Travelling Post 15 - Cricket and Christmas

I forgot to mention the Cricket in my last post.

I have never really followed sport in the past, the occasional world cup here match here and there. I tried very hard this year with the world cup but couldn't, but as I was in Australia and the Ashes were being played here I decided to follow the cricket, and I really got into it.

So we lost the first two tests, there was still hope (for those with blind faith and the overly optimistic.) So we were on the final day of the third test, 200-300 runs to go to win, or hold the day to draw, with only a couple or so wickets gone, yes there was still hope. This fifth day was being played whilst I was at the Blue Mountains and so every time we got back into the tour bus the radio was flicked one.

The first time the radio turned on it was Flintoff's first over. It was brilliant, and excellent score of (if i remember correctly) 14. It could be 15 or 17 though. Anyway it was good, relief swept over me, we may be able to actually get a win, forget about a measly draw.

The second time the radio turned on and Warne had just bowled Flintoff out. Disappointment swept over me, but still there was hope.

The third time the radio was turned on... it was all over. The *insert expletive here* convicts won. To say that ruined my day is not entirely true, but it was 50 minutes from hearing that until we arrived at the final stop, and I moped all the way there. It was the only real negative point on one of my best days here to date.

So it's Boxing Day in two days, the fourth test, The Barmy Army need to gain some dignity, and I need to be able to give some stick back, for yes I have receiving lots dammit. Anyway I have hope for 3-2 to the Aussies, come on England - Plus we will win the 20/20.

On a completely different note it is Christmas Eve, the weather is miserable, it is warm t-shirt weather but cloudy and rainy, and the forecast doesn't look for good for tomorrow. Whatever the weather though I am going to the beach and I am going for a swim, I came to Australia to spend Christmas on the beach, and lousy weather is not going to stop me.

Also to all my avid readers, family, friends, stalkers and lovers I wish you a Merry Christmas and all that jazz.

Travelling Post 14 - England have lost the Ashes, which is not fair, just as I was getting into the sport

This week I have mostly been... working. Yep I work a lot now, it pays the way though, and the job isn't difficult. I have also been enjoying the house and it's DVD player and television. Living in a house is rather more suited to my tastes than hosteling, (that is not to say I don't like hosteling, because I do like, which is good because if i didn't I'd be screwed for the next 17 months - and not in the good way) The only issue is cockroaches. I've lived in hostels with messy rooms for almost month and did not see a single cockroach. I am now living in a nice clean house and see loads (well 1 or 2 in a night) and walking around the streets at night I see even more. Apparently they are as common spiders in Britain, but I wish they weren't, spiders don't look so disgusting or freak me out so much.

On my Monday off I went on a tour of the Blue Mountains. On Monday 18th December in the freezing cold of winter I traipsed up some snow covered mountain wearing my fleece and waterproof... wait, I think I have got confused with a childhood memory. On Monday 18th December at 7am, I stood in Coogee, wearing a t-shirt and my shades, waiting to be picked up to go on a walk through the rain forests... now that sounds more like it.

Monday was one the best days I have had since I have been here. I booked a tour through IEP on a Wildframe Ecotour, going on my own as all my other friends had been before or couldn't go the same day I could. The tour involved a three hour hike down into the grand canyon, a trip to a viewpoint to look at the Three Sisters and Mount Solitary in the Jamison Valley and a short ride on the Scenic Railway which is the steepest railway in the world. As if that wasn't enough we went to a picnic site to 'hang around' with wild Kangaroos, Cockatoos and a Goanna lizard.

The walk through the canyon was really good and the tour guide gave us a fair few interesting anecdotes. The top layer of the canyon, and the majority of the Blue Mountains are all Eucalyptus Forests, but there are no Koala Bears. Scientists, and other clever folk, believe this is due to the 1984 bush fires which was so severe it wiped the local population out, and none have returned since. Although all other evidence of that bush fire had been gone, you could see the effects of the less severe bush fire of a few years ago with dead trees heavily scattered amongst those that had survived. Whilst I was out in the Blue Mountains there were bush fires occurring, and there were areas we couldn't walk around. Below is a map of the blue Mountains, and the short walk that we did.

