Spring has Sprung...

I am writing this today after the joys of a 4 day weekend, 3 days of which were almost too hot to handle. We knew it would start getting hotter as we move toward summer, but the jump from grey-and-cloudy to 32 degrees-and-burny took us all by surprise. We finally got the Tender Documents out for these Museums in Riyadh and everybody took a bit of time off. It was a very stressful couple of weeks, but still managed to play all weekend too.

Last weekend we decided to get our asses cultured. This included going over to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the Lost Buddhas exhibition that they were currently showing. Some guys in China were digging up a football pitch and found about 400 perfectly (almost) wrapped and preserved Buddha statues and ever since they have been touring museums. The whole thing was quite interesting, as nobody knows why they were buried in the first place, the popular theory is probably to protect them from some warlord type who took a fancy to smashing them up. Anyway that was pretty cool, all very zen and calming. After that we went out with our flatmates for a guided tour of The Rocks, learning about the local history of the oldest part of Sydney, through the medium of pub-crawl! So we heard all about the Gangs of New York style thievery and villainy, and all the “Shine ya shoes guvnor? Gotta pick a pocket or two boys” type hi-jinks that happened back in the day, as well as finding out all the awesome pubs in the area. It certainly served its purpose for me as we discovered the Lord Nelson just around the corner from my office which brews 6 different ales on site. Fantastic.

This weekend just passed was mostly spent on the beach due to the heat. It’s so hot in the city you feel like all you want to do is get in the freezing cold sea, but by the time you get there and feel the wind rolling in off the Ocean you’re not quite sure you fancy it any more. We finally got around to doing the Coastal walk down from Bondi, round past Tamarama Beach, past Bronte Beach, past Gordon’s Bay and down to Coogee Beach, and finally stopping off for a bit of lunch before heading home. See attached pics, all the beaches were beautiful and it was a great day for it.

Bondi Beach

Tamarama Beach

Bronte Beach

Gordon's Bay

Coogee Beach

We're spoiled for choice huh?

I thought I would take advantage of the fact that everybody else was working on Tuesday and hog the surf at Bondi all to myself. Alas it wasn’t meant to be, it was one of the 3 days a year when Bondi Beach doesn’t have any waves. It was like a lake! Very disappointing, particularly after the 20 minute walk to get there. So I contented myself to go back into town and walk across the Harbour Bridge, something else I’d been meaning to do for ages.

Not much else to report really, had a few twinges of home sickness when the Bathwick Hill Grand Designs was aired on Australian TV, was nice to see all the shots of Bath, and Kevin wallowing in the rooftop spas. I made all our flat mates sit around and watch it, and whilst agreeing that Bath certainly looked lovely, they couldn’t fathom why the Architect didn’t strongly advise the clients against bothering in the first place. Philistines, obviously.
The rest of this week promises to be good, tomorrow after work we are meeting up with Claire’s old friend Becci from back Leamington way, who has just spent a whole year touring around Australia (most recently the Whitsunday Islands, which we still haven’t decided upon), so she’ll have all the news about where we need to go and where is best to be avoided. Friday night we have tickets for Bill Bailey at the State Theatre, which should be brilliant, lots more nostalgia for the South West, and the first Somerset accent I will have heard in a good few months. If you’re reading this and you’re still bored, why not send us an e-mail, let us know what’s going on back home?

Hope everybody is well!
Chazz & Claire xxx

p.s: Congrats Tom on the promotion!