When I decided to come to Australia for a year I didn’t imagine I would be commuting 1.5 hours each way to work, and then working 12 hour days. Unfortunately that is what has happened the past few weeks (well, the commute has always been there) as we get ready to treat our first patient on our newest piece of kit. Since I’m leading this project I’ve been pretty stressed. But – we’re treating our first patient tomorrow and I’m hoping that some time soon the late nights will stop as to be honest I’m really resenting work right now. On one hand its great work experience, on the other it is spoiling my experience of Oz.

It is for this reason that for two weeks in a row I downed tools at 3:30 on a thursday to go sailing – and do what I really intended to do out here: socialise with fun Australians drinking lots, sailing on the beautiful Sydney harbour and leaving all cares behind.

My last sail was just blinding! We had 20 knots of wind the whole way….it was just bordering on uncomfortable. Due to Pete’s skilled skippering and cool demeanour we had great fun with no dramas (unlike some of the other yachts around us – saw several massive round-ups). I was pretty much ballast for that race, however appreciated it this time as I’m just too weak to winch in the head sail under those kinds of winds. Luckily we had plenty of young man-power on the boat in the form of Bruce and John’s son/ Michelle’s boyfriend (I think his name was Zacharia)  who were more than happy to flex their muscles and do all the hard work! This meant me and Michelle could enjoy the ride, along with John who was in his usual spot drinking wine on the foredeck telling me all sorts of tales as we went along (we had to interupt the stories several times each tack whilst we swapped sides…not easy to do whilst balancing a glass on wine on a boat at 45 degrees, which is about to flip to 45 degrees the other way AND avoid the boom!) He managed to cover the failed Japaense ‘invasion’ of Sydney during WW2, the importance of good wine and finished with wolf impressions as we watched the moon-rise taking place over the north shore – all whilst wearing our Hawiian shirts (they haven’t made an appearance for a while!).

How many people have sat on a yacht after an exciting race getting drunk on wine with a bunch of retired Australians watching the golden glow of the full moon expand and rise over the green shores of Sydney harbour with John providing howling noises. Not many!

I haven’t done many blog upates due to ether getting home late, or at salsa class or sailing. So I’ve missed a few things – most notably a halloween salsa party I went to with Jarrad – yes, halloween plus salsa! I have danced with dracula…(shame no one dressed as death…) Jarrad came as a murder victim, and I just wore what I found in my local shops: a witches hat and a plastic snake. All held in the aptly named district of Mortdale (I now know where all the old people in Sydney are hiding!). It was good fun. We started the night with a meal at an Italian with some wine before heading to salsa. The line-dances we all did as a group were good fun – getting everyone dacing and mixing partners. They don’t do that at my club.

This weekend has been pretty good too. I organised some drinks for friday night and got some friends together – Dave and Kirsty, along with a friend of Kirsty’s from the UK called Will, along with Jarrad and Farz. Was a good group of the 6 of us – just a shame the heaven’s opened as we were travelling there so my plans to sit out side in the warm evening were somewhat spoiled! After a meal and some drinks in the first pub Farz and Jarrad went home, and the remaining four of us went to a pretentious club called the Ivy. I realised I’d been there before after the ball I went to last month….but I had no memory of the place! All I remember was going in, then coming out again! Don’t think we stayed there for long.

We knew it was a pretentious bar before we went in, but thought we’d try it anyway and stayed for one whole drink. It was quite fascinating watching the middle-aged rich and suited city men chatting up the young short-skirted girls that seemed to make up the crowd. Basically if you are a rich guy, or a pretty young girl you will fit in. None of us really fit that criteria unfortunately! Nice decor though!

After this bar Will and Kirsty caved in to bed…but good old Dave was up for more drinking so we got out of the taxi on the way home and started walking in the hope we’d find somewhere still open that wasn’t a club(it was gone midnight now). We walked past a place that caught our eye, purely because it said ‘cocktail bar, open until 1pm’.

We found a gem! It’s on the far end of the street I live on, and I don’t think I would ever have thought to go there before. Inside we were greeted by a friendly waitress who suggested we sit on the sofa and brought us cocktail menus. Dave wanted a rum cocktail, so went and asked the barman for recomendation and he came back with…..well….not sure what the hell he came back with but it looked ridiculous! I’ll try and describe it. It was a bowl, with 3 Easter island statues around it servng as legs in fetching green and red. I ordered a Mai Tai (with extras) and it arrived in what I can only describe as a totem pole. Dave took photos on his mobile – hopefully he’ll figure out how to upload them!

