Day 9 - Alcohol induced problems can happen at 'Home and Away'

Friday night, Adam and I went out in Sydney for the first time since arriving. It was a funny, entertaining and not surprisingly drunken night, but unfortunately ended disastrously. I seem to a have a bad luck charm with me somewhere at the moment, anyway, more on that in a bit.

Getting up relatively early, Mick drove us to Eastwood, a suburb of Sydney infamous for its Korean population. Sure enough on arrival it felt like we were in a foreign country (other than Aus.....). Here Adam and I signed up for Medicare, the National Health Service in Aus, just as a precaution. The UK has a reciprocal medical agreement “which is good”, as Mick would say. After filling in a quick form we were on our way, stopping to get a present for Caroline and Martin as a small token of our appreciation for the hospitality in KL.

Picking up Alison due to the builders finishing, we drove to Barren Joey Peninsular stopping at the Newport Arms for a hearty lunch. More like a bar then a pub as the name may suggest, Adam and I shared a BBQ Seafood plateau for $33…… it was delicious.

The odd thing about this place was the method in which your food was announced to be ready, a pager style devise is given, buzzing and informing you that your order is ready for collecting at the bar. Quite a neat little system.

Afterwards we head up the coast to the home of Summer Bay and 'Home and Away', Palm Beach. It was instantly recognisable and was only let down by the weather, slightly overcast with a strong wind. That said, the sand was incredibly warm so we all wondered down towards the opposite end of the beach stopping regularly to take the usual photo. Mick told me that this was the place when Adams mum (Cindy) knew he would return again, and sure enough here he is, little over one year later. Straight away though you can appreciate why, it’s an amazingly peaceful (surprising as this was school holidays) and beautiful location.

With sand still in between our toes we drove towards West End through the twisty winding road that held entrances to luxurious seaside homes. West End Views were fabulous and it took a few minutes just to absorb the whole surroundings in. Heading home I took a quick kip in the car, preparing myself for the night out.

The train journey in was easy. Mick and Alison before leaving providing us with the safety blanket of calling anytime if we get in trouble. We assured them this wouldn’t be necessary, but then neither of us had the foresight of what was going to happen.

It took us a while to find our first drinking location but we soon found Darling Harbour and the bars around that overlook the light show that is Sydney’s high rise buildings. The vibrant blues and reds from various company logo's rippled in the water giving rise to another photo opportunity. We discovered quickly though that the area was more family orientated with restaurants surrounding Cockle Bay, so we decided to find something slightly more to our taste. Luckily Adams brother’s friend Steve was to hand on the mobile, and pointed us in the right direction. He’s here like us in Sydney, but with the advantage of nearly a years experience knows the place to go and avoid.

The nightlife atmosphere is similar to home, but a pleasant and significant difference was the lacking of smoking. Whether this is due to a smoking ban or the general health conscious nature of the Aussie I don’t know, hopefully though this is a precedent of what the UK will be like come next summer.

Later we met up with Steve in the Three Monkeys, a bar/club recommended by a promotions girl who we happened to share a carriage on the train in with. This was the first pub we’d been to serving pints and as usual we were happy to indulge. Steve is a quality bloke and hopefully we’re meeting up with him this Sunday. At this point the night started to become hazy, but pool seems to a strong memory and the photos from the evening confirmed this the following day.

We headed for the last train that left at 1:45am. Getting on board Adam and I soon started to drift away and so began the start of an unforgettable night. We firstly missed our stop ending up in Hornsby, the next stop but some way from West Ryde. I suppose looking in hindsight it was a godsend we woke up then as the next stop was Newcastle (Australia not UK!!!) which is a long distance from Sydney. In the chaos of waking up I managed to leave my wallet onboard the train and only realised just as the carriage started to pull out from the station. I couldn’t believe it!!!! We reported the loss to the guard at the station who tried his best to phone the train and locate the wallet, but this was to no avail. Unfortunately I won’t be able to find out till Monday if it’s been recovered.

Now to the problem of getting home. Outside we caught a taxi that just happened to pull up as we exited the station and it was at this point we realised that the key Mick and Alison had provided was in my wallet. What were the chances in that? We phoned ahead to let them know what hand happened and continued on our way. At last we thought the problems were over, but no, the Indian taxi driver had no clue of where he was going. It ended up with Adam and me directing him by an A to Z and the whole journey costing $60.

Finally we arrived home at around 4am, Mick greeting us at the door as we stumbled in half asleep. That said I managed to coherently log a lost property report online, transfer all my money out of the accounts my cards had access too, and find out the relevant numbers to cancel the cards first thing in the morning. Anyways…… to cut a long story short, what a night! Certainly one that I will not forget for a very long time.

Today we’ve been relaxing for a much needed recovery session.