The last couple of days have been more about the social life in Sydney than any major tourist attractions. I did head over to Bondi Beach on Friday, but Kareem and I didn’t stay too long before heading off to breakfast (it’s Ramadan, so I’ve taken to following Kareem’s lead and calling the evening meal breakfast) at a thai restaurant. It was pretty cool there, especially as they provided dates for us to start the meal, which is apparently the traditional way to break your fast during Ramadan. After this, we headed over to Fox Studios to meet up with Sarah and her boyfriend Andy. I’ve not seen Sarah since she emigrated here a couple of years ago, and it was awesome to see her so relaxed and obviously enjoying her time here in Australia. We wound up bowling again, which sadly kareem beat me by 5 points in. So now the current score is 2-1 to Kareem in games on this trip. We played a bit of pool and then headed for pies to round off the evening.
Yesterday was the AFL final between Sydney and West Coast Eagles. Last year, Sydney had won it by about 3 points or so and after enjoying the WCE final on Thursday, I was definitely up for watching the final. Chris was planning to watch it with a few friends in Clovelly, a small beach town near to Bondi. After the now familiar joy of the Sydney transport network (which in my experience is actually that bad, it’s just that I am staying a fair way out), I was picked up at Central, and we headed for beer and sports. The first half of the game, Sydney were letting the game get away from them, missing a number of goals when they should have been fairly straightforward (or so I understood it anyway). It was pretty frustrating to see so many mistakes, but the second hald really fired up, with Sydney coming back only to see WCE score again to open the lead. By the fourth quarter, WCE were in reaching distance, and a couple of times the Swans came within one point, keeping the (very) Sydney crowd I was with on the edge of their seats. Sadly, it finished with the Swans still trailing by 1 point, but it was a very enjoyable game, and the atmosphere in the bar was excellent. I’ll definitely be leaving Aussie Rules on if I stumble upon it on TV in the future, as opposed to my old reaction of switching over!
Apparently there’s a Rugby League final on tonight, so I might be watching that as well. When in Rome and all that 