Taronga Zoo, because it was free!

Deirdre, Allen and I went to Taronga zoo today because it's been partially sponsored by Sydney Water, hence free to employees of Sydney Water which includes Allen and me.

The weather was fantastic as usual and the zoo is set just north of Sydney central on the harbour side. Once you have caught the ferry across the harbour you can take a cable car up to the top of the zoo and then slowly make your way down.

As soon as we got to the top of the zoo Allen couldn't wait to stick his arm up some poor wombat. I guess it must be part of his medical background and training.

One of the first animals you could see were the koalas. I must admit that they were very cute and looked more like stuffed animals that had been put up a tree for tourists.


I could just imagine Johnny Morris's voice over on them when they moved about. They were quite quick bounding around the floor when going from tree to tree.

You could even have your photograph taken much closer to one for 3$ each.

Most of them were asleep in the trees, but this particular one was quite active. I guess it must have been its turn to entertain us while the others slept.

We also saw wombats which were very cool, if a little on the bulky side. Many of the animals just looked so unique to anything else that I've seen before.

Here's an active one in its burrow. They can apparently reach speeds of up to 40km/h and have been known to take out things by running into them at speed.

There were also the other Australian only animals such as kangaroos of various types, the tasmanian devil (didn't look like the cartoon), and more platypus's than you could shake a stick at.

The zoo also had many other animals which were quite amazing to see up close. I quite liked the tigers and snow leopards.

The tiger was very restless in it's enclosure as it was pacing around and quite often walked right up to the glass screen. You were literally a couple of centimetres away from it at times.

The snow leopard had also recently had two new cubs which were very entertaining to watch. They looked so cuddly and were very playful with each other. Their paws were massive though, even at only five months old they were the size of a medium dog and had paws that looked quite dangerous.

Seeing as the zoo was on the opposite side of the centre of Sydney there were some great views of the city and it would be fantastic to visit there next time with a packed picnic.

This chimp is exactly how tired I felt last Monday when in the car and everyone else was wine tasting. I probably slept just as much as the chimp is doing here too! Hmm, I think I see a likeness to it and me...

Sandboarding Photos.

Here are a couple of shots of the sand boarding that were taken with Deirdre's camera.

The first one is of me coming down the hill on my backside, probably just before I'm about to wipe out as I look like I'm starting to move sideways there.

The second shot is of me when I first tried going down the sand dune while standing up.

I think I look quite nervous and tense in the shot. You can make out Andrea in the background watching me while I slide down too.

Easter Break in Port Stephens.

Deirdre, Allen and two of Deirdre's friends Andrea and Kate and I went up to Port Stephens for the Easter break this weekend, it's about a two hour drive north of Sydney. The weather for the weekend couldn't have been better really from Saturday to Monday. We only had two nights booked at a motel which was just across the road from a great beach in Shoal Bay. You could literally get up in the morning and run across the road for a quick swim before breakfast and Allen and Andrea did too.

For our first night there on Saturday we decided to pop into the next town along the coast Port Nelson. It was slightly bigger than the bay that we were in as it's only a very small seaside town really. After eating there we decided to look for some sign of night life there. We could initially only find one pub there and that was a pub, hotel bar, betting shop and fruit machine arcade in one.

We wandered around the place looking for other drinking places but couldn't find any. After asking a couple in a shop they were struggling to name more than three places to drink in! It turned out that Shoal Bay had a livelier night life than Port Nelson and that was only because it had a small strip with three pubs or so.

Anyhow we still had a good time with a few beers in the only places available and the following night was to prove much more fun when out in Shoal Bay.

We planned to try to go dolphin watching on Sunday morning then to see the sand dunes and go sand boarding in the afternoon followed by a walk up a nearby hill to get a good view of the area.

The boat we went on for dolphin watching was a small boat capable of carrying only 18 people and was ideal as it wasn't crowded at all. Strangely enough the boat was made in Southampton where I was born!

This is a picture of our tea and coffee making crew on the boat. (Big smile) From left to right, Kate, Andrea and Deirdre. The skipper of the boat was very easy going and didn't even mention any safety aspects of the boat in case of the worse.

We initially saw a large turtle on the cruise which even the crew were fascinated by as they said they rarely ever see one on the surface. It bobbed up and down a bit probably thinking what on earth all these people were interested in so much.

After that we did manage to see a few dolphins on the tour. You aren't gauranteed to see any so it was quite a sight to see some. They briefly swam along with the bow of the boat and I managed to get this great shot of one of them.

It was exciting to see the dolphins and everyone on board was much happier after seeing them. It would have been a really pleasant cruise around the harbour even if we handn't seen them but was quite special after seeing some dolphins.

After lunch we booked a trip out to the sand dunes to have a go at some sand boarding and to see the large beach there too.

Once at the sand dunes I had to do my final scene in Capricorn One impression. You have to watch the film to know what it's all about, but basically I just run towards the camera from a distance while someone takes some photos of me.

The sand boarding was excellent and I really enjoyed it. It's much simpler than snowboarding as all they did was put you on a small long board like a small snowboard and you slide down a big steep sand dune sitting down with your arms outstretched to balance. The only disadvantages compared to snowboarding is that you aren't strapped to the board so can't turn on it and you have to walk back up the sand dune after each go. Seeing as I was getting a rush of adrenaline after each go it wasn't difficult for me to run up the sand dune and want to have another go.

