02/01/09

Was woken up at 9 to Coops telling us to hurry up and get ready because the Dans had already left for the Opera House. Left the hostel at around 9.30 and tried to get the free shuttle bus, but realised that it didn't start running until later so had to walk all the way down Pitt St. again. Got there at about 10.15 but the Dans had gone to get breakfast. We sat out on the steps at the front waiting for them. Turns out they had been at the Opera House at 9am waiting for us. We finally got the tickets and got on the tour at 11.30. Stage 2 looked the best, could have done with seeing a cabaret show there for $25, it looked like it would have been really good. Found out loads of pointless facts about the construction of the Opera House on the way round. They initially beleived that it would cost $7 million and take 3 years, but took 16 years and cost $102 million. When we finished at the Opera House the weather was still really good so we decided to go to Bondi beach, Helen was worried that the weather wouldn't hold out and she didn't want to spend a day on the beach if it was going to be cold like it was at Manly. The bus took ages to get there and cost more because we got it from Circular Quay rather than Hyde Park. When we did get there the Sun held out for about 10 minutes before a mammoth amount of cloud covered the sky and the wind picked up. I found that lying as flat as possible was the best way to stop the wind chill. As I was laying down with my hat over my face to stop the sand entering every orraphice on my head Pat and Burns decided to bury my legs in the sand, which caused a bucket load of sand to enter up the leg of my shorts and cause some serious ring chaffing later. Wall, Pat and Burns went for a few Hoffs, apparently the best so far, but I was far too cold to have enjoyed it. We left the beach shortly after they got back from Hoffing. Helen had to visit the toilet quickly again while the others got coffee from and ice-cream shop, not suprisingly it took ages for them to make each coffee and when they did get it they had to drink it out of baby cup/mug things. Queued for the bus, but as there were so many people fleeing the beach Burns, Fraser and I didn't managed to get on the first one. We had to wait another 20 minutes and failed to get on like 3 busses in that time because they were also packed out.

Finally arrived home and grabbed some burgers from Coles to cook before going out. Once the burgers were cooked we realised that someone had stolen our lettuce and tomatoes, pikey b******s, so we just had a burger in a giant bun with an onion. That takes the total of food stolen from the fridge to 1 tomato sauce bottle, 2 blocks of cheese, a lettuce some tomatoes and 6 bottles of VB. Had a quick shower before going out and as I came out of the shower I caught Pat at the sink cleaning his trainers that he spent so long dirtying in Taz because they were now 'too dirty'. We left the hostel with the intention of going to Darling Harbour for some drinks but realised on the way that the girls wouldn't get in because they had their toes on show so we went back to the Star Bar. We all looked well weird in trousers and trainers. Got in the Star Bar and got a seat, the moment we sat down and started to chat some t*** DJ decided it would be a good idea to pump out some seriously s*** music as loud as he possibly could making it impossible to hear anything anyone was saying unless they shouted it directly in your ear. So we decided to get Burns' drinking dice out, I started on the light beer a couple of rounds after everyone else to prevent a repeat of NYE. Some of the rules for the games were rEdiculous because make a rule came up so often. We eventually hit the dancefloor, light beer is definitely no good, being on a dancefloor stone cold sober doesn't quite make sense, but it was funny to watch some of the awsome moves the Dans were pulling off. Sat down towards the end of the night and reeled off a lot of rather sick would you rathers. As we were leaving some crazy asian bloke was having a right go at one of the bouncers, it was well funny. We got a kebab on the way back, this kebab was a mix of beef and lamb...I think, although I couldn't taste any difference between the supposedly different meats, the best part of it was that you could get it stuffed with cheese.

