After a long wait, we finally got to spend that weekend away together. The entire weekend can be summed up with one word:

Excellent.

The actual weekend started on Friday night with C’s housewarming party. After an inital hiccup, the evening panned out well and I had a great time. Possibly a bit *too* good a time as I threw up twice in the morning before boarding the plane to Sydney. I also couldn’t handle the smell or sight of food until 5.30pm that evening. C struggled to get out of bed at all, and nearly missed the plane! When my friends arrived to pick us up on the way to the airport C was still in the bathroom, having only just managed to climb out of bed. In the end, worried about getting to the airport in time to check in we opted to leave him there and took off to the airport so at least we could check in. That probably sounds worse than it was, as we didn’t exactly ditch him; we’d arranged with one of his housemates to get dropped off. The plan was that we could just get all of us checked in, then hopefully he would still arrive in time to get his bags checked in, otherwise it was still small enough to take as a carry on. I couldn’t be too hard on C though, even if he tends to run late quite a bit. Some of my best mates would vouch for the fact that I used to run late regularly, though I’ve gotten a lot better at it.

Arriving in Sydney, we decided we would meet in a couple of hours to go out for dinner. I rang and made the booking, then C and I used the time to have a much needed sleep in our hotel room. Dinner was at a Brazillian BBQ place in Wooloomooloo, called Churrasco. I have been there before, and I highly recommend it. The food and atmosphere is incredible!

The next day we didn’t have much time to do anything before the NRL grand final, so after a buffet breakfast we began to make our way to ANZ stadium via a super packed train. It was fun though, the train driver made an announcement over the radio before saying “Go the warriors”, causing the train to errupt into a chorus of boos and cheers.

I passed the time by playing with my phone and taking artsy fartsy pics

It was cold day, and we spent the time in the stands shivering. It did actually rain on us a few times, but thankfully only in short spurts so I was able to get away with not having a poncho. I was certainly glad to see a shower at the end of the night though and warm my bones up again. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Darling Harbour, Thai Foon, which my friend had spotted on previous travels to Sydney but had never been able to go. It didn’t disappoint. The food was fantastic, although the duck I ordered wasn’t quite as good as the duck at the Spice Bar back home in Mooloolaba. Originally C and I had planned on going out to meet up with my cousin who was also in town at the time, but eventually we scrapped the plan and went back to the hotel to sleep. We were shattered.

We must have needed it, as we had a mammoth sleep in until 10am (nearly 10 full hours of sleep, OH YEAH), then we spent the day wandering around at Circular Quay showing C the Opera House. He’d been to Sydney before and walked over the Harbour Bridge, but never actually been at the Opera House itself. It’s definitely one of those “once you’ve done it you don’t need to do it again” kinda things though, and I found I was more interested in people watching and looking at nearby shops. After having lunch, we wandered down around the rocks for a look around. I have to give props to C here, since he’d managed to break his toe on Friday night but still insisted on walking around with us. Each night at the hotel I’d fussed over him tho, including the night before where I’d made him ice his foot and elevate it before we both passed out asleep. On our last day in Sydney we did the most walking out of all of the days, and he didn’t complain once. He also compared the pain to being stung by about 10 green ants at once. It definitely didn’t sound pleasant.

Finally it came time to go back to the hotel, collect our things and get to the airport. I’ve discovered the best thing about travelling with C is his size – he’s 6ft 8, which means that airport staff are only too happy to give us the exit/emergency rows. Extra leg room here I come!! On this occasion we all scored the first row on the plane, and the entire flight home passed quickly as we all fell asleep relatively fast. Coming home was bitter sweet as I’d loved spending the time away with my friends, and it was not as warm as I’d hoped (after spending a few days being cold in Sydney I was looking forward to the warmer temperatures). But there’s nothing quite like coming home to a dog who thinks you’re the greatest thing on the planet, and I was only too thrilled to see my girl.

Thanks for a great weekend guys, and look forward to our next adventure!

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This weekend I’m flying to Sydney. Oh yeah.

The group consists of C plus a couple of friends of mine, Ang and Stu, and our aim is to just chill…the….f……out. No stress here! Unfortunately there’s a couple of issues threatening to ruin the weekend though, not happy Jan!

We bought our tickets to the grand final as soon as they became available, months before we even had any idea who would be in the finals. When it came time for the finals, we were thrilled to see that Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm were still in the running. Ang, Stu and C are all big Broncos supporters, and while I don’t support a particular NRL team I am a die hard maroons supporter in the state of origin. With several key players in the Storm side, I was hopeful they would make the final.

With only two games remaining until the grand final, both of which would decide the finalists, Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm crashed out in controversial circumstances. We had at least a 50% chance of one of our teams making the final, and luck was against us. Instead we’re faced with Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (fair to say most hated side in the competition) vs New Zealand Warriors. Hopefully it will still be a great game, and I’m going to be a temporary kiwi for the weekend as I back the warriors (you’ll never find me supporting Manly).

The weather is the other concern. At the moment the temperature looks like it’s not going to top 19 degrees (brrr!! I’m from Queensland, anything under 20 is freezing to me!) and it’s forecasted to rain the entire weekend.Cold and wet makes Sydney a dreary place to be! I’ll be sure to do my best to avoid letting the rain dampen my spirits (geddit? dampen? ha!) and I’m still looking forward to a great weekend. It’s also going to be the first proper time I’ve been away with C, which I’m definitely looking forward to!

Only one more working day until the weekend rolls on. It can’t come soon enough.

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The weekend started by flying into Sydney just after lunch on the Saturday. I waited at the airport for half an hour before meeting two of my friends, and headed to the hotel. We dropped our stuff off, where suddenly we all heard the bells chiming at the same time.

