Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo, I rocked up to the Winery at about 10pm, and then hung around and then one of the managers bought me a glass of wine (2006 Joseph Cattin Pinot Blanc - thank you Amy) and we had a few beverages and then we went to Kinselas which is a slightly skanky pub around the corner from work which the Winery crew has a tendency to frequent, particularly on a Monday or (as this was) Tuesday evening.
When we rock up, I bump into this guy at the bar that I knew(ish). Quick back story: about two weeks prior I had been working in a relatively quiet section of the restaurant when four guys rocked up and the Maitre D' told me to look after them because they were, apparently, the Silverchair boys. I don't really know who Silverchair are. So I got chatting to them and the only guy who was actually from Silverchair was a guy called Daniel Johns, who is apparently their lead singer but was actually there with a producer and two guys from a another band, who are currently recording their album. During the course of the three hours they were dining at the restaurant, with me being sufficiently charming (read: facetious) and having a good laugh with them, we built up quite a good rapport, which is just as well since after work that night I went to Low 302 (awesome cocktail bar also on Crown Street and a favourite haunt of the Winery crew on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights) and, lo and behold, there they all were.
The conversation and banter continued and I pretty much thought no more of it until one of them, Sam, rocked up to the Winery again for lunch the following week and was in my section. So it was all good and by this point we sort of had spoken enough and met enough times to know each other by sight. Well, would you believe, Sam was at Kinselas on Tuesday night. This was all well and good and I was at the bar and literally turned to my left and there he was also at the bar and I said hi and I bought my drink and he bought his and we were chatting so I happily sat down with him for what I thought would be a five minute chat. Five minutes turned to ten minutes and then I mentioned that actually the whole of the Winery crew were there sort of as a goodbye to me and I wanted to join them. So he followed me. It was a bit odd, especially since I was with someone who was apparently famous but who actually isn't famous at all. Oh, I should mention here that when we were at the bar he was properly giving it the name drop crap with things like talking about having played at Reading and Leeds festivals last year or 2008 or something and how the lead singer was hanging around with Lily Allen the whole time and name dropping left, right and centre.
So after about thirty minutes of his hanging around and my getting increasingly frustrated, I buggered off outside, hoping that he would go back and join the group that he'd arrived at the bar with. Which he did. Then I came back in to join the Winery guys and he appeared again. By this point, it's getting odd and I'm wondering how to get rid of him but because of my overwhelming politeness and inability to say no and my slight fear of telling him where to get off, he continued to hang around and I continued not to say anything about his hanging around like a bad smell (which is funny and a relevant point later on).
About another 20 minutes later, I went back outside and he came out and asked me what I wanted to drink. I didn't really know what to say, said I was fine for now. When I went back inside he was sitting at a table directly opposite the door with a couple of friends, pointed to a drink that he'd apparently bought for me, and beckoned me over. I didn't really know what to do, manners got the better of me, I went over and grabbed my drink, he introduced me to his friend, we talked for a short while. Luckily (or so I thought at the time) Amy at this point left so I ran outside to join her and we chatted for a good ten minutes, interrupted twice by this Sam guy who by now is, admittedly, creeping me out ever so slightly. I had a conversation with Amy (before the first interruption) about how I didn't really know how to get away from him and she said she had the impression that I was just fine. After the first time he randomly came out to sort of fetch me back inside she, I think, slightly understood my position. The second time induce raised eyebrows from her and, I would go so far to say, a marginal look of fear. She totally got me.
Time progressed, lots of people left, not including, unfortunately, this Sam bloke, who persisted in staying. I kept pointing out that I should be with the Winery guys saying goodbye because I had less than 24 hours left in Sydney and I wanted to say goodbye to my colleagues and he was quite drunk and should probably go home. It was at this point he started saying that I should go home with him. To this, I was really quite surprised. I had not given him ANY suggestion that I was even slightly interested, given him every indication that I wanted him to bugger off without saying the actual words. Actually as I type this it occurs to me that I was really quite stupid given the circumstances, ie that he was coked off his face and anybody who has ever gotten high knows that coke gives one a feeling of invincibility and also does away with any even slight ability to understand when somebody is politely hinting something.
