But before all of that I'll begin where I left off last, Christmas Day! Our Christmas day was pretty chilled out. We had a lay in, spent the morning chilling at our place, before heading off to Alex's for a few drinks, and then later on heading to MJ's house for a few more drinks!
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| My Christmas present from Sandra... |
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| ...A monkey in a box! |
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| ...And a Skydive! |
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| ..And all my Christmas presents! |
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| Christmas day skating.... |
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| ..in the summer sun! |
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This is who I remember outdoor swimming..
grey clouds and rain! |
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Brews Brothers...
bottle your beer whilst drinking your beer! |
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| Sunset over the city from our back garden |
Them pictures were just a quick run-down of my time between Christmas and the New Year. I did have to work on the Monday and Tuesday, but on the Wednesday (New Year's Eve) Sandra and I woke up early to catch our flight to Sydney!
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| Sunrise at Brisbane airport |
We left Brisbane on what was starting to feel like a warm sunny morning, only to arrive in Sydney on a cold grey morning. Fortunately, the weather did clear, and it was definitely beach weather. We got on the train and headed to Bondi Junction, before getting the bus to Bondi where we met up with James and Alice for some brekkie. (The very same James that I used to work at the Groove Train with, and the very same James that I spent New Year's with in Sydney 3 years earlier).
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| Bondi beach |
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And Tamarama Beach, where we spent our morning, with James and Alice.
Big waves!!! |
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| Sydney CBD from Bondo Junction |
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| New Year's Eve 2014... |
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| ...And New Year's Day 2015 |
So we spent New Year's Eve chilling and drinking at James' and Alice's house, in Bondi, until we headed over to Marrickville. We arrived there at about 11:20ish in the evening to a massive non-moving cue at the Marrickville Bowls club. We did eventually get in at about 11:58, "pheeew, we got here in time for midnight"...not that it mattered at all, there was no count sown, no "Happy New Year!" over the microphone....nothing. But the night at
Mad Racket was pretty good, one of them nights that faded into thee morning pretty quickly!
We got back home (at James' and Alice's gaff) somewhere between 7 and 8 in the morning, I believe. We slept for the morning, and then in the mid-afternoon Sandra and I awoke and took a trip into the city:
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| Darling Harbour |
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| The Opera House viewed from the Harbour Bridge |
After exploring the city, Darling Harbour, Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Botanic Gardens for a few hours, Sandra and I headed back to Bondi late in the evening to meet up with, a recently awoken, James and Alice. The choice of food wasn't too hard really, I feel that we were all wanting to decide on something quick, so if anyone would've made a decision the rest of us would have (and did) just agree on it. We ended up getting these awesome pizzas in this little cafe, that was kitted out like your Nan's spare room with really bright pink and flowerier wallpaper everywhere. We were all pretty wiped by this point, and through not being able to move much we must've ended up staying in there for a couple of hours, before heading home, where I fell asleep whilst trying to arrange the trains for the following day, whilst in all of my clothes.....comfortable!
Sandra and I woke up early the next morning to start our 3 hour train ride to the Blue Mountains. On taking someone;s advice from New Year's Eve we decided to venture a little further than Katoomba (where most people know) and ended up two stops later in Blackheath, only on the basis that "the view is so much better". Fair enough, I won't argue, I've been to Katoomba before, we like to get off the well walked tracks, and local knowledge is best!
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| Everyone getting off of the train at Katoomba Station... |
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| ...And our (much quieter) stop at Blackheath |
The walk from the train station to the lookout points and bush walks was much further than I originally thought. So we ended up hitch hiking down the road with this friendly Polish woman, which saved us a lot of time. When we did arrive at Evans Lookout we admired the views before taking on the Grand Canyon Walk (only 5.4km (I believe)) backwards.
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| It did start to rain just as we started the walk, but we were under a thick canopy of nature pretty much the whole way round. |
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| Just too funky! |
We did end up finishing our trek a lot earlier than originally planned, and although we were on a bit of a rush, I figured that Sandra should see the Three Sisters at Katoomba. Fortunately, as we started walking down the road we managed to hitch hike with an older French couple, who took us all the way into Katoomba, and right up to Echo Point. Upon arrival it was a bit cloudy so the mountains weren't really all that "Blue", and the crowds were massive, pretty much confirming that we made the right choice in heading to Black heath earlier. Anyway, after a few pictures, we headed back to Katoomba Train station, and started our 3 hour train back to Sydney and Bondi.
