Tims Life Blog (couldnt think of anything else)

in the big Smoke

2007-06-11T12:52:00.000+01:00

Well i've just about survived my 3rd week in London. After going through the appauling process of finding somewhere to live in London, I finally ended up in a shared house in Angel/Islington.

I moved in to a mews house which is sandwiched between 2 roads (City & Goswell), with City road changing in to Pentoville road for you Monopoly fans out there. Now i would show you all some pics. but i've somehow managed to misplace my camera lead in my only room! Got one on order so will update soon.

My pad in Google Maps

My housemates are all in a bit of transition at the moment, but currently Lauren from LA, Stephan from Sweden and Michael from Australia. Stephan works in banking, Lauren is a paralegal for the banking sector - so both of them work quite stupid hours. Michael has just arrived and is temping at the moment while looking for work; He studied criminology and is looking for work in political or law enforcement areas.

My job (at Network Rail) started a couple of weeks ago; I'm a Scheme Project Manager looking after Electrification & Plant projects in the South East & Anglia. It's going well at the moment and I am pleased I took it, although probably still in the honeymoon period!

My job is located in Borough which is south of the river near London Bridge. Takes about 11 mins on the tube then i have got a 10min walk. Just about getting familiar with squeezing myself in to the tube train in the morning.

My work in Google Maps

Been exploring the night life for the last couple of weekends, been out in Shoreditch (which is a couple of stops away) with my housemates & last weekend with my sister and Donny. Weekend before i was in Angel, followed by a house party hosted by my next door neighbours. So far so good!

They've recently opened a tattoo place round the corner from us - don't worry mum i don't want one =-) The reason for mentioning it is that they're filming a series for discovery (Miami ink stylee i assume), think its due to be out in September. Will have to try and get in it somehow - one up on my Question time appearance (aka my left arm appearance).

They had a launch party last night, which we could have gone to but everyone in the house was a bit knackered. I had a wander past and it was pretty busy with lots of severely tattooed people out on the street.

Well think that's it for now. Laters.

Back Home & Karoke

2006-12-29T18:54:00.000Z

Well i arrived back on the 23rd, slight shock to the system - so i thought I'd attach me singing to give everybody else a slight shock (please viewer discretion advised - the singing that bad!).

Hong Kong
Well on the last leg of my travels i went to hong kong first, unfortunately had tonsillitis so i was in bed for 6 out of 7 days! Anyway the one day i did have there it didn't seem to exciting and rather smoggy!

Japan
Feeling a lot better i then flew to Japan and got accommodation in a ryokan (sort of B&B) http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp/ which was really cool as it was an old style Japanese building (could have been in karate kid!).
Japan turned out to be a real cool city, it is absolutely massive but once i got the hang of the subway it wasn't to bad.

I visited various areas of the town such as Shinjuku (where "lost in translation" was filmed) which was the typical bright lights massive shopping area with loads of restaurants bars etc.

Akihabara is Tokyo's electric town it is a massive street full of high rise electronic shops selling ipdos, pc's, phones (a Japanese favourite i noticed), i seemed to spend far to long round here wandering looking at things i couldn't afford! Another memory of Akihabara was ordering food in the street, me thinking i was ordering dough balls, when in fact they were octopus pieces stuffed in to balls! Story of my trip in Japan, once ended up with tofu curry thinking it was chicken.

I also went on a mission to Harajuku at the weekend where (according to lonely planet) the local teenagers get dressed up in mad cyber kid outfits etc (Gwen Stefani also has a group of them), however didn't see anything so wondered on to Omote-Sando which appears to be a very very very expensive clothing shop area. Shops like Louis Vuitton are in the most huge of buildings.

For my last night in Japan i went out in Roppongi which was quite a mad place, ended up in an irish pub (there everywhere) and went on to a local Karoke bar with some expats, then bumped in to a kiwi and spent the evening drinking around the area.

Thats all for now
Well done HK & Japan just my train trip to do then i'm written up for my trip!