03/12/09

Woke up at 8.30 as Pat and Burns got up to go to the 3rd test of the cricket and laid in bed reading until the girls woke up. I didn't realise what the time was, but it was 11.30 before the girls woke up, so the plan to go to Darling Harbour before meeting the Dans was kind of out the window. They got ready and went off to Bondi Junction to do some shopping, I hung around a bit and ate yesterdays sandy sandwich before the Dans showed up at about 1 bearing gifts of a chocolate croissant, awesome, I could get used to this treatment. We set off to go shopping for thongs and Sunglasses for Fraser. Wandered around a bit and saw a lot of thongs in the sale but they were still really expensive so we left it. Found a sunglasses store in the QVB and spent a while trying on just about every pair they had, Wall looked like a paedo in a few pairs. We'd had enough of shopping so went to the Angel for a pint, which turned into 2. Had a dicussion about the travel plans for the next few days and attempted to order food but the manager was having none of it, he suggested a bar round the corner that 'definitely does food' so we went there...they dont do food. They suggested a bar round the other corner that did food, they didn't do food so we headed to bar 333 and got another beer and the most awkward to eat sandwich ever. Wall got a turkey Wrap, which looked tiny compared to mine and Frasers, gutted. Popped in to the Apple store for a bit of pikey internet and then went home.

When we got back I had a quick sort out and packed as much crap in my bag as possible. Helen was getting Hungry so we went to cook the last burgers so that they wouldn't go to waste. The queue for the hobs in the hostel was rEdiculous, it would have been a good hour before we got to use one and probably half an hour to actually cook a burger on it. I went for a quick wander across the street to Westend backpackers to check out their cooking facilities, they have GAS hobs and loads of free pans and stuff so I rushed back and got the 'bits-and-pieces'. We snuck in undetected and grabbed a pan and started frying within seconds of arriving. We bumped in to a couple that we'd met in our hostel a few days earlier that were now staying in this one, they seemed to find it amusing that we were just cooking there. As we'd finished cooking and put the burgers in the buns I was going to pour the fat away, but the handle on the pan was so s*** that it just spun around and all the hot fat fell right on the floor, so I just launched it in the sink and we ran. We ate the burgers and then went to see Australia at the cinema. Thats 3 hours of my life I'll never get back.

04/01/09

Up at 8.30 again to shower and pack all our stuff. We were all ready about an hour before we needed to check out so we sat around for half an hour. When we went downstairs to check out there was a queue all from the desk snaking out to the front door and all the way back and up to the stairs. Took about 20 minutes to check out and put our bags in storage. The girls went to darling harbour, Pat went to the Internet cafe and Burns and I went to the apple store. Spent a good hour trying to find accomodation for Newcastle, rang 10-15 hostels, motels and lodges, everywhere was booked up, so hopefully we would just be able to find somewhere when we got there. Attempted camera shopping on the way back but realised that I'm s*** at shopping so didn't get anything. Got a giant bag of wedges from woolworths and ate them on the way back to the hostel, felt well guilty walking past all the homeless stuffing my face with wedges that I knew would barely fit in my stomach. Got to the hostel and found Burns leaving the toilet after what must have been another epic turd. Walked to the bus terminal and I had the great idea of going to the toilet to go commando for the bus ride, don't want squashed nuts on another journey. Got on the bus and was sat next to a giant bloke that stank of fags and took up 1.5 seats so I was constantly leaning to the left, he also had some beef with the driver and kept shouting out about how his gear changes were awful and seemed to want to let everyone on the bus know about his knowledge of busses. I'm actually typing this as I'm sat next to him and I'm sure he just saw what I wrote, this journey is about to get a lot longer.

Arrived in Newcastle, the Dans were already there and were having a pint. We walked to the tourist info place but noticed just about everything was shut on the way, got there and the info place was shut. There was a list in the door of all the possible places to stay but most of them I had already rung from Apple earlier and were fully booked. Pat and I went for a wander to find out about one of the ones that weren't picking up their phone. On the way we went in to loads of different places all of which were full. We finally found a hotel which had 2 free double rooms and decided to sneak all 7 of us in the 2 rooms. Burns and Dans had pints while the rest of us went to check in. We waited for the reception to close before sneaking the others in. The girls then went out to get Chinese while we watched Look Around You on the TV. The girls got back with s*** loads of food and we ate while watching the inbetweeners and more look around you with a few games of scattegories thrown in.