A List

A number of things have happened since I last posted on this blog:

• I have been without the internet
• 27 days have past
• The number of hits on my site have gone from 35 per day to <5
• The number of unread posts in my feed reader have grown to number in their hundreds (with Jerrychicken and Quit Your Day Job fighting to take most posts pole position)
• I have moved from the business and beaches city of Sydney to the derilict industrial units, rolling hills and nightlife of Sheffield
• I have swapped cycling to work in the sunshine for driving vast distances to work in the rain
• I have developed a shed load of debt I need to pay off
• I accepted a position in my old company (and have begun working with the same clients I was working with before I left)

Basically within the space of 1 month, my time in Australia has come to feel like a dream. Something that never quite happened. If it wasn't for the occasional emails I get from old work colleagues and the photographs (and the debt) I would actually wonder if had ever been at all.

The 8th of the 8th 2008

Today is the 8th day of the 8th month in 2008. A date which will end up having no significance for some people.

For me it is my last day at work and my 5th to last day in Australia! And boy am I stressed.

I hate letting people down and have come in extra early to try to get this project as far along as I can in order to reduce stress for others in the future. But I am failing.

Couple this with the fact I am trying to move out tomorrow and am trying to sell everything I own.

I am so very close to that "oh bugger it!" decision whereby I just leave work and go home.

George is Back!

Anyone remember my little post about George? No?

Well as a little reminder George is this guy who goes to all of the climate change and energy talks around Sydney and heckles the speakers with the same spiel about a petition signed by 30,000 scientists proves that man made climate change does not exist.

Well this week George made it big!

I was watching this excellent ABC talk show  online today. The speakers are all working in and around the climate change field, although the premise is that they can be asked any question on any subject. If anyone wants to get a bit of a background on climate change politics in Australia, then give it a watch.

When 11 mins and 42 seconds in, our old friend George (or at least I think it is him) pops his hand up and asks a surprisingly familiar question / comment (I am beginning to wonder whose payroll he is on) . Watch how the talk show host bats away his comment without breaking stride.

Interesting panel guests on the show include:

Penny Wong - Impressive minister for climate change and lady of the moment. Basically everybody at my work watches her every move, translating comments and interviews into advice for clients.

Tim Flannery - A scientist, and guy I very much admire for his straight talking and sense. I reviewed his book in a past post here. And would recommend that anyone looking to learn more about climate change give it a read.

Tim Wilson - Random unknown pillock.

Malcolm Turnbull - Loves himself a bit too much and needs to cut back on the fake tan. Liberal politician (Liberal basically means right wing in Australia for some reason). Plays devils advocate.

Catherine Harris - Runs my local grocery store chain. Makes a lot of sense.

Life For Sale

May of you probably read in the papers about this guy in Perth who put his entire life for sale on eBay. He split up with his wife and decided on a fresh start. He then proceeded to sell all of his earthly possessions in one lump sum. His house. His car. His jetski. Even a trial week at his job!

Thats just about how I feel now. I have spent the last couple of weeks putting almost everything I own up for sale on Gumtree. I can't believe how much tuff it is possible to amass in the space of only 9 months.

Its also pretty painful, complete strangers poring over your stuff, casting a critical eye over your sofa covers and haggling over your clothes airer. I really can't imagine how we are going to get rid of all of these things in the two weeks we have left here. 

Thought for the day - the more things you own, the more stressful your life!

Also here is a picture of the view from Cairns to complete my series...

A Torn Heart

I am sitting here posting at work.

I have a lot on, and clients pestering me about various things I should have sent to them. But I am pretty calm and relaxed. Thinking about going to the gym at lunchtime.

What's keeping me nice and relaxed is the thought that any of the work that I do not manage to finish over the next three weeks immediately becomes somebody elses problem. Sounds harsh I know, but I am really finding it quite hard to motivate myself (this is, of course partially due to the fact that I went to Lowenbrau at The Rocks last night and indulged in 1 litre glasses of beer).

Every time I let someone new know I am leaving and going back to the UK, they say "why do you want to leave Australia?"

I can't say anything to them about the company, so I cite personal reasons.

In truth, personally I am pretty torn and struggle to repel their attempts to persuade me to stay.