Several waitors came round specifically to laugh at them (or us), I swear! One said he had a volcano which you can light at the top…..I want my drink in that next time!! It was a very chilled, very friendly atmosphere. Cool music (the playlist filpped from 1920’s jazz to techno) and best of all when we went to leave we found we’d been locked in, so 1pm closure my ass! We are definately going to go back there – perfect place for those end-of-night drinks.

The next day we went for a yum cha breakfast in China Town. I’ve never had Yum Cha in the UK so can only guess that’s because it hasn’t made there. Why not! A lot of people said to me its just DIm Sum with another name, but I think Yum Cha is a wholeway of eating too. It is basically how the Chinese do sunday breakfast, with women pushing round trolleys of dim sum, steamed buns and dumplings, from which you pick and choose. Yummy! And the copious amounts of green tea are perfect for rehydrating after a night out.

The we went to the Rocks to browse the market stalls (Will bought a kangaroo and platypus handpuppet, and a kangaroo scrotum bottle opener as souveniers) before stopping at the first of many bars in Sydney – the Australian. We sat outside for a leisurely drink, then headed to the Harbour View bar where we sat on the terrace overlooking the harbour bridge watching the bridge climbers come back. After that we had to decide where to go next – me and Will voted for pudding, but we also wanted to play pool…so we headed to Surry[sic] Hills to the Cricketers Arms where we found the pool table being used by some English guys. Kirsty challenged them to and game and we all got chatting. Dave and Will failed hopefulessly and lost – but they let us have the table anyway!

After that we went to Paddington for a chocolate break at a Max Brenners chocolate cafe. I had a chocolate waffle – Will went for the impressive chocolate pizza!

Then we went to the Lord Dudley, a very English-esque pub complete with map of England and dartboard – which we made great use of. Will also got what is probably his best photo of his holday when Kirsty asked an entire rugby team dressed in pink tight rugby outfits with impossibly short shorts (and these were big guys!) to pose togther with poor Will in the middle!

Come 7:30 I was flagging and headed home, fully intending to come out again. However by the time I’d walked home, cooked dinner..sat on sofa….I lost the will and bed called.

Awesome weekend though!

I’ve done lots since my last post, but all I’m going to write about for now is the great night I’ve just had whilst my mood is still there.

Can’t put my finger on why it was so good. Perhaps the fact I’ve had a very stressful hectic week at work, in which everyone is making demands of me, and deadlines are looming and I have about 10 tasks on the go, delgated 20 tasks to others and have another 30 stored somewhere in my head in the severely inefficient organisational system that is my brain. I even had to miss a salsa party last night due to sheer exhaustion!

So today it was with much glee that  left work at 3:30pm and hopped on the train to embark on the two hour trip to take me to the yacht that awaited my thursday twilght sail. I was relishing this, so was buoyed up in a good mood due to the anticipation of a fun sail, where I can forget everything else. Seems everyone else was in the same mood as I was!

Today I sailed with Pete, my usual skipper (you might have heard of Pete actually, he was quoted in the news this year when a stranded Whale tried to suckle his yacht: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_7570000/newsid_7572200/7572270.stm)

Plus Tamara, Henry (I’ve sailed with them before), Anthony and Michelle (met them for the first time). I instantly clicked with Michelle, a German girl who has been here for two years, and everyone was in such a great mood, drinking beer and laughing before we even set off.

As for the race itself….I have never known anything like it in 15 years of sailing. The start was pretty average. We had good wind, and found ourselves in the top three. It was beautiful and mild, warm even, despite the sun setting over the city-scape and turning it orange.

Then….we appraoched our second mark…..and this particular buoy was positioned in the shadow of an island where the was absolutely no wind. Try to imagine a race of about 50 yachts all charging towards the same mark….only to grind to a complete halt in the dead wind. What happens? You end up with 50 yachts all unable to steer getting closer and closer……we found ourselves sandwiched between about 3 yachts on either side and had to kick-each other away with our feet to avoid hitting each other. There was lots of shouting which turned good-humoured when we all realised just how ridiclous the situation was. Boats were going round in circles, some went backwards, some hit other boats, some hit the buoy. It was a very tense part to the race…..and also the slowest since no boat was going faster than around 2cm an hour!!