Fraser/Whitsundays & onward travels

2006-10-30T06:38:00.000Z

Well as usual I haven't updated this for a while, however to be fair haven't had much to tell as I stayed in Childers for 10 weeks. After that I've been to Fraser Island, the Whitsunday Islands and am now back in Childers saving for my trip home. so this should be a bumper update:-

Fraser Island
Fraser turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip, its a 22km long sand island (biggest in the world. We hired a self drive 4x4 with a total of 11 people for 3 days 2 nights. Started at about 6:00 first morning packing tents camping gear, food & beer. We drove to the ferry for a short crossing of about 45 mins. Once there the island is yours, you can drive almost anywhere although its quite hard going on some of the sand roads - quite a lot of people actually end up rolling there 4x4's!
The island is full of fresh water lakes so we spent most of our time visiting these & sunbathing, particularly liked lake waabi (pictured above).

At night we set up camp on the beach, we travelled with 2 4x4's so we had about 22 of us camping.
The first night after eating we encountered our first dingo - everyone was Sh****** themselves and we proceeded to bang saucepans and make as much noise to scare it off - all to no avail! After that we had to go to the toilet in pairs - so a lookout was was available!

A few hours later after a few beers all worries were gone, we were sat in a circle - no one noticed the dingo's walking around us! And everyone started to actually try and get photos.

The whole 3 days were really good fun luckily we had a really good group with a good mix of countries (1xnorway, 4x english, 2x canada, 2x irish, 2x german). Everyone got on really well and had a blast. At the end of the trip we were all saying a week would have been better! After Fraser i travelled up to Airlie beach with the irish and canadian girls before getting on my boat for the Whitsundays islands (see below).

Whitsunday Islands
After Fraser it was a bit depressing leaving everybody - but I'd booked myself on a nice sailing boat to visit the whitsunday islands so not to bad after all.
A choice of boats were on offer - i chose one where they actually did sail the boat not just use the boat motor.
The boat was a 26M (85 foot) racing boat which had a capacity of 30 people, however on our trip there was 17 people so it was quite spacious and i got my own room - result! We set off 8AM Friday morning with me worrying about been travel sick - i got some pills but they were only herbal. Anyway was fine with the sickness, only felt ill for about 10 Min's on the first day and after that was fine.
The trip consisted of sailing round various islands, swimming, snorkeling & sunbathing (it's a hard life!). On the first night we moored outside South Molle island where there is a resort, we transferred across by dingy to the island and had dinner. I met up with some of the people I'd been on Fraser with as they were actually staying on the island instead of sleeping on the boat (as we were). The night ended up been quite rowdy and me singing karaoke to Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' - not a pretty sight by any stretch of the imagination!
On the second day we went snorkeling again and met 'George' one of the biggest fishes I've ever seen. In the evening we stayed on the boat and had a barbecue complete with some fish we had caught of the back of the boat earlier.
The third day we had to start sailing back but stopped for a couple of snorkels on the way back. After Fraser & Whitsundays i was in need of cash so took an overnight bus (12 hours) back to Childers - i arrived at 5:45am and was picking tomatoes by 9:00am!

The Trip Home
On the way home I've decided to take in a few countries so am leaving Australia to Hong Kong for 1 week then Japan for 1 week then Beijing.
From Beijing I'm taking the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Siberian trains through Mongolia and ending up in St.Petersberg. My Itinerary can be seen by clicking www.timgarbutt.co.uk/weblog/2006/10/siberia.pdf

Well that's it for now, not sure if I'll be able to update while travelling home but will have a go!

Time for Hard Labour

2006-08-12T02:50:00.000+01:00

I spent about 10 days in Noosa, had a go at surfing which was real fun (although didn't realise how knackering it was going to be). After Noosa I decided to try and get some fruit picking so I traveled by Greyhound up to Bundaberg (Home to Bundaberg Rum), Unfortunately didn't quite go to plan as I was there for a week without work.
Bundaberg is quite a small place with a population of 45,000 so their was a few shops and supermarkets etc and of course a few pubs (no Australian town is without at least 3). After a week though I was very bored, so headed back on myself to Childers which is about 40 minutes away from Bundy.
Childers is even smaller than Bundy (pop. 4500), and basically has one small high street with Butchers etc, its the first place I've been to where the majority of shops shut at Midday on a Saturday

My first hostel I stayed at was the Childers Palace Backpackers, this is a brand new hostel as the previous one was burnt down by a mentally disturbed guy. The hostel is actually behind the original one which is now the tourist info, it houses a memorial to the 15 backpackers that died, I went to see it, and found it quite moving.

I only stayed at the hostel for 2 nights as they couldn't find me any work and people staying there let me know that a caravan park down the road had work. They however forewarned me that the managers were not to good. Anyway got there and they had work for me the next day, so I've been pruning avocado trees for the last 3 weeks.

