Misc Sydney Stuff

December Rain - this year we've had a very cloudy and wet December. In 1991 it absolutely bucketed down for a couple of weeks in December. Being an el cheapo, light travelling backpacker I had no wet weather gear whatsoever and arrived at work every day looking like a drowned rat. Fortunately the weather changed for the better before the Lufbrats arrived.


Christy's mum's battered old Ford Laser - Christy came with an added benefit. She had a car at weekends and she happily volunteered to be our chauffeur. Unfortunately people seemed to keep driving into the car when it was stationary - one guy drove into her when she was filling it up with petrol. He took one look at the car, gave her $10 and drove off.

Oz threatening to set the Laser alight

The Laser got us up to Narrabeen Lakes for a BBQ and some messing about on the water.

Narrabeen Lakes

Phill Edwards - friend of Sarah and Gour - with a very big camera

 It also got us all the way up to Palm Beach (the home of Home and Away). 

Charming.....

Not muscle beach again

Oz and Beth at Palm Beach

Sunbakers

 Trips around the harbour

Eastern Suburbs - view back to the city

Somewhere on the harbour - could be anywhere......

The AC/DC concert - Oz and I managed to get Beth to attend an AC/DC gig at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Something I'm sure she never thought she'd do and probably hasn't done since. We did this by secretly buying the tickets and then pretending we were going for a night out and meeting friends. She was oblivious as we strolled through the throngs of black shirted accer daccer fans and the light bulb didn't start coming on until we thrust a ticket into her hand as we walked through the Ent Cent door. Even then it hadn't really sunk in as she looked at the ticket and said "Who's Garry van Egmond ?" (The promoter!).





The Big Day Out - not the annual concert but an unplanned day at the Great Northern Hotel when Christy and I spent 12 hours there, had 2 meals, saw a band and drank a very large quantity of VB. The next day she was very worse for wear and even ran off the end of the platform at Artarmon station so she could throw up. Those were the days. She probably drank more that day than she drinks in an average year now.

Getting going at the Great Northern

A bit dusty the day after

Lane Cove Pool - walking distance from our unit. I was still recovering from my back operation and was still swimming laps. Being a pom I was doing breaststroke - which is not the best if you have a sore back. It was in Lane Cove Pool that I was constantly being passed by pensioners doing freestyle which made me decide to change strokes. I started sensibly by getting my pace and breathing right and by the time we hit Alice Springs in early 1992 I was knocking miles out rather than laps. To this day I always swim freestyle and have just about forgotten how to do breaststroke.

The 50m outdoor pool at Lane Cove

Christmas

My first Christmas in Sydney was spent on the beach and shared with (some of) the Lufbrats - Bop, Andy Brown, CJ, Howie and Lisa. Add me, Oz, Beth, Hels and Kate and you have a very Pommie Xmas. I'm not sure what Christy thought of it all but she went along with it. 


The Lufbra crew flew in a few days before Christmas and I think we accommodated them all by me moving into Christy's place and Hels and Kate moving out to a place in Kirribilli for a few weeks. It's possible that Howie and Lisa had somewhere with a bit more privacy as well. It was just like our communal digs at lufbra - Andy Brown's famous mega pot of chilli con carne, Howie's pancakes and the dessert co-operative's (me and bop) mega xmas trifle. Ah, the trifle. We discovered that Bird's Trifle was not sold in Sydney so we figured we could easily find independent ingredients and make it anyway. Jelly, custard, whipping cream, hundreds and thousands - can't be that hard. The biggest problem came when the whipping cream refused to whip. We ended up with a big bowl of slushy ingredients that slopped together. It still tasted the same.

The traditional day 1 fry-up of lilywhite poms with no sun-tan  cream. I warned them.

The flag that I picked up in Tokyo and the girl I picked up in Sydney !!

There was plenty of basic Sydney tourism - the Bridge, the Opera House, the Rocks, the pubs in the Rocks, the pubs in the City, the pubs in North Sydney etc. 



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Xmas day was a mammoth effort down at Balmoral Beach. The weather was fantastic, we were there early to stake a space and the whole day was spent eating, drinking, swimming, playing beach cricket, playing head tennis and generally having a fantastic time.

Xmas Day frolics on Balmoral Beach

The Bowler's Holding, the Batsman's Willey

Gaz and Oz set world head tennis record  (on Xmas  Day, in the  sea, near a shark net)

The days between Christmas and New Year were spent drinking, visiting Waratah Park (home of Skippy), BBQing in the local park and generally having a fantastic time.

