That building...

Beep, Beep Beep

Car horn: Beep, beep, beep, beep

Husband: What is that beeping?

Wife: Well it's either a car alarm or a really pissed off, but well timed taxi driver.

Mascara

There is nothing more suspensful than watching a woman putting of her mascara on a Sydney bus.

Has it been a month already?

Wow, I have been really, really slack lately with the ole blog. But I promise itt has all been for a good cause, well maybe not good, but productive. I have literally been working my butt of recently, so much that I have not had a spare moment to really look after myself or do anything that I really care about. Like maintain this blog.

There have been many times I have wanted to write, especially when I have seen and experienced all the strange things that constantly happen to me here in Sydney. Below are a few of the interesting things that I have experienced lately:

• Our car window was smashed
• A person Od'd in the park accross from our building
• I saw a dead body on the street
• A person was bashed with an iron pole two streets away from our house
• This morning at 3am a man was sitting on our bonnet and throwing a giant knife into the wall accross from our apartment repeatedly
• We are thinking about moving

Apart from all of these less than desirable things life has been good. Yes, I have been working a lot but it has been great work, exciting projects, inspiring and creative. I am really proud of the work I have been producing lately, I have really been on the top of my game, and have been having a ball.

Have a good one! I am off to bed to prep for a big day with the ladies over from Perth. Have just stuffed myself with roast beef, steamed vege's and gelato. Mmmm gelato.

Cars on fire

On Monday last week as my morning bus was making its way down Broadway, I looked out the window to see a burnt out car on the side of the road. I don't think I have ever seen one before, right out there on the street like that. Broadway is a pretty major street, kind of the similar to the West Perth end of Hay Street, that kinda thing. No one else on the bus even gave it a second look, or even a first for that matter.

The next day (Tuesday) I looked out for the car, and it was stuffed with a heap of blown up, colourful balloons. I wish I had had my camera with me, it would have made a great shot. The burnt out Holden, with no windows, full of balloons.

By Wednesday it was gone.

On Thursday on the way home from work, I had left a little late, I looked out the window onto another part of Broadway to see a car parked on the street. It was engulfed in flames. Fire trucks were gathered around it, hosing it down. Police cars blocked part of the road. I couldn't help but stare at the comotion until the bus had passed so far that I could no longer see it. No one else on the bus even took a second look at it, they had a simple glance and then went back to their newspapers, books and mp3 players.

I don't know whether I will ever get used to seeing things like this. Like I will never get used to the drug addict passing out on the street, as I frantically call the cops and an ambulance, who never turn up. (P.S His friend came instead, though she looked almost as bad as he did.)

Bus trip turn around

A few days after my bad bus experience post I had a great bus day! The morning didn't start that well, the guy at the newsagent still stared right through me, and my first bus driver did manage to drive into the trunk of a tree! Oh yeh, I am not joking! But that resulted in a lovely walk to the next bus stop with the little 75 year old lady who was sitting next to me on the 'tree' bus. She was visiting her daughter and was heading to central to go on a little day trip to meet a friend. She was sooo cute!

On the way home from work that evening I met another lady, she was wearing the same perfume as me and was visiting a friend in my subhurb. I also met a little old couple who required bus advice, which I am not that good at giving, but I managed this one well as they needed the same bus mine. The old guy was born in my home town and grew up on Rottnest Island! His Dad designed this open air cinema in the middle of Perth, that has now been torn down. We had a lovely chat on the way home, and I was actually dissapointed to get off the bus, when I normally rush of there like a drug addict running from the cops. (Too politically incorrect? Ok maybe, I'm sorry. I have been trying sarcasm on for size, I think that in the right scenario's that it fits.)

