New Year’s Day 2007

What is the coolest thing you can do on New Year’s Day in Sydney when everything is closed?? Why, a trip to the world-famous Bondi beach of course!
Bondi wasn’t too far from where we were staying, probably about 20 minutes journey on a train and bus. New Year’s Day was a beautiful sunny day, just perfect for a relaxing day on the beach to let the alcohol from the day before seep out of our bodies! The beach was busy but not as packed as I thought it might have been. We went straight onto the sea, which was quite cool at first compared to the tropics where we are. The waves were fantastic and pretty powerful; if you didn’t see them coming then you got bashed on the head and knocked off your feet by them. It was brilliant fun but very exhausting, I can see why they need so many lifesavers there. We have a show on TV here called Bondi Rescue so it was great to see the lifeguard building and beach for real, I was just hoping that the dreaded shark alarm would not go off while we were in the water! We had a nice sunbathe and finished the day off having burgers and chips on the beach for tea.
I was faced with a moral dilemma today as I inadvertently walked away from an ice-cream shop with three post-cards in my hand that I hadn’t paid for. I couldn’t take the guilt and walked back to confess my error and pay for them. Maybe I will be rewarded for this kind act by finding $50 on the floor somewhere?!
Bondi was brilliant, it’s another place I’ve always wanted to go to and to be there on the first day of 2007 was just perfect, we’ll definitely be back there again. Whilst we were on the beach we heard some live music from one of the buildings at the side of the beach, I recognised the band as Sneaky Sound System, an Aussie band who supported Robbie in Brisbane. We found out in the papers afterwards that it was a New Year’s Day party and Paris Hilton was there too!

The diamond on the bridge and all the illuminated boats in the background - there were about 50 boats all lit up touring the area

After the fireworks finished we all said ‘happy new year’ and ‘goodbye’ and departed our separate ways. In a way it was a strange end to the day as hoards of people trooped quietly and slowly down the side of Circular Quay to get to their trains, buses and taxis. We had missed our train and decided to walk in the direction of our apartment and hope to find a bus or taxi going in that direction. Luckily I was armed with my map and we walked for a while and then found a bus which dropped us back home.
It had been a long but fantastic day, and I had fulfilled a dream of mine to see New Year’s Eve come in at Sydney! It was also extra-special for Andy and I to have such a great day with all the people from England, it had seemed a long time since we had had such a laugh! Happy Belated New Year everyone, let’s hope 2007 is a good one!!

Great photo of us with the Harbour Bridge in the background

It was finally approaching midnight, so we all woke up a bit, drank a bit more and got our cameras ready for the big moment. A countdown on a projector against the Harbour Bridge columns started…10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 chanted the millions of people sat watching from all the view points around Sydney, and BANG, the spectacle began. It was relentless for a good 15 minutes, firing off the arc of the bridge, from next to the bridge, off barges along the water, off the top of the high rise buildings in the city, absolutely awesome. No matter how old you were, you couldn’t help but gasp with delight at this pyrotechnics extravaganza.

The bridge has a huge symbol lit up on it every year, last year was a heart to symbolise love and peace due to the race riots that year. This time it was the 75th anniversary of the Harbour Bridge being constructed, and so a huge diamond sparkled from the centre of the bridge, along with a coat-hanger which is what Sydneysiders affectionately call the bridge as it looks like one!

View across to the Botanic Gardens and Circular Quay and the city

Eventually, the hour of 9pm arrived when it was time for the children’s firework display. This was based on ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ this year, albeit quite loosely, I think there was some theme music somewhere in the background and a couple of fireworks may have been ruby slippers? Regardless of the theme though, the fireworks were very impressive and just left us wanting more… only three hours to go.
One positive note for the Opera House refugee camp was that it was well equipped with portaloos, which makes life a lot more bearable. Of course, getting to them was quite another story as one had to make your way over a sea of sleeping people, drinks, blankets, legs and cameras like a ballet dancer springing from one space to the next mumbling smiling apologies as we went along.