After a couple of goes I wanted to have a go at it while standing on the board. At first the instructor asked whether I wanted to spend the night in hospital or back at my hotel. I said hospital so he let me have a go while standing. Again because you're just standing bare feet on a wooden board it's impossible to turn and once the board starts to turn while sliding down you either have to do a controlled bail out or uncontrolled one when you catch an edge.

I tried standing up on the board twice and bailed out about 3/4 of the way down both times but it was still lots of fun. The falls while standing up were much more spectacular though and I do have this snapshot image of me spinning in the air just before landing on the sand thinking it wasn't such a good idea to stand up. In the end nothing was broken and I had a great time with an insane grin on my face afterwards.

The only other disadvantage of sand boarding is the sand. It really does get everywhere and after the second big fall I was covered in it. I spend most of the next two days pulling sand out of my shorts pockets and ears! Still it was all worth it in the end.

After the sand boarding we were taken to the nearby beach which was a very gentle sloped beach with quite rough waves. Walking along it was very pleasant even while totally covered in sand from sand boarding.

We still had just about had enough time to walk up a nearby hill next to Shoal Bay when we got back from the sand dunes, before the sun set.

The walk up the hill was quite easy as there was a well laid out path. Here's a shot from about 1/4 of the way up while the sun was setting.

We eventually got to the top of the hill but unfortunately the sun had just set by the time we got to the top. It was still a great view of the surrounding area as you can see from this shot of Shoal Bay.

We went out for food and beers in Shoal Bay on Sunday night. The place where we ate was more of a hotel pub bar and they were initially showing some plastic surgery program on the TV screens which didn't go down so well and then some late night rugby league game. Everyone in the pub was totally obsessed by watching the rugby game, even all the women.

Later on in the night the bar next to the pub had some live music and we went there to watch it. While there we met an Aussi guy called Ron. He was from the Liverpool district in Sydney and was quite a stocky bald guy who did martial arts. He happened to remember me from the previous night as he was one of the people that we asked where the bars were in Port Nelson! He was quite drunk at the time and was quite funny. I think he's the first stereo typical Australian that I've met here as he was very blunt and to the point with me but in a very friendly way. He was telling me how to chat up women in Australia and the method that worked for him was to be very direct and ask them whether they wanted a f%$&! He sweared by this technique too. I didn't try it out.

The following day Andrea had to get back to Sydney to meet a long time friend and the rest of us went to look for wild koalas. I think Allen wanted to hunt them for sport. :-) We walked for quite a while in a nature reserve which should have had some koalas but unfortunately they were a no show that day. We looked for them in the trees and even looked out for their poos to. Maybe news had got around that they were being hunted that day so they went away for the Easter break.

After this we had lunch at Hunter Valley and everyone else took some time out to sample and buy some wines from all the local vinyards in the area. Not being a big fan of wine I just took the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep in the car.

All in all a fantastic weekend and much fun was had by all.

Colds, Gym troubles.

I've not updated the blog for a good week as to be honest I haven't been up to much. Other than the usual working and getting home there's nothing that exciting to report right now.

Managed to pick up a cold too, probably from the flight back from Hong Kong, this hasn't helped me and I spent most of last weekend indoors because of it. Still I'm mostly over it now and even managed to get down to the gym this morning.

The weather here is still very warm, despite it being mid way through the autumn. It's been clear blue skies every day since I've been back from Hong Kong. It even reached 30 degrees today, mind you it's been up to 27 on most other days!

Still having trouble transferring my gym membership to an Australian branch of Fitness First. I was eventually told by the Bristol branch that they have contacted the Sydney branch and I should now be allowed to transfer my membership to Sydney with only a admin fee.

I tried to call the Sydney branch and was told by someone that they would look into my request and call me back. After a week they still hadn't called me back so today when going to the gym I asked them about transferring my membership. One of the blokes behind the counter then said that it would be no problem to transfer my membership from the UK to here! Why wasn't I told this the first time around?!?

So, after filling in a few forms and giving them my credit card details the bloke said that he could contact the Fitness First in Bristol by email to transfer my membership to Sydney. I'm now convinced that I've joined the Fitness First in Sydney and will still be charged from the Bristol branch next month. I'll have to wait and see but I have no faith in them getting this right!

Looking forward to Easter this weekend. What with all the recent events I had totally forgotten that it was Easter so soon and hadn't planned anything at all. Fortunately Allen asked me whether I wanted to go with him and Deirdre and two of her friends to Port Stevens for the long weekend.

According to the guide, Port Stevens basically contains beaches, sand dunes and has plenty of Dolphin and Whale watching if you go at the right time of year. Unfortunately this Easter isn't the right time of year. I think there is also a large Tarantula reserve there, like I'll be visiting that this weekend!

Back in Sydney.

I managed to book a flight back to Sydney for Friday evening to arrive in Sydney on Saturday morning.