My public transport journey…

AM

• Usually begins by missing the green man at the traffic lights and waiting a whole cycle before I am able to cross.
• Moves on to trying to buy a “travel ten” from the newsagency, and perhaps the daily paper. From a man who appears to be blind and doesn’t see me standing right in front of him dangling the paper and a $10.00 note. He could also try smiling once in a while so he seems more like a human being and less like a terracotta warrior.
• Continues with me standing at the bus stop, either being sprayed by a high pressure hose seeking to remove last nights vomit from the sidewalk, and/or being harassed by the possible owner of said vomit as he looms in front of me and try’s to crack on to me. Me responding to his dribble by saying, “I do not want to talk to you” Sounds cruel I know, but you have to cut him off at the pass because if you smile politely he may follow you to work.
• Then I get on the bus and stand like a sardine, pressed up against a rather unattractive male who attempts to look down my top, or read the newspaper over my shoulder. If I am lucky enough to get a seat it will be next to a high school student yelling at her girlfriend down the phone, “Oh my God, did you see what Chantal was wearing yesterday? Oh my god, we so can’t talk to her anymore.” (Please tell me that I didn’t sound like that in high school!)
• Another passenger yelling at the bus driver, for no reason other than they haven’t had their morning fix of coffee yet, and the bus driver didn’t think to read there mind and stop when they didn’t physically push the stop button.
• I then depart bus A and head for bus B, which I squeeze onto amongst throngs of uni students. Though this trip is getting easier the further into the semester they get, and realise that they don’t want to go to uni anymore, or don’t want to sit in that lecture. Yay for me!
• Get off the bus and grab a coffee before getting to the office and scrubbing the public transport germs off my hands. “Aaah, get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off!” (aka Eliot from Scrubs style)

PM
Usually much of the same, yet in reverse, but sometimes deviates slightly to involve the following:

• Bus driver not letting me and a 75 year old man on the bus because he has decided that he doesn’t want a full load, and also can’t be bothered opening the front door for us, only the back one to let people off. (this happened today)
• Large man with no elastic in his tracky dacks, singing on to his very loud portable radio (think he may have had a few screws loose if you know what I mean?) poor guy I felt sad for him, radio is probably his only friend. I stopped feeling sorry for him when he exposed his large butt to me as he alighted from the bus, and I “Vomited in my mouth a little.” (aka Dr Evil style)
• Speaking of vomit; realise I am beginning to feel a little car sick on the bus, and can’t figure out why, realise that a previous passenger has left a little vomit present at the back of the bus that has not yet been cleaned, stench is nauseating. Perhaps it was the same guy from the morning.

Luckily you do find enough nice bus drivers, passengers and non-butt exposing people on the public transport system that keep you from stopping taking the bus.

It’s like winter

It’s winter today in Sydney. Blustery, windy, with a slight chill on the breeze that is sometimes soft and sometimes buffeting. This city always has a way of making you feel insignificant, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Back in Perth, you can often feel as if you know everything, you know everyone, you can expect that it will be a sunny day the next day. But this city is humbling, it keeps you guessing. There is such a huge and dense population that you often feel dwarfed by the rush of people that come at you when the train doors open, and by the totally unexpected weather that makes you regret your choice of floaty summer tops in February. Then you sit at home in the evening, in jeans and a comfy sweater, you stare out the window at the rain and remember how much you love snuggling on the couch in winter. That’s the power of this city, it keeps showing you the things you don’t expect when you don’t expect to see them.

That distinctive smell…

I love walking around in Sydney. It’s like being at the theatre. Lots of colour, sights, great outfits, cute people, young people, old people, sad people, happy people funny people, and… that smell. Eeewww, what is that smell?! It reminds me of…poo, mixed with body odour, mixed with urine, mixed with vomit, mixed with stale alcohol, mixed with… god knows what else. A very pleasant walk can so quickly turn into nostril burn, gagging, and the need for a paper bag.

Maybe it’s just the inner city suburbs, the ones that suffer the immense influx of people all the time that have (in parts) this unbelievably disturbing smell. There really is no other way to describe it, other than it being totally disturbing. I can’t even really describe it in words, there are simply no words for that smell that so often turns a glorious walk into a rush to the nearest public restroom. Though the rest rooms may be just as bad.

Significantly Slack

I have been significantly neglecting the old blog in the last few weeks, or week, in fact I cannot even remember how long ago I wrote. I do have many, many, many good reasons why, beginning with a constant stream of great visitors (who have been thoroughly distracting in a good way), me starting an new part time design job whilst still managing my own business (where I am currently designing a very in depth publication). So yes, I have been extremely, extremely busy, the last week working days and nights to get on top of the workload.

On the up side, I have really felt like I have settled into Sydney now, and I feel at home in my environment, at home, at work, and in the greater areas that we visit regularly. I am really beginning to feel like we belong here and that we can make great things happen for ourselves here.

We have begun to take a deeper look at property now, as we feel confident that we may actually be able to afford something nice over here, not like the crazy market in Perth, where we were convinced that we would be renters forever. Even though property is expensive here, we feel like we will end up being in front, and better off than if we had decided to buy in Perth.

I have really enjoyed going to an office several days a week, interacting with fellow designers and advert guru’s and contributing to a team that gives you feedback for the work that you do. I am having a great time, and I am so glad that I decided to take that step into part time work, even though it inevitably means that I will be flat out most of the time with work, often during evenings and weekends.

