The Blue Mountains

On Saturday after I found out about my new found vacation, Joel finally took me out to the Blue Mountains!!!  It was a perfect day, sunny and warm.  The Blue Mountains are about an hour and a half away.  Would be an easy drive, but Brutis decided we'd enjoy not having any AC, so we had to drive with the windows down.  By the time we got to the lookout point at Katoomba we were both hot and thirsty. 

But I finally got to see the mountains and The Three Sisters!  Compared to what we're used to back in Alberta, these were more like big hills then anything.  And the Three Sister rock formation was smaller then I had imagined.  But looking at the pictures now it is still pretty amazing.  We didn't stay long because it was SOOO hot, like forty degrees.  There was a glass bottomed cable car that goes across the valley but I'm chicken of heights and didn't want to do it.  Joel was not in a touring mood either.  Honest to God, this is our last sight seeing trip together.  From now on we just do the all-inclusive thing and if I want to sight-see I'm going with someone else.  We walked around to see the views and I got my pictures.  Note Joel is not in any.  He didn't want any pictures of his face.  But then he pouted the whole way home because he wasn't in any. 

We hit up the gas station for water and Popsicles and headed back to Sydney.  Here is proof that Joel did accompany me on this trip.

ANZAC Bridge

When we arrived back in the city Joel was in a better mood and decided we should go to Bondi to cool off.  We drove over, got some Cold Rock, and sat along the beach wall watching the water and the people.

It has finally hit me that I have TWO WEEKS OFF in one of the greatest cities it the world!!!  I woke up today and realized I have no schedule or set wake-up time and I can do whatever I want.  So I've  started to make a list of more things to see and do.  I would love to travel to a few other places (I really would like to see Tasmania and more of New Zealand) but unfortunately those flights are not in our budget (we need some money when we get home to get started again).  I'm planning on doing a day trip out to Canberra, a trip to Sydney's Northern beaches, a surf lesson, and just plenty of beach time.  Here's the fabulous forecast for the next few days:

 

Today it's off to my favorite beach, Bronte, with Joel, Christina and Josh, woo hoo!

Not Such a Happy New Year...

On our way home Joel ended up getting in a fight, as drunk boys do.  I'm not going to go into details , but he got beat to the face pretty bad and we ended up in an ambulance to the hospital.  He was mad and hurt, I was freaking out and scared.  He is ok now, just had some big hits to the face resulting in bruises, bumps, cuts and sidewalk rash.  I felt bad for him but not too bad as he should know better.  The doctor gave him a note to take the rest of the week off work and rest up.  He's already looking way better.

On Wednesday I had to go back to work and today was the day I had to hand in my notice of resignation.  I was still feeling pretty upset about everything that went down on New Years and was scared to tell my bosses I was leaving.  I had a lovely panic attack as soon as I got off the train to head to work.  I told Andy, the business side boss, and he took it pretty well.  He said he understands that we couldn't get a visa through Joel and he's sorry he's unable to sponsor me (they are frozen as sponsors and don't know how long it will take for it to unfreeze) and sad to lose me as I've done so well in such a short period of time.  Then the fun part began- telling the rest of the staff and saying goodbye to my clients.  This is tough, especially when the clients love me so much and try and offer more suggestions to how I can stay and get upset at the government for not allowing perfectly good people to stay.  I don't want to tell them part of the reason we're going home is because I don't like their country.  After lunch my other boss Steve (aka Slimey) had a talk with me in which he basically made me feel guilty for leaving.  I think he was just mad because I didn't tell him first.

Thursday was my eleven hour day and I was fully booked.  By 8:30 when I left I was sore from standing all day and emotionally drained from telling so many people what was happening.  I went home to bed right away.  I woke up during what I thought was the middle of the night, but only ended up being eleven o'clock.  I couldn't get back to sleep because I was just feeling so upset about the last few days and stressed about all the things that have to get done in the next few weeks, and the fact that we really have no plan for when we get back.  You name it, I can stress over it.  They don't call me OCV (Obsessive Compulsive Victoria) for nothing!

