Almost 4 Years In...

Ok.. so my blogging on this site came to somewhat of a halt. Oops, I've even made it a New Years Resolution for the last 2 years. Clearly, I need more motivation to do that. 

I fully live in Australia now. I am constantly plagued by the internal battle of 'Will I stay or will I go'. 

A wise woman down my gym in Lane Cove spoke to me about it one day. I loved talking to this lady - she was a total amateaur dramatic enthusiast, had wild hair like Leo Sayer, always wore shiny spandex in the gym and 2 different coloured socks. Very well spoken, always reading a classic script on the treadmill at a high walking pace. 

She is an Aussue and told me she had lived in London many moons ago. Just a few weeks before we spoke, her daughters had moved over to find their fortune in the big smoke. 

Her advice is there is no right answer of where to stay. She is still torn by her decision to move back to Australia, but at the same time loves it and loves being near her family. If she didn't have her son and mother to look after, she would have moved over with her daughters and stayed again.

So I am still battling with trying to make Australia home. There are so many people I love on the other side of the world but there are benefits of being here. 

So for the moment, I am just going to type the amusing differences/facts I find between both places.

1: Tea. Aussies cannot do tea like the Irish and Brits. They do some great flavoured tea, but not black tea like Barrys, Yorkshire, Lyons, PG tips... One of the things that I crave is a big mug of tea in my parents kitchen, listening to Radio 2. 

2. Coffee. Brits CANNOT do coffee like the Aussies. I am a coffee snob now. I love a flat white - if you put me in front of a coffee machine and told me to make one, I would make a total pigs ear of it, but then I'm not a barista. I love the experience of going for a good take away coffee, sitting on a grassy verge and over looking the ocean. 

3. Sausages. Beef sausage? Chicken sausage? Are you on crack Australia?

4. Morning Tea. In most work places in Australia, there is a set time to stop for a break for 'morning tea'. Apparently it's from a British tradition..?!
5. Only in Australia (a country less effected by the GLC) would you find a water bottle for yoga that costs $50.
6. Risoles in Australia - like meatballs, but put on a BBQ - yum!
7. Indian food in England is the best (apart from India obvisouly)
8. Thai and Vietnamese food in Australia is amazing
9. In Manchester is is common to greet one another with, 'Hiya, 'alright?' and in Australia people in shops ask you 'Hello, how are you?' - am I actually supposed to answer either or is it just a greeting??
10. Horse Racing is a big thing in Australia. Like, BIG. While I was home last month I was discussing this with a friend who thought most Aussies just live at the beach wearing loungy cut off beach wear. Not so much.. she was quite surprised by the glamourous description of the big hair, high heels, facinators and apparel that is very common when the race season begins. It's big business here.
11. Vegimite and avocado (together) is a thing.
12. Europeans do clothes better. Sorry, but it's true.
13. Yoga is everywhere you go here. That's a good thing. 
14. There are some great Australian TV series that don't make it to UK: The Slap, The Glitch, The Moodies Do Christmas, Would Like to Date, Offspring..
15. Australians are in total denial of winter. Homes are not built with insulation or double  glazing. If I'm cold, my boyfriend frequently tells me to put more layers on. I end up looking like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters. OK, it's not -2, but 5 degrees in the rain with no heating and vents that go straight to the outdoors is COLD! 

That's all for the moment. I think I don't write this much any more because I write so much in one go. So I will try and start again with small tips and comments about me being an 'expat'/ economic migrant in Aus. x

2 Years in Australia..

Sydney Swans vs Carlton!

My pledge of writing this blog more frequently fell flat on it's arse when I got a new job. 

I had grand plans of micro blogging about world events and random thoughts, but then I moved to a house over an hour from where I worked.
Plus I moved to a home without the internet.
I LOVE my new home. I'm blissfully happy, living near Curl Curl Beach. It's gorgeous.

Blink and you'll miss it, it's nearly the end of my 2 years in Australia - I can't believe how much time has flown, it feels like yesterday I flew into Sydney.. I'm going home to Manchester for Christmas in 2 weeks.

