Paperwork mountain

Even though we've been back in England for going on four months now, I still feel like I'm living in both Australia and the UK sometimes. Especially when I try to cope with my paperwork and finances. My red folder blows my mind right now. For every UK bank account there is an Australian one. I have separate plastic wallets for my separate tax returns, bills, statements....I started doing my UK tax return and got out all my Australian group certificates. Help?

"The sun is but a tale; a children's story..."

So yeah the Lady of the Green Kirtle may as well have been talking about Sydney when she said that, because the sun does seem like a bit of a long forgotten myth here at the moment. I am completely and utterly convinced by the very real existence of RAIN though.

All week, huddled under my umbrella as I scurry through Hyde Park on my way to work, scarf bundled up, hoodie zipped up tight i have to remind myself that it is November and I must not lose hope that soon it will be a little bit warmer and (PLEASE) a little bit dryer. It is so hard to dislike the rain in Australia as we should be grateful for any that comes, but being positive about it is becoming harder and harder. I think it's just training us up for our return to the UK.....

Fortunately, while last weekend rained on Sydney, we were down in (moderately) dry Canberra for a little trip. Mark had been working all week at Australian National University and so I spent 3 and a half hours on a bus last Friday night to join him. The bus was a very comfortable Murrays bus though, and this coupled with the bargain $25 fare made it rather more agreeable than you might imagine 3.5 hours on a bus to be.
I arrived off the bus into Canberra Civic at around 9.30pm and Mark was waiting at the bus stop to whisk me off for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Delhi 6 with some ANU Philosophy types. The food was delicious - something Sydney really lacks is really good Indian food (something we are also looking forward to getting back in the UK again). And it was good to meet some new Philosophy faces as well as some old favourites! After the meal, we went to a cool pub called The Phoenix, it was like a proper English rock/indie pub. Had some beers then realised it was really late so walked back to Mark's room on campus to sleep.

Saturday morning brought a long lie in, before heading out for brunch at the cafe in the National Film Archive. We then took a wander so I could see some Canberra...what an odd place. It's so rural, feels a bit like being on a big spread out business park, dual carriageways connecting everything, not very pedestrian friendly at all! There are two centres on each side of Lake Burley Griffin - Civic on one side and the Parliamentary centre on the other. ANU is next to Civic, so we walked over the lake on the big road bridge into the Parliamentary zone.



It was a horrible, grey, hot sticky day, really uncomfortable for walking. The view of Black Mountain was nice, but odd when you look at that photo and remember that that is technically the view from the middle of a city! It's so rural!

You can find most of the sights along one edge of one of the circuit roads on the Parliamentary side. We walked past the big imposing National Library and along past Questacon science museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the High Court and finally the National Gallery of Australia. The weather was pretty unbearable now so we decided to have a look in.



Sculpture outside the National Gallery

After a refreshing ginger beer in the cafe, the gallery turned out to be quite excellent, with a very comprehensive collection of Australian art including some very famous works such as Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series which I love. We had a good look round - I love some of the early european style Australian paintings - the pastoral scenes of areas that are now built up towns and suburbs - it's interesting to see such a change over the course of a century. It's also very revealing to compare early depictions of Sydney and Melbourne - Melbourne was quite the grand European style city, while early Sydney seems to be mostly represented as a grubby collection of ramshackle houses!

We ventured next door to have a look at the Australian High Court, an imposing building of concrete and glass.



Some pretty exciting cases have gone on here, one of the most famous being the landmark case of Mabo v Queensland (No 2) in 1992, which finally directly rejected the legal concept of terra nullius in Australia and recognised Aboriginal land rights.

Then it started to rain. A lot. So we hurried back to campus over the bridge. Had a 2 hour nap, then went to meet some philosophers at a nice pub called the Wig and Pen for beer and fish and chips, followed by a trip to a Halloween house party! We failed in Halloween costumes due to lack of preparation, but I procured a lovely tail at some point and wore it all night. It felt so natural to have a tail! I really want to grow one - this prompted some discussion over tail-reassignment surgery.

Sunday was a far more pleasant day - a bit more breeze and sun. We headed back to the Parliamentary centre and visited Old Parliament House and its lovely rose gardens.





Seat of Parliament from 1927 to 1988, it is now the Museum of Democracy (with an agreeable $2 entry fee), which has some interesting displays about parliamentary history in Australia. Most interesting though is the fact that many of the original offices and rooms have been preserved as they would have been at various times, so you can see, for example, meeting rooms circa 1930 and office space circa 1970. You can also enter the original Senate and House of Representatives chambers.



In front of the Old Parliament House, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy has stood since 1972, despite continual controversy and several arson attacks against it. The Aboriginal activists that occupy the site promote the political movement of Aboriginal Sovereignty, which demands among other things land rights and compensation. Apparently there have been numerous attempts to remove it but I am glad it is still there as a reminder of some of Australia's more difficult political issues.

We climbed up Capital Hill to (new) Parliament House, as our last port of call before we had to head for the bus back to Sydney.



We were both pretty indifferent to the building, but there was a nice expansive view from outside over the Old Parliament and the War Memorial in the distance.



Let me remind you again, you are technically looking at a city centre in that picture! Ruuuural. We wanted to go inside, and you can, but you have to be scanned and metal detected and it was a bit involved and we only had 10 minutes before we had to leave for the long bus home, so that was the end. We arrived back to a sodden Sydney, 4 hours later.