The life of an avocado pruner is an exciting one, I'm up at 5:35AM, on the bus for 6:00 and working from 6:30 to 16:30. The work actually isn't to bad I'm just sawing away dead wood and branches, and generally cleaning up the area around the trees. We don't really have a supervisor so the pace is rather gentle.

The caravan site has caravans (obviously), Camping and cabins/bunkhouses, I'm staying in a cabin with an Indian Guy whose somehow gone from living in India/New York & Sydney to Childers, and has been there 9 months (needs a medal). The cabin has a little kitchen in it and beds for up to three people, it's not to bad and we have a heater to keep warm (unlike the UK its pretty cold here as its winter - about 8 deg at night and about 23 deg.c in the day).

Haven't really got much else to tell you as all I've been doing is working really, theirs plenty of people their to chat to at night etc, but after about 9pm most people are in bed for work. I've been to one of the local pubs but really their like red neck central, I'm amazed they haven't got sawdust on the floors!

I'm planning to stay for another 4/5 weeks (7-8 weeks total) if I can survive, the pruning is definitely still going on for at least the next 2 weeks, after that I'm not sure. My plan is to try and avoid picking courgettes/peppers and tomatoes as they are apparently really bad as you are always bending down.

Hope you are all well, enjoy summer.

Time for the Beach

2006-07-05T06:13:00.000+01:00

Well after 14 weeks in Brisbane I was ready to leave, work finished on Friday and I was on the Bus/Train to Noosa Saturday.

From Brisbane Noosa is about three and a half hours away, It’s a small coastal resort with beautiful beaches and has a national park where you can apparently spot wild Koala. Check out the satelite images on www.timgarbutt.co.uk/map.

I booked in to the YHA hostel www.halselodge.com.au which was really nice after the palace backpackers, its full timber building which is heritage listed. Inside its all timber also with hardwood floors and panelled walls.

I booked in to the hostel for two nights, the second night i went out with a few people that i had met, thinking i would book for another couple of nights in the morning. Woke up at 10:30 by the cleaner telling me they were full and that i had to go. So while fighting a hangover i was fighting with my ruckack trying to close it!

I moved to a hostel out of the center for a couple of days, wasnt much to do their but met a few people Kirsty on a six week whirlwind tour of Oz, Jason from Seattle, Rupert from Peterborough and mad set of Irish gals.

Today myself, Rupert & Jason have moved in to the YHA. Their looking for a worker in exchange for free accomodation & meals, so i'm currently angling for a job there (position becomes vacant next week). If i do get it i'll probably stay around for a month and try and master the art of surfing as you can borrow surf & boogie boards for free. I'm having a introductory surf lesson tommorow, so hopefully i won't suck at it to much!

Not much else to tell you about Noosa as I havent really explored it, i'm planning to visit the national park as their are various walks you can do up to about 7KM. Also Steve Irwins 'Australia Zoo' is close and you can catch a free bus from Noosa, so hopefully do that soon.

Au revoir.

Brisbane

2006-05-05T00:24:00.000+01:00

Well it’s taken me a while to write this (just for a change), I moved to Brisbane when Sam left for Perth (19th March).

Brisbane been further up from Sydney is a bit warmer & humid, at the moment the weather is starting to change (getting colder), but it’s about 26 Max / 14 min (so shouldn’t complain too much).

So I booked in at the Palace backpackers (http://www.palacebackpackers.com.au/) which used to be a Salvation Army temperance hotel in early 1900’s. It was quite a good hostel and I managed to get a single room fairly cheaply, only problem with the room was it was by a noisy air outlet which operated day & night (thank god for earplugs) The hostel had a roof top terrace where my room was located and a “Down Under” bar in the basement.

I met up with my Cousin Tracey & Husband Kenny in Brisbane for my Birthday which was really good; we had a meal in Queen Street & followed up with a few drinks. Tracey & Kenny have now left for Vegas on the next leg of their 12 month honeymoon!

As I’m poor again I’ve registered at Adecco, a temp. agency for office work and got 3 days work formatting a word document for Queensland University of Technology – I cant believe people actually hire people to do such basic work!(not complaining though). After that I had a week off to mosey round Brisbane.