We finally got around the buoy, only to find that due to being squeezed out by lots of other yachts we were now at the back of the pack! And suddenly, out of the shadow…wham! The wind struck and we had 25 knots!!! We were flying! Our sails were way too big (we were overpowered in sailing-speak) and well heeled over. We bombed along!

I have never known conditions where you have 0 knots one minute, then 25 knots the next. It was nuts! And I LOVED it! I was leaping about the boat, calling trim on the headsail (Pete now claims to other crew that I am cheif trimmer…whoop!…..and he also said today that I was the best steerer he’s met, I was so chuffed! – I said ’steerer’, not helmsperson, since he only lets me helm his very expensive yacht when the sails are down and the motor is on!). I was crawling over the bow to sort out the headsail in the light winds, and drinking beer, and chatting, and sitting on the side watching the sun-set, and trimming the sail…and just loving everything!

Afterwards we invited the crew from another boat on board, who consisted of John (who normally sails with Pete), Kim (guy, not girl!), and Vivian – an English girl who has just arrived here. We sat on the back of the yacht drinking beer and wine and having a great time in the warm Sydney evening, the stars just poking through above. It was such a relaxing and enjoyable evening, with great company and a bizzare, challenging, stupid race.

Just perfect!

my mood’s have been up and down this week. Last weekend was awesome. I went sailing on saturday and it was a great day (apart from one boat protesting us  – the question being should we have given way to them? We were on a port tack, they starboard, and from where I was sat looked like we would run into them so I say yes….but everyone else on my boat seems to think we were in the right so hey, what to do?)

Afterwards I met up with another bunch of sailors, but this time all in tuxes and ballgowns, as I went to the Pink Ribbon Ball for Breast Cancer Awareness. It was a wonderful evening, great company on the table I was at and plenty of wine. Lots and lots of wine. Boy was there a lot of wine (already all paid for months before with our ticket price so kind of free). And then there were the Mojito cocktails..lots of those. And some wise guy bought a round of tequila shots…..probably the start of my downfall.

Anyway, sunday was a complete waste because I was sick as a dog all day long and only got out of bed at 4pm to attempt to sip some lemonade. From the facebook updates going round it seems I wasn’t the only one who had slightly too much to drink!

The middle of the week went downhill though. Work is pretty stressful at the moment. Its the major rush to get everything done on this new linac before we can treat patients on it, and they’re already starting to book treatments and there’s loads to do. I don;t exactly feel i control of the whole thing and the heads of the department keep asking me when it will be ready and frankly I have no idea. I know when I would like to have it ready – what I’m aiming for. But already things are falling apart – its all very technical and I can’t explainwhat I mean. But its not much fun right now.

I did ten long hours on thursday and was thoroughly down and fed up. The weather reflected this too – oddly the temperature plummeted to 10 derees and it was dark, cold, overcast and raining. Really miserable, and didn’ help my mood. I got home and wasnted to curl up and watch Heros and not speak to anyone – so when I got nagged to empty the dishwasher…in a tone which implied I did nothing round the house ever – I was so pissed and went to bed that night fuming after a few sharp words with my housemate Alice. I fumed all night, even in my dreams. And for most of the next day too – although I offered an apology to Alice to clear the air which helped, despite me thinking she was the one who owed me one.

On saturday we had a party for one of Alice’s friends. It was ok – not too many people, and all of them middle-aged ladies. They left at 10:30pm – sure know how to party those girls!

One thing I love about Sydney is how it can be crap weather during the week, but come the weeked it is glorious! It often happens that way, never did in England, The best days were always those when you were holed up at work, then it pissed it down all weekend. This weekend was no exception – whic mabe why I’m feeling in a great mood again! I did 70 laps of our beautiful outdoor 25m pool. I only meant to do 50, but it felt so good that I just kept on going, and only stopped because I got a bit bored and wanted to sunbathe, not because I got worn out!

Today I had to make a trip to Bondi to pick up my watch, which I’d had to take back to the shop to replace the battery. Not exactly a hardship to mke a trip to Bondi on a glorous day! I bought some lunch and ate it on the beach, then I took a stroll along the coast as there is an annual sculpture exhibition on; Sculpture by the Sea which had some interesting things and LOADS of people.

