Having enjoyed some more famous Aussi hospitality beyond the Blue Mountains we returned to Sydney for the New Year fireworks.
It is difficult to get to the harbour side and more so if you have two bottles of wine in your paws, so we found a great grassy spot where the locals are spread out with picnics and tents in what seems like the best spot in Sydney for the evening.
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We travelled back from Manly beach yesterday on one of the Sydney Ferries. It was the perfect end to a good few days ‘chooking around’ the harbour. Sydney is more complex than I wanted it to be at first, but this has grown into a comfortable warm feeling of being somewhere where the weather, the food and the company is great.
Today we hopped on a train that took us through the blue mountains to the mining town of Lithgow just beyond. We are waiting there for a bus to take us to running stream where we are to head further into the countryside where a friend of my lady has built an eco house.
Yesterday I experienced my first barbecue at another buddy of hers. I soon sat back and enjoyed the company, the brilliant colours of the plants all around us, the bird song and the sing song conversation. I reckon it will take a while to fully acclimatise but I know it’ll happen because all anyone wants around here is for everyone else to be having a good time. Weh heh heh.
1 CommentAustralia is a bit more smoke and mirrors than I expected it to be. Maybe this is because over in the UK we think we know about Australia, it crops up in conversation and a good deal of it’s population think of London as a second home, so when I arrived I expected it to be familiar. But no, to be honest Hong Kong feels more like home – not only because I lived there for a year, but because more people seem to speak English than they do in Sydney.
Don’t get me wrong here, I know Australia is a melting pot, I just didn’t expect it to be melting quite as much as it is.
On a practical work front it is difficult to get Internet access too. I found it easier in Cambodia than I do here, which I explain to myself as being the result of Australia having a huge infrastructure to support – but this doesn’t compute.
I do love this city though, we went swimming in the Olympic sized harbour side pool today where you can swim lengths while the harbour bridge stretches above you and over the bay. This is such an outdoor place. I am having to adjust my white skin to the outdoors though as it is hot and humid here, in my 6 weeks across S.E.Asia I haven’t come across heat like this yet.
We have walked everywhere – a bicycle would be better and a canoe better than that, but for now we have walked. The markets over at Balmain and Rozelle were a treat – at Rozelle a jazz quartet played whilst I got my aching shoulders massaged, I was enjoying that melting pot right then as well as when we tucked into a Singapore Laksha at the Darling Harbour food circle.
Sydney is going to take a little longer than I imagined to get the hang of and I’m glad for it, it’s those songs you always learn to love the most isn’t it!
No CommentsMy darling Donna Maria baff arrived on the 6.30 flight from London via Bangkok. It was so good to see a familiar face after almost 6 weeks on the road. We spent the day in each others pockets, batteries topping up like a bees knees with pollen. She is Australian, she’ll explain the place to me…
No CommentsI arrived in Sydney drained physically and emotionally. I had been on a ‘memory lane’ trip in Hong Kong that wasn’t healthy, I had spent my time retracing steps and sometimes it’s best to see things afresh but there is a lesson learned, but it did mean that I arrived in Sydney without that wide eyed wonder I normally bring to the party with me.
I called up some people I knew from Reading and they kindly put me up for the night. I probably would have been better had I booked a room at a hostel though, not because the hospitality was poor, they were wonderfully welcoming, but because I could have been a lot better company than the sorry knackered wretch that arrived on their doorstep. I was also Christmas eve and I hadn’t bought a bottle at duty free as we had originally arranged to meet up the pub so I didn’t want to drag booze around with us for the evening – I therefore decided that I would go to an offy (bottle shop) and repair this upon arrival – but John had been ill for the day so we met at their house. We popped out for the aforesaid ales but nothing was open. I sat supping a few beers that a neighbour had nicely brought down as my enthusiasm to get a few beers was translated as my wanting to get wasted, I felt mean.
Anyhow it was a nice evening, John made a pile of chip butties, Jason brought down a top kung fu movie and we all made the best of Christmas Eve – next time I’ll bring my enthusiasm with me, but John and Eddie (Edwina) aren’t the kind to hold grudges, they are salt of the earth people and will get a fine slap up feed at the first opportunity.
So, I’m going to save my musings on Sydney for when I have recharged my batteries, meanwhile I am wandering around munching on Australian delights (big fat sandwiches and pies) trying to get my head around this place. The harbour is busy, the weather not too hot and I can see it’s a cosmopolitan place, if we decide to live here it might be my home for a good while so I had better make the most of it.
2 CommentsFor a plane to Sydney. I’m going to miss Hong Kong.
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