This week has been a very busy one. I have spent my days catching up on assignments from this semester, and the evenings recovering from full-on library days. Monday was spent attempting to work at my flat (always a bad idea), before heading to Church st for curry with all the extras courtesy of Josh. We booked the girls trip to Melbourne at the end of November to celebrate the end of exams and beginning of summer! I'm so excited!
Tuesday was a looooong library day. Eurgh.
Wednesday was another library day, followed by a desperate blowing-off of library steam at the Brewery :) A bizarre predrinks session - consisting of many youtube videos ("The maple kind, yeah?") to accompany the goon - managed to get us suitably merry to ensure that a good/embarrassing night was had by all! On my way home I made friends with a Possum which has taken up residence on my doorstep. Nice enough chap, but rather quiet.
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| Oh dear. |
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| I met a possum on my doorstep. His name is Percival. |
Thursday was - you guessed it - another library day. There are lots of things in this world that I care about: my family, my friends, my Hugo, travelling, gin&tonics, my bike, my camera, a good victoria sponge... Water Sustainability Policy is not one of these things. Somehow I have managed to whack out 2,800 words on this ridiculous (well, technically very useful, but BORING) subject in the space of two days. I feel proud (and a little thirsty). I celebrated my victory over EMGT2020 and microsoft word with a big stirfry at Church st thanks to the ginger one :)
Friday morning was spent in the library - notice a pattern forming? I edited a hefty chunk of my essay and so allowed myself an afternoon of bumming around on the beach. Yay. Liz cooked in the evening, and whilst we waited, we nipped to the pub to watch the rugby, where I managed to win a huuuge veggie box in the raffle to raise money for the Surf Lifesaving Club. One Dollar for a veggie box is a bargain, but I managed to get much more out of my donation to the club.... After dinner, I was called down to Josh's room and found myself in the middle of an intervention. Anyone who has seen that episode of How I Met Your Mother will understand. (I was not one of those people until earlier in the evening!) The evening was rounded off with X-men: First Class! Yay for geek times.
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| My veggie box! |
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| Intervention! |
Saturday was forecasted to be beautiful sunshine and 27 degrees, hence why the train to Newcastle was bursting at the seams with beachwear-clad teenyboppers. Nobby's Beach was nowhere near as crowded as Newcastle Beach, but there were still plenty of people to observe me getting more bang for my buck from the Surf Lifesavers... Josh promised to give Kirsty and I a surf lesson. Armed with Rachel and Hazel (surfboards, belonging to Josh and Bram respectively... boys are odd), we gave it a go. It wasn't exactly a riproaring success, but it could have gone worse (only one nosebleed, woo!) until we decided to go a little further out. After a few minutes we turned and realised we were really quite far out.... Josh and Kirsty, with just one (smaller and more manouverable) board between them, managed to paddle out of the rip current and back towards shore. On my own in the rip zone (and getting increasingly frustrated at my pathetic lack of arm strength and the bulk of Bram's ridiculously sized surfboard), I seemed to be going backwards. Next stop Tahiti?
I decided the only way I would get anywhere was to swim, so I climbed off the board. To my horror, I immediately heard the lifeguards hut tanoy: "Girl in the black rashie, get back on your board and keep paddling. Wave your arms if you need help!". OH NO. I was not going to be that girl. I kept paddling.... and going backwards, bloody rip currents. The next thing I know, I see this figure paddling towards me on a board emblazoned with 'LIFESAVERS'. No, no, no. Please do not be for me.
Obviously, he was coming for me. Any images I had of Aussie lifeguards being straight out of a Home and Away cast were quickly dispersed - he was at least 65, wearing an indecently small budgie smuggler. The humiliation continues. Apparently the only way for me to get out would be to surf back on his board - with him. Therefore, my first surf outing in Newcastle ended on the most extreme of lows... The entire beach watching me surf back into shore on a board paddled by a geriatric in a banana hammock. Oh the humiliation. On the plus side: $1 for a veggie box AND my life? That's a pretty decent deal.
I spent the rest of the afternoon sunbathing and pretending I did not exist. Waaaah. Once the beach started to get chilly (which is insanely early here - like 3pm), we headed back to Church st for failed omelettes (scrambled cheesy-mushroom-tomato-egg anyone?) and Blue Crush, before popping next door to the Grand - again! - to watch the rugby (Ireland vs Australia). I sat through the whole match - and here is the shocker - I actually enjoyed it! I mean, it's still no way near as good as football; and I'm pretty sure most of my enjoyment was due to the trough of wedges sat in front of us... But still.
Sunday was a verrrrry early start, as we headed to Sydney to watch our resident American nutter, Anna, run the Sydney Marathon in 30 degree heat. Crazy! Amazingly we almost bumped into her as we got to the track, and saw her again as she neared the finish line. Most people were looking pretty worse-for-wear by the 26-mile mark, but not Anna! No she just casually jogs along for 26.2 miles, no biggie! Nutter (but a very impressive one at that!).
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| Hero! |
In the afternoon, we grabbed some Korean food and headed to Darling Harbour to watch the Wales vs Samoa rugby match of the floating outdoor screens - two matches in two days! I hope you are proud ENV rugby-ers, after I spent the whole of first and second year resisting. The match was very good - well done Wales - but my personal highlight must be the moment when the DELIGHTFUL seagulls swooped overhead and landed a big blob of poo BEHIND my sunglasses, directly on my eyelashes. WONDERFUL. Rats of the sky. If I find this one again, I will have no problem forgoing my vegetarian/ecologist principles and CHUCKING IT ON THE BARBIE. (Although I must say, I have very little desire to eat seagull....)
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| Free icecream! Thanks Marty! |
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| Wiping blumming seagull poo out of my eye. FML. |
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| Yey Welsh friends! |
We headed to Paddy's market for some tacky souvenir shopping after the match, passing through a very busy Brazilian Festival on the way. I got rather overexcited upon seeing a stand selling Sugarcane Juice, the drink I had become so enamoured with in Vietnam, where it was like fresh lemonade but SO much better. I paid $4, took a sip... and wanted to cry. It tasted of sugar and tree bark. Heartbreak. However, I managed to lift my spirits with the addition of beautifully hot and crispy, chocolate-filled churros, rolled in cinnamon sugar. Amazing.
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| Sugarcane juice-related sadness :( |
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| Churros make everything better! |
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| Mmmm! |
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| Darling Harbour at dusk :) |
I love Sydney. I love hot chocolate churros. I love geriatric lifeguards (although not so much their swimwear choice...). I love Darling Harbour. I love Australian beaches. I love my life here.
I have one final essay to crack out this week, before flying up to Brisbane on Sunday to spend two weeks with Mumma Brown in Queensland! I am so excited! Yay :)
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