Top Gear Live!

We went to the Top Gear Live show yesterday. I'm not so into cars but Adam is and I find Jeremy Clarkson quite funny so thought it could be good!

It was boiling hot so we didn't stand around looking at the cars outside acer arena for too long and went to take our seats.

The whole thing is highly sponsored as you'd expect and contains so much advertising, but I actually really enjoyed the live ads prior to the show beginning. Navman did a live piece with a couple arguing over directions then the 'Navman' walking down through the audience singing a love song and giving the couple a GPS which of course fixed their whole relationship! And Audi did a great dramatic piece with the arena lighting and Audi circles flying everywhere.

In the actual show itself, was quite similar to the TV show, they had the Cool Wall, and spent quite a while making jokes at James May's expense (who wasn't their with Jeremy and Richard).

The best bits I thought were the car football (bit of a shame the England team lost against the Aussie cars - there were only about 6 of us cheering england on in the audience!), and the 4 motorbikes who drive around inside a metal sphere!
Would definitely recommend it!

More surfing!

Battered, bruised and sunburnt after today's surfing, but really enjoyed it still!

Think I am improving too, stood up for at least 2 seconds today ;-)

Have decided Narrabeen is my favourite place to surf, we've been there a couple of times now and although it's a bit further out, it is pretty much empty compared to Manly and there is loads of free parking.
The surf was breaking quite close to the shore and it was low tide so we were able to stand in the water and just jump on when we saw a good wave. I am using my new technique for getting up when I remember, and it seems to be working a bit better.

Australia Day surf rowers!

We had an extra day off this week to celebrate Australia Day!

According to http://www.australiaday.vic.gov.au/history.asp Australia day "celebrates the anniversary of Captain Arthur Phillip unfurling the British flag at Sydney Cove and proclaiming British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia on 26 January 1788".

There was lots going on around the city, big BBQs in the parks, music performances, and a few aborginal ceremonies too.

We went over to Dee Why beach and had Australia Day breakfast with lots of bands playing, flipflop (thong) throwing competitions and everyone dressed in aussie colours and flags.

Then we headed over to Freshwater beach to see a different side of it. Freshwater was hosting the finals of the NSW Australian Surf Rowers competition. Really fun sport to watch, you have 4 people rowing and 1 'sweep' steering the boat from the back. They're rowing directly into the surf to a buoy and then back to the beach, which means no matter how well a team has done so far, a wave can come and push them over or push them back ahead of the others. Sometimes they all get knocked out of the boat even! There were teams from all the NSW beaches there. Apparently if you're in a surf rowing club, you also have to do a certain number of hours of lifesaving duty on your beach, and you have to train every morning 5am. That's some dedication!
lebrates the anniversary of Captain Arthur Phillip unfurling the British flag at Sydney Cove and proclaiming British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia on 26 January 1788