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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