So, here I am on my final day in Sydney. Ant is up in the room currently dressing and packing his stuff up while I thought i'd sneak down and check out my emails before returning home. We're due out of here at 10am, but our flight isn't till midday so I suspect we're going to be lugging around heavy baggage for an hour or so.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP:
* The Home Party - definitely a lot more fun than I was suspecting but I think that was a combination of great music, nice sized crowd and, of course, having David (aka Miss Margeaux) with us. David is such a dear friend who I don't get to see or speak to often enough, but as I was saying to him the other day, it is always going to be quality over quantity and Ant and I have been thrilled that we got to spent so much of our trip up here with him. It was also fantastic to meet one of his close friends, Richard - having heard a lot about him, it was great to finally meet the man in the flesh and spend a little time with him.
* Meeting new friends - it seemed the recovery on Sunday night was riddled with friendly people. Who ever put forward the notion that Sydney people tend to be a little more cliquey clearly haven't been up here for some time because we just found ourselves talking to so many new people, making so many new friends, and extending so many invitations to come to Melbourne some time. So a big thank you to all the Gino's, Dom's and Mike's of this world who made our Sunday night even more fun.
* Hotel Stellar - affordable but rather nice. I'd certainly recommend it to people and it was so close to everything.
* 1973 - My friends will all tell you that i've been obsessed with trying to find a '73' top but have never had any luck. Whilst over in Manly, we noticed that Billabong have just released an entire range of '73' clothes. I didn't go crazy though, deciding to buy a nice green t-shirt as it had the full '1973' on it.
* Warner - Getting to do some work for Warner, and catching up with the gorgeous Kylie Martin again who I can't speak more highly of. Also finding out that Michael Parisi had recommended me to Gordon at Warner's to talk to.
* 'I Like Plastic' - Whilst searching through the many $10 CD stores here, I found a CD compilation that has an obscure 80's dance track I love called 'I Like Plastic'. Not having a CD player here, I've not been able to listen to the quality yet but very excited that i've found this fun piece of retro on a CD. The rest of the CD is fairly crap though, but it is worth the $10 for the one track.
THE NOT-SO HIGHLIGHTS:
* The Weather - It might seem rather hypocritical for a native Melburnian to complain, but the weather here has been cold and wet for pretty much the entire time. I guess it is winter also, so what should I really expect?
* Arq - What kind of club charges $30 to get in and then, during the peak hours (and due to numbers) closes access off between the rooms. Ant, Margeaux and I were trapped downstairs for about three hours until one of Margeaux's more connected friends was able to sneak us upstairs via the back entries so that we could get back to our other friends. The club still had a queue of people waiting to get into the main room at 7am in the morning.
* No CD/DVD - I did have my Ipod, so I wasn't music-less, but the only downside of Hotel Stellar is the lack of DVD/CD players and the fact that the TV reception is pretty crap. But still, it's good accomodation.
In all, i've enjoyed my time in Sydney although I am looking forward to getting back home, seeing the kids and getting the house straightened up. Ant is feeling too well today, so I suspect he'll head straight to bed. I want to get the work done for Warner immediately, party so that I can invoice them but also because i'm actually excited about doing this kind of work again.