I miss friends and family, and the support I get in the UK. I miss the work I was doing over there which I felt was very progressive and innovative.

I have no idea, though if in a years time, I will be regretting the decision, wishing I had spent more time in Sydney, cycling, hiking, climbing, windsurfing etc...

What is certain is that I will miss the people over here. I will miss the banter in the office, I will miss the trips to the beach. Despite work issues, I think I will miss my newfound responsibilities that were somewhat forced upon me.

I dont think I will miss the city though. The city is not for me.

There is no doubt that in a few years time, Lucy and I will get the travelling itch again , and have some more different experiences. Maybe even back in some other part of Australia or New Zealand.

Bagara

This one I will imaginatively entitle "Lucy with Sandcastle". Taken in a little town called Bagara near Bundaberg.

We didn't build the sandcastle, we just benefitted from somebody else's hard work.

The Whitsundays

Another day, another place. We went to the Whitsundays (I believe named after the prolific blogger Whit, who is fond of his Sundays) which were all beautiful silica sands and clear blue waters ... blah, blah.

No more of my desolate skylines today. While in the Whitsundays we spied this little fellah.

While he was no Komodo dragon, this little fellah did cause much amusement for some of my fellow tourists many of whom were sat huddled up on their seats.

Clairview

On one particularly mammoth stretch of the Bruce Highway we chose a random little group of houses to stop in and change over driving responsibilities. We were glad we did, for although there was nothing really in the small hamlet of Clairview, we rounded the corner to see some spectacular views of some mud flats at sunset. A perfect photography opportunity:

This one is my favourite:

I also like this one (mildly altered):

For some reason we couldn't help thinking of the film 'the Never Ending Story' (the cause of a lot of my childhood nightmares).

You will notice that many of my photographs has a dark and desolate theme to them! I am not sure whether this is because of my mood, or because it pretty much didn't stop raining for our entire time in Queensland!

Rainbow Beach

We have returned from our little travels and have seen quite a bit, but I will save the detail for future posts (I can hear the excitement from here).

This week will be the week of administration for me, before my return. However, I think I will find enough time each day to post up some of my exciting holiday snaps each day, you lucky, lucky people.

It will be great, just like that times you had over at your uncle John's where you spent hours looking at his slideshow of the family holiday in Skegness and listening to tales of bingo halls and donkey rides! 

Rainbow beach about 3.5 hours north of Brisbane was our first overnight stop in the 'Dwarf'. It rained mostly, but in between the rain (and before we had to get some helpful Tazmanians to haul us out of the sand with their 4x4) we managed to get a brief reprive and took a little run down the beach.

Rainbow beach is called so because of the interesting colours in the sand. I managed to get some good shots of clouds gathering and forming interesting reflections in the shallow waves.

It was pretty sweet waking up to this in the morning...

Ok So I Was Lying

I said I wasn't going to post this week on my trip to Queensland, but I have found myself sitting in an internet cafe in Hervey Bay waiting for Lucy to finish a job application form.

We picked up our camper van yesterday from Wicked Campers (which is the norm for backpackers in Oz - mainly because they are extremely cheap).

I was a little worried by the idea of using Wicked but unfortunately our other camper van that we wanted fell through. I was worried not because they were poor quality, or because they are expensive. Basically Wicked gains product differentiation by daubing graffitti, pictures and slogans all over their vans. Some of the pictures are pretty tanme, this morning we passed one with the cookie monster painted on, but some of them are a lot worse.

When you pick up a Wicked camper there is an extremely high chance when getting one, that yours will be fairly obscene. I have seen plenty of rude phrases and pictures of naked women etc, etc.

Anyway, we got lucky. I am looking outside a the van now and there is just a pitcure of the 7 dwarves from Snow white on the side ... oh no ... let me look a bit closer ... thats right the 7 dwarves are performing unmentionable sex acts with 7 sheep! All with very happy innocent smiles on their faces ... the perverts.

Actually thats not true - only five of the dwarves are perfoming unmentionable sex acts with sheep. One of the dwarves has obtained a little stool from somewhere and is perfoming unmentionable sex acts with a cow! And his little dwarf friend is helping to hold the cow. Nice.

We woke up this morning on Rainbow Beach which was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately I cant post any pictures as I dont have the correct cable.

