So I managed to squeeze quite a lot in to my little holiday. I
arrived on the morning of the 25th Jan, was collected by mum and
dad (yay!) and then it was off to the second day of the Adelaide Test
with Scott and Glenn, Liv, Dan and Jack, and a bunch of other
random mates who I ran into on the day. After a long day on the hill in
the sun, beers in hand, and almost starting a fight with a total
w@#$er who deliberately snapped the pole of the large Aussie
flag I’d managed to flog off some unwary spectators sitting in front of
us, Dan, Jack and I went down to Seaton for a nice birthday barbie in
the park. Just what the doctor ordered after a long day at the cricket:
snags, salads and beers! And most of my extended family. The young-uns
of the group (even though I turned 28 the next day, I still considered
myself part of this category) proceeded to the beach to spell out
random words using only our BODIES (see Facebook album #2849324839203
for evidence…hehe). In fact, evidence of all of these adventures can be found in various Facebook photo albums.
My
birthday and Australia Day (yes, they’re one and the same, and I love
it) started off with a great brekkie at the markets with my old pal
Renee, who also shares the same birthday as me, and who I haven’t seen
in ages. Then it was off to the cricket again, for another drunken
adventure with my good buddies Bel, Troy and Scotty Bradey. Had an
awesome day on the hill with them, then we made our way via the new,
fancy-pants electric tram to Glenn and Louise’s to catch the tail end of
their Hottest 100 barbie – not that we needed any more beer! We cruised
to the Goody for a few, then I went into town to join the gals for
Zoe’s hen’s night.
It was a fun night out with my old
work buddies, although it was a bit quiet. I managed to convince them to
come to Supermild because I thought that the bar/club we were at was a
bit mellow, plus everyone was being pretty lame and not dancing or
anything. Supermild was itself kinda mellow, but I liked it a lot more
and I had planned to meet up with Trace and Isaac there. They never
showed (boo!), but Bradey did a bit later on. By then I was totally
knackered and cabbed it back to Dan’s where I crashed on his couch. Ahhh
sleeeeeep!
I was totally knackered on Sunday, but it
was the perfect remedy to lounge around in Dan’s backyard and talk shit
until mum and dad came past in the early afternoon en route to
Jamestown. I was in awe of how brown and dead everything seemed on the
drive up there, but it was nice to be home. The wind farm being
constructed on the Hallett Hills had progressed quite a lot, but
everything else about Jamestown and the farm was pretty much the same. I
went to see my grandparents, and caught up with my old school mate
Lauren and her family. We took little Bree to the Hallett Pool and then
organised a barbeque with Helen, another school mate who has just moved
back to Jamestown to teach at the local school, which was a great catch
up. And then Lauren and her mum offered to drive me back to Adelaide the
next day, which was awesome. We took Bree to the beach for the first
time; she was quite apprehensive about this new environment!
By
this time I was getting all revved up for one of the highlights of my
trip: The Big Day Out, a day-long music festival that happens at the
start of February every year and tours the capital cities of Australia.
The headline acts this year were Rage Against the Machine and Bjork.
Awesome! I had been to Trace and Isaac’s new house for dinner the night
before, and the day of the BDO we cruised to Goodwood to Glenn and
Louise’s for a pre-fest barbie and beers, before walking to the
Showgrounds. Spent the day with Trace, Isaac, Scott Searle, Glenn, and
Lana and George. It was a bit of a funny day, because Scott met Lana’s
new flame and I met Matt’s. Anyway.
I love the BDO not
only because the music is RAD(elaide) but you run into so many people
you haven’t seen in ages. Rage were AWESOME, as was Bjork; other great
sets were Regurgitator, Faker, Midnight Juggernaughts and Spoon.
Silverchair were kinda lame but I saw their whole set, as I was waiting
on the other stage for Bjork. Loved being right at the front to see this
crazy, amazing woman, who came out after her all female brass band in
her appropriately Bjork, colourful mumu! It was quite amusing because
after Bjork, Rage were playing, and there was a very clear distinction
between the crowds that were there to see each; in fact you could almost
say that each crowd hated the other act as much as each other. Rage
were also fantastic, and as I was in the D –zone for Bjork, I was also
there for Rage, and managed to get a great view without being sucked up
into the writhing mass that was the out-of-control mosh. I was totally
knackered after that, and so after a bit of time in the boiler room to
catch Carl Cox I got outta there and headed to HJ’s with Lana and George
for some onion rings on the way home.
And then, I had
Zoe’s wedding to attend the next day; another planned highlight of my
trip home. I was pretty knackered from the BDO but still excited about
the event! The ceremony was held at St Paul’s church in Glenelg, which a
small crowd of friends and family witnessed. Zoe looked absolutely
gorgeous, as did her bridesmaids, and the groom and his party were very
smart. I took Scotty Bradey as my hot date, on Zoe’s request, which I
was more than happy to do! He didn’t scrub up too badly either :).
We
went for a beer or two at the Pier before cruising down to Café Salsa
at West Beach for the reception. A totally great fun, drunken night
ensued with my old workmates, including Pete and Laura who had come over
from Canberra, so it was a great catch-up session and an especially
good reason for doing so. I got bailed up by some of Zoe’s family
friends, who were trying to set me up with their son. Surely he can do
his own groundwork?! They even took my photo and showed me a seemingly
endless stream of photographs: “here’s Matthew out fishing, with our
yacht, with the dogs…” – la di da! It was kinda amusing, but quite
uncomfortable!
