Cronulla

We woke up late due to a late night skype session with the family back home and no sooner had we roused ourselves from bed were we invited to go to the beach. A few of our housemates had just been to the farmers market and had returned home with crates of fruit and veg (10kg of mangoes for $10!) and due to the lovely day decided to visit a beach, which was perfectly timed as we were in the mood to visit a beach after the rainy Christmas day we had.

So we piled into two cars (Sean was test driving a customer’s car and Gary had one day left on his rental car) and headed to Cronulla, a beach in South Sydney. The journey took around an hour and a half, which together with our trip to Watson Bay in North Sydney for the Yacht Race reinforced how large an area Sydney covers. The drive was nice enough but nothing special, we just passed through suburb after suburb without catching a glimpse of the sea but the beautiful sunshine made up for the otherwise dull surroundings.

We parked up and headed on to the beach which we were surprised to see stretched the entire way around the coast up to the head which (from my very rough estimates) was 5km away. Despite being a boiling hot Saturday afternoon the beach was not that crowded – I guess such Saturday’s are as banal as rainy Saturdays for us in the UK – which meant we had a nice large spot for us to drop our things.

After dropping off our stuff I took a dip in the sea which was nice and refreshing and not as cold as Manly, Bondi, or Wattamolla but there was the added hazard of blue bottled jellyfish that littered the wet sands and sea. These guys were not likely to kill you like the irukandji or box jellyfish but as Sean found out they give you a burning itch after a sting.

We spent a nice afternoon lazing in the sun (after a while I took the added precautions of wearing my Aussie hat due to the risk of sunburn) before Nic and I went for a walk around the coastal path that took us toward a neighbouring beach. We spent half an hour chatting on a bench admiring the view before returning to our group who were by now ready to head back. It was a lovely day and gave us the opportunity to explore another of Sydney’s many beaches. 

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

On Boxing Day each year, Sydney hosts a yacht race that begins in Sydney Harbour and ends in Hobart, Tasmania. It’s quite a big deal out here and we headed to Watson Bay (pretty much the most Eastern point of Sydney Harbour) to watch the racing yachts start their journey and sail out to sea. 

We made our way in a two car convoy (which ended the day as a one car convoy as Farag dropped us off and we didn’t realise he wasn’t coming to watch the race too so drove off) in an hour long journey across Sydney to Watson Bay. The area is nice, Robertson Park gives you a view of the Sydney skyline which is really nice from afar and we climbed the steps of Gap Bluff to stare out to sea whilst waiting for the race to begin. There was a large crowd of people across the cliff-line, all waiting to see the boats take off and all the main tv stations sent helicopters to cover the event – we think we counted thirteen helicopters all trying to get footage of the race.

Joel & Sean 

Joel & our housemates

The lighthouse used in
Mission Impossible 2

 

Remember these? Still big down under!

At 13:00 the race started and within around 20 – 30 minutes most of the yachts had filed out of the harbour to begin the race which passed right in front of where we were placed giving us a great view of the action. There were also dozens of speedboats, luxury yachts and chartered ferries sailing almost parallel and sometimes in front of the yachts to get a view – it looked very congested and a potential death trap to us but no-one was hurt (that we know of) and in all it was a pretty pleasant trip; even though I had to head home by public transport with Sean, Nick (our new German housemate) and Mi Yung after Farag had driven off leaving a shortage of cars to drive us back home. It made no difference time wise though as due to the traffic (and directions/lack of directions) the car with Nicola, Loic, Lily, Nam and Kyu arrived back in Burwood around the same time as us.

It's Christmas!

A Christmas message over Burwood,
Sydney

We woke up early on Christmas morning so we could wish our families back home a Merry Christmas (despite it still being Christmas Eve with them) but were disappointed to see that it was raining. Who would have thought that we’d travel to the other side of the world and it would still rain on Christmas? It did though, and it was torrential all day so no stereotypical Australian Christmas on the beach for us. Instead, we cuddled up on the couch and started a film marathon: Tangled; Rio; How to Train Your Dragon; and, Elf. It definitely cheered us up as we were missing our family and without the sunshine it was a bit of a downer. Never mind, we’ll do Christmas properly next year; surrounded by family and lots of presents to open (Nicola and I couldn’t afford to buy each other gifts this year – sad times). We received some Welsh souvenirs from my mum and dad so we wore them and it made us think of home and we were glad we waited until Christmas to open them as it did feel more Christmassy with a few gifts to open.

It's raining it's pouring...

Merry Christmas to all!

The End of the World/Wedding Day

The happy couple

On 21/12/2012 the Mayan Long Count Calendar ended, marking the end of the World apparently although we saw no horsemen of the apocalypse or volcanoes and the like, just a wedding party for Loic and Aurelie, our French house mates.

