Monday Memories - #4 New Year's Eve in Sydney

I've been in the UK for all but two new year's eves and at 1pm I turn on Sky News and watch the new year roll in over Sydney.

We were in Australia over Christmas and New Year 2006/2007 for a group holiday taking in a few cities and the Ashes tour. To stand on Sydney Harbour during what is the middle of summer and experience the build up and excitement of this spectacle was fantastic.



To see all my pictures from New Year's Eve 2007 click here to go to my Flickr album.

Becks, Bondi & Boats

The Telstra Stadium in Sydney (The Olympic Stadium) is pretty good. Not dissimilar to the new stadia popping up in the UK every week but it's big, brash and you can take your booze into the stands.

We started drinking at about 2pm at Lowenbrau (the place we went to last year with the Litre beers and the beer wench managed to carry 8 in one go) before heading to a pub by Central station to meet Proph. When we got to the station I discovered another way that Australia is better than the UK - your match ticket gets you on public transport to the game; so simple and oh so effective.

Getting to the stadium was an example of yet another example of Aussie brilliance. This was a huge game, the biggest football match in Australia. Had this been in the UK it would be crawling with coppers and they would shut down the bars around the game. The Aussies put in extra bars and have the coppers there to tell you where they are. We stayed outside the Homebush Pub (where Jed took us last year) drinking until approximately half an hour before kick off and then went in to sample Beckham-mania.

Did that paragraph have too many full stops in it?

Many said that the game was a bit disappointing, personally I thought it was good and have seen far worse games and not many better 5-3 scorelines in front of over 80,000 fans. Sydney dominated and made LA look like a pub team, not even a very good pub team. It was 3-0 to Sydney after 44 minutes and then LA were awarded a free kick 25 yards out, the inevitable happened and the crowd were happy. By this time I was smashed and started abusing the LA players.

On Wednesday I forced Karen out of bed at the unreasonable hour of 10.30am as the sun was beaming down and I had always wanted to get the ferry to Manly - this was our first beach day since arriving in Sydney on Sunday and we made the most of it with Grace taking the trip into Sydney to join us. The ferry to Manly enjoys some of the best view in Sydney and is well worth the trip for that alone - I don't have a picture from the day time to show you but the night shot at the end of this post is a good picture at night that I got yesterday. The picture below is an example of the fine view on Manly beach...

Phwoooaaar

Those who saw my status update on Facebook will know that we went out on Bondi with Dom on Wednesday. He had booked us a table at Hurricanes restaurant, renowned for its meat and ribs. I ordered the Steak & Rib combo and the ribs were that big the sirloin just looked like the ribs had had a dump on the side of the plate.

Mmmmm. Meat.

We met up with Dom's housemate + 1 and commenced some good drinking at the Beach Road complete with my new favourite drinking game - Spoof Minesweeping. We take turns to find an unwanted drink and then spoof for the drinker.

Dom doing a 'Brent' pose whilst Pezza auditions for Miss Bondi 2007.

Another fabulous day, another beach. This time we went to the legendary Bondi Beach. I uploaded this picture earlier and didn't realise this big fat heifer was in the way - she is by no way an accurate representation as to the quality of rat that Bondi has to offer. Sorry.

Bondi's great, it really is. Some say they don't like it because it's too commercial but I think that's what makes it great. Compare it to some of the beaches in Thailand and Europe where you can't relax without 'Jimmys' flogging you jewelery or other tat - Bondi always has various events on whether it's a beauty contest or a surf show but the beach is easily large enough to accommodate this without getting in your way.

Last night was spent on a boat - we had booked a cruise around the Harbour with a 3 course meal and a very friendly Estonian waiter - it was a great way to sign out of Sydney and we left with this stunning view:

It would have been a better view but my fat head is blocking the Opera House.

It's now 7pm and we're at Sydney airport in order to fly to Hawaii. It is highly confusing because we get to Hawaii at 8.30am this morning. Pezza is having serious issues about when to take her pill as today is effectively a 45 hour day. On the plus side though it means that we will spend today on a beach meaning that over 3 days we will have been on Manly, Bondi and Waikiki beaches!

For the next few days you can see us here on the Waikiki Beach webcam:

http://live.waikikitimes.com/

Lots of love,

Andy

xxx

PS for those reading via the Flog on Facebook - click on this link to go to & bookmark the main Blog page:

http://andygeog.blogsppot.com

The Facebook one takes a while to update and sometimes misses some content.

A xxx

PPS, if you spellcheck 'Bondai' you get 'Boned'. Hehe.