Here you can see the dead trees, killed by bushfire, amongst those tress that have survived and grown since the fire.

Even though it took 3 hours, it was only a 4km or so walk. I think I could have done it in 1hr but then the tour guide emphasised that we should take in our surroundings and the history of how they were formed and that of the aboriginal people who lived there years before. The rain forests occur because the canyon is made up of sandstone, which works like a sponge to soak up the water, thus even though there has been a drought for 5 years, the rock still has water. The rain forest was mostly covered in ferns, they looked a little different to the ones I am used to seeing in Britain, as you can see below the Australian variety has trunks.

Despite the heat and humidity down in the canyon, and just plain heatabove the canyon the walk was exhilarating, I took many, many pictures, but I'm only gonna post a few as they are all very similar. The one thing I have noticed about walking in other countries compared to Britain, the walks only ever encapsulate one or two different views. Going walking in Britain, one can see a variety of different landscapes in a relatively small walking distance. That said the canyon was one of the most beautiful sites I have seen when I have been walking.

After the walk, it was time for lunch then off to view the three sisters (below.)

A long long time ago, there would have been seven sisters, you can see where they would have sat next to the remaining three above. Below is a further view of the Three Sisters, in the Grose Valley. You may be able to make out a blue haze in the picture, this is why the area is called the Blue Mountains. It is caused by the refraction of light through evaporated water coming off the Eucalyptus trees.

There is an aboriginal love story behind these rocks which goes something like this. There was the magic man of a tribe who had three daughters. These daughters fell in love with three men from a different tribe. As the three men were from a different tribe their father forbid them from marrying them, but daughters, being daughters, disobeyed him and ran off. There father, being the magic man cursed them and turned them into stone. Which I think sounds a little harsh. A the next stop, the steepest railway in the world, there was a visitors centre with bronze casting of the three sisters and their over protective father.

The steepest railway in the world was well, rather short, it cost $16 to go down on the cable car and then you took a 5 minute walk and came back up on the train. It was disappointing because I could have spent over an hour exploring the rain forest and the old coal mine that was down there, but we had to rush through. The Railway, though short, was still pretty good, it had seats on it that were at an angle so when you were riding the train you were at sat normally.

After that all-too-brief-stop it was time to spend time with the wild kangaroos, cockatoos and a single Goanna. It was great, we got a decent amount of time there and I took lots of photos. There wasn't too many Kangaroos about but that didn't stop my trigger happy finger. When someone spotted the Goanna the tour guide chased it up a tree so we could all take pictures of it, but it went up the wrong side so, as you can see below, I couldn't get a very good picture of it. When it came to taking pictures of the Cockatoos, I discovered my camera can take pretty good action shots, so spent 10 minutes trying to get the cockatoos to fly at me but it didn't work so all i got is what you see below. After all that it was time to go back to Sydney.

Above, the picture that started my 10minute campaign to get a really good action shot of a flying Cockatoo, below the picture I took when I gave up.

Above, the Goanna Lizard, it was about 1 to 1.5 metres long. Below pictures of wild Kangaroos.

I left the house at 7am and arrived back at 8pm, so it was a long day but well worth - and I ended it with a DVD and a pizza from Domino's. All in all a pretty darn good day.

Today I have bought tickets to see Michael Parkinson at the Sydney Opera House, where he will be talking about his career, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be playing music from the golden era of movies. That is not until Sat 3rd February, now it is 3pm and I am at the IEP Christmas Social. We should be in the Botanical Garden's but the weather is a bit crap, it is raining, and so we are in their offices. And now for more drink...

Travelling Post 13 - My blog now up to date and I have put my Hong Kong Pictures on bebo http://rhino-rob.bebo.com

On the Monday of my third week I went to move into Coogee, however, after lugging my heavy bags to Sydney Central, I decided I was just gonna stay in a different hostel in Sydney Centre. I ended up staying in Railway Square YHA, it was pretty much similar to Central YHA , clean and tidy, but this had a little more atmosphere, probably because it was smaller.