There’s ALWAYS things going on in Sydney. You jut have to leave the door and within minutes you come across a festival, or music, or a parade, or beer tasting….or, as when I cae back to my apartment complex, a champagne tasting going on atone end which seemed very lively!

So…..this brings me to me cry for help. With my moods going up and down, and stress at work I sometimes want to go bac home. But more often I am enjoying things out here so much I don’t want to go back. Since I kept my job in London, I need to make a descision soon as to whether to go back or not…..and I still don’t know!!!

Been having some great weekends – especially since I had two long weekends in a row with two monday’s off due to a public holiday and then my fornightly day off.

Last weekend me and Farz decided to check out the Museum of Contemporary of Sydney and were pleasantly surprised. I’ve been very un-interested by contemporary art (not in the way that I am not interested, but that in going to view it, out of interest, I have subseqeuntly lost all interest). I’m thinking in particular of the Tate Modern which I’ve visited a few times since I used to work not too far from it. The turbine room was always excellent with installations that still pop into my mind sometimes, but the permanent exhibitions are dire. Really, I don’t give a crap about Damien Hurst’s pathetic self-indulgent ‘art’ expecially when it takes the form of rows of medicine bottles laid out like a chemist shop. When I see tosh like that it just depresses me how the art world has been conned by people more stupid and lazy than they – and neither party will amit it, too wrapped up in their own snobbery to realise how gullible they are.

Anyway – this time I was susprised as much of the work was ineresting and thought provoking. The pieces that stuck out for me were traditional wood engraving-type prints turned displayed on light-boxes depicting what first appear to be old Asian themes from litereature but which have hidden surprises, such as they Mac-y D’s golden ‘M’ in the background! (hard to explain and do justice as I’m finding here!)

After our art fest, we wandered to Darling harbour for another fest – a latino festival (very in keeping with my latest salsa craze!). We arrived in the afternoon in time for a communal samba session-I tell you you don’t get much more spontaneous fun than wandering in on a crowd of people all trying to samba dance and joining in! The vibe was so good we ended up staying for the rest of the day into the evening, treating outselves to some of the latino treats (churros…..yummy yum yum, those divine long straight Spanish ‘doughnuts’ that you buy fresh of the street). I thoroughly enjoyed swaying along to some live salsa beats too (and Farz is great at pushing her way to the front of a crowd!). We also saw lots of great salsa dancing too, which made me feel very incompetent!

The weekend after that was brilliant. On friday I joined Farz ater work in Leichardt, an Italian district of Sydney and after a great Italian meal with delicious Italian wine we went to see an Italian film with a couple of friends of hers. The film was ‘wild blood’…..wow. I was stunned at the end. The film was 2.5 hours long, and every scene was deep, dark and emotional. It was not  light-hearted film! I couldn’t begin to explain it – you’d just have to see it.

I went sailing on saturday for the first time in two months!! Very excited. We sailed out of Sydney harbour into the ocean – and on our return leg I spotted a dolphin a couple of meters away which lept out a few times before passing on. How many sports do you know where you get to see dolphins as you compete! We came a respectable 4th, and although more of a cruise than a race was just what I needed to get into it again.

On sunday I finally made it down to Wollongong, a town just south of Sydney on the coast, which looks very pretty from the surrounding hills. I met up with my workmate Ab and his whole family, as well as another physicist called Mel and together we treked around, trying to keep up with Ab’s kids (who he’s determined to get into rock-climbing like himself!). It was great to meet his family finally, and I even got a goodbye kiss from his eldest, Shamil! I found the whole day a bt of an adventure, even though I only went down to the ‘gong!

On monday Farz cooked us pancakes with ice-cream and berries for breakfast (yum!) and then I did some laps of the pool – I was the only one in it, seeing as it was a monday! I lazed by the side in the sun and read my book. Then in the evening I had my salsa class, in which I was pretty useless! Probably because I ached from sailing, hiking an swimming already!

Damn my life is tough.

Yesterday, as I waited for the train home after work, I found I had picked a spot mid-way up the platform with no one else very near. I spotted a man walking towards me from the corner of my eye, and ignored him as I assumed he’d walk past – but I noticed he was getting closer. He did approach me, and said ‘excuse me’ so I replied ‘yes?’ thinking he’d have some question about trains since we were both evidently waiting for one. What he said next was:

‘do you know what happens after we die?’

……..What!!!!?

