Sydney FC V Perth Glory

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went to see Sydney FC entertain Perth down at Aussie Stadium on Sunday, lovely stadium, good atmospehere although it was only 1/3 full, i thought the standard was really quiet poor. It finished up 1- 1. I reckon Terry Butcher won't be around much longer. It is probably hard to blame him i don't think there is much to work with from what I saw. There are only 8 teams in the league, I am surprised they can keep it going really ,the league that is. Basically there was no away fans at the game. There is a New Zealand team in the comp aswell that are the current whipping boys. When the NZ play Perth it is a round trip of 20 hrs flying for the away team.

Chariots of Fire

Some snaps from my recent half marathon effort ..
owing to a late start (very) i finished well down the field in about 3000th position (if i had been on time i might have been pushing to get into the top 2000)

Coincidence or Conspiracy

During my time here I have been "subject" to a huge amount of imcompetence and I really am starting to take it all a bit personal here are some of the highlights:

The Fridge : I recently bought a fridge .. a very standard model it must be said, I paid extra to have it delivered .. when the boys turn up with it the top is mysteriously hanging off .. i had no choice but to take it as i couldn't keep any diary products fresh, after looking at it for a while i figured out how to clip it back on .. obiviously it was dropped or kicked or the boys in the ware house were playing rugby with it ...

The Ipod : I bought a nano about 2 months ago and have gone back twice with it, the weird thing is that no one even looks at them they just send them off and you get a new one from the service centre, after doing some research i found a way to test the battery and found that probably the very first ipod i had was actually working, the problem being one or two settings were draining the battery and turning them off solved the battery draining issue. I was sent to three different places at one point eventually coming full circle back to the shop i started in.

The Room : Chronicled in earlier blogs .. this was less incompetence more sheer bad luck to land there.

The Telephone : I was supposed to have a landline installed in my apartment i think it was in my lease agreement, during the week i got two texts saying some lad would be out between 1 and 5 on friday last, i spent 20 minutes on hold on the thursday trying to change the installation date but gave up deciding that i would just go home on the friday. Friday at 10.15 the guy calls to say he is outside my house, i had been expecting him in the afternoon but anyway i said i would be there in 1/2 an hour. I get home and call expecting him to be here, he seems not to know why i am calling but evetually said "i will come to your home" 2 and 1/2 hours later i ring him again pretty annoyed at this stage and he stays to me "but i did the installation and am at home" it turns out that the phone company gave him my number but an address in north sydney and after he had spoken to me (the first time) someone at the other address turned up and he presumed it was me. So i am left with no phone installed and three hours wasted.

The Agency: I am biased anyway having nothing but contempt for these people. My agent rang a while back me up to say i was being paid a couple of dollars extra per week and that my pay would have to be back dated, they do nothing for me except get paid for the work i do and they can't even get this most basic thing right. she rings up again at the start of the week to say there had been yet another error and that this back dating thing still hadn't been done (while i was moving into a new place i hadn't seen any pay slips).. basically this week half my wage was taken .. maybe to someone who hasn't had to deal with these employment agencies regularly they don't understand my feelings here .. my exclusively bad experiences with them in any country has truly set me against "them".

I just hope i make home for KM's wedding at this stage ..

Gaffage

Room with a viewish ..

Top Deck .. Presidential Suite

My latest lodgings at 38 Botany Street , Bondi Junction

The Daily Planet

Just a quick update of some of the books/flicks/music I have been reading/seeing/listening to in recent times:

Flicks:

Jindabyne : a "serious" Australian film, i thought it was pretty mediocre, Gabriel Bryne is in it and there is a werid Irish pious religious element in it that really annoyed me, not one likeable character either, at the end i was just glad it was over, the end was as i expected as in no ending, at the cinema i could hear the sigh from everyone else "is that it ?" .. maybe one will have to see it to know what i am talking about.

Kenny : Mockumentary in the style of Spinal Tap or Best In Show, I thought it was classic stuff.

Footy Legends : Rugby league is the football in question. Enjoyable enough in its own way although in the end it descends into fantasy (the local pups made good come up against a team of former legends and beat them, when the camera pans across all the legends are literally twice the size of the lads )

Some Boxset stuff (Is the boxset the greatest invention in the history of the world ?):

Simspsons fifth series : I think i had given up completely on the simpsons the last 5/6 years of simspons have been putrid, but this season on its own is absolutely classic, so many marquee episodes its hard to pick one, Homer the Vigilante/Bobo/Homer in Space/The B Sharps/The Thompsons/Campers Pampers

Black Books : Brillant No other words necessary, can't understand why i had to come to Oz to find out about this classic

Books

Day of the Triffids: I am big fan of the post apocalyptic genre, I think this is a great read, it seems to me to a very accurate and frightening take on the descent into chaos after a massive castrophe.

War of the Worlds : Fabulous SciFi considering it is over a 100 years since it was written, The tom cruise film that came out last year based on the book is a stain on humanity i might add.

Music

Morrissey : Ringleader of the tormentors : Good stuff from Moz although I don't think this album did aswell as he thought it would, I don't remember a strong single being released.

Dan Fogelberg : I heard Same Old Lang Syne on the wireless and thought it was great, so i picked up his greatest hits, its not bad middle of the road type stuff.

Miles Davis : Cool & Collected : In fairness it is pretty good but i have the feeling buying the albums is better listening you probably can't shoehorn a selection toegther like this and make it sound as seemeless as any of the classic albums. A review halfway down the page (Amazon) is spot on i reckon and i am certainly no expert.

They think its all over .. actually it is ..

Why are my legs so pasty white ?

All the lads ... here now .. brazil 1970 anyone ?

seriously a fantastic bunch of guys unfourtunately no medals for us, we left our run a bit late

Check out the state of the pitch .. all the "ovals" are in awful condition at this stage of the year

Hostel Watch : Sydney - Side

Check out the view, you get what you pay for i guess

Bondi Backers : looks kinda funky and retro but pretty bog standard actually ..

As has been mentioned in an earlier blog in recent times I have seen some "Hostel Time", so i have decided to do a sort of ratings blog, hopefully if/when i get to move around this massive continent i can add to it :

I was in two hostels last week in downtown Bondi , Bondi is the number 1 tourist beach probably in Oz not because it is some sort fo fantastic place(it most definitely is not) more because it is the place everyone has heard of and would usually be crammed full of Irish/Eng/Scottich and every other kind , luckily for me this is downtime so i had my choice of establishments.

I think when rating a hostel, in all honesty you really are only looking for value for your dollar so on that basis i am going to rate on price/hyigene also bearing in mind i was in a single room on my own and then give a comment on the overall package

I spent two nights here : Beachhouse

Room: Excellent Room, with a view of the beach

Hyigene: Excellent couldn't fault it, showers and toilet facilites well upto scratch

Price: $70 per night a shocking price

Comment : While everything here is excellent the price is geniuely awful, if i had stayed all week there it would have been just under $500 , for that price i could have stayed at the four seasons in the city.
Because we are rating on value for dollar i will have to stay this is stinking, simply as that.

I spent 3 nights here: Bondi Backpackers

Room : Okay, No View (see pic)

Hygiene : Okay (one of the two showers was broken just aswell there was no one around really one shower between god knows how many people on a floor in peak season would be diasaterous)

Price: $35 per night an excellent price

Comment : while not really of the same class as The Beachouse the price for 3 nights was excellent and you can't say fairer than that.