For the last 4 weeks I’ve been working in a different University (The University of Queensland) doing admin within their office furniture showroom, it was initially for 3 weeks but they have extended me until the end of May. I quite like working their as I can get the ferry to work which is quite pleasant in the morning and gives me a bit of time to read (currently reading Angels & Demons, Dan Brown – book courtesy of Sam).

Brisbane is a really nice city, its quite small & compact really – reminds me of Manchester in that sense. Everything in the city is pretty much walkable, the Brisbane river dissects the town in to north & south bank with the CBD been north and the arty centre been the south. Southbank has got the Art & Science museums, theatres and a fake lagoon! As Brisbane isn’t a coastal city the made a man made lagoon where you can go swimming or sunbath on the beach.
North of the river you have got the main shopping area; close to the shopping area was where my hostel & central station are.

Around Brisbane theirs quite a few places to visit at weekends etc (Byron Bay, Noosa, Surfers Paradise, Morton Island National Park), on Easter weekend I went to Surfers Paradise with a couple of friends originally from the hostel. Surfers is classed as the Gold Coast and is about an hour and half south of Brisbane. Really it’s a bit like Blackpool – amusements, souvenir shops etc, but it has got a lovely beach – which was most welcome as Brisbane hasn’t got one.

While staying at the hostel I met up with some Irish fellas (Paul & Willie) who were getting an apartment with a Kiwi (Elliot) who’s just come over to live in Australia. Another guy (Rich - Kiwi) was also planning to move in but had to delay as he is working in the hostel (free accommodation), so he paid the bond and I’ve moved in and been paying the rent (cheaper than the hostel!).

The apartment is in a six storey block with ours been on the top, after the hostel its pure luxury (Balcony, swimming pool, spa, air-conditioning, dishwasher). It’s situated on the river by the story bridge, which is a landmark bridge just by the central business district.

Its well located as it’s about 5 minutes to Chinatown and Fortitude Valley where most of the restaurants & bars are. Also theirs a train station & ferry station 5-10 minutes and to get to the main centre (Queen Street) takes about 10 minutes. We spend most of the time around the apartment (or unit if you’re Australian) and the Valley at weekends.

Rich is due to move in on the 22nd of this month as his course starts, so he is finishing his job at the hostel. So after that not sure where I’m going – maybe move back to the hostel or maybe to another one in Brisbane.

Well that’s about it for the moment, hope you are all well – have a great May!

Back in Sydney with Sam

2006-03-12T01:31:00.000Z

Well after been in Melbourne I've traveled back to Sydney (opting for the plane this time!) to meet up with my friend Sam who has come over for 3 weeks with me and 3 weeks with another friend in Perth. So we've been doing some sight seeing including Toranga Zoo, Sydney Museum, Bondi / Coogee / Bronte beaches & plenty of eateries & pubs.

We stayed at first in a suburb of Sydney called Glebe which was really good, it was a sort of arty town with a flavour similar to Chorlton in Manchester.

Last week was the Sydney Mardi Gras so we set off in the afternoon to watch the parade, the info said get their for 3PM so we thought we'd get their earlier to beat the rush; we turned up at 2PM and virtually nobody was out. We therefore had a rather long 5 hour wait for the parade!

When the parade started the atmosphere was really good, various companies had given out maracas and clappers etc, so the noise was quite immense. The parade started with Dykes on Bikes which went on for a good half an hour (lots of bikes), after this loads of floats and parades went past for about 4 hours. After 4 hours a beer was most definitely deserved, however with 6000 people in the parade and another 300,000 watching the pubs were rather full! We opted to go to Chinatown and get some food and a drink.

This week we moved in to the city and are staying at the Wake Up hostel, this is a big 7 storey hostel with loads of facilities and is right next to central station. We have been exploring the city for the week and taking it pretty easy. Yesterday we were at the Cinema and opted to watch Tarantino's "Hostel", all I can say is it was horrific!

Anyway got to go to the beach now, so au revoir

Emerald - Trees and More Trees

2006-02-19T06:56:00.000Z

Well it’s been a while since I've updated this blog; this is mainly due to been stuck in Emerald for 4 weeks (slightly lacking facilities).

Emerald is a lovely rural town which was originally formed when gold was found then later it became a farming community, the farmers are mainly of Italian & Dutch descent growing potatoes/flowers & Trees (according to a farmer I worked with anyway).

