Almost there...

Last Saturday night I went to a National Rugby League (NRL) game with Ian and a few of his friends. The game was only a pre-season friendly game to play for a charity shield.

The game was played at the Olympic stadium in Sydney that was built for the 2000 Olympics. The stadium was really big, probably one of the bigger stadiums that I've been to. It seated around 90,000 people, but unfortunately because it was only a friendly game only 24,000 people were there. It was lacking in atmosphere and to be honest the game wasn't really a great one. The South Sydney Rabbitos were playing the St George Dragons.

It was more fun to chat with some of Ian's friends about their life in Australia and how great it is to live here. The reason that I managed to get free tickets to this game was because one of Ian's friends Shane. His dad's manager has come over from Germany to start a four year stint working in Sydney. Sounds very familiar! Because he works for a big CAD company they own an executive box in the Olympic Stadium. The box had eight seats, a TV to watch highlights and a padlocked fridge. We never did find out how to get into the fridge. There was also seat service by some waiters if you wanted it. This was one of the first times that I've been to a stadium to watch a game in which there was carpet in the aisles, instead of just concrete. How very posh. :-)

We were planning to go to the Bennelong in the Opera House for a celebration with everyone involved in the project. However unfortunately the Sydney Water employees can't accept any sort of free meals from their contractors. It wouldn't be looked upon very well if a Sydney Water employee was found to be in the Bennelong eating a free meal paid for by one of their contractors. You could imagine the headlines, public water employees living it up in the Bennelong with your money while your pipes are leaking. It would be a great exclusive on Today Tonight, which is one of those trashy documentary programs on TV here in Australia. Its typical headlines are something like immigrants are taking over Australia and living on welfare while you work to pay them.

Instead of having a meal with everyone involved in the project we had some beer and snacks in the Sydney Water offices. It was all a very civilised affair and there were a few speeches and back patting on how well the first part of the project has gone.

Fortunately after the tame Sydney Water celebrations the Earth Tech and Wallingford employees continued the celebrations, we had the Earth Tech project manager Shane take us all out for a paid meal.

In the photo you can see (left to right), Archie, Ian, Stephanie, Me, Paul and Cathy. Other than Ian and Me the others are all Earth Tech employees who are taking on the next portion of the project after us. They are going to use the software that I've helped to develop to actually model the water systems in the Sydney area.

I've finally started packing up the contents of my apartment and have been making preparations to come back to Blighty.

It's all been a little stressful and hectic while trying to organise leaving Australia and also return to the UK. There is so much to sort out, so many people to call and things to cancel. My apartment is a bit of a mess with things in a partial packed state ready to ship back on the 12th.

I've just had my last gym session with Quentin and it's a real shame that I won't be able to train with him anymore. Here's a photo of him for all you curious fans out there. He's made a big difference to my life in the past year and also the way that I train.

I also went for another sky dive in Penrith just outside of Sydney yesterday with Roger. Like so many people Roger wanted to have a go but just never got round to organising it, so I took the lead and booked a couple of places. I'll have some photos of the day soon and will publish them with a report next time.