I like wine, wine likes me (does it really though?!) Love hate relationship me thinks…

A quiet weekend was on the cards again, it started off so well, a quiet night in front of the TV (crashed out at 6:30 and woke up at 9:30 the next morning) me thinks I must’ve needed it.

On Saturday I went to Newtown with one of the lovely girlies, I’ve never been there before on a  Saturday – it was so much fun! I heart it there. Very bohemian feel somewhat reminiscent of Camden Town in London, lots of the ‘cool folk’ that I try to be but fail miserably. The boutique clothing stores line the streets with affordable one off vintage items – I got an amazing dress and hair piece – only cost me $50 for both – amaze! My mate picked up an amazing dress for $25, and looked hot to trot to boot.

We had lunch at the most amazing cafe, I must find the name for you guys, the food was scrumptious! We shared a carrot and chick-pea burger and tomato, mozzarella and basil salad.mmmm

After a day of shopping and chilling I headed home, had a bit night ahead and was ready to party following my snooooozathon the night before, loser!!

I dressed up in my new hot frock and donned my new hair piece, I also decided to opt for the curly mane as opposed to polka straight – like to mix things up every now and again… you know!!

So off I headed to Casa Di Nico on Darling Harbour, now I’m usually a fan of the smaller Italian restaurants that are off the beaten track. You know the hidden treasures that are always packed out, tiny but with bucket loads of atmosphere. Casa Di Nico is definitely not that, however it was pleasant enough – the company was fantastic so that is all that counts. I had the vegetarian lasagne for my main which was very lovely, not too filling but just enough. I also ploughed trough about 6 glasses of white wine, the law on a Saturday night right?!

After dinner we moved onto Bungalow 8, again not my favourite venues, it was so busy on Saturday – however the music was off the hook! Sally came to join us just after work to the tunes of ‘Walking on Broken Glass’ – a personal fave of ours that we have been caught rocking out to in Kit and Kaboodle on more than one occasion… good times my friend… good times!!

After Bungalow we decided to head to The Sheaf – now we’re talking copious amounts of wine later – less than ideal. I should’ve just given up then and gone home. But nooooooo I don’t stop until I have to… cue arriving in The Sheaf – not feeling (or looking I presume) the best I’ve ever looked – after a crossed wire with a friend I stomped off home… to PADDINGTON in MASSIVE heels – WTF was I thinking?! Think cooking up a storm as I arrive home (surely that’s not safe) and passing out on my bed fully clothed, with my shoes on. Stay classy… indeed!

Imagine this - fully clothed - not pretty!

Stay tuned for the update of the next day and another chance encounter to follow shortly…

Savoury Sydney family

Living over the other side of the world is an adventure, tick! A learning experience, tick! Sometimes lonely, tick! Now I am one of a very lucky group of friends that really considers Sydney our second home, thanks is the most part to our amazing ‘Sydney family’.

Missing friends getting married, having babies, building homes and futures can be so hard, but it is part and parcel of being independent and following your dream to live the true ‘Aussie life’ on the other side of the globe.

My family back home have been great, my mum arrives in Sydney next week for five weeks and will be her second venture to visit me in the ‘Land D’n Under’ in 12 months. My brother arrived in Melbourne last week and will be here for a whole year. I can’t believe it, going to be awesome having them here! When my mum leaves though, I know I’ll miss her and be sad, but I always know I’ve got my bessies here on this amazing adventure with me.

There’s a term coined in Sydney by many nationalities to describe the people who flew the nest a little further than maybe their parents would have liked, we often describe each other as ‘Sydney orphans’.  Typically we’re a group of young professionals working and living here, our home from home. Any occasion such as Christmas, Easter and birthdays, we all pull together to celebrate together. It’s not just the Brits it’s Kiwis, Canadians, Dutch, French, South American, African etc

One thing that really stood out to me when I’d been here for a year was how approachable everyone is here. Not like London where if you look at someone sideways, or heaven forbid, you try to say hello you’re looked at like you’ve got two heads.

It also stood out to me how much of a completely small world it is, never before has the term ‘six degrees of separation’ rang more true.

Source: http://blog.familyvalue.com.au/?p=68

Here are just a few examples:

Steve arrived in the Hostel, we got to chatting after he’d been here a few hours. He explained that he only knew one person in Sydney, the girl who placed him in his last job, oh and that she was from Wigan. He then told me her name: Julie XX. Yes, yes that’s right the same Julie that I went to college and uni with, the one that I now live with and is my best friend.

I continue… I met Dave, a friend or a friend of Louise’s. We were at my friends 30^th BBQ and got talking, turns out that he’s from near my home town back home. I explain to him that my lovely friend Sophie and a guy I used to date back home are from there. He asked his name, I wasn’t optimistic that he would know him, I said his name… yup that’s right he knew him, not only did he know him, they were best friends at high school and college. Also, my lovely friend Sophie text me the next week, she only had a crush on Dave all though college too and she couldn’t believe he was here! The walls are starting to close in!

Finally, I’ve already told you about Darren, who I met and we arranged a date a few weeks later. Turns out that the day before the date I bump into his ex GF through a friend of a friend… who he’d been with for NINE years! That’s was an awkward conversation I tell ya!

So you can see from my examples (there are more, however I’ll bank those for later) that Sydney is a small place where everyone knows everyone – one way or another!

So it’s great to have your core friends at the centre of it all. Baring in mind, me and my friend Helen arrived in Sydney two years ago and we only knew each other. Julie arrived three days later, her and Helen hit it off immediately. Steve arrived a month later, who already knew Julie and was staying in mine and Helen’s hostel. Sally arrived that May, she was one of Julie’s friends from university, the same uni that I went to. We all hit it off. Lizzie and Emily worked with Julie we all got on massively. That was just after six months…

Penny arrived in January, she was on the same course as Sally, Julie and me at university. She hit is off with Helen and we all moved in together. Lucy arrived in July 2009, a lovely girl that I worked with in Manchester, she met the girls and clicked straight away.

 A year later Dean arrived with all of the other lads from our home town, they went to university with Penny, Sally and Julie and me. Louise arrived that May and met Julie through a colleague. We met one Sunday at the Beach Road in Bondi – she’s from Widnes, which is down the road from us. She’s now one of our bessies too.

It’s confusing for even me, but you catch my drift. It’s a massive Sydney family that just keeps growing. It’s got to the point when I meet people now, when we add each other on the book of face, I’m more surprised if we don’t have any friends in common, ha!

I’m going to get some of them to pop guest blogs up so you have a different perspective of or silly Sydney times.