Private school education, masters degree with honours and I’m currently employed as a removalist!
Don’t worry Mum, its nothing permanent, just a way to fund my surf trip north to Byron Bay where I’ll be basing myself for the coming months (having spent a week learning to surf on the way!). The job landed on my lap about 10minutes after checking into our hostel so it was pretty convenient.
Its actually a great job, every day is different, I’ve been to parts of Sydney I’d never otherwise have seen (although I think Sydney looks much better from below than above) and I’ve met some ace people that only this kind of work brings you into contact with.
After 2weeks removalism and some carefull spending (why can I never live so frugally when I’m at home) I’ve saved the funds for Waves surf camp, a 5day surfing tuition/ road trip that finishes up about 600km north of Sydney in Byron Bay.
Quick run down of the two weeks here in Sydney:
Our first night here was spent in the Funkhouse which should be re-named the Skankhouse by popular opinion. Ian got in a strop at the airport (manstrual cycle) and so we booked into the first place with vacancies. Our first night there was also our last and we moved to Great Aussie Backpackers. A ‘charmingly scruffy’ place with really friendly staff and a great atmosphere. It is also home to the best free Friday bbq this side of 28 Acacia Road! The people are officially nice and we were happy to stay here for the duration of our stay in Sydney. The only drawback was that the owners were real churchy and there was a slightly surreal culty atmosphere to the place when the Hillsong gang took over on a Thursday (offering free food and excursions in exchange for your soul)! Luckily myself and Ian managed to resist though I think 40days and 40nights may have seen us crumble!
We managed to tick most of the tourist boxes (without the help of the Hillsong Church): its quite surreal seeing such world-famous post card images as the bridge and opera house live in person. The botanical gardens are stunning (and FULL of bats and spiders), we’ve caught a sunrise from the north side of the bridge (a 5am start that Ian is still grumbling about), been for a long weekend on Manly beach, walked the North Coast in weather most Glastonbury regulars would moan about and checked out Darling Harbour and the fish market (a very poor 2nd to Tokyo). The only problem so far is that it has pretty much rained since we got here!!! Gutted!
We’ve spent a few nights with Debs (a friend from uni), met her team over here and even managed an invite to a birthday barbecue on the beach on our first weekend here!!! The interesting part of the bbq was that we met a couple from Harrogate and spent an ironic afternoon discussing the negative aspects of Australian culture! Weapons!!
From what we’ve seen of the city and surrounding area, Sydney is a great place with a real buzz and energy that lies underneath the laid back attitude most people seem to have to life. It is a big city however, and not really somewhere I would want to spend too long. Everyone is super stylish and it feels a bit removed from the beach life I want. On the flipside the restaurant scene is superb, diverse vibrant and of a really high quality so staying in Manly could be a good compromise if work is hard to come by in Byron.
My first impressions of Australia are how fit, healthy and happy the vast majority of people here look (theres is, however, a significant minority of very overweight people as well). There’s none of the skinniness (male or female) that is so common in Europe and you can smile at people without them thinking you’re either hitting on them or are completely insane! Striking up conversations with people really is easy, in fact as far as London seems removed from the introverted nature of Tokyo, Sydney seems the same amount removed from London.
As a footnote, its come to my attention that some people are not taking this blog in the serious manner with which it is intended… Kiddo, if you’re struggling with my phrase construction and verbosity then please ask for help instead of resorting to cheap insults! (ps- love ya comments, keep representin’).
Thanks for all the mails from folks, keep ‘em coming! Its great to keep up on gossip from home.
