Crickey boys, it's Australia Day
Ok, so it's not quite Australia Day today, I'm just really lazy and haven't written a blog post for a while. I'll please my case later about why later on...
Australia Day was good! I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my last post but I was actually pretty sick in the day or two before it which did not bode well. I even took the day off on Friday (well I told work I was writing 'documentation' at home) to sleep in and try and get on top of it. By the late afternoon I wasn't feeling too bad, but really, I'd have to be pretty damn soft not to go out and celebrate one of my favourite days of the year.
As it happens, Autralia Day is also the birthday of my friend Rachelle, so she had organised for us to all go to a place called the Bunker Bar for the party as it was also putting on a big Aus Day festival. We had to register online before the event just to have a chance to get in because although the bar only held about 300 people, they had to cut off registrations somewhere near the 900ish mark. All we got as a warning was an email saying 'be early to avoid disappointment'.
I managed to get to the bar around 5:30pm, which was 20 minutes after it opened, and joined a queue of about a hundred (maybe one hundred and fifty) people. About half way along the bar manager came out and informed us that it was now full and people could only get in as other left.. what the?!?! We later found out that people had been queuing since 4pm and stuff to get in. Anyway, lots of people left the line but I stuck it out as the line still moved occasionally when people who's friends were outside all left to go somewhere else. It took around 40 minutes but I did eventually get in. Once inside I chucked on the Aussie cricket shirt, said 'hi' to everyone and then headed to the bar to get the birthday girl a drink. I immediately worked out why everyone was so keen to get into the place:
Oh my god! Real beer! I had to buy a VB and a Tooheys straight away, and I didn't know which one to tackle first. They had imported an absolute stack of it, and it wasn't really expensive either (lets face it, they could have charged a fortune), it was heaven. Although I swilled a Crown as well, I basically stuck with Tooheys all night and loved every drop :) I miss that beer. One of Rachelle's friends is quite short and for some reason decided she would start to bite Rachelle on the boobs. Not sure why, but it worth a photo.
Aside from the alcohol, there were prize draws (one of the guys in our group won a trip to Turkey for two), limbo competitions, lots of loud aussies being typically loud and rude and some really corny music (Land Down-Under and such). Still, as things moved on and we got progressively more whacked, you couldn't help but belt out some lyrics to Powderfinger and all those awesome aussie bands I don't really hear anymore.
After the Bunker Bar closed, things get a little more hazy. We went to another pub and met up with some people who didn't make it in earlier, where we continued to drink until that closed. Then we walked to another bar somewhere in Soho where we still continued to drink and someone stuck apple-sours shots under my face (they aren't bad). This went on for a while before the batteries eventually died at something like 3 or 4am, where we had to stumble around for a while trying to get a cab in freezing conditions. Not the best idea I've ever had.
So as you'd expect, I woke up Saturday hungover and sick as a dog. My cold had completely destroyed me and I basically spent the rest of the weekend in bed :( bugger! Oh well, just for Aus Day, I had to make the effort.
That Tuesday night, as a last bit of London excitement I went to see the new Cirque Du Soleil show Alegria. It was amazing! I loved it and think I'm just going to have to see every show of theirs that comes to London. My favourite was these acrobat type guys who were launched into the air off these bendy board things. Two guys would hold the ends of the board and move it or 'catch' the acrobats as the came down. As it looked about only 10cm wide, I thought it was really impressive. There were also contortionists, trapeze, clowns, fire twirlers, acrobats (on trampolines doing tumbling runs) and a gymnast type person who kept hoops spinning around on her foot as she fully did some contortionist type stuff. All cool stuff!
I've currently been working in Brussels for a week and it's been very tough. Last weekend we had one of our nasty migrations and worked some silly long hours, and to top it off, one of the team members was really sick and has passed it on to all of us. So again, I've had to spend a few days basically in bed, stuck in the hotel room, trying to get myself together. If there's one thing that sux, it's being sick when you are away from home (and when you have to keep working).
It's not all bad though, I'm feeling better today and I think the migration this weekend will be better. So next Tuesday I get back to London, have a couple of days there and then fly to Salzburg to meet Kath for a snowboarding weekend (I better be healthy by then!). After Salzburg I am back in London for maybe 1-2 days before heading out to Paris for a month of work. We got some preliminary information back from the Paris IT guys, and we certainly have our work cut out for us there. It's going to be a nightmare.
To all of you who sms'd me on Australia Day, thanks for thinking of me. I really love the whole 'day' we usually have with the breakfast before heading in to Kings Park. If I coulda been there, I woulda! Maybe next year eh. Please send me any photo's you've got, I want to see all the fun I missed out on.
