Okey, dokey, update time...

Will try and do this as concisely as possible...

Walked out of my vile job.  They decided not to pay me.  Have taken action to make them pay me since they are legally in the wrong.  We shall see the outcome since it's $650 that I'm currently short of, which is by no means a figure to be sniffed at.

On the other hand, have found a wonderful, wonderful job at a lovely Italian restaurant in the Crown complex and I love it there and the boss is absolutely lovely and so I'm very happy there.  Added to this I am working a couple of days a week on the tour desk at my hostel, which is good fun and also it means that I get to do tours for free (ie three day Great Ocean Road trip next week.  Win.) so I will see lots of Victoria.

Am still really liking Melbourne.  Friend from England was here for a couple of weeks and I haven't seen her for years and we had a fabulous time catching up over coffee and shopping and things like that and she took me to the Neighbours night (she used to work for the company that runs them) and even though there were a couple of moments of cringeyness and it was very, very cheesy it was also so much fun.  But now she's gone back to England.  Boo.

I have also, to be fair, met some really wonderful people here who are 18 and as a result make me feel incredibly old because now I say sentences that start with things like, 'I remember when I was your age...' and frankly I am far too young for this to be happening but I am dealing with it by being a grumpy old woman and I feel I fulfill that role really rather well.  But anyway, so I share a room with them and we've hung out and I work with two of them but now they're all leaving to go to Surfers Paradise so I will be here all by myself except that luckily Gemma is coming here in June so I will have at least one friend.  We will also be planning how to smuggle a Cambodian child back to London to raise.  I'd prefer a Vietnamese child but she's convinced Cambodian is the way to go.  Something about border control.

I will have to leave Melbourne relatively soon, though, because I have to go and do fruit picking or some sort of banal rural work in order to get my second visa.  It's not too, too bad (I hope!) but equally I'd rather be able to bum around in Melbourne and be able get my second visa anyway.

Anyway, frankly that is basically everything.  I'm still beyond excited about the coalition situation in England.  I would actually compare it to when I first saw Sydney Opera House.  When I first got to Sydney it was amazed disbelief and this need to pinch myself that it was real and then that was the case the first few times I saw it, just the awe and wonderment.  I actually have that about the coalition.  Sad but true.  Also I think it will be good for Britain with a bit of a balancing act going on.

Oh, I am also on an actual diet and it's day 4 and I'm SO hungry and it's ridiculous.  I had dinner ages ago and I had three meals and three snacks that were all decent sizes.  This is proof of just how stretced my stomach was.  Turns out I didn't really need the double Angus meals and 10 McNuggets.  More's the pity.

Is this actually for real?!

Girl on my Facebook friends list just posted this as a status:

Loser Girl wants to find the type of <3 Nicholas Sparks writes about; A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Dear John, The Last Song...

Is she FOR REAL?!  I mean, The Notebook is a lovely, beautiful film but how cheesy and unrealistic can you get?  When I read it a bit of vomit actually went into my life.  I feel like commenting and saying, 'Keep dreaming, kiddo!

I really, really must remember...

I wish I was where I was when I was wishing I was here.

Just sayin'

With all the Tiger Woods mistresses and Jesse James mistresses coming out and saying that they were duped by the men in question, who had apparently told them that their marriages were not happy and were basically over, I had thought that they were bullshitting and that they were just trying to play victim.  I'm not saying that we should see them as victims, at all, and at the end of the day they did sleep with married men.

But I had thought they were bullshitting.  Then I remembered that I have had a man attempt to pull the same thing on me.  Maybe people shouldn't be calling bullshit so readily.

Bye, bye Beijing Bistro.

I woke up this morning to the news that my joint favourite restaurant in Bristol has closed down, and this news has upset me greatly. It's stupid, a little, and I'm maybe, perhaps, exaggerating slightly but Beijing Bistro is amazing - the food is really cheap and you get loads of it but more to the point, I've eaten there so many times and had so much fun. It's where Jeff and I used to go when we first met, it's where I used to meet Lucy, Pippa and Philip for dinner on an almost weekly basis and I went with other friends too. It also had really good sesame prawn toast, which I'm slightly obsessed with and frankly that is the thing that I will miss the most.

Damn you world! Nothing was supposed to change whilst I was away!!!

Also, for the record, El Puerto is my other favourite restaurant and if THAT closes, I'll never come back to Bristol.

Stupid stupidness of stupidity.

Pretty much ever since I got to Melbourne, I've spent practically all my time with two girls called Alice and Harriet. A lot of that time has been watching TV or chilling out drinking tea or whatever but we get on really well. It's been so nice hanging out with them, even if it's just been going to the cinema or hanging around in their room doing a crossword or all curling up on one of our beds to watch a film or TV.

