Pictures from Tasmania
Pictures from the Blue mountains
Pictures from the Jenolan Caves
Pictures from Albany, WA
Pictures from Western Australia
Pictures from a road-trip across the Nullabor plain
Pictures from Sydney
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Suburban Life
Wow. It has been a long time since I've been able to find the few minutes required to write an entry for my blog and actually been in a frame of mind where my thoughts can spill out onto the screen in a coherent and cogent fashion. But now, as I stare at the progress bar on my software installation screen, I can see I’ve got plenty of time to churn out a few reflections on the last couple of months.
The start of the year did not have a very promising or sustainable outlook as we ventured to the most southerly Australian state, Tasmania, with just a few hundred bucks between us. After a couple of weeks of exploration and despite living in the back of a van for the majority of the time our money ran out – and we were forced to take whatever work we could find in the local town of Ulverstone. We were very grateful when it was the simple sounding task of picking cherries that presented itself, and so began a two-week stint in the nearby orchard. If only cherry-picking was as satisfying to the wallet as it is to the stomach! After two weeks in the field, freezing in the mornings and roasting in the afternoons, we had earned around $200 less than it had cost to stay alive, and not even stolen enough fruit to make us ill every day.
It was time to move to the city and get a proper job before we started starving.
First choice was Perth. Living in Fremantle, and doing a 20 minute commute to the City would be a perfect balance of the vibrant culture and easy-going lifestyle of Fremantle, and the accessibility of work and big city life. Second choice would be Melbourne. The restaurants, cafes, and bars would help the time pass much more easily before we would hit the road again. And so it was little surprise that I was offered a contract in Sydney – renowned throughout Australia for transvestites and a big bridge. And I had a week to get there from Tazzy.
Sydney is the capital of New South Wales – the South-Easterly corner of the continent, and Tasmania is several hundred kilometers across the sea South of Victoria, being the most Southerly state on the Eastern mainland. So in keeping with the random and spontaneous nature of our trip so far, we returned to Melbourne, Victoria, and started heading West. We knew we had about 6 days until our holiday would seem a little more remote and inaccessible and so we were making the most of those last few days. We were going to travel the Great Ocean Road.
This stretch of coast-hugging road is a very popular 350km drive with tourists, and would normally take 2-3 days with a couple of good rests along the way. The scenery is Great, as you would expect, but when the mists roll in from the ocean there’s not a lot to do other than sit in the van, get out a map, and plan a route back! So half way through the second day we started to head East towards Melbourne and Sydney, and the lure of Australian suburbia.
This all happened two months ago – so I am now settled into my apartment on the North Shore of Sydney and into my job in the CBD, and have got used to having a bit of spare money again. It’s so much easier to embrace a culture when you’re not restricted to eating noodles in the back of a van, and pretending to enjoy drinking $10 wine from a 5-litre box. One thing that I was happy to return to Sydney for was the fish market, and when Matt came up to visit from Melbourne that was one of the first places we went to! In Tasmania I had been able to walk down to the shore and help myself to mussels and oysters for dinner – but there was a lot of food that I had been missing. The trip to Sydney Fish Market was a great opportunity to indulge in those missed foods. Lunch was a feast! Prawns, octopus, squid, mussels, oysters, fish, and chips. But that was just a starter for our late night dinner: A Thai-style soup of more mussels, yabbies, and lobster. The baby octopus and ‘bugs’ that we also bought just weren’t fitting in the pot, so we even had leftovers for the next day. And the price? Less than you’d spend on a weekday night down the pub. Marvelous!
But it’s not only the food and drink in my diet which has changed as remarkably as my fortunes since coming to the city. I am able to enjoy live music again! In celebration of my new job I went to see Iron Maiden in Melbourne. What a fantastic gig! Every song I wanted them to play, which is quite a few over their 15-album back catalogue, was played brilliantly and loudly – including an awesome rendition of The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner! Then in Sydney, it was all about the music and the restaurants. I went to a Metal festival and saw some awesome bands – though not too many local ones; and I was able to go to the Opera House which I missed on my previous visits. I saw Toumani Diabate and his Symmetric Orchestra – a 78th generation Kora harp player from Mali. Some of the songs he was playing were apparently 700 years old… though quite how anyone found a way of playing recordings that old I don’t know. I can’t even find a way of watching my 10-year old VHS cassettes!
Another hugely important part of Australian suburban culture is the Returned Services League. Ostensibly a club for veterans but in reality it means cheap booze, food, and entertainment for everyone within staggering distance… and my local RSL is about 38 seconds from my front door. I’m yet to go for an evening of poker or afternoon of lawn bowls with the locals (though that will be coming in time) but I’ve certainly enjoyed a glass or two and a snack from the barbecue on their veranda overlooking the hills of the city.
