To Dye for

I achieved the unthinkable this weekend, a feat that I never thought I could do despite my best efforts, people have put bets on my success (the majority on failure!) I showed them ha! I stayed in for both Friday and Saturday night! Thank you, thank you very much!

Now this may not sound like something to shout about, but it is my friends, let me tell you that it is! For the two years and three months I have resided in Sydney not one weekend have I not been out on either a Friday or a Saturday (and most probably for the year before that when I lived in Manchester!). Beyond waking up with no hang over I actually surprised myself… I enjoyed it!

Don’t worry I’m not going to become a hermit and start campaigning for this kind of behaviour to become more frequent or start announcing to all that I’m a changed woman, no, no, no! I am simply saying that it will be happening far more frequently.

However, I feel it is important to add that I have been out every day since Saturday – so I guess not too much of a great achievement?

Sunday I once again frequented The Ivy – 10 year crush was there, swoon! We’ve spoke though and decided we’re better off as friends, story of my life (nod and smile, nod and smile!).

I then headed to Bondi to catch up with my girls at Ravesis. Ravesis is a bar based on Bondi’s Campbell Parade, floor to ceiling glass walls allow bar dwellers to watch the world go by as they tuck into their drinks. On a particularly sunny day you can spot the guys ogling the hotties as they walk by. In fact even on one occasion the lovely Sally and Julie were walking past and the guys each held up score cards out of ten, charming (but we like it!).

Marks out of ten?

The only thing that really irritates me about Ravesis is the change in bar prices when you head upstairs into the ‘cocktail lounge’ it’s the exact same bar but the prices are about 10% dearer on average. If you then leave the bar and buy a drink at the other bar, they won’t let you in until you’ve finished it – not cool!

I digress, so I met up with the girls and got myself a glass of wine – cue putting the world to right and general banter. After we’d been there about an hour, three of our guy mates rocked up (one of whom who I’d pulled a few weeks earlier). They’re a nice bunch of lads but PLAYERS through and through. One of said boys actually received a punch to the face from one of my lovely girlies (who wasn’t in attendance that day) after she caught him shagging a girl in the bedroom of a party – a party he had gone to with her after they’d been seeing each other for a few weeks! Another story for another time, but you get the kind of boys I mean.

So we all sat around chatting for a couple of hours and then went on our merry way home.

Monday – Cooked for everyone didn’t I –Yes I am a domestic goddess ahem!

Tuesday – Went to Pyrmont for dinner with my lovely friend, who I haven’t seen for too long! We polished off a bottle of vino over an amazing Thai at Bangkok Station. Amazing food and really cheap – I had the Chilli Basil Stir-fry with Chicken – Amazing! Highly recommend and its BYO too, bonus! Then we headed to a stunning small bar called gallon – BIG FAN!

As you walk in it’s like you’ve walked into a quaint French cafe at midnight – candlelight and ambient surroundings lead you to a lovely outside area. I will go to sample the menu soon – watch out for the review! I’m sure it will be to ‘dye’ for. Now, no, that isn’t a grammatical mistake – it’s a leading statement as I’m interested to hear your thoughts on a certain predicament of mine…

I’ve been seeing a lovely guy recently; things have been going good, no complaints at all, only I see to have a habit of picking at the slightest things until they become unravelled.

Ok, I used to be a brunette, well I went to the dark-side for six months last year for a change. I then went back to my blonde-ish roots in September last year. Now my friends are pretty split as to which they prefer, half prefer me blonde, half prefer brunette. Now the problem lies herein (yes I probably am being overly superficial and over thinking things – but it’s my blog so I can say what I want, ha!) – the guy I’ve been spending time with has seen a picture of me when I had brown hair and he liked it, a lot. He said he actually prefers it. Which is of course lovely – However he has also said on several occasions that he prefers brunettes and those brunettes are his ‘type’.

Now I am normally laid back about these things, but I guess this doesn’t sit well with me. Now I do this all the time and probably need to be told to get a grip (and it is probably why I’m still single). But… am I right for this to niggle at me and make me think that he doesn’t like the way I look now? Answers on a postcard please….

I’m not being funny like… is there a camera following me around or what?!

Lovely jubly Australia Day, I actually can’t quite get over the fact that it was my third Aussie Day since moving here. I can practically hear the intonation rise at the end of my sentence as I transcend from fully fledged Pom to plastic Aussie – I did however draw the line at putting the flag transfers on my cheeks. I looked stupid enough by the end of the day with my bright pink face from too much sun and not enough SPF (when will I learn!) without having white flag outlines on my cheeks this morning as all evidence of the classy transfers removed from my face.

The day stared with a very nice champagne breakfast at Trio in Bondi with my lovely girlies. Trio was a very good shout, nice surroundings, amazing views of the beach and wonderful coffee. The waiting staff are really helpful and the breakfast menu is to die for. In particular one of my mates had the toasted banana bread with ‘real life’ bananas on top with vanilla cream and strawberries. My friend’s response pretty much summed it up, “ooohhhhh elllllllow!” ha! All the yummy brekkie was washed down with a bottle of their finest (cheapest) house sparking and orange juice – yum!