Well, last night we went out for a lovely dinner at an awesome restaurant opposite Parliament of Victoria and had a wonderful four course feast of deliciousness because today Alice has gone back to England. I'm so, so, so gutted. To compound this, Harriet is going to Adelaide on Wednesday morning so I'll be by myself. It's horrible because even though I know I will meet other people, I kind of don't want to if I'm honest. I've become tragically long in the tooth and lazy and there are so many people at the hostel who just want to get drunk and hook up with each other and I'm tired, to be honest, and can't be bothered getting involved in all that.

So yeah, down day. BUT I think I will have some exciting work related news to convey quite soon. In the immediate, that arsewipe from Oxford has handed his notice in. It's just that there are so many chiefs, not enough indians, and no team spirit. It's not a very big venue and so even when it's busy it's not busy and the second there are a whole bunch of people eating lunch or whatever it becomes a nightmare. People run around like headless chickens achieving nothing and being rude to each other... It's awful but of course I work for Vue de Monde so I have to get on with it because it's one of the best things I can put on my CV in Australia.

Election stuff still a source of fascination - loving it!

Things I miss...

Oh my GOD!  I miss Tampax Compaq!  You can, if you're lucky, get hold of regular Tampax but most of the tampons sold over here are non applicator ones, which I loathe with a passion.  I'm actually tempted to beg to have a load of Tampax mailed to me, I hate the tampon culture over here so much.

Also Ariel liqui-tabs and Comfort fabric softener.  The washing machines and washing powders/liquids over here are rubbish.

Election frustration, etc...

I should have done this a few days ago but since the debate happened last night, now seems as good a time as any.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm, OK, firstly, I am amazed that people are stupid enough to start thinking that might be even a remotely good idea to re-elect Labour.  Seriously, we have to change and it's not to do with the recession (yes there was a degree of irresponsibility) nor to do with the fact that we've had nonsense like the MPs expense scandal.  It's not even particularly to do with those illegal wars the Labour's ex Dear Leader dragged us in to.  It's about the fact that they can't get it together to govern.  Honestly, when you push all those other things aside we're looking at a collection of 320 or so people that simply can't co-operate or focus on what they need to do without spending too much time trying to get the soundbite or without trying to bring down an admittedly rubbish Prime Minister.

I saw the Conservative manifesto and I liked it. My major issue about government is that it's massive what with all the quangos, etc.  Clarkson is right - government does not need to be so big so I'm a big fan of that and actually I'm disappointed that Cameron doesn't make more of it.  Whatever about the fact that I'm blue, the point is that the country can save so much money by not wasting it on bureaucrap and YES!  Why doesn't every single political party think this is a reasonable suggestion?!

Talking of disappointment, I thought last night's television debate was rubbish.  If we're going to be taking a leaf out of the Americans'  book, then the debates should be in the same vein.  Instead, it was really boring.  So, so dull.  Cameron and Brown trying to take cheap shots so that's how Clegg did so well, because he was focused on getting his point across.  And also whoever presented the ITV debate was rubbish, I feel bound to say.  But I guess that might be because ITV is rubbish.

Um, so basically I think the whole election thing is brilliant and actually a hung parliament would be much fun.  Also I am going to be honest and say that Cameron has not been particularly impressive as yet.  He needs to get much better.  True story.

Awesome food and comedy fun

Soooooooooooooo, yesterday I was off work and we eventually managed to drag our arses out of the hostel and I went with PokerPlayer, Horserider, Devon and PokerPlayer's room mate.  So we'll call him TheRoomate.  Anyways, PokerPlayer wanted to buy an iPod so we went up into the CBD and bummed around in Myer and David Jones (think Debenhams and House of Fraser respectively) and looked for the iPod and then we went for dinner and went to a Malaysian BYO (BYO is really common over here, thankfully, and for the record I had a Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills and I was not especially impressed and I think I've decided it's because it might be too warm up there) and we had quite a lot of great food and funny conversation and it was basically my idea of a perfect dinner out. 

Then we were on our way back to the hostel and walked past a little poster advertising a comedy gig which was like a gala of different acts all MC'd by a guy called Josh Thomas who Horserider really likes so I suggested we go and a consensus was that might be a good idea.  So we went and spent probably the best $15 any of us have ever spent.  Every single one of the ten acts, bar one, were pant wettingly hilarious and I laughed like I haven't laughed in ages and just generally it was an absolutely brilliant, brilliant night.

Oh, before that I made a whole bunch of scrummy pancakes for everybody and they were really absolutely perfectly delicious.  It was a very happy time in my life.

Tonight I cooked a three course feast of smoked salmon, asparagus and avocado salad followed by lemon chicken and with homemade chocolate mousse and poached fruit for dinner.  YUM, YUM, YUM!!!

Other than that, I feel better but my throat is definitely all up and I don't really like my job that much for quite a lot of reasons but that might be because I need to settle in.

It's OK, I'm not really mental

Turns out all my anger and rage was ExtremePMS.  We're all good, kids.

Boo to proper illness but other stuff too.