I heard the first part of his question and processed that first, ‘do you know what…’ and still thought he was asking about trains. So when the processing for the second part came through from my brain I was pretty stunned and confused. However before I could conciously get a grasp of this my brain decided to take control without letting me get a say in. It just though ‘wierdo alert’, and promptly turned me around 180 degrees and made me walk as far away from this guy as possible. I think my verbal responce pathway, being already primed to answer a question relating to trains, was still set-up to give a reply, but unable to make sense of this question all I uttered as I walked away from him was ‘yeah, right’. I heard him say ‘I guess not’, behind me as I walked away.

Now, what I want to know is, was my action the right responce? The thing that bugs me is that I don’t think I had any say in what my brain decided to do. Some primeval repsonce took control and it simply bypassed the whole system of etiquette and politness and social interactions and went straight to the ‘get yourself away from this freak mode’ before I had even conciously reaslised what I was doing. So even as I walked away, the part of my brain conditioned to be able to fit into society started to feel pretty guilty that I had just blanked this guy and walked away from him.

So now I’m wondering about free will, and what that means. My rudeness to this man had nothing to do with free will, because as far as I was aware I had no say in what I did next. I blame my brain. But isn’t my brain me???

However…I am glad my brain took that action as, thinking about it afterwards any strange man that singles out a lone woman on a station platform to ask such a creepy and sinister question as ‘do you know what happens after we die’ has to be either:

a) a wierdo

b) a religous nut who wanted to convert me

and I didn’t want to engage in coversation with such a man. Especially when he had interrupted me from a particularly good day-dream in which I was having an awesome sail out of Sydney Harbour. And anyway, why would I know what happens after we die? Do I really look like someone who has died? Do I have the air about me of having death listed as one of my life-experiences????

Yep, one whole year. If you don’t believe me take a look at my travel map up there – the first part of my route says: Fly to Lisbon 8th Oct.

It feels slightly surreal, as that day, and the weeks just before it, are crystal clear in my mind. In the weeks leading up to that day I’d been stressed, worried and that period represents my mental state being at its weakest and most fragile. Frankly, planning the whole upheaval, forcing myself to abort my current life and throw myself into something new was not an easy thing for me to do and was such a constant burden on my mind since the days I first concieved of it that it almost broke me.

However, the thought of not doing it was even worse. I actually liked my life. It was comfortable. I had a nice house, with slightly loopy neighbours and organic vegetable deliveries. I commuted into work every day along with the grey masses, and had a cushy job doing research work whilst the rest of my collegeaues battled with the day-to-day clinical duties which I was ever thankful to have avoided. I socialised in London during the week, I sailed or visited friends at the weekend.

It was easy. And I was bored. I wasn’t meeting new people. Somedays the very walls of my house seemed to close in and I just felt like throwing myself against them in a bid to escape. There were places to explore that piqued my interest and it seemed like everyone on the planet had travelled the world except me. I just had to leave.

So one year on where am I now? I just had dinner with my housemates, over a glass of wine – we cooked an impromtu feast! And Alice said to me that her daughter, Lina, had commented to her the other day how good I looked. She meant how happy I looked inside – Alice mentioned that glow that comes from happiness within. So I think that goes a long way to saying how I feel right now. A few weeks ago I was aching with homesickness after my return trip. But now I’ve settled back here I have the amazing sense of having two homes. I know Engand is there, with my family and friends, and I can and will go back. At the same time I am loving my life out here. It still oozes possibility – one year on and the adventure is not over yet! I meet new people all the time, I have done many different things and have plans to do many more things so my inner happiness stems from a double feeling of knowing my true home, and also living a life away from home that is yet full of potential.

At the moment everything is just right (well – apart from the minor issue of being single, which has been a thorn in my side for some time now, but let’s ignore that). I’m loving home life with Alice and Farz – the atmosphere when I come home is just perfect. I’m loving work – it almost feels more like I’m socialising than working! There’s not a single person I don’t like, and most of them I like fondly. The work I’m doing is interesting, varied and pushing my levels of experience beyond anything I’d imagined before I arrived. In fact work has been a bonus, as to be honest I didn’t think about this trip as a career building excercise at all, getting a job was primarily a means to an end, with a side-thought that I wanted to put all my years of training into practice here (and also give somthing to my new home, since my job is in healthcare). So the fact I’ve done valuable experience building work here (and somehow managed to avoid the boring rouine stuff once more!) is a real plus. In fact if I’m honest it plays on my mind that if I return to my old job in England I will just get stuck with my career progression going nowhere.