So I crashed with Pete and Loopy at a
mate’s house, and embarrassingly he had to kick me out of his bed at
about 3am (not my fault – Pete said I could sleep there!). Thank god he
gave me some time to put some clothes back on before crashing on the
couch! All amusing the next day. We cruised to the beach in the arvo as a
hangover remedy, which worked, before having a quiet beer at the Goody.
This quiet beer turned into a random drinking session with Scott Searle
after the others all left, and we chilled on the couches in front of
the cricket on TV before crashing at Glenn’s house around the corner.
The
next adventure was three days in Melbourne, good old Tiger Airways for
having $20 fares! So Jess and little Sam came to pick me up, bless em,
and we had a great old catch up and babysitting session that afternoon
when her sister Kylie brought her 3 kids over. Was great fun doing art
and craft, going to the park and generally playing mum with two babies
and two little kids running around. Good part is, I can give them back
at the end! Pete came over for dinner and with Mike home after work we
had a fun evening in. Lounged around the next day at the beach, before
catching up with Alison, my aunt, and seeing her new house. I took her
for coffee in Church St and found out all about what’s been happening
with my cousins. Then I went for dinner at the best restaurant in the
world, the Moroccan Soup kitchen, with a whole bunch of mates who live
in Melbourne: Lear, Troy, Dave, Pete, Jess, and Rob, who’s just moved
over from Radelaide. It was so great! Day 3 was yet another one of
leisure with Jess, and we perused various book stores with Sam in town
before having a delicious Japanese lunch with Pete and the Sallys. It
was awesome to see them too, and find out all the exciting info about
the Sallys’ plans for a child and the process they’re going through to
do it.
The most amusing thing that happened on that
trip was that a certain mother called me out of the blue to “apologise
for bailing me up at the wedding, but to follow up on our conversation”
and “put the ball in my court”. She had seemingly got my number from Zoe
and after discussion with her son Matthew, decided to call me and give
me his number – then it was up to me what I did with it! She went on
about how it was hard for young people to meet each other these days,
that you could meet a potential mate in a dodgy bar somewhere only to
find out they were a stalker, and that by introducing her son to a
friend of “such a reputable family” it would make things so much more
pleasant. So I thought I’d have a bit of fun with it, and invited this
young man to some drinks I’d organised in town for Friday. Unfortunately
he was unable to come due to work and fishing commitments. Dammit! I
would have loved to see how this would turn out… and just to meet the
guy; surely he can find his own girlfriends without the help his
MOTHER! Ha ha haaaaaaa, totally hilarious!
Unfortunately
Cee was ill with pneumonia and had returned home to Radelaide, but the
good thing was, I could see her when I myself returned there. So that I
did after leaving good old Melbs, I spent the afternoon at their place
with her, Jo and Flick before sprucing ourselves up for dinner in Gouger
St with Bradey, Trace and Isaac.
Then the madness
began. I had organised (what I thought was) a ‘farewell’ that night at
Sangria Bar, and invited a whole bunch of people to come – and many of
them did! Sangria was already packed, and we just added a few more
sardines to the tin. I haven’t been that drunk in a very long time; the 2
bottles of wine at dinner were a good way to start, and while I didn’t
buy another drink for the whole night, I always had one (or two, or
three…) sangrias in my hand. I was having so much fun seeing everyone
and sangria is so easy to drink, that I totally lost control of my
drink-moderation activities and, well, went in headfirst. Not that it
was a problem, except at the end of the night, after relocating to
Supermild for a while, when I had to be escorted home in a taxi. Hehe, thanks Frosty! (Again – you certainly are the Symonds guardian
angel!) I had such a great night, and so many people that I didn’t
expect turned up, including Matt, who also brought along Chris and his
other mate Belts, who has been living in London the last couple of
years. It was great to see everyone, and it would have been a very apt
send-off and put me in perfect condition to get on a plane and sleep for
7 hours. But due to a problem with getting my passport back (see next
blog), I was staying extra days, so I was able to sleep in at Cee’s
place, and while ratfaced the whole day, we had yum cha in Gouger St –
the perfect hangover cure.
The weekend was spent
recovering from all the shenanigans of the past 2 weeks, although on
Sunday I headed to the beach with Lana and friends, and then out to the
Largs Pier with Scott Searle. James came down to join us for a few beers
and we watched the cricket before crashing out. I love random Sunday
adventures! The best kind :)
So the rest of the week
was down to just cruising around and enjoying my time at home. It was
kinda boring because everyone was working, but I still made the most of
it. I spent a day at the SA vs TAS one-day match (which was dismally
lost by SA in a lacklustre display of batting) with Rover and Burnsy,
had lunch and random beers with old workmates, went out to my old tennis
comp to see the crew, and got in a couple of hits of tennis (had to get
my eye back in to take on Nam when I returned!). I even had a final
dinner at the Colonist with Bel, Troy and Bradey, which culminated in
getting pissed with Bradey, talking shit and cruising down to Henley
Beach in the van with CC and Dry cans in hand. Helped me to sleep on
the plane the next day!
All in all: a totally
excellent adventure. I am really gonna miss everyone this time around.
And I’m not back for at least 6 more months. Still, it’s all part of the
deal :)
So.... back to work for a holiday.
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