The Running Man

Australia Day 2007

If you are reading this, you may be Max, HY, Yishan, or Mich's friend *hello* (or anyone else who has a blog and went on this Sydney trip). Anyway, this is a summary (in my own unique words) of the weekend ;)
The Melbourne and Adelaide PwC (Mich, Yishan, Angela, and Darrel) people came to Sydney for a visit for the Australia Day long weekend (basically its like a National Day...its the day when Australia became a federation..ie independence from the British). The chief organiser/tour guide was...Max! yes...throughout the entire trip he was pushing (slow) all of us to meet timings and get to destinations...words like "Star City" and "Star City" were often mentioned as possible destinations ;) haha..just kidding Max!
Being excellent hosts and tour guides, the PwC Sydney people (Horng Yuh, Kevan, Hazel, Max and Aiwei) took them to various Sydney attractions...as for myself...well I was just there to add to the crowd and tag along on this wonderfully (warm) Sydney long weekend :) Thx guys...
Our first destination was...Birkenhead Point, where there was some good bargains for clothes to be found...some of us however preferred to chill with a coffee in the shade...

Birkenhead point...
Next stop: Bondi Beach...now I am sure most of you have either been to Bondi or read about it somewhere...don't need to elaborate it much about its sand, surf, atmosphere and beach people. See how packed it was! (coz its a public holiday today, its a Fri and the weather was perfect). Whilst some of us (shall remain nameless) wanted to remain in the shade (coz it was too hot), the rest of us were happy to go and have a walk along the beach and check out the cool waters. I mean it is a beach after all and well summer only comes once a year (blue skies!). There were also some crazy guys who were literally throwing themselves off this ledge and doing inverted summersaults through the air...amazing to look at, but also dangerous (touch wood)...really no fear 1..


The surf was also pretty good...there were plenty of surfers there too...thats the ultimate Aussie beach culture.
Running away from the surf
We also had a fried Mars bar at Bondi too...sooo sinful and sweet, but it was good :P luckily I shared half with HY and Hazel :)

You cannot go to Bondi without stopping by Hurricanes (see previous previous post)...which is famous for their ribs. Yumm! we bought back lots of ribs to HY place (because as mentioned previously for a group as big as ours...you had to book at least a week in advance...not kidding) for takeaway - coz that you at least don't need to book in advance. See the mountain(s) of rib bones...and Kevan and Yish look like they are enjoying themselves :P. It was cool just to sit by the balcony, chilling, eating our ribs and engaging in v interesting humourous dialogue (the funniest was between Max and Yish ;) haha.. After the ribs, we just sat back (full...oh so full) and chilled somemore while waiting for it to get dark so the Australia Day fireworks can begin :P
Don't have very good pictures of the fireworks (which was taken @ Darling Harbour on the Pyrmont Bridge) unfortunately, needed a tripod and a clear view...the bridge was packed with people all waving the Aust flag and painted in Aussie colours :P it seems like this is the only day when Aussies are really patriotic about their roots (its also a good excuse to drink :P)
There was one of those old sailing ships that was sailing in Darling Harbour..can you see the mast of the ship? :P Thank you to HY and Hazel for putting all of us up at their place for the 2 nights...there were some awkward moments at night (especially involving mobile phones that were placed across from Max, and mobile phone alarms that only wake up the light sleepers ;) ahha..well shan't mention that again :P All good fun :)
The next morning, we woke up (thanks to Max's constant prompting :) Told you he was a responsible tour guide ;) and very onz relatively early...8am, all waited for the only bathroom in the apartment, got changed...and headed off to Well Connected in Glebe for a traditional big bfast (see my previous post). Good value food and nice atmosphere...so quiet. Whenever you put all of us together eating, some quite humourous topics and discussion come up (mainly involving 1 person ;) and Yishan has here moments of humourous brilliance..haha. It was good and relaxed...perfect start to a Saturday morning :) in Sydney...weather was good again. The itinery for the day...was Newcastle then Hunter Valley (the wine growing region in NSW)...it was going to be an all day affair! fun fun fun :) Us at the famous Brewery @ Newcastle, drinking Ginger beer (again...another place I have been...so see prev post)...delicious Just the coolest guys in Newcastle (at the Wharf) Me, Darrel, and Angela at a Harris de Wheels hot dog place in Newcastle...can see Yish in the background (I think) :P

After that brief stopover at Newcastle (where there doesn't look like there is anything else to do :P) its off to the wine yards of Hunter V
One of the stops was at the HV Chocolate Company...

After much prompting from our tour guide...we finally hit the vine yards where we tasted, bought and took many pictures :) of the beautiful surroundings and atmosphere...wine (esp the sweet desert wine) was pretty good too!

This picture was taken at the Iron Gate Vineyard (there was an iron-gate to the cellar...but a wooden gate outside :P). Where we were rushing to get there by 4pm (because they close at that time). Unfortunately due to an unexpected toilet break by our tour guide (sorry...but its my blog...ahha) we were late by 10mins and missed the sweet red wine it was meant to be famous for :P sorry max! so have to settle for a photo outside the cellar :)...oh well got something to look forward to next time in the region...
When we got back to Sydney, it was about 7.30pm and we were all tired and hungry...luckily our next stop was Lowenbrau (by special request...so that we could try the Mango beer ;)...ordered 2 of those meat platters for 2 at $68 each...for the 9 of us! All I can say is that it was more than enough..even with myself and Max on the team..it was a struggle to just finish one of those platters..haha..well done everyone, put the girls to shame :P

Max and his pork knuckle...yummm...

After dinner, I separated from the group to go to one of my friend's 25th bday party at a bar nearby (many thanks to Max for driving), so really this is part of my blog now...what an intense yet fun night. The theme for her party was jazz...needless to say I was boring and didn't really have any sort of jazz type of clothes :P (sorry). Drank too much I think and probably did some silly things..oh well...its all for fun and I think most of my friends were drunk already so no harm done :P.

After the party, linked up with the rest of the group...at Star City (well done to Angela for winning some Sic Bo) at about 3am in the morning haha...needless to say we all slept pretty well :)

The next morning...we all woke up late (again at HY's place...thx) had dim sum @ Market City in Chinatown and then went off to Paddy's market...where the girls were looking for a big/giant calculator for their audits...well they found it!. Then it was on to Pancakes @ the Rocks for...pancakes!

Later that day everyone left for their respective States...it was a fun weekend and am thankful and grateful that I was allowed to be a part of it :) it was great fun and had many laughs (cannot even remember the bedroom incident...Max?!) should definitely do it again sometime...another PwC trip together somewhere ;) oh well...haha..
THANK YOU HY AND HAZEL FOR BEING EXCELLENT HOSTS AND MAX FOR ORGANISING (Don't forget the ski trip tour too)

posted by Darren at 7:31 PM