I was going to call in sick Friday morning, but I had a special client I wanted to personally say goodbye to.  I should have just stayed home though as I was a mess and a zombie due to lack of sleep.  At one I asked to go home sick.  Work said no problem, just get a doctor's note and they could pay me for the hours I'd miss.  I was dealing with so much I couldn't take it anymore.  I had a meltdown when I got home and then crashed.

Yesterday morning I got up early and went to a walk in clinic for my note.  The doctor gave me two more days off to relax from all the stress I'd been dealing with.  I emailed the note to work.  A few hours later I got a call from Andy.  He said it's too confusing to tell clients I'm sick for two days then leaving and it makes Detail look shady by having so many stories, so not to come back to work.  They will pay me my regular pay for the next two weeks.  At first I was shocked and shaken up because they basically were nicely firing me, even though I had given notice first.   I've never been fired.  When I calmed down I realized now I have two weeks off paid to relax, get my stuff done, and enjoy as much of Sydney as I can.  Pretty sweet!  Dewey said think of it as a goodbye gift from Slimey for being a douche.  Time to see the city, courtesy of Detail...

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve day is not a stat holiday and I had to work.  It ended up being pretty busy and the day flew by fast.  We were able to move some clients up so I could leave at six instead of seven.

New Years for us was going to be with our Sydney BFF's Josh and Christina.  Joel headed to their place early to pregame, as all three of the had the day off.  I took the train over after work.  We ordered in some Thai takeout and I busted out my favorite Innocent Bystander Moscato to chill out after my busy day.  We ended up playing a funny board game called WTF, telling funny stories of our past, and having a dance off.  Things got a little rowdy when "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" came on and everybody had to dance on the furniture.  This has got to be my favorite self timed photo ever!

At eleven o'clock we headed over to the train station to catch the train back to the city.  As usual on drinking nights we made some random friends.  Tonight consisted of an Aussie rapper named Geo.  Once on the train Josh decided it would be a good idea to preform the Haka dance (as he is from New Zealand).  For those of you that don't know, this is a traditional Maori war dance.  The All Blacks (NZ rugby team) preform this before each game.  Joel got right into it too (even though he's never seen it before) and the two boys were dancing and chanting away.  Josh had me video it on his phone (if it gets a million views on youtube we can make some money!) and I can't wait till that video surfaces!  Anyway, the boys were a big hit (all the tourists thought it was cool to see some "authentic Australian dancing" on NYE) and the whole car clapped and cheered for them and wanted their pictures.

We got off the train and walked to the Observatory Hill, which we all agreed would be a great place to watch the New Years Fireworks.  By the time we got there it was full, so we had to find a new place.  We walked down the hill and ended up finding a sidewalk with a nice clearing in the trees exposing the bridge.  There weren't bad crowds here so sat down and made ourselves at home.  The bridge was lit up with flood lights which alternated colors.  This itself was cool enough.

Right before midnight a countdown started up, then the fireworks began.  Even though we didn't have the prime viewing spot, holy s*^% those fireworks are good!  They were coming off the bridge and four different barges along the harbor.  We didn't know where to look there were so many!  Huge booms of explosion, bright colors and funky shapes.  Best. Fireworks. Ever.  You can check out the real deal here.  Every year there is a guest designer and this year it was Kylie Minogue.  I had a couple mini bottles of champagne in my purse so we busted those out as we watched in awe.

The Harbor Bridge still lit up after the show.

What the fireworks looked like from the front of the bridge in Circular Key.

After the fireworks were over we walked down the street to The Hero of Waterloo.  Yup, the final stop on my ghost tour!  Christina and Josh had done this tour previously and Hero's became their favorite place after!  This is where things started to get rowdy.  Joel made some friends with some Lebanese guys, who he must have told he was also Lebanese, and he became their god!  They were dancing around together, cheering go Lebanon, and buying each other drinks.  The highlight is when Joel picked one up and spun him around!  Also in our new posse was an Irish couple and a couple middle aged ladies who were enjoying salsa dancing with Josh.    At one point Josh decided to stand up on a table, do a mini strip show and take off his pants.  The crowd went wild, the bouncers did not.  Luckily they just said don't do it again.  We stayed till close to two then moved on as it was starting to quite down.  We walked back through the Rocks to the train station and the streets were a mess, littered in streamers, hats, bottles and cans.

