Mullets, tank tops and punch ups

Friday night was footy night!! This weekend I finally experienced my first taste of live and up close Aussie Rules football (or AFL as they call it), yes that weird game where a bunch of guys mostly with mullets wearing tank tops and ridiculously small shorts kick and throw an egg shaped ball around with the odd punch up thrown in.

On the lead up to the game I was quite excited as I love any live sport (well most of them) and I’d seen a bit of the old Aussie rules on the ‘telecast’ (apparently that’s what you call it over here!!).

The game in question was Geelong vs Sydney Swans (AKA the Seagulls as I call them) at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) which is a great venue for live sport. Charlotte and I had been to see Twenty20 cricket here a few years ago and it’s definitely one of those grounds with the wow factor due to its size and historic nature (even though they are knocking down a big section to renovate it).

I was accompanied to the footy game by my close friend Mickey/Oz Mick and his buddy Kooksy, who had driven up from Canberra and were in town for the footy and a few beers. As Mike was a Geelong fan, plus the fact that their ‘uniform’ as they call it (gay!) was blue I guess that this will be ‘my AFL team’…..Go Geelong!! Kick a goal!!! Plus the Sydney Seagulls play in red and white, so definitely not gonna support that bunch of scummers!!! Mind you Kooks supported the Seagulls, so it was shaping up to be an interesting game with him cheering on the Seagulls and us Geelong.

We arrived just in time for the ‘ball up’ and I excitedly watched (and tried to understand) the game. AFL footy is played on an oval pitch (hence why they share grounds with cricket teams), with 4 vertical posts at each end, with the 2 middle posts being taller than the outside posts. The game itself is split into quarters each lasting 25 minutes and the games can be pretty high scoring as you get 6 points for kicking the egg (sorry ball) through the middle posts, 1 point for kicking through the outer posts or if a ball is kicked through any post but touched by defence first or even if they hit the post (yep, they get a point for technically missing the goal – that’s why is called Aussie rules).

Me and Mick enjoying a beer with the game

To my surprise all fans (home and away) were not only mixed in together, but there was an equal mix of families, groups of blokes and groups of women. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that you were allowed to drink beer in your seat, whilst watching the game…superb!

The Seagulls started at a cracking pace and ‘kicked 7 goals’ without reply. Not a good start for the Cats as they started so slowly and were way behind at the buzzer for the end of the first quarter. With the beers flowing and the atmosphere building the Cats managed to get themselves back in the game and took the lead with only minutes of the game left, cue plenty of jumping around for me and Mick and a glum face from Kooksy.  

Kooksy looking a bit worried after the Seagulls gave up a massive lead

But to our horror the Seagulls pulled it out the bag and kicked a winning goal in injury time just before the siren. Cue, Kooksy jumping around. The Seagulls had won 80-74, Gutted, oh well, I had seen a cracking game and it had definitely wetted my appetite for more AFL games.

So, it was off to the Rocks to commiserate (for Micky and Me) and celebrate for Kooksy.

Finally, a place to call home

Although slightly sad to be leaving the lovely Elizabeth Bay apartment and its wondrous view out across the bay (especially at sunset) we were now happy to be able to move into our own apartment, a place that we could call home and finally unpack all our stuff. I am especially eager to unpack my bike and surf board and get using them.

So, the weekend just gone we embarked on another move, our 4th since the beginning of May (including moving out of our home in UK) so you’d think we’d get used to it!

We had a fair bit of stuff to move and we needed to do plenty of running round town so we decided to hire a Toyota Hiace van from a cheap car rental place imaginatively named ‘Discount Car and Truck Rentals’ …simples!!  

White's Removals

We quickly realised that although this little van was an ideal run around, it definitely should not be driven up steep hills, especially if required to stop at a junction and go from a standing start.

Unfortunately most of our routes that we needed to drive were (you guessed it!) up hills with plenty of traffic lights and junctions. On more than one occasion we thought the old banger was going to break down or just not have the steam to get away up the hill. So after a while we ended up going round the houses just to avoid going up said hills.

