Mad Rush - Sydney, Australia
visited Apr 9, 2006
Sydeny was, as always, a mad rush. That city runs so much faster than Brisbane. Whenever I'm down there it just all seems non stop. Now, I know you could say that is because when you only have 5 days in a place, everything is a rush, but when I lived down there last year I was there for months and it never stopped. Still, at least this time Kate and I managed to do everything essential that was on our list, which is a lot better than last time. There was some unexpected excitement. On thursday night, Kate's flatmate's cat got run over, and we all ended up dashing to an all night emergency vet hospital. The cat is still alive, and, once it has recovered from its $3000 leg reconstruction surgery, will no doubt continue to live a long and pampered life. But it did mean our dvd and gelati plan had to be postponed. Friday was spent running a dozen little errands, and pottering about, but saturday was non-stop socializing. We had brunch at the Chocolate Dog in Newtown with Nick and a bunch of people from Brisbane. Obviously. They were down for Nick's 30th birthday, which was also my flimsy excuse. The evening was spent celebrating Nick's birthday over dinner with the same brisbanites, and about 25 sydney people in a very fancy restaurant in Erskinville. Kate and I opted to share a meal (yes, we're cheapskates) and so had a very pleasant morsel of kangaroo each, followed by a small poached pear and molecule of very nice icecream. It was a very fancy restaurant. After dinner the party moved to a funciton room downstairs where we talked and some people danced to the CD compilation Nick had created for the occasion. I bet the pub had never played anything from the Oklahoma soundtrack before! The toughened party people went on to the imperial around midnight, but Kate and I took the going-home-and-crashing option instead, with a slight detour to drive our friends Eric and Peter home, as well as Oddur who was staying with them. Sunday was then a day of rest, except for going out to Victoria Park to meet a whole lot of queeruption type people who play anarchist soccer there on sunday afternoons. We arrived and sat down to talk to Eric and Peter while we watched to work out if there were any rules, and somehow never got around to the playing soccer part. It was fun to watch the others playing though. There were goals, and vague teams, but no boundaries, and it was played on a bit of a hill, so it was all interesting. Sunday night we finally managed the dvd and gelati plan that had been postponed, and Monday was spent in sleeping in, packing and getting to the airport. Sydney was fun. No idea when I'll be back there - no further flights are booked, and I leave Australia in less than 3 months. Might be next year before I get back there. Ah well. Kate is coming up here in a mere 2 weeks, so that's something.