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I had my first go at bowls the other day! There are greens at pretty much every pub (!) and so Glen got his bowls out and we went for a "roll-up". I was rubbish, but it was good fun. Brian won in the end by knocking Glen's bowl out of the way - Glen was unimpressed.
And then it was my birthday - 25! Ahhh! Being so busy with the move, I hadn't really thought much about my birthday - and was even more shocked when I received presents! Glen got me a bike so I can get around a bit. And from my new friends I got drinks coasters, beach towel, bottle of champagne... I went to the beach in the morning - Blue bay which is my favourite so far. We then all went to an All-you-can-eat Italian in the evening which was wonderful. It was a brilliant day!
And then I had to get my feet back on the ground to start work! I have taken on a temporary position within the same industry as I was in in the UK. I'm working alongside medical writers so hopefully I'll get to have a go and they'll train me up as a medical writer in the new year. In the mean time I charge by the hour and am not tied down to the job - the flexibility suits things right now while I continue to settle in.
The office is in Kings Cross, Woolloomooloo, in Sydney. The commutes long, but beautiful, and the views from the office are great. I actually work in the basement called "level 13' - No one seems to know why its called level 13 when there are only 4 floors above it... From the roof you can see the Opera house, the Harbour bridge, as well as the high rise of the city. There's a BBQ up there and on Fridays a trolley comes round with beer and wine for us to help ourselves. The pizza, KFC and sushi arrives!
The working environment is so much more relaxed here - I think it's going to take some getting used to. Everyone jokes about deadlines and is very relaxed despite beind overloaded with work - so much so I was worried at first! But the work is still top quality, they keep winning more contracts and people are happy! Where are all the uptight people?! I'm sure I'll get accustomed to it...
At the end of a week of going to work, Sarah's hen do arrived! I got picked up at 7:30 (a 2hr lie in compared to me working week!) and we made our way down to the Hunter Valley - a huge wine region of SE Australia. There were 20 of us, and it was great to meet more people. We went round 4 wineries, had some lovely food and some good laughs.
On Sunday, I needed to be back early so that Glen and I could go to the NRL Grand Final. His team, Manly Sea Eagles, were playing Melbourne Storm. Last year Manly were runners up - Glen and I watched it in Rotterdam - so this time Glen made sure he had tickets so he could be there on the day. And he wanted to introduce me to his favourite team.
The whole day was so different to a UK sports event - For $55 (less than £25) the ticket to the game included public transport travel for the day (brilliant idea - that would have cost us $20 each to get there anyway!). There wer 3 games on (for each age group) plus entertainment in between - we saw The Living End (famous AUstralian band that Glen likes) and a Naval helicopter landed on the pitch to deliver the trophy! Very spectacular.
After all that, it was time for the game - supporters from both sides sat together and jeered in good nature at each other - alcoholic drinks were allowed everywhere and people got up and came back throughout the match - barely anyone stayed in their seats for long and by the end everyone had pushed to the bottom row. Alcoholic drinks and food were allowed into the stands, and even babies (very well behaved!) sat on their mum & dad's laps with the full kit on!
The game started up very scrappily, but Manly scored before half time and so Glen did start cheering up at that point. The second half was a one way affair with Manly winning 40 nil! Glen was exstatic and I'm considering becoming a fan myself! Steve Menzes who has been with Manly for years, played his last game for them and fittingly scored a try. I think he's moving to the UK to play league there now... It's considered like retirement as its a much lower standard there!
We got home at 10:30ish and I am so glad today's a public holiday so I didn't have to get up at 5am! Glen's at work though, so I better get the second load of washing on and get something out of the freezer for tea.. life goes on!
Grand final
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