From here on the night took a big turn and got a little hazy...

Mosman, Balmoral Beach, and Dinner at Jamie's

Only a few more weekends left in Sydney so time to make the most of things!  Today I woke up earlier to explore one of the northern suburbs of Mosman.  I'd been wanting to do this for awhile but it was never nice enough on the days I'd planned.  Beautiful day today so I was set!

Took the train to Circular Quay and saw this guy, the token Disco-Abbo-Digeredoo man!  Everyone who comes to Sydney sees this guy (or one of his buddies).  

I caught the ferry out to the Tarronga Zoo.  As it was a Saturday so did every tourist and their stroller.  It was a zoo getting to the zoo, ha!  When I got across I caught a bus going out to Balmoral Beach so I didn't have to deal with them too long.  I got the pictures of the city that I wanted (one of the best views from the zoo). 

I got off the bus at Balmoral and was impressed with the beach right away.  It's in a little cove so there are just small, gentle waves.  The water is blue and the sand is white.  It's a bit of a hidden beach, one that mostly locals only know of, so wasn't very busy.  This neighborhood would have been built up and popular to live in the 1920s and 30s.  There is an old bathers pavilion dating from that time and a neat little island you can walk out to via a bridge.  This is for sure one of my top beaches in Sydney.  I sat here for almost an hour just enjoying the sun and the water.  It was so peaceful and relaxing.

Yes, I did put my feet in the water here!!!

When I felt I'd had enough sun I went for a walk through Mosman to check out the houses.  I could take my time since Joel wasn't with me!  Beautiful Victorian era homes here, most with names.  Reminded me of Old Glenora or Ada Boulevard back home.  I spent an hour walking around winding through the homes.  If we were to stay in Sydney this is definitely the area I'd want to live in.

One of the little bays with ferry access to the city.

Typical style Sydney home

Turns out the ferry station I planned on departing from only has one ferry to the city an hour and it was just pulling away as I got close to the terminal!  So I had to walk back to the madhouse of the zoo and ended up getting a little lost.  Was getting grumpy and hungry by the time I arrived back at Circular Key.  I had some souvenir shopping to do so popped over to the Rocks Market and my favorite Aussie souvenir store.  This actually calmed me down.  For some odd reason I love going into the tourist stores!  If anybody wants something from Oz now is your chance to tell me!

Joel was home and rested from golf when I got home.  Tonight was date night (thanks to some xmas money from our parents!) and we decided to try out Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant.  We got there early, 6:30, but there was still an hour and a half wait.  We got some drinks and chilled upstairs in the bar.  When we finally got a table (more like two hours later) service was very quick and efficient.  The food was awesome and the prices were pretty reasonable, considering Jamie Oliver is a celebrity chef.  I had the Truffled Tagliatelle and Joel the Truffled Turkey.  Amazing!  We went all out and got dessert too, panna cotta for me, brownie for Joel.

The Rocks Ghost Tour

One thing on my list to do in Sydney was a ghost tour of the Rocks.  It's Sydney's oldest neighborhood and full of alot of history.  I though a ghost tour would be a more exciting way to learn the stories of the area then a regular walking tour.  Joel wasn't interested so I went on my own Friday night after work.  I made it to Circular Quay a few minutes early so took the time to catch some great photos of my favorite sights as the sun set.

  

The tour started at Cadman's Cottage, the oldest standing residential building in Sydney built in 1816.  It originally sat right on the shore line of the harbor, but the waterline has since moved.  It was originally home of the Sydney Water Police and a convict who had earned his freedom, John Cadman.  My guide was Ghostguide Lachlan and I got to be one of the lucky two lantern holders on the tour (the other was also a blonde lady, go figure?).  He had the keys to the cottage so we were able to go inside.  Creepy!  Lots of deaths here.  The smaller building to the left is where all the dead bodies found in the harbor were send to rot.  There is still lots of activity in this house.

 

From here we walked into the Rocks through some hidden alleyways and into locked areas that are not open to the public.  Some serious stuff went down in this hood!   In the early days the convicts would move here once they earned their freedom.  It was also full of sailors, gangs and prostitutes.  Sounds like you wouldn't want to be walking around here once it was dark.  There were lots of stories of mutilations and many of the dead can still be found walking the streets or lurking in windows.

