First Day Back at School...

Actually, it's not school, it's work. And it's weird to be wearing proper shoes and not thongs, proper trousers and not shorts and going to work and not to the beach.

But it's also good and I will have some form of income, which is even better.

Will report more later......

Frequent Flier

It's getting to the point where they will recognise me at check-in and I will have visited Sydney airport more often than Gatwick.

This weekend I went to Melbourne to catch up with some friends there. It was completely hectic. We visited loadsa people and even had time for a quick scoot to Luna Park for the fun fair rides (although to be fair, I've seen better fun fairs on Mitcham Common). But it was all good to see people I've not seen in six months.

And of course, again, I had to go and visit the street where they film Neighbours. I mean, how could you not when it's right there. So I have attached a few pics here. Shame the weather was shit (translation - not sunny) so it doesn't look as authentic. However, if you like Neighbours, you will most likely marvel at how much it looks exactly like what you see on the telly, but that's the point - right??

So, this is one of the street fondly known as Ramsey St, in fact called Pin Oak....

And these are just a couple of the houses..... (there was a dude on security so I couldn't take loads of photos, besides, you get the idea).

And here's the other one.....

So there you go, genuine pictures of Ramsey Street taken not more than 48 hours ago.

Australia Day

So far, not completely razzled, only one glass of wine and it's all been very laid back.

Apparently, they've got fireworks down at Darling Harbour tonight, might stroll down to see that, you know me, loving the fireworks!!!

I went out for lunch today at some Italian restaurant in Surry Hills. (Yes, I did spell it right...) But this restaurant was one of the worst. Service - varied between totally useless to arrogant and slamming the food down in front of you. Food - squidgy in the middle, very dry on the outside type pizza. We had salad, so I asked for some balsamic vinegar for the dressing and she just bought some and poured it into the dipping oil for the bread.

Needless to say - not much in the way of tip for these guys. Really they had nothing going for them.

But, tomorrow, I'm up early and off to Melbourne for the weekend. It sounds like it's going to be pretty busy seeing loads of people, but it should be good fun.

Next week should be busy as well, but I'll tell you about that later....

The rain, the rain

Yes, it's sodding well raining.

I've got no idea if it's cold as well, it looks like it ought to be, but I am hiding out inside the house with the air-con on. Mind you, the BBC reckon it's 29 degrees outside.

Friday is Australia day though which would mean a day off work, but then as I am not yet working, it's just another day off. But they have this weird thing going on, where apparently on Australia day you're meant to eat lamb. I still can't quite figure out how these things go together, but apparently it means you are truly Australian. It obviously takes no account of vegetarians, or people like me who just can't stand lamb, or even the smell of it. So there you go.

But after avoiding lamb all day on Friday I am off to Melbourne on Saturday. Needless to say I am building up the frequent flier miles - although knowing what they are like I probably have enough miles to enable me to buy a hamburger from McDonalds, or something of equal value. Not sure what I will get up to in Melbourne, apart from hopefully we will go to the mall where they film Kath and Kim so we can pretend to be the rude shop assistants and/or total hornbags.

Today though I am on secret squirrel mode, setting up stuff for my friend's birthday. I've just got to find somewhere where I can buy helium balloons.......

This week I have been mostly.... walking the dogs

Given that I am:
a) Unemployed and
b) Homeless
it sounded like a good idea when someone said to me that I could house-sit for them and look after their dogs while they went away for a week....

Result:
Woken up at 4am on night one by barking dog, get up at 5am for walkies.
Woken up at 1am on night two by barking dog, get up at 1.30am for walkies.
Seeing the pattern yet???
In the end though, they chilled out and I found out that by feeding them later in the day they wouldn't need the loo in the middle of the night. Bingo.

But the thing I never knew about walking dogs is that there's a secret community of dog walkers, sharing this kind of underworld where you walk around with a large bag of poo in your hand. People stop with their dogs, the dogs do the dog thing, smell each other etc and meanwhile the 'owners/walkers' are left to make polite conversation while their dog has it's snout up another's arse. And it's the same people you bump into each time. Weird.

But it's all over now, it finished yesterday. I have been tasked with the job of getting quotes for painting jobs where I'm staying now in Sydney - although potentially I might actually have to go to work fairly soon. As much as I thought I would be bored not having work, now I'm wondering how I'm going to get to the beach when I have to work 40 hours without flexitime. I mean hello??? What's a girl to do????

Moulin Rouge

I saw the film today for the first time and it was not what I had expected at all. I was surprised by the number of 'modern' songs were in the flick, but there were times when they had the cast speaking the lines from songs and it was like they were on some kind of piss-take, which kinda spoiled the moment. It was good though, if not a little sickly with the whole love story. Was a surprise to see whatshisname MacGregor in a singing role though, I still think of him as the drainpipe wearing druggie in trainspotting....

Other than that, not much else to report from the day. Weather was nice again - it's summer at last - woohoo!!

The beach, the beach

If you're reading this in the UK in winter, be prepared, you're going to hate me. Oh well, c'est la vie as they say.

The clue is in the title, yes I've been taking advantage of the beach this weekend. I went on Sunday for half a day to Mackenzie Bay and it was pretty good fun. Went in the sea which, so far as I can remember is waaaay saltier than anywhere else I've been, ick. But it was good fun although cold - 18 degrees, brrrr!!! The sea was really rough and Mackenzie is a very rocky area, there's no sand to gently ease into the sea. I was scared of jumping straight in and not knowing how deep it was and how cold it was, so I had this idea that I would ease myself into the sea. And although it sounds like a great idea, in fact it was laughable. I crouched down and prepared to ease myself into the sea when a stonking great wave came along and tossed me, legs everywhere across the rocks. Result, bruises and scrapes on my elbows, arms and arse. I sat down later in the evening and though I was sitting on something like the edge of a book or something, but in fact it was just the bruise on my arse. Nice.