Here's a picture of a sign that I saw on an estate in one of the many high rises in Hong Kong. Thought it was mildly amusing and I wasn't quite sure of its exact meaning.

My flight back to Sydney wasn't the most pleasant flight that I've had. For a start it was a late night flight and arrived at 6.30am in Sydney so I had to try to get as much sleep as I could. Unfortunately it was a very bumpy flight throughout the night so I only managed to get an hours sleep at most.

I think I've had enough of flying log haul flights for now. After four long flights in the last two months I've earned plenty of Virgin frequent flyer miles but have definitely had enough of sitting in an aeroplane. Video on demand or not, I've seen nine movies and had enough of trying to sleep on a plane.

This is quite funny when I look back at it, but I was shitting bricks at the time. They are very strict on what you can bring into customs in Australia and because of this they scan your luggage when you pass though customs. When my large ruck sack was being scanned and I passed though the guy at customs asked me whether I had packed the bag and was this my signature on their declaration form. I said yes to both to which he asked me to follow him with my bags. He led me to one side and ignored my question as to what was up.

At this point I was quite concerned because my ruck sack doesn't have any locks on the zips so I thought someone could have put something illegal in it. He told me to put my ruck sack on the table and then asked me whether I had an electronic fly swatter. I said yes because I bought one for Paul in Australia as he was complaining about the mosquitoes here and I had thought it would be a good present for him. It's the size of a tennis racquet and had a metal gauze which can be electrified by batteries to swot mosquitoes. I thought it was quite safe as there is another metal layer over the electrified layer. Apparently there has been a case though where a kid had dismantled one and then used it to electrify other kids, so they are banned in Australia.

The customs man then confiscated the fly swatter and filled out a form for it for me, and that was it. Nothing else, just an innocent mistake on my part. Still it gave me quite a fright!

I didn't do much over the weekend except catch up on some much needed sleep and chill out in my flat here.

I managed to get nine hours sleep on Saturday night which is quite a lot for me. I also had a couple of Krispy Kreme donuts and felt too tired to visit the gym on Sunday morning. Quentin obviously won't be happy when I arrange to see him next Saturday.

Called Wespac (the Australian bank) today and they said that there is likely to be a problem if Barclays send money to a receiver with a different account name than the one that I have here. The woman from Westpac also thought that it was totally silly that Barclays wouldn't allow me to make an international transfer to a different named account.

I'm now trying to transfer money from my Barclays account to the Westpac account using an internet company called XEtrade which claims to have the best international transfer rates and an 'easy' way to move money around internationally. I'll let you all know how I get on with them. Hopefully they won't disappear with my money, they are based in Canada and their web site appears to be genuine.

Almost back to normal...

My dad had an operation yesterday (Wednesday) to fit a defibrillator to his chest. Everything went as well as can be expected and he will hopefully be back home in Hong Kong on the 1st April. Because of the operation I delayed my going back to Sydney for a few days until he was given the all clear after it.

Last Thursday after his heart attack he had to be resuscitated eight times over three hours with the defibrillator, so he's lucky to be alive today. The doctors said that if he wasn't in hospital at the time he wouldn't have made it. They can only suspect that it was the antibiotic drip that he was on at the time that caused the heart attack, but they still aren't sure about it which is why they recommended having a mini internal defibrillator fitted.

Since everything is as good as can be expected with my dad now I've rearranged my flight to fly back to Sydney this Friday so I will be back in Sydney on Saturday.

Here's a photo of me in my surgical uniform just before they needed me to operate earlier this week. Well I had to lie about being a doctor so I could have a go at operating, I never could say no to anything. I'm sure it would be as easy as playing the kids Operation game, mind you I was never great that that.

Just behind me you can see an intercom unit which you had to use to be able to speak to my dad while he was in isolation. You had to clean your hands before and after wearing all the hospital gowns and then dispose of everything in the bin after every use. My hands had never been so clean in my entire life!

Hopefully everything will be back to normal this weekend and I'm looking forward to getting back to Sydney. I called Barclays bank yesterday to try to transfer money to my Australian bank account seeing as I had been paid recently. Guess what, they wouldn't let me transfer the money because the Australian account was in a slightly different name, it's in my official passport name! The woman who let me do it last time will be told off for letting me transfer the money then, so I have to either check with the Australian bank that if funds are put into my account with a slightly different account name will they refuse them, or write a letter with a validated photocopy of my passport to change my Barclays bank account name. Alternatively I can just give up banking with Barclays as they have been nothing but trouble since moving out to Australia and switch all my main banking to my Nationwide account. I think I'll do the latter since it's much easier than the first two options. Grr, bloody pants Barclays!

I've also had a problem in trying to cancel my Fitness First membership as they claim to have not received my letter to cancel my account or have refunded the last two months membership fees. Another grr to Fitness First!

Brief update...

Quick update, generally everything has settled down from the initial panic. My dad is stable now but still in intensive care. He's awake and talking and eating. The doctors still don't know what caused the heart attack though so there is still the worry that it will happen again.

I'll still be here till Monday at least and will make a decision then as to what to do.

Always look on the bright si...you know the rest.

