Back in Sydney, NSW
What an awsome holiday we had. It is with a heavy heart that I return to the hustle and bustle of Sydney and the Northern Beaches and I think Mat feels along similar lines. We also had to say our sad and final goodbye to Tom (for the second time) as we will definately not be seeing him again until our return to the Mother Country.
Still, it’s not all bad as we had some fantastic experiences and get to keep some treasured memories, all of which I will recount here as best I can so you can have a taste of Western Australia as we saw it 
To Perth We Go
Hello everyone, a fair bit has happened since my last post (which I haven’t finished yet, I know) so I thought I better give a quick update while I have a spare few seconds.
I am currently unemployed as on Friday morning I was made redundant from Plateau Tree Service. Whilst I was wonderng what I was going to do Mat was extremely supportive, booked a week off work and declared we were going to make the most of my two weeks notice and go on holiday to see a bit of this gurt island we are on.
At first we thought we might go south on a road trip and do the Great Ocean Road. However, on speaking to Tom last night on Skype, who is currently in Perth for a month or so before his return to Yorkshire, we decided why not go there?
I have just booked our tickets so it’s now a definite. I’m so excited, we intend to hire a camper van and go and see some big trees. Apparently Steve and his girlfriend Janine went there. There is one called the Bicentennial Tree which is really tall and has iron pegs all the way round so you can walk up it.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I have to go and get tarted up as Mat, me and Steve are going out for a posh meal in Newport with some peeps from Plateau to celebrate Kat’s new job and her first proper pay packet
Winter Solstice Sunrise at South Curl Curl Headland
Some belated pictures I took whilst watching the sun rise off South Curl Curl Headland with Mat on Sat 21st July.
More to come with better annotations but wanted to get something posted up at least.
Happy Birthday Bro!
Ok, so for the UK this is just over an hour early but here in Australia it is 7.40am and well into the 1st of July so I want to yell a HUGE
to my Bro back in Cheltenham. I hope he knows how much I miss him and that I wish I could be there in person to share today with him.
A lot of people don’t rate birthdays but in my opinion they are very important and should at least be acknowledged in some way, be it big or small. Even if you use it as a time to reflect on the year that has passed and to refocus your vision of the future.
Anyway, enough philosophy for now, all that remains is
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Richie
Happy Birthday to you!
A Yorkshireman’s Advice to His Son
Last Saturday afternoon Tom came round to our house to help make some beef burgers and lamb burgers for the barbequeue we were having at Collaroy Beach. It was to be the last proper get together we would have as the famous five (+2 with Gabbie & Nickie) before Chris, Steve, Tom and the girls all left.
I couldn’t resist filming Tom and his infamous Yorkshire accent - something which will be much missed after he has gone:
See all, hear all, say nowt,
Drink all, eat all, pay nowt.
If ever tha does out for nowt,
Alus do it for thi sen.
Friday at the Surf Rock
Last Friday was Tom, Chris and Steve’s last day at Plateau Tree Service. Tom will be heading out to Perth for a couple of months before returning to the UK. Chris and Steve are going to Cairns for a few days, then coming back to Collaroy for a day or two before heading out to Thailand. They are doing a bit of travelling before also then returning to the UK in September.
After work the lads came back to the yard for the usual Friday beers and we also had snags on the barbeque as is traditional when it’s someone’s last day. After this some of us decided to meet up again later at the Surf Rock in Collaroy for a proper knees up.
By the time Mat & I arrived at around 7.30pm everyone that was there was quite merry already.
Tom, Chris and Johnny
Chris and Steve
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New Walking Regime
Tonight I started on what is hopefully going to be a road to recovery for my recent slothfulness.
It was Kat’s idea (as she has started a new office based job also) to join up and support each other in going for a brisk walk three nights a week. As it is winter at the moment it gets dark around 5pm (though now that Longest Night has passed the nights will be slowly drawing out) so we figured as well as having moral support and encouragement from each other when we may not be feeling as enthusiastic as we should, it would also be a lot safer going out together.
We set off from Kat’s house and walked to Narrabeen Lake, round the edge until we got to Woolworths (Aussie NSW equivalent to Tescos) where we crossed the road and nipped in so Kat could purchase a few groceries. We then continued to follow the lake edge for a short distance until houses prevented us from going any further, then we went east towards the sea and walked back via the road.
The whole walk didn’t take us much over half an hour but we were taking it at a brisk speed and by the time I got back I had worked up a good sweat so I think the length and pace was just right to start off with. We are all set to do the same again tomorrow
Reccie of West Head
On Thursday, James (another Pommie) at work asked if Mat and I would be interested in getting up early Saturday morning and going somewhere nice to watch the sun rise for Winter Solstice. I was previously not aware that he was a fellow Pagan so it was nice to discover. He explained that when he was back in England he always used to spend Summer Solstice at Avebury and wanted to at least do something to acknowledge the Sabbat even if there are no standing stones here in Australia.
We asked a few people in the office of suitable places and one suggestion was made by Hayley of West Head. This is within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and there was a bit of debate as to whether the gates would be shut or not that early in the morning so we discussed a few other places and left it at that.
When I got home I relayed the discussions to Mat and we decided we would go out, there and then, on a reconnoitre. Here is another map from Google Earth that I have annotated slightly to show where we went:
Palm Beach Jaunt
After a lazy loll in bed on Saturday morning until 9am Mat and me decided it would be nice to go out for a late breakfast/early lunch. A quick shower later we were in the Suzuki and on our way to find a nice little cafe somewhere we hadn’t been before. We ended up on Warriewood Beach (the second one up from Narrabeen) which was absolutely chocker with surfer dudes as the waves were pretty big. After paying $3 for a parking ticket however (something which isn’t all that common except in the city and on the popular beach fronts) we were disappointed to find the beach cafe was just closing so we went for a little walk up to Turimetta Head to watch the surfers instead.
After we’d been blown about by the wind for a bit we made our way back to the car and ended up in a little cafe in Narrabeen that we had actually been to before with Tom, Steve and Chris back in the summer. We had to sit inside this time but it was nice and cosy and I had the most fabulous huge vege burger for less than $9 with a camomile tea. If I could remember the name of the place I would highly recommend it.
After our meal we decided to go for a little jaunt and ended up driving all the way up the Barrenjoey peninsula to Palm Beach where I took the following photo:
Alex on June 19th, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Filed under 4x4, Aussie places/info of interest, Personal, Pictures | 3 Comments »
Moonrise Over Collaroy Beach
Last month I was driving home from work and was stopping off at Tom and Chris’ on the way to pick up Mat as he was round there having a beer with them. As I was driving down the hill I marvelled at the beautiful mauve sky which complimented the almost full (it was one day off), silvery moon perfectly.
As I approached the turn off to Fielding Street instead of turning right I decided to pull over into the beach front car park and take some pictures first.
The following are some of the better results I got and considering I did not have a tripod I think they have come out quite well (if you click on the photos you can display them at full size if you wish):
This photo shows the moon over the sea with a bit of Norfolk Island Pine showing in the foreground (a tree which is prolific along many beach fronts in the Sydney area due to it having favourable properties for making ships’ masts; in the olden days damaged ships could pull in, cut them down to build new masts and then continue on their way).
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