It was beer o’clock.

We settled on a bar in Woolloomooloo, sitting on the balcony upstairs overlooking the docks while sipping on some wine and eating some light afternoon snacks. I was incredibly fatigued from a late night before, and struggled to get some energy together. I managed to down one glass of wine though before we all went back to the hotel. I had a power nap, Julie had more wine while looking out the window at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Jens went for a run (because it’s totally natural to go for a run the afternoon before a 14km race, though in all fairness he was testing out his knee as it had been hurting lately).

Dinner consisted of a russian feast that included cabaret, something I wasn’t expecting until I saw a sign in the restaurant. As part of the feast, Jens and I agreed (after a bit of coaxing from the host) that we had to have a vodka shot with our entree. I immediately took the shot, and was startled to see Jens sipping small bits while he was eating his entrees. That not how you take a vodka shot!

Here’s a few photos from the restaurant (click to view larger sizes):

Beers at the Russian restaurant

Bottoms up!

Herring entree

Goulash and mushroom crepes

Chicken something for my main

Cabaret dancers

Strawberry crepe

After downing one of the strongest cocktails in my life, followed by a more subtle cocktail and managing to avoid getting on the dance floor with Julie, we finished dinner and made our way back to the hotel. We turned the tv onto the music channel, and continued to drink wine until the screaming of our subconscious minds reminding us about the following morning grew too loud, and we agreed it was time for bed. Jens and Julie returned to their room, I drunkenly painted my fingernails then passed out asleep on the bed.

My alarm went off early the next morning, and upon rising discovered I was the recipient of a hangover headache. Not cool. Glancing out the window I saw it was pouring with rain. Even less cool.

First port of call was the hydralite packets I’d thoughtfully packed, and after downing one of those, showering and messaging Julie with a weather update I decided to go in search for a poncho. After losing a small fortune at the corner store but finding myself in possession of two ponchos and painkillers, I waited downstairs at the hotel for Jens to pass by. He was in a running group that started nearly an hour before Julie and I, so we arranged for him to wear his jacket to the starting line then pass it to me as he ran past. I was thrilled to see the rain had eased off so it wasn’t coming down by the time Jens started, however the roads were still quite wet.

I photographed the start of the race, collected Jens’ jacket, and after packing up the rest of my gear upstairs made my way back down to reception and checked out. Julie was already waiting for me, and given the time we opted to just make our way to the starting line rather than worry about breakfast. We figured waiting until we got to Bondi sounded like a good option.

Approximately 15mins after our official starting time, we finally passed the starting line and were on our way!

Superman leading the pack

Storm Troopers amongst the crowd

The route for the City 2 Surf

Our split times for the race

One hour and 49mins later it was all over. Given I had been sick for nearly 6 weeks, the last 3 with bronchitis, I remain incredibly proud of how we did for the run. A few days earlier I’d tried to go for a run in the morning and had struggled to run for almost 2mins straight. Here I was, 1 hour and 49mins later and 14km further from where I started, knowing I’d only walked approximately 1 – 2km of it. Regardless of how fast I could have been, I still remain thrilled, and now I have a good benchmark for next year.

Reward for my efforts

Throughout the whole race I had been able to smell barbecues and food on the grill, which made my hunger even more insatiable. My stomach kept growling, and I kept assuring it that it would be stuffed full soon enough. Thankfully the hydralite had pushed away any thought of a hangover too, not to mention getting gatorade from the numerous drink stops along the track. By the time we arrived in Bondi I was truly ready to shove anything I could find in my mouth, and I was stoked to receive a text letting us know that Jens had found a table at a cafe. He had some lemon squash and coffees waiting, and we quickly made up our mind on what to eat. I don’t think I’ve ever had a big breakfast so fast, and I felt sick by the time I finished. But boy was my stomach satisfied!

After a 20min queue for the bus, then standing for 40mins on the bus, we found ourselves back at the hotel where they were kind enough to let us use the showers in the gym to wash away all the sweat and return to beautiful smelling individuals. There was a quick visit to a local bar for one more afternoon drink (I got an OJ, so hardcore), then I was off to the airport to fly back home to the beautiful (and much warmer) Sunshine Coast. Coming home was a great conclusion to another fantastic weekend away for the City 2 Surf.

After 3 years of going to the City 2 Surf, I am definitely in love with this tradition.

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You read correctly, by the way. Yes, I’m back to riding my bike.

I only really blogged about the setback with my knee through a photo of the day,  but basically the my VMO got very lazy. In simple terms, the VMO is the muscle that is responsible for holding my knee cap in place, so whenever I was running/riding/whatever, I was putting some serious strain on my knee. It came to a head one day when my knee just ballooned one day, and was a little bit sore to walk on. The physio had one look at it and said “no running, no riding, nothing. Minimal walking”.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I found out that I wasn’t able to participate in the Sydney City 2 Surf, a 10km run in Sydney. I had done it last year, and swore that this year I would run the whole thing. Instead, I wasn’t able to go in it at all. I put on a brave face to the physio, but got home and cried. I think I was devastated more for the fact that yet again I was back to being injured, and I was sick of it!

Well, nearly 3 weeks later and after religiously doing whatever the physio told me to, I was allowed to participate in the Bridge to Brisbane. This was another 10km event, but I had strict instructions that I was to walk on any slope (uphill or downhill) and that I was only allowed to run approximately 100m or so for every kilometre. Mat and I did it, completing the track in just over 1.5 hours. Throughout the race it was clear that Mat could have run faster and further than I could, but despite my insistance that he should keep going, he stated that he had wanted to do this with me, and thus he was staying with me. I secretly was pretty thrilled, and thought that was incredibly awesome of him. End of the day we were both a little tired, I was sore (Mat wasn’t), but the main thing was that my knee held up really well. So well in fact, that my physio has allowed me to return to riding my bike, which brings me back to today.