BBQ time

The start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race

I'm sure the Beatles did this

Rod Hull ?

What's that  you say Skippy ? Get lost Brummie  git.

New Year was spent at a party at Sarah's unit - on the harbourside directly opposite the Opera House and a large trifle away from the Bridge. Lisa threw a wobbler because she was terrified of heights and lost us as we walked over the Bridge to Sarah's place and Kate hyper-ventilated while sitting on the sill of the open window four floors up. Other than that and the massive firework show not much happened that evening.


In the new year the group gradually split up. Hels and Kate headed off travelling in early Jan. Howie, Lisa, Bop and CJ headed back to UK and Andy Brown hung around for a little longer (and more of this later).

Australia v India Test

If was fun - we should do it again sometime. 


I SAID - WE SHOULD DO IT AGAIN SOMETIME !!!!

Christy

20 years on from this trip and I've been married almost 17 years (in January). Christy first appeared in my life, and this story, when Oz and I were invited out by Sarah Verbe to meet up with some of her friends. The pub was the Station Hotel in North Sydney directly opposite North Sydney train station. This pub has been renovated since those days and is barely even noticeable underneath the back of the Greenwood shopping centre and pub. I digress.

Christy going for a night out

Christy - erstwhile gym instructress

Christy was there and was introduced as Sarah's best friend. We all chatted and drank but as the evening went on it appeared that Christy was close to one of Sarah's other friends. Oz and I baled out early-ish, he was hanging out for Beth's imminent arrival and I was pleased to have met Christy but disappointed that she seemed to be taken. Anyway, being from Texas I'm sure she didn't understand a word I said.


I don't remember the next time we met up but it may have been at a pub in the Rocks (somewhere near the present-day Argyle.) I'm sure it was another event that Sarah invited us to. It gradually became clear that Christy was single after all. At some point over the following days or weeks I must have asked her out and our first official date was to be going to see De La Soul at the Hordern Pavilion on 12th October 1991. I remember the date as it was Christy's sister Sarah's 4th birthday. It was also the day that Beth arrived in Sydney to join us for a few months.

Christy and her mum's very handy run-around

The evening before (11th October for those of you that are a little slow) Oz, Christy and I went out for a curry (it was possible that others were there) and Oz, salivating at the thought of Beth arriving the next day, scooted off home early. Not sure why he left us alone but he was probably stopping at the chemist on the way back and making sure that his sheets and undies had been freshly washed and ironed. The result was that I stayed at Christy's place in Elamang Avenue, Kirribilli, that night and we had an impromptu first date the day before our official date (!).

Elamang Avenue

The following morning I was spotted leaving by Christy's brother Jeff who was arriving with his little sister Sarah. The scary thing is that Christy was 24 and Sarah was turning 4. Now it's Sarah that is 24.

Christy and I became an official item when she was introduced to Beth, Hels and Kate shortly after. I must admit though that I was very used to my single-ness at this time and did feel at times that I was being stalked a bit. I wasn't used to someone calling me at work a couple of times a day for a chat and then calling me again in the evening. It was on one of these calls to work that I answered the phone with " Hello, Gary Clark" and there was a pause on the other end and then Christy said "What did you say?". I was used to her not understanding my accent but I thought she'd understand "Hello". "No, what's your surname?" she said. "Clark". "Oh, my god" she exclaimed. Her older sister Kim was engaged to Richard Clark(e)!!!


More of Christy later.....

NSW Department of Sport, Recreation and Racing

This is where I worked for the whole time I was in Sydney. The NSW Department of Sport, Recreation and Racing no longer exists in that form and the horse racing and gambling elements were separated from the Sport bits I think. I was running the system test for a system that was used by the Totalizator Agency Board (TAB). I've no idea whether the system was a success or not as I moved on before it went live. Many IT contractors seem to make a living moving on before any of their systems go live!

Cameron Berkman (PW) - My fellow system tester

As it turned out, my time at this dysfunctional NSW government agency changed my life. On day one I sat next to Sarah Verbe, a young Northern English lass. "I hear you worked for PW in the UK". Do you know Darren Brooke?" She said. "He was my flatmate at Uni and he joined PW". PW only employed about 50,000 people in UK and Sarah and Darren were younger than me. "Actually we've just worked on the same project for the last 6 months" I replied. A small world style icebreaker and Sarah and I were soon swapping stories. She was living with (and engaged to I recall) "Sergeant Major" Dave and was living in a flat on the water's edge at Kirribilli directly opposite the Opera House. Nice. Sarah had been in Sydney a little while and had lots of friends. One of them I married (more of this later).

