was in a bar we met so he could have been completely drunk. Anyways I got there about 8.25 and he was already there, he spotted me and had a huge smile on his face, really cute guy and sweet too. So basically we had a few drinks throughout the evening, chatted about all sorts of stuff and he was dead easy to talk to. He was in Sydney training with Quantas as he's cabin crew in NZ - tho not ya typical camp cabin boy either - he's only here for 3 nights and flys home Thursday which is a real pity coz we got on really well. However he does long haul and has occasional 2 night stop offs in Sydney so we've swapped details and will hopefully get together again when he's back in town - so the first realy nice bloke I meet, who I can talk too, who I find attractive and who likes me too doesn't even live in the same country - seems like my luck's gonna be the same over here as in the UK! lol.....oh well, early days yet.....Thursday:
God what did I do Thursday?? Erm....frankly I have no idea during the day, but the evening was pretty cool. I went along to a rehearsal with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir from 7-10pm - http://www.sglc.org/ - they basically allow anyone to go along who has a reasonable singing voice and join in. They're preparing now for the Christmas concerts and also for their Mardi Gras concert which is always a big event. They're going to be doing loads of pop tunes for it so it'll be stuff i'll enjoy singing, looks like it's gonna be a big mix from 60s-00s. Last night we rehearsed parts of Secret Love (think it's an old Doris Day tune), We Are Family, and Absolutely Everybody. There's a joining fee, annual membership and rehearsal fee but it's not a lot really and I think it'll def be worth it coz I'll be meeting new people - some very friendly guys there - and I'll get to do some proper singing again which I haven't done for ages...might even get to do the concerts with them! I think the Mardi Gras concert is Feb 26th so there's a date for your diary should you be in the area....lol ;O)
After that I met Carlos and a couple of his friends and we went to the Imperial Hotel in Erskinville. As you'll see from the website it's best known as a location for the film 'Priscialla - Queen of the Desert'. It's a very short bus/train journey out of Sydney and it's famous for it's drag shows and last nights were very funny, and pretty professionally done too. Was a good laugh and will def be going back again.
Friday:
Friday morning started off with some good news, Nicky had left a message on my mobile saying that she wanted me to move in with her so I've found somewhere to live!! Woohoo!!! (Address is at the end...). Now I gotta find something to sleep on and a job to pay for it, I'm sure it'll all be fine... After breakfast I jogged to the gym, done a Bodypump class, had a 15 min bike ride and jogged back. Had a bit of lunch and bumped into a guy I started chatting to over breakfast, a Swedish guy called Dan, he seemed quite a cool bloke, doing the whole travelling thing, a student at uni over there just taking some time out. We decided to hang out for the afternoon and took a walk down to Paddington and Centennial Park which is a huge park in the area. On the way we stopped in a sort of Chocolate Cafe, it sold chocolate food and drinks, I had a hot chocolate of course but this was no usual hot chocolate. Hot milk was served in what looked like an oil burning, you know one of those things with a tealight in it, so this kept the milk warm. Then served on the side was a load of small chocolate drops and some extra warm milk. Basically you put the chocolate drops in the hot milk, let them melt and drink it!! As you can imagine this was verging on heaven for me...took a picture of it so you'll get an idea of what the hell I'm on about when I put the Sydney pics up (tho actually today was the first day I took any pics in Sydney!).
After wandering around Centennial Park for ages we stumbled on the Fox Studios complex. This is the site of the actual working studios in Sydney and is the site where the new Star Wars films were made. The public bit is more a shopping and entertainment complex and you can't really see the studios and the background stuff. So me and Dan had a drink at one of the bars and played a couple of games of pool. On the way back we tried to get a bus back to the hostel but couldn't find any bus stops on the road we were on, or couldn't work out where the buses were stopping anyway. After walking for about 15 mins we realised we'd actually just done a huge circle and weren't far from where we'd started. So I've been in the gym and then walked for about 4 hours so I think I've done more than enough exercise for one day!
Saturday:
Saturday was a huge fundraiser for the HIV trust in Sydney. It's called the Sydney Food and Wine Fair and it's held in Hyde Park, basically you buy tokens and then you exchange these for food and drink, all the money raised from the tokens goes to the trust. It was a beautiful day too and the park was rammed with people, great atmosphere and loads of good food but it was quite expensive as you needed quite a few tokens for some things, but it was all for a good cause so I managed to buy a few things including a very nice Tiramasu. Spent part of the afternoon trying to work out where I was gonna get a bed from for Monday, looked online at a secondhand ads site but there's no pics so you've no idea what you're gonna get, and having no transport it's difficult/expensive to get out to see them first.
Late afternoon I went to the apartment to meet Nicky and give her the bond - in Oz you pay a bond which is the same as our deposit and is usually 4 weeks rent so I took $800 up to her. It was good to see the place in the daylight, it's a really bright apartment with high ceilings in an old converted terrace. All white walls and polished floorboards, other than my room which is carpeted. Kitchen is small but still big enough and the bathroom is clean and modern. There's also a little balcony out the back, no fantastic views but good to have a little outdoor space. The main benefit is that it's so close to everything, tho I'm not sure how close it is to a net cafe so will have to go hunting or this diary could dry up (can I hear cheering???). Sat evening was the usual out for drinks thing, was supposed to meet Carlos around 10.30pm, he called and said he was running late - still hadn't shown by 1am so thought 'fuck it' and went home. However before going home some guy called Ben started chatting to me in the Columbian. Very friendly and chatty and supposedly straight with a girlfriend at home....doesn't live far away so the Columbian is his local - seemed to know quite a few people in there too, tho i'm wondering just how straight you can be if you regularly visit a gay pub and know a few of the regulars - anyway, not for me to question someone's sexuality (well actually it is!). He flitted off at some point, I wandered around for a bit, some strange woman who'd clearly been eating too many smarties told me she liked my t-shirt and asked me if I wanted to dance, think we managed to dance to one song before she stumbled off in a daze...bless! So generally an interesting night...
Sunday:
On Sunday I decided to go to a place called Homemakers Supacenta (Australians sooo can't spell). It's like a shopping mall but it's all shops that do stuff for the home, and there's an Ikea which is the main reason for going but there are also loads of bed stores. Spent about 3 hours wandering around, trying to work out what to buy, how cheaply to buy it, how to avoid huge delivery charges, etc, etc. In the end I ordered a mattress to be delivered Monday afternoon, and decided that it would be cheaper to hire a car so that I could use it to move my stuff from the hostel to the apartment, pick the bed up from Ikea, go buy linen, do some grocery shopping, etc. There's a rental place right next door to the hostel so will go take a look in the morning, they're advertising rates from $29 a day which of course means there's never anything at $29 but there might be something close, delivery from Ikea would be $70 so as long as it's cheaper thatn that I've still saved money.
In the afternoon I hooked up with Simon who's the guy I met about 8 days ago and took me out on my first night on the scene. Haven't heard from him for a while but caught him online so we met up for drinks and chilled at his place for the evening watching telly. He's quite an intense guy and sometimes conversation can be pretty heavy, and it feels like he's telling you off a lot of the time. I like him but don't really fancy him tho, and I think are personalities could clash quite a bit, but not gonna dismess a potential friendship just like that so we'll see how it goes.
And that's week 2...so the address for all those christmas cards ;O) is:
3/240 Forbes St
Darlinghurst
Sydney
NSW
2010
Australia