Anna-Marie, Daz, Andy, me, Andy W sat waiting for midnight to arrive

It was then time to find a place on the floor next to the Opera House which would be our base for the next 10 hours. We met up with another group of friends from England; Andy, Hilary and Simon - I had got them tickets for the cricket as well so we would be spending the next week watching England lose with them. They were with some other friends they knew, also from England, so it turned out that there were 11 of us sat in what could only be described as a refugee camp. There was the usual mixture of professional ‘waiters’ with the blankets, food hampers, pillows, books, playing cards etc etc, and then us who were totally unprepared for sitting on a concrete surface in quite chilly weather actually, for ten hours. Fortunately, a massive temporary bar was available to sell us a huge range of cheap drinks, and there were no queues…{insert large dose of sarcasm} I was dismayed to find that this ‘bar’ didn’t stock cider, so my options were; drinking cheap wine all day which would result in me not even seeing midnight, or drinking light beers – which was bloomin awful stuff that went flat as soon as the can was opened. Luckily we had entertainment in the form of Andy W who amused us with renditions of an extensive range of Barmy Army songs, along with a group of Brazilians who he and Simon had taught to chant ‘Leeds, Leeds, Leeds’ on request.

We managed to make it through the bleak hours of 4 to 8pm when we had been there long enough for our bums to be hurting, and we still had another 4 hours to go...

Daz, Andy, me, Nicky, Sheldon, Paul at the Opera House bar

New Year’s Eve

The big day was here, I had been my usual far-too-organised self and printed reams of maps showing every possible place we could watch the fireworks from in Sydney, ferry and train timetables, road maps in case we had to walk home, a timetable of events from 1pm onwards - I knew every model of aeroplane that flew over and when to expect the Aboriginal boat to come past.
We decided that as we were in Sydney for New Year’s Eve, which doesn’t happen everyday, it was going to be special so we’d go for the big scramble to get to the Opera House as early as possible. After a hearty breakfast we made our way up the most painful hill in the world to get from our apartment to the tube station.
On the train Andy had one of those ‘it’s a small and surreal world’ incidents when we had stopped in a station along our journey to let some people on and off. A bloke with a pushchair was stood near the doors waiting for another train, he looked in and saw Andy, they had the few seconds processing who each other was, and then he said, “Alright Andy” just as the doors closed and off we went. He used to go to high school with Andy and they hadn’t seen each other for about 15 years!
I also had a surreal moment, but it was one I knew was going to happen. Two former colleagues of mine, Nicky and Sheldon, firstly surprised me in November by telling me they were now an item, and secondly informed me they were in Sydney on NYE if there was any chance I’d be there. So, here we are in Australia with Daz and Anna-Marie which we were still getting used to and then we met up with Nicky and Sheldon at Circular Quay on New Year’s Eve! Trying to find them at Circular Quay was one of those stupid moments where I was looking at people who looked absolutely nothing like them thinking, well that might be them, it’s been a year since I saw them… of course when we finally spotted each other it was quite obvious who they were! We all battled our way to the Opera House bar for drinks, having to be bag checked and pass through numerous security gates on the way – and this was only about 2pm. We had a great natter for a few hours and I managed to work my way past my first drink of lemonade swiftly on to champagne. It was really good to meet up with them both, along with their friend Paul, and catch up on what they had done during their holiday along with other gossip. We also found out after they had left that they had just got engaged at Uluru (Ayers Rock) a few days before we met them, but obviously wanted to tell their family before letting the news spread through the bush telegraph!

Congratulations Nicky and Sheldon!!

Daz and Andy with a challenging drinking game

We got to Sydney around 4pm and taxied to our apartment to meet Daz and Anna-Marie. It was very exciting to meet up with them; we had to keep pinching ourselves that we were all in Sydney! I had arranged a restaurant for that evening which was a Tapas restaurant in Darlinghurst. The food was amazing, and everything was shareable so you got to taste lots of amazing dishes. The atmosphere was great too, I was very impressed.