Once we had loaded our luggage we had to get on the case and starting buying stuff that was going to make our home a home.

With the massive influx of people into the city that are travelling through or staying a short while there is a really good second hand market for all manner of household items that can assist people like us to setup home cheaply. So rather than forking out for brand new appliances or renting we decided to hunt down a washing machine and fridge freezer on Gumtree. We struck lucky as we managed to pick really good bargains at $140 for a fridge freezer and $120 for a top loader washing machine, hopefully we’ll get a good years use out of them and then sell them on next year.

With the fridge safely loaded, I could now rest easy in the knowledge that my beers could be kept cold…phew!!! We then headed back to Ikea via K-Mart and the Big W to pick up essentials supplies.

It was a hectic day running round, moving, shopping and picking stuff up, but we did everything and we can now start to properly settle into Sydney life and enjoy ourselves.

After dropping the old banger back the next morning, we arrived back in sunny Coogee (winter’s day of 19 degrees) to find the beach front and cafes bustling with people, what a great place this is going to be to live, so good to be near the beach.

Coogee beach

There are so many nice cafes along the Coogee Bay Road it’s gonna take us a good while to get through them all, but gotta start somewhere so we headed to the Black Pony Café. After reading through the breakfast menu, I think this one is going to be an early favourite for weekend breakfast outings. I had a delicious breakfast of buttermilk pancakes with ricotta, carmilsed banana, blueberries and maple walnut praline, while Charlotte had a fresh fruit salad with vanilla bean yoghurt and honey, each washed down by a Flat White of course.

All the cafes along the Coogee Bay Road are nice relaxed, compact, indoor/outdoor atmospheric little dens that ooze character and buzz with the chitter chatter of locals enjoying a nice relaxing breakfast, brunch or lunch by day. As night descends, all these cafes are transformed into a hive of activity and meeting spots for dinner and/or drinks. Although serving their own selection of alcoholic beverages, most cafés are also BYO (Bring Your Own), which is such a great idea.  

After our lovely breakfast we decided to explore Coogee a little more and walked down to enjoy the beach and a bit of the coastal walk. Over here there are an abundance of amazing outdoor pools which are situated at the edges of the bays and get their water directly from the sea. These ‘baths’ as they are called are like the ultimate infinity pools and have been around a fair while and even in the Aussie winter there are plenty of people in their budgie smugglers and swimming caps swimming lengths as the waves crash over the sides. There are 3 of the baths/pools in Coogee alone, so I’ll be getting myself to brave the cold waters soon, but I think it’s worth it given the views that can be enjoyed.

Wylie's Baths, Coogee

Some funnies from Oz

The Aussies certainly have some funny ways, from road signs and shop signs to product brand names. In what I'm sure will be the first installment of many, check out some of them below:

Apparrentky a popular Aussie cheese!!

Even the Aussies have to start somewhere

They love Michael Jackson so much they've got his symbol on every street corner

Sensible advice at our local beach

An Aussie institution...not to my tastes tho

Charlotte's motto in sign form

I;m sure there'll be more to follow.................................

Coogee Here We Come

After putting in the 3 application for apartments in Coogee we nervously waited to see whether any had been accepted or whether it would be back to slog of going round all the open houses again.

As we’d already been turned down on our first application, we weren’t sure what the outcome would be, but to our upmost surprise, low and behold we received 3 calls saying that we’d been accepted for all 3 apartments!!! Crikey!!!!

Now we had a whole new predicament altogether, we had to choose which one we would like to live in for the next 12 months. What a great position to be in, we were so chuffed to have the choice and soon began narrowing down our exciting options.

We quickly narrowed it down to 2 apartments but deciding between these proved to be difficult. In the end we have chosen a great, modern, top floor, 2 bedroom apartment with a lockup garage (for the car, bike and surfboard) and an awesome balcony overlooking the district, just what we had dreamed of when we were planning our trip here and it’s only a short walk to the beach as well.

