Out with a Paddy. In with a Frog

I’ve at long last booked my plane tickets after weeks of faffing around! I finish work on Friday the 4th May, fly out of Sydney on Tuesday the 8th May and arrive back home in London on Thursday the 31st May. This has enabled me to give notice at work and I’m much happier that everything’s now out in the open. No more having to be cagey every time conversation moves onto my travel plans.

Two weeks ago the Irish girl in our house moved out and on Friday a Frenchman moved in. He seems like a decent chap so the good atmosphere in the house has been maintained and it remains a lovely place to live.

It’s been lovely weather here lately, clear skies and lots of sunshine, warm but not too hot. I’ve heard that it’s been the same in England, an early Summer, spreading its tentacles into Spring. Well here we are having a late Summer, rolling into Autumn. Anyway partly due to this I’ve had a nice laid back weekend leisurely sorting things out, doing chores and strolling around town seeing a few sights. Sunday got a ferry across the Sydney harbour for the first time and the harbour was so beautiful I chastised myself for not having done it so far. The harbour is one of Sydney’s greatest assets and I haven’t been utilising it enough. So before I go, I’m going to spend a few days getting ferries across the harbour and strolling along the shore.

Not much else to report of note. Oh yeah sort of related to the topic of the weather, the time zone in Sydney is all messed up and stupid. It gets dark here at 5:30pm, so I leave work and it’s dark. Absolutely Ridiculous! We are in a subtropical country not near the North Pole like England! At the equidistant point (where there are exactly 12 hours of sunshine in the day) – 21 March or 21 September in England it gets dark after 7pm, however here on the 21st March it was dark before 6pm and it gets light just after 5am. Clearly they’ve got it all wrong and need to move the clocks forward by an hour or two! Mind, my Aussie housemate and everyone at work all get up at the crack of dawn; it suits their cheery, wake up bright and early, positive attitude. This attitude is irritating and it pisses me off because I am no good at it! I’m always the last one in the office and I arrive in at 9am! In England there would always be a few late stragglers arriving in after me, but here no, they all get in at 8am. I am most definitely a Whingeing Pom!

Also the TV here is ABSOLUTE SHITE! Adverts every 5 minutes or so with total drivel inbetween. Mostly cheap crappy American shows, the only Aussie TV programs being Neighbours, Home & Away and a few shitty gameshow/reality TV programs. It makes me appreciate British TV a lot more!

But these really are minor grievances. If the only things I can find of fault in this country are its TV, time zone abnormality and oh its poisonous spiders and snakes then it has a lot to say concerning how nice it is here, don’t’ you reckon?

Melbourne, Trams and Fun

OK so was maybe being a little melodramatic in my last entry! I was overly paranoid and my housemates didn’t actually think too badly of me… as I found out later in the week. Still I do want to cut down on my drunken “episodes”!

And thankfully had a brilliant last weekend to make up for the previous one. Wednesday thought sod it I’m going away for the weekend. So booked some flights to Melbourne and off I went, straight after work on Thursday.