Literally today, I have started to feel ill but it's gotten so bad just over the course of the day.  Started with a slightly sore throat and some sneezing this morning and now I'm in bed having taken two paracetemol and I've got a runny nose, my throat is all up, my glands are swollen, I'm stiff through my body and I've got achey ears.  As a general rule, I feel like crap and really, really sorry for myself and I have to be up at 6.30 tomorrow morning for work.  I am not off until Friday and I have quite a busy week planned so this is not good at all and I really, really need like two days of R and R BUT I am hopefully going to the doctor this week anyway and I hear they're quite good at giving out drugs over here, so I might be in with the luck.

I'm annoyed that I'm ill because now that's all I want to write about but there is a lot that has happened so I am going to try and focus my energies for a short time.  Luckily I'm listening to the Spice Girls and Lily Allen so that is helping.

So work, yes work is fine BUT not busy enough for me as a general rule and this is something I need to adjust to because obviously the Winery was busy basically all the time but it's fine.  What I absolutely love is the fact that the chefs are all actual proper bona fide chefs rather than cooks and they know a scary amount about food and they make the most amazing dishes and they are creative and all that jazz - basically everything that you want from good chefs.  Also they make dishes for us to taste - which is awesome - as well as feed us very well and I'm scared that I'm going to be very fat by the time I leave because we also have a 24 hour pastry kitchen downstairs with all sorts of delicious goodness.  Basically food wise, I win.  Awesome.  Pretty much everyone I work with is really cool with the notable exception of one guy, we'll call him Oxford, and he is an absolute douchebag because he's officious and pompous and he's greasy and reminds me of somebody from a film but I can't remember who and for example the other day I set the restaurant up for dinner and he didn't say anything but followed me around moving absolutely everything by one inch and then wondered why I was irritated.  He's just one of those people that was quite clearly bullied at school and has no life nor any friends and so his entire life revolves around being at work and he thinks he's something a bit special when actually he's probably special needs and has few to no people skills.  Also, I know that I'm contrary but this is the opinion of everyone with whom I work.  Oxford and I had a little run in the other day and they've all come and said to me since that I should ignore him.  Which makes me feel better.

I've been in a huge grump since I got here but in a really weird way.  I'm not in a bad mood or anything, but I've turned into a properly evil bitch.  I'm sick of there being no peace and quiet and there are loads of idiots in my hostel.  This came to a head a few days ago when there were some idiots playing football in their room but with the door open and they were listening to their iPod on an iPod dock really loudly.  And then some other guys came up and joined them and they proceeded to talk and laugh and generally make noise for ages.  So I went over and I said, 'Look guys it's 2am, turn the music down and stop playing football and just generally be quieter.'  And they completely ignored me!  So I got back up off the sofa again, walked to their room, turned the music down myself and moved the bag out of the way of the door so that the door would swing shut at the same time as saying, 'I've told you once it's 2 in the bloody morning, be quiet.'  And they opened the door again, turned the music back up and carried on talking really loudly.  So then I lost it.  I stormed up to the room, kicked the bag out of the way of the door, 'I've told you twice now, don't you understand it's 2 o'clock in the morning, I've got to be up for work tomorrow, other people are trying to sleep and you need to be quiet.'  Then one of them started claiming that I'd not said anything before and was trying to push me out of the way so I pushed him back, went right up to his face and really loudly starting telling him to shut up, that I wasn't putting up with it anymore, that I'd already told them they were risking me going absolutely mental, that I'd been nice, I'd been calm and I'd been tolerant and that they were to Shut.  Up.

I know, I know, it's really bad and I know I'm completely irrational but it really does wind me up so much that I lose my temper and I've never allowed myself to get so, so annoyed by that sort of thing before.  I don't even mind living in hostels per se, but my head rationalises the irritation.  I don't know if part of it is simply being really long in the tooth and genuinely not caring what these people think of me and knowing I don't need or want to be friends with them, particularly.  Even the other day I went to the cinema and they have allocated seating and the cinema was pretty full and some guy was sitting in my seat, so I showed him my ticket and said, 'Look dude, you're in my seat,' and he just looked at me with this really annoying grin on his face, so I double checked, he was definitely in my seat and so I said, 'You're definitely in my seat,' and he just looked at me with this weird grin/smirk.  I know I could have sat somewhere else but I didn't want to be in a position where I'd have taken somebody else's seat.  So in the end I said to him, 'There's no point just looking at me with that stupid grin on your face, get out of my seat.'  I'll be fine - I think it might be a hormone thing or it might just be that I'm tired.

Good things, though... I am still really enjoying Melbourne and I've met some really nice people.  Last Thursday a couple of girls I've been hanging around with, Alice and Harriet, and I went to Victoria Park Markets and got some fish and some vegetables and I used a recipe from BBC Food and we made a delicious meal and I bought some nice wine and then we went to the bar, where I went off on one dancing around like a lunatic and had a blast and a really good laugh.  I've also been to the cinema a couple of times to Crown Casino, which is a huge complex of casino (obviously), a cinema, some bars and some restaurants and is generally quite a bonkers place.  Then yesterday Alice and I went to get some sushi and then for a coffee and watched some comedy on Federation Square.  So yeah, I'm definitely more 'living' in Melbourne than I was in Sydney.

