Monday, April 13, 2015

Small Sydney, Possums & Wake Boarding

So nearly one week without a post. Might happen when I start working, but for now it was only short endeavours that I did most of the time. A few days ago I spent an afternoon walking around Sydney, similar to what I did in Dubai to get a felling for the town. Walked from the station through Sydneys China district, along the piers and underneath the harbour bridge. I watched three married couples getting their pictures taken in front of the Opera House. Walked through the Royal Botanic Garden with all the different types of trees and quite some birds, before getting lost in the city. I asked a local for the quickest way to Central Station and arrived there shortly after before taking the train back to Springwood.
The difficult thing to realise is that Iain doesn't directly live in Sydney. It takes close to one and a half hours to get there by train, for Australian conditions that is really close.
Also been slowly starting to plan a flight up to Cairns, to maybe do some traditional backpacker job, fruit picking. That still being in the planing process, thought (tax file number still hasn't arrived *grumbel*). Went out photographing the other night and caught some possums on camera, although very grainy (the pictures). The possums are all over the trees here. I stood on the terrace at one point and just saw three of them in a tree.
Alexander visited two days ago and said he was going wake boarding some time this week. I asked if I could tag along and it ended up with us going today. We where joined by Jeremy, a guy from Canada, who is currently doing his year of studying in Australia. Weird, three guys in their twentys, just the three of us spanning once around the globe. We arrived and got all the legal stuff sorted (they mentioned that you can die on their facility). As Alexander used to work here it made things a lot more streamline. I was a bit nervous, as I had never wake boarded before and was still worried a bit about my shoulder. I did do some self inducted test the day before to see if it would actually be painful to go into the wake boarding position. Wasn't a problem and it wasn't a problem doing it in earnest either. I managed until to the third corner, were they had a more than 90° angle. I went flying from the sudden slack and the taunt of the rope. Next round wasn't successful either, I ended up shreding my swimming trunks somehow and bought another pair in the shop next to the area. Apparently I got a good pair relatively cheap, too (40$). The third time was different. I fell out at the second corner, right on the other side of the course. Walked back all the way and finally on the fourth round I managed it round one and a half times. Jeremy was going in circles by the time, having nearly no problem at all. He even started trying some tricks and jumps, but failed every time if I recall correctly. Alexander was taking jumps nearly every time and doing spins in the water and all. He did work here once, so he had enough time to try it himself.

We ended our session with some jumps from the starting point directly in to the water. No sitting down in the water, a direct start from land. Alexander and me managed, because the operator told us when to jump. Jeremy wasn't so lucky and was just pulled in to the water when the operator hooked him in.
We left for something to eat after that and had some chicken with chips in a place I don't know the name of any more before we just got to the station in time for me to catch the train back to Springwood.

Next thing I can do on my list of stuff, wake boarding. 

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