We also got the van stuck in some sand and had to get it pulled out by a passing 4x4. But thats another story ...

Time Out

This is it. The end. I am leaving you. Goodbye.

Actually we are going on a little trip up to Queensland for a week. Hoping to take in Fraser Island and the Great Barrier Reef. If it is still there. so no blogging for a while.

Oh, and I handed my notice in today. It went a little like: "By the way I am leaving, oh and you remember I am on holiday next week don't you?" 

In which Sam goes to his first sporting event since Huddersfield Town v Liverpool reserves in 1989

In Australia they have this thing called 'football'. Well we have that in the UK too but 'football' (sometimes fondly referred to as 'footie' means something different over here.

Football is a game played on a massive oval pitch with 18 players on each side. They kick the ball to one another out of their hands and others try to catch it. Then they have to kick the ball through some posts ... that pretty much it.

It appears to me that there are a couple of misconceptions relating to Aussie rules football:

The first one banded around by people in the UK is that it is very violent. 'There are no rules' and 'you can do what you like' being common points of views. This is incorrect as there are plenty of rules in Aussie rules football and it is barely more violent than what these crazy people call 'soccer'. The main issue with the game (it appears to me) is that the rules can be interpreted in about a million different ways by the 'umpire' (there are about 6 umpires so far as I can tell). This lead to a lot of berating of the ref (as with any sport)

The second is the myth that footie fans are rowdy. As a part of our 'trying to do as many Aussie thing as possible' campaign Lucy and I went last weekend to see the Collingwood Magpies take on the Sydney Swans. We were made to be Collingwood fans as the friend of ours who took us there is an avid supporter. Collingwood are notorious throughout Australia for having the most hated, violent, rowdy fans. 

We saw none of that. The supporters for each team were mixed in together (if you did that in a European Football match, there would be death somewhere) and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. Most people hardly got up from their seats. Now thats my kind of live sport!

So for those of you who don't know what Aussie rules football is, here is a little taster:

(I was actually sat behind (one of) the sets of posts)

Night and Day

Tonight, I am stranded in a little hotel room in the middle of Melbourne, having to stay another day with work as some measurements that we were taking went a little bit wrong today and I have to go back tomorrow.

Lucy is sitting alone in the flat bored and with no friends (if you know where we live, dont break in though - she has a gun, honest), and I am sitting alone in my hotel room ... bored and with no friends.

I have no picture to post of Melbourne. I have nothing specific to say. I think I will just ramble on about the city a little from my (limited) experience...

Melbourne is a pretty common destination for Brits who decide to migrate here. The Aussies joke that it is because the crappy weather reminds them of England. I think it runs a little deeper than that.

Melbourne to me is the night where Sydney is the day.

Sydney is kind of the beautiful but airheaded surfer chick. Stunning to look at but with not much underneath, a lack of culture.

Melbourne is the slightly uglier grungy type. Not so pretty, not the popular one at school, but when you look a bit deeper, full of intrugue and promise.

Melbourne suffers from none of the strict liscencing laws I previously took issue with in Sydney, on Sunday night we went to a bar (I forget the name) that was essentially an old cargo container covered in graffiti surrounded by crates for sitting on. It was a blooming refreshing. Not a suit in sight.

I think I could spend a long time exploring its ways. Its back alleys are covered in cafe's and bars, the people are multicultural and interesting and even the tourist spots have their charm.

I still couldn't see myself here though. I (we) have kind of come to the conclusion that living anwhere that it takes more than 20 minute to drive to some form of countryside is not for us. We find really large cities stifling and a little uninteresting to be honest. Bring on the Peaks!

Miscellaneous Stuff

I forgot to post this picture up from the weekend:

This is a picture of Lucy and I at a murder mystery party we (she) hosted last Friday. If you ave never done a murder mystery party, it is a little like Dungeons and Dragons for people who consider themselves cool and sophisticated. And it involves more drinking!

I had to look like an idiot all week growing the beard for the part.

I also just got back from the final day of some site work I have been doing in Canberra. The site was very interesting and without giving away the client name. And they let me take some photos...

Trying to be Original

With it looking like we may not be in Australia as long we may have first anticipated, we are on a bit of a mission to do as many things as we can each weekend that we wouldn't be able to do back in the UK. This weekend we did a fair bit of cycling, hitting Manly on Saturday and the Royal National Park today.