It's sooooooooooooooooo cold, though!  I can't believe it!  I've not got a coat so I need to buy one now, which is annoying because it's probably going to be about $100-150 for a decent warm one that will last me the whole winter to be worn every day and I don't have many jumpers so I need to buy some so it's going to be quite expensive just to wrap myself up for the winter, but I'm sure I'll cope.

OK, I think that's everything.  I'm about to do some election reading and will probably post about it in a minute.  I'm beyond excited about it - it's going to be AWESOME!!!

I am in an awesome mood, and not just because I have a job

OK, so I spent FOUR HOURS today on a trial shift but I basically rocked it and the manager said, 'You're exactly the type of person we're looking for - job's yours if you want it.'  Very happy about that, obviously.  So yeah, that's really good and I start on Sunday, so that's even cooler.

I was on the tram back to the hostel and was looking out of the window and the walk to work is alongside the Domain and the Shrine of Remembrance and various nice statues and fountains in the park next to where I walk, then along South Bank with the view across the city from the south side.  So yeah, that was really nice (it's also sunny and clear today, which probably helps).  Basically, I really, really love Melbourne.  I'm not about to say, 'Oh, I want to live here now,' but equally for the next few months I think I'll be really happy, especially now that I have a job that I genuinely think I'll enjoy.

Other than that, I don't know, I'm just really, really happy at the moment.  I think it helps that I've heard from Katy, Carly, Anna and Deb in the last few days (as well as, of course, la famille) and know what's going on with them and I've met some lovely people and yeah, I just feel really happy at the moment and excited about the next few months.

I'm also going to make a confession here - I've started very provisional plans for coming back to Britain.  I'm not saying anything else for now but I've started the ball rolling in the last couple of days.  No, it's not happening in the next few weeks or anything but I decided that I need to know when I'm coming back so that I can focus on enjoying the time I'm out here as well as give me a bit of direction.  Honestly, I kind of hope this hasn't contributed to my general feelings of positivity and optimism but I fear it has.

The unabridged bizarreness that was my last night in Sydney

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo, I rocked up to the Winery at about 10pm, and then hung around and then one of the managers bought me a glass of wine (2006 Joseph Cattin Pinot Blanc - thank you Amy) and we had a few beverages and then we went to Kinselas which is a slightly skanky pub around the corner from work which the Winery crew has a tendency to frequent, particularly on a Monday or (as this was) Tuesday evening.

When we rock up, I bump into this guy at the bar that I knew(ish).  Quick back story: about two weeks prior I had been working in a relatively quiet section of the restaurant when four guys rocked up and the Maitre D' told me to look after them because they were, apparently, the Silverchair boys.  I don't really know who Silverchair are.  So I got chatting to them and the only guy who was actually from Silverchair was a guy called Daniel Johns, who is apparently their lead singer but was actually there with a producer and two guys from a another band, who are currently recording their album.  During the course of the three hours they were dining at the restaurant, with me being sufficiently charming (read: facetious) and having a good laugh with them, we built up quite a good rapport, which is just as well since after work that night I went to Low 302 (awesome cocktail bar also on Crown Street and a favourite haunt of the Winery crew on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights) and, lo and behold, there they all were.

The conversation and banter continued and I pretty much thought no more of it until one of them, Sam, rocked up to the Winery again for lunch the following week and was in my section.  So it was all good and by this point we sort of had spoken enough and met enough times to know each other by sight.  Well, would you believe, Sam was at Kinselas on Tuesday night.  This was all well and good and I was at the bar and literally turned to my left and there he was also at the bar and I said hi and I bought my drink and he bought his and we were chatting so I happily sat down with him for what I thought would be a five minute chat.  Five minutes turned to ten minutes and then I mentioned that actually the whole of the Winery crew were there sort of as a goodbye to me and I wanted to join them.  So he followed me.  It was a bit odd, especially since I was with someone who was apparently famous but who actually isn't famous at all.  Oh, I should mention here that when we were at the bar he was properly giving it the name drop crap with things like talking about having played at Reading and Leeds festivals last year or 2008 or something and how the lead singer was hanging around with Lily Allen the whole time and name dropping left, right and centre.

So after about thirty minutes of his hanging around and my getting increasingly frustrated, I buggered off outside, hoping that he would go back and join the group that he'd arrived at the bar with.  Which he did.  Then I came back in to join the Winery guys and he appeared again.  By this point, it's getting odd and I'm wondering how to get rid of him but because of my overwhelming politeness and inability to say no and my slight fear of telling him where to get off, he continued to hang around and I continued not to say anything about his hanging around like a bad smell (which is funny and a relevant point later on).