Anyway, he kept persisting with making me go home with him, with my increasing assertions that this was not, in any way, going to happen. Then he really started to piss me off with throwing all this batshit, 'I'll get my assistant to come and pack for you;' 'I've got millions of Qantas frequent flyer points and I'll pay for you to fly business class to Melbourne;' 'Come with me to New Zealand, we're going there this week to promote our album, I'll fly you out;' 'I'll get you access all areas passes to T in the Park next year;' blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I had run out of ways of telling him no way, no how and to do one so I just walked off and joined my friends. After about five minutes, he came over, hugged me goodbye and left. THANK GOD. By the way, when he hugged me goodbye (eugh!) he wreaked of body odour beyond anything I've ever before come across. It was disgusting, I can't even begin to describe it. Then at like 7am he started calling me, trying to get me to go to his place, me saying no, him hanging up then calling me back and repeating the question. This happened three times before I got him to stop. Then, at about midday he left me a voicemail saying something along the lines of, 'Hi Elizabeth [long pause] ... it's your friend Sam... [long pause].... hope you're ok.... [long pause].... hope you have a good trip to Melbourne.... [long pause]... See you around... [long pause]...' and hanging up.
All in all, very, very strange. And wrong. But mainly creepy.
24 March 2010
Goodbye Sydney, new things and all that jazz
I really have decided that if I try and spend too long typing I'm going to get travel sick because I'm currently on a coach 50 minutes into a 12 hour journey and I'm really, really tired because I have only had two hours sleep after a big night out with work last night. It was good, though, for sure.
So yes, I'm at this moment heading toward the M5 (yeah, seriously it's called that) and on my way to merry Melbourne. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit nervous about being by myself ... again ... and having to look for work and being somewhere I don't know but I'm not actually going to be there for that long so I'll hopefully get something quickly, save up some more of those beautiful purple, blue, red and yellow $$$ and blow it all on wine tours in South Australia!
I'll write more properly and thoroughly about my Sydney fun times and things like that and also my impressions of Melbourne in the next 48 - 72 hours. I know, I'm sure none of you can wait for my humorous (!) ramblings.
Oh, sorry, one more thing - all of you, with maybe one or two exceptions, are beyond rubbish with the emailing. I know I haven't been perfect but as I'm now fully intending to detox I've absolutely no intention of spending all my time at work, drunk, asleep or pissing around at cafés, etc and will, in fact, set aside time every single day to reply to emails. Especially with the job hunt, I'll live for emails from prospective employers. True story.
So yes, I'm at this moment heading toward the M5 (yeah, seriously it's called that) and on my way to merry Melbourne. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit nervous about being by myself ... again ... and having to look for work and being somewhere I don't know but I'm not actually going to be there for that long so I'll hopefully get something quickly, save up some more of those beautiful purple, blue, red and yellow $$$ and blow it all on wine tours in South Australia!
I'll write more properly and thoroughly about my Sydney fun times and things like that and also my impressions of Melbourne in the next 48 - 72 hours. I know, I'm sure none of you can wait for my humorous (!) ramblings.
Oh, sorry, one more thing - all of you, with maybe one or two exceptions, are beyond rubbish with the emailing. I know I haven't been perfect but as I'm now fully intending to detox I've absolutely no intention of spending all my time at work, drunk, asleep or pissing around at cafés, etc and will, in fact, set aside time every single day to reply to emails. Especially with the job hunt, I'll live for emails from prospective employers. True story.
20 March 2010
It's official...
...I have a Bristolian accent. Despite my best efforts, I definitely sound like I'm from the West Country.
Hell yeah!!!
Hell yeah!!!
16 March 2010
9 March 2010
Excellent, excellent times.
OK, so I am being quite tragic but I can't wait until I get back to Sydney to write about my time in Canberra because I'm beyond happy right now, for lots and lots of reasons. Partly, Canberra is soooooooo tranquil and very, very green. Yes, the architecture is not exactly very pretty but equally it kind of works because it's all from the same era rather but mainly because there is so much green!!! There are gardens, lawns, parks all over and it's location is such that you can basically always see hills and trees on the periphery of the city. Whilst Civic (the shopping centre) is not exactly pretty owing to the concrete and 1960s architecture, the city is cut basically in half by Lake Burley Griffin and you can walk along the side of it surrounded by greenery. On the south side of the lake is the Parliament Zone, which contains most of the galleries and museums as well, and where I have spent the best part of the last two days.
