Colin & Kizzy go round the world: February 2012

Hi folks.

I am writing this blog post from Vietnam to record for posterity and tell you all about our fabulous time in Sydney, Australia.

Sydney Opera House

We arrived in Sydney on the 12th of December and left on the 12th of January. Spending both Christmas and New Year.

When leaving New Zealand we had a last minute panic about Visas. I suddenly realised that you had to get one in advance and that it would take 3 days to get it!! Arghh.. I went to an online Visa place who after several hours told me that we already had them!! I must have been super efficient before we started this trip and since then my mind has become fuddled and I could not remember ever having sorted it out! Oh well - panic over...

We had decided in advance to use Sydney as a base because we wanted to stay in the same accommodation to get a better deal and save money, because we have friends in Sydney we wanted to catch up with and frankly because after so much traveling we are still feeling a bit lazy and just wanna hang out for a bit and not live out of the backpacks. We used Airbnb to find a cheap place and we found a place in Newtown Sydney. This place had the advertising monicker - beautiful garden oasis - or something like that. We arrived in New Town and the place was a kind of shed at the bottom of a ladies garden. It was pretty well decorated and reasonably comfy looking but we would need to use the main house for cooking and showering. We were probably already thinking that a month in this place might not be ideal although the host and her daughter seemed like really nice folk and so we thought we would muddle through.. We had been warned to expect plenty of cockroaches in Australia - no big deal - we don't mind the odd cockroach crawling around on the ground - however we spent the entire first night awake because the cockroaches were crawling in through the roof and along the ceiling and every once in while dropping on our heads from above!!! Argh.. It was horrible and we could not sleep the whole night...

One of the beasts..

We got up grumpy the next morning and decided that there was no way we could stay here for a month. We told the lady and she was very understanding and nice, told us it had never happened before but understood our decision to leave. So not the best start. We needed to get out quickly and so we went a bit upmarket for a few days and moved into a serviced apartment in central downtown Sydney. Oh the relief. On the upside - we had decided that we really liked New Town - it was a quirky kind of bohemian area not dissimilar to places in London. It also had some interesting street art and graffiti.

From our serviced apartment we took our first opportunities to visit some of the attractions like the Opera House and just wandering around and soaking up some of the atmosphere. The weather was already nice and warm, the city itself very multicultural with many Asian peoples. In many ways we felt right at home. Just like London but with better views, better weather and less people! So nice to live in a city with beaches and nature on your doorstep..

Sydney skyline

Sydney Opera House

Touristy sightseeing pic..

We also took a trip to the Sydney Art Gallery to see the Picasso exhibition where we saw some strange and wonderful modern artworks, sorry but we don't remember the name of the artists...

After a few days we found ourselves a new Apartment in Bondi Beach which was only a 5 minute walk from the beach and was fantastic and comfortable. Sydneysiders seem to have varied opinions on Bondi, but we loved it. It seems to be a place where the beautiful people hang out but it is also chilled out with a happy vibe and has great bars, shops and restaurants. This was to be our home for the month and we loved it.

Front door of our apartment

Bondi street scene

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach - mobbed !

So the first major event of our time in Sydney was catching up with my old university pal - Jo Cocker (now Elliot), and her husband Dave. It had been 15 years or so since Jo and I had seen each other or had any real communication other than a few brief chats on Facebook so I was really excited to catch up. Jo lives in Curl Curl which is near Manly on the other side of the water from Sydney Harbour. We took the Manly ferry over.

View from the ferry

Jo and Dave were there on the other side to meet us. Jo was not sure she would recognize me after all these years so she had a poster up with my name on it but we spotted each other straight away and spent a lovely day walking around Manly, taking in the sites, catching up and having a few beers. It's amazing how you can click straight back in with some people and it was that way with Jo.

Col, Jo, Ana and Dave

A few days later we were very lucky to be invited by Ludo, the boss of GMI Asia, to the GMI Asia office Christmas party. For those of you who don't know - GMI was the company I was working for for the last 5 and half years in London. GMI Asia sure knows how to party! Every year Ludo hosts the Christmas party at his house. The party was set in the garden. There was a couple of people that I knew either through email and telephone conversations and one or two that had visited our offices in London. There was great food and wine, music and dancing. It was a great night and we were to meet up with some of the people from the party again during our Sydney adventures; namely Jun, Shu, Praphan, Roxanne, Raine and Victor. A big thanks to Ludo and to all our new friends at GMI Asia !

Ludo with wig !