So what else has been on my plate? Uni study. I let myself get a little behind, and I’m currently trying to catch up. Every night of the week is study night at the moment, but it’s tough. At the moment I’m studying differentials (maths), and struggling a little bit. I’ll keep pushing on though, I’ve only got 2.5 weeks until I have to hand in my assignment. Needless to say, a lot of my extra time will be dedicated to maths. Looking forward to my “school holidays” in a few weeks!

I think that’s pretty much everything at the moment. I have a list of blog posts that I want to write when I can, as well as get a few more photos of the day up. Wow, it’s never-ending is it! Lucky I enjoy this *grin*

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The last day in Sydney for us before flying home. We caught the train over the harbour bridge and spent a few hours at Luna Park, where I couldn’t ride anything except for the ferris wheel courtesy of my knee. This was taken from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

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Today was the City 2 Surf, our whole purpose for flying to Sydney for the weekend. Unfortunately I was injured and unable to participate, but Mat still completed it with the rest of the boys. I was so proud of them all! This is the medal that Mat got at the end of the race, which he happily wore for the rest of the afternoon. The race was 14km long, so needless to say the boys were walking a bit funny for the next 24 hours!

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Have these mountain goats got the best view in Australia or what?! This is at Taronga Zoo.

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Our first day in Sydney on a long weekend, and we happened upon some men playing chess in the park. We stayed until the very end, which turned out to be a draw. It was incredibly fascinating!

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I actually hadn’t met a couple of the staff members in person before. It was either a case of they were from another country, and we were never in the same place at the same time, or they were only just recently hired and I hadn’t had a chance to meet them. We’d spoken online before (either by email or by Skype – being remote means our company relies on instant messaging for the small things) but never physically in person. I actually got quite nervous hoping that I would make a good impression!

The day started early for me. I woke at 4am (having only just gone to bed at 12.30am – I had been at a Green Day concert the night before) and spent an hour making sure I had everything I needed in my laptop bag, showering, and generally trying to use makeup to hide my panda eyes. The carpool arrived at 5am, and we made our way to the airport. 3 hours later I was in the Sydney office.

Normally when I walk in the office in Sydney there are dust bunnies flying past. There’s an eerie silence and it’s freezing cold. You could assume you’re in a cemetery, and if it wasn’t for the computers laying around, you’d be right. I’m pretty sure it’s the bad coffee that keeps them all on their toes.

Jason and "Smart"

First impressions of the boys from NZ were they were absolute champions. Colin was a giant, definitely not what I was expecting, but was just so nice and friendly. Jason wasn’t quite so tall but had a killer smile, and my first memory was of him displaying where he’d just spilled coffee all down his shirt & pants. Hilarious! I immediately warmed to the guys; with both of them having a sense of humour it was hard not to. Steve, one of our new developers who I hadn’t met before, was a lot more quiet and introverted but very nice all the same. Angelique, our new marketing guru was stunning. I can imagine the boys go crazy over her. Very beautiful, and incredibly upbeat and bubbly. With the introductions out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

After several hours of meetings and statistics (and stuff that I probably should have been paying attention to – it was difficult to keep focused after only a few hours of sleep ), it was finally time to break for lunch. Unfortunately, one of the staff couldn’t make it as he had a deadline to meet that afternoon, so we bid him goodbye then raced to the door; there was a fun afternoon ahead!

Our boss took us to a Chinese seafood restaurant in Haymarket. We sat down and broke Christmas bon bons, with a couple of the guys putting on the paper crowns that were included (I admired their bravery – I hate those things). I  spent the next 5mins reading out all the bad jokes, I’m a big fan of a corny punch line! I was lucky enough to score a bottle opener in my bon bon, while Jason ended up with some strange chinese puzzle which we spent the next 5 minutes trying to work out.

Our boss had ordered lunch for everyone, and oh my goodness, what a lunch it was! I was told our entree was Peking Duck, but another person later said it was beef. Either way, whatever it was, I wasn’t much of a fan. It was mixed with rice, and presented on a bed of lettuce. It looked impressive, and trying not to be rude I ate it all. But yeah, it tasted a little bit funky. Shortly after that a waiter appeared carrying a plastic bag, and presented it to the boss for his inspection and approval. I didn’t realise it was a fish until it started flapping around! I remember jumping quite a bit in my chair, and Jason said I actually went quite pale.

Rhonda and Angelique

Now, I’m not that big on seafood, but seeing a fish flapping around ensured I wouldn’t be eating any that day. The damned thing was alive only minutes ago! I saw it! I love my red meat, and the only reason why I’m such a great carnivore  is my amazing ability to be completely ignorant of the fact that at one stage my steak was a living, breathing animal. I’ll have my steak well done thanks, just to make sure it’s extra dead!

When all the “main” meals arrived we were all presented with bowls of rice. On the lazy susan there was a mixture of many meals, from fried pork, steamed chicken and tofu, as well as the unfortunate previously mentioned fish. It also appeared he had a friend with him. I felt sad for them, looking at them laid out on the plate, fins intact, but with their body carved and ready for consumption. It was hard to look at, and I’ve never felt sorry for a fish before! Before you ask, yes I go fishing, no I don’t put the bait on the hook, no I don’t take the fish off the hook, yes I make Mat throw all fish back into the water.