After paying the bond, month’s rental up front and signing the contracts we picked up the keys to our beachside apartment in Coogee yesterday!!!! We are actually moving to Coogee!!!

Our balcony (unfortunately this furniture wasn't included)

Front of our building, our apartment is round left side

So, all we needed to do now is get ourselves sorted for all our furniture and appliances, except for a cooker, dryer and a dishwasher (they are mad for dishwashers over here). Luckily there’s a massive Ikea near the airport so off we headed this morning to find our cheap sofa, beds, mattress, tables, chairs, duvets, pillows etc.

Just trying out the beds

We had great fun and games trying to load all our purchases on the trolleys, but we managed it and now the major things are sorted we can go out and celebrate getting our keys to our fantastic new apartment.

Charlotte with all our purchases



Gotta love Ikea for cheap stuff

So tonight we are out in Coogee for the first night time with a few of the other crew who have also just rented apartments in Coogee, so I guess this is the start of the Coogee gang shenanigans!! Its only week 2, so let the fun begin……..

G'Day Mick!

As Charlotte was busy with her first week of training, I decided to go on my first walkabout and see our close friends Mike and Leigh Henry (and for the first time their little-un Aiden) down in Canberra.

We haven’t got our car sorted yet and Charlotte’s Virgin Australia flight concessions haven’t kicked in either so I just grabbed a bag and headed for the bus station for my 3 and half hour journey down to Canberra….no worries!

I made sure my Kindle and I-pod were charged up and ready to go for the bus journey down to Canberra. It was an easy journey down….too easy mate!! One straight road all the way down.

Mike was at the bus station waiting to greet me and we soon headed off for some beer and pizza, followed by more beer.

It was good to meet up with Oz Mick again, as it had been at least a couple of years since we last met and at that time we weren’t sure when we’d meet up again so was great to get the opportunity to catch up.

We made a quick stop at the bottle shop on way back to Mickey’s place to pick up some more tinnies and I was also ‘stoked’ to find Charlotte’s favourite drink – Malibu and Coke in a can, which will earn me a few brownie points and keep the missus happy. We’d been looking everywhere in Sydney for Malibu and Coke in a can but had thus far drawn a blank.

The Aussies are very particular over the places you can buy and do stuff over here it’s kind of back to the traditional ways. If you want to buy some deodorant or headache tablets you go to a pharmacy (not supermarket), you can’t gamble in bars/pubs, you have to go to a separate room or place altogether (this includes fruit machines) and if you want to buy booze you can’t go to any shop you have to go to a dedicated bottle shop. It takes a bit of getting used to but I’m sure I’ll get my head round it, especially as there are quite a few drive-thru bottle shops around here, yep you just drive up, throw some booze in the motor and drive away…what a great idea!!! Once I get our car sorted I’m sure I’ll be frequenting these fairly often so I’ll get some pictures and post them for you.

Mickey lives in the Canberra suburb of Kaleen and has a really nice house. For those of you wanting to picture their lovely abode then just cast you mind back to Ramsey Street (Neighbours) and in particular Mrs Mangle’s house, it’s just like that ha ha.

I got to meet their 10 month old son, Aiden for the first time and what a little cutie he is. Such a little bundle of energy and happiness and quite clearly gonna be a little heart breaker when he get older.

I had a cracking time catching up with Mike, Leigh and Aiden over some good food, wine and beer and I’m sure Charlotte and I will be seeing a lot of the Henry clan over the next 12 months….good times.

……and our decision is…….BEACH LIFE!!!!

After much thought, deliberation and a few beers we have decided that it will be the beach life for us.

Although we love the buzz of the city, it is the sunny beaches and chilled living that caught our imagination. Even when we first found out we’d be coming over our first thoughts were about living by the beach so it had to be beachside.

It then came down to Bondi or Coogee! Although Bondi is a good surf beach and Coogee not so much, it is a very touristy area and expensive for what you get.

