Last Friday I finally moved into my new apartment. The moving part of it sucked, as was expected. Wrestled a couch for a good 30 minutes before we got it into the living room. It's about a 15 minute walk to Dee Why Beach and 5 minute walk to the bus stops and supermarket. The Dee Why RSL is also only about a 5 minute stumble as well which is were we go occasionally to pre-drink before going out or have a couple or ten beers.
I opted for the smaller bedroom to keep my rent costs as low as possible. Going from $560/month to $930/month and $50K+ to $0 salary seems a bit ass-backwards but I also didn't have a 15 minute walk to the beach from my apartment in Orlando. You truly do get what you pay for. The place doesn't have A/C or heat and water is included in the rent price so I'll save some cash on that end.
I'm living like a minimalist bachelor now which is another change from my Ikea sponsored bedroom of the past. Bought a mattress, sheets, quilt, duvet cover, two pillows, some hangers, two towels, a laundry basket, a fan, and two freestanding racks for a grand total of $380. Deal. Luckily, I'm rooming with someone who already had the kitchen stuff and furniture for the lounge so there are some creature comforts at my disposable. My favourite part about this place is that we already have a little bar area stocked with some whiskey and a bunch of wine. Does that make me sound like an alcoholic? When in Rome...
And without any further ado, here's my new apartment!
There weren't any waves last Saturday so my new roommate and I decided to head down to Freshwater Beach to meet up with a few people and enjoy the blue skies that haven't been all to common this summer. Nothing worth writing about happened but the pictures came out pretty good so I figured I'd share them. Definitely want to go back on a less crowded day and maybe have a surf or crack open some brews!
Man oh man, what a blurry weekend. Went out to Sydney/Pyrmont last night with a few people. At about 7:00, we hopped on the L90 bus which is about an hour ride into the city from Dee Why and only costs $4.50 each way. Gotta love non-US public transportation. We took a quick 15 minute walk from The Rocks area down over the Pyrmont bridge and straight through the doors of The Star casino. This place was awesome! Very cool design from the outside and throughout the entry. Although, that should've been my first sign that I shouldn't gamble. If people were winning truck loads of cash, the owner probably couldn't afford to build a spiral staircase with an all-glass exterior. Only took me about two minutes to lose $20 which made the finance side of my brain kick and scream. Good thing there was plenty of alcohol on hand to shut it up ;). After throwing away money, we went to a bar inside the casino called Rock Lily and it was $8 beer night (Paul Rudd in 40 yr old virgin reference)! Okay, it was really $6.50/beer. Anyways, I drank a lot of those and enjoyed the entertainment provided by the cover band that did an incredible job of recreating smash hits from the 90s. I remember bits and pieces of the later part of the night but getting way to excited when Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" came on and running out to the dance floor to break it down is still in the memory bank. Glad no one caught that on video. Stayed at the bar until they turned the lights on and low and behold it was 3:30/4:00ish in the morning. How does that saying go? Time flies when you're having fun. Hopped back on the bus for the hour ride back to Dee Why. That was an interesting ride. For the How I Met Your Mother fans out there, if you've seen the most recent episode "The Drunk Train," this would be "The Drunk Bus." For those of you who don't watch the show, I think you can figure out what the inside of the bus looked like. All in all, great night! A note to my future self, if you're reading this, I'm sorry for the liver damage. Cheers!
The last thought this guy must've had was probably "I'm so tired. Where's this bus? F**k it, this bush looks comfortable."
I've been a bit lazy about posting the past few days so time to play some catch up. In all honesty, not much has gone on other than surfing, job hunting, apartment hunting, and the weekend binge drinking. The Australian Open of Surfing started up so I got to go check that out.
The quick release mount that attaches my GoPro camera to the mount on the surfboard cracked so I haven't been able to take anymore footage. Need to bite the bullet and just buy a new one since GoPro customer service hasn't responded to my warranty claim. Jackasses.
Job hunt hasn't turned up any employment yet but I just dropped a whole fresh batch of resumes off into all the bars/pubs/hotels near the Circular Quay area. I'd rather work in Manly but The Rocks/Darling Harbour area is pretty busy and there is a gazillion different places. I'm adding "Get one drink at every bar until I can no longer walk to the next bar" to my list of to-dos in Sydney. Won't be hard to accomplish.