This was the coffin makers home.  Supposedly lots of people can catch faces in the windows with their cameras.  Doesn't look like I did.

Back laneway leading up to the Suez Canal.  This was one of the areas you'd want to walk against the walls in just in case someone yelled out "Guardy-loo!".  These lanes tended to get pretty gross when it hadn't rained in awhile...

In the late 1800s there were tons of street gangs in The Rocks, the most famous being the Rocks Push Gang.  They would hide razor blades in their shoes and slide them against the Achilles tendons of unsuspecting sailors hooking up with prostitutes on street corners.  They would then beat them with socks filled with sand till the sailor was unconscious, run off with his valuables, empty the sand from their socks and put them back on to hid any evidence.  They were so good the police couldn't ever catch them or book them for jail time.

Old and new buildings of The Rocks

 This next one was creepy.  A husband and wife lived here and when the hubby went out to work for the day she would have many gentlemen visitors.  One day hubby caught her in the act, cut off her genitals and face and left her hanging from the wall.  He ran away and was never to be seen again.  Supposedly lots of activity here as the wife remains to seek her revenge.  I have some "orbs" in my picture but I think that may camera just needs a clean.

Next stop was The Rocks Dig.  This is a big dig that began in the last twenty or so years and all sorts of interesting history and artifacts have been unearthed.  It sits below the YHA.  All kinds of creepy stuff happened here.  Creepiest story was in the 1900s when the bubonic plague hit Sydney.  People who had caught the plague would develop large cysts from the waist up and starting vomiting green bile.  They would either die or go into a coma.  The doctors often couldn't tell the difference.  Many people were buried alive (as coffins found in The Dig had scratch marks on the inside).  If you were wealthy enough you could have a bell attached to the buried person's wrist so when they woke up and tried to escape a bell would ring, calling people to the rescue.  Hence the saying "Saved by the bell".  I took a few more pics here but still no luck on any faces, smoke or definite orbs.

Next we headed up the hill to the Sydney Observatory.  There was a young boy who was brutally beaten and mutilated on the iron gates here.  Once a month people see a gaunt young boy in old fashioned clothes walking around the Observatory looking for help.  

The hill was also the site of the city's hangings.  People would be tried for crimes (often petty ie stealing sugar or meat) a hung from one of the trees.  I didn't feel too creepy being up here (I had my trusty lantern for safety!).  I did get some awesome night pics of the bridge and the full moon that happened to be out.  Turns out the bridge is haunted as well.  There was a man who literally got built into the bridge during construction!  Sounds like he's a playful guy and people will often see him through the rear view mirror sitting in the backseat of their car.  Also learned that Luna Park (whose lights you can see in the distance) was closed for quite a few years as some people died on a ride that caught fire.

Last stop of the tour was to the Hero of Waterloo Pub, build in 1843.  Young men would come here for the free rum that was served.  They would drink and eventually pass out at the bar, as there was a type of drug in the rum.  They would be thrown down the stairs by the barman where they would be smuggled down a tunnel and taken aboard sailing ships as involuntary recruit.  There was also alot of rum smuggling going on through this tunnel.  The Hero of Waterloo still is a functioning pub today.  It looked pretty cool but I wasn't going to sit at the bar and drink on my own, so headed home.

The tour was very interesting and I learned alot more about early Sydney then my visit to the Barracks Museum, but I was disappointed I didn't see any ghosts.  Leaving the tour I didn't feel scared, but once I got home and retold some of the tales to Joel I had a hard time sleeping! 

The Hulk Comes Out to Play on Boxing Day

Of course Boxing Day had to be crappy weather too.  It didn't rain, but it was cloudy and windy all day.  Joel got up in the morning for a Boxing Day comp at Eastlakes.  When he got home we skyped with both our families, who at eighteen hours behind were still celebrating Christmas.  We were planning to head out to Watson Bay to watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Races (a big event that happens every year) but Joel got off golf too late and the boats were long gone.  I still wanted to check out the area (it's supposed to have great views of the city) and thought we could have a nice date since we both had the day off.  Wrong.

