Its nice not to have Christmas in your face from the middle of September but then again it seems quite understated here, there's not even a very Christmassy feel in the office. And the weather is not Christmassy at all - not that complaining about this you understand (!) but I think I will appreciate the Anglo-Christmas more next year !
Anyway this week was fairly busy I started my new job in the Rail Infrastructure office near Central Station having done my last driving shift on Sunday, small office doing admin and database work - fairly tedious stuff but at least it's more reasonable hours - no more 5am starts for me !! Dave also started his new job down in Melbourne with Bosch.
Tuesday went out to see the new Bond film with Finchy, Sian, and Jess, which is truly excellent and back to the best of the Bond cheese (i.e. Halle Berry coming out of the sea aka Ursula Andrews) and many gadgets to boot as always to get Mr. Bond out of those impossible 'I'm going to die unless Q was alive' situations. First film in ages to make me leave the cinema with a massive grin, almost worth going back to watch a second time.
Thursday I went to Handel's Messiah at Sydney Opera House with Helen which was pretty good - longer than I expected though but great all the same - topped off with sitting outside with a couple of her housemates who had also gone to see it drinking wine with the Harbour Bridge behind us and the Opera house in front!
Friday I tripped out to Balmain for a quiet drink or two with Finchy which turned into an impromptu pub crawl and viewed the spot where we are hoping to watch the fireworks for new year which seems to have a good view of the Harbour Bridge.
On Saturday we went to Narrabeen beach which is bigger than Bondi but quite a considerable margin and almost empty to boot. Dave and I met up with Nia and Lindsey on Saturday night in the Orient in town who we hadn't seen since Malaysia and the Cameron Highlands - they're in Sydney until after New Year when they go to New Zealand for further travels.
I believe Sunday we were both hungover although managed to drag ourselves to a party at number 27 after a BBQ at ours with Sian, Jess, Sniper, and Nia and Lindsey again. It's a tough life!
Christmas Eve turned out to be a half day at work (yeah!) and everyone left at midday so I grabbed a cheeky schooner of VB before meeting the folks in town for some sightseeing - this encompassed the AMP tower (which I hadn't been up since last year - great views across town), Hyde Park (one of my favourites in Sydney), then a trip down to the Opera House for an Opera House tour which was good. We then wandered up into The Rocks and had a dinner in a pub just down from the Bridge. Dave went out for dinner with Jess, Sian, and Helen to the AMP Tower for a revolving dinner of fun, which were excellent and good views to boot! Most of the residents of the terraces where we live ended up in The Warren which is one of our local pubs - this then turned into a party at number 31 afterwards till the early hours.....
Christmas Day I scraped myself out of bed and headed down to Circular Quay to meet Mum and Dad again for a day on the beach at Manly (which I hadn't been to yet), Dave was heading to Bondi Beach in the afternoon for a BBQ at Kay's with the rest of the gang. The ferry journey out to Manly is about 45mins and gives good views of the harbour all the way out to the north shore - this is definitely the cheapest way to see the harbour if you don't want to pay forty bucks for a harbour cruise! Manly beach is gorgeous - not as wide as Bondi but probably longer along the coast - it also isn't as busy as Bondi Beach so while it was pleasantly busy it wasn't so full you were sitting on top of everyone else. Managed to sun myself and go for a dip in the sea all on Christmas day (there's a first and a last!) - Christmas lunch was a Steak and Curry pie and a pint of milk, and to be honest I didn't miss the full roast turkey one little bit!
Joined up with Dave, Kay, Anke, Jess, Steph, Sian, and Helen at Kay's place over at Bondi where they were having a BBQ - and had a kangaroo burger for dinner. At about nine we all made our way over to Giselle's penthouse apartment in Darling Harbour and joined the party there until the early hours of the morning dancing to such greats as Slade, Wizzard, and The Waitresses!