So for the next few months, travelling far is not really an option. Weekend breaks in the mountains or up the coast have been a pleasant occasional diversion from city life, and a week up in Queensland at the end of the month will be a good way to celebrate 3 months of working in Australia and 26 years of being alive. And other than that, you can rest assured I will be eating well, drinking plenty, working hard, and saving for that next big trip: across the North of Australia, through crocodile and digeridoo infested territory, and maybe back to Fremantle and the wicked wines of the West!
The start of the year did not have a very promising or sustainable outlook as we ventured to the most southerly Australian state, Tasmania, with just a few hundred bucks between us. After a couple of weeks of exploration and despite living in the back of a van for the majority of the time our money ran out – and we were forced to take whatever work we could find in the local town of Ulverstone. We were very grateful when it was the simple sounding task of picking cherries that presented itself, and so began a two-week stint in the nearby orchard. If only cherry-picking was as satisfying to the wallet as it is to the stomach! After two weeks in the field, freezing in the mornings and roasting in the afternoons, we had earned around $200 less than it had cost to stay alive, and not even stolen enough fruit to make us ill every day.
It was time to move to the city and get a proper job before we started starving.
First choice was Perth. Living in Fremantle, and doing a 20 minute commute to the City would be a perfect balance of the vibrant culture and easy-going lifestyle of Fremantle, and the accessibility of work and big city life. Second choice would be Melbourne. The restaurants, cafes, and bars would help the time pass much more easily before we would hit the road again. And so it was little surprise that I was offered a contract in Sydney – renowned throughout Australia for transvestites and a big bridge. And I had a week to get there from Tazzy.
Sydney is the capital of New South Wales – the South-Easterly corner of the continent, and Tasmania is several hundred kilometers across the sea South of Victoria, being the most Southerly state on the Eastern mainland. So in keeping with the random and spontaneous nature of our trip so far, we returned to Melbourne, Victoria, and started heading West. We knew we had about 6 days until our holiday would seem a little more remote and inaccessible and so we were making the most of those last few days. We were going to travel the Great Ocean Road.
This stretch of coast-hugging road is a very popular 350km drive with tourists, and would normally take 2-3 days with a couple of good rests along the way. The scenery is Great, as you would expect, but when the mists roll in from the ocean there’s not a lot to do other than sit in the van, get out a map, and plan a route back! So half way through the second day we started to head East towards Melbourne and Sydney, and the lure of Australian suburbia.
This all happened two months ago – so I am now settled into my apartment on the North Shore of Sydney and into my job in the CBD, and have got used to having a bit of spare money again. It’s so much easier to embrace a culture when you’re not restricted to eating noodles in the back of a van, and pretending to enjoy drinking $10 wine from a 5-litre box. One thing that I was happy to return to Sydney for was the fish market, and when Matt came up to visit from Melbourne that was one of the first places we went to! In Tasmania I had been able to walk down to the shore and help myself to mussels and oysters for dinner – but there was a lot of food that I had been missing. The trip to Sydney Fish Market was a great opportunity to indulge in those missed foods. Lunch was a feast! Prawns, octopus, squid, mussels, oysters, fish, and chips. But that was just a starter for our late night dinner: A Thai-style soup of more mussels, yabbies, and lobster. The baby octopus and ‘bugs’ that we also bought just weren’t fitting in the pot, so we even had leftovers for the next day. And the price? Less than you’d spend on a weekday night down the pub. Marvelous!
But it’s not only the food and drink in my diet which has changed as remarkably as my fortunes since coming to the city. I am able to enjoy live music again! In celebration of my new job I went to see Iron Maiden in Melbourne. What a fantastic gig! Every song I wanted them to play, which is quite a few over their 15-album back catalogue, was played brilliantly and loudly – including an awesome rendition of The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner! Then in Sydney, it was all about the music and the restaurants. I went to a Metal festival and saw some awesome bands – though not too many local ones; and I was able to go to the Opera House which I missed on my previous visits. I saw Toumani Diabate and his Symmetric Orchestra – a 78th generation Kora harp player from Mali. Some of the songs he was playing were apparently 700 years old… though quite how anyone found a way of playing recordings that old I don’t know. I can’t even find a way of watching my 10-year old VHS cassettes!
Another hugely important part of Australian suburban culture is the Returned Services League. Ostensibly a club for veterans but in reality it means cheap booze, food, and entertainment for everyone within staggering distance… and my local RSL is about 38 seconds from my front door. I’m yet to go for an evening of poker or afternoon of lawn bowls with the locals (though that will be coming in time) but I’ve certainly enjoyed a glass or two and a snack from the barbecue on their veranda overlooking the hills of the city.
So for the next few months, travelling far is not really an option. Weekend breaks in the mountains or up the coast have been a pleasant occasional diversion from city life, and a week up in Queensland at the end of the month will be a good way to celebrate 3 months of working in Australia and 26 years of being alive. And other than that, you can rest assured I will be eating well, drinking plenty, working hard, and saving for that next big trip: across the North of Australia, through crocodile and digeridoo infested territory, and maybe back to Fremantle and the wicked wines of the West!
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