sydney

last weekend, i made my way to sydney for a course. my colleague and i were to fly out on thursday afternoon, arriving late thursday night. this would allow us a full day to enjoy sydney before starting the weekend-long course. alas, t'was not exactly so.

arriving at the perth airport on thursday afternoon, i was ready to go. keen to get on the plane and get to sydney. our virgin flight was running late (as usual). they boarded us around 4pm (instead of 3pm). we made ourselves comfortable and then heard over the loud speaker that "due to the sydney curfew, we are unable to depart perth". what?! we got off the plane, and had to cross back through security (so much fun when there are 200 angry people in line with you), only to wait at the departure lounge for a good 45 minutes before they told us what was happening. the virgin staff then announced that the next flight would be leaving perth at 2am, which we were all scheduled for! well, i was pissed. capital P! not only had i taken the afternoon off work, i was going to be exhausted for my course and the weekend in sydney! urgh. my colleague and i managed to get on the red-eye leaving at 11:50pm, but let's be honest, that's not much better!

and so, here it is: sydney international aiport has a curfew. not just that, it actually has the "Sydney Airport Curfew Act", which was instated in 1995, to "curb the noise complaints from sydneysiders". and what is this curfew you ask? 11pm to 6am!! one third of the day. for an international airport! of the biggest city in australia! astounding! amazing! horrifying!

when i discussed this with people on the course, i became very aware that sydneysiders fully believe they are in the right. one girl tried to tell me that she lived near the airport in the past and "it's loud" (hello! that's why it's cheaper to live near the airport!) and another told me it's because the airport is so close to the city (hello! new york, boston, singapore, hong kong. heck, even perth!). needless to say, i am not a fan of sydney airport now.

luckily, after the early morning arrival on lack of sleep, we were able to get to our hotel relatively painlessly. and even better: we were able to check in! we tried to have a short nap (no success), before we ventured down George St to the shops and the bay. and then it happened... the sky opened up and decided to show us perthites what real rain looks like. great! pouring rain. awesome. we bought umbrellas and continued our trek. we now felt much less guilty about shopping!

we had lunch down at circular quay, during a particularly strong point of the rain. by the end of our lunch, the rain started to settle, so we hoped on one of the ferries and headed to Darling Harbour. in the process, we had views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. a short walk of darling harbour later, we hoped back on the ferry and headed back the the hotel.

the next day was our course, which as it turns out, was in the middle of f-ing nowhere. correction: it was in the middle of f-ing wealthy nowhere. the commute was supposed to be about an hour long, but unfortunately the online data was incorrect and as such, a good 2 hours later we rocked up to the course. luckily i had phone ahead to apologize and we didn't miss much. sitting through 8 hours of course, interesting as it may be, is awfully difficult when you're exhausted! thankfully, we befriended 2 girls who were driving back to the city, which meant that we were getting a ride the next morning as well!

day 2 of the course was much the same (minus the 2 hour commute). that night we had dinner downtown and then made our way to the airport. our flight home took over 5.5 hrs (harsh when compared to the 4 hour eastbound flight). mental note: don't fly crappy discount airlines on the way back from sydney. i couldn't get comfortable for the duration of the flight, and the seats were so close, i couldn't even lean forward on the dinner tray to rest my head because it was way too close! urgh.

needless to say, sydney hasn't yet won me over. but since it's not exactly the city's fault, i'm willing to give it another chance.
xo

gracetown revisited

it's that time of year again: my birthday and our wedding anniversary. our 3rd! wow, how time flies! as it's a long weekend in WA, we headed down to gracetown for a bit of r and r.

i had planned to head south with my friend, as john was supposed to be flying out to the gold coast on the 26th. he was going to be doing chiro for unigames. his plan of trickery was going swimmingly, until i started packing up the car and realized his pipe-case was in the car (it's a hard-shell carry on suitcase). his plan started falling to pieces when i asked why it was in the car. needless to say, he managed to hold off on surprising me until the morning we were to head south.

though we've been to gracetown and margaret river before, it's always a great place to go for a long weekend. and now that the perth to bunbury "super highway" has been completed (i use that term loosely), it's a much nicer drive. the highway has allows perthites to bypass the most craptastic part of the drive from perth to margaret river. it shaves a good 30 mins off the drive, mostly because it's a proper highway now, not just a 2-lane-get-stuck-behind-a-truck-for-hours type highway.

the weekend was much as intended- good food, good drinks, evenings by the roaring fire and lazing about during the day. we did do a good hike up the coast on sunday morning- we even saw a humpback breeching off the coast. we also discovered a wonderful little farmer's market on saturday morning and were able to grab some snacks for the evening (vegan snacks, no less!)

unfortunately we had to leave relatively early on monday morning so that john could catch his recently changed flight, and head off to the gold coast. after i dropped him at the airport, i went to see metric with some friends. a great way to end a long weekend.

can't wait for the next one!
xo

city to surf

on august 30th 2009 (a bit late, i know), i joined 40 000 other perthites and ran the city to surf. cts is the largest sporting event held in perth. the event has grown from 500 participants in the 12km run in 1975, to over 40 000 participants competing in 6 events. the event is a fund-raiser for activ, a not for profit organization who has been providing services for people with disabilities since 1951.

this year saw the inauguration of a full marathon, which was won in 2:13. the half-marathon was introduced in 2007. there is an 11km wheelchair race, a 12km walk, a 4km walk/run, and the original and most-popular of the races, the 12km run.

the 12km run starts in perth cbd, then heads straight out to the beach. the course had to be changed this year as there were more events and significantly more participants. it did, however, manage to keep the 3 major hills on the route!

the event organization had some flaws, but none so bad that i wouldn't participate again. what would make me reconsider, however, was the quantity of people on the course and the blatant lack of respect among participants. people in perth don't seem to grasp the "queuing based on expected time" idea- preventing faster runners from overtaking slow runners early on, as they should be further. but no! in perth, even though we had different coloured race numbers based on our expected finish times, were coralled at the start of the event because of these numbers and were released onto the course in light of these numbers, i still managed to overtake walkers in the first 2km! ugh.

luckily, it was perfect conditions for a race and after km 5, i was able to find some space and get into a bit of a groove.

i crossed the line at 56:00.
xo