Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 2011

Aside from eating turkey-based leftovers and watching movies, Boxing Day at home usually involves flicking through the news channels to find coverage of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. I'm not sure why it's become such a Boxing Day ritual as none of my family sail, but I love boats and would jump at the chance to try sailing so I always take interest.

This year, being located in the starting city, I wasn't going to pass up the chance to watch it for realz so I made the loooong, cramped and ridiculously busy bus journey to the headland above Watsons Bay to catch a glimpse of the action.

About 80 gazillion people had the same idea which resulted in myself and my two companions ditching the bus half way and walking the rest in in the muggy heat. Totally worth it, even if the bus did eventually overtake us and arrive at our destination before us… 

Once arriving at the headland we clambered around to find a good spot and eventually perched ourselves on some rocks that gave us a view back across the harbour and out to sea – perfect! The next 45 minutes or so were spent watching the yachts gradually move their way along the harbour, with small boats and helicopters following alongside, ducking and weaving ridiculously close by! Very cool to see in real life – I’m a great believer of experiencing something rather than watching it on TV, but in this case I reckon you watch it for real once and then revert to modern day technology! 

Watching the race was awesome, even if it was as muggy as hell and the rain was just hanging there in the air, waiting for an opportune moment to pour down on us! One life goal complete, one life goal created: to be in Hobart when the race finishes!

 

A Hot Aussie Christmas

I've always wanted to spend Christmas ignoring the fact that it’s Christmas. Every year in the UK, as soon as October arrives – BANG - Christmas is the theme at every shopping centre, on every radio station and on every TV channel. There’s NO ESCAPE from festive cheer being shoved in your face and by the time Christmas actually rolls around I’m completely over it. A Christmas without any of that commercial rubbish being forced upon me would be perfect, right? So why exactly did I spend the run up to Christmas feeling like I was missing out on that cold, festive cinnamon-y cheer that comes hand in hand with December?

I’m putting it down to weather. My mental state depends a lot on the weather (weird but true) and is a large part of why I left the UK. December in Sydney was unusually “cold” (22 degrees – that’s summer to us Brits) and rainy, with forecasts telling us right up until Christmas Eve that the big day would be soggy. Not what you want to hear when you’ve saved up for eight months and left everything you know and love in exchange for a new sunshiney life and beautiful Christmas on the beach. Couple that with the fact that there is nothing traditionally festive about Australia during the run up to Christmas and what you’ve got is a grumpy expat on the other side of the world from their family, with an empty fridge and a long weekend ahead of them which will be spent watching re-runs of 80s classics such as Love Boat and I Dream of Jeannie because there’s nothing else to do. Not ideal. Not the dream.

As it turns out, the weather gods were good to us and Christmas day was brilliant. Myself and a group of friends ferried ourselves across the harbour to Shelley Beach in Manly for a day of swimming, bbq-ing and general festivities… along with hundreds of others. The gorgeous weather coupled with good friends and good food meant that everyone was in high spirits and the day played out exactly as we had all dreamt it would. We couldn’t have really asked for anything more!

On reflection, I still haven’t quite figured out quite how I feel about the whole Australian Christmas thing, purely because it didn’t feel like Christmas in the slightest. On Christmas morning I woke up alone, I saw no family members, had no Christmas dinner, no presents and no decorations. Then when the day was over I went back home alone, slapped on near enough a whole bottle of aftersun and collapsed into bed hoping I wouldn’t wake up bright red. It couldn’t have been more different.

Not that it was all a bad experience of course. I had a lot of fun, but whether I’d want to spend Christmas without family or friends again is another question. I missed having people around at home and I missed the M&S and Waitrose food - maybe if I could bring both of those things over here it’d be the perfect scenario!

Regrouping

Right, so it’s fair to say that my blogging over the past few months has been pretty poor. It’s now almost the end of December and my last blog post was in October. Shocking. Obviously a lot has happened since then and I have a lot to update. I had started putting together ‘how-to’ guides over the past few weeks (as was my original plan when moving over here) but they’ve never actually materialised thanks to my erratic schedule. I’m annoyed with myself for letting this slip but now I fully intend to made amends.

Where to start…

So not too long after I started looking for a job, I landed a social media role at an advertising agency in Milsons Point – just across the harbour bridge and next to Luna Park. A couple of weeks later I got the hell out of the hostel (which I had started referring to as purgatory), moved into an apartment in Bondi and I have never looked back. That was 2 months ago.

So much has happened since then, I don’t even know where to begin - I’ll have to relay the stories gradually over the coming weeks. One thing I have noticed that’s happened though is that my focus has slipped. Having got swept up in the world of having a job, actually being able to afford things and having a proper social circle again, I’ve found that I haven’t really achieved much. Or at least, I haven’t achieved what I set out to achieve. I’m not saying I haven’t had fun, far from it, but I look at my bucket list (and the various other lists I’ve made since arriving) and there’s not much I can check off.

When I made the decision to move to Sydney I was at a low point, and although it wasn’t the best time of my life, the decisions and ambitions I had at that time were 100% ‘me’. Since settling into Sydney working life I feel like I’ve started losing that ‘me’ because I’ve been swept up in it all. I barely run anymore, I’m always out and I’m constantly drinking. I’ve had mid-week hangovers more times than I care to remember, and that really is not the ‘me’ I wanted to become when moving over here.

