I have no idea why, but being in New Zealand feels ten times further away than being in Sydney. 'Tis not good. I feel really quite far from home at the moment but I'm sure the feeling will pass. Seems to be loads to see and do around here so think I'm going to stay until early next week and then work my way through the North Island to Wellington before heading back to Sydney for a few months to work and then go around.
Auckland is cold and wet and earlier there was thunder and lightning. Why I don't feel at home I really am not sure!
29 September 2009
27 September 2009
Sydney related fun
So I've now been in Sydney for five days and arriving in the dust storm was probably not the best thing and it probably marred my opinion on the place in the first instance. Anyway, I've walked all over the city more than once and it's pretty cool. It feels much bigger than London, though, which is odd.
I can't believe how different the Opera House looks in real life - it's entirely, entirely different and also you don't get a great view of it from The Rocks so I need to get a ferry over and see it from the north side. I was wanting to go up to Manly and thought therefore I'd be able to see it but it's just too windy to be going to exposed beaches so that'll have to wait for a while. The Harbour Bridge, though, is pretty awesome.
One of the coolest little things I've found is the area around the Rocks Museum, which is a series of old sandstone buildings and there's a pub there with this awesome little courtyard. Nearby there are some of those old houses with the latticed terraces. It's really cool and quaint so I spent a happy Thursday afternoon down there.
I finally wandered down to Darling Harbour on Friday and oh my gosh, one of the first things I saw as I walked down onto King Street Wharf was an old boat that looked a LOT like the Matthew and being by the Harbour there reminded me of Bristol except that it's bigger, better and sunnier but it's got a similar vibe, especially as I'd been at Bristol Festival the day before I left.
I met Paul from The Village Hotel for a drink - we went to Balmain where it was the 30th birthday party of some of his rugby team mates and that was pretty cool - met, randomly, this Australian guy who, it turned out, is actually Russian only his parents (both Russian) were born in China and moved to Aus in the 60s but he still speaks Russian, albeit with an Australian accent. Then we went to a club that is apparently not a gay club except on a Friday only it's on Oxford Street so it's right in the thick of the gay scene and that was really funny, especially when this very, very melodramatic came and sat down practically on me and was storming about how he his ex boyfriend was there and he was going to message him and then he flounced off after saying, 'I need to tell him to his FACE!'. It was tres amusant.
The people in my hostel are really, really cool and I've met some awesome folks. Last night five of us went out to Darling Harbour and danced the night away and it was spectacular. Bungalow8 has got to be one of the best bars I've ever been to - excellent music, excellent wine, excellent everything. Sandra, a German girl I met on my first day here, and I didn't get back until 5am because we ended up in a pool bar for a couple of hours. Also we saw a big screen that was showing the Arsenal-Fulham match and that freaked me out because it was 4am. This time difference thing is still quite bizarre to me.
I'm updating this from the Apple Store on George Street. I think that makes me cool. No, no I don't. It's so cold that I'm wearing not one but two hoodies. I so much love the yellow one I have from Anna. Sandra and I are shortly going down to The Rocks for a coffee. I've got Mini Phil with me because I feel bad that he hasn't seen the Opera House yet and I've already been here five days.
I can't believe how different the Opera House looks in real life - it's entirely, entirely different and also you don't get a great view of it from The Rocks so I need to get a ferry over and see it from the north side. I was wanting to go up to Manly and thought therefore I'd be able to see it but it's just too windy to be going to exposed beaches so that'll have to wait for a while. The Harbour Bridge, though, is pretty awesome.
One of the coolest little things I've found is the area around the Rocks Museum, which is a series of old sandstone buildings and there's a pub there with this awesome little courtyard. Nearby there are some of those old houses with the latticed terraces. It's really cool and quaint so I spent a happy Thursday afternoon down there.
I finally wandered down to Darling Harbour on Friday and oh my gosh, one of the first things I saw as I walked down onto King Street Wharf was an old boat that looked a LOT like the Matthew and being by the Harbour there reminded me of Bristol except that it's bigger, better and sunnier but it's got a similar vibe, especially as I'd been at Bristol Festival the day before I left.
I met Paul from The Village Hotel for a drink - we went to Balmain where it was the 30th birthday party of some of his rugby team mates and that was pretty cool - met, randomly, this Australian guy who, it turned out, is actually Russian only his parents (both Russian) were born in China and moved to Aus in the 60s but he still speaks Russian, albeit with an Australian accent. Then we went to a club that is apparently not a gay club except on a Friday only it's on Oxford Street so it's right in the thick of the gay scene and that was really funny, especially when this very, very melodramatic came and sat down practically on me and was storming about how he his ex boyfriend was there and he was going to message him and then he flounced off after saying, 'I need to tell him to his FACE!'. It was tres amusant.