We then moved onto Bronte for a BBQ, beers and lots of sunshine, as did the majority of Sydney-siders – seriously, I’ve never seen it so busy! The great thing about Bronte is the massive grass area and the laid back rules when it comes to having a bevvy. Now I don’t know about you guys but I HATE sand, hate hate hate it. It never seems to get old to my friend when they look over and I’m literally COVERED in sand. I don’t mean a speckle here and there, I mean full-on is that my friend over there or the Return of the Psammead (Fellow Brits you know what I’m talking ‘bout).

Hot huh?! Do you wanna get with this?!

So yes I could lie on the grass, sand free and happy. We stayed there until about eight and then decided to go to my friends, friends’ party in Bellevue – cue fights for taxis left right and centre (have you tried to get a taxi from Bronte on Australia Day!) More chance of knitting fog I tell ya! We managed to get one about an hour later and asked the lovely Sally (name changed) where the party was, she had no idea… We’re all there in a taxi, that we fought tooth and nail for (well we didn’t really, but you know I like to exaggerate slightly – not a fan of violence!)  waiting with baited breath, she had no idea… Might have been an idea to check in the hour wait? She also advised us that she wasn’t even sure if her friend was still there. Well what the flippin heck are we doing sitting in a taxi on our way to Bellevue Hill?!

All in jest of course, we decided to opt for a quick detour and head on to The Golden Sheaf in Double Bay. ‘The Sheaf’ as it’s more widely known is a very cool bar, it has so many areas and floors to choose from. Downstairs the there is a beer garden type feel as there is more area outside than there is inside. On a hot day it’s perfect to chill in and by night it’s the perfect place to watch a local band doing a gig and dance the night away. Upstairs there are a few areas, there’s the dance area where the ‘cool kids’ stand drinking their vodka Redbulls and moijitos. The tunes are cool and there’s a really nice vibe. Down the corridor there are a number of small rooms that hold about 10 – 15 people – ideal if you have a bday party or social gathering. All in all a thoroughly nice establishment

So enoute to ‘The Sheaf’ down Ocean Road the lovely, if not somewhat dizzy Sally gasped “oh no I’ve left my bag at Bronte”… coooourrrsseee you av! Cue me, Louise and Jenny making a hasty exit from the taxi as Sally ordered the taxi to do an about turn and head to Bronte.

So the three of us are stood half way between nowhere and nowhere on Ocean Street, not really sure what to do with ourselves, do we flag another taxi and carry onto La Sheaf or do we just call it a day and go home? We took a look around at all the houses and were saying to each other, “if only we knew someone that lived here, there’s a bottle shop over there and we could just stay here and chill.” As we’re falling about giggling pretending to knock on the doors (yes we had had a few beverages!) a familiar face walks around the corner, I hear him shout my name, as I turn around… who it is?! Bloody well Liam! If my face was already red from the sun over exposure, it was now positively crimson! He only lived in that very house we were stood outside of ‘faux’ knocking on the letterbox! Cool huh, I’m thinking NOT!

Now I don’t know if I’m being silly, or paranoid or what, but far too many coincidences happen to me! Seriously! Of all the houses in Sydney, what are the actual chances of us being stood outside that one at that time?! Pretty slim me thinks!  Sally rocked back after her detour via Bronte, she’s met Liam loads times before so it was all cool!

It all ended up fine in the end, we went in and had a few vinos with Liam and his housemates and then ventured to The Sheaf together. It actually ended up a really fun night as we danced and drank the night away.

Still pretty sure that he thinks I’m a crazy stalker person though that tracked him down and waited outside his house ready to pounce!

Speaking of people waiting at the front of people’s houses… I rocked up back to mine after putting on my dancing shoes at The Sheaf, I decided to walk home, to Paddington – WTF was I thinking?!  As I got to my house, who was at my front door, the infamous Paul (remember half English, half Maltese guy, yup you got it!).

We had made arrangements to meet in the day but shock horror, he’d gone AWOL and his phone was off. I just presumed he’s got side tracked and made other plans. Turns out he’s actually lost his phone the night before and had been out in Paddington, he didn’t want me to think that he was ignoring me or had blown me out. Now talk about turn up for the books! One: Turning up at my house at midnight – not cool! On a school night as well – less than ideal. Two: Talk about over keen – are we truly never happy. (I do believe however there is a fine balance between the two). So I invited him in and had a cpl of glasses of vino (there really was NO need!) and bid him on his merry way.

So I’m now quite confused and don’t know what to make of it. I’m still no clearer as to what Liam wanted to talk to me about, Paul is sending me mixed signals all over the place and I don’t know how you guys are going on my heads even spinning with it all. I need help! Ha!