Yesterday was the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia and it was absolutely awesome even if I am slightly worried that I've become one of those arses that I never wanted to be and am now someone who looks at art and 'consides; it. This particularly struck me when I was looking at this painting with a man, a sail and a wave in it and I was like, 'Hm, there has got to be a reason that wave was drawn to be there rather than anywhere else.' I'm so worried that I've become even more wanky. I didn't help matters by going to buy myself a really lovely glass of wine (I'll confess it was $18) but being ever so slightly overly picky about which wine I would have - in the end a 2005 Cabernet Merlot from WA. Even though it was a wine bar their choice of wines by the glass wasn't great, if I'm honest. See?! Wanky!!! Anyway, veering back onto topic from quite a drastic tangent, even regardless of the exhibition the whole museum is absolutely amazing, with permanent works from Monet, Cézanne, Lichtenstein, Warhol (his portraits of Chairman Mao), Francis Bacon - a whole range which unfortunately did include the expected rubbish modern art. There was honestly a massive white plastic grid frame. That was it. That is not art. Not even one per cent. But there was one amazing modern art piece - models of motorbikes that had been molded to resemble stags fighting, with loads of rear view mirrors stuck on to resemble the antlers. I kind of wish I'd taken a photo, but I didn't.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the Old Parliament house, which was quite nice. All old and then you go to the government offices and they're 1960s monstrosities. I've got photos of that which I'll post at some point in the next few days. It was pretty cool and also they have a room about all the Prime Ministers of Australia. I noticed that the first PM didn't have an Australian accent. Neither did the guy who was Prime Minister during most of WWII. I couldn't be bothered to listen to every single PM to establish when the accent came to be but so far as I can conclude it was somewhere between 1940 and 1970. That's really quite a new accent but then listening to recordings of Prime Ministers is hardly representative.
Today was even better, I've had a bloody awesome time - I went to Parliament house and even though they had run out of tickets for listening to Question Time in the House of Representatives, I was told to go to the ticket desk and see what the crack was. Anyway, I flirted my way into getting a ticket. Into the central gallery. SCORE!! Question Time was hilarious as they were all behaving like unruly children and the Speaker of the House had to give warnings to sooooooooooo many MPs. It was crazy but actually pretty interesting. Kevin Rudd et al just kept pointing out what the Howard government had failed to do for 12 years and the Opposition... didn't do very much, really, actually. Except two female MPs basically asked the exact same question and made the exact same point. MP1 got up and said something like, 'Can the Prime Minister please explain to me why a female chef, earning $68,000, would earn only $9,770 for the 18 weeks during which she is entitled to paid parental leave, when under our plans the same woman would earn $26,000 over 26 weeks to give her the opportunity to spend time with her young child.' PM's response was actually pretty funny - $10k is $10k more than she'd have received under the Howard government, who had not established a parental leave scheme at all.
Then, though, MP2, gets up and says, 'Can the Prime Minister please explain why a female sales account manager, earning $55,000, would only earn $9,770 for the 18 weeks during which she is entitled to paid parental leave, when under our plans the same woman would earn $19,000 over 26 weeks to give her the opportunity to spend time with her young child. Is the PM favouring his friends in big business over families???' What?! It was funny, though. Rudd repeated his point, of course, and made mention of actually giving parental leave when he could have retained the status quo disproved her point. Yeah, the Coalition got their asses kicked, basically.
Man, I'm such a geek. Mainly, though, the peace and quiet is a great relief. I can actually hear birds and the wind and water and not just cars and people and loud bangs all the time. Also, I must say, people here are absolutely lovely. I've literally not come across a single horrible or rude person; they're all friendly and everybody I've walked past has smiled at me. It's awesome. Yeah, I reckon I could live here.
Tomorrow, then, before I get back to Sydney, I'm going to the War Memorial. I don't want Carly to be annoyed with me.
Yesterday was the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia and it was absolutely awesome even if I am slightly worried that I've become one of those arses that I never wanted to be and am now someone who looks at art and 'consides; it. This particularly struck me when I was looking at this painting with a man, a sail and a wave in it and I was like, 'Hm, there has got to be a reason that wave was drawn to be there rather than anywhere else.' I'm so worried that I've become even more wanky. I didn't help matters by going to buy myself a really lovely glass of wine (I'll confess it was $18) but being ever so slightly overly picky about which wine I would have - in the end a 2005 Cabernet Merlot from WA. Even though it was a wine bar their choice of wines by the glass wasn't great, if I'm honest. See?! Wanky!!! Anyway, veering back onto topic from quite a drastic tangent, even regardless of the exhibition the whole museum is absolutely amazing, with permanent works from Monet, Cézanne, Lichtenstein, Warhol (his portraits of Chairman Mao), Francis Bacon - a whole range which unfortunately did include the expected rubbish modern art. There was honestly a massive white plastic grid frame. That was it. That is not art. Not even one per cent. But there was one amazing modern art piece - models of motorbikes that had been molded to resemble stags fighting, with loads of rear view mirrors stuck on to resemble the antlers. I kind of wish I'd taken a photo, but I didn't.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the Old Parliament house, which was quite nice. All old and then you go to the government offices and they're 1960s monstrosities. I've got photos of that which I'll post at some point in the next few days. It was pretty cool and also they have a room about all the Prime Ministers of Australia. I noticed that the first PM didn't have an Australian accent. Neither did the guy who was Prime Minister during most of WWII. I couldn't be bothered to listen to every single PM to establish when the accent came to be but so far as I can conclude it was somewhere between 1940 and 1970. That's really quite a new accent but then listening to recordings of Prime Ministers is hardly representative.
