27th Jan 2012 - 11th Feb 2012
So we had been thinking for a bit what our next plans should be, so we handed in our notice at the hotel. We looked on Gumtree for a campervan, we viewed a few before settling on a 1997, ford econovan maxi. Which has only 196,000 km on the clock and cost $5,300. Which is good, some vans we seen were older than us and had done double the mileage. It's spacious and has a little kitchen area and a lovely spotted sofa which turns into a bed. ( fridge story- meant to be $60 reduced to $50, it had wrong barcode and we only got charged $5!! silly lady in shop didn't realise).
In our last few weeks on Sydney we went to see 'the girl with the dragon tattoo' which wad good but very similar to the original. We have seen even more famous faces like Vanessa Hudgens, David Hasslehoff, Rachael Taylor, Josh Lawson, Miranda Kerr, Tobey Maguire and George Michael!!! *wake me up before you go go, I ain't planing on going solo*
We had a few nights out at Kings Cross and also had a leaving do at the Woollomoolo Bay Hotel, across from our work. Lots of our work friends turned up, and also met up with two guys from home, one I knew since nursery and the other I was at high school with. It was crazy meeting them, it's been so long. Had a really good night- even though we were expecting a leaving present from work.
Unfortunately we had our first proper spider encounter- I opened up my sun visor to find a big spider about the size of the palm of my hand, it was curled up and looked dead, we were driving at the time so I quickly closed the visor. When we arrived at work, thinking the spider was dead we opened the visor again, only for the spider to spring out and scurry away!!! Shan tried many ways to get rid of it before spraying it to death, but we didn't find it until we parked up back at the apartment and I went to step out the van, it was lying dead in the foot well! People at work were saying it might be a deadly species but luckily turns out it was a non toxic orb garden spider. But it was still huge!
And to round off our Sydney experience Shannon surprised me to a show at the Opera House on our last night. It was an early Valentines Day present and it was such a fantastic present. We went to watch La Soiree which is a British based show, it was funny and amazing. It featured Bath Boy (has been on tv and at Royal variety show) and Captain Frodo (guinness world record holder and fantastic contortionist and double jointed freak), and The English Gents (acrobatics, I seen them at Edinburgh festival a few years ago). The show also featured a naked female magician/ burlesque, a hoola hooper, circus acts and a black, beared drag queen. It was funny and fab to watch. It was such a great night out and we recommend everyone to go see it!!
We have had a great time in Sydney, we had a great New Years, spent my 24th birthday there and climbed the iconic bridge, had a interesting job and glad we have had the chance to spend 4 and a half months living as Sydneysiders. We will be coming back to Sydney in a few months though and do some more touristy things that we somehow didn't have the time to do.