So as much fun as it’s all been, I’m now deciding to make a change. Since finishing for Christmas I’ve been running again, exploring new places, trying to get my healthy balanced diet back (ie. no dinners made purely from alcohol) and I already feel better for it. I’ve also planned out and budgeted so I can actually do the things on my various lists - which will hopefully stop me carelessly spending money, keep me active and stop me from wasting my time here.

This week I’ve been reminded of how quickly the time you thought you had can be taken away from you, and I don’t want to be one of those “I wish I’d done this, that or the other” people. I’m very aware that I may only be in Australia for a year (although I’m hoping this is not that case) and so time is of the essence. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to be here and I don’t want to look back with any kind of regrets.

You Know We Belong Together….

…You and I forever and eveerrrrrr! Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. Anyone from the UK and Australia knows the Home & Away theme. And I bet you know all the words, don't you?

I used to watch it years ago when I was growing up but have lost track over the past few years. Still, when a friend mentioned that the infamous Summer Bay was just a short bus journey north of Sydney I jumped at the chance to visit.

Getting up at ridiculous o’clock and trekking into the city at 6am wasn’t too fun, but after grabbing a coffee and a Danish pastry balance was soon restored. Much to my amazement, a return ticket from Central station – which is an hour and a half each way - was only $8. Another reason I love Australia. An hour and a half journey in England would be more like £80! And it would be horrible. You'd probably have to stand the whole way. Anyway, we boarded our bus and were on our way!

The bus journey, although over an hour, was awesome. Bus journeys at home are generally quite grey and dull. I’m particularly thinking of a bus route in London I used to take which went through Elephant and Castle and past a load of council estates where people regularly got stabbed. (Yay for London!) This journey, however, followed the coastal road, winding its way up past all the little bays and brilliant ocean vistas to our final destination of Palm Beach, the last of Sydney’s northern beaches. And to make things even better, the sky was blue, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Bliss!

Palm Beach itself is stunning. The deep golden sands and massive surf are exactly as they are on the TV, so you can see why it was chosen as the filming location! Our first stop was what can only be described as a photoshoot fest at various points of the beach, outside the surf club, in the surf, walking onto the beach, sitting on the fence at the top of the beach… here in Summer Bay I had no shame about how many photo’s I forced my friends to take of me posing. In fact, if I’d seen Alf Stewat I would’ve high fived him and asked him for a photo. But alas, this did not happen.

What did happen though, was a walk along the beach, lunch at The Boat House and a brilliant afternoon beach nap (one of my favourite things to do in Australia). On this day I was most certainly winning and I cannot wait to go back!

Summer Bay / Palm Beach

The infamous walkway 

The infamous fence :)

B.E.A.UTIFUL

Surf Club!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It… Why Is It So Hot?!

It’s not that I’m against experiencing new things, far from it, but for whatever reason I’ve found the run-up to Christmas in Australia both frustrating and upsetting. Call me crazy, but looking at cards, Christmas trees and decorations with fake snow on them when its 28 degrees and you’re wearing shorts and flip flops is just plain wrong. WRONG I TELL YOU.

Christmas just doesn’t really happen here in the same way it does back home. It’s like it’s not Christmas at all. The only clues are the massive Christmas tree in the CBD, the inflatable Santa on the side of the Sydney Convention Centre who looks like he’s trying to break in, and the inflatable Christmas crab (crab with a Santa hat – I kid you not) on top of the aquarium at Darling Harbour.

Since arriving on these sunny shores I’ve never really felt like I’ve missed home. Before leaving I’d been told that I would get two or three months into living here and suddenly the reality of being on the other side of the world would hit me… but I’m still waiting for that to happen.

Having said that, during this usually festive period, I’ve found myself missing really random things from home. Not ‘things’ as such, but more events. For example, yes I’ve been sad to miss out on people’s birthdays and parties, but what’s really had my gut wrenching is not being able to enjoy Firework Night, not being able to watch Children in Need or the rubbish (sorry, but it is) Royal Variety Performance, not being able to join in with Remembrance Sunday (I HATED not having a poppy to wear), and most of all… missing out on that wintery magical excitement you get during the run up to Christmas.

I’ll admit that I’ve never really been a big fan of Christmas so it may seem a little hypocritical me saying all this, but the thing I’ve found myself missing about all this is the thought that for ten straight days you’re going to be tucked up at home with your family, awesome food, no work to do and plenty of catching up with friends. This year I have none of them. Not that I’m complaining, I just mean that the one thing I usually look forward to is not an option, so I don’t know what to expect or how to feel. And most annoyingly, seeing friends from home all experiencing it all via Facebook while I am not can makes it REALLY hard to block out.

Apparently I’m not alone. Other Brits I’ve spoken to have said similar things. It’s not home as a whole that you miss, it’s missing out on the little traditions and annual events that you’re so familiar with that make you feel sad to be away.

Thank god I’m in Australia… after half an hour’s worth of feeling glum I generally take myself off to the end of my road where I can find this:

Homesickness doesn't last long here. There are so many awesome views here that you simply have to step outside in order to remember how lucky you are to be here.

Case in point: due to general frustration with the non-Christmassy vibes in Sydney, Christmas Eve arrived and I felt the only way to make things better was to revert to one of my favourite past times: nachos and cocktails at the Hard Rock Cafe. I grabbed two of my best friends here and off we went, nabbing a table on the balcony which turned out to be THE best location for the carol singing (again, so wrong – singing about snow when it’s still 25 degrees at 10pm?!) and fireworks over Darling Harbour.

A very non-Christmassy Christmas experience, but brilliant in its own way!