3 weeks in..

 Well it has been over a week since I last wrote. I can’t believe it is only 3 weeks since I left! The next door neighbour Krishnas are still ringing their bells at daft o’clock I the morning, the beaches are still amazing and a novel feature (I don’t think I’ll ever tire of them), my mother has joined facebook *gasp!* and I am a whole year older.

Last weekend, I worked as a marshal (steward) for The Sydney Festival.

The good: I was earning money by working on a huge festival with a great atmosphere, stood in the sunshine all day, during my lunch and dinner breaks I watched Norman Jay and Manu Chao and I did a lot of people watching.

The not so good: I was positioned next to the toilets and I had to wear a bright pink baseball cap. BRIGHT pink. I looked like an enthusiastic tourist.

'As The World Tipped', initial setting, Sydney Festival

Manu Chao!

Seriously, it was great gig and I’m glad I got the opportunity to work on it. It’s just about a month since I last had a job, so felt good to be slightly reconnected with the world of employment again.

Things I have done/seen:

Iced coffee on Darling Harbour: I know it is the cheesey tourist hotspot, but there’s something about sitting next to the water, chatting with a friend and sipping cold caffeine drinks that makes it OK to be a tourist.

Paddys Market: Need somewhere to find a psychic? How about kangaroo balls as a souvenir? Or a neon yellow wig? Then head to Paddys market next to China Town. It’s amazing- it has everything and anything, whether you need it or not! LOVE IT!

Australian Tourist crap in Paddys Market

Manly Beach: One of the best beaches in the Sydney area (so far!). I took the ferry out last week- the trip alone is beautiful- you pass rugged cliffs, sandy beaches and beautiful architecture. I had grand plans of exploring all things described in my guidebook like museums and monuments.

 I actually just got onto the beach and lay in the sun reading my book and got nowhere near anything ‘cultural’. It’ll still be there next week.

Manly Beach Kit

Manly Beach (name, not description)

Ferry back from Manly

 Interesting Manly fact: according to the Rough Guide, Captain Arthur Philip named the area in 1788 when he was exploring and saw a group of “..well built Aboriginal men ashore, proclaimed them to be Manly and named the cove in the process”.

Sadly, I saw no such thing, but the waters are clear, the sand is white and there is a great buzz to the place.

Watsons Bay: Myself and Loz took the ferry from Parramatta all the way out to Watsons Bay and admired the grand houses and boats. It is on the South Head with a sheltered Bay on one side and high jagged cliffs facing out to the Pacific Ocean on the other. It is also the home of the beautiful but tragic spot known as ‘The Gap’, well known for the crash of 'The Dunbar' in 1857 where 121 people died when the captain mistook 'The Gap' for the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Sadly, due to the beauty of the location, it is also popular with suicide revellers.

Ferry to Watsons Bay, Sydney Harbour

'The Gap', Watsons Bay

'The Gap' Watsons Bay 

 Luckily, we spotted no form of the latter. We ate fish and chips on the harbour, strolled the cliffs, took silly photos and sang Westlife at each other.  

Our next trip was a bus to Bondi for afternoon tea with her aunt and a train home. If only there had been a plane involved in the day, it would have been a complete public transport geek day. 

Surry Hills and Paddington: Met up with a new friend over here called Becs, who very kindly invited me over for a glass of wine and a spot of dinner out in Surry Hills. It is a great place, she is lovely and I went back over last Saturday for a party and met some very funny people. There was a drinking game called ‘Cups’, a man climbing over a wall, an Asian man wearing a t-shirt proclaiming, ‘Once You’ve Gone Asian, You Can’t Go Caucasian’, French man pretending to be Scottish.. a lot of things were, ‘I suppose you had to be there’, but it was great craic. I also met a man who wants to buy a parrot and take it to parties.

Yesterday I was out in Paddington meeting up with a lovely friend from Ireland – in the words of Annie (yes, the musical), ‘I know I’m going to like it here’. Already plotting for Paddies Day..