I helped myself to some tofu and chicken, while beside me Jason made a beeline for the fish. First up, the fish eyes. He ate one (before doing so, he proudly declared his intentions to me), and I gagged. This is where all the wine came in handy. Before I could blink, I was a couple of glasses down, and the fish didn’t seem so scary anymore. We ate lunch talking about things from camping to umm….actually I would try and tell you but I think it’s a symptom of being drunk that you talk a lot of shit and can’t remember any topics later.

Before I became too bad though, I made sure to get a few photos of select members of the group. For the observant, you will notice I am absent from the photos. The reason I made photography a hobby is so that I’m always BEHIND the camera. Being in front of a camera is terrifying.

As lunch drew to a close, Jason discovered there were still two fish eyes  from flappy and his friend still on the plate. Smart (on the other side of Jason) wasn’t a big fan of fish either, so Jason challenged him to eat one. Another symptom of being drunk – you do stupid things. Smart immediately grabbed the eye, popped it in his mouth, and swallowed. The following day Smart told me he couldn’t remember what it tasted like. Jason opted to eat the other, at which I decided to video record him doing so. He provided quite a thorough review of the “treat”, while I looked away and sung music in my head so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Unfortunately I managed to catch the end of it, and was still grossed out. If you listen at the end of the video, you’ll hear me tell him he’s gross *grin*

After we had all finished eating, we began walking to the location of our “secret team challenge”, for which we’d been told to bring socks. I had wondered if it might be ten pin bowling, and my suspicion proved to be correct. We arrived at Strike Bowling Bar, only one of the coolest ten pin bowling centres around (they have centres in other capital cities as well). Low lights, a fully licensed bar, and good music. What else do you need?

My aim for the bowling was to try and beat one of the software developers who bowls every week (though i didn’t tell him that). It would have been so sweet, and no doubt I would have carried on for quite a long time about it. Unfortunately, someone was still serving wine, and I was still consuming it. While I had been talking up my challenge to Colin, I hadn’t realised Colin and I were competing as well until the last frame of the first game.

I’ll set the scene for you. I’m drunk. Smart is drunk. He’s also dancing around the bowling alley, and making me laugh every few seconds. I look at the scoreboard, and hear a taunt from Colin. I need to get a strike to have a chance of beating him. Crap. Grabbing a ball (I didn’t choose consistently – whatever one was there at the time appealed to me) and started walking towards the lane. As I went to bowl, I heard Smart approaching from behind. I had to get rid of the ball fast and stop Smart from doing whatever he was about to do. I threw the ball down the lane and turned around, and managed to prevent Smart from taking a photo of my ass. In the meantime, I had gotten a strike!!! The look on Colin’s face was priceless. I managed to beat him by a couple of pins.

Ian and Colin (pulling quite the face)

But then, I realised that while I was in front of the software developer (and had been comfortably a couple of times in the game unless I started playing around), if he got two strikes in a row he would beat me. First bowl – strike. Second bowl – strike. DAMMIT! Colin burst out laughing, while I dropped to the floor, yelling “NOOOOOO!!!!!!” and reaching up to the sky in a dramatic fashion. Yep, copious amounts of wine will get you every time (on further reflection, for someone who was worried about meeting Colin & Jason from NZ, I was doing my best to leave a lasting impression).

We realised the time, and given that Jason had to fly out to NZ that afternoon, he had only about 20mins to check in at the airport. We raced downstairs to the Strike Bowling Bar reception to see if they could check him in online, and they tried (thanks guys – great customer service) but unfortunately as it was international, he had to get to the airport. Sadly, we bid Jason farewell after enjoying only a few hours of his company.

Back upstairs, the second game whizzed past in a drunkish blur. I was focusing less on my bowling skills (hence how both Wolfgang and Colin beat me easily) and instead preoccupied myself with being silly. I had SO much fun. I was tempted to buy a cocktail from the bar, but decided against it since I wasn’t sure getting on the spirits at a work function was a great idea. Not that it mattered, I was drunk anyway. Most of us were, it was only the drivers who were unlucky enough to be stuck with the responsibility of remaining sober.

My highlight for the afternoon would have to be when Charlie stood up to bowl. He stepped forward and into the actual lane, where they oil it  to keep it friction free. Unfortunately, this caused Charlie to start sliding. He released the ball at the same time that he slipped and landed on his bum, his back to the bowling pins, facing all of us who were now howling in laughter. Somehow, he managed to get a strike! Smart went to go help Charlie up, but instead he slipped over too and they both ended back up on the floor. Their second attempt to stand up almost caused them to go over the balcony to the bowling lanes below, but Charlie managed to save both Smart and himself. It took all of us a few minutes before we could talk again, I had tears from laughing so hard. It was better than watching the three stooges (or two in this case). It just needed some Benny Hill music.

Eventually, the games were over. Time-wise, we had also left it quite tight to get to the airport, and I had tried to check in online prior to leaving the office but was also unable to. The system advised we would need to see the customer service counter (they had delayed our flight an hour and wanted to confirm it prior to checking in). Smart lamented that we weren’t there overnight as he would have loved to continue the celebrations, to which I agreed. The day had passed in a blur, it was almost unfair. I still considered myself lucky to have been able to visit the office and meet everyone at all; previous years had seen only minor celebrations in the various states, and working in an office by yourself 99% of the time can be quite a lonely affair. Reluctantly, Jon, Charlie, Wolfgang and I were whisked off in Ian’s car to the airport, while the others made their way home in Sydney.