I decided to go to Emerald as when I moved on from Sydney to Melbourne I felt a little fed up with living in the city and fancied a change (Country bumpkin at heart!). So after my harrowing journey to get there (see previous blog) it was nice to settle down in the middle of nowhere! The hostel Emerald Backpackers is a small hostel with about 40 beds, it’s basically a couple of cabins set just beside Emerald Lake Park. http://www.visitvictoria.com/ describes it as "The park is 50 hectares of undulating parkland with an interesting mix of native and European trees surrounding two picturesque lakes Lake Treganowan and Lake Tribulation."

The nearest source of life is Emerald Town centre which comprises of a supermarket, a bar that's only 1 bar folks!), bakery, post office and a few other shops, unfortunately for me Emerald town center was about a mile away (about 20 mins walk). The hostel therefore put a bus on every evening at 6 to go to the supermarket (the highlight of the day).

Another reason to go to Emerald was that I could try some farm work out and earn some cash; I arrived on Sunday night and was picking Gladiolas on Monday morning! This was an job which required walking along rows of flowers looking out for ones which were just about to flower, then cutting them at the base and stacking them at the end of the field. As you can probably guess this required much intellect and skills and after about an hour I was wishing I'd remembered my iPod.

I only picked Gladiolas for one day then had a couple of days off, after this I started work at a tree farm which I planned to work at until the end of February when I am meeting my friend Sam in Sydney.

This latest job was basically taping trees, the farmers worked in front of you and cut a slit in to the tree and placed a bud from another tree branch in to it, I then followed behind taping the bud in place. The job involved basically bending over all day and on day two I could hardly walk as my back and leg muscles were in dire pain, day 3 was no better and I nearly quit then but following that the work got a lot easier because the muscles were use to it.

As the hostel was in the middle of nowhere the options at nighttime were definitely limited, a few of us from the hostel went swimming in the lake early evening (after checking with the locals that their wasn't any croc's). Apart from that their was TV and books, so having read about 5 books in total for 2005 I read The Divinci Code, The Beach & Hitchhikers Guide in my first week or two at Emerald. I am now also well up to date with Lost series 2 and a great number of American dramas (Australian TV appears to show nothing else).

The people in the hostel were really good bunch, there was a lot of Dutch/Koreans & Japanese there, so I managed to test out Korean and Japanese food which was fun. On one night quite a few Koreans were leaving so they organized a party (photos at www.timgarbutt.com/photos), which seemed to involve drinking lots of Goon (Wine).

Australia Day turned out to be a bit of a flop as we were all set to go to Melbourne, but were informed that the buses in emerald weren't running, as it was a public holiday - so we couldn't get to the station. Undeterred myself and Ed (from Lincolnshire) walked up to Emerald feeling sure with only one bar it had to be busy on Australia day, we sat drinking our beers with only one other person present (an old man eating what looked like pickled eggs).

Anyway after 4 weeks in total (and too many trees to count) I decided to quit and return to the city, so I'm now back in Melbourne and staying at St. Kilda which is a little beach resort.

Melbourne & Emerald

2006-01-28T05:43:00.000Z

Well I managed to stuff my camera during the new year - so its been sent of for repair so it will be a while before I post any more photos (canon reckon 20 days). Since leaving Sydney I spent a week in Melbourne and visited Federation Square, the botanical gardens and Queen Victoria Markets. Federation square was interesting to see as they were building it when I was last in Australia. The botanical gardens were really good and I think edged Sydneys in the wow factor. My hostel was right beside the Queen Victoria markets which is a massive market mainly fruit, vegetable, meat & clothes; their are approximately 1100 stalls so it takes a while to get around.

My hostel was Bev & Micks backpackers and was a classy joint above a pub, however the atmosphere was really good and they had activities like quizzes, pool comps etc on every night. After a week in Melbourne I felt like a change as i'd been in city's for the past couple of months, so I have now moved to a little place called emerald which is about an hour and a half outside Melbourne.

My trip to Emerald was slightly hectic, I left the hostel and walked to Spencer st train station with my backpack in 35-40 deg heat, and was truly knackered by the time I got their (only about 2KM). ON arriving at the station I realised it was Sunday and I had actually left the previous hostel a day early! After walking to the station I thought i'd carry on regardless, I arrived at Belgrave station which is the nearest to Emerald expecting to get a bus to Emerald; unfortunately been in the middle of nowhere the buses didnt run on Sundays! Plan C was then to find some accomodation in Belgrave which again included walking round in great heat with my rucksack - with the addition of steep hills. I walked up a massive hill to get to the only B&B to find that they had closed for rennovations, at this point I decided to deviate from independent travel and hailed a taxi.