'Dirty Granny' Cider in Surry Hills

Getting Older: Last Friday (yes, it was Friday 13^th..) I woke up thinking, ‘OK, I’m a year older, eeek!’ *shudder*. Then I thought, ‘Hang on, it’s my birthday, I’m in Australia - sweeeet!’. It’s better to go with the glass half full on this occasion I think.

Myself and the lovely Loz went for breakfast in the beautiful Parramatta Park (it’s a bit like Richmond Park) and headed out to Dee Why Beach, listening to the sweet tunes of Kylie on the way. The beach itself is long, with gorgeous sand dunes and crashing waves. We swam, we lay in the sun, we went for ice cream – very different to the beach experiences I’ve had on 13^th January in UK… (Southport in the snow- fun but cold!).

Dee Why Beach

That evening we met up with friends for Thai food in Newtown. Newtown is known for its Thai restaurants – there’s a disproportionate amount of them on one street (about 45 on Kings Street alone?). Newtown also has some great places to sip cocktails on roof gardens and laugh away your birthday. Loved it!

 So, my plans have shifted. Rather than staying here and trying to get more work (in the quiet summer period) I am going to head over to New Zealand while it is still summer there in February then come back in March and restart the job hunt then. There are people and places I definitely want to see in NZ, so I am currently in the process of trying to sort it out. My research was going really well, but spiralled into looking at ‘Flight Of The Conchord’ clips on YouTube. Hence I’ve taken a break to write the blog..

 Before I go, we are heading to Canberra tomorrow to visit some friends of Loz, then Orient Point near Jervis Bay. Canberra hasn’t got a great reputation for being interesting. I’ve been warned that people die of boredom there, but I’ve researched it and we’re going with friends so my objective is to come back with a great review of the place! Jervis Bay has a great legacy so doesn’t need any favours from me. Beautiful Beach- done!

The weekend after I’m heading out onto the Hawkesbury River with the fabulous Catherine and friends. I’m not entirely sure of what I’ve signed up for, but I imagine there will be some element of tomfoolery involved..

Recent culinary delights: fresh mangos, peaches, fresh seafood, Josh’s home made pesto, Laurens sorbet, White chocolate Tim Tams.. and chips on a stick. Yes, here in Sydney, they have a whole potato, carved into a spiral, on a stick and deep fried. Not only that, you can choose a range of flavours in which to enjoy your chips on a stick – chicken salt, barbeque… Amazing…!

Chips... On a stick..

… Don’t start me on the Cone Pizza (yes, that’s pizza, in a cone)…

There have been moments of home sickness in the last few weeks where I’ve missed people to bits, but I was expecting it and I just need to plough through with these things and realise what an advantageous position I have over here. If it was there when I left it, it will be there when I get back. The more people I catch up with, the more places I go, the better it is getting. 

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year!

Tonight we have had our first rain storm. And there was no fannying about- this was huge thunder claps and lightning flashes. The Von Trapp children would have gone mental. However, the storm is fine as we were all indoors and it made things a little cooler.

Yes,  this week while people are slowly returning to work after Christmas with all the wicked weather and wind in the northern hemisphere, my unemployed bum has rolled out into glorious hot (sometimes too hot!) sunshine and onto the beach (and other nice destinations).

Me on Forresters Beach, New Years Day

Last week of course was New Years Eve. We headed out to the Blue Mountains to have lunch with some friends, one of whom recently had a very cute baby called Leila (she couldn’t be anything else with such a name!) and is married to one of the band members of Cloud Control. You should listen to them, they are awesome!

 The Blue Mountains are absolutely stunning – as quoted from Wikipedia, ‘Volatile terpenoids emitted in large quantities by the abundant eucalyptus trees in the Blue Mountains may cause mie scattering and thus the blue haze for which the mountains were named.’

The back ‘garden’ of where we had lunch is the side of a rocky hill, with a dramatic drop to the valley at the back. Apparently there are also lots of snakes there, but gladly we did not see any..!