But just for Christmas, as after months of determination and hundreds of applications, I managed to get a job that will sponsor me to stay in Australia.
The sponsorship itself was a bit like wrestling a crocodile and after months of trying to organise all kinds of paperwork and a failed application, I was kindly given the number of an immigration lawyer who sorted it all out in 3 weeks.

Phew!

I don't really know how to sum up the last year, but it's been brilliant. It's late, it's nearly Christmas and I fly out to the Philippines next week so I don't know when I'll get another chance to sit and write anything before the end of the year.
So, I will add the following photos and you can see what I've been up to..

Southern Right Whale. Wow!

Hump Back Whale in Narooma! Dream come true!

Pointing at seal colony, Montague Island

Montague Island, Narooma, NSW

Tugboat Man, Central Coast, NSW

Vivid Sydney

Vivid Sydney

Cockatoo Island with Tor

Supporting Manly with Tor in some Grand Final, 2013

Open Top Bus Tour with Cat (and a chicken on her head), Sydney

Port Arthur, Tasmania

Wine Glass Bay, Tasmania

Price Harry, Fleet Review

Camping by Nora Heads

Sydney Harbour, Fleet Review

Nora Heads, Central Coast, NSW

Sydney Living

I am currently temping at an office that is so close to Luna Park, we can hear people screaming. It's a lil disturbing. But the view is stunning across the harbour. It's sunny and I am going to take the ferry home to Balmain. I love the ferry. 

This Luna Park face? Scares the crap out of me.. *shudders*

Ok, so I haven't blogged in ages. In the blink of an eye I it is already 6 months later and my little blog has been silent. Well, I've been a little busy.

Farming for my 2nd Year Visa: Finished

I am pleased to announce I am Wang free: I finished my farming! It was hard. A lot of people speak to me about it and go, 'ah sure it was a great experience. I can't imagine anything better than going off into the wilderness for a few months and not having to think about anything'. 

Well, it isn't quite like that. If it was a month away of learning about organic food, planting, yoga, sewing, riding horses, singing to animals in the style of Snow White and exploring the rural areas of Australia with other people, then yes. It would have been a marvellous experience. In my brain when I imagined doing my 3 months of rural work I was wearing a wide brimmed straw hat, a farm like checked dress, holding a wicker basket, picking apples out of a tree and skipping through fields of long grass, like something from The Waltons. I would be staying a cosy farmstead, meeting lots of people similar to myself and getting paid. I would then return home to Melbourne where some amazing person had read my CV and said, 'hey, we need YOU!'. 

However, while I did learn a lot and got to see parts of Australia I hadn't even thought of going to, it wasn't the cosy farm yard dream. There were elements of great things and I did discover things I didn't know I could do, but it was hard.

I was on my own for most of the three months, with no idea where to go to get farm work, with no guarantee that the next farm wasn't going to contain a bunch of crazies and no stable job to return to once I returned to the big smoke. I know that sounds like I'm looking at the negatives but I felt like I was in 2nd Year visa rural captivity. 

It took five farms to fulfil my 88 days of farm work. 

Things it has taught me:

• What vine grafting is
• I love swimming
• I am more resilient than I think I am: I have met so many people who gave up on the farming after a few weeks because they encountered hard situations. In some ways I was lucky because not EVERY boss I had in the rural areas were nutters, but there were a few. However no matter how shit I was feeling, I stuck with it. It is an experience, and not one I regret but until you do it yourself, do not assume you know the peaks and troughs of working for your 2nd Year Visa. 

For anyone who want advice about farming, I can offer the following tips:

- Give yourself enough time – I only had 115 days to do 88 days of farm work and that was risking it, hence the willingness to do unpaid work. You will not always get 88 days of consecutive farm work, so give yourself 5-6 months to get it completed. 

- Save up money before you go. While there are hostels that can offer you work, it can be sporadic and you could be waiting a while so make sure you are no reliant on money that you haven't earned yet.

- If you have no idea where to get paid farm work from, research what is in season and where. Use it as an opportunity to see parts of Australia you haven't even thought of going to yet. If you really just need to start as soon as possible, do what I did and join the Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF). You can get work almost immediately. Plus, generally you don't need any experience to do it, so if you need to get experience in farm work, wwoofing is the way. It isn't paid work but they provide your accommodation and food, and might be able to advise you where to get paid work from. Just make sure you are in the correct postcode and that they can sign off your 1263 form to prove the work you are doing is legitimate. 

