Lins and Rich’s Travel Blog

Hi everyone. As it has been pointed out by a few people that we are being rubbish at the moment with keeping the blog up to date, to appease everyone, thought I’d better spend this lovely sunny Sydney afternoon sat in front of a computer screen so, here goes!

 Since new year things  have become more settled for myself and Lins. Gone are the days of randomly doing what we want when we want and the ugly word “job” has reared its head! Before we came away we decided that part of this trip we would work abroad to get a bit of experience. Lins especially was keen to experience working in schools to appreciate the differences.

 After speaking to recruitment agents (one of my favorite pastimes….bit of sarcasm there for you, those that have missed my humour) I managed to get two interviews which somehow, after five months of not using my brain ,I managed to do ok in and got two offers. One company was a developer and the other a main contractor. I quickly realised I’m not up to being a PQS (don’t own a tweed jacket with leather arm patches for a start!) so I took the job with the main contractor. It’s in the delightful suburb known as Blacktown where the company is renovating an old 70s style shopping centre.

 To get a picture of Blacktown, picture this. At the moment there are adverts for a programme on Australian TV called the Biggest Loser where overweight people compete to turn around there lives and the one who loses the most weight wins. As part of these they keep reporting that 49% of Australians are overweight. Now, after living in Sydney for a while and visiting Bondi and Coogee beaches, it has become apparent that everyone seems to be toned and tanned. The other day in a pub we discussed where they were, this 49%. I can happily report that I located them in Blacktown shopping centre food court. I have never seen so many chronically obese people in my life. Not just slighty let themselves go, we’re talking massive. I shared the lift with one fellow who was so massive that he had to turn sideways to get out the doors.

 Its hardly suprising that people are so large as the food court is entirely made up of Macdonalds, KFC and other junk chains. People there are really friendly but it’s quite a poor place and a stark contrast to the beauty of the CBD and the beaches.

 Work wise, the job is great. I work with a real mix of  people at work and everyone is friendly and good fun. Long hours are expected but as I get paid by the hour it suits me well! (lots of beer money and travelling fund can be topped back up!) Currently im working 7.15 to 6 with 15 min lunch break but after months of traveling its nice to use my brain again and get stuck into a challenge. However my body is not used to getting thrown out of bed at six so I’m like a walking zombie in the evenings. As the days have gone on it’s getting easier! There is also a thriving social life after work and everyone is up for a few beers on a Friday which is cool.

One thing I have noticed is that Australians hate commuting. I have a short hop of 40mins in the morning which, after years of working in London is a breeze, but Australians think this is a nightmare and everyone who I tell how far I come is shocked I have a job so far away!

Enough about me anyway. Lins has also had luck in the job hunting front. After attending one interview she got a job running drama in a small school for children with behavioural problems, emotional problems (e.g little terrors) or mild intellectual disabilities. There are about 50 kids in the whole school and the day starts at nine and finshes at 2.15. There are 2 brand new buildings, plenty of free periods, support in every class, classes of 4-5 pupils, an adapted curriculum etc. She cannot wait. This job is for three days a week, so having settled for temping for the other two, out the blue, another school phoned her on the recommendation of the first interviewer and offered her a job for the other two days without even meeting her! So fingers crossed she has fallen on her feet and starts on Tuesday so she will no doubt update everyone as to how it’s going then.

In the interim we have got ourselves a flat to stay in. Located 4 mins walk from the main station it’s a lovely place where we have a big room and en suite bathroom and share the whole flat with four other people who all seem really friendly. The place has its own gym and a swimming pool so Lins did really well sorting that out while I was working. I spent one day flat hunting on a weekend and was ready to go to the pub after 10mins!

Before the jobs started we filled our time in a number of ways. Lins has finally been able to take and pass her advanced open water diving course, diving around Sydney so she’s really happy and shes keen to take things further and is looking to do her rescue diver course next - but she keeps getting colds and having to postpone dives so she’s struggling to make up the number of dives necessary - give it time though - she’s determined to do it before leaving Sydney. That’s too much swimming for my liking!!

While Lins was diving, I took a photography course for a couple of days to keep myself busy. Was run by a guy called Andrew who was a great tutor. He’s really artistic but chaotic and I learnt loads about portrait photography and using a camera properly. As such I have treated myself to a digital SLR camera so check out flickr in the comming months to see how I’m getting on with that!

