Hail and Thunderstorms

I know I keep going on about the weather, but look at this picture, taken in the city centre. Where is the sun.......

house hunting......

My first experience of house hunting and what an absolute shambles. In the short term, we are looking to rent. I thought it would be quite simple but no. They are lots of properties available so today we thought we would go along to a viewing.

Having found the apartment (and quite nice it looked too) we queued with about 20 other people for the midday showing. The agent turned up but had the wrong set of keys. He said that he would be back at 3pm with the correct keys. So we walked for a few hours, had lunch and pitched up at 3pm. Only about 10 people showed so that was good. We waited a while and then discovered that he was not coming back after all. What a waste of time. Brad however (being experienced in Australian rentals) said this was quite normal and took our paperwork back to the agent to put in a note of interest.

Brad is now working so I am spending most of next week trailing round the flats looking for a suitable place to live! It is one way to get to know the city I suppose.....

Sunday Roast - Ozzie style

We had our first Ozzie roast last night. Kangaroo!! It was really nice and a pleasant change from the usual.

With only 98% fat, Roo is actually (apparently) good for you. It was cooked just the same as Roast Beef and was tender and tasty. It is also a lot cheaper than beef as there is plenty of roo's to eat.

The only problem was the I had dreams that Skippy was chasing me all round the world, boxing me for devouring his family...

Tasty.....

Living in the suburbs

We have just had our first "full" week living with Brad's friends in an area called Petersham which is about 10 miles from the centre of Sydney. They have a small 2 bedroom house a minutes walk from the suburban train station and near the centre of town.

Petersham seems to be the Portuguese area of Sydney. There are Portuguese shops and restaurant. My favourite though are the cafe's which sell the most delicious coffee and Portuguese tarts. yum yum. Saturday morning involved a short walk to the cafe where we picked up the weekend newspaper, a flat white and a tart. A very civil start to the weekend I thought!

Unfortunately there is no Supermarket so it means getting on the train to get Groceries (or pay a fortune at the local shops) I miss having Asda within walking distance.

We are staying with Augusta (Gus) and Trevor. They are old friends of Brad's who have kindly let us move into their spare room until we find a place of our own. Gus works for the Australian Film Industry but her real passion is the Theatre. She is a fairly well established director and also reviews other plays for the local press. We have already had free tickets to a Sydney Fringe Festival show called Short 10's and we are going to another show (free of charge) this week. Great :-) Trevor is Canadian and is completing a PHD at Sydney Uni (something to do with plants / botany but I am not sure what. All I know is that he got very excited the other night when a program about the first ever flower came on the TV).

It is now starting to feel a bit more real. We are now doing our own laundry (it is great to hang clothes out on the line and for them to be dry within an hour!). It is also nice to have home cooked food and shop in Supermarkets.

Summer ?

This is supposed to be the middle of summer and temperatures should be somewhere between 25 and 35 deg with little or no rain.

I have worn jumpers everyday and jeans in the evenings and I am wishing that I had my rain coat (which I posted to Brad's mum from India).

Everyone seems happy as the country has been in drought for about 10 years but I would be quite happy for just some sunshine and for it to be warm enough to wear shorts all the time - I have about 5 pairs of shorts but only 1 pair of jeans and I don't want to go shopping!

Fat galah's, dogs and deadly snakes

We just spend the long weekend with Brad's family in Gloucester which is about 4 hours drive north of Sydney. The family own quite a bit of land (over 1000 acres in all) and have farmed it for many years. Brad's mum has just bought some more land and is gradually opening the farmhouse as a B&B and is currently building lodges. Take a look at www.damitgetaway.com.au

Being in the middle of nowhere, the house is home to many animals. From the cows that graze in the pastures to the parrots and galah's that come down and eat from the bird tables. Then there are the deadly tiger snakes. With 5 minutes of meeting Brad's mum, I was being given a "training" session on what to do if I came across a snake. (run!) and I was shown the different kinds of snakes that they have seen around the area.  Not to forget Roley the extremely large golden lab & the 2 cats who pad about the farm all day

The weather has been really bad for summer. It has rained most days and I have been wearing jumpers in the evenings. The temps have been quite high compared to Scotland but after travelling anything under 20 deg is feeling quite cold! Our box of clothes, sea mailed from Mumbai arrived in Gloucester when we were there so we have got extra clothes to wear (hurrah!).

The pool and spa and the B&B

Life in Sydney

Hello and welcome to the Australian life Blog.

So much is similar yet there are so many differences to life at home.

Day 1 has been spent getting a mobile phone Sim card and exploring the city centre.

1st observation - people in the shops are so helpful and friendly. Lots of smiles and friendly conversation. (sometimes that hard sell though)

2nd observation - there is food everywhere. Australia has a huge obesity problem and I now know why!

3rd observation - what is a post pay and pre pay mobile phone contract all about and why can't I just get a Sim card for my own phone.