Unfortunately I've had some bad news from Hong Kong. Earlier this evening my sister called to tell me that my dad has had a heart attack this evening and has not regained consciousness. The doctors believe that he's in a stable condition right now, but don't know what caused the heart attack in the first place.

I'm heading out to Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon and I'm not sure when I'll have time to update the blog again.

Anyhow I'll be in touch when I have some more news.

Laters.
xx

Kylie Kylie Kylie....

She appears much bigger on TV than she must be in real life!

I went to the Powerhouse Museum on Sunday afternoon to see the exhibits and they also had a Kylie clothes and pictures exhibition on.

The Kylie exhibition was quite entertaining, there were most of her clothes that she wore on various famous tours and album covers. The photos of Kylie were also quite good and it was amazing to see how small her clothes were. I remember Steve telling me that she's very small when he saw her at the BBC.

There were her infamous golden 50p hot pants and also the white outfit that she wore on "Can't get you out of my head" which needed to be held together with double sided tape.

Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos at the Kylie exhibition. There were a couple of security guards watching over everything so it was very difficult to be able to take any photos.

I really wanted to take some pictures (even more so when I was told I couldn't) I had to take a couple from my hip when both guards weren't looking. The photos didn't come out very well but you can get an idea as to what the clothes looked like on display.

Sorry Davey, but there weren't any pairs of her knickers on show, well not that I could see anyhow. The golden hot pants were also in a glass box so I didn't have a chance at getting hold of them.

The other displays at the Powerhouse Museum were mainly design and engineering displays with an emphasis on playing around with the engineering exhibits to see how they work.

The place would be quite good for kids and people who like to find out how stuff works. I enjoyed a lot of the exhibits and some like the glass blowing and design awards that Australia has won were really good.

There was also an Enigma machine on display which was really interesting. The displays covered everything from some early Australian settler clothes and furniture to a space age display with scale models of the space shuttle and various satellites.

There was even the original Robbie the Robot from the TV series Lost In Space!

The receptionist said that it would take at least three visits to see everything and read everything at the museum and from what I saw over the four hours that I was there I can well believe it. I only saw three quarters of the museum.

On Saturday I arranged an appointment with a gym instructor at the local Fitness First gym. His name is Quentin and he showed me some new weight exercises to work out my upper body. I figured that I could do with some variation in my routine to stop me getting into a rut.

I obviously didn't realise how much of a rut that I had got into in my exercise routine. The exercises that I did with Quentin on Saturday were quite good and I felt good after the work out. However on Sunday morning I went to the gym again to do my usual routine and do some of the new exercises as well. My usual work out was quite tough going and by Sunday evening I was aching quite a lot on my arms. So much so that I could barely stretch them out!

I wasn't planning on doing any more with Quentin apart from his first free session, but I've decided to pay him for one Saturday morning session a week for at least one month to see how I get on. With any luck I'll get more used to the different exercise and my arms will stop aching after consecutive workout days!

Sailing on a Friday.

We had a team building exercise all day on Friday at a regatta event with a chance to raise some money for Water Aid as well. Each team entered contributes some money to Water Aid to be able to race.

Yachting is definitely something that I've never done before and I was eager to have a go and see what it was like.

We couldn't have been luckier with the weather on Friday. It rained quite often on Thursday and was rather overcast all day. Friday was a totally different story though as there were totally clear skies and it was sunny but not too hot either.

The picture above shows our team in the Regatta. From left to right is Allen, Shane, Roger, Paul and Ian. We were all given matching T-Shirts and a lunch box with a baseball cap.

This is the boat that we were allocated with a crew of four. It appeared as if the boat was owned by one guy and the three other members were either his friends or other people who allocated their free time for a chance to have a sail and race.

It wasn't a very large boat and I would be surprised if we could fit another couple of people on there. I think the owner of the boat Michael, was quite well off and enjoyed his sailing quite often as he was very very brown!

The boat costs around $360,000 to buy from new and was very very nice both upstairs and downstairs. I could quite easily spend quite a while relaxing on it, but we weren't there to relax.

The man on the right at the wheel is Michael the man whose boat it was. He was generally very easy going and just wanted us to have a good time. You could tell throughout the race that he was also quite competitive and wanted to really win.

We didn't end up doing that much onboard the boat other than be dead weights, and drink as much beer as we wanted. Whenever the boat tacked (changed direction to the wind) we were told how to move from one side of the boat to the other to distribute the weight.
Sometimes only some of us were told to move to one side and so on. It was all quite good fun for me, being much smaller I found it quite easy to move around and avoid the ropes and main mast

We were basically sat about half way down the boat on the side and could dangle our legs overboard to help with the weight distribution. At times the boat was really leaning over while the wind blew on the mast and we held on to the edge of the boat.

Roger also managed to have a go at pulling and adjusting the ropes to move the sails around the mast. It looked like a lot of fun and I would have liked to have a go too, but didn't get a chance.

We eventually finished second in the race and was beaten at the post by another boat which physically came last. Because all the boats were slightly different there was a handicap system in play. So it wasn't really the actual place you finished but rather the time after an adjustment.

There were some fast parts of the race when the wind was blowing strong but there were also plenty of very slow moments when there wasn't any wind and we hardly moved at all! These moments reminded me of "canal police", we were mostly sat there waiting for the wind to pick up and trying to do anything to make the boat move faster like moving all the weight to the front of the boat. A bit strange really, but fun none the less.