- When you submit your 2nd Year Application, put everything in there. I mean, ANY SCRAP OF EVIDENCE. I made sure with each farm I took photos to prove I was there, wrote letters that stated the days I was there and the type of work I did and go the farmers to sign them, got them to sign the 1263 form, receipts and bank statements to prove I was in the areas I worked in and my application form with the fee. I put all of this evidence in a coherent folder. It sounds thorough and pernickety but it meant there was no question of them sending me back anything and asking for proof if I'd done my farm work. 

I don't have any contacts I can send you as most of what I did was through wwoofing and the paid work is no longer running

The farm months were a roller coaster of many things, but I just want to say thank you to those who kept in touch. The phone calls, emails and visits were a valuable source of sanity for me!

Moving to Sydney

So then it was suddenly a few weeks before Christmas, and I was trundling on a train back to Melbourne. I packed up my stuff, donated my crappy teenager bike to charity, said goodbye to the Big4 Wangarratta caravan park and headed off to the city. 

The 4 days that followed my return were not the isolated quiet nights I had predicted, but 4 days of going a little mad after being released back into the wild. Tequila and old fashioned cocktails were unintentionally involved. Thanks goes to Helena, Luisa and Dave!

The lovely Cat went to Brazil for Christmas and very kindly leant me her apartment in Sydney CBD for the weeks she was away. Hello HELLO! Bit of change..

Now, with the farming and all that space to think, I made the decision to move to Sydney. I'd done Melbourne for the most part of my first year in Aus and figured I wouldn't be around for much longer than two so it was time to try a new place. 

Plus, loads of good friends had recently rocked up to Sydney. 

And Sydney has been amazing. I still love Melbourne and all it offers, but my first 6 months here have been really good. 

Having neglected my blog for the past few months I can't possibly put everything into one entry, but I'll summarise. 

Myself, Tor, Al and his parents had our first Christmas in Australia. We wanted to celebrate the lack of winter, have a BBQ on the rooftop and snorkel on the beach, but unfortunately Mother Nature gave us the finger and we had torrential rain all day, so we had to stay in. We had a delightful Christmas lunch and saw the humour in it. Typical!

Mojitos and The Inbetweeners on Christmas Day

New Years Eve in Sydney, watching the fireworks from Cremourne Park with a group of friends and a picnic shall go down in my memory as one of the most amazing experiences. It is truly phenomenal. We set up early in the park to make sure we'd get a good view and then relaxed in the sun. The atmosphere was like a festival, everyone in view of the harbour bridge waiting in excited anticipation for the first firework to explode and welcome in 2013. 

It was bloody amazing. As people who have worked in the pyrotechnics industry, myself and Tor got very technical about the type of shells, candles and mines they were using in the display. Well, we like to think we did.. 

And then in the blink of an eye, I turned 30. Like a bandaid, ripped it offend it was fine. It was a classy affair, sipping bubbles in Walsh Bay at The Bar At The End Of The Wharf, over looking the Harbour Bridge across from Luna Park. My beautiful friend contacted my friends and put together a book of 30th Birthday messages. It was one of the most touching and invaluable presents I have ever received. Eternally grateful to Tor and all who wrote in it. 

My 30th Birthday gathering, Bar At The End Of The Wharf, Walsh Bay

All in all, a good start to the year.

RockCorps

Somehow I got to a place in my life where I was stood in the middle of a roller skating rink next to a DJ with 100 volunteers painting a community centre in Sefton. Now, while many know Sefton as the place with the 24 hour strip club across the road from the gun shop (seriously..) it is also the home of an amazing Community Centre (with a roller skating rink) run by a very passionate hard working woman called Luna.  

I was working for RockCorps. RockCorps is a project which has run all over the world which aims to encourage people to get involved in volunteering in their local community. RockCorps organised a concert with Guy Sebastian, The Pot Bellez, Tinnie Tempah and The Script – the only way to get a ticket was by volunteering 4 hours of your time on a community project. 