Thinking back on it, I was amazed at how much I had done in a day where I had had only a few hours sleep the night before, and spent a good part of the day drinking. Not bad for someone who is usually quite a cheap drunk. I can’t wait until I get to see everyone again, it appears the company I work for has quite a few cool people on the staff roster! Of course, every company has the odd bad seed, but on this day I didn’t care. I made new friendships, celebrated existing ones, and had a bloody good day.

So, when are we doing it again?

**More photos and videos from the day**

Charlie and Jon

Wolfgang and Charlie

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Every year my friend Jo participates in the Sydney City 2 Surf, a 14km run/walk (depending on preference) that starts in the middle of Sydney city and heads out to Bondi beach. And every year for the past few years at 7.30am I receive a text message telling me that she’s there. A few hours later I receive one to let me know she’s finished. Apparently that was all the inspiration I needed to decide to do the City 2 surf this year, so I added it to my list of things to complete for 2009.

One day sitting at work I found myself staring at the computer monitor. On the screen was the registration form for the race. I had no idea how I was going to get down there, where I was going to stay or who (if anyone) was coming to Sydney with me. But before I changed my mind I registered. It appeared I was going to Sydney in August!

A few weeks later while out one night on the town (vodka in hand) I proposed to my friend Julie that she join me in my quest. She readily accepted, although the following morning I realised her level of excitement was only matched by the level of beer in her belly. I gave it a few days, then checked again to see if she was serious. To my surprise, she came through and said she was keen. That was that! I convinced Mat to join us for the weekend (there was no way he would be joining us in the race, he thought we were nuts) but he could spend the time at the casino before meeting up with us later. Over the next few months I made travel arrangements until it was all set. Julie and I were doing the 2009 Sydney City 2 Surf.

Finally the day arrived for us to pack our stuff and get to Sydney. Unfortunately I had booked a 2pm flight which made it pretty difficult for us. Mat had to service a car in the morning and Julie had her schoolgirl’s netball team game at 11.30 (she’s the coach). As it was, I pushed Mat to get the service done asap, and Julie managed to leave her game at half time (with the parents taking over the coaching role). We arrived at the airport with half an hour to spare and headed to the bar.

When we arrived in Sydney we caught a taxi to the hotel where we were pleased to find out we had been upgraded to a couple of 1 bedroom apartments (instead of the studios we had booked). We agreed to meet in an hour so Mat could have a nap (we’d had a big one the night before) before making our way to dinner. We would be meeting my friends Jens and Alessandro, and Alessandro’s wife. Jens had recommended a Brazillian Barbecue in Woolloomooloo, Churrasco, and from the website it looked like it would be a pretty impressive place to go.

The restaurant easily surpassed my expectations. As you entered you were greeted by rows of wooden tables, and on the far wall the “kitchen”. About half a dozen rotisseries lined the wall, each holding a different kind of meat. We were greeted by the hostess who initially couldn’t find my reservation (which was scary, since the place was absolutely packed), but eventually we were led to a table. It turned out there was one big main room which extended from the front of the restaurant around a corner to the back, then around one more corner to form a U shape. There was also a private function room. We sat down and ordered our drinks, where I went straight for a Brazillian cocktail, a Caipirinha. Alessandro (our resident Brazillian) had never heard of the flavour variations they offered (strawberry & lychee and raspberry & macadamia amongst others) and strongly recommended the traditional lime, but I opted to try the strawberry & lychee while Jens went for the lime.

With regards to our dinner, for want of a better description it was like all you could eat. You remained seated, while the staff would come around with the various meat on skewers and put a bit on your plate (they asked first). We had about 5 different varieties of steak, chicken breast, something that resembled kabana, and most surprisingly, chicken heart! Usually I would have crinkled my nose in disgust and said no thanks but for some reason I felt daring. They put one on my plate, where I stared at it for a few seconds, took a photo so I could tweet about it, then finally ate it. To my surprise it actually tasted ok, but the extreme rubbery/chewy feeling was pretty gross.

The way Churrasco works is they have “shifts” for meal times. You can either book in at 6pm or 8pm. If you’re in at 6pm you have to be out by 8pm so the next people can come in. It sounds like you might possibly be rushed, but throughout the course of 2 hours you are served a LOT of food. I had to start declining offers for more food with still about an hour to go, there was just so much! As well as all the meat  you were also given bowls of rice to share amongst your group, and some small bowls of a breadcrumb like substance, barbecue sauce and some runny stuff with beans in it. This place was definitely a vegetarian’s worst nightmare since the focus was all on the meat although you could order salads if required. But for me it was all about the steak, which was just so tender and melted in your mouth. By far, Churrasco’s has the best steak I have ever tasted.

After dinner we made our way to the nearest sports bar so I could watch the inaugural A-League derby between Brisbane Roar and Gold Coast United. This meant venturing into Kings Cross, which I had great pleasure in doing. Why? Purely because I love seeing Mat react to situations he’s not familiar with, and seeing a lot of prostitutes/transvestites/scantily clad women all in one place is something he’s not experienced before. Jo had messaged me earlier telling me she’d located the game at the Kings Cross sports bar, so we made our way there. We grabbed some drinks, arranged the chairs in front of the tv and got comfortable.

After we had been watching the game for about ten to fifteen minutes, I was surprised to see two police officers guarding a door to my left. I hadn’t seen them when we arrived and I had no idea when they had taken up their post. I looked to my right and was even more shocked to see two more police officers over my right shoulder. Confused, I turned completely around to find two more police officers and a sniffer dog working their way through the room. Realising it was just a drug check (it WAS kings cross after all) and knowing I had nothing to worry about I returned my gaze to the soccer. About thirty seconds later one of the police officers over my right shoulder dived across the room and grabbed a guy to my right by the back of the neck pinning him to the ground.