We then decided to follow my ‘Bar cards’ on a pub crawl around the area… the first two places were closed down, third time lucky though we found a nice but quiet bar at the back of a hotel that we would never have known about without my cards. After that it turned a bit disastrous as en route to another location on my cards we stopped at a pub which we believe may have been a gay bar – we were encroaching very quickly upon the huge gay area in Sydney. We gave up on the bar cards after that and decided to follow a busy road – that was our mistake, soon Anna and I were the only females about and every bar was packed with men. It was interesting and I’m glad I got to see that area, however we had to flag a taxi after Andy (who was thankfully wearing his ‘Girls, Girls, Girls top) freaked out at a pedestrian crossing when he got surrounded by about 10 gay couples. We instructed the taxi driver to ‘get us out of here’ and ended up at the far more refined Rocks area. We had a great night at the bars around there and Andy managed to recover from his earlier trauma and have a great birthday!

Out came the Cowboys

Sydney and Andy’s Birthday

We had been looking forward to this day for ages; firstly it was Andy’s big birthday and secondly we were going to SYDNEY!! I had arranged this about 6 months ago when the Ashes cricket tickets went on sale, we got tickets for a few people back in England too including Daz and Anna-Marie, who we arranged to stay in an apartment with for a week in Sydney. It dropped on perfectly because in this time it was both of our special birthdays, New Year’s Eve and the cricket at the SCG for the last test of the Ashes series.
We headed off to Mackay airport with bags (and England flag and shirts) packed. Ben was home alone for a week for the first time ever, we couldn’t get him in at kennels so Carol and Ian very kindly offered to walk and feed him every day and let him in and out of the garden.

Dog Christmas

Carol and Ian invited us for Christmas dinner at their house on Christmas day which was fantastic! It was lovely to spend the afternoon with friends and also to share the children’s excitement in Christmas – not forgetting the absolutely gorgeous Christmas dinner that Carol made!! It was a feast, a huge turkey and we even had Yorkshire Puddings (which we have been unable to replicate since getting here!) and crackers and hats! Just when we thought we couldn’t squeeze anything else in, then Carol brought out a pavlova – mmm! We had some drinks and played on next doors ‘Green Machines’ – which are go-karts and go very fast!

We went home and spoke to family and friends back in England just as they were about to have Christmas dinner, so all in all it was a lovely day.
On Boxing Day, we depressed ourselves by watching the Ashes at the MCG in Melbourne (on TV) and we played a few board games whilst eating and drinking... In fact, the few days between Christmas and New Year mainly consisted of cricket, drinking and eating, it was so nice just to be able to have time to totally relax and not feel pressure to be doing something.
We have had such different weather here compared to last summer. Last summer Christmas day hit 43 degrees, but this time we were about 33 degrees – which was a lot more comfortable!

Ben waiting to open his presents

Christmas 2006

The week running up to Christmas was fairly uneventful. Spent every morning hoping that my family’s Christmas and birthday presents and cards would arrive here after they were put on the boat back in England back in early October! Alas, they didn’t arrive until late January – but it prolonged our Christmas spirit! I was just glad that they weren’t on the cargo ship MSC Napoli that ran aground recently in Devon. What a moral dilemma – thousands of pounds worth of goods washed ashore, including brand new BMW motorbikes, and the police unsure whether they can make arrests as technically it isn’t illegal to take goods washed up to shore?!? It’s one of the most amusing stories I’ve heard for ages, especially the man who took 5 BMW steering wheels…one suspects e-bay sales will be booming. The naughty side in me does think that the companies will be heavily insured so the acquisition of a new motorbike wouldn’t cause too much of a moral dilemma, but I guess that insurance comes out of our pockets one way or another anyway!

Christmas didn’t feel like Christmas again, what I would have given for a nice blast of ice cold air to make my cheeks go numb. Andy worked on Christmas Eve and I had the house spick and span.

The expression originates from the world of wooden ship building when a spic was
a nail and a span was a chip of wood. New ships contained shiny new nails and
fresh wood chips. The ship would be said to be spic and span new.