Watson Bay is an eastern suburb, north of Bondi.  Melba got quite confused in her directions and ended up leading us on a road headed towards the Harbor Bridge that we couldn't u-turn out of.  As you know, Joel gets road rage on the best of days.  Well today was the last straw.  After some choice curse words to Melba and some slams on the horn he turned into the hulk, ripped the horn off the wheel and threw it into traffic behind us on the bridge.  I couldn't believe he did that!  I said how do you expect to sell the car without a horn???  Don't think he thought that one through.  He said it would be ok, we'd just turn around after the bridge and go back for it.  And what, stop in the middle of the bridge in busy traffic to pick it up?  Yeah right, lost cause I said.  Well we crossed the bridge, turned around, went back through the toll and headed towards where he thought it landed.  God must have been on our side today because we found it!  It had landed near the meridian in a bus lane.  So he turned on the hazard lights, slowed down and made me open the door to pick it up.  It had been run over by another car, but we got our horn back!  We both peed our pants laughing about this for the next few minutes.

Finally Melba did lead us to the right place.  There is a national park at Watson Bay with a nice lookout point that would have been perfect to watch the sailing race from.  Oh well.  This is a pretty famous point and people come here for the view, to make out in their cars, or to commit suicide off the cliff.

 Watson Bay is a pretty neat neighborhood.  It was developed in the mid to late 1800s so there are still some interesting old homes around.  We took a walk along one of it's beaches to check out the view of the city.  This enclosed little harbor is full of lots of private boats.

On our drive back home we cruised through another older neighborhood along the water called Vaucluse.  This is one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Sydney as it's so close to the CBD and overlooks the water with homes winding through the hills.  There is a combination of beautiful old estate homes and huge modern mansions. I made Joel park the car so we could get out and check out the views.  I think the neighbors were embarrassed to have Brutis parked in their street!  I would have loved to have walked around and explored more but Joel had had enough touring for the day so we headed home.

Christmas Down Under

 

Christmas morning we woke up to MORE pouring rain.  This was the most rain Sydney has had on Christmas Day in over forty years.  We were invited to my co-worker Koren's for Christmas lunch and a pool party near Penrith.  Since that's towards the Blue Mountains we were going to get up early and check out Katoomba in the morning before lunch, but due to the rain and heavy clouds decided it wouldn't be worth it and went back to bed.  Second failed Blue Mountains trip because of rain.

Pouring rain.  The stupid little truck to the left is always parked on the road in front of us and we hate it.  It rarely moves.  We tend to stick notes under it's wipers hoping the owner will freak out thinking that they've got a parking ticket.

 

 

 

 

Koren's family was running late so she said not to rush coming out.  Perfect, more sleep.  Around two we got ready, carried all our booze and food (Joel had made heaps of mango pasta salad and coleslaw the night before) out to the car in the pouring rain and headed through the city to pick up Christina and Josh.  Christmas Day in Sydney is what I imagine a regular day looks like in Asia.  Seriously, the CBD was full of Asians with cameras standing in the middle of the road taking pictures. 

 

 From Christina and Josh's it was about an hour's drive to Korens.  They live way northwest.  Hard to believe that area still counts as part of Sydney.  Lunch was at her in-laws place and we got to meet various relatives from both Koren and her husband Simon's sides.  Also adopted into the family for the day was Shannon, another co-worker, who's family is all in Melbourne.  Even though it was too wet to head into the pool we still had a nice afternoon with lots of food, Christmas crackers (complete with festive hats and cheesy jokes), and entertainment from Koren's little niece and nephew (who were hilarious).  We had traditional Aussie Christmas dessert, Pavlova and Plum Pudding.  Plum Pudding is Australia's version of fruit cake- it's always there but no one wants to eat it.  We ended up staying till eleven pm chatting with everyone.  Her father-in-law had been to Canada so he took out an atlas to see where we're from and had plenty of questions to ask about the rest of the country.  Her family was so great and I'm so happy they included us in their Christmas feast!  Christmas away from home and without my family wasn't so bad.

L-R Koren, me, Shannon, Joel, Josh and Christina