Weather Culture Shock

We've been back 2 days now. Since then it has been grey, rainy, chilly and other blahy Sydney winter things. It's kind of like a grey Switzerland Autumn day. We just left summer.

Well we just left summer from a country a long way from an ocean with excellent central heating so 15 degrees there means put on a jumper when you go outside unless your doing exercise. 15 degrees here means where thick socks and a thick polarfleece inside. Weather Culture Shock.

Cold In Sydney

Classic Quote from the Sydney Morning Herald about a very cold day in Sydney

"You know it's cold when your Australian cattle dog is whining for you to dress her in her hooded fleece doggie jumper and refuses to go outside in the morning," she said.

from Tania Liebenow

Flat

It seems that we have now successfully completed buying a flat. Amazing. We are to Zurich in a weeks time and it looked like everything was going to take too long because of issues with the strata title plan but everything is ok. Contracts exchanged. Bank talking about settling in a week. We've got the keys under licence. Amazing.

I've been reading Luneray's Buying a Home series on Get Rich Slowly while we have been going through this and empathising. Her report of her closing trials meant that we were very careful in reading the contract and checking all the terms. Very helpful.

And now I have to put my computer down and start packing :-)

Freecycle

I put my first stuff on freecycle today. Within a
few hours I had three takers. Pretty impressive. They all seemed to
feel that they needed to appear enthusiastic and deserving. I thought
they were doing me a favour allowing me the double bonus of getting rid
of something I don't want and being able to feel good because it wasn't
being thrown out.

If this first one is successful we'll have to do it again.

Dragon

Dragon
Originally uploaded by bristley.

We went to Bunnings today - that's a Australian hardware store chain. On the way we went to the petrol station and put air in the tyres and cleaned the windows because up until about 2 weeks ago, we hadn't used the car for more than 3 months. Afterwards Dear Reader suggested that as it looked like rain we should go for a drive in the hope that this would wash the car. It's a little bit dirty after it's long hibernation in the garage.

We ended up at the beach and went for a walk downwind. It was amazingly windy and the sand was being blown so much that we walked back along the road as Dear Reader did not have glasses to protect his eyes.

Along the way we observed the dragon in the photograph which was slowly trundling into the sea.

We tried to drive back along the Wakehurst Parkway and luckily Dear Reader paid attention to the yellow sign which said "Closed" and we pulled over to the side of the road where we could see the fire which was obviously stopping traffic. So we turned around, went via Manly and listened to the radio where they told us that there was a fire around the Wakehurst Parkway :-)

The Rocks

The Rocks
Originally uploaded by bristley.

We went to see an Incovenient Truth today. We both really enjoyed the movie and came out thinking about energy efficiency of appliances and measuring power usage.

We then had to decide how to get home. Normally at night after a movie or dinner, we'd probably catch a taxi home. Somehow, after just seeing an Incovenient Truth we felt this would be somewhat, "inefficient" shall we say. We looked at the stairs going down to the station instead we decided start walking home and see how far we went.

As we walked over the bridge I took a lot of photos in the hope that some would work. I had my little cammera in a bag and propped in on the rail along the edge of the bridge on a 2 second timer and quite a few seemed to work. This is looking back towards the city across the Rocks and I like that it has the side of the bridge in it.

The bridge looks astounding at night - the lighting really highlights all of the structural pieces and there shape. I should go back there one day with a tripod and my real camera. I really wanted to get the span from the side but from my handy railing I couldn't get the angle I wanted. A lot of them worked out ok. I was quite pleased.

Australia Square in Pink

Australia Square in Pink
Originally uploaded by bristley.

Australia Square was Pink on Monday night. I'm so unobservant that I only noticed because someone was taking a photo of it with their mobile phone.

Then I noticed the professional photographer setup and the two GIANT spotlights on the corners of the building. So knowing that it would be at least a bit blurry I took lots of photos and ended up with this being the best of them.

Why it was pink I don't know - but it looked kind of funky :-)

Video Cameras on the Cheap

Video Cameras on the Cheap
Originally uploaded by bristley.

We were on the Manly ferry today. I noticed something that is very Sydney government. The ferry system can't afford surveillence cameras so instead they have stickers where the surveillance camera would be if they could afford one.

We went on the ferry from circular quay to Manly and then walked along the beach, sat at a table at a small cove passed the swimming baths where a possum came and sat under us, at some left behind food and ignored us totally - cheeky thing - and then went to the beach and had fish and chips.

We caught the bus back - it was a 7:43pm bus on a Saturday afternoon and standing room only. I think we need some more busses.

Frabjous Day

It is a loveley day today. I am on the train station again and today I was noticing all the flower buds and the sun bathiing skink on the road and the bees in the flowers.
The wattle on the other platform is just starting to bloom and some people are setting up chairs in the shade of a tree in the park.

All of this was here yesterday but today I'm noticing it.
It must be almost Spring.

Waiting for a Train

I am at the train station right now, writing my first mobile blog post. Next time, I'll be more advanced and email it from my treo as well. I don't have my blogs email address with me. The wonders of technology.

There has been a group of construction workers digging up drains at the station for the last few days. They are using a noisy yellow digging device. I just heard one of the construction workers offer one of his coworkers a go on the yellow machine and the coworker was very clever in refusing the challenge. His response was "It would be on top of somebody in a minute".

It's now this evening and I am about to email my post. A test.

Futurama All the Time

Channel 10 seems to have a slight problem with their TV schedule. Having finished Big Brother and then cancelled poor Jasmin - who may now never marry - it is now filling all of its schedules with Futurama. ALL the time. Continously - never ending. OK - not really - but there are 3 today between 7pm and 9:30 pm. For all I know it could be on randomly during the day aswell.

It's like when I was in Switzerland last year when BBC Prime would show 3 hours of Eastenders repeats on Sunday afternoons. Or ABC 2 with "Stateline Sunday" - all of the different Statelines one after another until your eyes bleed.

I want variety. Showing all the Statelines is good - showing them all one after another in a block is WRONG. Showing 3 Futuramas in a few hours is too much.

Free to Air TV programmers obviously need some help.

Urban Stalactite Closeup

Urban Stalactite Closeup
Originally uploaded by bristley.

We went for a Sunday walk today. A few minutes from home we went through a tunnel under the railway line and found these tiny urban stalactites. These ones were about 10 cm long. The longest ones were about 20 cm. They were actively dropping water which I assume means they were growing.