Today was even better, I've had a bloody awesome time - I went to Parliament house and even though they had run out of tickets for listening to Question Time in the House of Representatives, I was told to go to the ticket desk and see what the crack was. Anyway, I flirted my way into getting a ticket. Into the central gallery. SCORE!! Question Time was hilarious as they were all behaving like unruly children and the Speaker of the House had to give warnings to sooooooooooo many MPs. It was crazy but actually pretty interesting. Kevin Rudd et al just kept pointing out what the Howard government had failed to do for 12 years and the Opposition... didn't do very much, really, actually. Except two female MPs basically asked the exact same question and made the exact same point. MP1 got up and said something like, 'Can the Prime Minister please explain to me why a female chef, earning $68,000, would earn only $9,770 for the 18 weeks during which she is entitled to paid parental leave, when under our plans the same woman would earn $26,000 over 26 weeks to give her the opportunity to spend time with her young child.' PM's response was actually pretty funny - $10k is $10k more than she'd have received under the Howard government, who had not established a parental leave scheme at all.
Then, though, MP2, gets up and says, 'Can the Prime Minister please explain why a female sales account manager, earning $55,000, would only earn $9,770 for the 18 weeks during which she is entitled to paid parental leave, when under our plans the same woman would earn $19,000 over 26 weeks to give her the opportunity to spend time with her young child. Is the PM favouring his friends in big business over families???' What?! It was funny, though. Rudd repeated his point, of course, and made mention of actually giving parental leave when he could have retained the status quo disproved her point. Yeah, the Coalition got their asses kicked, basically.
Man, I'm such a geek. Mainly, though, the peace and quiet is a great relief. I can actually hear birds and the wind and water and not just cars and people and loud bangs all the time. Also, I must say, people here are absolutely lovely. I've literally not come across a single horrible or rude person; they're all friendly and everybody I've walked past has smiled at me. It's awesome. Yeah, I reckon I could live here.
Tomorrow, then, before I get back to Sydney, I'm going to the War Memorial. I don't want Carly to be annoyed with me.
Just putting this out there, kids...
Flights to Sydney in September for £700 return with Malaysian Airlines.
Flights to Perth for £830 in January again with Malaysian.
And, oooooooooh, that's via Kuala Lumpur!!!
Flights to Perth for £830 in January again with Malaysian.
And, oooooooooh, that's via Kuala Lumpur!!!
7 March 2010
Moving out via Canberra
So, in about three hours I'm moving out of my place and moving back into my hostel for a couple of weeks but before that I'm off to Canberra baby, yeah! I'm muchly looking forward to getting out of Sydney for a few days and just chilling out and having a normal time regime. My coach to Canberra is at 5pm so I won't get there until 8.30pm, which means food, a bit of chillout and an early night - I have to get to the gallery at about 9.30 tomorrow morning for the Masters of Paris exhibition - it's gonna be awesome! Other than that I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do but I have my Rough Guide to look at and decide.
I'm also actually quite looking forward to getting back to my hostel, if I'm honest! But Melbourne in a couple of weeks is a truly exciting prospect - especially with the Grand Prix! WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, I actually don't have much else to write about, but when I get back from Canberra I'll update with how I found it.
I'm also actually quite looking forward to getting back to my hostel, if I'm honest! But Melbourne in a couple of weeks is a truly exciting prospect - especially with the Grand Prix! WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, I actually don't have much else to write about, but when I get back from Canberra I'll update with how I found it.
1 March 2010
Oh gosh, one week, one new update
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!
