It was a fairly busy night, even if it didn't seem like it would be. Em got back from work a bit frazzled, and after a while I made her sit down and chill out in front of Spaced, which seemed to do the trick. Dog cancelled on us, so we sat about having a few beers until a wasted Sam arrived home, and insisted we all go out, then said only us young ones should head out, then changed his mind again, and continued in this vein for half an hour or so. In the end he decided that he hated the people we were going out to see, and stayed in while we headed to the Crowey Hoey, or Crow's Nest Hotel. The birthday celebration was for the boyfriend of Em's mate Kierre, who I had met in England, and who also happened to be the brother of Sam's ex Emily, or something like that. Em and I had a great laugh, although I was trapped at one point talking to Sam's Emily, who was the dullest person there by a long way, about her and Sam's breakup - a topic I wanted nothing to do with. It was all OK though, as we had curry pies on the way home - sadly chips 'n' chicken salt would have involved a half hour queue.
Day 193 (Friday 25th) - Anzac Day, & Dave Arrives In Sydney!
Rob came by to pick me up early afternoon and attempted some brief sightseeing, but by the time we got anywhere it was time to pick Dave up from the airport. Despite the weather Dave was clad in his signature bright boardies and Calvin & Hobbes T-shirt, pretty much all I have ever seen him wear. We went to Bronte beach where Rob showed us a secret cliff to sit on which is utterly secluded from the road - he also mentioned that he'd brought girls here more than once - this proved to be somewhat of a theme, as over the next couple of days he showed us a few more places where he's brought girls for shenanigans. After driving round town for a bit we sat under the harbour bridge and discussed Australia - specifically what the attraction was for all the people who come here. Dave said he didn't get it, but maybe Australia for travellers was a bit like Sydney was for him - familiar, but at the same time foreign and new. We had an awesome thai meal for old times sake then went out to a club called Sosueme for Jane, Zoe & Katy's birthdays (some of Rob's mates having a joint 21st). The seedy red decor reminded me of Koko in Camden, but the best bit about it was the girl behind the bar with a shaved head who was absolutely gorgeous in a mildly intimidating way. In general the night was good fun, but occasionally I felt a bit lonely and deserted as Rob knew everyone and Dave hooked up with a girl he met on the plane up here (!). I got chatting to a couple of Rob's mates, including his ex Aimee who is now going out with his mate Michael - Rob found this out tonight, and bearing in mind that she is the only ex-girlfriend he's ever mentioned to us, took it rather well. We played pool, danced, drank, and didn't end up getting home until about 5, by which time I was entirely sober, and couldn't wait to be in bed.
Day 194 (Saturday 26th) - BBQ!
Today we had to prepare for our BBQ - this involved a shopping trip, mainly to purchase meat and beer. People started rocking up from about 3 onwards, and there were about three different crowds passing through throughout the night. I was knackered by about half seven and had to take a nap in my hammock (which I had thoughtfully strung up in advance). Dinner was awesome, just big lumps of chicken with a wicked teriyaki sauce - there was a small altercation as Rob, Hugh and myself were crowding round the meat plate looking for leftovers, when we spied a pre-made sandwich on the table - a quick look around confirmed that noone seemed interested in it. Rob quickly claimed that he had made it, but once Hugh had established that this wasn't the case, they forgot about the possibility that someone else might have made it, and so Hugh scoffed it at once. Moments later there was an anguished scream from Jez, a skinny friend of Rob's with shaggy hair and a fine moustache, asking "Who stole my fucking sandwich?" Upon establishing that it was Hugh, he yelled "Was it nice, eh?" to which Hugh replied "Yeah, great, want a bite?" Needless to say, this was met with outrage from Jez and laughs from everyone else involved. While we were getting the food we each made a mystery purchase. Rob got salt 'n' vinegar rice cakes, which later threw their load of salt into his mate Dan's eye, temporarily blinding him. Dave got loads of sweets, which went within seconds, and I got two packs of sparklers, which we used to write names with the long exposure setting on my camera. Endless hours of fun - everyone, no matter how skinny-jeaned and cool, got involved. Dave made the observation that quite a lot of Rob's mates had a slight "are you for real?" feel about them, as they were all really into fashion and music, which a lot of people in Sydney seem to be - preposterous dress seems standard for most people, and as for the moustaches
Dave went to bed pretty early - I think last night took it out of him a bit - but I stayed up for the slightly odder aspects of the party. At one point Rob got a long and relaxing massage from Hugh on the rug, and a dance lesson was conducted by his mate Pari - teaching us to dance like gangsters. To be fair, he is the best dancer I have ever seen - and a few other odd bits and bobs which didn't seem strange at the time, but in hindsight were a bit odd.
Day 195 (Sunday 27th) - Reunion
Everyone had bailed by about noon, so we began the cleanup operation - there were 100 or so beer bottles spread around Rob's amazing house - did I mention how nice it is? It's all cream marble and it's spotless, with a huge kitchen/dining room/lounge/outdoors bit, which is only separated by enormous floor-to-ceiling glass doors - the flooring and everything is exactly the same, so you feel like you're always outdoors. The cleanup took minutes, and the only permanent damage may be a few faint marks on the table where I discarded used sparklers into a puddle of water, thinking they'd cool down before they stuck to the table. Oops...
Hannah & Jess (who we met in Bangkok in our last few days) and their friend Lauren rocked up in their Wicked Camper van in the afternoon, were suitably impressed by Rob's place, and then followed us to Balmoral beach, where Rob showed us a cool little cave, where he has taken many girls before. It's cool, you're only a few metres away from all the tourists, but you're a few metres below, in between two overhangs, so noone can see you even though you're so close. Rob and I went for a paddle, but the freezing water put us off any real swimming. We got a few more beers and headed back for a thoroughly civilised BBQ, all siting round a candlelit table. We then slumped on the sofa, all any of us were capable of, and watched Office Space and The Departed. The former was really funny, and I'm glad I've finally seen it - so many Canadons and Aussies have referenced it and asked why I've not seen it. The latter was pretty violent and really good, although as it is a dodgy Thai DVD the soundtrack got all confused and we ended up having sexy sax music over the top of a violent death scene...
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