Sydney at Night

It’s been dreadful for the past few days with all the rain and no one felt like going out. Those who did would come back all drenched and miserable. There were actually a few nights of lightning and thunder that lit up the whole sky! So me and my roomies plus a bunch of other people just bummed around at Railway drinking. I finally had enough of doing nothing and needed some fresh air. So when the rain kind of stopped one night, I quickly got Cam to go for a walk with me to nearby parks. First we went to Belmore Park which was across from Central Station. It was very small and it seemed to have some kind of intercultural event but it was closing so there wasn’t much there. My roomies had told me we should check out Hyde Park just a few blocks down towards the harbour, so we made our way there. It was about 10~15min walk, and inside Hyde Park was the Pool of Reflections. As soon as we got into the park Cam saw something running in the bushes and was wondering what it was, a passerby told us they were rats, and we sort of just walked together across the park while she told us about the Rock Tour that talks about all the underground tunnels from the first settlements. After she left we made our way back through the park and I heard all these screeching noises and they turned out to be bats! There were loads of them just flying everywhere!! We went across the street to Fragrance Garden and it’s got like a boulevard with lights and trees which looked really eerie at night. As we were leaving the park I looked up Google Map to make sure that we were heading in the right direction, and Cam told me about how when he worked in the oil fields back home, sometimes people would get lost for days in the freezing weather because there were no radio reception...

On our way back we stopped by the Palace Hotel for a quick drink while their happy hour was still on. We sat on the patio and I eavesdropped on the conversation between this chick and a security guard right next to us. The security basically admitted that he was a full on racist, and he went on to justify himself against the foreigners how they don’t adapt, etc. He kind of went away, and I noticed there were a couple teenagers lying on the sidewalk just next to the hotel. They seemed to be slightly intoxicated as they were disturbing the passerbys. The security went out and asked them to leave. I lost track of them for a while, then all of a sudden they came out to the patio having a shouting match, and the security just pushed one of the kids real hard that he fell over the fence right next to us. His female friend instantly got mad pissed and freaked out and was getting in the security's face yelling and screaming. Her other friend tried to pull her away but she wouldn’t nudge. The security went inside and the chick was still screaming that she smashed a window with her bare hand and was bleeding. So the security came out again screaming at her, tables were pushed over, the kid who tried to help got thrown against the bar hitting his head and was bleeding because he got in the way of the security. I basically sat there all stunned, and a bit freaked out, because I’ve never witnessed a scuffle like that in my life! As for Cam who came from a small town, he’s seen worse. He was also a big guy too so he was ready to jump in if things take a bad turn.

Anyway, the kids eventually left, the security disappeared somewhere, everyone who witnessed it were all worried about the kids. 20min later, a cop showed up and was asking around for witnesses. We were basically the only ones left so he sat down with us to try to get the story straight. He asked if we would be in Sydney for a while because he wanted to take our statements, but unfortunately we only planned to be here for another week. After a couple more drinks we just went back to Railway to finish our beers in the fridge.

Next morning I’ve got my photocard appointment at 11AM, and it said that there would be a 10min interview as well, so I tried to dress a little nicer than my usual Tshirt and sweats and messy hair bun. I’ve wanted to book at the one in Haymarket just a couple blocks away but it was full, so I ended up going to the one in Surry Hills on the other side of Central Station. Cam also booked himself for the White Card course required for most labour jobs. It was another rainy day, so by the time I got to the post office I was all drenched and my hair was a mess. There was no interview, the lady just took 10min to process my documents, then she just took my picture that I didn’t get to review and I was done. It was still early so I went over to Ultimate and asked them about signing up for the Jackaroo course, and they just told me to register for myself online. So now I just need to plan my way there either taking the bus, or train, or even getting the Greyhound bus pass where you can hop-on, hop-off going one way that’s good for 3 months.

I went back to Railway and was just on my laptop when Cam came back from his 8hr course. He said it was just all health and safety stuff that he already knew from working back home, so it was easy for him. It was around dinner time, we decided to go stock up on some beers first, then when I was ready to cook up the rest of my minced beef in the fridge it was gone!!! I was so pissed and now I’ve only got 3 eggs and some instant noodles left!! I just fried up my 3 eggs and was still starving and I was all bummed out. Cam felt so bad for me he offered me some of his toasts but I declined. I still got noodles, but I was just upset that someone stole my food!!

In the evening, we sat outside Railway and drank with the rest of the people just exchanging interesting stories and listening to awesome music where I discovered Tom Waits. I also found out that a fellow American whom we’ve met a few days ago was a WHOVIAN!!!! I've seen him around the hostel and he seems to know everyone. We've talked but never introduced each other. He busks at the train station, looks like a really hippy guy always has his bandana on, really chill, got along with everybody. Apparently he's been travelling in New Zealand till his visa there expired that's why he's in OZ now. I knew his name was Scott, one time he was helping out cooking burgers for the BBQ night at the hostel and I called out his name to take a picture, and he felt bad that he didn't know my name.

Anyway, when I overheard him mentioned about the 50th Anniversary I literally couldn’t help myself from jumping for joy with him for a good 10min. I was pretty mental, and Cam had already witnessed my craze when I told him about Doctor Who before. Jana came and joined us and we got Scott to take off his bandana. Why is it always guys with long hair has such fabulous hair?!!!?! Me and Jana started playing with his hair, got him to tie them up in pig tails, braided them and made him look fabulous! Scott's such an awesome dude. He can sing and play a guitar, one time he sang The House of the Rising Sun and you could tell everyone was just enjoying it. He's got fabulous hair and apparently a Pixar fan as he's got a cryptic tattoo that said "To Infinity and Beyond". Best of all he's a fucking WHOVIAN!!!!!!!

Later on when everyone was just chilling, a drunk British bloke just showed up and jumped into our conversation and just basically took over. The coversation got a bit heated and awkward for a moment where I actually got upset, being a bit tipsy, and told him off. He quieted down for a bit and was actually more decent afterwards. It was getting late so I decided to go to bed while Cam was stuck with the British bloke showing him pictures. I first met the British bloke a couple days ago and he was trying to hit on my Canadian roommates, taking them out to drinks and stuff, but the girls knew better. He tried to talk to me as well but I just thought he was annoying and kind of a jerk. After I've told him off on my drunken state, I bumped into him again one time and he was actually nice and wasn't trying to be cool.