2008 and all that

(Composite 180 degree image of Circular Quay with 116,000 tonne Cruise Ship, Sapphire Princess on the left, Harbour Bridge in the middle, and Opera House just visible through the trees on the right).

I can hardly believe it’s the 13th already. This update is soooo overdue. So without any further delay…

Sailing

One of the highlights of life since I got to Sydney was sailing Chris’ Taser dinghy in the Sydney harbour. It was a quiet day down at double-bay with much of gentrified Sydney having left town for the holidays.

(Tasers, like Chris' dinghy)

After much stretching of gibbets, curling boom lines and sheathing cleats (I have no idea what I’m talking about), the boat was ready and we wheeled her down to the water.

This is where the fun began. I hadn’t thought that boat launching could be so treacherous. In even a light wind, we managed to tip the boat over, fall out and slide about on the slimy bottom. After some assistance from experienced sailors (they had their names painted on the side of their boat – losers!) we found ourselves in the water,

Chris is a pretty good sailor and he was a pretty damn good teacher too! I started at the front of the boat, managing the ‘front sail’ (jib sail?) and we were soon making great progress, the boat tipped up at an angle and both of us with our feet in the feetstraps (footstraps?) leaning right out of the boat to keep us from capsizing.

(James and I head down to the beach!)

So mostly, we were tearing across the harbour with some skill. Though Chris did allow me to take the tiller (I’m sure I’ve got that one right) at one point with two hilarious episodes.

Turning the boat at speed is a pretty sudden, violent event. A sharp turn is essential to avoid losing speed, but not too sharp. On one particular turn I managed to turn a bit too fast, let go of the tiller and the next thing I knew I had my head under the water – in fact rushing through the water – with my feet still in the footstraps. Chris was able to reach over and pull me back into the boat, though in the panic I wasn’t able to pay due care to my shorts which were by now half-way down my backside, showing a good few inches of butt-crack!

With the sails out of control, thankfully the boat came to a halt. Unfortunately, when I looked behind me the Manly ferry was almost on top of us, with around a couple of hundred people seeing our predicament!

And, after a few near misses we did eventually capsize on our way back to the jetty. Actually, it was much easier to right the boat that I’d thought. And good fun actually!

Ocean Swim too far…

After my first sail in a dinghy, my next sporting achievement was to be my first ocean swim the following Sunday morning. And then the storms came. Not to Sydney but to the Central Coast. Though the weather in Sydney was good, the storms created a huge swell right down to Port Jackson, and Bondi was pretty heavily affected!

I went down for the training session on Friday night and the surf was big, real BIG. As we swam out I found I couldn’t calm down enough to breathe properly. The exertion of getting out beyond the waves had me out of breath and every time a huge wave came, I’d have to hold my breath as it washed over me. I was exhausted by the time I got beyond the surf, and then I had to swim back in.

(Left - fireworks explode from the Harbour Bridge.)

And then half way through I got absolutely bundled by a huge wave. When I came up, I’d lost my goggles. I got back to the beach and said to Spot, the coach, that I was going to have to call it a day as I’d lost my goggles and I was wrecked! But, in that typical aussie way, Spot laughed that off saying “You don’t see me wearing goggles. Come on, just get back out there.”

So I did last until the end of the session. But, with the forecast for the surf to get even bigger, I made the decision to skip the competition on the Sunday. I was back at Bondi the following Saturday and it was flat calm. Hopefully when I do get to a competition – probably after I get back from India now – the weather will be more like that than the previous weekend.

New Year

New Year in Sydney. Even the idea seems epic. After Christmas week, I was pretty much partied-out already. I would have been happy with any kind of night at New Year, but I was delighted with Circular Quay.

(Right - Keith and I meet some Scottish girls (!) on Hogmanay.)

Keith and I and a bunch of Peruvian friends had tickets for Cruise Bar. Despite incredible difficulties getting to the bar – a major problem on Hogmanay – it was a great venue. We met some nice people and of course the fireworks were immense.

Otherwise

Yeah, otherwise I’ve been partying hard and working hard. My room is looking more homely – photos to follow when I get my nice new canvas prints from my trip up on the walls. I’m getting better and better acquainted with Sydney’s nightspots and I’ve found a couple of new beaches around the harbour.

