Still Sydney

We managed to get a brief break from Bondi the other week, when we scored James's flat for the APEC long weekend.

Really plush little bachelor pad complete with harbour views, balcony and barbecue, and sky TV.....and most importantly of all no annoying drum playing neighbours. It was like a wee holiday for us. We were both just glad to get a couple of full nights sleep, and to have the luxury of sleeping without earplugs crammed in our ears, for the first time in weeks. Whilst we were satying there we got a proper view of the fuss that surrounds George W. What a carry on! Anytime he went anywhere in his convoy of 200 vehicles 3 or 4 helicopters would take off in advance to scout about the city, checking the entire CBD was safe. At night it was really creepy because they would hover and cirlce the skyscrapers shining the most powerful light I've ever seen in through the darkened windows, peering in looking for baddies I presume. They did this 3 or 4 times a day for the 4 days that he was in town.

We had to cook all our food on the BBQ because James doesn't have an oven. No bad thing though. Ate a lot of meat whilst we were there. Jenny let the BBQ get a bit out of control at one point and basically set fire to the balcony. I gave her moral support by shouting instructions, waving and sipping wine from the inside, behind the glass. Was great to get away from Bondi for a couple of nights.

We returned to our place to find a surpise in the fidge. A cockroach that had perished on its way to the turkey slice. Absolutley rank! but not as bad as the baby ones that we found scuttling about on the inside of the fridge door a couple of days later. Needless to say the fridge has been thoroughly scrubbed since then. Again I hasten to add that the cockroaches are not living with us because we are being dirty skanks, they are simply everywhere. The pest problem isn't helped by the fact that our neighbours are manky student scum. The communal kitchen is disgusting and smells like a public toilet. Also there is a weird fat dog that waddles about the place. It has free roam of the building and is left chicken carcasses and bones on the carpeted hall by its owner which is nice. It goes without saying, of course, that Jenny has befriended the animal and has invited it into our room for some of the turkey slice on a few occasions. I'm a bit wary of the dog because it's got a bit of a shifty look about it, like it might enjoy biting my hand if I went to clap it. So I've been trying to steer clear of it which was becoming more difficult as it now knows where we live and was beginning to lurk outside our door waiting for a feed. It was however run over by a car this week and has allegedly broken its back so it's been convalescing in its owner's room for the last few days.

Unfortunately, although I now have safe , unhindered passage to the room, the dog is now contributing to the already unbearable noise in the night by whining and howling, which is extremely irritating. I lost the plot last night when the drums started at 12.30 and went and did a bit of shouting and swearing at the guy which seemed to get through to him.

Managed to find Irn Bru in the supermarket which is a godsend of a Sunday morning. That's a good example of just how many Brits and Irish there are over here, that you can get that sort of thing so easily. What hasn't been easy, is watching any football. I spent a good few hours trying to find a pub to watch the France game, without success. There are plenty of 24 hour pubs, just there isn't any interest in "soccerball" over here. They don't care about football at all, which I find very sinister. A famous Aussie footballer John Warren 30 years ago quoted that the Australian attitude to the game was that it was fit only for "wogs, sheilas and poofs" and that attitude doesn't seem to have changed over the years which is a shame.

Other than that we've not been up to much except working. I've got a job at a bank now, which is just as depressing as all the other jobs that I've had. Not long to go though, and we've booked flights up and down the coast in three weeks time, so the beach beckons.