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A Sydney farewell...
I spent my last days in Sydney recovering from tonsillitis and earning the last few pennies (ahem… cents) I could from my café and restaurant jobs. I continued to work at the hostel as well and took on the training up of my replacement. And to avoid too much confusion they have replaced me, Jo, with Joe.
And so the final weekend approached and I invited one and all to come and join me say goodbye to Sydney. The Friday night was spent at the Palace Verona cinema on Oxford Street where Joe, Jess, myself and a couple of Jess' workmates enjoyed a glass of bubbles before indulging in the girly extraordinaire (sorry Joe!) Sex and the City 2. We had mixed reviews on the film but the cinema had an absolute 10/10 for allowing glasses of champers to be consumed whilst viewing the film and adding a touch of old school glamour to the proceedings.
I spent my Saturday milling around and generally avoiding packing as I was panicking that it wasn't all going to go back in to my bag after I had been settled in Sydney for so long… not to mention the extra bits and pieces I have picked up along the way. Then I got showered and glammed up, made a quick trip to the bottle shop before embarking on some Blue Parrot drinking games with new friends and old. Once suitably merry/tipsy/drunk/hammered/utterly wasted (delete as appropriate) we made our way to Sussex Street to catch the Sydney leg of the Yolanda Be Cool tour at the Chinese Laundry. A painful $25 later and we were inside and ready to dance like fools. Unfortunately Sophie Atkin had already abandoned us for Airlie Beach so Joe (her brother) and I made up for this by ringing her repeatedly, shouting Gavin & Stacey quotes down the phone to her and hoping she would recognise "our song".
A taxi ride home, some takeaway food, a heart-to-heart, a few SATC episodes, and a snooze on the sofa followed by a long lie-in, I was ready to do it all again! Well, almost. And so Sunday night's antics consisted of more drinking games and then $5 drinks at Rouge in Kings Cross. After a somewhat tearful goodbye to Jess I took myself home so that I could have a productive Monday ready to leave on the Tuesday.
I packed all my final things in to my bag on Tuesday, ate any food that I had left and watched TV and films with the company of some very good friends. As 9pm was approaching, my stomach was filling with butterflies and I was prompting myself to be strong when saying goodbye. At 9.05 I did the rounds of the hostel saying farewell to the newer additions to the Blue Parrot - I saved John and Joe till last. John gave me a big hug and a kiss and I choked back any emotion. Joe was busy checking some new arrivals in, his first official day on the job, and I didn't even want to look at him for fear of breaking my composure. He came out from behind reception and gave me a big hug and tears streamed down my face. I have clearly turned over a new emotional leaf since travelling!! So John helped me out with my bags gave me one more big hug as I tried to compose myself once more.
I know this has meant that I have made some incredible friends so far, and I hope to meet a great deal more as I continue my trip. But living with these people for months has built a much deeper friendship than I can hope to recreate with people over just a few short days.
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