About another 20 minutes later, I went back outside and he came out and asked me what I wanted to drink.  I didn't really know what to say, said I was fine for now.  When I went back inside he was sitting at a table directly opposite the door with a couple of friends, pointed to a drink that he'd apparently bought for me, and beckoned me over.  I didn't really know what to do, manners got the better of me, I went over and grabbed my drink, he introduced me to his friend, we talked for a short while.  Luckily (or so I thought at the time) Amy at this point left so I ran outside to join her and we chatted for a good ten minutes, interrupted twice by this Sam guy who by now is, admittedly, creeping me out ever so slightly.  I had a conversation with Amy (before the first interruption) about how I didn't really know how to get away from him and she said she had the impression that I was just fine.  After the first time he randomly came out to sort of fetch me back inside she, I think, slightly understood my position.  The second time induce raised eyebrows from her and, I would go so far to say, a marginal look of fear.  She totally got me.

Time progressed, lots of people left, not including, unfortunately, this Sam bloke, who persisted in staying.  I kept pointing out that I should be with the Winery guys saying goodbye because I had less than 24 hours left in Sydney and I wanted to say goodbye to my colleagues and he was quite drunk and should probably go home.  It was at this point he started saying that I should go home with him.  To this, I was really quite surprised.  I had not given him ANY suggestion that I was even slightly interested, given him every indication that I wanted him to bugger off without saying the actual words.  Actually as I type this it occurs to me that I was really quite stupid given the circumstances, ie that he was coked off his face and anybody who has ever gotten high knows that coke gives one a feeling of invincibility and also does away with any even slight ability to understand when somebody is politely hinting something.

Anyway, he kept persisting with making me go home with him, with my increasing assertions that this was not, in any way, going to happen.  Then he really started to piss me off with throwing all this batshit, 'I'll get my assistant to come and pack for you;' 'I've got millions of Qantas frequent flyer points and I'll pay for you to fly business class to Melbourne;'  'Come with me to New Zealand, we're going there this week to promote our album, I'll fly you out;'  'I'll get you access all areas passes to T in the Park next year;'  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  I had run out of ways of telling him no way, no how and to do one so I just walked off and joined my friends.  After about five minutes, he came over, hugged me goodbye and left.  THANK GOD.  By the way, when he hugged me goodbye (eugh!) he wreaked of body odour beyond anything I've ever before come across.  It was disgusting, I can't even begin to describe it.  Then at like 7am he started calling me, trying to get me to go to his place, me saying no, him hanging up then calling me back and repeating the question.  This happened three times before I got him to stop.  Then, at about midday he left me a voicemail saying something along the lines of, 'Hi Elizabeth [long pause] ... it's your friend Sam... [long pause].... hope you're ok.... [long pause].... hope you have a good trip to Melbourne.... [long pause]... See you around... [long pause]...' and hanging up.

All in all, very, very strange.  And wrong.  But mainly creepy.

Goodbye Sydney, new things and all that jazz

I really have decided that if I try and spend too long typing I'm going to get travel sick because I'm currently on a coach 50 minutes into a 12 hour journey and I'm really, really tired because I have only had two hours sleep after a big night out with work last night.  It was good, though, for sure.

So yes, I'm at this moment heading toward the M5 (yeah, seriously it's called that) and on my way to merry Melbourne.  I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit nervous about being by myself ... again ... and having to look for work and being somewhere I don't know but I'm not actually going to be there for that long so I'll hopefully get something quickly, save up some more of those beautiful purple, blue, red and yellow $$$ and blow it all on wine tours in South Australia!

I'll write more properly and thoroughly about my Sydney fun times and things like that and also my impressions of Melbourne in the next 48 - 72 hours.  I know, I'm sure none of you can wait for my humorous (!) ramblings.

Oh, sorry, one more thing - all of you, with maybe one or two exceptions, are beyond rubbish with the emailing.  I know I haven't been perfect but as I'm now fully intending to detox I've absolutely no intention of spending all my time at work, drunk, asleep or pissing around at cafés, etc and will, in fact, set aside time every single day to reply to emails.  Especially with the job hunt, I'll live for emails from prospective employers.  True story.

It's official...

...I have a Bristolian accent.  Despite my best efforts, I definitely sound like I'm from the West Country.








Hell yeah!!!

Images

Canberra

Blue Mountains

The will be updated album of Sydney photos

Excellent, excellent times.

OK, so I am being quite tragic but I can't wait until I get back to Sydney to write about my time in Canberra because I'm beyond happy right now, for lots and lots of reasons.  Partly, Canberra is soooooooo tranquil and very, very green.  Yes, the architecture is not exactly very pretty but equally it kind of works because it's all from the same era rather but mainly because there is so much green!!!  There are gardens, lawns, parks all over and it's location is such that you can basically always see hills and trees on the periphery of the city.  Whilst Civic (the shopping centre) is not exactly pretty owing to the concrete and 1960s architecture, the city is cut basically in half by Lake Burley Griffin and you can walk along the side of it surrounded by greenery.  On the south side of the lake is the Parliament Zone, which contains most of the galleries and museums as well, and where I have spent the best part of the last two days.

