(this happened on) Saturday 23rd May 2009

The Gap Year Gang Find Out Footie is Boring

Sharks vs Dragons Dull, Dull, Dull

Today it is time to move on from our wonderful stay with the Royall family and head back to Sydney ready to see Stefan off to Cairns and our next flight to our next destination, New Zealand.

All the bags have to be back in the car, we left Basty behind to travel up with Jack as Charlotte and Lockie were not going, Charlotte said bye bye before she left for work.

Sasha had eaten her fish pie for breakfast (she had not got in from her night out with Charlotte until 7:00am!) Basty ate Charlottes fish pie.  We left Ulladulla at around 11:15am, we did not get far though as I had a need for a some KFC.

We got to Sydney at around 2:30pm and settled into our less than spectacular but ultimately OK rooms at the Formule 1  hotel, which is close to the airport after getting changed we set the satnav for the Noonans address (friends of Glenn and Nicky) and parked up along with the rest of the world. The lovely Noonan family of six welcomed us in and we met up with Basty and after a glass of wine and some nibbles and a few more arrivals we walked down the road to the LG Stadium we were all going to watch the embattled Cronulla Sutherland Sharks who were playing The St George Illawarra Dragons in a top verses bottom game.

Mike Noonan and Glenn support the Sharks, Jack and Stefan were for the Dragons. The Sharks have been all over the press here for what seems like weeks with stories of gangbangs, drug taking, assaults and financial problems, the financial problems increased even further this week as the main club sponsor LG announced it was getting out of Dodge at the seasons end, why? Look at all that publicity and wow it seems just like a party club how much fun is that.

Sasha watched about two minutes and then sat down in disgust saying it was a woosies game, she likes the rough and tumble of Rugby Union, She and Sabastian resorted to watching South Park on her ipod!

I enjoyed both of my AFL experiences far, far more than this game, the company was great but the game was a major let down. I am not much of a rugby fan and if I was, it would be Union not League and I have to say that after spending time in a near capacity crowd of 15,000+ with little atmosphere and watching an insipid and uninspiring game of what I am lead to believe is Australia’s main sport (the AFL Grand Final is Australia’s biggest single game but AFL is considered a poor relation to footie (Rugby League) the rest of the year).

Well I have watched two AFL games, which Aussie Rugby League supporters derisively call arial ping pong, and I enjoyed both of my AFL experiences far more than this game, the company was great but the game was a major let down, Sasha and Sabastian resorted to watching South Park on her ipod!

I don’t get it, I was told Aussies don’t like Union because it is stop start, REALLY!

So what makes it worse for me is the fact that Australia’s least popular form of Rugby, Union, is Englands number one version and yet the Aussies kick our ass on a more than regular basis.

League which nobody in the UK below Manchester could give a shit about, is of course the same story. I did not know until I got here how little interest the Aussies have in Union it really is the poor cousin and I have not yet seen a game on TV here.

The Sharks had no chance and the Dragons stomped all over them 21- 4, we left a little early to avoid the crowds but as most of them were Sharks fans and they all wanted out as well.

Sofia could not believe the amount of rubbish chucked on the ground.

It was all organised that the kids would have pizza at the Noonans and that all the Adults would go for a Thai/Malaysian/Indian at a restaurant called Langkawai. The ladies had all gone on ahead so Mike drove us there. It was full and noisy but the food was really good, Sofia claims she had the best nann peshwawi she had ever tried, they also did a chocolate nann as a desert Sasha would have been green with envy.

Glenn has known Mike since he was two and the other two guys at the table since he was at college, and all their wives. We ate great curry and then Mike said he was going to walk back.

This led to a hilarious situation as I introduced dogging to Australia, not practically you understand. I suggested to the guys around me that Mike might be  going dogging, apparently it’s not a practice that has reached Australia so I had to explain it, the conversation quickly spiraled out of control and when Ellen joined in as she thought we were talking about dog walking, with no real idea of what we were talking about, well then I asked her what she wore when dogging, Sofia had to cover her face as she cried with laughter (If you don’t know why this is funny, Google dogging!) she laughed so much it hurt.

We walked back to the car and Mikes wife kindly drove us back to collect the children.

The time finally came to say goodbye to our friends in Australia. Thank you very much to the Royall Family for an amazing time and for your hospitality, you live in a very wonderful place.

We did have a bit of a detour for a car accident and then we took a wrong turn but eventually we made it back to the Formule 1 Hotel. The bed is one of the bumpiest we have ever slept in, it took quite a while to find a position that works. Stefan leaves in the morning and was determined to stay up all night.