The photo above was taken at Shelley beach near Manly. I took about 5 trying to get an artistic shot until Lucy pointed out that the two girls sitting in front of us may find it a little pervy...

Winter In Paradise

When the inhabitants of England talk about Australia, it is as some kind of ever sunny, eternally hot eurphoric paradise inhabited by tanned 'clothing averse' blondes and racist, overweight country folk.

Certainly, during the summer time the sun beats down with a ferocity such as would never be experienced in Europe (something to do with missing Ozone), and the many beautiful white beaches are full of backpackers and locals, sunbathing, BBQing and surfing. Unfortunately during most of this period, I was at work, sitting in an air conditioned office on the 6th floor of a city centre office block at least 10 yards from the nearest window.

And then more recently Summer has turned into Winter (apparently it is the other way round in the Southern Hemisphere in case you were wondering). The days now are shorter than they ever were in England - it gets dark here at around 4.30pm.

I have begun to realise that it was not just the temperature that used to depress me during the ling British winter. It was the shortness of the days and the fact that I never got to see the daylight. I for one would definitely petition to work from around 5pm to 2am and have my days free.

And it is cold here...

Well that is actually as bit of a lie. It's not 'proper' cold here. It doesn't actually get much below 15 (celcius) as far as I can tell.

But the 'Sydneysiders' still wrap up in their hats and scarves and complain about the bitter cold. Their British roots cause them to talk about the weather incessantly. The schoolkids on the bus marvel at the sight of condensation on the bus windows and draw pictures and scrawl their names in the mornings.

And there is a reason why...

Basically most typical houses and units (flats / apartments) in Sydney (or at least every one that I have seen) are very badly designed. They have no insulation (which would help keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter) and no double glazing.

Heating is generally provided by little electric heaters (of the kind that were pretty much phased out of UK houses for their costliness), there are few gas heating systems (even though east coast gas is relatively cheap here). Or, as in the case of our unit, there is no heating at all, so you are forced to buy multiple little crappy electric heaters. Basically the units that I have seen are pretty much energy efficiency disaster areas.

Added to this Electricity here is generated almost entirely from coal, a fact that contributes to Australia being one of the highest emitters of CO2 (per head) in the world. And the units are freezing!

Learn Some Life Skills

I always understood the need for a school uniform (perhaps more so as an adult than as a kid having to wear one). It’s a leveler of society. It doesn’t matter whether your parents are investment bankers or binmen, you all have to wear the same ridiculous garb. You find ways to customize it. Our’s involved pulling the white thread out of the tie, or wearing it small end out

However, in the more expensive private schools in Sydney (of which there are a few in North Sydney), they take the term ‘ridiculous garb’ to a whole new level! The kids get on my bus dressed in grey trousers, tie and blazer (I think we managed to get rid of our blazers in around 1992 at my school), which they wear neatly and appropriately (which I have never seen a kid do in England). But more than this, they have to wear the most stupid looking horrendous straw hats, complete with stripey black and white bands around the sides. The kind that look they might befit a 1920’s butcher. Complete with the tell tale white Ipod headphones they all have, they may as well have ‘mug me I’m soft’ written across their foreheads.

These kids are like nothing I have known, every morning when I get on the bus, they all line up perfectly ready to alight, and wait for the adults (of which I am apparently one now) to get on first – and they always get up to give you a seat. I just want to grab them by the shoulders and tell them ‘have a bit of a backbone! Rebel a little bit. Get on the bus first. You are wasting your childhood – go out a mug a few pensioners at night’. Well maybe not that last one.

House Swap

So here it is. Despite Lucy only having been in the country for a month, recently we have been giving some serious consideration to doing a little more travel come this September and essentially swapping this:

 

(the spectacular harbour views of Sydney)

For this:

(the grimy Tinsley cooling towers of Sheffield, looking unusually attractive in this picture):

Madness, you may cry. Thousands of Brits every year flock to the sunny coasts of Australia, and yet more sit in rainy Yorkshire longing for that supposed laid back easy lifestyle.

We have our reasons, both personal and professional as to why we think it may be time to leave in a few months (once we have some cash).