We have just fallen in love with the atmosphere of Coogee and from what we have seen we can get a nice apartment close to the beach for our money, plus Coogee sits right in the middle of good surfing spots such as Maroubra (6 minute drive) and Bondi (10 minute drive). Another bonus for us is that a few of the other UK crew have decided to live in Coogee as well.

Deciding to focus our efforts on just one area did mean that it kind of narrowed our search, but there was still no end to the mad dashing about trying to look at possible apartments. After the first glut of viewings we found a nice, modern, one bedroom apartment with a large balcony and decided to make our first offer….how exciting!!!

We knew competition was fierce for this apartment as we counted at least 10 other people at the open house viewing and after we submitted our application along with a mass of references we waited nervously to find out whether we were successful or not.

Unfortunately, on this occasion we didn’t get it. But I’m a great believer in fate and what will be, will be, so onwards and upwards and continue with the search.

Over the course of the next few days between us we visited about 12 different properties, some awful and some which we quite liked. We also discovered that the letting agents down here are a wiz with Photoshop, as the advertised photo’s quite clearly had been doctored to enhance the property.

Now we had decided on Coogee, we wanted to make sure it would happen, so decided to play the numbers game and make offers on 3 apartments. Hopefully at least one of them would be accepted; otherwise it would be back to the drawing board and we’d have to start preparing for all the new viewings on Wednesday.

We’ll let you know if we had any luck soon (hopefully)……………..

Aussie Fish and Chips

After a hectic day once again dragging ourselves round the various open house’s at break neck speed we retreated back to our wonderful little bayside apartment for a bit of R&R. It’s such a nice chilled out apartment with wonderful views, you cannot help but to relax and unwind in the blissful surroundings.

As we were both knackered from our apartment hunting we decided that we’d just pop out for food to a fish and chip place we’d spotted on our travels earlier.

On our way up to Maclaey Street from the apartment in Elizabeth Bay we spotted a cheeky little short-cut stairway which would take us virtually straight to our destination cutting at least 10 minutes off our journey….awesome!!

To our surprise what we had originally thought would be a run of the mill fish and chip place was in fact a vibrant classic seaside shabby-fishy-chic shack buzzing and bustling with people. Despite being busy we managed to squeeze on the end of a table and check out the wonderful menu (which came in the form of a newspaper titled 'Reel News'). Charlotte opted for the classic fish and chips, whilst I went for a poached snapper and capers washed down with my favourite beer – Birra Moretti.

The cool menu

The food was amazing and I would highly recommend The Fish Shop, Challis Avenue, Potts Point, people! If you’re ever in Sydney, check it out. http://merivale.com.au/thefishshop/

City or Beach?

Upon arrival in Sydney and after Charlotte’s induction/orientation day it was straight down to the task of finding somewhere to live, no time for touristy excursions for us.

After our stay in the accommodation laid on for us in Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, we are now staying in a friend of a friend’s apartment in Elizabeth Bay. It is a lovely art deco apartment situated in a quiet location right on the Bay. The balcony (and whole main room in fact) boasts amazing views straight out onto the water across the bay and it great to just sit and gaze out for ages. This truly was a great stroke of luck thanks to the many contacts that our friend Sarah has around the world.

View of Elizabeth Bay from the balcony

A key quandary for us this past week has been just where we want to live for the next 12 months!

Although we have visited Sydney on many occasions, it has always been as tourists doing the touristy thing (i.e. Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Bondi, Manly etc etc) and we have just really been based in the CBD (Central Business District) and not really spent a significant amount of time in the many suburbs Sydney houses.  So when it comes to actually looking and deciding where we want to live on a day-to-day basis, all manner of things are thrown into the equation.

Sydney is a vast city with a lot of suburbs and a great mix of lifestyle options, from vibrant, fast-paced city life and leafy suburbs to chilled beachside living.

Where to live?

