Arrived in Sydney

We’ve finally arrived in Sydney!! This means the first leg of our travelling is over, and we’ve settled down and started looking for jobs.

Accomodation-wise, we’ve really landed on our feet. One of Phil’s friends (Wai-Ching) knew someone over here that needed new flatmates starting from 3 days after our arrival, so its all worked out nicely. It’s a gorgeous, 2 bedroom flat right on the water’s edge, and next to a nature reserve. For our commute, the ferry stops at four spots in our bay, before taking us on the 10 minute trip across the harbour inbetween the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, dropping us off right in the Central Business District. It is usually sunny, and sure beats the underground…

Its a nice neighbourhood too - in fact people keep leaving unwanted furniture outside their apartments for rubbish collection! This way we have accumulated a perfectly good king size bed, some shelves and a clock radio, all for free!! Phil is holding out for a laptop and wide screen TV, but no luck yet…oh my God, we’ve become monsters!! Got any spare change?

The last section of travelling was just fab, blowing apart the notion that Australia is flat and empty outside the cities. Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Wattarka (Kings Canyon) rival any other sites on the planet, and there’s plenty on the route down to Adelaide too. The folks in Coober Pedy (where the Mad Max films were shot) were friendly and barking mad. Which you’d expect in a town where 75% of the community live underground to stay cool, and explosives for opal mining can be bought with bread and milk in the local supermarket…! In the local pub we made friends with one drunk, bearded fellow, who must’ve weighed 300lbs and was suitably nicknamed ‘Bear’ - he kept giving Emily hugs much to the amusement of everyone else, especially Phil, who couldn’t have stopped it even if he wanted to!

After arriving in Adelaide, we got the train to Sydney, about 10 days ago. Emily is now filling in doing reception work, and Phil is still looking for IT work.

In other news: Phil has stumbled upon the perfect excuse for doing just about anything he pleases: “for cultural reasons”. This can be used for anything remotely Australian, from drinking ice-cold Australian beer to watching any live sport involving Australian participants. Emily can’t believe he’s even trying it on, while Phil is just amazed he didn’t think of it earlier. Roll on the Rugby World Cup!! (come on England!!)

(2023 Update: Photos from the Red Centre can be found here)