Professionally, Lucy has to get herself a good education job, to get experience for the course she hopes to start in September 09 and it may prove a little difficult over here due to qualification requirements.

For myself the job I have got is far from perfect, and if I was to stay in Sydney, I would certainly move on to another company. I also have a few job offers in the UK.

But our reasons for thinking about leaving extend beyond the merely practical - I also have to admit to struggling with the Australian way of doing things that I have experienced. The emphasis in engineering consulting here seems to be to heavily dominated by generating written outputs. Personally,  I am used to working with people and numbers. Without going into what I do for a living, I like to focus on the development and implementation of projects and struggle somewhat when faced with Australian decision making processes which seem to take so long. Processes which cause me a fair amount of professional frustration.

Whilst appreciating that this may be my own experience only, there are a large number of (both American and European) expats here who constantly bemoan the same thing. 

In terms of Sydney, it is absolutely the most beautiful city I have been to as I have said before. The harbour is amazing and in the summer sunshine, there is nothing better than BBQ's and lounging around at Shelly beach.

Only summer draws to an end here, and the evenings draw short (it gets dark around 4.30pm at the moment). The weather is not cold, but not warm.

When you take away the warm weather and sun from Sydney you are left with very much a hard working business city. Strict licensing laws seem to have led to a lack of independent pubs, bars and cafe's (of the type you may associate with Melbourne). 

Not that I am complaining. I have had some brilliant experiences and to be able to have to opportunity to come here in the first place is a privilege. Nothing is set in stone, but I think we will spend the next few months trying to see as much of Oz as possible before any potential return.

Special Guest Post

Well, I’ve volunteered to take the plunge and enter the world of blogging. Not sure how great I’ll be but I’ll give it a whirl!

I’m Lucy, Sam’s long suffering (!) girlfriend, the brains behind the brawn, the one who has given up the mean streets of Manchester (apologies to anyone from Manchester, maybe that was just my street!) to move out to sunny Sydney. I have been here 3 weeks now.

The big surprise went really well. Sam’s face was a picture! I managed to meet his friends before hand and then I hid out till Sam was in the restaurant. I cannot believe how nervous I was! I was shaking like a leaf when I walked in and was just so overwhelmed when I saw him sitting there, I couldn’t even say anything I just stood at the table and waited for him to look up. He just looked SO shocked and I think it took about 10 seconds for him to register it was actually me standing there in front of him.

I think the whole ‘surprise’ experience brought home to us both how hard these past 8 months have been. Okay, so I haven’t been wallowing but my friends and family will tell you that I certainly haven’t had that sparkle in my eyes and spring in my step. But now we are back together again, and it feels great having my best friend back with me again. (Okay we’re a soppy couple!).

The past 3 weeks I have been looking for a job, which hasn’t been easy at all. I am trying to get work in the education sector as I hope to go on to be an education psychologist and assumed that by having good educational and work experiences I would be able to find work easily. Apparently teaching staff is the one thing they do not need in Sydney, and have a list of 20, 000 qualified teachers all waiting for full time employment. So this makes things a little difficult.

But I can’t complain I’m in Sydney! I’m seeing lots of Australia, I’m back with Sam, I get to read and chill out all day, and the more I put off work, the more Sam has to spoil me and pay my way! So it’s really a win win situation!! And anyway I have been applying for a lot of jobs so something is bound to turn up eventually, hopefully!

Govindas

Time for  random review:

Last night Lucy and I made it to Govindas. A brilliant little place tucked away between the strip clubs and brothels of Kings Cross. The basic premise is that you go there and have a vegetarian buffet, then you go to the floor above and they have loads of sofa/beds and cushions everywhere and you watch a film on the big screen.

The food was really good except for the fact that both Lucy and I have the tendancy to massively overeat when faced with a buffet situation, and all through the film I had to lay in a certain position so as not to puke.

The film was 'Gone Baby Gone', which I would recommend. As much of a fan as I am of Kevin Smith fans and all that. I really think Bed Affleck should quit acting and stick to directing. Though his brother (the lead role) isn't at all bad.

Excellent twists in this one. All in all 3 and a half Rabbit Raisins for the experience (appreciated that everybody outside of Australia probably had this movie about 3 months ago).