Anyway Emerald is a really nice place its a really small town - i'll have to update you later about it as i've run out of time (got to catch a train).

Cronulla & the City

2006-01-15T04:24:00.000Z

After the New Years celebrations I was due to leave the original backpackers on the 2nd, therefore feeling like a change I went to Cronulla which is a beach town resort about 50 min south by train.

Their had been some race riots their a couple of weeks ago but it seemed to have calmed down and the hostel i was going to had been recommended by a few people.

The location of the hostel couldn’t have been any better, it was a 1 min walk to the town centre which was probably 2/3rds the size of Congleton. To get to the beach took about 3 minutes walk and the hostel had free surf and body boards.

I thought I’d try the body board before surfing as I’ve never done either, I managed to ride a few waves but found it rather tiring (spent a lot of times under waves not on them!).

I spent a week at the hostel but the weather was cloudy most of the week so only got to the beach 2 or 3 times.

After a week i decided to go back to the city as i was having to commute to the city in the week which meant a 5/6AM start.

I decided to go to the maze backpackers in the city which was one of my original choices for when I arrived. It is a massive hostel with 500 beds and covers an entire block.

The hostel is OK but it is missing an outdoor area and you never see the same people twice as it is so big. Everything was going OK until the second day when I got bitten by bed bugs! These little blighters come out at night and suck your blood leaving an irritating bite mark a bit like a mosquito bite.

Anyway on the plus side i went to reception and they upgraded me to a 2 bed dorm and gave me money to wash all my clothes.

Well its Sunday now and i'm about to get a bus to Melbourne, the bus leaves at 7PM tonight and arrives at 7AM in the morning. I've pre-booked in to a hostel which will hopefuilly be free of bed bugs!

New Years Eve / Day

2006-01-15T04:13:00.000Z

Well New years eve has passed and what a good night it was, we started the celebrations at about 3PM at the local bar (World Bar) it was very quiet so we got seats in the outdoor area. A few schooners were drunk slowly through the afternoon until about 6PM.

We then went back to the hostel mixed up some vodka orange and headed down to Mrs Macquaries point which overlooks the harbor bridge and Opera house, two Irish sisters (Suzie & Katie) from my dorm were already their with a crowd so we met up with them. Unfortunately the spot wasn't very good as a tree obstructed half the harbour bridge so we watched the 9PM fireworks from there and decided to move on for the midnight celebrations.
We wandered down to the city where all the roads have been closed (hence photos of me standing in the road!) and walked down towards the rocks where the harbour bridge is, by luck we somehow managed to get a spot right by the water looking straight at the bridge.

It was a funny sort of 12 o'clock celebration as it struck midnight the fireworks started going off, and you sort of forgot about new years as the fireworks were so impressive! They lasted for about half an hour and the finale was really loud and colourful. I took quite a bit of video on my camera but the file sizes are too large to upload to my website at the moment and also need editing (my video taking was slightly impaired by alcohol!).

After the fireworks we wandered around the streets where their were various street parties, we ended up outside the observer hotel which had a live band going. We left at about 3:30 and wandered up to a house party near central station which seemed to take forever to get to. We had a few more beers then I went home for some much deserved sleep!

New years day was the hottest recorded day Sydney had ever had on January 1st, it was 44 deg. and felt like walking round in a sauna. This combined with a hangover meant for the whole day all I managed to achieve was:-

a) go to Joes cafe down the road for some food
b) visit the train station (also just down the road) to find out about trains to Melbourne.

Christmas & Boxing Day

2005-12-30T06:05:00.000Z

Well Christmas has just passed, I started the celebrations on Christmas Eve at the Soho nightclub, the club is diagonally across from the hostel. The club is quite an upmarket; it started fairly quietly with one floor open then at about midnight 900 people turned up who had been on Christmas Eve “all you can drink” Harbour cruise. The club then opened up in to 5 floors and was pretty cool, apart from mirrors were everywhere which didn’t help after a few drinks! I lasted until 2:30 then called it a day, the club was open until 6AM I think.