I guess you have to add to all this the sense of satisfaction of having actually done something exciting in my life. Well, many things if you think about it, in one year: Sailing across the Atlantic with a bunch of people I’ve never met (that in itself would qualify as a life experience, visiting the States, treking around New Zealand on my own in a campervan, starting life in Australia……

Each of those has sub-experiences. I’ll never forget rum parties in Barbados, or a fancy dress party in the middle of the ocean. Playing ‘War of the Worlds’ on night-watch as we gazed up at Mars in the middle of the sea and scaring everyone into thinking the aliens were going to get us! Having a fling with a free-spirited American. Leaning over the bow of a yacht to watch tens of dolphins leap about, just feet away..and we didn’t chase them, they came to us! Waking up unwashed and heavily tanned, sticking on some shorts and a top, and feeling beautiful and natural as I stroll along the harbour wall to the shower.

Or how about ice-skating outdoors at the San Fran superbowl, and watching amazing sunsets on the beach with my friends. Or being unable to fully comprehend the massive scale of the landscape in Yosemite Park, as deer walk right on past.

And then there’s celebrating christmas as far away from home as it is possible to get with about 15 other familyless 20-somethings who’ve found themselves in the same spot. Or walking through rainforest one day, glaciers the next and coastal paths the day after, to finish in a natural warm spa.

There’s the life I’ve made here with my lovely home and housemates. The sailing every weekend and all that brings (I just love it…summer season is starting yay!) and salsa classes (who’d have thought it could be so much fun!), beach-life and pool-life and city-life.

And finally there’s all the people I’ve met, the many new friends I’ve made. I know if I go home now I’ll then have the same problem I did when I moved here – I’ll miss my friends.

This is a very rosy reflection. Bad stuff did happen of course (feeling lonely, feeling like giving up, missing home and also getting lots of expensive stuff stolen spring to mind). But actually, this is all part of the same wonderful experience. For instance, I’ve never had anything stolen before – it’s actually quite an interesting thing to go through with all the emotions it brings – I didn’t dwell on it too much as I decided material things aren’t worth the stress. That in itself is a lesson to carry through the rest of my life.

The big travellers and adventurers of the world would probably dismiss my little trip. However since my frame of reference is the only one I have then I have to rate it with high importance due to the effects it has had on me and my life.

Sorry, did I go on too long? I realise this self-reflecting blog may be a bit too much, but I wrote it for myself. For if I didn’t have this blog to write these thoughts to, then they would probably never be recorded which I may regret in the future (whereas now I can print this all out and bind it and keep it forever!).

Seems even Oz isn’t immune to the curse of the bank-holiday weekend. After a week of +27 degrees heat (it reached 32 yesterday) the weather broke last night giving us a storm and today it’s grey and raining and a measly 18 degrees!!

Actually, I shouldn’t call it a bank-holiday weeked as over here that literally means a bank holiday. There is only one bank holiday in the year, it occurs in August and only people who work in banks get the day off! A far more sensible use of the term (perhaps that’s how it started in the UK too?) But it confused both me and my previous housemate Candace who saw it on the calendar and assumed it was a bank holiday in the UK sense – Candace even went and booked a trip for that day and ended up having to take the monday as annual leave!

 I should refer to it as a public holiday instead – although what his particular holiday is for I’m not sure. It is possibly Labour Day. Either way, I get monday off and it’s raining just like it would would back home.

With no particular plans made for this weekend, and the miserable weather, me and Farz are just lazing on the sofa’s each with our laptops on our knees watching ‘Blood Diamond’ whilst our cleaners are working round us (feel a bit guilty about that!)

If you think Bank Holidays actually meaning a holiday for banks is strange, then wait till I tell about ‘leave loading’. This is the unbelievable system wereby you actually get paid more when you take days off! I found out about it when I got my payslip after I returned from the UK. I had been paid more money…the reason given ‘leave loading’…..and yes I get an extra 15% of my daily salary for every day I get off! The reasoning for this loading, as argued by the old unions, goes like this: most people end up working overtime, and therefore claim overtime pay and therefore always make more than there nominal income. However, when you take days off you do not work overtime, therefore you have to ‘make-do’ with your basic salary, which may requre a change in lifestyle for those days you take off. As well as this, you are less of an expense to the company when you’re not there since you’re not using up stationary, electricity etc. And finally, when you are on holday you are likely to spend more money, so some extra cash would be nice. Therefore….we should be paid more for those days we take off.