End of the Road

Our last day in Newcastle was much better, the sun came out and we weren't going to waste it so after I managed to drag Pezza out of bed we hit the pool, it was still a bit too windy to lie on the beach. After a few hours of nothingness it was time to head down to Beaumont Street for Friday night in Newcastle It is very different to its namesake as there are no fat slappers wearing ill fitting leggings and no blokes determined to kill you with a bottle of 'Broon'.

Newcastle Harbour

For a town with a population of under 300,000 it was ok, if a little quiet - the taxi driver said that the combination of dodgy weather, Christmas coming up and tomorrow's election meant that some chose to stay in. We found a pub that did good food and good Hunter Valley wine (after a bit of an issue with the waitress who claimed to have grown up in the vineyards who didn't know what a Hunter red was). After spending 10 days in Australia on this trip and eating out every night (as opposed to last year when I don't think we ate nothing apart from midnight Subway) I have grown to appreciate what good Aussie Tucker is: it's very similar to English food only much more of it and with added beetroot. Seriously, they add beetroot to everything, it's even good enough for our friend Ronald McDonald who sells the bizarrely titled 'McOz' - a Quarter Pounder with a thick slice of the red stuff. I really wish I could have been in the kitchen when the chef said, "Aahh yeah, I reckon this lamb stew needs a bit more beetroot, Bruce, and fetch me the ketchup."

That being said, it was very nice and we made our way the the bar for more VB and some live music - one of Newcastle's best exports as Beaumont Street is home of the mighty Silverchair, but they were busy or something.

Saturday. Election day. After deciding that it would be inappropriate if we rocked up at a polling station to vote we hopped in the car and made the 3 hour drive to Bowral (the homeland of the magnificent Don Bradman) to spend the day and night with Grace & Billy. Aside from the fact it was good to catch up with them it was really nice to spend the night in a home after 3 weeks in hotels. We had it all, access to a washing machine, a home cooked roast dinner, live Premier League football (which we don't talk about) and trash TV. Grace was looking forward to An Audience With The Spice Girls which I thought may have been filmed very recently to coincide with the start of their world tour (which wont be a patch on Take That's) however I became suspicious that it may not be such a new program when Luther Vandross started singing with them. A nice homely day in Bowral (with typical Bowral weather) followed by the hour and a half drive to our final Australian destination, Sydney.

The drive to Sydney reminded me of the drive into Blackpool in that you're always cricking your neck trying to look out for the landmarks. Karen won the race with first sighting of the bridge as I was arguing with the sat nav who didn't seem to know any roads in Sydney apart from the ones that were closed for the Christmas Parade. It was sad to see the car go after spending 6 days on the road, driving through Queensland & NSW and stopping at Brisbane, Byron Bay, Coffs 'fucking' Harbour, Newcastle, Bowral and now Sydney together with all the little side stops at Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach, Lennox Head, Ballina, Yamba and Port Macquarie - a total distance of over 850 miles seeing some of the most glorious beaches in the world and some mild Aussie road rage. At least that's what I got out of it - below is a picture of Karen in her typical 'on the road' pose.

Once we dropped the car off we could pop out and enjoy what was a cracking day at Sydney Harbour. We were more than happy to sit and take in the views over several drinks and it was great to see Alex & Dom (who I told at the wedding I would never see again as he threw up on the bar).

Today was the final of Australian Idol hosted by my good self, 'Andy G' (see - they couldn't even come up with a nickname for him. And he IS the nickname for Nathan Bracken!)

Anyway, after the final it was time for a fireworks display. My second evening drinking by the harbour in my life and another fireworks display, this one was a little smaller than the New Year's one but still better than any other you're likely to see.

Dom has since thanked me for his hangover he had to suffer on Monday in work as Karen & I strolled around Darling Harbour and took in the touristy things such as the Aquarium (much better than Melbourne - Ian you should add that to your letter to Australia).
As we made our way back to Circular Quay for dinner we came across a bit of a furore that can only be caused by David Beckham who was attending a cocktail party with his teammates and Sydney FC ahead of tonight's game. The poor Sydney players (including little Juninho) were completely ignored as all the Japs waited for a glimpse of Mr Beckham. He appeared and went just as quickly but our highlight was not Mr Posh who I've seen hundreds of times before but seeing Jason Donovan - so happy - here's the back of his head:

Today is Tuesday and we've got tickets to see the match. Alex is quite keen to get on it afterwards, hopefully we'll play the Aussie drinking game again!
Andy
xxx