Overall I enjoyed myself and it's something else that I can tick the box off on but I doubt I'd really pay to go yachting again, it was fun but didn't really grab me with excitement in the same way that snowboarding might. I guess if you have loads of money and can afford to take time off to play around in the sea then it can be fun and also a great way to get away from everyone and relax.

My First Aussi BBQ!

I found a really cool cinema (if a cinema can be cool) on Tuesday night. It's called Dendy and is virtually right next to the Opera House. It's only a small art house cinema that has three screens. The really cool thing about it is that it serves alcohol so you can have a beer while watching a good film. It reminds me of a mix between the Prince Charles cinema in London which also serves beer and the Watershed cinema in Bristol.

I went there on Tuesday to see Good Night, and Good Luck. It's a very good, if a little short film about TV journalist Edward R. Murrow in the 1950's. It's all very well shot in black and white and I found it very interesting. I'll have to go to this cinema again next week to see Capote. They don't tend to show the blockbuster films but do show more films that wouldn't get much time at a bigger cinema. The other big advantage is that because it's an art house cinema you're less likely to get idiots there with mobile phones and eating Hungry Jacks (Burger King) as I had last week while watching Syriana.

We (Wallingford Software employees) went round to Paul's (WS one and only Australian Sales team) house after work on Wednesday for a BBQ. He has quite a big four bed house in the suburbs. You know it's large because it has a separate drive in and drive out entrance for the driveway.

Unfortunately it rained all day on Wednesday, yes it does rain here occasionally, so the weather wasn't that great. Paul put on a great BBQ though and the food was all very filling.


This next shot is of the back of his house. As you can see he has a swimming pool as well. We all bought our swimming gear but unfortunately because of the rain no one fancied a dip in the pool.

Just to the right of the pool in the shot is a golf course. Apparently most Australians really like a house that backs onto a golf course, but I don't think I would seeing as I'm not a fan of the game. They said that they do get a few people wondering by and even a couple of golf balls landing in their back garden. It was the golf ball in their front drive which was the worrying one though.

One thing that was quite amusing was when Paul let his wife start the cooking on the BBQ. Shane and Ian (both native Australians) were quite shocked that Paul didn't do the BBQ cooking. Apparently in Australia the BBQ is the man's domain and a woman shouldn't be let near it. It's not quite as bad in the UK, but it is similar.

After such an earful Ian (on the right), Roger and Allen both did the right thing and stood around the BBQ chatting and cooking the meat.

After the BBQ we made our way home. On the way out of Paul's house there was a "small" Huntsman spider on Paul's porch. It looked like the largest spider I've ever seen native to the UK, but I was assured that this was a baby one.

Fortunately it didn't move while I stared it down and it also didn't make a move when I walked gingerly past it. I'm guessing it was scared of everyone else around me (Paul's wife helped protect me. :-0) because if I had been on my own I'm sure it would have made a move to eat me. I've been told that they aren't anything to worry about because their bite won't kill you only hurt for a bit. As far as I'm concerned it's bite would kill me because I'd die of a heart attack if anything that big was on me!

The Sydney fish tank, are you paying attention?

I went to the Sydney Aquarium today to see all the fishes. I've been told that it was quite good and worth visiting. I'd been to Ocean Park in Hong Kong quite a few times and that has a very large aquarium, so it would be good to compare it to that.

I must say that it was quite good in bits and not so good in others. The coral marine sections were very good, but the sealions and penguins were disappointing. Maybe I'd been spoilt by the penguins and sealions at other marine parks, but the two sealions and half a dozen penguins were just weak exhibits.

On to the better bits, on the left here is one of the many large tanks that they had on the coral marine fishes. It really was quite impressive to see so many colourful fish. Much better than going to the free zoo's at Taunton, read marine fish shops there.

There was also a crocodile in the aquarium, though not with any of the other fish. There was only one but it was one big mother!

Here's a picture of it's head as it was just wallowing on the tank that had been setup for it. On the surface it looks sinister and not so big, but down below it was absolutely massive.

The running in zig zags to get away from them isn't a good idea apparently. They don't move that fast really and most people can outrun one if they just run away from it. The biggest problem with them though is that they have a low stamina so won't really run after their prey if they have to.

I also learnt the difference between an alligator and crocodile. You can see the bottom teeth in a crocodile but not an alligator. So if you find yourself next to one then you can tell the difference between them, assuming it's jaws aren't around your leg, in which case you'll have to find some other way to tell the difference.

This sign was above the crocodile enclosure as you could see the crocodile from above as well. I thought it was quite funny and worth taking a picture of for my blog.

There was also the infamous duck billed platypus there. It really is a bizarre creature. I've never seen anything like it and it really is unique in the world.

It's a very strange mix of a reptile and mammal. It lays eggs, has a lower body temperature than mammals, produces venom and walks like a reptile. However, it also has fur, suckles its young, and is classed as a mammal. It's also about the size of a cat and very quick. So quick that I couldn't get a decent photo of it. It has a heart beat of around 140-230 beats per minute, not unlike me sometimes!

