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Bikes. Bicycles. Double-wheeled friend of the frugal-minded city-dweller. You love them and you hate them. Right about now, I hate mine. And I only got it yesterday.
The last few days in Sydney have been a blur of scouring charity shops for spoons and coffee makers, frustrated calls to Vodafone Australia Customer Service and sitting on a commuter train through the Western suburbs of Sydney with damp socks. I have learned more about the inner workings of Sydney's public transport system over the past couple of days than I ever wished to know.
On Friday - after a long and well-deserved night's slumber to try and soothe the jet leg - we set to work trying to find our feet, so to speak. We explored our local area and discovered how close we are to Newtown, which is a really trendy district of Sydney. Along the Kings Road it's all coffee shops and kooky clothes shops and record shops etc; Howie was in his element. We worked for a little while in the Newtown library trying to sort out employment (signing on to agencies and such) and then had a coffee and hot chocolate. Now the hot chocolate I had was from a place called Max Brenner: I had the Italian thick hot chocolate in milk and it was completely and utterly amazing. Not quite a Russian hot chocolate, but it was pretty damned close... We paid a visit to the Vodafone shop to purchase mobile phones and sim cards and I was pretty chuffed with myself getting a phone and pay as you go sim for a bargainous $30. Amazing. Little did I know the hassle it was to cause me.
Saturday came around and we thought we should really go to Sydney harbour and see the big sights. It was a sunny morning, about 25 or 26 degrees, so we headed out in shorts and flip flops to catch the train to the city. We managed to successfully open bank accounts at St George's bank (chosen primarily because the logo is a very mild dragon) and then trekked up to the quay. Obviously seeing the bridge and the opera house was pretty special - made better by the fact that looking down into the immaculately clear water along the quayside, the water was teeming with jellies. Howie was thrilled by the sight of an Aboriginal man playing the didge and proceeded to make his 'didge' noise until we got to the opera house. I guess it was entertaining if you were there. After taking lots of pictures of the opera house, we walked through the Botanical Gardens hoping a) to see the bats and b) to get some cracking photos of the opera house and bridge from Mrs Macquarie's chair. It wasn't quite as sunny any more, however. In fact, we could see dark clouds in the distance.
Australia Lesson No. 1: If you see dark clouds forming, take cover straight away. Don't faff around the Botanical Gardens saying 'where are the bats?'.
It rained. Not only that, it chucked it down. We had to run for cover and hide under the Deutsche Bank building. Soaked. I mean absolutely drenched. I guess in Sydney it never rains but it pours. Needless to say that was pretty much the end of the sightseeing.
Later that evening, Howie decided to celebrate being in Australia by downloading a film set in Australia for us to watch. It was called Wolf Creek. It's about some English backpackers driving through the outback. If you've seen it, you'll know. If you've not seen it, don't. Unless you'd like a sleepless night.
That brings us up to yesterday when we had to get up mega early. The reason for this was that - in my wisdom - I had contacted the Western Sydney Cycling Network to try and get some bikes. They promised us some good, used, recycled, cheap bikes. The bad news, however, was that they're in Fairfield. West. Which is flipping miles from where we are. It took us two trains and a bus to get there, plus some walking, but we found their shed ok at the Fairfield Showground... Unfortunately it hadn't stopped raining from the day before, so it was inevitable that we were going to get wet on the way, and get wet we did. Nevertheless, the people at the cycling network were really lovely and gave us a ridiculously cheap deal on some second hand bikes and new helmets and we were over the moon about how cheap we'd got everything. We then gave our bikes a road-test through Fairfield to the station at Canley Vale. This was when my socks got wet.
Getting a train from Canley Vale to Petersham with soaking wet clothes and a large bicycle isn't something I would do again voluntarily. Howeve,r so pleased was I with my gleaming, vintage bike that I didn't mind too much at the time. It was only when we got back that I realised how exhausted I was and - after another frustrated phone call to Vodafone who STILL hadn't registered my sim (grrrrrr) - I feel asleep for two hours. Oops.
Of course, it meant I couldn't sleep last night because I'd alreayd slept.... Anyway, I woke up this morning at 9 and felt horrid.
Today has been all about the job hunting. We decided to head into Newtown to get it all sorted... So on I hopped onto my little bike and began to whizz down the Stanmore Road, wishing I was wearing a yellow jersey. Then I started to hate my bike. I was wondering why the front wheel felt all wibbly, so I pulled over to check the wheel. Flat as a pancake. A serious slow-puncture. ARGH! I had to wheel the thing all the way to a bike shop in Newtown to buy a bike lock and an inner tube and puncture repair kit and it ended up costing a small fortune. We had to buy two sets of spanners (for various reasons) and the thing still isn't fixed. If Howie wasn't here to be a calm person with extensive bicycle knowledge, I would have thrown the thing down the stairs by now.
Anyway, much progress on the employment front has been made today, despite the unfortunate interference on behalf of the Gods of Bicycles, who must really despise me right now. On the bright side, the dark hot chocolate at Max Brenner is even better than the milk one, so things are looking up.
- comments
Sinead Bring back lots of Sydney memories - look forward to reading more. You need to post a photo of your lovely vintage bike! xx
Riyh Loving your humour Jennie. Hope your bike is sorted. Gr8 chatting to you yesterday. X
Ruth Sorry it's me! Too early to spell my name wrong!! X