Go Kizzy Go Kizzy !

Sing along..

In full swing..

I have to share a little video as well.. an amazing dance routine from a guy at the party.. Hilarious..

The next day we were invited to a BBQ at Roxanne's place in Bondi and just down the road from our place. Roxi was having a little party just before leaving for 3 weeks to Indonesia for some traveling. It was really great to spend some more time with Roxi and meet some of her friends. We had the feeling that it would be really easy to slot into a life in Sydney. Thanks Roxi ! I seem to have forgotten my camera for this one !

And then there was Christmas. Jo was heading off to spend some time with Dave's family for Christmas and so Jo and Dave kindly lent us their flat in Curl Curl for Christmas. Curl Curl is a really quiet area and it was perfect for us. The place is lovely and just 2 minutes from the beach and the ocean. You can see the ocean from the balcony. We spent 3 or 4 days there, eating BBQ, walking on the beach and generally chilling out. Christmas dinner was BBQ and a few glasses of sparkly and wine. A proper Ozzy Christmas. We went for a walk on Christmas day and there were many families having their Christmas dinner BBQ on the beach, just taking a break from the food to go surfing.. Thanks Jo and Dave - you guys are amazing.. Wherever we land you are always welcome.

Xmas tree in Jo's flat

Christmas BBQ Breakfast

Pink sparkly for Breakfast..

Strawberry and Champagne Breakfast

Christmas day at Curl Curl beach

Couple on the beach - Christmas day

Christmas day at Curl Curl beach

We met up with another old university pal of mine - Jon Hutton and his family. Again one of those things were we just clicked straight back in as if no time had passed. Jon has a lovely wife Anne and three beautiful children -the newest one arrived whist we were in Sydney. The first time we went round for dinner and the second time Jon kindly invited us to join his family to watch the Sydney New Years Eve fireworks. We watched the early show from Balmain and then the midnight show from Jon's house from the top of his roof! What a view..! Thanks Jon and Anne

Archie, Olive and Jon

Col and Jon

Anne, Olive with new arrival George !

George attending his first fireworks !

Everyone and Anne's mum

Jon w/Olive Col w/Archie

Sydney Bridge lit up for the fireworks

Fireworks

The next Day - New Year's Day it was a reasonably early start for us. We had bought tickets to go to a music festival called Field Day held in the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain in central Sydney. Many bands in the line up I had not heard of but I was excited to have the chance to see Young MC and also Drum City Drum Ensemble had a DJ set. We had been warned that this would be a pretty young event with lots of pretty young things going crazy.. We had a good day but the music in general was average although it was a real treat to see Young MC. You can see the short video I did of Know How below.

Yes we arrived early !

The Island setlist.

Young MC

Spank Rock

MCDE

Random festival shot..

Jun and Shu from GMI organised to take us out on Jun's boat in Sydney harbour to do something that really only the locals can do.. We went to an island called Shark Island and hung out there and had a few beers and a picnic. It was a really great day with some good conversation and although the day was a little overcast it afforded us some excellent views. Thanks Jun and Shu ! An aside - you will notice Ana's hair is much shorter, that's because the night before I gave her the big chop. Not bad for a first time

Jun, Shu and us..

Jun and Ana

Jun and Shu prepare the boat

Sydney Skyline from Shark Island

We had 11 days left in Sydney and we made the most of the beach, the good food, the wine. We had one more crazy afternoon/night out with Jo and Dave and a bunch of their friends for the first day of the Sydney festival. We spent the whole time at the Norman Jay bus listening to a fellow Londoner spin some excellent summer tunes. It was a hot and sunny day and we danced late into the night..

Norman Jay

All of us !

Dave

We were joined by another fellow Londoner - JK of Jamiroquai fame. He sure seemed to be having a good time too!

Just a week or so before we were due to leave we started to become friendly with our new neighbours at Bondi Beach Yvette, Matt and their children Kaspar and Minna. A family from Switzerland spending three months in Australia. We spent some time with them and made some new friends who we hope to see again some time and somewhere. I am sure I had a picture of all us but I can't seem to find it.

Minna's birthday

Kaspar

And then almost as soon as it had started our Sydney adventures were over. We had such a wonderful time in Sydney and what made it the most special was the people, some from the past and some new faces. Thank you again - you know who you are. Sydney revealed itself as very relaxed but vibrant, happy and fun. A place we could easily and happily live.

We had so many great moments in Sydney it was hard to cover it all and so I leave you with a selection of snaps of course including some more graffiti and street art..