Yesterday was the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia and it was absolutely awesome even if I am slightly worried that I've become one of those arses that I never wanted to be and am now someone who looks at art and 'consides;  it.  This particularly struck me when I was looking at this painting with a man, a sail and a wave in it and I was like, 'Hm, there has got to be a reason that wave was drawn to be there rather than anywhere else.'  I'm so worried that I've become even more wanky.  I didn't help matters by going to buy myself a really lovely glass of wine (I'll confess it was $18) but being ever so slightly overly picky about which wine I would have - in the end a 2005 Cabernet Merlot from WA.  Even though it was a wine bar their choice of wines by the glass wasn't great, if I'm honest.  See?!  Wanky!!!  Anyway, veering back onto topic from quite a drastic tangent, even regardless of the exhibition the whole museum is absolutely amazing, with permanent works from Monet, Cézanne, Lichtenstein, Warhol (his portraits of Chairman Mao), Francis Bacon - a whole range which unfortunately did include the expected rubbish modern art.  There was honestly a massive white plastic grid frame.  That was it.  That is not art.  Not even one per cent.  But there was one amazing modern art piece - models of motorbikes that had been molded to resemble stags fighting, with loads of rear view mirrors stuck on to resemble the antlers.  I kind of wish I'd taken a photo, but I didn't.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Old Parliament house, which was quite nice.  All old and then you go to the government offices and they're 1960s monstrosities.  I've got photos of that which I'll post at some point in the next few days.  It was pretty cool and also they have a room about all the Prime Ministers of Australia.  I noticed that the first PM didn't have an Australian accent.  Neither did the guy who was Prime Minister during most of WWII.  I couldn't be bothered to listen to every single PM to establish when the accent came to be but so far as I can conclude it was somewhere between 1940 and 1970.  That's really quite a new accent but then listening to recordings of Prime Ministers is hardly representative.

Today was even better, I've had a bloody awesome time - I went to Parliament house and even though they had run out of tickets for listening to Question Time in the House of Representatives, I was told to go to the ticket desk and see what the crack was.  Anyway, I flirted my way into getting a ticket.  Into the central gallery.  SCORE!!  Question Time was hilarious as they were all behaving like unruly children and the Speaker of the House had to give warnings to sooooooooooo many MPs.  It was crazy but actually pretty interesting.  Kevin Rudd et al just kept pointing out what the Howard government had failed to do for 12 years and the Opposition... didn't do very much, really, actually.  Except two female MPs basically asked the exact same question and made the exact same point.  MP1 got up and said something like, 'Can the Prime Minister please explain to me why a female chef, earning $68,000, would earn only $9,770 for the 18 weeks during which she is entitled to paid parental leave, when under our plans the same woman would earn $26,000 over 26 weeks to give her the opportunity to spend time with her young child.'  PM's response was actually pretty funny - $10k is $10k more than she'd have received under the Howard government, who had not established a parental leave scheme at all.

Then, though, MP2, gets up and says, 'Can the Prime Minister please explain why a female sales account manager, earning $55,000, would only earn $9,770 for the 18 weeks during which she is entitled to paid parental leave, when under our plans the same woman would earn $19,000 over 26 weeks to give her the opportunity to spend time with her young child.  Is the PM favouring his friends in big business over families???'  What?!  It was funny, though.  Rudd repeated his point, of course, and made mention of actually giving parental leave when he could have retained the status quo disproved her point.  Yeah, the Coalition got their asses kicked, basically.

Man, I'm such a geek.  Mainly, though, the peace and quiet is a great relief.  I can actually hear birds and the wind and water and not just cars and people and loud bangs all the time.  Also, I must say, people here are absolutely lovely.  I've literally not come across a single horrible or rude person; they're all friendly and everybody I've walked past has smiled at me.  It's awesome.  Yeah, I reckon I could live here.

Tomorrow, then, before I get back to Sydney, I'm going to the War Memorial.  I don't want Carly to be annoyed with me.

Just putting this out there, kids...

Flights to Sydney in September for £700 return with Malaysian Airlines.

Flights to Perth for £830 in January again with Malaysian.

And, oooooooooh, that's via Kuala Lumpur!!!

Moving out via Canberra

So, in about three hours I'm moving out of my place and moving back into my hostel for a couple of weeks but before that I'm off to Canberra baby, yeah!  I'm muchly looking forward to getting out of Sydney for a few days and just chilling out and having a normal time regime.  My coach to Canberra is at 5pm so I won't get there until 8.30pm, which means food, a bit of chillout and an early night - I have to get to the gallery at about 9.30 tomorrow morning for the Masters of Paris exhibition - it's gonna be awesome!  Other than that I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do but I have my Rough Guide to look at and decide.

I'm also actually quite looking forward to getting back to my hostel, if I'm honest!  But Melbourne in a couple of weeks is a truly exciting prospect - especially with the Grand Prix!  WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I actually don't have much else to write about, but when I get back from Canberra I'll update with how I found it.