So yeah, all is good and I am not dead, and now that I am settling back into routine I will be a little more reliable with this.

Happy Aussie Day to all, hope you have a great day with family and friends. Party on, and think of us watching the fireworks spectacular at Darling Harbour.

Happy New Year!

After only a couple of minutes home I hear my first siren, and after an hour or so my first domestic dispute since returning from our New Years trip. Aah the serenity. There’s nothing like a nice afternoon filled with sirens, screaming and smashed glass to make you feel right at home again.

Happy New Year to all, hope that you had a hoot of a time and didn’t have to bad a hangover yesterday.

Barking & New Years Eve

Every night at about 10pm a group of people stand in the park across from our apartment for about 2 hours and let their dogs bark at each other. The dogs bark and bark and bark, for TWO HOURS! All I have to say is FFS why don’t you just take them off their leads and let them kill each other! At least then I will be able to sit on my couch in peace and then lay on my bed and sleep in peace!

I love dogs, I am a dog person, I wish I had a dog, but we live in an apartment and that would just not be fair on the poochy. But if I had a dog I would put the d*mn thing through some training so it doesn’t bark for TWO HOURS every night. Another thing! How about not walking the d*mn dog with all your friends and their d*mn dogs at 10PM at night! How bout that?!

Well…now that I have that off my chest, I hope that everyone has an amazing New Years Eve! Just make sure you don’t build it up too much, cause if you do, you will be disappointed, expectations are a fungal rot on a New Years Eve. Instructions are as follows; go with the flow, say yes to everything (except cheating on spouses and drugs), drink and be merry, make sure you kiss someone you love at midnight!

Reflective

I have been feeling very reflective in the last few of days, to allow my brain to catch up with our new life, and all of its new challenges. My poor old brain and heart have taken a beating over the last year really, not necessarily a beating in a bad way, perhaps a description would be ‘a workout’. Yes, ‘a workout’ is definitely what I have experience in the heart and the head department in the past year.

This time a year ago I was working for a design studio, and since then I have:

• Left my job
• Dealt with various family crisis (sad face)
• Started my own business from scratch
• Got married (happy face)
• Moved into a shared office, where I learnt heaps and had heaps of fun.
• Moved out of a shared office (sad face)
• Moved across country, which resulted in losing all physical contact with my best friends, family and newly discovered design guru’s.
• Realised that perhaps I wasn’t as profitable in my business as I wished (fair go though, it’s only been 9 months since I started it)
• Realised that without work face-to-face contact and separation from loved ones, I have in fact become…a loner…oh yes.

Mmm, yes. I know what you are thinking, “poor little brain, poor little heart”. I know that I have my husband here with me in this new town, and believe me he really is my best friend in the whole world. But…each of us need other things/people in our lives other than each other. Unfortunately we have long ago left behind that completely amateur idea/reality of a relationship where all you want to do, is spend time with your partner 24/7. I know, and he knows that this is not healthy for a person’s brain, and heart. We can support and look after each other without being permanently attached at the hip.

So…do I have a plan. Oh yes! I have a plan! I am setting the wheels in motion…perhaps when the time is right I will share the details.

New Neighbours

Now that we have moved we have a whole new set of neighbours, of which we can regularly hear turning on and off light switches inside their apartments. Welcome to apartment living, where if you are lucky you won’t hear your downstairs neighbours fart! Speaking of farts, and the downstairs neighbour. He really likes garlic, and I mean really really really likes garlic. How do I know this? Well every lunch time I smell this really intense garlic smell, like I am myself wrapped in a giant garlic clove. Now I know I am occasionally prone to exaggeration, but I am not exaggerating this time, I promise. The guy must put at least 15-20 cloves into whatever he makes for his meals! Ok maybe 15-20 is a bit of an exaggeration, but the garlic is making my eyes water and we live on different floors, so I am guessing that he is using quite a bit of the stuff. I am also guessing that even though I haven’t heard him fart as yet, that he must be letting a heap of those go, and I am thankful that they are not seeping up through my floor and into my nostrils. This may also explain why the guy is still single. Ok, so I don’t know for sure that he’s single, but I have never seen a woman/man (you have to have an open mind, this is Sydney after all) go into his apartment, and with all the garlic I am pretty convinced that they never would.