The people in my hostel are really, really cool and I've met some awesome folks. Last night five of us went out to Darling Harbour and danced the night away and it was spectacular. Bungalow8 has got to be one of the best bars I've ever been to - excellent music, excellent wine, excellent everything. Sandra, a German girl I met on my first day here, and I didn't get back until 5am because we ended up in a pool bar for a couple of hours. Also we saw a big screen that was showing the Arsenal-Fulham match and that freaked me out because it was 4am. This time difference thing is still quite bizarre to me.
I'm updating this from the Apple Store on George Street. I think that makes me cool. No, no I don't. It's so cold that I'm wearing not one but two hoodies. I so much love the yellow one I have from Anna. Sandra and I are shortly going down to The Rocks for a coffee. I've got Mini Phil with me because I feel bad that he hasn't seen the Opera House yet and I've already been here five days.
24 September 2009
Random Sightings
Two Aboriginal guys, separately, playing the digeridoo to dance music down at Darling Harbour.
23 September 2009
I've arrived in Sydney
The plane had a LOT of turbulence owing to a sandstorm that swept over the city from South Australia overnight, so I got to the city this morning amongst windy haze and dust going into my eyes. Niiiiiiiiiice. Met a couple of Germans at my hostel so have wandered around with them for a couple of hours and shortly we're off to the Harbour, etc, to have a look around.
Fortune telling and money extortion
I don't know if that's spelt right. Correction, I don't care if that's spelt right. Anyway, so I'm walking around Singapore today and wandering around by part of the Grand Prix circuit and I sat down to take a load off and this guy comes up to me and starts saying that he looked at my forehead and telling me that he could see that I have a big heart and that I think too much and something else which I can't remember. Then he took it upon himself to sit down and carry on rambling to me. I knew that he would want money for this privilege. Frankly I should have made him pay me for annoying me like that. Anyway, he carried on spouting some nonsense about how there are two men who have me in their heart but I only have one man in my heart and that's because I love completely or something like that. However, it's a bit weird because he got this little piece of paper and wrote something on it, scrunched it up and gave it to me. He asked me to say a flower and I couldn't think of anything other than 'rose' and then asked me how many of us there with my siblings and me, so I told him I had one brother and one sister and that equals three (I'm not sure if they teach basic arithmetic at Fortune Teller School). Anyway, he told me to look at the piece of paper and sure enough it said 'rose' and the number three. The three thing, a lucky guess. The rose thing, completely contrived in a Derren Brown-esque manner as chatting about love for ten minutes is going to put a rose into pretty much anybody's brain, even mine.
When he asked me for money I told him he could do one and then he started trying to get me to give him my jewellery. I told him he could bugger off, especially when he then said, 'Poor people give me S$30, medium people give me S$60 and rich people give me S$90,' so I gave him a S$1 note and sent him on his merry way.
I also saw lots of cute little Oriental school children today and they were learning about Singapore girls, who are a national icon. To be honest, I wouldn't be too impressed if what represented Britain around the world was a grumpy BA hostess. Also I walked passed Raffles Girls School (secondary) and none of them had rolled their skirts up to be super short. I thought that was interesting.
So that's pretty much it; walked around a lot, forced myself to eat again (for some reason not been hungry) and was awed by the quasi American/Britishness of the place, especially behind Parliament, where all the colonial buildings.
Now waiting for my flight to Sydney and blogging to fill some time. The computers don't have seats so you have to stand up to go on. The mind boggles at the reason for this.
Until Australia!
When he asked me for money I told him he could do one and then he started trying to get me to give him my jewellery. I told him he could bugger off, especially when he then said, 'Poor people give me S$30, medium people give me S$60 and rich people give me S$90,' so I gave him a S$1 note and sent him on his merry way.
I also saw lots of cute little Oriental school children today and they were learning about Singapore girls, who are a national icon. To be honest, I wouldn't be too impressed if what represented Britain around the world was a grumpy BA hostess. Also I walked passed Raffles Girls School (secondary) and none of them had rolled their skirts up to be super short. I thought that was interesting.
So that's pretty much it; walked around a lot, forced myself to eat again (for some reason not been hungry) and was awed by the quasi American/Britishness of the place, especially behind Parliament, where all the colonial buildings.
Now waiting for my flight to Sydney and blogging to fill some time. The computers don't have seats so you have to stand up to go on. The mind boggles at the reason for this.
Until Australia!
