More Sydney

Since I last wrote I have been trekking around Sydney and I think I've done pretty much all there is to do. Unfortunately the weather has not been too good so I have been to a lot of museums. The Opera house tour (23$) was made good by the fact that the guide was good at telling stories and we got to see inside this famous building. The group was asked if there were any singers in the group in order to test the acoustics of the concert hall, but I was too shy to give them a song. I mustered up the courage to sing a few notes as we left.

The Art Gallery of NSW was free entry and had some amazing collections of contempory art as well as a lot of aboriginal art which I found fascinating. I tagged on to a guided tour and got talking to an interesting woman from Norwich.

Tuesday evening I went to a pub (which are sometimes called Hotels in Australia) where I ate Laksa (a kind of curried noodle soup) which was great and played pool all evening because the pool table was free only on Tuesday evenings.

On Wednesday morning I caught the bus to La Perouse where I walked around the headland on a 5km trial in the rain. The veiws of container ships passing by was nice, if a little wet. Interestingly enough there were military outposts there left probably from the second world war I should imagine. I had fish and chips an a little restaurant on my return to the bus stop in LaPerouse. Later I met up with Kevin McNamara whom I also met in Lund 2 years ago through rugby. He is working at the Tea Gardens Hotel in Bondi Junction at the "bottle shop" (off-licence).

On Thursday I went to the Powerhouse Museum, kind of a Syndey version of the science museum, which had some great hands-on exhibitions and the KYLIE exhibition from Melbourne. That kept me amused for a good three hours.

Today I tried my hand at surfing again at Bondi and had slightly more sucess than the previous Saturday. The board cost only 25$ for 2 hours hire was very reasonable I thought.

Tomorrow I fly out to Auckland.

Sydney

last time I wrote I was in hong kong on a 12 hour stopover. The flight to Sydney was uneventful but surprisingly I was sat next to the same lady that was on my London - Hong Kong flight. After a speedy transit through Australian customs I got the bus and then walked to Alex Syme's place only a stone's throw from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The weather was grey sticky and Alex had yet to leave for work. I promptly showered and caught the bus in to town to do some sightseeing. The grey day didn't make for great views of the harbour bridge and the opera house and the walk back to central station where I was to meet Alex for lunch was tiring (i had been travelling for 32 hours with little sleep) and I think it was the jet lag that made me dizzy. In the afternoon I tried to sleep before meeting Alex's two other housemates Paul (Stevo) and Danny. In the evening Alex, Danny and I went into town to explore the various backpacker-filled bars that Sydney has to offer. Alex carried with him and old style landline phone which was a prompt for many a good gag or three. Saturday morning brought sunny almost cloud free skies and after going and watching a bit of cricket at the ground neighbouring Alex's house we went to the famed Bondi beach to go surfing. Me being the surfing virgin I was given a quick lesson by Danny and Alex, but I had problems even staying on the board whilst sitting and catching the wave proved to be too hard for me. Bondi beach was cool though and I liked the atmosphere and the constant presence of the lifeguards. We we shopping for cheese and wine before going to a park in central sydney in the evening to listen to free live Jazz as a part of Sydney Festival 2005. The park was heaving with people and we were lucky that Alex's friend Dave's parents had a big area that they'd bagsied. The three bands all from New Orleans were great and got us all on our feet dancing. I talked to an englishman there who had been resident in Sydney for 26 years and who had triple nationality. Today we had lunch at Alex mum's place together with Alex's 4 yr old neice Chantel and her mum as well as another friend of Alex's mum. This evening we are to meet with Kevin an irishman who we both met in Lund and who played rugby at Lugi at the same time as us. Talk about a coincidence. Then we are going to listen to Alex's freind's gig. All in all, I am liking Sydney a lot and am looking forward to a week's sightseeing here.

Hong Kong

Local time in Hong Kong 13:12 on the 12th of Jan 2006. After flying 11 hours from London Heathrow to Hong Kong on my way to Sydney, have allowed myself a day's sightseeing in this town, full over men in suits, smartly dressed business women and high-rise buildings. The appearance of wealth in the city is obvious and the presence of homeless people at various street corners highlights the economic inbalance in the city. Arrived in at 7am and got the high speed train in to Hong Kong island where people were yet to surface and I have to place to myself. Followed a walking tour from my guide book taking me up the mountain using the fenicular (cost 30 hong kong dollars for the return). Found a walking parnter, Mark from Leeds, and we both took the time to capture the views using our digital cameras. Luckily the views got better on the return to the fenicular and we took yet more pictures. Walked to the Convention Centre and am now just sending a few emails home before catching a bite to eat on Kowloon side of the city. Good i did check my emails because got two emails from Alex in Sydney who I'd accidentally told that I'd arrive today (Thursday) when I'm actually arriving tomorrow. By some stroke of luck he wasn't there at the airport to greet me. But surely things will be fine tomorrow.

WIFI

Howdo!

Just to inform people of the wonders of wireless internet. Since I arrived home on Fridya 23rd Dec I have been using my neighbour Dave's wireless internet connection, but unfortunately has has been has problems connecting up himself so now I have resorted to using the wireless internet hotspots found in my local town of Sudbury, Suffolk. According to https://info.btopenzone.com:442/find/index.jsp there are 4 hotspots in Sudbury. Once you detect a hotspot within range then your are directed to a webpage which gives details about payment.The first place I tried was the North Street Tavern, North St. Sudbury. I connected up to "mycloud" for 4.50 pounds for one hour. I also then found out that I could have connected up to BTOpenzone for 10 pounds for the whole day, but I decided a change of scene was in order before I should reconnect. I then went to the relatively newly built McDonalds where after a minor technical hitch on their part (they hadn't switched on the router) I got connected. Only problem now is I have to use up my remaining 20 hours! I guess I'll be back here tomorrow. Ha ha. McDonalds is hardly the kind of company I'd choose to support, but hey internet is internet.