Sydney Living

After arriving down under from a stay in the Northern Hemisphere of nearly five years, I began settling into my new home bouncing between the hospitable residences of my mate from school, Mel and Monica a girl I met travelling in South America. I began the usual post-travel activities of looking for work and a place to live but still managed to take time out to venture down to Jyndabine in the Snowy Mountains where I went skiing with my bro and his partner Kris at Perisher Blue and Threadbo. The snow was pretty scarce late in the season after an apparent abundance a few weeks earlier, but there was still a decent cover and some great fun by all. Skiing through the snowgums was a new and interesting experience.

I eventually found some digs in Cammeray, just north of North Sydney and a job at Macquarie Bank in the CBD. I also managed to get involved with a 'drinking team that has a slight cricket problem' so began spending my Saturday afternoons donning white and chucking a red ball all around (and occasionally at) three stumps in the ground. Before this I managed to get out and about enough to see the Royal National Park, an excellent photo exhibition by John Pilger's various photographers and wander over the walking track around the North Heads from Spit Bridge to Manly.

A day at the cricket watching Eng v Aus

As the summer progressed I took possession of a car courtesy of my bro who was moving back to NZ, and took in some big parties - getting out to the groovy Sounds on Sunday and having a very good look at the clubbing scene of Sydney. The cricket was improving also and as the season progressed I managed to get a few wickets and a few runs and helped drag the team off the bottom of the ladder. Which was nice. I also managed to get to see London DJ, Norman Jay at the goodtimes festival (and after party at Boheme) and Groove Armada as well as the Counting Crows who were all touring over the warmer months.

Following the biggest and best win of the cricket season where the glorious Tramway triumphed over the Crusaders where we managed to put on 97 runs in 7.4 overs! The next day was spent at the Mercantile where St Patricks day was celebrated in the best possible way.

It was at this stage I began a relationship with a girl from work, Tannessy - one of the nicest people you will ever meet. It was an interesting time as we were trying to hide things from our collegues, but also see each other as much as possible. Hanging out with her helped me get to know and appreciate my time in Sydney a lot better and I would have to say that there are not too many times in my life Ive been much happier. Unfortunately she went off travelling to England and left me hoping that perhaps we may meet again sometime..

The cricket season came to a close with the two teams in our club participating in a hat and tie day which involved hats, ties and a very large number of beers and where the result was very close to a tie, but not quite.. Olympic edging out the Trammers by a few runs.

As the summer ended, I got into firstly some indoor cricket with some of the lads from the summer team, and after struggling to come up with a team regularly we formed a team in the winter cricket league (2nd grade even!) with a new name 'The United Nations' that managed to begin the season as it was to continue - with a resounding loss..

Later on in the cooler months I managed to get to see Aussie rockers The SuperJesus at the Metro, which was a great night and Warren Miller's Storm which really got me in the mood for the coming ski season. Firstly we had to finish up the winter cricket season, and with captain Pricey away I took the reigns for the first (and only) win of the season. A captains knock of 62 gave me some massive bragging rights. (..and I got a wicket too, you hear me! and another thing..)

I also managed to get out to a few sporting events over the winter, seeing the Sydney Swans AFL at the Sydney Cricket ground, the State of Origin II at Telstra Stadium and also the 50-21 Bledisloe Cup thrashing that New Zealand served up to Australia there also. Other thrashings that I witnessed were the Sea Eagles by Canberra in league, and the West Sydney Razorbacks by the Kings at basketball. A much closer event in the NRL finals was the Warriors over the Raiders by 1 in the last minute. Even though the tickets were free in a promotion aimed at getting as many kiwis to the game as possible, this game reinforced to me how much I really dont care for league. I dont think I'll be going to too many more games in the future.

For one long weekend Daz, Heidi, Tannessy and myself went down the coast for a few days at Vincentia in Jervis bay where the beaches have reportedly the whitest sand in the world. We had a number of drinks one night in the town of Huskisson down the road before a morning's whale watching expedition the next day. Out in the bay three of us provided the whales with pleanty of food as incentive to head in our direction - but we didnt actually get to see any.

With my time in Sydney beginning to rapidly run out, my flat broke up and I went off to doss with Mel in Maroubra for a few weeks and during this time welcomed my folks for a weekend where I got to show them around my home of the previous 15 months as well as revisit a few old haunts. Certainly a good weekend.

A couple of cameo appearances for NSSC Tramway and a little bit of tying up loose ends at work, and then it was back on the road. Sydney had been fun, but Im not sure I really ever liked as much as some other places Ive lived in and anyway, the travelling bug had been at me for months - so it was time to get back on the road again.

Who knows whats around the next corner?