A team of Coordinators and Project leaders after our first volunteer event at Project 107, Redfern

I worked as a project leader, managing an amazing creative team of people. We worked all over Sydney – Palm Beach, Liverpool, Blacktown, Cronulla, Glenfield – and over the course of 3 months we worked with over 1000 volunteers, transforming emergency housing, youth training centres, national parks and everything in-between.

This is the first year RockCorps has come to Australia and to introduce it to other cities, myself and my colleague (uber lovely friend) Kez took the project on the road with our van, BJ. In the 3 weeks we drove approx 5143km: From Sydney to my beloved Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide, Adelaide back to Sydney and then Sydney to Brisbane and back. I saw a lot of Australia in that time, and at the same time a lot of nothing in Australia. The closer you get to the centre, the more barren it gets. Some of the motels you book look innocent on the ads, but then you rock up and they are super sleazy. And kangaroos want to jump at your van and injure you as you drive. 

Kez with some bikies by The Big Merino, Goulburn on the way to Melbs

Team Collective, Melbourne

Jerome, Kez and me at Ponyfish Island, Melbourne

Kez loving the lighthouse from Round The Twist

Coast on The Great Ocean Road

View from the van, Hay plains. Whole lot of nothing, driving from Adelaide to Hay to Sydney

Byron Bay

Rewarding ourselves with wine in our hotel room after a long day, Brisbane

The whole RockCorps experience was amazing. I will look back on it as such a unique and humbling experience: the community groups, the traveling, my amazing team,  the concert, travelling, working with French people, laughing at so much stuff.. 

Mornington Peninsula

I also got the opportunity to spend the Easter Bank Holiday weekend at a gorgeous wedding near Dromana on The Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Helena (who was my boss in Melbourne) got married to the lovely Ian at a winery. Gorgeous wedding, beautiful area. Would definitely recommend it!

My Top Sydney Things So Far

• Ruth and Barry coming to visit, hanging out in Manly at a wedding celebratory BBQ while an inappropriate old man teases Barry and Meghans Dad shoots possums. It's a long story..
  
  
  
• Lying in the sun on Curl Curl beach on my day off, with a take away coffee and a green beach umbrella called Neddy. It's now one of my favourite beaches and whenever I am feeling frazzled, I think of that day.

  

  Curl Curl, or 'Curly', as the local Tugboat Man calls it..

• The Laneway Festival with Dave and Kez in Rozelle. Alt-J, Bat for Lashes, MsMr, Politcia, Jesse Ware, turbo shandies and cocktails.
  
  
  
• An open top bus tour, drinking expensive wine from the Green Room in the Opera House with Cat Dillon wearing a chicken hat. 
• The Vivid Festival: for past few years Sydney have put on a festival of projection and light. All along the harbour there are up to 60 installations which use light in unique spaces. The most memorable piece is the projections on the Opera House to music. The whole thing is brilliant: there is so much to explore, with cute markets  and hidden lights. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Manly Mondays: While both in the position of job hunting/ having Mondays off, myself and Tor would meet and inevitably end up on the ferry to Manly, as we love the Manly Ferry. Not in a weird trains spotter kind of way where we tick off the names of the ferries we've been on, but it's being out on the water and watching the gorgeous sights of the harbour go by. When we get to Manly, we eat lunch on the beach and head back. When you don't have a mode of transport in your home town that is a ferry, the Manly Ferry can be pretty exciting..
• The huge floating duck in Darling Harbour for The Sydney Festival. 

  

  View as a steward for the Sydney Festival Opening Ceremony with  Florentijn Hofmans Rubber Duck in Darling Harbour

• St Paddies Day with Sean, Daphne, Cat, RockCorps and Tugboat man

  

  St Paddys Day with my RockCorps gals, Hyde Park

• Canberra with Cat and Priya
• Living in Balmain

  

  View from Balmain East Ferry Wharf
  
  
  

  Once again I am trying to find another job. I am doing a lot of temping and getting to work in some great places. Some people are lovely, some people are horrible, but that's just life. I want to get something more permanent so that I can stay here, but also so that I can book a flight home (via South East Asia). I miss home - a million and one of my friends are all pregnant (no exaggeration..) and I want to see you all. 

In the mean time, go exploring and see stuff. It makes you appreciate where you are living- especially in a small countries like UK/Ireland. Just an hours drive and you can be in a totally different dialect and area. Do it!

