Our last day in Sydney
6:55 pm 02/10/2008
Last night was an enjoyable affair. We had dinner while watching an Eric Clapton DVD (by the way, Eric Clapton is incredibly boring live if you're a fan), and then I finally convinced my Dad to let me use his mobile phone wireless card to use the Internet. I then spent the next 45 minutes doing as much as possible online in the time I had (I still have nearly 300 unread items in Google Reader). Amongst the things I found were about 15 birthday messages in my email, on MNI, on Facebook and on Myspace. Thankyou all very much everyone. It means a lot.
We went to bed early last night as well, but not before we made a sign to hold up on the set of Sunrise. Me and Andrew had to wake up early to walk to the place where it's filmed each morning to get there by 8am. We told a whole bunch of people that we were going to be there and we also got a few people to film it, so I'll eventually get around to putting it up on Youtube so everyone can watch it. We had to wait until the very end of the show when the hosts all come outside to sign things and say hi to the crowd (they do a pretty good job of ignoring everyone while they're inside to be honest). We also had to use the TV on the side as a guide to where to hold the sign, and we JUST made it into the final shot, but we're definitely there.
Oh, did I mention the sign said “I just lost the game”? Yep, we went on national TV to get that message across :P. I'd love to know how many people realised what it meant. We do know that a lot of our friends saw it however.
We walked back to the apartment after the show, but we couldn't get upstairs because the keycard that we had to use to activate the lift was magnetized or something and wasn't working properly. The lousy keycards here that you need to get into all parts of the building (including our room) have been so unreliable and fiddly. Sure, they're supposed to offer greater security, but to be honest, they don't work very well.
Something that struck me and Andrew on the way back was how stupid Sydney is when it comes to transport. Everyone honks their horns constantly, often for no reason. You can't buy bus tickets onboard the bus on some bus routes. The bus lanes aren't used properly by anyone, buses or the public. I've got two stories about that one actually. We saw eight buses all in a row, in a normal lane, which was just to the right of a bus lane. We also saw a taxi broken down in a bus lane, forcing all the buses to go around it. All drivers here are idiots to be honest. They don't consider anyone but themselves. Oh, and there are so many people that simply don't wait for green lights to start moving, whether they be on foot or in a car. However, that could be more to do with the retarded traffic cycles and amazing amount of one-way streets they have here.
Something else that struck us was how much Sydney has simply copied from the rest of the world: town names, building design, even a copy of Central Park from NYC (which they named Hyde Park, a copy of a famous park in England). Oh yeah, and just as we got back from Sunrise, a car pulled up outside the building with green stuff dripping from underneath the car. I do believe we have a Fail Blog entrant :P.
Once we got everything together and Mum got over her latest mood swing (I'll write more about that tomorrow), we finally got downstairs and into our car for the first time since Monday when we arrived. We drove down to Circular Quay this time and parked underneath the Sydney Opera House. We then walked all around the massive building, taking in the bay again, including the Harbour Bridge. The views there are just spectacular. Oh yeah, from there you can also see the back of Kirribili House (the place the Prime Minister stays occasionally) where the guy climbed over the wall and got into the grounds of the building :P.
From the Opera House we drove to Bondi Beach to see the famous surf and surrounds. I was the only person to actually go in the water, but it was still lots of fun. It was very very cold and windy though, and we didn't stay for long after I got out of the water. As we were walking off the beach, we saw dozens of piles of rubbish from where people had just dumped their litter. We got the feeling after that that people in Sydney generally are just douchebags. I think the only nice people we've met have been that guy from Wyndham at breakfast on Tuesday and the guy who sold us stamps today.
That reminds me, before we left Bondi today we got a few postcards and posted them off. A couple of people can expect some mail in the next few days :P.
We're going out for dinner now so I'll write more later. Seeya.
Last night was an enjoyable affair. We had dinner while watching an Eric Clapton DVD (by the way, Eric Clapton is incredibly boring live if you're a fan), and then I finally convinced my Dad to let me use his mobile phone wireless card to use the Internet. I then spent the next 45 minutes doing as much as possible online in the time I had (I still have nearly 300 unread items in Google Reader). Amongst the things I found were about 15 birthday messages in my email, on MNI, on Facebook and on Myspace. Thankyou all very much everyone. It means a lot.
We went to bed early last night as well, but not before we made a sign to hold up on the set of Sunrise. Me and Andrew had to wake up early to walk to the place where it's filmed each morning to get there by 8am. We told a whole bunch of people that we were going to be there and we also got a few people to film it, so I'll eventually get around to putting it up on Youtube so everyone can watch it. We had to wait until the very end of the show when the hosts all come outside to sign things and say hi to the crowd (they do a pretty good job of ignoring everyone while they're inside to be honest). We also had to use the TV on the side as a guide to where to hold the sign, and we JUST made it into the final shot, but we're definitely there.
Oh, did I mention the sign said “I just lost the game”? Yep, we went on national TV to get that message across :P. I'd love to know how many people realised what it meant. We do know that a lot of our friends saw it however.
We walked back to the apartment after the show, but we couldn't get upstairs because the keycard that we had to use to activate the lift was magnetized or something and wasn't working properly. The lousy keycards here that you need to get into all parts of the building (including our room) have been so unreliable and fiddly. Sure, they're supposed to offer greater security, but to be honest, they don't work very well.
Something that struck me and Andrew on the way back was how stupid Sydney is when it comes to transport. Everyone honks their horns constantly, often for no reason. You can't buy bus tickets onboard the bus on some bus routes. The bus lanes aren't used properly by anyone, buses or the public. I've got two stories about that one actually. We saw eight buses all in a row, in a normal lane, which was just to the right of a bus lane. We also saw a taxi broken down in a bus lane, forcing all the buses to go around it. All drivers here are idiots to be honest. They don't consider anyone but themselves. Oh, and there are so many people that simply don't wait for green lights to start moving, whether they be on foot or in a car. However, that could be more to do with the retarded traffic cycles and amazing amount of one-way streets they have here.
Something else that struck us was how much Sydney has simply copied from the rest of the world: town names, building design, even a copy of Central Park from NYC (which they named Hyde Park, a copy of a famous park in England). Oh yeah, and just as we got back from Sunrise, a car pulled up outside the building with green stuff dripping from underneath the car. I do believe we have a Fail Blog entrant :P.
Once we got everything together and Mum got over her latest mood swing (I'll write more about that tomorrow), we finally got downstairs and into our car for the first time since Monday when we arrived. We drove down to Circular Quay this time and parked underneath the Sydney Opera House. We then walked all around the massive building, taking in the bay again, including the Harbour Bridge. The views there are just spectacular. Oh yeah, from there you can also see the back of Kirribili House (the place the Prime Minister stays occasionally) where the guy climbed over the wall and got into the grounds of the building :P.
From the Opera House we drove to Bondi Beach to see the famous surf and surrounds. I was the only person to actually go in the water, but it was still lots of fun. It was very very cold and windy though, and we didn't stay for long after I got out of the water. As we were walking off the beach, we saw dozens of piles of rubbish from where people had just dumped their litter. We got the feeling after that that people in Sydney generally are just douchebags. I think the only nice people we've met have been that guy from Wyndham at breakfast on Tuesday and the guy who sold us stamps today.
That reminds me, before we left Bondi today we got a few postcards and posted them off. A couple of people can expect some mail in the next few days :P.
We're going out for dinner now so I'll write more later. Seeya.
posted by Matthew G aka 007bond at
7:15 PM
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