Last week we went to see a performance at the Opera House - we decided against opera as Lins really doesn’t like the music and, even though we both thought it’s something we should probably make the effort to see at the Opera House, we figured it could be a big waste of money if we found ourselves hating it after a few minutes so, instead we went with Mags (the Northerner we met in India) to see Le Grand Cirque -  I haven’t see Cirque de Soleil, but I think it’s of a similar vein.  It was truly spectacular.  Lins commented that she had never said ‘Bloody Hell’ as many times in such a short space of time, Mags said the same of ‘Fucking Hell’ but had to try to refrain from continuing to do so as we had a little kid in front of us, but there was good reason for all the swearing.  The acts that these performers were displaying were just jaw-dropping.  There was a group of lads who climbed poles that must have been 10 metres high, turned themselves upside-down, gripped with their feet, let go, slid down the pole in less than 2 seconds flat and managed to grip again to stop themselves once their head was just a few centimetres from the stage floor: incredible.  There were also a number of acts displaying flexibility that absolutely defies the nature of human movement and there was plenty of comedy to boot.  There were also a couple of sharp intakes of breath during the finale as one man, blindfolded, on top of a wheel spinning 15 metres in the air, came very close to falling off - and it clearly wasn’t staged to make it appear more dangerous than it was - he looked really shaken up and the host came running on the stage as if to have to rescue him!  Fortunately, he managed to recover his footing just in the nick of time and whip off the blindfold so he could stabilise himself.

The other day we went out to test my new photographic purchase at the botanical gardens and saw the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Turning a corner Lins noticed a huntsman spider sitting on a leaf apparently after a wasp. We stood to watch and quickly realised it was the other way around. The tiny little red wasp (called a spider wasp) shot in and stung the spider, approximately four times its size and it plummeted to the ground. The wasp then dragegd it off and apparently will lay eggs on the still alive body for its young to eat when they hatch. Amazing to watch but nature at it most brutal. Anyway I managed to capture some photos so check this out!

On a more light hearted note, yesterday was Australia Day here (and I suppose everywhere else for Aussies!). After working in the morning (yes saturday, shocking!) we walked up to the harbour with Mags and Jason (a guy from Korea we shared a room with before the flat) and watched a tall ship race which was great - huge old boats with flowing sails racing accross the harbour. Lins nearly dropped her camera in the harbour when one of the ship fired its cannons! Really entertaining.

After that we wandered around the various free music events in the rocks (sort of like Brighton Lanes type area). Saw a couple of great acts, one was Ashley Mannix who had an amazing voice and deserves to do really well (look her up) and a band called Old Man River who were also excellent. The atmosphere was amazing with everyone wrapped in flags having a great time. Even as a pom I really enjoyed it.

 After the music we headed to Darling Harbour where we had a ride on a big ferris wheel which gave good views over the city. Here we met up with Scott and Emma who are another couple from Gurnsey we’d shared our last dorm room with, and went to watch the main event. Now I’m prepared for a bit of gushing sentiment on days like this about how good the place is but my god, it went on and on and got more sickly and cheesy as it went on. It was a relief at nine oclock when they stopped with the rubbish and the music started up. Then (as they’re particuarly good at in Australia)  a massive fireworks display commenced, set to music. It was brilliant and more than made up for the half an hour of torturous messages we had sat through before hand. Unlike new year the display was a lot more low key (i.e no massive rockets) but the choreographed smaller rocket and bursts of colour were amazing and made the evening.

 So that brings us up to date. From now on we are going to make more of an effort to update the blog at least every other week to let everyone know how city living in sydney is and our various adventures, but in the meantime carry on checking out our photos page to see my new hobby (which is driving Lins mad already! She’s just jealous because my camera keeps blocking her photo oppertunities because she’s little!). Hope this finds everyone well, take care and do not get too cold in the English winter. If it makes you feel better its only 29 here today!

As the title says, happy new year all, had a busy last week or so with Christmas, my birthday and new year (yep all over for another year!).

After returning to Sydney yet again (spend half our life flying into this place ). Christmas has been a proper family affair with my Mum, Lins’ parents and her brother and his  girlfriend all making it out to Sydney. Made for a great time and really good to see everyone again and we have done loads.

Christmas was spent over in the apartment they rented out. Viv made a sterling effort with Chritsmas dinner and we were all stuffed.  We had briefly entertained the idea of a BBQ on the beach but with Sydney weather as changable as ours we opted for a safer dinner inside and a walk from Bondi to Bronte - we made sure we all stepped on to the sand at Bronte bech just so we could say we had been on the beach on Christmas day! Just as well we went for the roast dinner option as it turned out to be the coldest Christmas in Sydney for a decade - there were a few grumbles from the parents that this was meant to be their Summer holiday but it has been significantly warmer since so neither we nor they can really complain.

