Mon 25th Aug: Busy bees

This last week has been pretty full-on:

Tues eve – long session @ gym including run plus weight training – good but tiring!

Wed – fundraising dinner for one of the organisations that K’s company supports. Called the Pathways Foundation, they run ‘rites of passage’ camps for teenagers and their parents/guardians in the bush. Fairly typical for these kinds of things including speeches, auction, lots of wine and some slightly toe-curling “ice breaker/get to know your table” things. Was fun from the point of view of getting to know some of K’s colleagues a bit more.

Thurs – Bad hangover at work due to too much wine the previous evening. Resurrected by office lunch to say goodbye to my manager, who’s off to work elsewhere. A burger & fries was just the ticket! Then we went to see Paul Weller gig at the Enmore in Newtown in the evening. Along with Surry Hills, where we’re staying, Newtown is apparently one of the few areas of Sydney with any credibility among the non-surfing population (approx 12 people). It’s got a really good feel about it, lots of cheap restaurants and proper pubs and a bit more life about it than many parts of the city. The gig was pretty good, I was knackered but woke up by the end due to Mr Weller’s high-intensity energy levels!

Sat – big brunch followed by lengthy planning session for the various tasks that we need to do to get ourselves somewhere to live – we’ve decided to stay in Sydney for the longer term as it’s just too good to leave! Melbourne is lovely but we can always visit! Then we spent a few hours in an internet café checking out prices, areas etc. Then dinner at a fantastic vegetarian place called Yulli’s, then down to The Mac, “Sydney’s only house of funk” where we boogied away to a funk band for a few hours and then watched a bit of the Premier League live on their big screens!

Sun – area-scouting which involved just missing one ferry and having to wait an hour for the next one to a place called Neutral Bay, which turned out to have less life about it than a Victorian cemetery. Thankfully the neighbouring suburb turned out to be much better – it’s called Kirribilli and sits just on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge – so great views and a short train or ferry ride into the main city. And a bit more in the way of facilities. It’s now our target and we’re plunging into the world of estate agents, rental applications and all that. A necessary evil.

Back to work today and not a great start to the day after a phone call from the baggage company who are already very late in delivering our bags to us and who seem to be unable to just give us the information we need to get our bloomin’ stuff back! Was meant to be arriving today but will now be Wednesday. Grrr. Don’t ever, ever use Excess Baggage or their Australian partner, Jetta Baggage, if you need to move stuff to the other side of the world!