Our Little Jaunt

Friends and their loveliness

Originally we started this blog for family and friends back to to see what we’re up to. It’s evolved and changed a bit in places and we like the direction it’s taking.

However, I am mindful that we more often than not blog about what we’ve done and where we’ve been, not so much about some of the great people we share that time with.

Of course it would not be fair to name and shame this lovely lot and so I will be delicate about it.

Firstly, I reconnected with an English colleague from a fair few years ago when we first arrived. She in turn introduced us to her fella and from the off we became good friends. Recently I realised just *how* good. And no, they didn’t ask us to put our car keys in a bowl.

A common theme we share is being so far away from our families and so in a sense, your closest friends begin to fill that gap. Last weekend we went on a trip to Melbourne together and we had a bit of a heart to heart (sponsored by Chandon). She said some thoroughly genuine and lovely things which dispelled any concerns I may have ever had about us suddenly arriving and encroaching on their established life here in Sydney. They, for their part, have gone on to introduce us to some equally great people.

It’s always a bit of a comfort when you realise that someone is going through the same feelings as you. Makes you feel less alone and more connected.

Being away in unfamilliar territory like this is a little bit like being back in the playground in your first week at school – you have to go through the rigmarole of getting to know who you do and don’t want to spend time with, why, what makes them tick and how much you can depend on them. You experience that awkward ‘will you be my friend?’ moment but far more self consciously because you add adult values to the equation.

Effectively, it’s the adult equivalent of  asking them if  they’ll let you play with their My Little Ponies…..

At the same time as working all this out, you find yourself being somewhat reliant on people you might not otherwise have lent on, purely because they are all you’ve got.

Does that sound cold? I think everyone does it at some point in their lives, both as an adult and as a child.

You don’t want to rely on people back home because whilst they may wish to help you out or support you, the time difference and distance makes this even more of a challenge than it would otherwise be. I don’t want to worry the people I would usually talk to -  my sister in law or my mother, for example – over something which may turn out to be rather trivial, or about something which I need feedback on quickly. Which is where our ‘Australia’ friends come in.

People talk a lot these days about how horrible people are to one another. I can safely say that we have received nothing but kindness from the people we’ve met over here in Sydney.

Take the ’social media crowd’ as I will call them. From the off, we were invited by @ScottRhodie to ‘SHTBOX‘   – a Friday night weekly gathering of Twitter users at The Clock in Surry Hills. That wasn’t even a toe dip. That was a full on ‘push you in the deep end’ moment. Which is, to be fair, what we love.

From then on in we met a variety of people who dabbled in or worked in social media – from filmographers and photographers to PR people, journalists, tekkies,  marketeers and more . A totally eclectic mix. I am not saying we clicked with them all (if you will pardon the pun) but isn’t that the beauty of meeting people?

That led to us to attending and getting involved with a number of sites and events, from IgniteSydney to Digital Citizens (at the last of these we attended, Himself was a speaker) and a load more besides, including one lovely lady I now consider a friend asking me to guest blog on her fabulous Law&Shoes site.

Our colleagues from both our places of work have been great, too. I mean it is rare to want to socialise with the people you work with all day but both of us have had great experiences.

Which brings me to our friends and family back home.

We miss you, terribly. Thank you for the cards you’ve sent and the texts, calls etc. Particularly for the pissed up early morning Sunday calls and texts – we do love those. Those fill us with joy . (Anyone who went to our wedding will appreciate that pic!).

Sorry for OUR (mistaken/pissed up) early morning/late night calls/texts. Thank you for bothering to facebook and e-mail us and for reading this.

Most of all, thanks for keeping in up to date with what’s going on in your worlds. Makes us feel closer to you and not so much like we’re on complete the other side of the globe….. which sometimes can feel almost like another dimension.

We look forward very much to welcoming those of you who are coming over in the near future. Get those flights booked!

Big love

Herself

x

Tags: Australia, Digital Citizens, friends, making friends, shtbox, sydney social scene

Australian spiders we have gazed at in abject horror

Now don’t get me wrong. We want visitors. We really do. Which is why, if you think that this post may put you off Australia for life, you should never have clicked on it in the first place.

When I look back at one of our first ever blog posts, I laugh in the face of the broom-wielding antics which took place in order to dispose of an arachnid the size of your finger nail. We should have nurtured that little fella, kept it as a pet, perhaps. The rehabilitation it would have offered us may have at least in part prepared us for the RHINOS of spiders that we have since encountered.

It’s always a good one, never fails. You can be skipping along happily in the sunshine, chatting away, throw a casual glance to your left and be confronted with Aragog’s meaner, older brother. It’s like a car crash. You just can’t tear your eyes away. It takes about three minutes for your brain to even compute that something that large can just be hanging there, on a tiny thread without breaking it. Ready to scare the living shit out of you.

Equally, they’re pretty fascinating. Providing of course that there is at least 3 metres , an ouzi or a pane of glass between you and them.