 On our previous visits to Sydney we had decided against covering the tourist trail as we knew we would be doing most of the main sights when the parents got here, so the last week has been spent seeing much of what Sydney has to offer its tourists.   We visited the Sydney Aquarium which was great with huge walk through tunnels with seals and sharks (not together!!)  Lindsey was able to enjoy seeing the fish she’d missed out on on the Great Barrier Reef!  We also went up the Sky Tower - the tallest building in Sydney, that gives spectaculat views of every bit of the city from its 360 degree viewing platform.  Other visits included the Opera House tour - it really is an amazing building but the architect sounded like an absolute arse, asking people to work more slowly when polishing concrete to make sure the finish is just right!  Our guide, Neville, kept referring to the architect as a “visionary…inspirational… a poet.”  Rich, on the other hand, couldn’t believe that the man had won awards for a building that took 13 years longer than it should have done to build and whose costs were never ending.  Carol (Richie’s mum) discovered that the wildlife photographer of the year exhibition was on at the natural history museum - Rich and I have been every year for the past few years and my parents have been going annually for as long as I can remember - we all thought that we were going to miss it this year so this was a really good find for us all.  As usual, the exhibition was outstanding - the pictures these photographers capture of animals and their behaviours are absolutely awesome. My parents, Rich and his mum all went to Wildlife World for an afternoon after the exhibition but I decided I’d had enough of wildlife parks that offered to touch a koala, feed a kangaroo etc. so I gave that one a miss.  However, they did also have a display of the dangerous spiders at this place so Rich is now in a position to recognise when a red back or funnelweb are approaching him on a killer attack and I remain blissfully ignorant!

You may have worked out by now that Rich started this entry and Lins ahs taken over - not, as some of you might think, because I am bossy and controlling and like to edit the work for correct grammar and spelling (though those things are all true) but because Rich said that he couldn’t find anything to say that was interesting - he must have forgotten that we saw the new year in with one of the most spectacular fireworks displays in the world.  We got up bright and early on New Year’s Eve to get over to the city in time to have breakfast and head over to the Botanical Gardens to find ourselves a spot for the display.  We had been warned that it was necessary to get there early so we headed along to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair (A peninsular of Sydney Harbour and part of the gardens) at 11.30.  We trudged to the back of a very long queue and began our waiting.  In fact, the queue moved very quickly but we still didn’t enter the gardens until 1 o’clock.  There was just one shady spot left which we jumped into pretty quickly as there were still a good 7 hours of blazing sunshine hours to get through before sunset and 11 hours to kill in total before the big event.  Unfortunately, the spot didn’t stay shady for long as the sun moved around the tree and so we figured, if we were going to get hot and bothered anyway we may as well move to a spot where the view of the bridge was better.  This we did, and conveniently, it was close to an extremely shady area with a breeze that nobody had noticed as it was behind the toilet cubicles so we were able to take turns wandering off there when we got too hot. 

There are 2 displays in Sydney - one at 9 o’clock for the kids and another at midnight.  The scale of these displays is simply unimaginable.  The organisers have co-ordinated things in such a way that the same fireworks are exploding all along the waterline from various harbours around the city. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a great view of any of the 3 sites we could see though as we had positioned ourselves so that we could see the bridge, which wasn’t used during this display. Still, we watched the colours and patterns we could see with wonder.

Then, 3 hours more of waiting were in store. There was a boat display to help kill the time and, while Mags and I were wandering to get a better view of the boats, we noticed that the perfect spot for viewing the midnight display had been vacated so we quickly summoned the others to come and join us. We were on a gradient, therefore, we were above much of the crowd so our height didn’t matter. To top it all off, we had a view of the whole of the bridge and the opera house, framed by the branches of the tree we were under. You could feel the excitement mounting as the hour approached as the corwd began to sing and the noise level generally rose a decibel or two. The giant light egg timer on the bridge was counting the time in 5 minute intervals and as the final ‘grain of sand’ dropped the bridge exploded into an array of colour. The next 12 minutes were just breath-taking. The bridge formed the centre-piece of the display and, once again, there were simulatneous skyline displays all along the horizon in every direction. The noises and colours were beyond description. The final minute or so saw the bridge showering white light into the river below and saw it shooting rockets off into the sky in all directions. Just incredible. Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, it was worth the 13 hour wait!

So, that’s about everything up to date once again. Since New Year, we have largely been looking into work and accommodation for the next few months so nothing of any real interest to anyone else - we just have to hope we can actually get jobs now - there’s not much happening on the teaching front as it’s the holidays so it’s hard to judge how much work I’m likely to get. Rich, on the other hand, has had a couple of promising conversations with recruitment consultants but the building industry is also on holiday until Monday so we’ll have to see after that.