Christmas day I got up about 10AM and had just had a shower when my Mum & Sister phoned me to wish me a happy Christmas, a good start to the day! I opened my pressies from my mum & Sister which made it feel more like Christmas (it was 30 deg+).
The hostel put a Christmas lunch on at 12:30, so we had some festive drinks (Tooheys Beer) prior and a couple of lads (Rich & Kev) broke open bottles of Port. You might notice Kev who had got a handlebar moustache as part of a bet!

Des one of the hostel workers is Maori, so the Christmas buffet was started with a Maori chant. The food was good and was a great effort by the hostel but didn’t match up to a home cooked Christmas Dinner.

After the Buffet a lot of the hostel went to the beach, some went to Bronte Beach and about 15 off us went to Bondi. Bondi had an alcohol ban on, but it was very lax, they had 2 people checking bags at entrances for the whole beach – everyone just popped bags over the rails!

We were at the beach for about 4 hours, it has to be said it’s strange (but good) to be swimming in the sea on Christmas day!

After the beach everybody was knackered so the evening was pretty non-descript, I was in bed at about 11.

On Boxing Day the prestigious Sydney – Hobart yacht race starts and we were advised it was a good spectacle to watch. We therefore walked from the hostel to Macleay’s point (about 15-20 mins) to watch all the boats sail past, unfortunately the boats set of from Watson’s Bay which was further up the Harbour, and therefore we saw absolutely nothing!
In the evening we all went to a local pub “the Goldfish Bowl” which has a Pizza & Pool night, a few Schooners (Sydney’s version of a pint – about ¾) were drunk.

Well just New Years Eve Left now, I’m hoping I can get a good spot for the fireworks!

Speak (actually blog) to you all soon!

Merry Christmas

2005-12-23T05:46:00.000Z

Merry Christmas Everyone, hope you are all well.

Its been really good weather here recently so it doesn’t feel to much like Christmas, apparently its going to be 38 deg. C on Christmas Eve and 28 Deg.C on Christmas Day
My mum & Sister have sent me some presents over which were a really nice surprise. I’ve just about managed not to open them early!

I’ve been working for the last couple of weeks fitting mobile shelving, the boss is pommie from Leek – it’s a small world. Its been quite good as the jobs are all around the city so you get to see a lot when traveling, I’ve also been driving a Ute about, and went up to Newcastle (about 2.5 hours up the coast (about a millimeter on the map) which was a good scenic drive. Its like been in America, everything has massive engines, my lowly Ute has got a 4.5 litre engine!
I know a few of you will be amazed to know that I’ve been starting work at 6:30 ish in the morning!

I’m still in the same hostel (Original Backpackers) and am booked up until January the 2nd. The hostel is good as there is something to do every night (Normally including free beer) if you want, although it’s been fairly early nights getting up at 6:30. Although the hostel is good I’m looking forward to moving in January, I’ve been hanging on to be here for the New Year. I am either going to do a surfing safari to Byron Bay (up the coast towards Brisbane) or go down to Melbourne. However my boss Simon has a bog job lined up from the 9th-15th January, so I may stay back for that but still move out to Bondi/Coogee/City Center and leave on the 16th.

You might be interested to know what I’ve planned for Christmas & New Year - Nothing at the moment, really I do have a slight plan. For Christmas Day the Hostel is having a Christmas lunch, their will be about 100 people so it should be quite lively. After the meal I think I’ll probably go to one of the beaches. For new year I’m going to go down to the botanical gardens which are next to the Opera house & harbor bridge, apparently you need to be their at about 10AM to get a spot. I've read in the newspaper that the celebrations start at 1 PM with various events like sky writing & things on boats. At 9pm their is a family firework show and one at midnight. The bridge has a massive frame on it in the shape of a heart which apparently will light up. After the fireworks the main streets are apparently closed, so you can walk about. Some of the people at the hostel have moved out in to flats now, so maybe their maybe a house party or two.

As for what I’ve been up to recently (apart from working), I’ve been mainly been at the beaches, a couple of weeks ago our hostel and another went to Bronte beach which is just above Bondi. It was really good as their was a grassy area behind it with barbecues so we had loads of food & chilled out (playing the mandatory 500+ games of cards) and played Frisbee.
Last weekend I was working Saturday morning then I went to Bondi beach which is 1 stop away on the train and a short bus ride away (about 20-30 mins all in). Sunday went to Manly beach with a Dutch guy Bart, it takes about an hour from Circular Quay. It’s a lovely town and the beach is great but once you’ve got a train to Circular Quay, then the ferry then walked to the beach it’s a bit long.

