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Sydney was a chance for us to catch up with friends who have made the move to Sydney over the last few years, and also to stay with Sarah and Pete who moved out here in January and managed to get a house and some furniture, including a bed for us (but not for them!) just in time for our arrival from Queensland.
We had a bit of a reunion with lots of ex-FSA staff at the Opera Bar on Friday night after work and it was fantastic to see everyone. Drinks turned into dinner, and then more drinks and then for a select few of us, karaoke. I have to say this is was the worst karaoke crowd I have been out with. Only Tania and I could muster the slightest bit of enthusiasm for the task in hand, although I think our enthusiasm (and need for the microphone) made up for the poor showing on everyone else's part.
Saturday was Anna's last day so brushing hangovers aside we headed to Bondi - not to sit on the beach with the beautiful people, but to hike 5km down the coast to Coogee. Whilst wearing bright blue Australia hats. Jon and I made it as far as Bronte beach before we had to head off into town so we said our fond farewells, made our way to our appointment with the Parramatta Eels. In keeping with Jon's need to attend a sporting event in every country we go to we had decided to go and see the Eels take on their local rivals the Manly Sea Cats. Tania came along with us and we took the ferry towards western Sydney in the glorious sunshine, passing huge houses along the northern stretch of the waterfront. Because of strict gaming laws in New South Wales, we had to have ID on us to get in to the bar for a prematch drink, but unfortunately no one had told us that. Luckily Tania managed to charm the manager, playing the 'they are British and know no better' card and we had a quick pint in a rather large function room with no windows. It looked like the kind of place where there would be a meat raffle later on that night - a little odd, but Tania assure us it was an authentic 'Aussie' nevertheless. We picked up prime seats in the home end, although none of us had watched a huge amount of Rugby league before, so didn't really know what was going on. Mostly Jon watched the 'football' while Tania and I watched the players - rugby players are BIG guys. Parramatta won quite convincingly in the end but the second half was tight for a while so made for an interesting game.
The next day we went back to Bondi with the intention of finishing off the walk to Coogee, and had a go at another great Australian pastime - bare foot bowling. Lawn bowls are big in the Southern hemisphere but suffer from a bit of an image problem. Most people associate it with older men and women wearing head to toe white outfits and special bowling shoes, and the clubs were - quite literally - dying out. Until some genius decided to create barefoot bowls. It's the same game, but they don't make you dress up for it - just grab some friends, head to your local club and play lawn bowls in the sun, beer in hand, thus creating demand - and income - for the bowling clubs. The club at Clovelly is right on the top of a cliff with a great sea view, and a nice old man came and explained the rules to us and then laughed as each of us in turn bowled our first shot onto the next lane. It's not as easy as it looks, these things have one hell of a curve on them. He occasionally came out and told us off for not observing full bowling etiquette but otherwise left us to it. Winner was to buy dinner -we played 12 games and each of us won 4 so we decided Pete could pay for dinner as he wasn't there to argue.
Sydney is a beautiful city and after a terrible summer in Jan and Feb the Autumn weather was gorgeous. We spent most of the week mooching around, exploring different areas and eating lots of food from Pete's gigantic BBQ. It wouldn't have been appropriate to come to Australia and not taste wine, so Sarah had booked us tickets for an Australian Wine Show at the Ivy. A ticket got you a wine glass for tasting, and all the cheese you could possibly eat (Jon can eat A LOT of cheese but I think they had been informed in advance he was coming, and catered accordingly). Once the crowds had died down we had a great time chatting with the wine producers and regaling them with tales of our wine tasting around the world. At least that's what we thought in our heads, the reality was probably a bit different - half cut English people wandering round faking conversation to get another free glass of wine with clearly no intention of buying cases of the stuff. Pete was keen to show us some more of Sydney's finest bars, and we ended up in Shady Pines, a dive / cowboy bar just on the outskirts of the CBD. We invented the greatest hand clapping game known to man, and took lots of pictures of ourselves with the stuffed buffalo on the walls and playing on the piano wearing cowboy hats. All in all a great Wednesday night with old friends.
Over the Easter weekend our wine adventures continued. Jon and I headed out to see my cousin on the Central Coast on Good Friday, and the next morning Sarah and Pete picked us up for a good old fashioned road trip to the Hunter Valley - a lovely treat as it was our wedding present from them. We stayed in Buff Cabins - not a nudist resort as we had feared, but wooden cabins just outside of town, although maybe not quite 'in the bush' as they had advertised. We took full advantage of the facilities, drinking wine in the swimming pool and then later lighting a log fire, just because we could. On the Saturday we managed to fit in a couple of tastings before the wineyards closed before heading back to our bush wilderness cabin and having another BBQ. Then we realised it was pitch black, and only 7pm. We didn't have books, games or modern entertainment systems to fill the time, so invented flip-the-matchbox-charade-drinking game. First, you have to flip a matchbox. If it lands vertically, you are saved. If it doesn't, first you have to drink, then you have to do a round of charades. Jon hates charades and his matchbox flipping got increasingly desperate as the evening went on, especially after we banned him from doing sequels. And no matter how many times Pete mimed the same rowing action, again and again and again; I will still never make the connection with 'Anchorman'.
Easter Sunday meant I could eat chocolate again for the first time in 40 days and nights, so I had a cream egg with every meal, extra Rocky Road at lunchtime, and a giant Egg after (BBQ) dinner. It was totally necessary, as I needed the carbs to power me up all the hills on our bike tour round the wineyards. We are starting to realise that the people who work on the counter at these things are as much a part of selling the wine as the wine. The guys at Bimbadgen and Brokenwood wineyards were excellent, so we bought stuff from there. The people at Pokolbin Estate charged for bread to sample their olive oils and were generally uptight and stuffy, so we didn't buy anything there. Simples.
Everything scary in Australia is bigger than at home - the spiders are bigger, the snakes are more poisonous and the thunder storm that we experienced on Sunday night in the Hunter Valley is like nothing I have ever seen before. Sarah, Pete and Jon sat out on our verandah watching in amazement the sheet and fork lightning flashing all around as the thunder claps exploded right on top of the cabin. I sat inside with the windows closed.
Whilst we were in Sydney the good people at Australian customs had cleared Sarah and Pete's shipping. They have 55 boxes to unpack, but started with the important things first…the TV, PS3, and singstar microphones. There is no finer way to get to know your new neighbours than by serenading them with classic hits from the 80s at 3.30am on Easter Monday. And so our time in Australia drew to a close and with one last fish and chips on the beach in Manly, we said goodbye to our fabulous friends, Sharris and Peach, feeling a just a little bit jealous of their fantastic new life, but a lot sad that they won't be there when we get back to London.
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SHarris Miss you guys xox