Arrived late Thursday and checked into a hotel and had a good long sleep. Therefore awoke Friday morning refreshed to a gorgeous day; blue skies, warm weather, trams pootling along historic streets. Thought I'd better go up the sky tower first thing as the weather might change (it didn't). So there I am taking in the marvellous panoramic 360% views when someone taps me on the shoulder, my friend Dani who I met in the United States, who also had just arrived in Melbourne for the weekend. How amazing is that!!!! So didn't feel alone and arranged to meet up with her and her friend Ian later in the day. So in good spirits I walked round Melbourne, taking in the piazzas, parks, Captain Cook’s cottage, and the Parliament buildings. Then met Dani and Ian and walked round the Exhibition centre, realised a comedy festival was on and bought tickets for the headline show “Ross Noble” live at the town hall. Before the show we had a delicious banquet at a Greek restaurant then proceeded to watch two and a half hours of hilarious stand up comedy. Had an early night in a hostel and even had 2 considerately quiet lads to share the dorm with; didn't even need my ear plugs. Met up again with Dani and Ian on Saturday and decided to buy tickets to an Aussie Rules Footie match, as the biggest stadium and most passionate supporters are in Melbourne (the game originated here). Again a gorgeous sunny day. The game was actually easy to follow and I learnt the rules and was very entertained!!! A close match and passionate support in a huge (95,000 - bigger than Wembley) stadium. Then met up with my friend Peta who I'd made friends with in Perth and she said you can stay at my house for the next 2 nights - Brilliant. So checked out of the hostel and made myself comfortable. That night we went out for a dodgy Chinese meal and then got taken to a lovely outdoor bar in one of the quaint old laneways, with a good lively atmosphere. Ended up at some nightclub, but I didn’t get too drunk and I remembered everything the next day! Sunday slept in till midday in my own double bed and then cooked Peta a fry up to thank her for giving me her friend’s room to sleep in. After a good feed of grease and meet I travelled out to St Kilda to meet Dani and Ian in the afternoon and it was hot enough to sunbathe on the beach. We proceeded to watch the sunset over the sea with the skyscrapers bathed in an orange glow and then walked round the lively streets, had some tasty fresh fish and chips and people watched. Went back to Peta's, watched a fun dodgy film called Merlin and then had an early night. Monday was spent wondering around the botanical gardens and along the river, again under a big blue sky.

So all in all a good weekend. Spent way too much money, in fact my entire savings of $1,100, so my bank is now empty again. But sometimes you just have to loosen those purse strings and have fun!

Back to reality today. After a dodgy nights sleep, a spider (potentially poisonous remember!) on the ceiling kept me from dropping off. Kept on thinking it would sting and kill me. Anyway after a dodgy nights sleep I arrive at work today to the same old bored, trying to look busy, time passing very slow, routine. Oh well, only 18 days to go! And then after a brief holiday in China it will be, no doubt, back to some boring job in London. Just goes to show really the grass isn’t really any greener is it, it’s the same bloody colour!

Forever Goodbye to a dear old friend

Today have had to cut ties with an old buddy. When we first became acquainted he helped me come out of my shell and overcome my shyness. I always seemed to have a lot of fun with him, and he introduced me to lots of new people. Hanging around with him, I was encouraged to do reckless things and take chances, but most of the time this was beneficial and it led to exciting adventures. However bad things had already started happening and the trouble was that whilst under his influence my friends and I didn’t even think of them as bad, we were just “having a laugh”. But I didn’t really realise this at the time and anyway the positives of his presence definitely outweighed the negatives.

But as the years have passed the benefits of spending time with my chum have waned and the pitfalls have increased. I’m not so inhibited anymore as I was when I was younger and I’ve got more confidence in myself now. I don’t need to lose my inhibitions so much anymore and now when I lose them I often go to far. And he’s addictive company. When I start spending time with him I can’t break away, I just want more and more of him. Now more often than not he just seems to have a bad effect on me. He can make me argumentative, defensive and sometimes angry. He can turn me into a bore who rants on and on about the same things.

We’ve had great times together and at one point you played an important role in my life. I don’t regret meeting you; I’ve had so much fun and so many adventures. But unlike most people I could never do moderation. I was too dependant and once I started I could never stop. I have tried for many years to just hang out with you for a little bit at a time but it doesn’t work. And you make me regress to what I used to behave like years ago, I’ve grown up and changed now and I don’t need to express myself that way anymore. I’m a happy person now, I’m not angry; I’ve come to terms with the past and all that. You make me go back to the past. It all came to a head last weekend when you contributed to me shaming myself in front of my new housemates. And now I feel like I’m walking on eggshells in my own house, unwanted and disliked.

I don’t want to get into fights and maybe one day wake up in hospital. I don’t want to be a wanker anymore. I don’t want to be ashamed of my actions anymore. And most of all I want to stop losing my friends.So Goodbye Alcohol. Goodbye forever.