New Thing Of The Week: Escape the Rat Race

So, I've been having enough of work lately with a lot of the stuff happening at work - I decided to take some time off to get away.

"Everybody needs a little time away,
I heard her say, From each other.
Even lovers need a holiday,
Far away from each other"

I decided to get out of Sydney altogether to my favourite place. No it's not the Paris Hilton hehe - it's the Blue Mountains.



Ever since I became a working member of society things cost more and now going to the Blue Mountains on a link pass costs $40 for a day pass (including return travel)! But it's still worth it.

So, my little sister departed the inner west at 10ish and headed up to the Mountains on the train. A couple of hours later we were in Katoomba.

After taking the double decker bus from there we stopped at Scenic World.

Scenic World has some sky way things (these carriages on cables that take you to the forest) and also a cool coal train that takes you down/up a 52 degree trip down the mountain to the bottom.



The train trip was scary for me and Sonja - but other people didn't seem so frightened? Have a look below..

Scenic World Coal Train (click this link if the video player below doesn't work)

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After a nice walk through the forest we took a bus over to Echo Point (which always makes me think of Echo Beach song)

"From nine till five I have to spend my time at work,
The job is very boring, I'm an office clerk
The only thing that helps pass the time away
Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach some day"

Well I change the words from Echo Beach to Echo Point. But then again, wasn't there a really sad soapie on Ten in the nineties called that?

But I digress, we took a walk from Echo Point to the Three Sisters.

The air was so clear and fresh and just different to the city!

Most of the walk was down hill, but once you get to the main walkway it is down - steeply! It's about 60 or so steps the size of your foot going down down down - but once we got there it was worth it - just to be standing and touching the first of the Three Sisters.



That was until the walk up (or in my case pulling myself up). Sonja said "oh my god, we are so fat". I prefer the word unfit myself.

After returning to Echo Point and getting some fudge (Baileys and Cherry Ripe) from the nice fudge maker (not fudge packer) there we went to this nice ye olde high tea house at Leura.

It was a nice little cottage with silverware and everything - oh so formal.



And wasn't the bill formal - $20 for tea & scones for two - until I showed them I had been on the red double decker bus and they slashed the price by half (I fear for the locals who don't take the tourist bus).

So yeah, we took the train home then and it was good to breathe in the fresh air of the country and then get back to the city.

I'd love to live there one day - but I'd need to get a job out west somewhere.

The Easter Show!

[The trains are well taken care of at Cityrail - even the empty trains are late!]

The day started later than expected, with Ryan working late that night - it was meant to be an 8am start but we ended up getting to the show just before 12.

We walked only a couple of 100m into the show and already had two bags of free stuff (a paper and some free government sponsored kids showbag) so the $31 was seeming to be worth it (or was it?).

We tried in vain to find the woodchopping stadium to watch the woodchopping (well der).


["There's got to be an easier way to fill a fireplace!"]

Unfortunately, when we got to the stadium it was empty and everyone was at lunch. This ended up the first year in a while I didn't get to see the woodchopping :( We tried to get in later but it was all full (which was awful!).


[Earthquake enjoys being Cheese on a Stick]

With the woodchopping not open we decided to go and get some lunch ourselves - by getting free samples at the Food Dome.


[Holy shit that's a huge pumpkin - 225kg!]

There was $2 for an Up N Go and ice cream at the Sanitarium stall! That's pretty good.

I shall prepare you all for the next part of the story. I like chilli. No better than that - I love chilli.


[Hotter than Lara Bingle and Billie Piper tongue wrestling!]

I went to The Chilli Factory and tried some of their Turbo Supercharge chilli and good lord it was hot!

How hot? Well I usually have extra chilli on my Big Bondi, but this was so hot that my tongue burned and tingled for over half an hour. I had to down one bottle of water, one Up N Go and some ice cream to quench the heat!


After that we went to the Showbag Pavillion and got some showbags - I ended up getting the Family Guy showbag, Darrel Lea chocolate block bag and a Darrel Lea bag for Cass (you've gotta look after your mates). Ryan got a 25-in-1 bag, an army bag and a Family Guy bag. We got a Coke and a Pepsi bag for Mum.


[Earthquake tries to talk to a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man]

We ended up leaving the show early to get rid of all the showbags that were weighing us down.

After dropping off the bags at the car we headed back and went to see some animals - that's what you want to see at the Show - animals!


[Earthquake sizes up some drinking in the horse pavillion]

We ended up seeing some horses and alpaccas - aren't alpaccas cool. They're cool! I want one to replace my cats. They can eat grass. hehe


[Who has the curlier hair?]

After feeding the animals we fed ourselves and headed to the football game next door where the Dogs were playing the Rabbitohs. You got in for free with an Easter Show ticket.

It felt strange being there for an away game - although there were more Bulldogs fans there than Souths fans.

Another strange thing is that Souths doesn't have cheerleaders anymore - they've got drummers!


[South Sydney take the piss with their drumming cheerleaders, while a Roosters support takes the piss with a familiar surname on their jersey - too bad they weren't watching their team make it 0-4!]

The Doggies end up winning (and making me lose my tip - I know I shouldn't tip against the Doggies but Ben Roberts doesn't give me much strength).

So yeah - that was my day at show. Twas alright although I still want to see the woodchopping!

New Thing Of The Week: Contact my teacher!

[he's not quite Robin Williams but he's still pretty inspirational]

The other day something strange happened.

Someone thought I was good!

I've lived all my life with not much motivation from my Dad yet when my teacher (the Robin William type) said "I reckon I'd have a job for you at my (radio) station" I didn't think anything of it.

But later on, after leaving the class early to go look after my little sister I thought about it more and more - I realised I should have probably talked to him more about it.

You see, he does run a radio station in the country and I wouldn't have to move to the country to work for them - but was he serious?

If I were to get a job there it would pretty much complete the majority of HAPPY resolution.

I ended up emailing him but got the wrong email - I then passed on a message from another teacher to give to him - hoping he will contact me.

It's all about experience, and to think that I could go and do something that is 100x better than what I thought I would get out of this (instead of community radio - a real radio job), that would be great.

As always, I will let youse know.