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| The Three Sisters from Echo Point, where I was 3 years ago to the day, with James, Tom, Harry, and Jill. |
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| Bit greyer this time out though! |
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| We spent that evening, back in Sydney, at an outdoor cinema, watching Nightcrawler |
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| ...with all the bats! |
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| Sandra, me, Alice, Lindsey and Richard. No James in site = a great photo! |
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| Yes, it's another sunset! |
Next day, and IT"S MY BIRTHDAY (again). Seems like a good time to sit on a train (again) and use up my Christmas present that Sandra got me 9 days earlier....IT"S SKYDIVING TIME!!!
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| Another day, another long train ride. This time heading north of Sydney. |
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| Not us... |
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| ...but some jumpers (or fallers) before us |
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| I'm sorry, what...?... |
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| Outta Nowhere!!! |
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| I actually wasn't as nervous as I had always thought I would have been once I was in the air, so I actually got to enjoy the views. |
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| OK, I might have been a bit nervous at this point, 14,000ft (supposedly) in the air and sticking out the side of a plane |
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| ...But you don't really have time to think about it... |
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| It's like the most real roller-coaster ride ever! |
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| Over the initial thrill/shock |
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| And constantly reminding yourself how cool and unnatural it is that you are plummeting towards the earth! |
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| Taking control... |
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| ..."Wow, that's me turning this.... |
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| ...that's really me turning this, it's sharper than I thought.... |
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| ...cool, I'm actually in control of this!" |
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| That was Sandra's second Skydive and my first. This is Sandra not knowing how to pose for a photo! |
I know this post might suggest different, but I never really make a big deal of my birthday, usually wherever I am and whomever I'm with don't even know that it actually is my birthday, and that's fine with me. After our dive we waiting around for ages to get our photos and my DVD before the bus gave us a ride back into Sydney, and we headed out into Bondi,, again with James and Alice, again for pizza and a few drinks = me as happy as!
But this is the reason why Sandra's photos came out a better quality than mine, cos I had a video too:
Ahhh, now I just found out my video is too big to post on here. So I will do some editing and get it on here soon. And rather than delete these last 3 sentences, I'd rather leave them on so you can see that I (half heartedly) tried to get it on here.
OK, onto Sunday, and our last day in Sydney...urm, in short, Sandra, Alice, James and I took a ferry over to Manly for the day. Really nice, but once we were there we kinda realised that we probably could've just stayed in Bondi for the day. But still, always nice to see somewhere new.
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| Whatever this cruise liner is, I'm sure that it must've been in Southampton at some point |
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| Alice, James and Sandra |
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| Manly |
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| At Sydney airport heading home to Brisbane, on Sunday night. |
OK, not really goona write too much about the last two weeks, cos it's really been work. And starting to plan what the hell we're gonna do once April rolls around, and there's really no point going into that now!
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| 1 of 2 living in our kitchen |
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| Sandra's unfortunate moth fatm |
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| This guy came out to help me at work on Friday |
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| Notice how I post a lot of geckos, but not too much about the dogs? |
Now I dunno who got the idea that I like Saints? But this is all the Southampton stuff that I received over Christmas and my birthday:
And while the beginning and middle of December might not have been too great for Saints, the end of December and January have been very kind!
"We are Southampton, we came from League One!" Many worth while late nights for me!
And, yes, yes I did have a picture to add from Sunday's beating of Man United, but my phone is being selfish with sharing the pictures with my computer. And after I post this I will watch our cup reply with Ipswich from last night (well last night for my English readers, kick off was at 6am for me).
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| This was after the Arsenal game but before the Man U game. I know it's not gonna happen,, but it's nice to be seriously considered as a contender |
Next post my blog is 100!
Some good photos.. just read both your Christmas Blog and today's.
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