Sarah's Birthday dinner at the Lord Dudley

Me and the Seargant Major

I joined the Dept's Wed lunch time touch footy team and a year on from my back operation I was finally getting fit and running freely again. The touch footy I loved as I got to use my speed and (rusty) rugby skills without getting clattered.


My diary lists hordes of people from this project most of which I only have a vague recollection of. My photos help particularly of the Christmas lunch at North Sydney Oval. Afterwards we carried on drinking and Brad (PW) downed about 10 Sambuccas after Katrina (Dept) rejected his advances. 

Christmas lunch at N Sydney Oval

I also remember that the whole office closed down on Melbourne Cup day so that we could all indulge in a range of illegal gambling activities. I knew they were illegal as this was the department that policed all forms of racing related gambling!

Katrina, Tania, Les

Brad, Cameron, Sean, me, Sarah

Me and Sarah

I was also invited along to a Maori BBQ by Steve (Dept) and witnessed a (dead) lamb being baked in a hole in the back garden. I'm pretty sure I had my first ever mango at this party as well. Not the sort of fruit that was in common supply in the north of England. I think my first experience of Jackson's on George Street was with the Dept crew as was my first experience of the Victoria Cross Bar in North Sydney (to later become a big part of Dileep's life but that's another story altogether).


p.s. Sarah didn't marry Dave but she now lives with a lovely Boro supporting Teessider called Rich and works for Microsoft in UK. Dave lives round the corner from us in Roseville Chase (at least he used to) though I've only run into him once since 1992.

Dave at Healthlands Gym in North Sydney in 1991

Hels and Kate

Our erstwhile flatmates. Fellow pommie backpackers. Things I don't remember about them include their surnames and how Oz and Beth knew them. I don't think I've seen or spoken to them since we all went our separate backpacking ways in Jan 1992. Where are they now? Married with loads of kids probably and living the good life in Surbiton. Or somewhere similar.

Canoodling at the Curry Bazaar in Crows Nest

Some Madge action

 When we all left Sydney we were travelling up the East Coast of Australia and then on to Asia - there was evidence all along the route (sign-in books at hostels for example)) that we were often close or within a day or so of each other. This was in the old days well before the existence of mobile phones and ubiquitous email and it wasn't simple to stay in touch when you were on the move every few days.

3 Sisters

For me it was a bit of a love-hate relationship with the two of them - their company was fun and having them both working as barmaids in the Rag and Famish in North Sydney, a 2 minute walk from where I worked, made getting a beer very easy even when the pub was full. Having them sharing the flat kept the rent down but they were annoyingly tight at times, even as far as using up my toothpaste rather than buying their own. If they'd have asked it would have been fine but they just did it on the sly. The nadir came on my birthday. Christy bought a birthday cake for me that we took to the flat to share. I had one small piece but when I returned from work the next day they'd scoffed the lot. That week was also the week that Lord Frederick Lucan of Mercury died and by chance our local pub, The Great Northern Hotel, had a Queen tribute band playing. I suggested that we went out for a birthday drink to see a tribute to the first band that I ever saw live but I was told, "nah, we're watching The Thorn Birds". A few weeks later they were disgusted when I didn't want to go out for a pizza with them. 

Fish and Chips at Balmoral Beach

Anyway most of the times were fun including curry nights, trips to the Blue Mountains, visits to the beach and Waratah Park (the home of Skippy) as well as the aforementioned drinks in the Rag and Famish.

Photo frolics

In the Blue Mountains

There was an occasion when Oz and Beth were away for a few days (in Newcastle visiting Oz's relatives I think) and Kate and Hels had occupancy of their bedroom. They came home from work under the affluence of inkahol and the three of us somehow ended up in a big play fight (I think Kate was after the mattress in my room but she wasn't getting it). Anyway food and water ended up everywhere and Kate didn't take too kindly to losing the physical battle. When I woke up the next morning every piece of furniture in the house had been used to barricade me into my room!! 


I'm sure they're sensible mummies nowadays.

Bye Kate