Did we want to be close to all the action in the city? the many funky bars, restaurants and iconic sights coupled with easy transport links for Charlotte to work (plenty of trains to the airport or free crew bus), but equally more difficult for me to get to work (my work is going be out of the city) or do we go for a place close to the beach? where we can enjoy a more chilled way of life. Or even half way between at a place like Bondi Junction?

This quandary of not really knowing the vast areas of Sydney coupled with no real idea of where we would like to live ensured that our urgent search for accommodation would be a difficult one.

We had been informed of how tough and competitive the rental/housing market is over here but boy did we underestimate it!!!

There’s no casually browsing through the rental agents portfolio, booking an appointment, viewing the property, sign a bit of paperwork and hey presto you’re in. Not only is it very strict in terms of providing heap loads of references, utility bills, proof of identity and filling out a huge application form, properties can only be viewed during designated ‘open houses’ whereby each property will be open for viewing (to anyone who wishes to rock up) for approximately 15 minutes. These open days are generally on designated days (Wednesday and Saturday) and more often than not all at either the same time or close together. So if you wanted to view multiple properties you either had to be Usan Bolt, carefully select the properties you wanted to see or split up….over the course of the week we have attempted all 3 options!

It is after the actual viewing that it gets tougher, if you like a property, you need to immediately gather and complete all your paperwork and get it to the letting agents office. Even after you’ve submitted the paperwork, the letting agent will vet the applications and send a selection to the landlord who will then make his own decision on who will be successful. Phew!!

Our first open house was in the lovely little beachside suburb of Coogee, which boasts a great beach, beachside bars, quirky little cafes and a nice chilled atmosphere. We followed this up with a viewing of a very modern mid-floor apartment in Bondi Junction which had a gym and swimming pool in the block and then many others around Potts Point, Paddington, Bondi, Surry Hills and the impressively named Woolloomooloo (not sure how I’d get on with directing a taxi driver to an address there after a few sherbets).

Over the course of a few days we have visited a lot of properties and covered a lot of ground. The search goes on…………

Touching down in a land Down Under

After my epic 26 hour flying time and completely losing Sunday to the national date line, I landed into Sydney!

As I joined the passport control queue ( in the express lane of course) I looked over to the never ending line of passengers in the normal queue and realised that Carl was right next to me!

Despite leaving 7 hours after me we had arrived at exactly the same time.

Kat, my new manager was waiting to welcome the crew of the 2012 exchange at the airport. She very kindly took Carl's surf board from me and manged to walk in her sky high heels complete with surfboard in one hand and coffee in the other.

Virgin crew and all their cases arrive in Sydney

Our accommodation for week one is at The 150 Apartments in Darlinghurst.  Our apartment is amazing, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two balconies! Carl couldn't have been happier to find a bottle shop right next to the entrance and quickly proceeded to purchase his VB beers.

Downstairs of our 150 Apartment viewed from balcony

Tuesday was my first day at Virgin Australia. Wow what an organised company! They not only fitted all our uniforms and had them ready for us to take, they had printed out all documents we need to rent an apartment and the bank manager came into see us with our bank cards ready to go! I don't think I've ever met a bank manager before! Let alone them come to visit me! this would never happen in the UK.

My drugs and alcohol testing was very formal! I felt that i had been charged with possession of a class A drug. I got taken into a bathroom with a nurse who taped the water tap up so I couldn't ruin it. My bag, jacket and scarf was taken away from me and I was told to wee into a pot and not wash my hands till she came back in!  I passed, as did all of us but it was a very funny experience. This can be done at any time while I am in uniform!

After all our paperwork had been completed and the wee samples taken, we headed off with managers in tow to a bar free bar for one hour courtesy of Virgin Australia. I already like the way they conduct their business. They even invited Carl along to join us, mind you he's never one to miss the opportunity of a free bar. 

Since then our days have been taken up by apartment hunting and trying to reacquaint ourselves with Sydney and its many suburbs. 

So long for now ......