I suppose Garlic Guy could also be trying to ward off vampires! You never know, you have to keep an open mind, after all this is Sydney! So really I should be sending him a little thankyou card with the words “Thanks for keeping the vampires away with all the garlic, our families thank you for protecting their loved ones” Aah neighbours, neighbours, neighbours. We did end up seeing our old neighbour in Perth one last time, the one that we thought was dead. She was in fact not dead, but backing her car out of her drive, after she had removed all of the plant growth that had engulfed her wheels of course.

We do have another neighbour; she is not in our building but the one behind ours. She religiously practices her violin everyday and it is so lovely. I can regularly be seen taking out the trash, then holding my nose to block out its smell, and prancing about the back alley listening to her swooning violin playing. She’s really very good.

Public Urination

I have started going for a walk everyday, for fitness and also to have a bit of a look around this new city. I have been choosing new directions each day and it’s been a great way to examine all of the areas that we do and do not want buy into in the future. On Monday I went for a great walk, lots of beautiful streets and houses, great weather. Which all ended with me walking down the road and some old guy showing me his winky, and then proceeding to do his business! Yeah! I am not lying, it was the most disturbing thing I have seen in a long time. You think he could have just found a bathroom rather than scarring the 100 or so people on the street.

I know it happened on Monday but it took me a couple of days to be even able to come to terms with the fact that I had seen something that looked like a prune, before I could then expose you to the horror.

Jaded

Today at 2pm in the afternoon a man walked down our street ranting and raving, yelling ‘f’ this and ‘f’ that, yelling at imaginary people, as you do. Me, being a killer for drama rushed out onto the balcony to check it out. I looked down, and he was in fact yelling at no one in particular, mainly just the people in his head. The interesting thing was that all of the surrounding people just walked right by him, as if nothing was happening, as if this kind of behaviour was something they see everyday. Heck, in this neighbourhood it is probably something you see everyday.

See this is how you can tell that I am not Sydney born and bred, because we would react to something like that in Perth, we would stare and then run, or cross the road at least. Here they just continue walking right past the guy, even bumping into him, and he doesn’t even notice, he just keeps on yelling at the people in his head.

It’s interesting what we get used to in our lives that we no longer even see anymore. I have been picking up on a lot of that kind of stuff lately, as I seem to notice everything here, cause it’s all new to me, whereas everyone already here has seen all this and worse. I suppose someday I will become as jaded as they are.

Our interesting weekend…

Our Saturday began with a lovely sleep in, a stroll and great coffee and toast from our new haunt. I bought the paper on the way home and read the first section of it, the Sydney Morning Herald is huge so I like to attack it one section at a time, and after each section I generally need a break.

The Saturday had started well, then we decided to go to the shops to get groceries, window shop (e.g. look at things in fancy shops that we can’t afford). The problems began on the way there, the traffic was hideous due to the nearby markets, and also that it was perfect beach weather. The hubby got so frustrated he debated turning the car around, but I was able to calm him and we kept going. Retrospectively I wish I had said nothing and that we had turned around. The shops were fine, but I was over the window-shopping pretty quickly, we were looking in a lot of electronic shops and I was dragging along my lime green granny trolley, so I kept bashing into things. We were however looking for headphones for me to use Skype, so I was in no position to complain.

We got to the groceries in the end and things were looking up, we had found a Woolworth’s so I was back in my element. All the products I used to get in Perth were there, the prices were cheaper than Coles, and I knew where everything was, the only difference was that the range was much bigger, which was, well fantastic! (Yes, that’s me, getting excited about grocery shopping!)

Baah booww…the joy did not last for long. We lost the car. Well, we didn’t lose the car, we just forgot where we parked it, which was somewhere under possibly the biggest Westfield shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere. It was ok though as he had a plan, I was to stand with the trolley whilst he scoured the floor where we thought we had parked. See, they have these little codes, but we had forgotten ours a little bit, kinda half forgotten, and there were no distinguishing features about the car park. As in, I thought ‘Hang on a tic, I remember that corner and that sign, but hang on a tic there is another one just like it, and another, and another. Holy Potato everything down here looks the same!’ We did eventually find the car, but not before the husband had scoured 2 levels of the car park.

When we finally got out of the car park, we were side swiped by a taxi, who decided to mount a curb so that he could gain one car length on us. (Shall we bake a cake and write “Was it worth it?” on it for you Mr Taxi Driver?) After he scratched the side of the car he proceeded to drive away, no swapping of details or anything. Lucky I am the bag lady and carry notebooks and pens with me. We spent the rest of the afternoon feeling decidedly sorry for ourselves and our poor little car, and then we made police reports called the taxi company etc etc.