Saturday night myself, 2 Dutch guys (Bart & Paul) & a Kiwi (Jason went out in Oxford Street (photos on the web – Paul in Green tee-shirt, Bart in orange, Jason with small Goti beard). It was a good night, quite a few bars and ended up in a electro/funk night club which Paul wanted to go to, me and Jason left quite soon as we were not as energetic as the Dutch guys (them been 20, us been slightly older!). I’ve also visited Luna Park which can best be described as a slice of Blackpool put slap bang next to the harbor Bridge, it’s just a few dodgy fair ground rides and is an eyesore.

The most memorable event this week was trying desperately (no shame!) to get on GMTV, they were broadcasting Christmas messages and me Chris & Jo were in the crowd. When they panned round we were jumping up and down. I stood next to someone who had a small child on their shoulders as I thought they’d definitely be in shot! I think my mum was probably really pleased me phoning here at about 6am to tell her to watch GMTV, although I think she did phone my sister.

Well I think that’s all, just hope you all have a great Christmas & New Year; and think of poor old me sat on the beach!!!

Waste of Space

2005-12-09T03:47:00.000Z

Sorry I'm not been very up to date with this blog, I'm now desperately trying to remember what I've been doing! I went out last night so my brain is not working at its full capacity.

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know the weather was bad to start with, we had a lot of tropical style rainstorms with lightning. However this week has been really good its been around 27-30 deg.C and we had a one off day at 39 deg.C which was a little hot for me.

I've been to the Maritime Museum which was good, they had destroyers and a sub their, I had to push a few children away to get my photo in the captains chair! (only joking)

I bought a travel pass for $40 which means I can travel on bus/underground & ferries for a week (top tip Hayley!), I took a ferry Parramatta not realising it took about an hour. Paramatta is apparently Sydneys 2nd largest district, unfortunately as I hadn't done any research I only had an hour their because the last ferry left an hour after I arrived! Well I've got plenty time to go back.

I've started looking for a job now and have done a couple of courses, to serve alcohol you have to have a RSA certificate (Responsible service of Alcohol) so that took a day. Another day was taken been told about occupational health & safety which is required for general work & construction work, its commonly called a greencard but the course is titled the white card (that's Australians for you).

Apart from the above not been up to much, just been walking round the city taking in the sights and hopping on and off ferries.

Well hope everybody is doing fine, hopefully I'll update this blog a bit quicker next time!

Just Chillin

2005-11-27T02:57:00.000Z

Well its been a hard few days, visited the Australian Museum which had a good floor on the indigenous (Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders) people of Australia. It was really interesting to learn about their culture / beliefs.

Yesterday their was a musical festival on in the botanical gardens, been poor backpackers we didnt go in but sat in the gardens and listened to the music!

Last night (Saturday) we had a leaving party for Catherine who is in our hostel, but now has a 6 month au pair job (complete with car & swimming pool). We had a meal then went to the local bar.

The original backpackers - Sydney

2005-11-22T01:31:00.000Z

Well I've been here for a few days, settled in to the hostel. Its good place to start as they have stuff organized every night if you want to go out. On Friday they hadf a 5 dollar (about 2.5GBP) barbecue, then we went on to a local pub where they a live band were on (photo's at http://www.timgarbutt.com/photos).

Been down to the botanical gardens to chill out and get over the jetlag, saw loads of wildlife including flying foxes (bats I think? Martyn from Siemens will know!) hanging from the tree; obviously I felt compelled to take photos.

Also been down to the centre of Sydney along George street which is the main road for shops and businesses etc.

Well that's all for now, of to go and get my tax number so I can work (not for a while yet!).

Well ive just compleeted the flying, went from Man...

2005-11-17T00:32:00.000Z

Well ive just compleeted the flying, went from Manchester to London in the evening. It was good to see London at night, we flew along the Thames and managed to see the London Eye & Big Ben.

Flight from London to Hong Kong and on to Sydney took a while longer! Although was lucky and had a spare seat besides me so just about survived.

The Day Before

2005-11-14T13:12:00.000Z

Well its the day before I go and I desperately trying to get this blog up and running, anyway it should look a bit better in the near future (I'll be working on it in the internet cafes!).
Well its 1 o'clock in the afternoon and I haven't started packing yet, so I'd best leave this for now.
Next post I'll be in Oz (should be about 23 deg.C - sounds nice)