On Tuesday I undertook a Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) Training course. It cost $70 and was 6 hours of sheer boredom. The RSA allows me to serve alcohol in Australia, however i now work in a place that has a Bring Your Own (BYO) license and does not serve alcohol. I am now determined to work in some bar throughout the year so I haven't wasted my time.

On the Wednesday I felt it was time to go to Coogee, [where I am now living], stay in a hostel until I moved into the house and find a job. Job hunting had to wait though. As I arrived in Coogee, on a very hot, very humid and cloudy day, I saw Sam W and Alison, who were off to Taronga Zoo because they couldn't sunbathe. After a 15minute check in I caught with them and off we went. During the bus journey I spoke to Ed, who was staying in Central Sydney, and he then joined us. At a cost of $29, the zoo wasn't badly priced. The cost included a ferry there, and as the Zoo is situated on a hill, it also included a cable car to the top, add to that the zoo is probably bigger than Chester Zoo, then, as I said, it was very reasonable indeed.

I couldn't begin to list all the animals I saw, I wouldn't even know half their names, we didn't see any Kangaroos though, they were hiding as the day was so hot, we did see Koalas, who look so much like their cuddly toy counterparts it's freakish, and we also saw a Chimpanzee stick it's finger up it's own bum and then lick it. Overall a really good day.
















Me with a real Koala Bear














The Koala Bear's cuddly toy counterpart

An Echidna, Australia's version of a hedgehog

My favourite animal of all


Thursday was job hunting day, of which after a demoralising hunt for about half an hour i wandered into Zach's Cafe and got a job. I had a trial on Friday and started on Tuesday. After only been promised around 15 hours a week I have now completed my second 40hr or so week, so the money situation is improving. The job isn't brilliant, I wait on people, how good can it be, but it's better than nothing and I have pretty much done it all before so it isn't very difficult.

In between getting , and the starting the job I went snorkeling, in the ocean, how cool is that. It was such a refreshing feeling, just to get into the ocean on what was, when I went, a hot sunny day.

So I started my fourth week with a job an and house, that week I pretty much just worked lots. Then on Friday things went a little awry.

To cut a long story short. I received a phone call from the Estate Agents saying the landlords now only wanted 8 people not 10 in the house, so we had to get rid of two people. This is 1 day before we were due to move in. Jamie, a 10th person whom we didn't know, found somewhere pretty quick, and so he choose to go and so did Emma, who now has a boyfriend. So it was all OK in the end. But I was supposed to be going on a relaxing Coogee-Bondi walk that day, and work in the evening. Instead it ended up being the most stressful and worst day that I had been hear. The Estate Agents were useless, they cocked up big style and didn't even properly apologise. At least our rent has not gone up.

So on Saturday 2nd December, 8 of us, moved into the house. It has 4 bedrooms, one triple, two twins and one single. I am in the single and I can tell you it is a relief getting my own room after a month of sharing, I like my space and for at least the next two months I have it. The house is big and fully furnished, we have a TV and a DVD Player so all is good.

On Friday, which i had the daytime off, and was in work at 5.30 I went and did the very touristy Opera House Tour. On first impression the main, largest hall, the Concert Hall wasn't as big as you would expect but after a few minutes it all sinks in and takes over you and it really is an emotionally invoking experience. I plan to go and see Michael Parkinson at the end of January; he is going to talk about his 35 yr career with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing music from the golden age of cinema. It is a high culture that is accessible to me, meaning i would enjoy it more than the ballet or the opera. It is going to cost $95 for the most expensive tickets, which I want to get, but it will be worth it.

Anyway this is me, now up to date with my blog. I have probably missed stuff out, I haven't talked about what I learnt at the opera house as you can look that up, and and also if i told you everything what would I talk about when I saw you all when I next see you. This afternoon I am off to do the Coogee-Bondi walk, hopefully, we will see if anything stops me this time.

TTFN