22 September 2009
I got on the plane and it didn't crash so now I'm in Singapore
Greetings! Surprisingly, the flight over was actually really boring, helped along by the fact that I was sitting next to this oldish Kiwi couple who seemed to be really sour, especially the woman, so they did not start talking to me and as I'm pretty sure the other 27 New Zealanders in the world are nicer, I felt no inclination to enter into conversation with them. Even though I was really tired I didn't really sleep, although I read the Sunday Times and watched The Proposal and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. There are two things wrong with this. One, that neither film is particularly good but I spent three hours on them both, consecutively and probably killed at least 5% of my brain cells in the process and two, even though they're not that good they're the only two things I had any interest in watching on the plane so now I'm screwed for the flight to Sydney unless I can actually sleep, which I won't be able to so instead I'll go slightly crazy. OK, crazier.
Because I'm so, so good at proportional response, the main occupation of my mind this evening has been the fact that my ankles are horribly swollen and I don't like them one bit. Never mind that I'm almost on the other side of the world on my own, all that matters is my swollen ankles. This is because I do not like to look down and see the feet of a matron, which is what currently happens. I don't even know what to do to bring the swelling down and as I've got a nine hour flight tomorrow night, there's no point trying so instead I'll cry about it. Silently. To myself.
As for Singapore, well, it's bloody pschizophrenic. I took a walk through Little India, down to Orchard Road and thence to Chinatown. All of these places are entirely different and yet are supposedly all in one city/country and it's just, well, it's just weird. What's also weird is that there is a Marks and Spencer at the Plaza Singapura. As, I might add, is a Dorothy Perkins. If I loved shopping, I think Singapore would be my Mecca. As it is, I hate shopping, ergo moot point. Oh, and I'm reminded of just a tiny bit of frustration on my part when at Heathrow: I was looking for a pen and a notepad so off I went to W H Smith for said pen and notepad but apparently W H Smith at Heathrow sells sweets and painkillers and all sorts of sandwich but not pen and paper. Why do rules of what shops sell change in airports? Why wasn't W H Smith selling me a pen? Anyway, so then I thought if I could find a Borders there'd be a Paperchase but again, no. Apparently, with all the Paul Smith, Hermes, Bally, Agnes B, Gucci, Chanel, Dixons (?!!), Cartier, Mulberry and whatever other stores there were there are completely necessary but not somewhere you can find a pen and piece of paper. It is OK now, because thanks to Carrefour at Plaza Singapura I have paper and a lot of pens.
The hostel I'm in is alright, especially this free internet - woo! - but given that I have already had a wonderful refreshing shower I know that it provides me with everything I could possibly want at this juncture. Tomorrow, hopefully, the Botanical Gardens and the Harbourfont. Couldn't go to Night Safari owing to the rain. I was very disappointed but luckily I have to come back on my way home so at least I already have something to look forward to.
Because I'm so, so good at proportional response, the main occupation of my mind this evening has been the fact that my ankles are horribly swollen and I don't like them one bit. Never mind that I'm almost on the other side of the world on my own, all that matters is my swollen ankles. This is because I do not like to look down and see the feet of a matron, which is what currently happens. I don't even know what to do to bring the swelling down and as I've got a nine hour flight tomorrow night, there's no point trying so instead I'll cry about it. Silently. To myself.
As for Singapore, well, it's bloody pschizophrenic. I took a walk through Little India, down to Orchard Road and thence to Chinatown. All of these places are entirely different and yet are supposedly all in one city/country and it's just, well, it's just weird. What's also weird is that there is a Marks and Spencer at the Plaza Singapura. As, I might add, is a Dorothy Perkins. If I loved shopping, I think Singapore would be my Mecca. As it is, I hate shopping, ergo moot point. Oh, and I'm reminded of just a tiny bit of frustration on my part when at Heathrow: I was looking for a pen and a notepad so off I went to W H Smith for said pen and notepad but apparently W H Smith at Heathrow sells sweets and painkillers and all sorts of sandwich but not pen and paper. Why do rules of what shops sell change in airports? Why wasn't W H Smith selling me a pen? Anyway, so then I thought if I could find a Borders there'd be a Paperchase but again, no. Apparently, with all the Paul Smith, Hermes, Bally, Agnes B, Gucci, Chanel, Dixons (?!!), Cartier, Mulberry and whatever other stores there were there are completely necessary but not somewhere you can find a pen and piece of paper. It is OK now, because thanks to Carrefour at Plaza Singapura I have paper and a lot of pens.
The hostel I'm in is alright, especially this free internet - woo! - but given that I have already had a wonderful refreshing shower I know that it provides me with everything I could possibly want at this juncture. Tomorrow, hopefully, the Botanical Gardens and the Harbourfont. Couldn't go to Night Safari owing to the rain. I was very disappointed but luckily I have to come back on my way home so at least I already have something to look forward to.
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