Isn’t Australia great! And slightly nuts. I have never before heard of a country that pays you more money not to come into work!

I’ve not done a great deal the past few weeks. My usual salsa classes on a monday night – which are getting more and more complicated! (but I’m getting there). They’re great now actully – there’s a group of us who alwas arrive early and chat and then we talk abot how hard it was at the end of the class! I’ve aso been swimming in the pool several times, and enjoying glasses of wine at home with Alice and Farz. All very nice and comfortable (hey, with all the swimming and dancing I might even get fit – although the glasses of wine might put a hold on that!).

Hey that’s cool, the cleaner has a vacuum cleaner that she acually carries around on her back like a jet pack! (sorry, she’s just hoovering in front of the TV and I got distracted. It’s like those weekends in when you’re a kid and your mum decides to annoyingly hoover in front of the TV).

I had my fortnightly day off on thursday and since Farz isn’t working at the moment it meant I actually had someone to spend it with, which made a nice change. We headed off to Bondi and had a nice lunch wth a glass of wine before chilling on the beach for a couple of hours, then wandered along the coast. Despite it being a weekday the beach was packed! Must be full of back-packers and holiday makers and there were an awful lot of people not at work. It was very relaxing – although trying to catch a bus home at peak time (and trying to find a bus stop away from the beach) was a bit of a chore…we both miss our cars!

On wednesday I’ll be celebrating a special day:  1 year since I left England for my travels! Isn’t it amazing! I shall have to do a special blog to commemorate that occasion.

As well as writing mypost below, I thought I’d share with you a few random things which I like.

First, some stupid signs:

My mate Jim has been finding strange signage himself:

http://angriestman.blogspot.com/

And also this advert from Orange which is probably my favourite advert ever – just because it is a beautiful piece of art in its own right:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfbir–XboA&feature=related

 And finally one of my old schoolfriends posted this photo of me (on the left) and another friend, taken when I was 10 wearing my best 80’s disco outfit whilst on a school trip to Butlins. Hideous! (note the fluorecent socks in pink and yellow):

That was a belated Garrr since I completely missed International Talk Like a Pirate Day on friday and only realised today. Boo.

I’ve been in a good mood all week – which was amazing since I had to get up a 5am every day to be in work for 7. But, it was already light by the time I left the flat, so wasn’t too bad. Just meant I went to bed at 9:30pm most nights!

I had my day off on monday and it was great! Summer has suddenly struck at full force – it was a stonking 27 degrees on monday so for the first time I went to use our pool. I had it to myself when I first got there – it was bliss! I did about 50 laps (its a 25m pool) and then sunbathed on the side for several hours. Then I strung my hamock up in our terrace and lazed on that reading my book. Couldn’t think of a better way to spend my day off!

I had my last salsa class at level 1 on monday evening, and to celebrate we had a salsa party the next day for all the beginners to try out their moves. It was hilarious! Twice as many women than men turned up! To relax us all and get us into the mood the teachers started the night be teaching us Merengue. Each guy had two girls and were told to just ’stack ‘em up!’ – I ended up in the middle between a guy and a girl which given that it had been 27 degrees that day and the air conditioning wasn’t on it was pretty hot in there! The guys just spun on girl from each arm and we tried to avoid hitting each other – it was ridiculous and very funny! After that the salsa music was put on (slowed down for us lot) and it was up to the guys to ask us to dance. I danced with 4 or 5 guys and got lots of wine bought for me, so when I cam home in the evening I was very drunk, and probably still a bit drunk when I woke up at 5am the next day!

My new housemate also moved in that day. She’s been great to live with so far. She actually comes out of her room, unlike Candace. In fact it was a real delight to come home on wednesday night. I could hear laughter coming from the flat before I’d even opened the door, and there were Alice, Farz and Jitinda (Alice’s friend – no idea how to spell her name) all in the kitchen and a lot of vegetable chopping had been going on. I ended up cooking it as a stir fry and we all sat at the table tgether to eat – was really nice to come home to a fun  and lively house!

