Week seven: rugby, Sydney and unintentional swims...

This week has been busy, but in a far more enjoyable way than the previous, microsoft word-filled week. On Monday I, once again, failed to do anything productive. Several hours were spent in the swimming pool and library, fiercely avoiding opening microsoft office. In the afternoon, I layered up quite considerably - resembling a denim-clad michelin man - and headed with the girls to a rugby match! Ha, I know. Livvy. At a Rugby match... It was the Newcastle knights (and their terrifying local fans) versus the Brisbane Broncos. The match was fun, and the chips were incredible, but my disdain for Rugby remains... It's just not as good as football. (Despite the fact that the Aussies seem to think that 'rugby' and 'footie' are interchangeable terms... No.) The Knights were slaughtered by the Broncos (26-6), incidentally. I'm not sure I'll be going to another match, but hey - that's another true Aussie experience ticked off the list!

Newcastle Knights vs Brisbane Broncos

Tuesday was a work day, mainly focusing on finishing off the presentation for my sustainability module. It is beginning to look half decent, but I was still slightly worrying that I would be asked an unexpected question and thereby expose my absolute ignorance of most of the topic...

Wednesday was P-day, time to put my presenting (and bullshi**ing) skills to the test in order to pass the module. It seemed to go fairly well, and the lecturer seemed pleased... Clearly if saving the whales doesn't work out, I have an oscar-worthy acting career ahead of me. Watch out Hollywood.

In the evening, Anna hosted a 'Suit-up' pre-drinks. The theme was impressiveky well adhered-to, with the entire international student population of Newcastle turning out in their (charity shop and otherwise) fancy best. Whilst the majority of girls were donning posh frocks, most boys had braved the eccentric and bizarre Newcastle charity shop scene to uncover some rare gems... Leopard print ties, tartan dinner jackets and monochrome brogues were the order of the day. Fetching. Arsey neighbours forced a premature end to the evening, and attempts to carry on the party further down Church St failed in a blaze of Westlife and youtube videos... Ahh Adam Buxton, why must you foil our night out plans? ("He looks like a frog... that died." "Tom Baker!")

Suited and booted!

Thursday was spent in a pointless tutorial, where the vast majority of the class left when a video was shown. Afterwards I headed to the library (via the free BBQ, duh) to indulge in a spot of collusion and online module quiz teamwork. Oooh rebel. Later, there was yet another module quiz to undertake (sigh), so a vastly uninteresting evening was had.

My oft-neglected Friday morning 9am lecture was - shock, horror! - attended! The subject has moved on from Plant biology (dull, dull, dull) to Animal biology (yey), and therefore the idea of hauling myself from my warm doona-cocoon is marginally less traumatic. Post-lecture, I collected my parcel from the accommodation office (thanks mum and dad!) and celebrated the arrival of reasonably priced makeup, a lovely card, decent chocolate and a wonderful CD of Sri Lankan Mariachi-esque covers of American rock music. It is so much worse (and therefore amazing) than it sounds.

In the afternoon I hopped on a train bound for Sydney to meet Siobhan! It certainly felt bizarre heading to meet someone from home, in Australia. I met her lovely family and we had a lovely Thai meal before heading out for cocktails and a natter. We had ice cream, coffee and frangelico on a balcony in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge before boarding a ferry to Darling Harbour for a stroll, a chat, and a (successful) quest to find discounted cocktails on a Friday night in central Sydney. Mojito o'clock!

Mmm affogatto!

Just to make Hugo jealous :)

On Saturday, I headed out with Siobhan's family for a trip to Taronga Zoo. I am a huge fan of most cute and furry/scaly/bewhiskered critters, and the abundance of them - coupled with the incredible, panoramic views of Sydney Harbour - means that Taronga is now situated firmly within my list of Favourite Zoos of All Time. The Zoo was huge, and could easily take up several days if you wanted to see everything. Once the zoo closed, we headed back on the Ferry to Circular Quay, where I bid Siobhan and her Family farewell and continued back to Newcastle, after a lovely whirlwind trip to the city.

Sydney Harbour Bridge from the ferry

Koala!

Itchy Roo

Look how tiny the baby is!

Tigger

Sydney Harbour panorama

Back in Newcastle, I headed to Church St to play a game of catch-up with the inebriated party goers. I was perhaps a little too successful, but a lovely night was had :) Any notions of waking up pre-dawn and heading out to watch the sunrise over the South Pacific were quickly scuppered when I realised that the bed was really, really warm... And I am really quite lazy. I slept in for a few more hours before getting up and breakfasted (Thanks Nathan!) and heading back to Campus. Teds halls held their Hall Ball on Friday night, and therefore Sunday was allocated as the (wonderfully inappropriately named) 'Recovery Day'. This essentially consisted of lots of alcohol, free t-shirts and entirely doomed attempts to avoid being thrown into the (CHILLY, to say the least) pool. Once we had changed into less sodden attire, we spent the evening hanging around Teds. It was a good end to a lovely week :)

Merry (and dry) pre-pool dunk

...and a few minutes later!

Soggy children :)