The final bit of the aquarium had a big glass tank wall which showed lots of fish which were somehow attracted to swimming along the glass wall. They played some very calming music and had seats to sit on and watch the fish.

I really liked sitting here and just watching the fish swim about while listening to the music. A very relaxing end to a good aquarium.

It may not have the size of the Ocean Park aquarium, bit it is very well laid out and much better in showing the marine fish. Maybe Ocean Park is slightly better because of its size, but I'd recommend anyone visit the Sydney Aquarium if they have time while over here. It's well worth the £12 odd entrance fee.

OK, Barclays isn't quite so crap...

After calling Barclays bank on Wednesday night they admitted that there had been an error on their part and would eventually refund me my lost £48. The initial customer advisor that I spoke to said that I couldn't even do an international transfer over the phone and would have to pop into a branch to do it. I told him that he was wrong and could I speak to someone else who knew what they were talking about.

The next advisor was much more helpful and said that they would look into my situation and call back within the hour. Half an hour later they called back and said that they would launch an investigation into the incident to try to find out exactly what had happened as there had obviously been a mistake on their part. They also said that they would make an immediate international transfer which would take priority and this would be free to me.

A couple of days later I did get the money into my Australian bank account, just in time to pay some bills and my rent for the next month. Phew!

I went to see Syriana on Wednesday night at the cinema. It was quite a good movie, not quite as convoluted as people had made out and all loose ends were tied up at the end of the movie. It's the sort of movie that makes you want to give up driving and reduce the amount of oil that you use. Well that thought lasted most of the evening for me, till I realised that I really do miss driving in my car, especially with all the great weather over here.

On my way home, despite it only being just before nine in the evening the trains were deserted. I thought there was something going on that I hadn't been told about. In my one stop trip home I didn't see anyone except for the train guards.

I've definitely not been eating the healthiest food for lunch every day while at work. There is so much choice around Sydney in what to eat. Almost every food court has a very wide range of food, from kebabs to sushi, via fresh fruit salads and Nandos too!

At least I haven't been eating out in the evenings very often, but I'll have to make more of an effort to eat healthier food at lunch times. With this and the Friday cake sessions at work and the tempting Krispy Kreme donut shop on my way back from the gym, I had better be careful.

Kebabs here are accepted lunch time foods, not just after half a dozen pints down the pub. They're no less greasy, but do have more exciting salads with them. Mmm, but I did feel sickly later on during work. Maybe that feeling occurs when I'm asleep normally.

Barclays Bank is crap, Grr!

Just had to get this rant and rave off my chest. Last Monday I tried to transfer some money from my Barclays bank account to my Wespac (Australian) bank account. I called up their international banking department to make the transfer and gave them all the necessary details, then double checked the details to be sure. The transfer of funds costs me £20 for each transfer.

I've been checking my Westpac account online to see whether the funds had arrived all this week but nothing had turned up. Upon checking my Barclays account today it appears as if the funds have been returned to my UK bank account, less another £28!

I called Barclays 24 hour banking this morning (Aus time) and they said they didn't know why the funds had been returned, but the £28 deduction was probably due to the poor exchange rate that I would be getting. They recommended that I call back at 9am (UK time) to get though to the international transfers department which might have a better idea as to what went wrong.

So my money has been on holiday to Australia and back and cost me £48 in the process!

I'll have to call them tonight to see what's up and try to get some of this lost £48 back in the process. Right now I'll be happy to change bank accounts as Barclays have hardly made it easy for me to handle my money over here, with this and the problems in withdrawing money over the weekend.

Arty farty sunday without cash.

I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art today as my bank decided to block my card from taking any cash out, so I had to ration my cash. For some reason despite me telling my bank last month that I would be living in Sydney for the next year and to NOT block any transactions made in Sydney for the next year, they still decided that my transactions in Sydney were suspicious so blocked my card today.

I had to wait till 6pm (7am UK time) as well before I could unblock my card as their 24 hour banking service was down over the weekend as well. When I did get though and ask why they blocked my card despite a note on my account saying not to block transactions in Australia, the bloke on the other end could only say that the process is all automated so they couldn't stop it. Grr!

The gallery wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. It's only just a couple of blocks away from my flat so is quite convenient to walk to. Only half the floor space was available as they were in the process of changing over exhibitions. Still it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon in a cool large quiet gallery space.

I also did a little skating around the ground floor of my apartment block. There is a really tall office building that is unoccupied next to it. The lower floor has a good concrete area to whiz around in. Unfortunately all the benches and concrete ledges have anti-skate
blocks on them to stop grinds and the like along them. Still it was nice to cool down and skate around the flat surface.

Maybe next weekend I'll be able to pop down to the National Marine museum, Sydney Aquarium, or even the Powerhouse museum which has a Kylie clothes exhibition on! I doubt I'd fit into her clothes though.

Mardi Gras Time!

It's been the Gay and Lesbian festival for the last few weeks in Sydney. It finishes with one big parade though the town and a big party. I was walking around the route that the festival was going to take on Saturday say when I came across a big group of men dressed as cave men. Just had to get a picture shot of it, I'm sure Mark my hair dresser would be proud of me.