“SPIT IT OUT” he shouted. “GET IT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH”.

Julie had been sitting only metres away from the guy, and got the biggest fright when he was pinned down directly beside her chair. At the same time the police officers on my left had run across the room in front of us (rudely blocking the tv – didn’t they know it was an important game??) and grabbed the remaining members of the group beside us. They lined them up on the wall and individually patted down for drugs/weapons before removing their shoes for inspection. After they had been cleared they were instructed to sit down until the police had finished with the others. I sat there secretly wishing one of the cops would use one of my favourite lines from the movie Forrest Gump, spoken by Lt Dan: Get down, shut up!

The police ended up arresting two guys, one being the dude who was pinned to the ground. It appeared he’d seen the police sniffer dog so tried to swallow the bag of drugs he had. After they had handcuffed him he’d sat on the chair waiting for the police officers to finish looking around, during which time I had sneaked a few glances at him. He was blankly staring at the tv screen grinding his teeth. We realised later that Julie’s bag had been idly sitting next to her on the couch, and it would have been only too easy for him to have thrown or spat anything into her bag. But the dog sniffer checked our area while the boys were getting frisked, and we were all passed as clean.

After the police had taken the two guys away the rest of the group remained for a couple more drinks and to chat about the nights events. Due to Julie’s supersonic ears (and listening into their conversation) she discovered that the guy who had been pinned on the floor was pretty much a stranger to the guys – that night was the first time they had met him. They knew that he had taken drugs earlier in the evening but weren’t aware that he was actually still carrying anything on him. I found it pretty impressive they stayed for drinks after all the excitement knowing almost every single person in the bar was looking at them; f it was me I would have been out of there. But then again perhaps it was only stares from our group, with the reputation of Kings Cross I would assume drug busts are quite common in that area.

After the game ended and Brisbane Roar’s lost 3-1 to Gold Coast United we decided to give Mat a small tour of the Kings Cross area. Jo bid us good night at this stage, as she was going to return home to get in some sleep before the early morning rise the following morning. Fran (who had arrived with Jo) decided to stay with us. We walked down to the iconic ball fountain in the middle of Kings Cross before making our way to “The Bourbon”, one of the many nightclubs. Along the way Jens had tried to get us into a strip club for free (after being approached by a guy who had told him it would “more or less” be free; $15 isn’t free), but I was greatly relieved when that plan failed. I definitely hadn’t envisaged spending the night watching women jiggle their bits in front of my face.

The rest of the night was spent dancing and drinking until the wee hours of the morning. We had ordered 3 jager bomb shots for which I made the mistake of sipping one and getting just a mouthful of jager. It actually tasted pretty good though, wasn’t as bad as taking a shot of tequila or vodka (but then again maybe it had mixed with some red bull already). We ended up leaving the bar at approximately quarter past 2 (making a rough guess here), and while Julie and Jens opted for a taxi Mat and I walked the few kilometres back to the hotel.

4 hours later I was awoken by a text message from Jo letting me know she was on her way to the hotel to pick us up for the race. Shit.

I dragged myself out of bed, and spent the next 15mins wandering around the room trying to wake myself up. By the time Jo arrived I had managed nothing else but to put some jeans on (still had my flannel pj shirt on) and drink some water. It’s fair to say I was one big hungover mess. I got Jo to knock on Julie’s hotel room door (to save me from having to venture out in my pj/jean ensemble), where she answered looking worse than me. She agreed to be ready in the next half hour. I had a shower, boiled the water but didn’t make a coffee, Jens arrived, then finally Julie joined us ready to go. I said goodbye to Mat, we checked Julie out downstairs at reception and put her  bag into storage then we left to go join the race. It was 8.15am and I was running on 4 hours sleep. I expected a long, tiring day.

An hour later we were at Hyde Park eating some breakfast we’d picked up from a rebranded Starbucks (Tom n Toms). We were waiting for Jens’ friends to arrive since they had his bib and timing chip, and without those he wouldn’t be able to enter the race. Half an hour later they showed up, while we stirred Jo about making us get up so early so we could sit on a street corner. You could see Jo was really antsy to hurry up and join the race (honestly, WAY too much energy for that time of the morning) and finally we walked up to start the race. Somehow or other by heading directly to the start line we were able to start walking immediately, as opposed to walking 1km in the other direction and lining up at the end like you were meant to do. Bonus!

We started walking down William Street heading towards to the Cross City Tunnel. The first kilometre I pretty much spent looking around in shock at just how many people there were! It wasn’t squashy as such, we didn’t flow down the street shoulder to shoulder in one massive pack. There was room to walk comfortably, but you had to feel sorry for the people that were attempting to run. I’m pretty sure they spent the entire race simply dodging people. I was glad that I’d chosen to walk the race since I had no idea if my knee would be able to keep up with the constant pressure of changing directions. After the race had finished, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to jog it anyway, 14kms is a long way by foot!

As we entered the tunnel I was horrified to see ambulance offers already attending to someone. They were holding a sheet up in an attempt to get some privacy for the ill person who I later found out had suffered a heart attack. Thankfully it wasn’t a life ending one, and I believe the person made a full recovery.

One of my favourite memories of the City 2 Surf was the entertainers lining the side of the street. There were rock bands playing on roofs, random super heros in the sky, and groups of people purely cheering on everyone. What a great atmosphere! A group of runners passed us at this stage dressed in black skins and fluro green budgie smugglers (dt’s, small male togs, whatever you want to call them). There was about 10 – 15 of them, with 6 of them carrying a stretcher with a small child sitting on top. As they ran, they would take turns switching positions so all of them was carrying the stretcher at some point. I’m not sure where they were from, if it was a sporting team or not but it was great to see.