The car scenario was the real low point. I made a roast for dinner which would have been great except I am used to a cool oven requiring a very long cooking time, and the one we have now is much hotter, hence I over cooked the roast. There is nothing I hate more than over cooked meat, that dry texture is horrible. Hubby loved it, though he may just have been saying that to cheer me up.

Sunday was much better, though we both still felt a bit out of sorts due to our run in with the crazy that is, the Sydney Taxi Driver. It involved completing the enormous read of the paper and the movies. We saw a strange one called Children of Men, a great film filled with action and emotion. Check it out.

Aaah Sweet Broadband

Aaah sweet Broadband, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. You don’t leave in a constant state of desperation by disconnecting every hour.
2. You take less than 5 minutes to load a web page.
3. You allow me to be on several different sites, msn and email giant files all at the same time.
4. You are wireless, with no messy strings attached.
5. I can sit on the couch, in bed, on the floor on the dining table, maybe even in the stairwell and still have access to the net.

I love you broadband.

Now that my pathetic spiel over my inability to deal without broadband is over, isn’t it interesting that such a together woman can fall apart when she doesn’t have a fast and continuous Internet connection? My life seems to depend on it, and in terms of business and earnings it does. I wonder what would happen if there was a nuclear bomb and there was no internet, I suppose that wouldn’t matter as my concern would be the fact that I may no longer be living…ok enough of stupid internet talk, it is going no where.

In other news, the weather here has been absolutely loopy today. I felt like I was living in Antarctica except for the snow and ice part. It was so d*mn cold and the wind was so strong, I thought the apartment windows might explode. Did I mention that I was wearing leather boots, a scarf and a jacket with a hood and it’s November! November People! The time when I should be lazing on the beach, wearing pluggers and singlets.

Also I saw this guy today who looked exactly like Lenny Kravitz, except I think that this guy way gay. He had the whole stringy fro, black jeans, leather jacket, cool boots, buggy sunglasses thing going on, he was totally hotttt! Hee hee looksies only I promise.

Ok, chicken time! Hungry belly demands food.

Four seasons in one day… that’s definitely true

Today Sydney has fulfilled the prophecy stated by Crowded House all those years ago. This morning, it was warm and sunny, then midday it was pouring with thunder and lightning, currently (afternoon) it is lovely and sunny again! What the! I am only glad that I don’t have to leave the house otherwise I would have had huge issues with what I put on this morning, Sounds nerdy, but I always tailor my clothing to the weather, but you can’t tailor outfits to this kind of weather, it’s just impossible!

Speaking of clothing, if I have to go to Bondi Junction Westfield one more time and stare longingly at all of those pretty clothes in the windows, I just might die. I wish I could take a photo for you guys, but they would probably arrest me for taking photos is a shopping centre, I could be planning an attack on Dangerfield for Christ’s sake, in order to spring myself this seasons hottest jeans! The thing is, I have found it a little difficult to compete with the fashion-istas over here, for some reason my little gold ballet shoes, no brand jeans and stripy t’s don’t seem to cut it here in Syd-o-ney, because they are soooo last season daaarrhhling. At least I haven’t been hanging out in Double Pay (oopps I meant Double Bay) otherwise I am sure that I would be feeling even more self conscious about now.

See gals, this spring it’s all about dresses, dresses and more dresses! Oh dear god, soon I have to go to an Xmas function, I have nothing to wear, best go get me one of those spring dress numbers.

My hands hurt…mine hurt more

Last night after eating our delicious Satay Beef, we popped together two of our new storage cabinets for the lounge. Well, ‘pop’ might be a little bit of a lie, perhaps ‘struggled’, ‘moaned’, or ‘blistered’. In fact, we haven’t even finished the second one, the doors still have to go on, but we looked at each other and new that we couldn’t go on.

Let me clarify that my husband in fact did most of the work, I just tightened screws, because he has done so much building over the last few days, putting together the dining table and all the chairs, that he can hardly move his hands. Poor Love.

I will eventually get the photos up on the web of the whole moving in fiasco, perhaps tomorrow. I started back at work yesterday, and it was insane! I logged on and had about three thousand emails from 5 days away from my computer. We haven’t got the internet up at home as yet, so I am down at the café down the road till my laptop battery dies. I come down here twice a day and send and receive email, and hopefully have enough battery at the end of it all to read my daily dose of news and dooce. I am looking forward to being able to curl up on the couch again, or in bed with the wireless internet though, it’s comforting to be able to flip open the laptop in the morning and know that you can find out anything that you want to just by typing in two little words…google.com