Like most days, I caught some rays in Hyde Park having some lunch, went to the gym then got ready to go out. But today was different. After the gym, I had a few missed calls from a withheld number and some voicemail messages which could only mean one thing, bad news.
The voicemails were from my mum trying to get hold of me. She sounded very upset on the phone explaining that my Grandad (her dad) had passed away. She didn’t want to let me know via voicemail but I’ve always said to let me know by any means as I’d get the next possible flight home. Felling very upset as I was close to Cliff but I knew he was in the best place now because he was slowly becoming very ill. Straight to the pay phone, I called home. My mum answered and it very emotional to talk to her, we both knew Cliff would pass away soon but obviously didn’t know when. The plans then started as to when I should come home and how long for etc. I didn’t want to leave straight after the funeral so I thought a month would be a good idea. Looking at the Internet, British Airways seemed the cheapest and I wasn’t in the mood to shop around. Monday 12th at 16:35 was my flight on BA16. I was moving out of my current hostel to Bondi so I wondered if I could crash at someone else’s instead to safe me the hassel. I asked Mickey and he was more than happy to help me out. I managed to cancel YHA at Bondi without a charge too.
I thought I would celebrate Grandad’s life tonight taking advantage of happy hour (£3.50 a beer) and having lots of fun. We were waiting for Andy until about half 10 when we could see a blonde, smiling Mohawk walking our way. Let the party start!
Many toasts were made to Clifford Randall with the lads and lass’s in Side Bar. Everyone was sad to hear that I was leaving but totally understood. We had a laughs while Andy tried joining in with couples groping each other on sofa’s/beds on the side of Side Bar. The night ended late after trying to start and win dance competitions which I’m sure were terrible to watch but great to participate in.
On the way back to the hostel I reminisced Grandad’s life and spending time with him. He was a very happy laid back man who was very caring. Although old fashioned, he had his head screwed on and loved to joke around. He will be sadly missed and remembered for as long as I live!
Friday, 27 March 2009
08/01/09
Passed couple of nights were spent chillaxing. But tonight I was off to Side Bar to meet Mike and a couple of others. It was a good night but noticed the DJ liked to play the same tunes in pretty much the same order which got annoying. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when Andy is back from his photo shoot in Victoria (He’s a body boarder sponsored by Billabong). I got home about 3am after trying some sausage rolls at an all night food establishment next to Central Station, yum yum!
06/01/09
I was in an Internet café which was part of a 24 hour convenience store burning some more mix CDs. Finally I found somewhere that was fast and cheap. Only $4 and hour which beat FedEx office services which charged $4 a minute! I was chatting to Sammie on facebook and she said she would be at Mickey’s later and pick up the mix CDs if I went over. “Hell yeah!” I said. She also said if I send her details of what I wanted on the face of the CD, she would print some labels out at her work which is amazing. My hand writing is terrible so I sent the details over to her straight away.
I got to Mickey’s about 18:30 and Sammie was already there with 6 pages of labels and logos which was fantastic. I gave her the CDs and she went. The Aussie’s are great, helpful people, I’ve only met Sammie once and she’s putting herself out for me. Me and Mickey went to Coogee Beach for some food. Five-O bar offers a $5 steak so that was all good. We ended up crashing Sarah’s date which was a bit of a laugh. Following the lovely steak we headed over to The Palace which is a three floor pub/bar/club right on the beach front.
I got to Mickey’s about 18:30 and Sammie was already there with 6 pages of labels and logos which was fantastic. I gave her the CDs and she went. The Aussie’s are great, helpful people, I’ve only met Sammie once and she’s putting herself out for me. Me and Mickey went to Coogee Beach for some food. Five-O bar offers a $5 steak so that was all good. We ended up crashing Sarah’s date which was a bit of a laugh. Following the lovely steak we headed over to The Palace which is a three floor pub/bar/club right on the beach front.
05/01/09
Another really hot day and off to my favorite Café on Campbell Street I went to meet D. As I don’t have my laptop, it was really nice of her to let me burn loads of CDs. 25 CDs later and I’m ready to rip up the dance floors when DJ work comes my way. I’ll burn some more CDs once I find a place that does it cheap. A nice chilled evening for me this evening which was much needed.
04/01/09
Mickey’s BBQ in Clovelly (eastern suburbs) was brilliant. His flat had a view of the sea and a great view of the city. I met some more Aussie’s who loved to call me “Pom” or “Pomey”. They didn’t enjoy my reply of “convicts” much though. I got talking to Sammie who’s mates with Mickey flat mate Sarah. She said she knows some people who run a bar and a club in the area and they might be able to sort me out DJ work, good job I arranged to burn some cds with D tomorrow. I was up until about 3am dressing up in stupid outfits and drinking lots of beer. I stayed at Mickey’s and got the train back to Central after I had some sleep. Best to have a chilled one this evening!
Thursday, 5 March 2009
03/01/09
I’m glad I’m keeping this diary because all the days on my trip so far are merging into one. Tonight definitely has to be a quiet one but Mike is 19 today, Miss Crazy D (Unknown FM DJ) is coming to meet me and Mickey and Dana are going to be in Side Bar at 8pm so it seems like another good night is on the cards.