They were waiting at the lights when another group of men in leather bondage gear lined up across the street. Then they started to shout friendly abuse at each other. Very funny!

I met up with Allen and Deirdre later on in the day to find a good spot to watch the Mardi Gras parade.

As you can see Allen really didn't want to get involved and just turned up as per normal for an afternoon out. With his brown shirt and shorts with boots he really did look like he was the construction worker out of the YMCA song without a yellow hard hat.

We started to wait along the parade route at about five even though the parade didn't start till seven thirty. To top it off once the parade did start there wasn't anyone behind us so we really could have just walked up to the spot where we waited for a couple of hours. Doh!

There were a group of four women in front of Allen all with pink cowboy hats on. As you can see they were all quite good looking, unfortunately they were also two pairs of lesbians.

There were also four lesbians in front of me. These were the more stereo typical butch lesbians and two of them were very into each other. So much so that they insisted on kissing each other every few minutes just to show the world how much they loved each other.

Allen and I agreed that we wouldn't have minded so much if the pink cowboy hat ladies had been doing the same! :-)

The parade started with the traditional Dykes on Bikes as it does every year. They were exactly as they said on the tin. Not quite the dykes on peddle bikes as Deirdre suspected, but dykes on really big Harleys and other types of bikes.

The rest of the parade went on the next few hours as expected really. To be honest I didn't think that it was as impressive as it had been made out to be. It's apparently the biggest gay parade in the world, bigger than one in San Francisco.

There were a few good floats but most of them were quite tacky and it didn't look like that much effort had been put into them. Still I can tick the "been to the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras" parade box on my 'to do list' now.

We went for a pint on the way back from the parade. I saw an Irish pub that advertised that it sold pints of Guinness so we just had to stop there for a pint.

They really did sell pints of Guinness, I really could go up to the bar and ask for a pint. Unfortunately I went to the bar and asked for a Scooner of Guinness and the barwoman asked if I wanted a pint instead! Also it was Guinness extra cold and wasn't as good as a normal pint. Still beggars can't be choosers, no matter how much I whinge about it.

Shopping mall hell.

I finally got round to visiting my local Fitness First gym last Saturday. I must say this one is much friendlier than the one near the hotel, and it's much bigger too. Had a good work out but then again it has been over a week since I've done any serious exercise.

I'm surprised how much the walking around everywhere in the city has tired my legs sometimes. I knew that I didn't walk around much in the UK, but having to walk just about everywhere here has made me realise how little walking I really do. I may be quite fit and do at least a good hour or two of exercise five times a week but walking everywhere has surprised me. On the plus side me left arm which has been suffering some RSI recently appears to have stopped hurting. I'm guessing the lack of driving and lack of Squash and Badminton games in the past month has really helped.

I went out to walk around The Rocks on Saturday as it's virtually on my apartment's doorstep. Visited the market stalls around the area and also went to a couple of the free galleries there. I didn't think that much of the place though, it was a very different side of Sydney but was much to tourist orientated for my liking. Too many tourists and also stalls selling 'authentic' Australian boomerangs and the like.

Allen had hired a car on Sunday to go and fill out a two bedroom house as he and Deirdre had rented an unfurnished house. They planned to buy just about everything as it apparently worked out slightly cheaper than renting it for a year. I decided to tag along to help them move stuff and I also needed some minor items for my flat too. We ended up going to two different Ikeas and also two shopping malls!

Even for me who likes to go and shop it was quite enough. I guess I only bought a few items and they were household items rather than more exciting items like clothes and toys. I was very glad to have rented a furnished apartment though. There is just so much stuff that you take for granted around a house that if you had to buy from scratch would take quite a lot of money.

The Ikeas here appear to be attached to one end of the shopping malls so you can walk straight from one to another. I'm sure you could almost buy and walk out with a sofa from Ikea into a shopping mall wheeling it about on the trolley while you shopped.

It's good to know that some things don't change throughout the world as the Ikeas here are identical to the ones in the UK. The shopping malls are much the same too except for the labels on the shops.

While driving around the outer suburbs of Sydney I noticed how very American like the place is. Most of the streets looked so much like American streets with very wide roads and large blocks of even larger shops. On the whole I didn't really like it, I guess it's true in what some people say that Australia is like America with an English twist.

Firemen and being Lost.

We had a fire evacuation last week at work. It wasn't a drill either, I'm guessing someone must have set off a fire alarm. At first the fire alarm sounded and everyone looked around to see what to do. Unfortunately the fire warden on our floor hadn't got into work yet as it was only 8.30am.

Eventually someone decided to make the decision to head downstairs. Fortunately we're only on the fifth floor so didn't have that far to go, but the building does have 24 odd floors so I'm glad that we don't work up there.

Here's a picture of Tom, who's heading back to the UK today. As usual for WS staff he's still working away on his Blackberry while we wait outside the Town Hall for permission to re-enter work.

There were fire engines and one helicopter outside the building. Not sure whether the helicopter was just the press or something more official. It was all a false alarm in the end anyhow.