Ned Kelly and Nature Watch

My local pub is an old hide out of Ned Kellys!
Ned Kelly is a famous Australian outlaw from the 1800's who fought the law!
"Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded killer, while others consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class."
At one point, he was the most wanted man in Australia. It was a time when the Irish were persecuted by the Anglo Australians and after a number of unfair arrests and time in prison, Ned rebelled! To summarise, there was a shoot out at one point and he shot the officers. He became a wanted man on the run. 
But he had a lot of sympathisers who supported his cause and would let him hide out in their homes and pubs. 
And The Vine, situated about 400 yards down the road, was a sympathiser! I went in on Saturday and they showed me the basement where he would hang out with the Kelly gang.

Proof!

The Vine: Room downstairs where Ned Kelly would drink

His 'Wanted' poster

Lovely Luisa by the hide out piano

Other discoveries: It's been insanely hot up here in North East Victoria. We were up to 36 degrees yesterday and it's heading that way again for Thursday. Hot weather means the bugs get bigger. I experienced the 'European' wasp yesterday. It was the size of my index finger. I screamed and ran. 
Another time I did this was today when I met a blue tongue lizard. 

And Australian TV and ads are still atrocious. 

Caravan Clubbing in Wangaratta

Well, things have changed here in the fight for my 2^nd Year Visa. Obama has been re-elected and I now live on a caravan park in North East Victoria, an hour away from the New South Wales border, three hours from Melbourne. Two totally connected events.

I am working for a vine grafting company in the King Valley, living in Wangaratta. The locals tell me to just refer to it as ‘Wang’, but that has too many phallic connotations and I just can’t do it.

Prospects Sheep Farm

I loved the sheep breeding farm, but they had another wwoofer arriving so I had to move on. I became rather attached to the two little lambs I had to bottle feed. I just got this overwhelming sense of joy whenever I had to see them and they made me laugh. Now this could be a symptom of working alone all day for 4 weeks straight, but they just brought a highlight to my day. I even named them after my friends.

But sadly, I had to leave them. I still miss them, but understand now that they aren't 7 days old any more, are probably big, burly and mental. 

Feeding time!

Little Clodagh and James

Clodagh gets her head stuck..

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat lamb again though.

Cider Farm

Anyway, my next farm was a cider farm in Daylesford.

I want to be honest about that experience, but I don’t want to drag too much negativity into my blog. So, I have completed the following summary:

Rollin' in my ride, 'Cider 2'

This dog might look peaceful, but that is not always the case..

Stable and Arena, where I stayed

Amusing/ Positive points:

•      There were two other wwoofers on the farm – company at last! We laughed as we worked and plan to catch up again once I've finished the farming.
•        My accommodation was a room upstairs in the stables! Like Jesus! When you look out the bedroom window, you looked straight onto the arena. I have been a party in a similar (well, to be honest, nicer) set up in The Netherlands, but didn't realise it was common practice.
•        I got to drive a huge 1987 bronze Mercedes Benz, complete with sheep skin seat covers. The number plate was ‘Cider 2’. It was right out of ‘Only Fools and Horses’.

Not so amusing points/ discoveries:

•        If people are not happy and open to meeting new people, they should not be woofing hosts. Some people are just plain nuts.
•        Unhappy horses bang their heads and hooves against the walls at night. Constantly. This echoes and wakes you up when you have a room in a stable.
•        I hate St Bernard Dogs. The colossal size, conjunctivitis, drool, the leaning, the smell. Living with two plus two smaller dogs was a… let’s just say a ‘tricky’ experience.

Anne-Marie and Bonny in Melbourne

I did manage to escape to the city a few times while I was there for birthdays and a visitor from England! A good friend of mine from back home came to visit and we spent 2 glorious days in the city, eating by the river and checking out the sites. She recently had a baby who is absolutely gorgeous. I felt like I’d almost lost a vital organ when I had to leave them and return to the cider farm.

Anne-Marie, Bonny and Me at Flinders Street Station

Me and Bonny!

Anne Marie and Bonny, Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Well, I stayed for nearly 3 weeks and did have some visitors and good laughs, but it was getting to a point where I felt I’d been there long enough. Luckily my fellow wwoofer Frank had a number for someone who was looking for people to work on a vineyard. So here I am!