Oh gosh, one week, one new update

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!

Right, I've decided I'm leaving Sydney at the end of the month.  Why?  Because I can.  Yep, I'm moving to Melbourne for a couple of months because everyone tells me that Melbourne is far more my cup of tea and so we'll see about that.  Even if I don't love it, at least I'll know that rather than having spent all this time in a city I'm not in love with and then face the possibility of getting to Melbourne, loving it and then not really having any time to spend there owing to the stupid fruit picking requirements of the Australian government.

So, other than that, well I have Canberra this weekend.  VERY excited about that.  Also I have had a lovely few days with an awesome wine tasting on Thursday, which was about 100 wineries and about 400 wines from New Zealand.  I actually didn't get drunk, I just got really sluggish.  Then after that a few of us from work went to dinner at this awesome Italian restaurant and then to a gig at a bar/nightclub place called Trademark in The Cross.  On Saturday I went with Beatrice (a girl from Bath who I met at work here) to the Mardi Gras parade which started off as a total nightmare but ended up being really good thanks to both of us being quite small and also two milk crates.  I'm very glad I've done the Mardi Gras thing, and that's a big TICK off my list of stuff that I should do.

Last night was Bea's last night in Australia so we went for a few drinks and then I was really jealous that she was going back to England but also she's awesome and lovely and I'm really going to miss her so I kept hugging her and I cried a little bit.  Mainly because I'm a princess but partly because I'm a loser.

Today it's raining and cold so I'm wearing my lovely yellow hoodie of fun and goodness and I'm going to work soon.

Actually, yes, I do quite like blogging so I will definitely be carrying on with this update malarkey.  I also have some photos to upload and will do so some time this week for DEFINITE.  I also plan to go around Sydney and take absolutely tonnes of photos of everywhere before I leave but there is a lot of Sydney to see so I might have to finish work quite soon just so I have a chance to organise myself and all that jazz.

Strange new habits

Mainly these are word related, which is a little irritating...

- I know longer say, 'How are you?'  Instead, I say, 'How you going?'

- I CONSTANTLY say 'no worries'.  For everything.  All the time.

- The most irritating one is that I've literally started saying in the last few days and that's saying 'sweet' to everything.  English people say 'cool', they do not say 'sweet'.  It's stupid and annoying.

Also I suppose my wine snobbery counts as a strange new habit.  Like talking about wine: 'This smells like wild berries, a little bit smokey, blah, blah, blah...'

FINALLY I AM UPDATING!!!

OK, I actually have to be at work pretty soon, but I am going to try and use my ace typing speed to let you know what has been going on for the last three months and also what Sydney is like through the eyes of a snobbish true Brit...

Right, so since December I have been living in a houseshare in Surry Hills/Redfern and whilst it's fine, I really miss the inner west.  Anyway, I live really quite close to work and I have to walk all the way along a street called Crown Street to get to work and past an abundance of lovely little cafes, although none are as lovely as my local cafe, which is called Dinky-Dis and does the best pies ever and which is where I go with the weekend papers and while away about three hours over coffee, the Sydney Morning Herald (despite its terrible spelling errors and bad grammar) and if I'm totally honest usually a gossipy vapid magazine or two.

I have also been working a LOT at The Winery, which has generally been fun but has also had its downs, however I am pretty realistic about the whole thing; I'm leaving Sydney at the very beginning of May and so that only means I've got like nine weeks there or something.  I just really have to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!!  I will get on to what I am doing after that shortly...

The weather in Sydney was really bad on Christmas Day so whilst I went to Bondi (which, by the way, is not that great of a beach) I only actually looked at it before finding shelter in a pub.  I was with an awesome cool German girl I met called Lisa, who I basically spent Christmas week with so it was fine but if I'm honest also an anti climax owing to no family dinner, Christmas Day TV OR sun and beach fun.

For New Year, Greta (a friend I met in Auckland) and Gemma were here and so we went to a park near Taronga Zoo with beer and LOADS of food and chilled out all afternoon and saw what are quite frankly probably the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen.  I was like a smalled child and I would go so far as to say that they were magical and if you ever get a chance, you should definitely spend a new year in Sydney.  The city is electric on NYE and because they have really good organisational skills on NYD afternoon it's almost like NYE never happened, which is pretty cool.

Mariko, who is another friend from Auckland was also in Sydney with some other friends but came for dinner with me on my actual birthday with Greta and Gemma.  Being totally unoriginal, we went to The Winery and oh my gosh, I've got to be honest, it was one of my favouritist birthdays ever.  Not quite on a par with my 21st but still, it was 100% awesome.  We had great food, great wine, great conversation and rolled home at about midnight.  So, so good and considering I was not at home for the first time in my life, it was a huge saviour to have had such a lovely time.

That week, Mariko and I also went to the Blue Mountains and that was so, so good.  The Blue Mountains are lovely and I can't believe I think this but I very tangibly felt that it was nice to get away from the city.  Sydney is really quite frenetic and the peace and quite was very, very welcome.  A nice four hour walk through the mountains, up to the Three Sisters, blew the cobwebs away well and truly.