Work has been good too – I’ve been able to get away from the linac since we’ve now employed a few more people so I can actually get on a do more organising for the project. So I’ve been delegating tasks left right and centre and have people assigned to do a whole range of things to get this linac clinical in the next 7 weeks (only 7 weeks – argg!). Athough I’ve got others doing the jobs for me, I’m still overseeing everything so get to check up on how everything is going an be involved in everything. It’s great!

On saturday the heat had climbed further up to 31 degrees – so again I spent the morning by the pool. Did another 50 laps and soaked up the sun – this time there were a lot more people there, it being the weekend. In the evening it was Dave, Finton and Mark’s 30th birthday party – which was kick-started by…..lawn bowls.

Lawn bowls? Old people in white trying not to do their back in bending over too much? Is it really appropriate for a 30th birthday? Well, the thing is over here Aussies just love sport, regardless. And lawn bowls, or bare-foot bowling as they call it, is done by everyone. At the bowls club it was packed out and there wasn’t a grey hair to be seen. Jugs of beer were plenty though! (however you get chased off the grass by men in black if you take your beer on the lawn itself!). I was actually pretty good at it, and Dave – well, he certainly has his retirement future set up for life of bowling.

After that we headed to a pub nearby where they’d booked a room out upstairs and we carried on the party. We were all quite drunk already from the bowling. Was good fun – just chatting to all of Dave’s footy mates and their girlfriends – all the guys are English pretty much! Dave was very very drunk by the end up it. The give-away being that he was dancing. There was him and some girl doing really stupid moves. At one point Dave was on his back on the floor pumping one arm into the air – no idea what that move was supposed to be but he seemed to be enjoying it!

So today I’ve just been taking it easy after a night of boozing. I just sat in my hammock all day in sun.

To sum up this week: sunbathing by pool, sunbathing in hammock, 2 parties and delegating tasks at work. What a great week!

I’ve been back in Sydney for 2 weeks now, and my emotions have gone up and down like a yoyo. I arrived feeling lonely and miserable. I’d loved being in England and seeing all my family and friends, I felt at home and didn’t want to leave the familiaity. It was so nice to be somewhere I just know, inside and out.

So when I arrived in Australia, after an uncomfortable 22 hour flight feeling tired and unwashed – there was no one there to meet me at the airport. It was 6am, so no one to greet me when I got home since Alice and Candace were fast alseep. I just felt lonely. I thought going in to work the next day would cheer me up as at least I’d get to chat to people…but I came in to find that everyone I share an office with was off that day. It was just me on my own feeling severely jet-lagged and still lonely.

My mind was set. I had finally decided that I would come home when I initially planned, in spring next year.

However….two weeks on and, well, I’m really enjoying myself! Work this week has been fun since I was on a training course so didn’t have to stress about commissioning the new linac and could just sit back and learn. Also my office was full with Tony, Ab and Jarrad all in, and I just find myself laughing all the time with them – I had way too much fun at work this week!

Had a few good night’s out too - went out to celebrate Dave’s 30th in a pub and headed back to play Wii games until 3am. Luckily I left before the vomit incident on the floor…

Had fun at my salsa class on monday, and despite missing three weeks I didn’t feel too far behind. Next week is our last class at level 1 so we’re having a party on tuesday where we’ll get to practice our moves. On friday I went to a German/Austrian resaturant with Tony and Nadia, plus lots of others - some I’ve met before and some I haven’t. I actually managed to find vegetable strudel on the menu, which was very good and went well the the weis beer! We went to a bar afterwards and I was one of two remaining till last. Then last night I called Dave to see what he was up to and ended up joining him and Kirsty to watch the Wallabies v All Blacks in a pub half full of Kiwis and Aussies (and randoms like ourselves….actually spotted Virgillio there and said hi). Met a rather nice guy there too…

On the down sound my new housemate Candace is moving out to be closer to work…on the plus side today me and Alice interviewed some potential new housemates and have offered the room to a lovely girl called Farzana who will be moving in next week. I liked her because she said she likes to cook, likes to eat and loves to have a few classes of wine!

So I’m now feeling pretty happy to be here again! I guess I don’t have to decide right now, and it is right that I should be making the most of my time here and just having fun – that’s the whole point of it. I’m still meeting new people every day here, and planning to do loads of exploring and try new sports. When I decide I want to grow up and be serious I’ll move back to England and settle down. But until then….fun fun fun!