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Captain Tom's Voyage of Discovery
Howdy folks!
Well I guess I should let you know what I got up to in my last few days with Erin + Steve in Sydney.
After a well overdue lie-in (well it wasn't overdue. I am just trying to make it sound as if I am not a lazy arse) Erin and I headed back into town. Our first destination was the fantastic Lunar Park. There are a few Lunar Parks in Oz and they are best described as smaller versions of the good old Blackpool Pleasure beach. Erin had been promising me hours of juvenile fun on some old-school attractions but alas, it was not to be - the b****** thing was closed. As the ticket machine at the station had inexcusably eaten our train tickets, the only (free) way of getting from Lunar Park to the city centre was on foot, over the Harbour Bridge!!! As you can imagine, I went snap happy but unfortunately the fence to stop overexcited tourists falling off, blocked most of my shots. After nearly being taken out by several overenthusiastic runners, Erin and I made it across.
My personalised tour continued on to Darling Harbour - home to lots of trendy bar type places and Captain Cook's ship. When I was done inhaling that 'lovely' fish smell that places like this have, we did the only thing left to do: have lunch and a nice cold Toohey's New! Lunch was walked off on route to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to Manly. As we were meeting Steve, there wasn't much time to look around so instead we headed to the beach for a paddle in the sea. Even though I rolled my trousers all the way up to my knee, I still managed to get them soaked. Luckily Erin was on hand with my camera so you will be able to see the event when I get those pictures on the site.
Once Steve had arrived, we jumped in the kombi to head off for a tour of the Northern Beaches (Steve's home turf) or the 'Insular Peninsular' as it is known to those who grew up there. Folks, forget Bondi - if you are ever out here in Sydney, these are the beaches you want to see. They aren't spoiled by huge hi-rise flats of tacky tourist shops, which is always a bonus with a beach! One of the last beaches we stopped at was where Erin and Steve were originally going to get married. However, they have decided to trade in the idyllic setting for the stunning view of the Harbour at Circular Quay. You would be lucky in the UK to find one location as good as those in a city, let alone two! After meeting a couple of Steve's friends at the scene of some drunken dancing/food fighting when Stef was there earlier in the month (ask Ez for the pictures - I wet myself when I saw some of them) we tootled back home...after stopping off at Steve's local first!
After yet another lazy lie in, I headed back into town, in search of some un-spoiled pictures from the Harbour Bridge. Now there are only two ways of doing this: the first is to pay $200 to climb all the way to the top or pay $8 to climb one of the towers at each end of the bridge. Hmmmm... 90 pounds + lots of effort or 3 pounds and minimal effort????? Tough decision folks! I continued my quest to find a new beanie hat back in Manly but once more, I had no joy. I didn't have time to dwell on my failed quest as Friday night was footy night. In Australia, 'footy' is the generic term fo any game where a ball is kicked. This could mean Rugby Union, Ozzy Rules, soccer or Rugby League. It depends where you are as to which code is classed as 'footy'. IN this instance we were off to see the Manly Sea Eagles take on Newcastle Knights in the number two code of Rugby: league. Eager to show my loyalty to Manly, I went off and bought a retro style shirt from the 70s. Even though on off-form Manly lost the game 24-12 it was great fun! Not minute went by with out some one near by shouting 'rip his f***ing head off'... 'Have a f***ing go forwards' or 'get them on-side ref, you f***ing blind b******.' Now after 70 minutes of these phrases being shouted on loop it came as a surprise to those near by when Erin screamed at the top of her voice, 'Go on, stamp on his chest. Break his f***ing ribs!!!!' You should have seen the look on the faces of the 20 or so fans that turned around. Classic. After some more beer back at the Club bar where Steve and Erin both realized they had left their keys, we headed back where Steve met the lock smith (hehehehe) so we could carry on and drink more beer. When 'time' was finally called on the evening, I set my alarm as there would be no lie in tomorrow - I had a plane to catch...to New Zealand! Woooo!
Tom x
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