So today we went back to the beach and did it all again, except the waves were loads gentler. But it was cool riding the waves. However I've got muscle aches in places I never knew I had muscles. Or maybe that's the issue - no muscles??? (But, I'm not falling for that joining the gym in January fiasco.)

The weather the last few days has been the summer we've been waiting for, it's been really nice. We walked around to Bronte beach in the afternoon sun, you just can't beat it. I can only apologise for posting about it when from what I hear, the weather in London is shocking......

It's been 50 posts.....

I just came along to write my new post and discovered that this will be my 51st post, the last one being the 50th. What's the celebration for 50?? Gold??? Feel free to send gold. No imitations thanks v much. I can't believe I've written about nada for 50 posts... cool.

News Update

I haven't really been up to anything exciting at all in the last week. I have had a few meetings with job agents and spent a serious amount of time online looking for work. Honestly, some of the agents are useless and some are OK, I guess that's just the way it goes. I'll be much happier when I manage to get some work. I'm also keen to find somewhere to stay on a longer term rather than outstaying my welcome with my friends both in Adelaide and Sydney, I'm sure it's not much fun to have me around cluttering up the place.

For the next nine days I'm having to dog sit for these two dogs while their owner has gone to the Maldives. I am so *not* a dog person. They don't make any sense to me, cats make sense.

Anyway, as I say, nothing to report really at the moment, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Ooooh heard that Pauline Fowler was killed off at Christmas on Eastenders - cracking, can't believe I missed it!!

PS

No resolutions yet. Maybe my New Year's Resolution will be not to make any.... ha!

Two months......

It's been just over two months now since I left the UK. Two months ago I was swanning around Hong Kong shopping, sightseeing, eating and doing a little light work in the HK office, thanks to knitwear boy.....

Two months??? Lord it feels like two weeks. I don't think I've actually *done* a lot in that time though apart from not get a job, although with hindsight, I should have got myself here either earlier in 2006, or waited until the New Year when the job market will pick up. Now I've got less than four months to go..... time truly does fly.

I've not gone to Canberra yet. And I won't be able to go now until the end of the month because for various reasons most of which include a canine of some description, which I realise sounds totally random, so believe me when I tell you how weird it is for me.

Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful, as New Year's tend to be. Mostly I have been trying to understand how the banking system works over here - mostly it's as upside down as you might expect - let me illustrate.....

When you open an account, you can open a Cheque account and a Savings account at the same time. You get a 'Handycard' which means you can go and get money out of the hole in the wall and buy things using 'eftpos'. You can't buy things online. There's no Visa or Mastercard symbol on your card, you are effectively reduced to being a child with your money. It seems fairly straightforward so far though - right??

OK, so being Australia, they have bank charges for *having* a bank account. It's not so bad $5 a month, but if you keep an untouched balance in your savings account, they won't charge you. OK, bonus. Righty, so you go to the shops - a little purchase here, a little purchase there. And when you pay with your 'Handycard' you can choose to pay from 'Cheque' or 'Savings'. Right, seems obvious - no???? Well apparently not. If you choose Cheque, the money will come from your Savings account. If you choose Savings, the money will come from your Cheque account. And get this - IT'S DELIBERATELY SET UP LIKE THAT.

Right, is it just me??? I mean why, in the name of all that is holy would you *deliberately* choose to have it set up reversing logic completely??? And why would every single Australian look at you like you were mad when you tell them that it's totally fucked up????

Anyway, so I thought I would ignore the 'Handycard' completely and go for something which actually worked like a normal person would expect and use the 'Debit Card'. (New fangled technology here in Oz, they've only had them for about a year - poor loves.) Anyway, that's all cool. You pay and the money comes from your Cheque account as you'd expect. The only downside is that even though you allegedly have access to your Savings using this card as well, you can't actually draw money out the hole in the wall. For what reason - I am yet to establish.

It's enough to drive a woman to drink...... mine's a mango margartia thanks!! Maybe that's why the Aussies are renowned for their drinking skills, too much trouble understanding the banks and their weird and wonderful ways???

2007 est arrivé

It's the 2nd of January.

The parties are over (well mostly) and everyone has realised that it's pretty much the same as it was last year. The fireworks in Sydney were apparently the best in the world, so I guess I feel pretty lucky to have been here. It's way cool.

I'm thinking about going to Canberra but am trying to find the time to fit it in. Maybe I'll go on Thursday or wait until next week.

Saw the biggest spider EVER the other day. Apparently it was a huntsman, but it was just after the NYE celebrations, so I was pretty merry despite the 5km walk from Kirribilli back into town and just saw this enormous freaking spider on the wall and kept on walking. Thank god for not being sober. I swear it was as big as my hand - ugh!

Oooh I bought some proper Cadburys chocolate from an English sweet shop, it's in the fridge chilling, I'm so excited!

As for New Years resolutions...... well if I think of something I'll let you know.

Happy New Year!!

So it's 2007. Woo-hoo!

The fireworks were pretty amazing.

New Years Eve was entertaining. I've never been a big fan of NYE because of the amont of money people attempt to extort out of you for no good reason. But I am a big fan of fireworks, the bigger and louder the better.

I took a few shots. Fireworks are a pain in the ass to photo, so be gentle with your criticism.

This is one which I hope shows the bridge. I was here, honest!

Here's another with the bridge lit up properly. (You can see the building in the way.....)

And this one is of the finale.

Fireworks are so cool. Either that or I am easily impressed.

Buy anyway, since Australia is one of the first countries in the world to get New Year, may I be the first to congratulate you!! Happy New Year!!!