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

Fings wot we have done for free in Sydney

Because we got a bit behind on the whole updating thing due to our internet being down for a while,  I thought I would talk about some of the interesting things we’ve done due to winning competitions online and just by being in the right place at the right time.

So far we have done the following for free (in no particular order);

Seen A Prophet by Jaques Audiard at the Oxford St Palace Verona Cinema courtesy of 2SER (radio station)

Been to see ‘Bliss’ at the Opera House courtesy of Opera Australia

Been to Good Vibes Festival at Centennial Park (won by Andrew, through Smirnoff  Australia)

Enjoyed an ‘After Dark Tour’ around Mitchell Library on Maquarie Street courtesy of 702 Weekends (radio programme)

Listened to a book reading by Irvine Welsh (he was awesome) / local bands at the Oxford Arts Factory, courtesy of Sydney Time Out

Seen Skii Harvey at Slide on Oxford St and JJ Whitehead at the Comedy Store as comps, as I was reviewing them for Trespass Magazine (shameless plug!)

We have also finally been up the Sydney Tower which was a parting gift to us from Andrew’s friend Baron Baker and his lovely missus Lou. We were lucky enough to see a rainbow over the city whilst we were up there.  We don’t recommend OzTrek necessarily – I finally thought I’d turned into my father (who could get motion sickness on a escalator) as we were jolted around rather a lot and rather unnecessarily.

A few weekends ago we went for a sunny jaunt around Sydney Fish Market – which is always an assault on the  – and ate some scrumptious seafood.

Only this Saturday afternoon, we ambled down to Centennial Park with a picnic to help one of our friends celebrate her 40th birthday. I went for a wander with my camera and some fizzy wine.

These are the tip of the iceberg. We have also been to loads of free events that we’ve mentioned in previous posts, New Year’s celebrations, Australia Day, Paddy’s Celebration etc. There’s loads to do in this city, ‘bored’ is not an adjective we’ve used since we arrived. ‘Knackered’, yes, ‘bored’, no.

I have uploaded a few pics of some of our various outings. I’ll let you guess which was taken where. Think of it as a sort of fantastic quiz, with no prize.

By the way, we’re entering loads of competitions and winning a shed load of experiences. We’re not sure if it’s that no one in  Sydney can be bothered, or that we’re just very lucky but we’re not arguing! Volunteering to write reviews is a great way to see some fantastic acts for free, too.

[View with PicLens]

Tags: Australia, Centennial Park, Free things to do in Sydney, Sydney Fish Market, sydney social scene, Wildlife

GrandMaster Flash at Becks Bar – Sydney Festival

One of the acts that I was desperate to see at Sydney Festival was GrandMaster Flash. We tried to get tickets almost as soon as we got to Australia but they were sold out.

We ended up hanging around the entrance and buying two tickets from people with extras for about $50 each (about £25) so we overpaid a bit, but it was well worth it for the experience of seeing DJ Royalty. V seemed to enjoy it – which is a real change as most of the dance music stuff that I drag her to she tolerates, but I wouldn’t exactly say that she enjoys.

Anyway – a few videos.

GrandMaster Flash at Sydney Festival Becks Bar

Sydney Festival Becks Bar Projections

Himself

Tags: Australia, Sydney, Sydney Festival, sydney social scene