We have been very fortunate I think to not have had one in the flat yet – the closest we’ve come to this is the little guy I snapped sheltering from the rain on the outside of our back door when I was off work sick. It was a Hunstman which are the good spiders. Yeah. Define ‘good’…..

We’ve been lucky thus far as we have not come across this fella – the Sydney Funnel Web. Only the males are able to do any damage but they are extremely poisonous spiders. Here is how to treat a Funnel Web Spider’s Bite.

Bear one thing in mind. These spiders’ webs are like the Forth Bridge. I believe that, given a favourable breeze, they could actually span entire villages. So when you are strolling merrily along a quiet, tree-lined Sydney street, take a glance upwards.

I can guarantee you’ll be walking in the middle of the road once you do. Enjoy the gallery………….

[View with PicLens]

Tags: Australia, Australian nature, dangerous animals, Sydney, Wildlife

Weekend in the Australian Blue Mountains

Our weekend in Katoomba, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia started with a conversation in the car along the lines of this;

Himself: My sister says there are lots of koala farms round here.

Herself: really? Wow, cool. Like, in the trees and just free to move about and stuff?

Himself: Yes, they farm them for their skins I believe.

………………………………………………………………………

Half an hour later, on arrival at the hotel.

Herself (to girl behind the reception desk): Could you tell us where the nearest koala farm is, please?

Receptionist: Ko…….koala…..farm?

Herself: Yes, there are a few round here apparently. My sister in law has visited them.

Receptionist: I….um. There is a nice wildlife park about 20 minutes away. They probably have koalas.

Herself: No, I don’t think it’s that, apparently it’s an actual farm where…….(looks to the left)

Himself: (doubled over laughing).

Herself: You lied. (To receptionist) He lied. Forget it.

I sometimes allow Himself to have these tiny victories as I know they make him feel good about himself.

Anyway, back to the point. Accommodation was a rather quirky place known as Hotel Blue. We got a booking from lastminute.com.au but they currently have a special offer on their website which looks like good value for money. Their (very good) website suggests that the hotel is more modern than it really is, in reality it was a little worn but to the owners’ credit, they are revamping and decorating the entire place. The owners are a family who have over 20 years experience in the business and you really get the impression that the place is in good hands. Nothing was too much trouble for them and we had a couple of really nice chats.

The lounge had a roaring fire (the whole place smelt pleasantly of woodsmoke), a pool table and several chess boards, as well as some coffee table books about the area.  We had a relaxing drink before we headed out for some food.

Can’t say there’s a mind-blowing choice of eateries in Katoomba, in fact we ended up having something like burger and chips in the oddest place.  Katoomba generally seems very ‘art deco’ and the cafe we ate in was no exception. ‘Cafe Zuppa wasn’t terrible but we’ve certainly had better food. It made me laugh to read one of the reviews on the site I just linked to (Trip Adviser) which mentions how the waitress literally threw the plate down  – the same happened to me but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed she’d slipped! Clearly not!

The dessert I was furnished with was the simply gargantuan. I couldn’t have eaten it had I been starving. When I mentioned this to the waitress she said it was because it hadn’t risen properly in the cooking so what it lacked in height, they made up for in width. I can’t even recall what it was so it obviously wasn’t that memorable. The only thing I really remember was that it was the size of a house brick.

Anyway, I don’t wish to waste any more of your (or my time) on the unremarkable Cafe Zuppa.

On the afternoon we arrived, we went to the Jenolan Caves! They were fabulous, very exciting and the tour we did around the River Cave was really well done. We are returning this weekend with some friends and we have a half price entry voucher to go again. I would quite like to see the Orient Cave if possible.

I was quite chuffed with myself as I faced my fear of heights by climbing down a very tall ladder which had a very sheer drop below. It was probably safe  but it didn’t feel like it at the time! That got the adrenaline pumping!

The photos below will surely say more than I ever could.

[View with PicLens]

We then left to go on a bit of a drive and saw a bit of wildlife – including our first kangaroo! Well okay.  It was probably a wallaby. I don’t know. I didn’t ask it.

The following day we went to see the Three Sisters. This is a famous rock formation which apparently looks like this. However, our photo of the stunning scenery lacked a little of the gravitas of the one above.

[View with PicLens]

In the end, I DID find my koala (more fool you, Andrew!) and despite getting rather wet and bedraggled and not managing to see the very view we came for, we had a good break. It’s a pleasant enough place, really quiet nightlife wise but don’t expect to be the only visitors, bus loads of hat-wearing Koreans abound. At one point I thought it might be the law that when in Katoomba, a hat was to be worn.

[View with PicLens]

Like I say, we’re returning this coming weekend to a nearby village called Leura which we drove through when we were up there and which we thought was prettier than Katoomba. Who knows, we may even get a photo of those elusive rocks………

Tags: Australia, Blue Mountains, Katoomba, NSW, Sydney, Three Sisters