Sydney, the luck continues......

[Harkoliar]

hey guys tell me what happened last night ... (methinks that they are too drunk to respond now [img]tongue.gif[/img] . )

[Leonis]

Ok Harks, I was - too drunk, then too hungover, then too much in pain (will explain), then too confounded by internet tomfoolery...

I was finishing work on Sunday night - we'd done a matinee show (theatre) and were packing down and loading out as it was the final show of the season. I got a call from Charlie just as we were finishing and headed out soon after - not before giving him the name of a pub to meet at that didn't exist! Oops.

Well I and my friend - a lighting guy called Dimitri (but we'll refer to him as The Crazy Belgian from now on) arrived at the pub we meant, realising that we'd given him the wrong name. We're heading up to it and I see this dude walking towards it too - kind of matching the description Charlie gave of himself... "Charlie?" "Yeah?" !!! What are the odds? He'd been roaming around The Rocks looking for 'The Man'o'War' and thankfully we turned up together at 'The Fortune of War'.

We proceeded to go from pub to pub around The Rocks, led by The Crazy Belgian who disturbingly knows the area far better than I do. It was weird, we'd go to one and it would be jammed full of kids - literally could not move; then the next one would be half empty. And they all kept shutting on us.

We spent some time in a cool place I've never been to before - out on a balcony right next to the Harbour Bridge(Might be called The Harbour View Hotel?). Here, The Crazy Belgian started to live up to his name. First attempting to set fire to a flag hanging below us... (he has issues with the country). Charlie and I were horrified - not just because it's needlessly destructive and pointless - but also because we didn't really want to end up in the slammer - paticularly Charlie after the previous experience...

So The Crazy Belgian then started sitting on the edge of the railing talking about falling off (and it was just at that weird state where you slightly think he might). He came down but was interjecting with comments that had absolutely nothing to do with the conversation - as if we'd been talking about that all along... Odd.

We then went to a deli for food. Very nice it was and the people assured me I was eating a vegie burger even though I was suspicious it was meat.

It was.

Eating meat for me is like feeding kryptonite to Superman. A few hours later I am curled up in the foetal position wishing I could pull my stomach out through my eyeballs. I'm just very glad I had the next day off. But for the moment I was fine...

Somehow, and I'm not sure how or why, we ended up at 'dirty Jackson's'. For those not local it's a bohemoth of a bar called Jackson's on George - right at the junction of some of our biggest tourist attractions - The Rocks, Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Cicular Quay - and the Sydney finnancial district. It's also a place a worked in for a year or so about 8 years ago and have not stepped foot in since I told the managers they sucked and I was never coming back to work...

Careful reading of this thread will show of some other events that happened there recently too. Thankfully, nothing bad really happened. The Crazy Belgian managed to have his lighting plans nicked and then recovered (great spotting Charlie!), offend a woman whose football team had just lost the grand final, and then walk in to the upstairs nightclub, have the girl he'd been talking to pay his $10 entry (she was with her boyfriend - they were both very nice and friendly) and get kicked out straight away! With a refund! He made ten bucks!

At this point we finally got it touch with Memnoch but he was on the other side of town with a bunch of friends and we were only up for one more (ok maybe two) before heading off. (Mems - didn't see your post till after the event - otherwise we would have headed down that way to start with. Sorry man)

At the final venue, The Crazy Belgian managed to throw his beer all over a guy. They ended up chatting like old mates for ages!!?? In french I think...

Somewhere in all of this, Charlie and I managed to have great conversation and really get to know each other. The Crazy Belgian was even able to add some local history I was never aware of (he's actually a very nice, sane guy when not drinking while taking powerfull antibiotics - well, almost sane)

It was a fantastic evening. This meandering waffle of a tale does not do it justice, but there you go.

Here's to you Charlie! [img]graemlins/cheers.gif[/img]

[ 10-07-2003, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: Leonis ]