A common feature of the City 2 Surf is the number of people that choose to dress up for the occasion. There were the super heros of course (and typically a lot of younger girls wearing super hero outfits just to show off some flesh), gorillas, and my particular favourite, a group of people dressed as mushrooms! I don’t know if this was in reference to Super Mario or not but they looked absolutely fantastic. I’ve seen a lot of photos of them since the race so they sure did get a lot of publicity. I admired their ability to walk 14km in white overalls though, I’m sure they would have been hot!

There were several drink stations along the way which were extremely handy. I had been carrying a water bottle with me (a mandatory item since attempting to recover from a hangover) until I accidentally dropped it and it rolled away under mounds of feet. From that point on every drink station became a pick up point for some more water. When we reached the gatorade stops you could smell the sweetness in the air from all the dropped drinks and our shoes became sticky. It was amazing seeing all the discarded cups following the drink stations. They lined the gutters and were all over the roads, and for about 5mins after leaving a drink station the noise of scuffed plastic cups overwhelmed us. We bitched about how hard it was for people to simply lift their feet or dodge the cups entirely, but I guess people weren’t really paying attention to where they were stepping. Keeping on walking was a big enough achievement.

Eventually we reached heartbreak hill, a so-called section of the race for the continuous incline. It wasn’t so particularly steep as it was long, it just kept going on and on forever! I had been telling everyone the night before that I was going to run up the hill (so that I’d at least run some of it, and the hardest bit at that) but by the time we reached there I knew there was no way I’d be running. I was already feeling it in my legs and we had yet to reach the halfway point. Julie and Jens decided to run, so Jo and I agreed to meet them somewhere at the finish line and wished them good luck. We continued on walking at a general power walking pace. A short way up the hill we discovered with glee we were at the 7km mark, and therefore halfway done!

We reached the top of the hill just as Jo realised she needed to tie her laces. In doing so we stopped for the first time and immediately the fatigue in our legs set in. A woman on the sideline was explaining to her son that all the people in the race were very fit, but I disputed it. I claimed that I wasn’t fit but that I was just crazy; she concurred and said that was the only way she would ever contemplate joining in as well.

About 10mins later we looked up into the sky to see a plane writing “2009″ in the air. I snapped a picture, then a few minutes later we realised there was more text. Watching the plane write each letter kept us entertained for the next kilometre until eventually the text was complete. it read “2009 call mum”. I’m not sure if it was an ad for a mobile phone company or not, but decided to heed the advice and rang home. My mum didn’t answer, but wishing not to fail I rang my sister instead. I told her to do her best mum impression, and we jokingly said the most smart ass “mum’isms” we could. I know mum would have been pissed if she’d heard us, but it was all in good humour. I updated my sister on the race, and very much ashamed, advised her we had been overtaken by people in wheelchairs (although they were actually being pushed by other people) as well as people many many generations older than us. We had even been overtaken by blind people (they had guides with them). After I hung up my mum rang back, so I had the same conversation with her minus the mum impressions. Following that phone call, I was very much shocked to see a man in a wheelchair wheel himself past us. He had the most muscular arms, and was absolutely charging! Very fit, and very inspirational to show what people can do. I also felt incredibly lazy.

Eventually we started on the down hill section that would lead us into Bondi. Seeing the beach ahead of us I was shocked to see the entire town just overrun with people. It literally looked like one big sea of people, and there was more of us coming! Seeing Bondi is a bit of a mind tease as well, since you think you’re almost to the end when in fact you’ve got almost 2km left to go. We collected some bags containing newspapers (which I kept only the front page saying “YOU’VE DONE IT”) then made our way to the finish line. As we walked there, Jo wondered aloud about the medals that we would be getting. I almost yelled in excitement since I had completely forgotten we would get little medals for completing the race! Woohoo!! It just made me want to get to the finish line faster, and finally we made it. I vowed that we would cross the finish line running, but we left it until the last second. Literally. I think we ran for about 1.5 seconds at most. But we had done it! It had taken us 158mins, or 2 hrs and 38mins, but we’d done it!

After we finished and collected our medals from the finish line we immediately headed to a grassy area to stretch our legs out. I was incredibly sore, but knew it would be only a thousand times worse the following day. I stretched out my calves, hamstrings and quads, but stupidly forgot about my hip flexors. Never, ever again. The days following the race I found I could barely walk, purely from this muscle area not having been stretched out after the race. I stretched as much as I could the following days, but it still took its time before the ache went away.

We found Julie and Jens on the beach and took photos of us with our medals and bibs, and shared stories from the second half of the race. They’d managed to run not only heart break hill but the entire second half of the race, I was so incredibly proud of them. Maybe next year I’ll think about that (maybe). After discussing it for a bit, and Jo pointing out how big the line for the bus was already we decided we would go straight for the bus line and head back into the city. It was just on lunch time, and while our flight wasn’t until 6.30pm that night I still wanted to get back to our stuff and change into something a bit more comfortable. I was hot and sweaty, and didn’t want to spend the next few hours in stinky clothes.

Going straight for the bus was by far my best decision of the day. I left the others in the line while I went and picked up some water and gatorade, and a pizza from Bondi Pizza. Their entire restaurant had been hired out for a private function (a corporate function for employees in the race) but were still doing takeaways which suited us perfectly. Taking the pizza and drinks back to the others we greedily tucked in except for Jo, who I found out didn’t like pizza (blasphemy I say). I offered to go back and get her something else but she declined. It was about 2 hours later when we finally sat down on a bus back into the city.