House hunting has also been unfruitful. There's a lot more lessees than lessors. The Northern Beaches seemed to have escaped any sort of real estate bubble burst. No one is upside down on their mortgage and trying to rent the place out just to stay afloat. Supposed to hear back from a couple more places today in Dee Why so hopefully one pulls through. Luckily, Julian and his family haven't given me the boot yet so I still have a roof over my head. Depending on what I hear back from the realtors, I may stay in a hostel in Manly for a few days just to meet some people and be closer to the party scene/Australian Open.
And now for the binge drinking which, of course, I never document since who wants to take pictures when they could be drinking a beer and socialising (yes, I spelled that correctly America) with people. I need to start hanging around more 20-something year old girls. They love to document. One of my uncle's ex-coworkers, Marty, turned 40 on Friday so they occupied the top floor of Mezzanote, a little restaurant down on The Strand which faces east overlooking Dee Why beach. Great spot to have a few beers. Met the other Paul that I've heard so much about and heard some great stories involving my uncle. Can't wait to be apart of the stories when he visits in March/April. Anyways, after that I stumbled down the street to the Dee Why RSL and continued to punish my liver with some mates that have been kind enough to welcome me into their circle of friends. That made surfing in the morning a whole lot of fun. Went to another one of my uncle's friends for a BBQ on Saturday night. This guy has the most amazing house with the most amazing view that I've ever seen. Best part is that he's a standup guy and you'd never guess in a million years that he had that kind of money. Down to earth and likes to party.
Lastly, the Australian Open of Surfing kicked off last Saturday. After the above mentioned surf at Dee Why, I headed down to Manly with Steve (NZ guy I'm looking for a place with) and we watched the tail end of the Junior Women's and the first few heats of the Junior Mens. Waves were kinda fat and shitty but the surfers still did a decent job. Unfortunately, they were pretty far out so it was hard to get any good, clear pictures. There was also a skate demo going on in a bowl they built on the beach so we checked that out for a few minutes (see video below). Got sunburned as hell even with the sunscreen lathered on. The sun down here is a whole different beast.
On a random note, the first picture below is of what the Aussies call cream biscuits (biscuits = US cookie). This particular brand is TimTam and they are more addictive than meth (I'm assuming). They have them in the States now but they're made by Pepperidge Farm, believe Target carries them. Do yourself a favor and go buy a pack. Bite off one corner and then the corner diagonal from it and use it like a straw to suck up milk, coffee, or tea. Make sure you pop it in your mouth before it dissolves in your fingers. Just don't blame me if you gain a few pounds/kilos from repeated consumption.
TimTams. So. Damn. Good.
View from the 2nd floor balcony of the house I was at on Saturday for the BBQ. Doesn't get much better than this.
Manly Cove, taken from the ferry on the way into the city to job hunt.
These were parked in Darling Harbour. Not sure if they were active duty vessels or retired for the museum but definitely cool to see them up that close.
Psuedo-regatta that was going on when I was leaving the city. Wish I had a panoramic camera because this is pretty much what it looked like for 180 degrees. Don't these people have jobs?
Australian Open of Surfing, Junior Women's
Some random guy to the north of the contest area that was ripping harder than the contestants.
Australian Open of Surfing, Junior Women's
Australian Open of Surfing, contest area facing south with a shot of the skate bowl.
Australian Open of Surfing, contest area facing north.
Australian Open of Surfing, Junior Men's. This kid couldn't have been older than 14 and was killing it. This is after about 3-4 big turns and getting the connection into the inside reform.
Got the opportunity to take the GoPro out on a couple days in the past week and here's the result. First couple of clips (where I'm still in boardshorts and a top) are from Jan 30th and the rest is from Feb 3rd. Feb 3rd was definitely way more fun with next to no wind and stomach to shoulder high surf. Starting to get a feel for my new board and so far me likey! Some of these clips are just of me taking off and then wiping out but hey, that captures the essence of what's really going on out there. Unfortunately, my GoPro mount cracked on Feb 3rd so until GoPro responds to my warranty claim I'll have no means of getting footage. Surfed Curl Curl today with Julian, Julian, and Sargo. Looked like crap but was pretty fun. Surfed for about an hour, wound up at Julian's (not the one I live with) and started with a beer @ 2pm. Eight hours later and a bellies full of beer and food we decided to head back home. Great times with even greater people. By the way, I'm typing this kinda drunk. Forgive any typos/diarrhea of the mouth. Onto the video. Enjoy!