Josh and Elise in the 'back garden' 

Initial plans were to celebrate NYE on the beach, but instead we stayed in Parramatta, got a bit giddy on tequila, Loz and Josh showed me how to dance ‘skanking’ (no, that is NOT a pseudonym, it’s a mad way of dancing) and then we headed out for fireworks. There were local Parra fireworks on the river at 9pm –  and then we headed to Ashfield park with bubbly and sparklers for a full (albeit, distant) view of the Sydney harbour fireworks. Amazing!

Lauren and myself on the way to Ashfield Park

Josh showing up the 'historical' convict built drain in Parramatta, NYE

Instead of the traditional New Years Day spent in a 7.5 tonne truck with Paddy Wagon driving back from Newcastle feeling happy but slightly worse for wear (go Team Truck!) or feeling hungover as hell holding onto the couch for dear life while Julie Andrews sings ‘A Spoonful Of Sugar’ on the telly, this year I went to the beach. And it was bloody lovely. Loz and Josh have a friend who owns a holiday house on Forresters Beach, north of Sydney on the Central Coast. Even when we got to beach at 4.00pm it was warm enough to head down to the sand and have a quick swim. Crystal clear waters and soft sand.

That night we ate kangaroo bolognaise. Yum.

Forresters Beach

My Feet, Forresters Beach, 1st January 2012

Alix, Lauren and me on Forresters Beach

Next day, headed off to a party on the rooftop of a flat on Bronte beach. Bronte is just down from Bondi beach and has a huge cemetery! We struggled to find parking so had to walk across it to get to the party. There was some tall wall climbing to get through it and various body part were accidently exposed in the wind..

Me, rooftop garden, Bronte

 Bronte Beach, 2nd January 2012

 Met some really lovely people, sipped cold beer and had a BBQ before heading to the beach for a quick dip. I scooted off early to head into central Sydney, where (with the Opera House in full view in the background) I had reunion with the lovely Cat Dillon who I know from South Manchester Operatics. We laughed and talked crudely for hours over dinner. I’d started to feel a little homesick but she totally brought me back up.

If you ever get the chance to see the work of Rafael Lozano Hemmer – jump at it. He uses modern technology to engage the viewer into his work. The Museum of Contemporary Art currently has a collection of his work called ‘Recorders’. It explores the use of surveillance technology which can be entertaining, but has a darker background in an Orwellian sense of being watched and traced. It basically records all your patterns as you roam around the exhibition. One large room is full of hanging light bulbs – there is a device that you hold onto for 15 seconds which measures your heartbeat- once you let go the entire room goes dark except for one bulb, which them mimics your heart rate. Another room has tape measures which grow as more people walk in, another has microphones you speaks into which then repeat the message the previous person said.. maybe you have to be there to enjoy it, but I thought it was fascinating.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Interesting street art, Sydney

That was the start of my tourist day out in Sydney. I sipped iced coffee, ate fresh sushi and just wandered around, strolling into the occasional shop.. we were down the coast yesterday in Woollongong and hanging out in Parra today, but I plan to head into Sydney again tomorrow. 

Typical tourist photo of Circular Quay

Other less touristy activities include drinking G&T and becoming hooked to the TV series 'Big Love'. About polygamist Mormons. Lot's of sister wife jokes made in the household.

 I also went to the bank today to get all my money stuff sorted. The man serving me was like Daniel from ‘The Angry Boys’. I kid you not.. he is not doing himself any favours to get away from stereotypes (see video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuU_v0P-q2c 

And I killed a big cockroach (..but I did not shoot the deputy..).

This weekend, I have a day of work marshalling for a show called ‘As The World Tipped’ by Wired Aerial Theatre (from Liverpool) as part of The Sydney Festival. http://www.astheworldtipped.com/ There’s a real buzz in the city with the opening of the festival, so I’m really looking forward to working on it!

Next stop, try and find a job.. (and have a birthday)