It was good to meet up with D. Mike had a good birthday too. We stayed in Side Bar until the end then went to an Irish dudes apartment down the road. About 10 of us were in a posh lift and went up a few floors, probably the smoothest and nicest lift I’ve ever been in. The apartment was really big with loads of people here there and everywhere. 15 people were living there but it only had 3 rooms, I guess it brings the rent down.
I’m not too sure what time I got back to the hostel, but I know it wasn’t early. Straight to sleep for me as Mickey invited me to his BBQ this afternoon.
It was good to meet up with D. Mike had a good birthday too. We stayed in Side Bar until the end then went to an Irish dudes apartment down the road. About 10 of us were in a posh lift and went up a few floors, probably the smoothest and nicest lift I’ve ever been in. The apartment was really big with loads of people here there and everywhere. 15 people were living there but it only had 3 rooms, I guess it brings the rent down.
I’m not too sure what time I got back to the hostel, but I know it wasn’t early. Straight to sleep for me as Mickey invited me to his BBQ this afternoon.
02/01/09
Another fun day of recovery which is a lot easier than in England. Probably because of the great weather and better scenery ;-) I was just about to head out when I nearly jumped out the window. A huge orange cockroach (or something similar was trying to find a new home in my bag next to my foot. My bag is not a home for cockroaches so I asked him to leave. He started to head towards the my wedged open door and sat nicely in the door hinge. Whoops, I accidentally slammed the door and chuckled to the sound of a crushed crisps. Black blood? Very weird, it must have come from hell! Of to meet Mike and Pete in Side Bar. I also gave the heads up to Mickey (the Aussie geeza I met in Scubar a few nights previous). More beer, more Yager Bombs and meeting more people. The night ended with me, Mickey and Dana from the US. It was weird partying with people from completely different parts of the world that talked the same language and were on the same wave lengths.
01/01/09
A quiet night in as I felt terrible, oh no, I went to Side Bar again for more fun and games and Yager Bombs: a lovely concoction of a shot of what looks like car oil thrown into a glass of red bull then downed as fast as possible. Great fun!
31/12/08
Another bad hang over today even though it was meant to be a quiet one. I was meant to meet Mike and Andy (who I met last night in Side Bar) at 10am so we could start queuing to get into the Botanic Gardens. This was quite difficult because I only had about 4 hours sleep and was still pissed from last night and probably the night before. Andy was to meet us later so me, Mike, Tim and a few others headed through Hyde Park towards the gardens. Once we got to the entrance, the queue was huge. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was amazing to see how organised the queue was even though there were no markers of stewards keeping everyone in a nice regimented line. If this were in England, there would be no line and havoc everywhere.
Behind me in the queue were a couple of guys I recognized from my mates facebook photos. Saxby had been traveling for some time now and knew he was in Australia but thought he may have moved on to South America when I got there. I thought it was a long shot but worth a go and sure enough they were his mates and he was about to join them soon. It was mad seeing Saxby as I haven’t seen him since Glastonbury 2007.
New Years Eve was amazing, the weather was great and the atmosphere couldn’t have been better. Saxby and his mates were meeting more people in the gardens so there were 20 to 30 of us partying away with the rest of the 20,000 that managed to get in. The fireworks were the best I had ever seen, I suppose they should do considering they apparently cost $5m. Street parties followed the fireworks plus talking to random people and dancing to Jonny Cash that a 70 year busker was playing through a speaker that was probably older than him. I got in at about 6am and I knew New Years Day was going to be tough, what a pukka night!
Behind me in the queue were a couple of guys I recognized from my mates facebook photos. Saxby had been traveling for some time now and knew he was in Australia but thought he may have moved on to South America when I got there. I thought it was a long shot but worth a go and sure enough they were his mates and he was about to join them soon. It was mad seeing Saxby as I haven’t seen him since Glastonbury 2007.
New Years Eve was amazing, the weather was great and the atmosphere couldn’t have been better. Saxby and his mates were meeting more people in the gardens so there were 20 to 30 of us partying away with the rest of the 20,000 that managed to get in. The fireworks were the best I had ever seen, I suppose they should do considering they apparently cost $5m. Street parties followed the fireworks plus talking to random people and dancing to Jonny Cash that a 70 year busker was playing through a speaker that was probably older than him. I got in at about 6am and I knew New Years Day was going to be tough, what a pukka night!
30/12/08
It was my first night out last night at Scubar which is underneath the YHA hostel near Central station. All you can eat pizza for $10 and a jug of beer for $7.50, which I took full advantage of! I met loads of fun people and woke up with a massive hang over. Most of the people I met were travelers alike and from the UK. I also met a few Australians including Mickey. He looks a bit like the lead singer from Maroon 5 and sound as a pound. Even though he’s not a backpacker, he enjoys the talent in backpacker bars, which I understood very well. I told him what I was up to and he gave me his number so I’ll call him in the next few days.
This evening I ventured out to Side Bar (below Wake Up hostel, opposite Central station). Its a bigger bar and a bit more expensive that Scubar but more people to meet and better music.
This evening I ventured out to Side Bar (below Wake Up hostel, opposite Central station). Its a bigger bar and a bit more expensive that Scubar but more people to meet and better music.
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