Since then, I have basically been working and not getting up to much other than being at work and going and drinking copious amounts of caffeine and occasionally going out with people from work and partying far too much and far too hard.  But it's been fun.  All this culminated in the staff party a couple of weeks ago, which was absolutely wild but also very fun.  A couple of people I know have said it was the best day of their life.  I wouldn't go that far, but it was definitely a good time.  Even if the theme was not my bag at all.  At least I got some nice new jewellery out of it.

This brings me on rather nicely to how I'm finding Sydney to live in.  I should probably start with the positives.

It's definitely nice to be in a city that is truly a 24 hour city.  Things are open at all hours, you can always find something to do, there is a lot of action here in a very different way to even London, where you sort of have to look for the action.  On the flip side, I have yet to find a spot in Sydney which gives me a feeling of tranquility like you can in England by going to a park or a country pub or whatever.  I also love the culinary culture over here; even food courts in shopping centres are out of this world, where you can get noodles, or sushi, or great coffee, or Indian food or whatever and there are Chinese and Japanese food places on every street corner.  Equally, there are lovely quirky cafes everywhere that do awesome food and obviously the variety is greater because of a) the climate and b) massive international influence.  I think the charm of Sydney lies in the suburbs, rather than the centre.  The centre is not that great; you don't have things like Covent Garden or Westminster where there are great places to go or things to see.

So, the flip side.  Well, I do miss old buildings.  Like, really, really.  I know I've always loved places like Cambridge for all the architecture but I suppose that's quite extreme.  Anywhere in say Bristol or London you can find plenty of beautiful or quirky old buildings and all the history.  One thing I've found quite bizarre is that Sydneysiders think that Sydney's this massive city and that it's really metropolitan because of the 5 million people who live here but to be honest I do find it a little bit parochial.  They're very insular and it can be like being in a timewarp over here in lots of small ways that are quite significant.  Random things are also very expensive, like groceries and actually Coles and Woolworths (the main supermarkets) are rubbish.  Just like in New Zealand!!!  Also, people in Sydney are rude.  Australia is a really young country, and I totally get that, but there is a lack of real culture here, which would be fine if there were not therefore attempts to affect European or even American culture.  I just don't get it but equally I think it's all very well to say that when I come from a country that has a legal system that's basically 800 years old and traditions that stretch back centuries and a long history that has helped shape its identity.

One thing that hugely bothers me is the very casual racism.  Oh my gosh, it's crazy.  People think nothing of, say, referring to Abos or Lebs or whatever.  I literally can't understand how a country that is formed by immigrants can have this attitude.  Why do Caucasians have more right to be here than, say, Chinese people or Lebanese people?  Oh, right, they don't.  Also government over here is HUGE.  People say in Britain that we have too much government but we have absolutely nothing on Australia.  There are government departments for absolutely everything, let alone the quangos.  Yes, you can tell I read the newspaper over here even.  Oh, I miss British journalism but the expat edition of the Telegraph has somewhat saved me on the front.  As well as, of course, the internet.

So, what's next?  Well, I'm going to Canberra in about ten days, which is really quite exciting.  I know it's not the most exciting place in the world but I'm a geek and I want to do geeky things and there is an abundance of geeky things to do in Canberra.  Then it's the Grand Prix in Melbourne at the end of March, so I've got an exciting few weeks ahead.

I'm leaving Sydney at the beginning of May and going to Melbourne for a few weeks and then to Adelaide and up through South Australia to the Alice and Uluru, which is very exciting.  I then have to find some time to do my farm work for three months before I hit the East Coast.  Gemma is staying out here and will be in Brisbane from September when it's also her birthday so I might do some work in Brisbane, celebrate her birthday with her, and then go up to Cairns/Port Douglas.  That's not firmly settled but my timeline has got good shaping to it!!!

I actually think that's a pretty full update for now and anyway I'm actually running out of time.  From hereonin, I promise, I will update regularly.  Also I am going to try and get some photos of Sydney to post (as in more than just the Rocks and the Opera House) and post them but my digicam died so I have to buy a new one and I'm not too excited about spending $300, if I'm honest.

Oh, and the wisdom tooth that definitely needed not to come through but which that dentist guy said was going to come through is now starting to come through.  I have had no pain so far, though, so I'm not going to do anything until it starts to hurt.  I figure no pain means that everything is OK.

I am going to sign off, now.  I just want to say that I have had a really hard time with how much I have missed everything back home and I am always thinking of you all and hoping that you're well and I get far too excited every time I get an email or message or phone call for what is healthy.  I think if I come home early it will be because of missing you all too, too much and also missing England, which I've decided is pretty cool.  As was my life in general, if I'm honest.

Love and hugs to you all and I'll post again very, very soon.  Maybe I'll get a bit obsessed with blogging again, now!

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