Another good thing about being out here is that the second series of Lost is just starting on TV, though it does mean that I have to be in on Thursday nights to watch it. I'm undecided whether this series is actually any good. It is very interesting to watch, but I'm not sure whether it'll live up to the expectations that it's set for itself. I just know that it'll end with me going "Is that it!". Never mind I'm quite hooked now so I'll just have to go along for the ride.

I'm alive!

Hello everyone, I'm back online at my apartment. I was back online yesterday but haven't had time to update the blog. I'll only have time for a quick update today and will hopefully have some more time at home tomorrow to do a more comprehensive update.

It's mostly been a couple of weeks of work and discovering more about Sydney.

Last Tuesday (21st) we went out to a popular steak house in Manley. It's a half hour ferry ride away from Circular Quay which is only five minutes walk from my apartment.

The place was like a time warp back in time. It was very weird for me, the decor couldn't decide between African art to aboriginal to some cross between an Aberdeen Steakhouse. The menu also had a separate section for the ladies with a selection of smaller meals. Well I must admit the steak was actually very good, but I'm not so sure that I'd really want to go there again.

One thing that was entertaining was one of the lead waitresses that worked there. She quite obviously had large fake breasts and had spent much too long in the sun. I just managed to get a phone photo of her here. We figured that she much have part ownership of the place as she acted as if she was in charge anyhow.

The journey back from Manley on the ferry was very pleasant though. There was a cooling breeze in the night air and you could see the entire Sydney Central Business district lit up in the night sky. I even managed to get a half decent picture of the Opera House which was amazingly lit up at night.

I guess it makes me realise how lucky I am to be able to be out here for a year to work.

Moving in and settling down.

No pictures today as I forgot to bring my camera with me to the hotel to access the internet.

Finally got to actually move into my new apartment on Saturday. Roger helped me move my stuff to the new place with an estate style taxi. Had fun trying to figure out the tradesman entrance to the building as I was told when moving in to use that entrance instead.

I'd already prepared for moving in by buying loads of cleaning stuff from Woolies. I have to give the place a good clean top to bottom, would you lot have expected anything less? Something very strange happened while I was cleaning. I was upstairs hoovering while listening to music and didn't hear someone knocking on my front flat door. I did just hear someone come in and call for me. It turned out to be another estate agent who was showing some old biddie around my flat!!!

I was quite shocked to have a different estate agent showing a prospective buyer around my flat just as I was moving in. From the estate agents point of view he said it was quite normal for a landlord to want to sell a property while it was being rented out. I mentioned that I had just signed a minimal six month contract. He didn't seem bothered by this at all and asked whether he could show his client around the place. I didn't see why not so let him lead her around, next time though I'll expect some sort of reasonable notice. Lucky I wasn't doing my cleaning in only my pants!

I'll have to call my estate agent tomorrow to find out what is going on and whether the place will be sold from beneath me forcing me to move out. God knows what's happening here though. I did think that maybe it's a sneaky ploy by the landlord to encourage me to sign a 12 month contract rather than the 6 month one that I have signed. I am tempted to sign a 12 month contract now though as I quite like the place. Maybe I'll give the place a week to see what it's like to live there for seven days before committing myself to it.

After moving in properly I'm generally very happy with the place. The two air conditioning units don't work really well though and don't cool down the place that much. It felt like ages last night before I managed to get to sleep. It was much much too hot in the bedroom, especially with the air vents and open mezzanine area and bedroom overlooking it. All the heat from the downstairs rises and collects upstairs making upstairs quite warm all the time. Not too good really.

Also discovered that the church in the next block has church bells which ring quite loudly on Sunday mornings! Went out shopping for lots of house things this morning. Even though the place is furnished there are so many little things that I still needed to buy, larger cups, coffee mugs, tea towels, desk fan, sideboard dish drainer (the flat has a dish washer but I doubt I'll ever use it seeing as I like washing up so much), Bose sound system for my iPod so I have music.

There is an ironing board in the property, but it's only a mini one with small legs on each corner. God knows how it's meant to be used to iron shirts though. The legs on the corners get in the way of trying to iron one side of a shirt at once. Grr!

Had to do a food shop to stock up my cupboards a little. Not having a car makes it difficult to be able to buy all the stuff I need in one go. I had to make two trips and the local supermarket is only a small inner city one so doesn't have much in the way of fresh veg in stock. I'm sure I'll get used to buying food two to three times a week. I wish I had my S2000 here, I have a parking space for it in my apartment and it would be really nice to be able to drive outside of Sydney central with it. Mind you the police here are quite ruthless on speeders, so I'd be likely to loose my driving license from speeding quite quickly.

I've not met any of my apartment neighbours yet and don't expect to be friends with any of them really. Was going to go to the nearest Fitness First gym this morning but after not sleeping very well last night I really wanted to lay in a bit rather than visit the gym. I'll have to introduce myself there later on this week instead. Got very chatty with one of the 24 hour security guards though. A guy named Nick who was very friendly and offered me loads of helpful advice.

There's a Starbucks opposite my new flat, they apparently have WiFi computer access so I might be able to log on there over the next couple of weeks. Otherwise don't be surprised if this blog isn't updated till I get internet access at home which will hopefully be in a week or two.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying reading my experiences while out here. Miss you all... xx