All the time that Julie, Jens, Jo and myself had been competing in the city 2 surf Mat had been at Star City, Sydney’s casino. He had been playing poker for the day rather than being crazy like us; the worst he could have done was get a hand strain from holding cards. As we headed into the city I rang him and we agreed to meet him back at the hotel. We arrived in the city and went for coffee in a nearby shopping centre, just as Mat rung and said he was at the hotel. I’d expected him to be another 20mins at least! Oops. We gulped our drinks down and walked down to meet Mat.

Once back at the hotel we changed into normal clothes and decided we would head down to Darling Harbour for a quiet drink or two before going to the hotel. We bid Jo goodbye, and started the short walk down to the harbour. After all, when you’ve already walked 14km in one day what’s another one or two? We sat down at a bar, or rather, collapsed into their chairs. Our lack of sleep finally caught up with us here, and although I’d felt great after the city 2 surf (no signs of a hangover anymore) there was a noticeable quietness amongst the group. Mat was the only one feeling chipper, but that was understandable given he’d been able to sleep in until 9am, casually get dressed and head down to the casino for a day in the air con. The rest of us just sat in a dozy silence, until finally I piped up and suggested we head to the airport. I hate the stress of running late so preferred we get there sooner rather than later, even if it meant hanging around the airport for a bit. We could spend it by eating some dinner and generally lazing around the airport. We said goodbye to Jens, got a taxi, and sped off to the airport.

Once there we ate some dinner, and then waited in the chairs outside our gate. When we finally boarded I was told my bag was too big for carry on luggage (figured I would be able to take it since it was for both Mat and I, but alas that was not the case although it had worked on the flight down there) so they took it down for checking in while we got on the plane. Once sitting down, we all pretty much fell straight asleep until we arrived in Brisbane. We got off the plane, collected the luggage, and drove home. We were absolutely shattered when we got back, and Mat and I pretty much just threw the bags down and went straight to bed. It had been a long, long weekend, but I know I will be doing the same thing all over again next year. It was just too much fun to not want to do it in 2010.

Map of the 2009 City 2 Surf

**For more photos from the weekend, please have a look at my “Night out in Kings Cross” and “City 2 Surf” albums in facebook**

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1. Learn to Surf: I haven’t started this one yet however it’s all planned. My friend Paige and I will be participating in the 2009 Ripcurl’s Girls Learn to Surf Day, where females all over Australia are given the opportunity to attend a surf school for the day to receive free surfing lessons. One of Mat’s workmates is also a surfboard maker and his wife is an artist, so he offered to make us both totally customised boards at a very cheap price. Awesome!

2. Run 2.4km in under 15mins: In progress. I’m following the Couch to 5k running training program, designed for non-runners to gradually increase their amount of running until they can confidently run for 30mins at a time (roughly 5km). If I can do that then I should be able to achieve 2.4km in under 15mins by the end of the year.

3. Enter in the Sydney City to Surf: Completed. I’ve entered, and the race is only 2 weeks and 2 days away! I’m extremely excited; I’ve managed to convince a friend, Julie, to fly to Sydney with me and Jo will also be flying from Darwin to meet us there. Mat will be joining us for the weekend, but while we spend time slogging it out on the bitumen he will be playing the cards at Star City Casino. Hard life isn’t it?

4. Go on a holiday (must include flights): Completed. We flew to America for 2 weeks, and had one hell of a holiday. One of my fondest memories ever, and I’m honoured to have shared it with the ones I love.

5. See a live concert: Completed. This year I saw P!nk play in one of the biggest concerts of the year (I’ve lost track of how many concerts she’s doing in Australia now; at last count it was something like 8 in each state but I’m sure it’s increased). I also got to see loads of live acts at the many festivals I worked at with RaveSafe earlier in the year including Kaiser Chiefs, Nine Inch Nails, Snow Patrol…too many to name. I was so lucky to have that opportunity, and depending on whether I’m in the police service next year I’d love to do it again. I’ve also got tickets to see Green Day perform in Brisbane at the end of this year, and I’m stoked that Mat will be joining me for this one.

6. Go skydiving: Not yet completed. This will be another one for the end of the year. However one of our friends is a pilot who actually flies the plane the skydivers jump out of, so again I’ve been given the opportunity to complete this task at a reduced cost. I’m looking forward to it though, should be fun!

7. Go on a tour: Completed via the segway tour with my family in Sausolito in America (one of the highlights of the US trip for me). The video of the tour can be seen in the Day 4 video of our holiday.

8. Photograph a sunrise/sunset: Not yet completed. I haven’t really given this one much of a priority as yet, but ideally I’d like to get down to Mooloolaba beach and take some photos of the sunrise. It’s extremely early in the morning for me though, so it’s probably more realistic that I’ll be photographing a sunset. I have my ideas on what I want, just need to get out there and get the shot now!

9. Have a girls cocktail night: Technically completed, although I want to complete it again. Jo and I got together and had a cocktail night when we were watching a socceroos match, but I’d love to get together with the girls and make it a big one at a hotel one night. We’ll see what happens.

10. See a live sporting match: Done and dusted. I’ve been to a few QLD Roar games (back when they were “QLD” Roar) including seeing the women’s side win the grand final for the 2008/09 season. I also went to an NRL match in Brisbane with Paige. I’m looking forward to seeing some more A-League matches again once the season resumes.

That’s it! 6/10 isn’t bad given it’s only just over the halfway mark. I’ll have to make sure I keep the others in mind though so I’m writing about another successful year!

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