Anka
Australia Day was good! I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my last post but I was actually pretty sick in the day or two before it which did not bode well. I even took the day off on Friday (well I told work I was writing 'documentation' at home) to sleep in and try and get on top of it. By the late afternoon I wasn't feeling too bad, but really, I'd have to be pretty damn soft not to go out and celebrate one of my favourite days of the year.
As it happens, Autralia Day is also the birthday of my friend Rachelle, so she had organised for us to all go to a place called the Bunker Bar for the party as it was also putting on a big Aus Day festival. We had to register online before the event just to have a chance to get in because although the bar only held about 300 people, they had to cut off registrations somewhere near the 900ish mark. All we got as a warning was an email saying 'be early to avoid disappointment'.
I managed to get to the bar around 5:30pm, which was 20 minutes after it opened, and joined a queue of about a hundred (maybe one hundred and fifty) people. About half way along the bar manager came out and informed us that it was now full and people could only get in as other left.. what the?!?! We later found out that people had been queuing since 4pm and stuff to get in. Anyway, lots of people left the line but I stuck it out as the line still moved occasionally when people who's friends were outside all left to go somewhere else. It took around 40 minutes but I did eventually get in. Once inside I chucked on the Aussie cricket shirt, said 'hi' to everyone and then headed to the bar to get the birthday girl a drink. I immediately worked out why everyone was so keen to get into the place:
Oh my god! Real beer! I had to buy a VB and a Tooheys straight away, and I didn't know which one to tackle first. They had imported an absolute stack of it, and it wasn't really expensive either (lets face it, they could have charged a fortune), it was heaven. Although I swilled a Crown as well, I basically stuck with Tooheys all night and loved every drop :) I miss that beer. One of Rachelle's friends is quite short and for some reason decided she would start to bite Rachelle on the boobs. Not sure why, but it worth a photo.
Aside from the alcohol, there were prize draws (one of the guys in our group won a trip to Turkey for two), limbo competitions, lots of loud aussies being typically loud and rude and some really corny music (Land Down-Under and such). Still, as things moved on and we got progressively more whacked, you couldn't help but belt out some lyrics to Powderfinger and all those awesome aussie bands I don't really hear anymore.
After the Bunker Bar closed, things get a little more hazy. We went to another pub and met up with some people who didn't make it in earlier, where we continued to drink until that closed. Then we walked to another bar somewhere in Soho where we still continued to drink and someone stuck apple-sours shots under my face (they aren't bad). This went on for a while before the batteries eventually died at something like 3 or 4am, where we had to stumble around for a while trying to get a cab in freezing conditions. Not the best idea I've ever had.
So as you'd expect, I woke up Saturday hungover and sick as a dog. My cold had completely destroyed me and I basically spent the rest of the weekend in bed :( bugger! Oh well, just for Aus Day, I had to make the effort.
That Tuesday night, as a last bit of London excitement I went to see the new Cirque Du Soleil show Alegria. It was amazing! I loved it and think I'm just going to have to see every show of theirs that comes to London. My favourite was these acrobat type guys who were launched into the air off these bendy board things. Two guys would hold the ends of the board and move it or 'catch' the acrobats as the came down. As it looked about only 10cm wide, I thought it was really impressive. There were also contortionists, trapeze, clowns, fire twirlers, acrobats (on trampolines doing tumbling runs) and a gymnast type person who kept hoops spinning around on her foot as she fully did some contortionist type stuff. All cool stuff!
I've currently been working in Brussels for a week and it's been very tough. Last weekend we had one of our nasty migrations and worked some silly long hours, and to top it off, one of the team members was really sick and has passed it on to all of us. So again, I've had to spend a few days basically in bed, stuck in the hotel room, trying to get myself together. If there's one thing that sux, it's being sick when you are away from home (and when you have to keep working).
It's not all bad though, I'm feeling better today and I think the migration this weekend will be better. So next Tuesday I get back to London, have a couple of days there and then fly to Salzburg to meet Kath for a snowboarding weekend (I better be healthy by then!). After Salzburg I am back in London for maybe 1-2 days before heading out to Paris for a month of work. We got some preliminary information back from the Paris IT guys, and we certainly have our work cut out for us there. It's going to be a nightmare.
To all of you who sms'd me on Australia Day, thanks for thinking of me. I really love the whole 'day' we usually have with the breakfast before heading in to Kings Park. If I coulda been there, I woulda! Maybe next year eh. Please send me any photo's you've got, I want to see all the fun I missed out on.
Anka
posted by Anthony Hawke at 8:58 pm
3 comments