Lastly, my trip to India is booked! I fly out on the 21st and get back on the 1st of February. More about this soon. Should be epic…

Still didn’t mention the weather.


(Six Peruvians and two Scotsmen celebrate New Year in Sydney.)

Christmas in Sydney

Looking a bit goofy after swimming the surf on Christmas morning.

How to describe Christmas in Sydney… I had about ten days off from the 21st of December until the 2nd of January. I spent almost all of that time socialising and swimming. Sydney has a Christmas party season like no other. After nine nights out in a row (nine in a row!) I at last had a night in on the 29th.

It’s been a great time to meet people. The two top events were Ed’s Christmas Day Bonanza (truly it was a great day!) and the Boxing Day races at Randwick Racecourse.

Ok, Evita definitely looks better in this outfit than I do.

Christmas Day started with a trip to Bondi for a swim with my German friend Babette. After struggling out of bed, I borrowed Dreadlock Dave’s car (about which, more later) and drove over to Bondi. It was cloudy in the morning and the beach was half-full at 11am. Babette and I braved the waters for about 20 minutes with a bunch of other people. It was a great wake-up call for Christmas Day.

Christmas at Ed and Dace’s was a superb day and evening. We had a real multinational mix, with a few Latvians, a Thai girl, an Iranian, a Peruvian, a couple of Aussies and Keith and I representing Scotland. Keith did a fantastic job making top-quality cocktails (mojitos and cubraroscas) but the piece-de-la-resistance was Ed’s turkey which was perfect. Brilliant meal – almost as good as mum makes it. We had some good party games and a bit of a singalong. Since my karaoke appearance at the work Christmas do, people seem to have been encouraging me to sing all the time (about which, less later).

Pretty hungover on Boxing Day, but couldn’t resist an invitation to Randwick Races International Day. Another crazy aussie idea where anyone with a foreign passport gets in free. Guess who forgot his passport.

What a brilliant way to spend Boxing Day. I went with my flatmates, the two Daves and met a huge number of other Irish peeps. There were an outstanding number of well-presented ladies there. And I think there was some horse-racing going on somewhere as well.

As well as the partying, I have done some more wholesome stuff over the break. In preparation for the competition next Sunday, I’ve been swimming about 2km each day in the Olympic size pools near my flat and in the Botanic Gardens. The weather has been awesome since Christmas and it’s a great way to exercise. Slowly building up the stamina I’ll need for the long-distance events.

The absolute best even off the holiday has been going out sailing with Chris. But that deserves a website entry of its own and will have to wait until the new year…
Dave larking about after I forget my passport and have to pay to get into the races.

Zimbabwe Ruined

The Zimbabwe Ruins, as visited by the author back in July.

There are two articles in the press today about Zimbabwe. The first is in the Economist magazine, where they have unveiled their country growth forecasts for 2008. Modest or strong growth is predicted for the majority of sub-saharan African countries. The exception is Zimbabwe where the economy is expected to shrink drastically in 2008.

Contrast that with Zimbabwe's own forecast of 4% growth for 2008, announced last month by Zimbabwe's Finance Minister.

I know which forecast I'm putting my money on.

I may even bet my 1,000 Zimbabwe Dollar note that I kept when I left the country in July. And the other story today was that Zimbabwe is to issue new banknotes with values of 250,000, 500,000 and 750,000 dollars. The 200,000 dollar note (which was introduced when I was there) will be phased out...

...and if you wonder what you could buy with a 250,000 dollar note?

How about a Big Mac.

Central Bank Governor and Finance Minister - two of the hardest jobs imaginable.

But I'm sure - like Mugabe's other cronies - they'll be living in luxury as their forecasts and the fortunes of millions of their impoverished countrymen go down the toilet.

STOP THE PRESS!!!

Another gratuitous shark pic.

Check out this article which was on the front page of the BBC news website yesterday!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7146551.stm

The article reports that:


A swimmer has been attacked by a shark at Australia's Bondi Beach, a favourite with tourists from around the world. The shark reportedly grabbed the man by the arm but he escaped after punching it on the nose.

Its common knowledge among Australians and tourists alike that punching a shark on the nose is the conventional defence if attacked. Less conventional is what the guy did next...

