Sydney is 'HEAPS' good mate!

They say 'heaps' far too much over here... "That's heaps brill", or "Free, 300 texts per month, thats HEAPS of free texts on [insert mobile phone network name here]" But this is probably the worst thing I have to say about Sydney so far...

Its been over a week anyway, so I better update all you little (and not so little) darling sweethearts that I know, with what I've been up to since I got to Sydney. I've got myself a bartender's job in a restaurant / bar called Khosh. Look, their website is lame, but the place itself is actually quite lush. Its a bit empty, there isn't anything to really look at, no pictures or artwork, but the lighting is nice and the lounge and stuff is nice and poncy and modern. The menu is expensive but its really nice food and I guess the drinks and cocktails are nice enough if they are prepared by me. I'm really the only one on the bar unless its the weekend, and its all table service, so the punters come in, sit down and I don't get to talk to them, which has its plus side but it gets a bit boring. I've gotta learn a load of new cocktails and they serve Jack Daniel's *howls of laugher from the O Bar staff* but its an ok job, we get loads in tips every night and it pays ok I guess. Its not like home though, the people aren't as friendly and its not half as fun as O Bar, but I don't have to serve pikies.

I'm currently looking for somewhere to houseshare with some random peeps. Living in a hostel has its downsides; 1) No matter how discreet or quiet you try to be, between 11pm and 11am, you are almost guaranteed to wake someone up when you get into your room, or be woken up. 2) There is always someone that snores throughout the night. 3) The showers are always a bit iffy, and 4) You have NO privacy, making it near-on impossible to get it on with a late-night randomer from the bar downstairs, and definitely impossible to walk around your own room naked (not that I used to do that at home... honest...) But the hostel I am in looks pretty cool from the outside and inside its pretty modern, bright and clean too..

(Cool building huh?! I'm currently on the 2nd floor... It used to be a department store and is dead opposite the main central rail station in Sydney. It takes 15 minutes to walk into the centre of the city and about 30 minutes to walk to Circular Quay)

Its about $120-$160 for a decent room in Sydney, thats per week, which is about 60 - 80 English Pounds. Which may seem like a lot, but most jobs in Sydney pay $15-$25 an hour, so on a 40 hour week, well, you work that out but it makes English wages look like real slave labour. There are a few guys at the hostel that are looking for somewhere to live, so hopefully we'll get somewhere soon and not have to live out of our backpacks for much longer, as thats proving to be a total pain, and all my clothes are always creased.

This week I've not done much, I spent some cool time with a girl I met last week called Ruth (if you are reading this babe I hope you got that toothpaste off your Snoopy top you drunken lil' classy bird you) and I've also spent loads of time trying to fend the bloody flies off. They come in droves and attack your face, try to fly into your ears and crawl around all over you. Horrible little bastards. I really think that those hats with corks hanging down are now totally cool, I could do with one at the moment just to survive a simple walk down to the shops. Honestly. I also went to an art gallery and got told to delete a photo from my camera after I took one of some artwork as soon as I walked in.. Well if there were some signs up saying that no photography was allowed then I wouldn't have taken any photos would I?! Dumb bitch. Click the yellow bulb & the lemon for the 'Museum of Contemporary Art' piccys.

I also have some crap pictures of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, both located on Circular Quay which is north to the city centre of Sydney. At least the pictures prove that the Opera House is infact not really white, but more a crap shade of white showing it needs a good clean with some Colgate Whitening Toothpaste or another coat of Dulux. Me and Jason also took the ferry to Manly Beach (what a class name, and no I don't know if there is a 'Womanly beach') but we got there fairly late so no decent beach pictures yet, sorry boys. Took some crap night pictures of Circular Quay however, check out the gallery for those. I will get some better photos next week I promise. I have Friday off as well and I'll be sure to be on the beach getting burnt and taking advantage of the rather good zoom on my digital camera, (for the birdspotting of course, *wink*)

Christmas Day looks like it'll be some kind of beach party, either Bondi or Manly beach, where some big-name DJ's will be gracing the sand with their groovy beats. I can't imagine being on a beach on Christmas Day with a beer in one hand and, um, well I guess a beer in both hands, but it sounds like fun! New Years Eve/Day, well, Sydney Harbour will be packed, I hear that you have to get down here at about 10am to find a spot in view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House for the midnight celebrations, but I think as long as I'm surrounded by beautiful girlies, some cool mates and I'm drunk in a gutter somewhere I'll be happy....

I guess I'll be in Sydney until February sometime, not sure where I want to be on my 24th birthday. But by then hopefully I'll have saved up some serious cash, and I'll be able to travel again up the east coast of Australia on the Oz Experience, then I'll probably travel back down the east coast and at the end of my full year in Australia I'll go back to New Zealand and do my two months there as I had planned before I ran out of cash.

I have more to write, but as that new Foo Fighters song comes onto the radio and makes me think of home (in particular, Jimmy & Pikie at the bar, miss you guys), you are probably bored with this so instead I'm going to go back to the hostel, to do some laundry and try to take some better snaps of this place over the weekend. The sun has been out in force much more the last few days, its hot and humid and I feel bad for sitting at a computer for ages, so I bid you farewell for now.

x

P.S. The population of Australia is just over 20million, which is about the population of Greater London! Yet it is around 30 times the size of the United Kingdom! Wowzers...