Nicola and I were in charge of decorating the house and gardens so we missed out on the ceremony itself in order to surprise Loic and Lily when they returned home. They wanted a small wedding with no fuss but we as a house thought they deserved a celebration for them to remember their big day. Nicola and I attempted to blow up 500 balloons (that were actually water balloons) but after the pump broke we admitted defeat after our tired lungs begged for mercy. We blew up enough balloons to add some colour to the drive, front of house, gates and inside the house – Nicola bunched the coloured balloons into sets of rosettes which made the small water balloons look much nicer. In fact, Nicola was the creative energy behind the decorations and I just helped out by cutting shapes and blowing up balloons.

One of the nice touches Nicola came up with was to cut dozens of hearts out of white card and stick them onto lengths of string which we then hung from trees in the garden. They looked brilliant, very elegant and set a romantic theme which was what weddings are all about really. Lily even commented that Nicola should start a business with wedding planning/decorations and I don’t think it would be a bad idea based on Nicola’s ideas and resourcefulness on a ridiculously small budget ($0).

Dr. Zac's incredible couscous

When Loic and Lily arrived back at the home after they had photos taken at the Opera House and Botanic Gardens (by Gary and Jessie our flatmates) they returned home and the party started. We had plenty of drink to go round and Farag had invited one of his friends (Dr Zac) to come and cook for us so we were treated to couscous Libyan style (which was amazing), Libyan chicken as well as a special Korean dish served at weddings called Bambiyam or something sounding like that (a vegetable and noodle dish). Krish also made some delicious brownies and Jessie and Gary made their signature Mango Sago. We also had some amazing fruit tarts (strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant) for starters and Ibrahim had bought a wedding cake which we all tucked into to finish up with.

DJ Sean

To end the night we listened and danced to some Libyan music – Dr Zac showed off his moves and taught us all how to dance Libyan style. It was a great evening; good food, plenty of drink and good company.

Jesse

Joel being sprayed with mosquito
repellent

Nam doing the Gangnam Style

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Today (18 December 2012), I successfully skydived from a helicopter at 14,000 feet and lived to tell the tale…

For those of you who didn’t know, Nicola had bought me for my birthday a skydiving voucher for when we were in Australia and after a few days of trying to sort out a date after a confusion between our travel agent and the skydive company, we managed to set 18 December as the fateful day. We set our alarm to 05:00 and made our way to Central where we were due to be picked up. The drive to Gosford (where the airstrip was) took around an hour and a half and we were treated to a lovely drive North of Sydney which included driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge – a nice treat.

After we arrived I discovered that the skydive would be 14,000 feet instead of 9,000 feet and out of a helicopter instead of a plane; although I’m not sure how much difference it makes as you’ll be just as dead falling 9,000 feet out of a plane as 14,000 feet from a helicopter if your ‘chute doesn’t open. We had a quick safety lesson and a run through of the do’s and don’ts – which involved why you shouldn’t hang your feet between the helicopter foot rests as you hang outside the ‘chopper (you may find yourself legless) – but we had to wait around an hour longer than expected due to poor weather conditions (too cloudy) before we could actually start off.

Whilst we were waiting we actually saw a red bellied black snake (a very venomous snake) in a storm ditch near to where we were sitting – our first snake siting out in the wild in Australia!

It was three jumpers per trip (seven in total including pilot and the tandems) and I found myself sitting on the side of the chopper with my feet resting outside, in my head reminiscent of a scene from Platoon but in reality probably less cool than that. It was quite a ride up to altitude as the helicopter had no door so I was exposed to the wind and had a fantastic view of the area which progressively shrunk beneath us. I was second in order to jump so had the pleasure of watching the lady in front of me plummet through the clouds and out of sight. I was surprised at how calm I felt, I thought I would be scared or nervous but I wasn’t. I was quite excited, I think it was the adrenaline kicking in. As it was my turn to jump next I dropped myself onto the edge of the chopper and as my tandem jumper took his position I felt myself dangling outside the helicopter supported only by my harness attaching me to my tandem. It was quite an exhilarating feeling, I was hanging outside of a helicopter 14,000 feet in the air looking down through the clouds and at the curvature of the Earth in front of me.

 

Then we fell. I could not tell how long the free fall lasted as it was such a rush and I was trying to take it all in. It was a surreal feeling falling toward the Earth at 120kmph, the wind was rushing at me so cold and fast that it caused my mouth to dry and my face to contort like an astronaut under G-force. I could see the Earth coming towards us fast, and we dropped through a few clouds that blocked my vision temporarily but before I knew it the parachute was open and I was jerked upwards as the chute caught in the wind. I must admit, I had a profound sense of relief when the parachute opened.

We began our glide back down to ground and I was able to direct our flight by pulling downwards on one of two pulleys to steer left or right. I took us through a few clouds before the tandem jumper (Phil) told me to hold down the right pulley as far as possible – which caused us to head into a massive spin picking up speed and turning almost horizontal.

We hit 1,000 feet and Phil had to take over and make sure we landed safely. He circled the runway a few times and I lifted my feet into the air as we hit the ground nice and softly. The adrenaline was still pumping through my body but I was happy that I had landed in one piece – I could imagine why some people become hooked on skydiving; the rush was incomparable to anything I felt before. I saw Nicola coming towards us on the runway after she had been busy taking photos and videos of my landing – she was very relieved that I made it back in one piece!