The man reached the Sydney shore before collapsing in a cave in which he was said to be living temporarily. He was later found by his girlfriend.

Eh??? The guy is 'living in a cave'...? What's that all about? This immediately suggests to me that there's something fishy (so to speak) about this. And sure enough...

A lifeguard spokesman said the man had gone swimming in the dark on Friday, which was strongly discouraged.

Channel Ten reported it was believed to be the first shark attack at Bondi Beach for 70 years.

So there we go, not much to worry about for another 70 years. And only then if you're crazy enough to go swimming in the dark. Though probably as well that I didn't know about this incident when I went into the exact same waters less than twelve hours later!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, I also have to point out that he was later found by his 'girlfriend'. Isn't Sydney an awesome place when even a guy who lives in a cave can get a girlfriend...


A cave, yesterday.

Big Swim in the Big Surf

Mel holding the board that he paddles out into the bay with, surrounded by Bondi Fit Club members.

Last Friday some of my work colleagues were kind enough to take me out for drinks to welcome me back to Opportunity. We had a great night in Cruise Bar in Circular Quay, overlooking the opera house across the inner-harbour waters of Sydney cove. At the back of my mind though, I had a nagging suspicion that each additional beer would be regretted the next morning...

And so it proved when I dragged myself out of bed and headed down to Bondi beach for the first of three ocean swimming lessons. This short course is intended to teach you techniques for swimming in surf, which will in turn give you the confidence to compete in Sydney's ocean swimming races which are spread throughout the Australian summer.

There were four of us on the course, including myself and my German friend Babette. We were thrown (not literally) straight into the water by Mel, our very aussie coach, and told to swim 200m out into the Bondi surf. This was pretty 'exciting', not least because my hangover was playing havoc with my swimming stroke. After struggling back to shore Mel pointed out things we were doing wrong (drowning/sinking were only the least of them) before throwing us (literally this time) back in the water again.

Mel is a great coach, and like many great aussie sportsmen, unfailingly enthusiastic. He taught us skills for spotting where the rip current is pulling the water out to sea - good place to swim out - and where the waves are crashing over the sandbanks - good place to swim in... if you can avoid/survive being bundled by a monster wave.

Other techniques include using your arms as a board to 'surf in' on the top of large waves, entering the water with jumping, wading and porpoising techniques (which impresses people watching on the beach!) and breathing in such a way as to be able to look behind you and spot when you're about to be hammered by a huge wave.

This was all great advice and really interesting stuff, though I was a bit bemused when he got us to run along the beach and back to keep warm - ok, it was cloudy and the aussie guys were shivering but I was more likely to collapse from exhaustion than catch cold.

After the hour and a half long session had finished I felt absolutely on top of the world. This is surf swimming at one of the best locations in the world, with some of the wildest surf! The regular swim club joined us for the last hour and it was a great feeling 'competing' with these guys and girls. On top of which, to feel so pumped at 1130 on Saturday morning is something I'm not used to. and very welcome!

I'm really going to stick with this and join the regular club when my courses finish. My hope is to do the Bondi classic competition on the 6th of January. A bit ambitious, but I'll see how I'm going over the next few weeks, and it would be a good one to start with as you don't have to swim past rocks/cliffs as you do in the beach to beach swims.

When I was a youngster...

...I was a huge lego fan (fan-boy I guess you'd say these days). Like computer games, lego has come on leaps and bounds since then. I was just amazed to read in the paper at the weekend that lego now have a website where you can download 'lego-design software'. This lets you design your own lego models online! Not only that, but once you've designed a hotrod or spaceship or whatever else, you can upload the design to this website and order all the bricks you need to make the model. http://factory.lego.com/

How freakin' cool is that??? If I have a bit of free time over Christmas, I may have to design a giant santa's sleigh or something. Will post the results here.

And finally... thanks to my sister, Kirsty, for the following. Very amusing... and seasonal...

CHRISTMAS DISORDERS and CAROLS

1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Treesand.....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm GonnaPout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy- can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --- Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, JingleBells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,Jingle,Bells, Jingle Bells,

11. Oppositional Defiant Disorder-- You better not cry - Oh yes I willYou better not Shout - I can if I want to You better not pout - Can if I want toI'm telling you why - Not listeningSanta Claus is coming to townNo he's not!!