Bondi Junction whats your function?

I felt a little depressed yesterday after realizing how little time I left to experience this immense country and that I've been kind of that I've been kind of slacking off on the touristy travels and just been hanging around Bondi Junction and Manly...not that there's anything wrong with that.
While sitting on the hour long ferry from Manly Beach back to Circular Quay, soaking wet from the thunderstorm and down pour that hit us 2 minutes before I was about to leave, I began to reminisce about my quintessential Aussie weekend and how much I'm going to miss this place.
Friday night started with a Manly summer league, end of the year party in which our team, Beer O'clock received our championship trophies. At the bar they had a game called "beat the bar" (there really aren't any more creative names to call it), where after each order placed you are entitled to flip a coin. If you win all the drinks you ordered are free and Manly summer league takes the bill, if you lose you simply pay the amount owed. I was a perfect 5 for 5 on pints for the evening which soon lead to debauchery and me passing out cold on the ferry and getting woke up by the ferry officer an hour later telling me to get the hell off the boat before I end up back in Manly.
On Saturday we fired up the barbie Australia style with 20 lbs of assorted meats to celebrate my roommates birthday. We drank quite heavily until 11 o'clock and I was persuaded to head out downtown with a bunch of my friends. The 5 jager bombs (jagermister and red bull) allowed us to keep roaring until the clubs closed down at 4am where I hitch a ride home and consumed nearly all our left overs.
Sunday was a bit of a struggle for most of the morning. The Jagerbombs from the previous night didn't sit too well in the stomach, or the kidneys for that matter. After about an hour and a half of drinking coffee and channel surfing through our 4 channels I sucked it up and headed to the Ferry en route to Manly Beach for some beach ultimate. After all it was 85 degrees. God I love this country.
I feel slightly embarrassed in the fact that I've been playing this sport for seven years and have never once played an organized game on the beach. I would argue it was one of the best beach memories in my life. There where about 30 people there playing 6 on 6 games in soft hot sand laying out for everything. At 5:30 after two hours of playing everyone ran in for a swim in the luke warm ocean water and enjoyed 4 foot waves and an unbelievable sunset.
Next week I head of to Melbourne for the ANZAC (Australia new Zealand army corps) weekend for Nationals with the Manly Ultimate team. After that I have only two weeks of work and I'm getting my arse out of Sydney ready to take on Gold and Sunshine coast. Stay tuned more entries to come in a few days. I know I've been slacking.

Oz-idies: The peculiarities that make OZ,OZ

Well I've been here for about a month now and it hardly feels like I'm that far away after all, well except for the fact that I half way across the planet from my friends and family. But besides that,for the most part, Australia is not that unlike back home. The landscape, scenery and architecture reminds me of a cleaner, dryer and friendlier version of California. They all watch the same shows (and a bunch of other ones that got the boot after the first couple episodes), gawk at the same celebrities, make fun of GW etc. Both countries are a melting pot of nationalities and both countries drove off the original inhabitants with big guns, small pox, herpes and horses. Well not herpes but it affects 1 and 5 Australians as well. All in all though, walking down the street it feels allot like a cleaner, dryer California with a tinge of European influence.
Australians do have a pretty cool thing going on. So for your enjoyment I've complied a list of the little subtleties that make this place a world in it's own.

1.) As you may or may not have heard. practically everything north of New South Whales is poisonous. The snakes, spiders, jelly fish, snails, rat poison etc. Originally when I can here I was freaking out because of the Bill Bryson book: Sunburnt country . In this he goes into great detail about all the things that will kill you if your not careful. turns out he's a bit of a wanker and I should have known from his wussyboy antics in a walk in the woods but I had to make sure so I asked all the locals and they basically told me to check my shoes before I put them on and not to stick my hands in piles of woods etc. It didn't stop me from freaking out when I ran into a 4 ft spider web in the Royal Botanical Gardens. After all someone did die in Sydney unearthing a funnelweb spider while gardening.

2.) When they tell you not to swim in the water,or better yet, don't tell you to swim in the water, you probably shouldn't. The currents in the Pacific ocean are ridiculously strong and like we noted earlier, the Jelly fish are lethal. So out of the thousands of miles of sandy beaches around the coast, the only place you should swim is between the designated yellow flags. Those stories about the people getting ripped apart by crocodiles, stung and killed by jellyfish and people who are carried out hundreds of miles into the sea are the ones who pulled over along side the road and said "that seems to be a nice remote, lush, peachy beach, let's just dip our feet in" are the ones you hear about in the news the next morning.

3.) The attitude here is more laid back than any place I've ever been, yet for some reason every one feels the need to save 1-2 seconds per sentence by abbreviating everything. They usually just take the suffix out and add "e" to it. For example Woolworths is called "wallies". Bad example, that one actually doesn't save anyone any time. Telephone is called Tele, instead of saying "don't get all aggravated man" they say "don't get all agro" and instead of saying "Would you like to have a glass of that invigorating caffeinated beverage that I can brew hot or cold here in this pot and pour for you into a cup and put in sugar, cream or milk or whatever combination you prefer and drink it". They just say: Would you like a cuppa?"

4.) There is no Australian Hollywood. When I got off the plane I expected to see their version of People magazine which I assumed would have been called "Mates" or something like that and would talk about all the celebrity gossip about their stars drug habits and infidelity but no. Just more talk about Britney Spears getting fat and crazy, Nicole Riche's anorexia and Kyle Monogue.

5.) Kyle Monogue is the biggest celebrity in Australia and has been for the last 15 years. She appears in the front page of every weekend edition newspaper.

6.) Since there is no Hollywood, there are zero, zinch, nunda original TV shows. All the syndicates here just buy out, old, has been shows that you would see on UPN and they also recreate successful shows in the U.S rename them. For example you have Australian Idol, who wants to be an Australian Millionaire, so you think you can dance (Australia), the Biggest loser (Australia-) and so on.

To be continued..........

Great Ocean Road Photos

Check out my latest photos from my trip along "The Great Ocean Road" with my Aussie friends!

Welcome to OZ and the 14 hour flight

My god what a ridiculously long flight. For some reason I assumed international flights afford 2-4 additional inches of extra foot room, you know because your in the air for an extended period of time, turns out I was wrong...dead wrong(dun dun daaaan). I was sandwiched between two very large(but sweet) old ladies but just before lift off I convinced them to give me the window since I wouldn't get up much to use the bathroom(he he he).
Note to self: never fly united air ever again. I think they used our plane in the movie airport back in 75. no foot room, no TV's in front of the seat and horrible food.

Decrepit ins't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

Shortly before our microwaved dinner was served the captain announced that because of overwhelming demand we may run out of the chicken and mushroom dinner and therefore have to eat the roast beef and turd sauce. He then communicated that it really didn't make a difference because after all "they all taste the same." ZIIINNNG!!!!

All in all I managed to pound a few VB's (Victorian Bitter, aka Aussie Budweiser) and stay up for four hours talking about the roaring twenties, swinging sixties and Ford Flivers with Gertrude and Dorothy before I fell asleep(for 8 hours) watching the opening scene to "The Queen".

Before landing I caught a glimpse of the most beautiful coastline I've ever seen. 50 ft cliffs looking over looking sandy beaches and the royal blue pacific and then of course Sydney Harbour. After landing I was amazed on how popular Ulimate frisbee was here. There where 50 ft action photos of chest high layouts and other candids of famous Aussie players. Alright the last part was a bit of a lie but they do love their Aussie rules footie here.

Alright I'm off Melbourne!!!