Right, I've decided I'm leaving Sydney at the end of the month. Why? Because I can. Yep, I'm moving to Melbourne for a couple of months because everyone tells me that Melbourne is far more my cup of tea and so we'll see about that. Even if I don't love it, at least I'll know that rather than having spent all this time in a city I'm not in love with and then face the possibility of getting to Melbourne, loving it and then not really having any time to spend there owing to the stupid fruit picking requirements of the Australian government.
So, other than that, well I have Canberra this weekend. VERY excited about that. Also I have had a lovely few days with an awesome wine tasting on Thursday, which was about 100 wineries and about 400 wines from New Zealand. I actually didn't get drunk, I just got really sluggish. Then after that a few of us from work went to dinner at this awesome Italian restaurant and then to a gig at a bar/nightclub place called Trademark in The Cross. On Saturday I went with Beatrice (a girl from Bath who I met at work here) to the Mardi Gras parade which started off as a total nightmare but ended up being really good thanks to both of us being quite small and also two milk crates. I'm very glad I've done the Mardi Gras thing, and that's a big TICK off my list of stuff that I should do.
Last night was Bea's last night in Australia so we went for a few drinks and then I was really jealous that she was going back to England but also she's awesome and lovely and I'm really going to miss her so I kept hugging her and I cried a little bit. Mainly because I'm a princess but partly because I'm a loser.
Today it's raining and cold so I'm wearing my lovely yellow hoodie of fun and goodness and I'm going to work soon.
Actually, yes, I do quite like blogging so I will definitely be carrying on with this update malarkey. I also have some photos to upload and will do so some time this week for DEFINITE. I also plan to go around Sydney and take absolutely tonnes of photos of everywhere before I leave but there is a lot of Sydney to see so I might have to finish work quite soon just so I have a chance to organise myself and all that jazz.
Right, I've decided I'm leaving Sydney at the end of the month. Why? Because I can. Yep, I'm moving to Melbourne for a couple of months because everyone tells me that Melbourne is far more my cup of tea and so we'll see about that. Even if I don't love it, at least I'll know that rather than having spent all this time in a city I'm not in love with and then face the possibility of getting to Melbourne, loving it and then not really having any time to spend there owing to the stupid fruit picking requirements of the Australian government.
So, other than that, well I have Canberra this weekend. VERY excited about that. Also I have had a lovely few days with an awesome wine tasting on Thursday, which was about 100 wineries and about 400 wines from New Zealand. I actually didn't get drunk, I just got really sluggish. Then after that a few of us from work went to dinner at this awesome Italian restaurant and then to a gig at a bar/nightclub place called Trademark in The Cross. On Saturday I went with Beatrice (a girl from Bath who I met at work here) to the Mardi Gras parade which started off as a total nightmare but ended up being really good thanks to both of us being quite small and also two milk crates. I'm very glad I've done the Mardi Gras thing, and that's a big TICK off my list of stuff that I should do.
Last night was Bea's last night in Australia so we went for a few drinks and then I was really jealous that she was going back to England but also she's awesome and lovely and I'm really going to miss her so I kept hugging her and I cried a little bit. Mainly because I'm a princess but partly because I'm a loser.
Today it's raining and cold so I'm wearing my lovely yellow hoodie of fun and goodness and I'm going to work soon.
Actually, yes, I do quite like blogging so I will definitely be carrying on with this update malarkey. I also have some photos to upload and will do so some time this week for DEFINITE. I also plan to go around Sydney and take absolutely tonnes of photos of everywhere before I leave but there is a lot of Sydney to see so I might have to finish work quite soon just so I have a chance to organise myself and all that jazz.
Strange new habits
Mainly these are word related, which is a little irritating...
- I know longer say, 'How are you?' Instead, I say, 'How you going?'
- I CONSTANTLY say 'no worries'. For everything. All the time.
- The most irritating one is that I've literally started saying in the last few days and that's saying 'sweet' to everything. English people say 'cool', they do not say 'sweet'. It's stupid and annoying.
Also I suppose my wine snobbery counts as a strange new habit. Like talking about wine: 'This smells like wild berries, a little bit smokey, blah, blah, blah...'
- I know longer say, 'How are you?' Instead, I say, 'How you going?'
- I CONSTANTLY say 'no worries'. For everything. All the time.
- The most irritating one is that I've literally started saying in the last few days and that's saying 'sweet' to everything. English people say 'cool', they do not say 'sweet'. It's stupid and annoying.
Also I suppose my wine snobbery counts as a strange new habit. Like talking about wine: 'This smells like wild berries, a little bit smokey, blah, blah, blah...'
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