Milawa

I work in Milawa, a tiny village in the gourmet King Valley region.

At first I was staying in the caravan park there. As it is a vineyard region, all the cabins are named after wines. I was in ‘Moscato’ (a wine that has become a regular tipple in the last year!), next door to ‘Merlot’ and ‘Cienna’. ‘Chardonnay Drive’ is just down the road!

Milawa is gorgeous, with rolling hills and Mount Buffalo as a distant backdrop. At night, as we are so far away from any town, the night sky is bright and twinkling as the stars are so vivid. Everyone is friendly and open their arms to help you. Most of them are over 60, but that’s fine! I’ve shared pizza with some of the residents at the caravan park and had a great old laugh.

Cross Roads at Milawa

My cabin in Milawa, 'Moscato'

It is quite remote though. There are no horses so you can’t even call it a one-horse town. On recommendation from a few people, I am now living in a caravan park in the local town, Wangaratta. I guess the only experience I've ever had of people living in caravan parks was from ‘Home and Away’. I didn't realise it was actually a popular Australian accommodation option. While I've spotted a few mullets, so far there have been no ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’. And I haven't had a sniff of the infamous 'Caravan Club' that Jay from 'The Inbetweeners' boasts about. Fingers crossed though, I still have 4 weeks left..  

Wangaratta is a simple but nice town. The whole region is just full of good wine and food. Myself and a Tasmanian couple working for the company checked out the local pub on Saturday night. We chatted to the locals, played some bingo game called Keno and chatted to a rather hairy man called Daniel who would rather spend his money on beer than get his hair cut.

My cabin was a bit grotty when I first rocked up, but it’s now more like home as I've decorated the walls with prints, photos and fairy lights. I am cooking loads of nice dinners and and listening to really interesting podcasts. It might be that I can see the end in sight and my next stop is time off for Christmas, but I am enjoying myself here.

My job is working in the owners garage and cutting buds off vine branches, a vital part in the vine grafting operation. It is repetitive work, but I work with a delightful woman called Jill (co-owner) and a boxer called Samson. He is a 10 month old puppy who likes to eat anything he can find.

As we work, we listen to the radio and whatever CDs she can find in the house, ranging from the Mama Mia soundtrack, Linkin Park, Susan Boyle, Nirvana Unplugged and a collection of recordings from Gregorian Monks covering New Order.

Myself and Samson at work

Yesterday Jill came back from running errands in town with a large great rock. But it wasn’t a rock, it was a tortoise she had found in the road that was going to be hit by a truck if he wasn’t rescued soon. So we put him in a basin, resting high on a tractor front so he was out of Sams way (like I said, I work in a garage and it is crammed full of stuff!). We heard some Tupperware fall over sometime later but thought nothing of it.

It wasn’t Tupperware though, the tortoise had woken up and attempted to walk home. Not realising he was on a tractor. We found him 10 mins after his fall on his back.

At this point, I had to Google, ‘How to check a tortoise is alive’. Works out, you just need to poke the feet and if they wiggle, he’s alive. Thankfully the feet wiggled and on the way home from work, we released him back into the river.

Rescued Tommy the tortoise

Samson the 10 month old boxer puppy, chewing a dog shaped slipper known as 'Grandma'

Marry that with a frog that Sam found (and was about to eat) and a camel that lives in a field on the drive home, my ‘Australia Nature Watch’ is alive and kicking!

So I have been away from Manchester for almost 11 months. I really am getting more pangs of home sickness but it's only 2 years of my life so I am pursuing life in Australia. I need the sunshine!

It’s nearly Christmas, which hasn't hit home yet as it is 28 degrees. I heard ‘Last Christmas’ in the supermarket the other day and it felt wrong. WRONG. But I’ll embrace it. I am going to Sydney to spend Christmas with Tor, a friend from Manchester and I can’t bloody wait. At some point I am going to sit on a beach and sing ‘Fairy-tale of New York’ with a Santa hat on and it will be brilliant. Maybe slightly drunk, but brilliant.

That’s all for now. One more month and I’ll have submitted my visa application.. In the meantime, if anyone fancies a day in ‘Wang’ *coughs*, let me know!