And this weekend is sodden once more. Friday was our 7 year anniversary, and we spent it having a wonderful dinner at Yulli's on Crown Street followed by a cocktail at the Lounge. Today we managed to get a wonderful breakfast in at Four Ate Five before the drizzle began, Mark had the vegan mexican breakfast and I had poached eggs and avocado on rye toast. MMMM. I spent the afternoon reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. And so it goes.

roller derby & melancholia

Tonight I went to Roller Derby at Hordern Pavillion with Dean, Zane, Erin, etc (I was the heterosexual minority which was novel!) - Sydney versus Wollongong Illawara (Sydney thrashed them woo woo woo!). It was my first Roller Derby experience and I had a great time! The rules seem complicated but it's actually quite simple. And there is a lot of shoving - I was quite surprised how violent it was! The best thing about it is the showmanship aspect - all the girls have fun 'skating names' like "Peaches Obscene" and "Babycakes" and "Miss Sin Doll" and "Vindi Vicious" and the style is really burlesque - lots of make-up, minimal clothing, lots of lace and ruffles and tattoos and glitter and showing off.

Now I am home eating beans on toast and watching some awful film called Before Sunrise despite the fact the Ethan Hawke character is grating on my brain (keeps coming out with such cringe-worthy/scientifically disastrous/irrational gems as 'so 10 thousand years ago there were only a million souls, today there are x million, so where did all those extra souls come from, they must be reincarnated'). But it's set in Vienna and the premise is the characters meet on a train and spend the night in Vienna together, walking around. It makes me want to go to Vienna.

I kind of feel like Vienna might be one of those places like Sydney, that are just so close to reaching near perfection as a place to be. Vienna has, for me, almost everything. A beautiful city, beautiful surrounding countryside, great weather (reliably hot, sunny summers and reliably real, cold, snowy winters), low living costs (comparative to most western european capitals), amazing culture and history, great bars and fun nightlife (surprisingly, and something Sydney definitely lacks), plus plenty to fill your days with. It is safe, and quiet, the transport is amazing and everything is just so well run. The only thing it lacks is coastline and good food (austrian food has tendencies to make my insides revolt, rather quickly - it is just meat and stodge! No fish! No vegetables!). Two things that Sydney of course can offer, in abundance.

It is places like these, like Vienna, like Sydney, like Paris, like Melbourne, like Berlin....that make me feel sometimes there is no hope for me in the United Kingdom. But then I think, I have to find something. I have to look really hard and find something there, because I have to live there. This makes me feel a strange mixture of determination, hope, and confused melancholy.

winter brrrrrrrrr

I am currently going through my third Sydney winter. With this vast experience behind me, I can now share with you some extensive research I have conducted into Sydney winters. I have learnt the following things:

- No matter how old or new, rickety or solid your house is, during winter, the inside temperature will maintain a constant 10 degrees colder than the outside temperature.

- This is due to the Australian insistence that insulation is on the whole unnecessary.

- This in turn means that, no matter how old or new, rickety or solid your house is, you will constantly find patches of mould on your walls.

- To combat this, the advice is to ventilate your rooms thoroughly, everyday. This lowers even further the indoor temperature of your house.

- The disparity between indoor and outdoor temperature may trick you into putting on 64782 layers before you leave the house. Don't. You will be sweating within minutes.

- No matter how hot I am hurrying around with one too many layers on, I still see plenty of Sydneysiders all bundled up in hats, scarves and big padded coats as though they were off for a polar expedition.

- To cope with indoor temperatures, I have established from talking to Australians that it is normal to have an array of thick winter houseclothes, far more than you would ever need outside.

- As well as the above, it is normal to have a duvet on your sofa during winter, to sit under when you are watching tv, reading, or other sofa-based activities. I went in for this this winter and it's lovable!

escapism

The weather has been a little too much of late.



If you have never been in 41 degrees, you cannot imagine what it is like to be in 41 degrees. The air is like a desert bubble that clings around you, oppressive and suffocating. Haze and dust obscures the distance, and your immediate surroundings wobble and wave like you are viewing them through water. Being outside makes your head swim and your eyes sticky. The bushfire risk level is set at the grimly informal 'Catastrophic'.
That was the second day of 40+ degrees in less than a month, and the rest of the time has maintained a near-constant high 20s - mid-30s. Hot, endless, relentless heat.

I can't sleep at night, only in the early hours. I am zombied-out all week, then when the weekend comes I sleep endlessly and when I'm awake I am woozy and empty-headed.
This week looks set to be cool so I'm hoping to recover in 20 degree days and chilly nights.



We've both had various stresses of late so have been trying to take time to get out of the city and break routine a little. Last week we tripped out to Watson's Bay, where we sat under the trees and read and relaxed and got fish and chips and ice cream and coca cola.







An outdoor wedding was taking place just off to our right, and they had their photos done along the esplanade.

Today (Sunday) we tripped out to beautiful Balmoral, one of my favourite suburbs of Sydney. Lise, a friend of ours who's a PhD philosophy student at Macquarie uni joined us for a while and we sat in the shade, then retreated to the Bather's Pavillion for darjeeling and coffees.









Yesterday, we spent a long time in Redfern at my current favourite Sydney cafe, Baffi and Mo. Then I spent a delightful evening barbecuing prawns at Katherine and Darren's in Petersham.

Now I need to STOP watching Kill Bill Vol. 1 and go seek out my poop hat for slumber.

mosquito hell

We are meant to be off out on a fun Sunday marauding adventure BUT all has turned to misery. I sat on the balcony last night for barely 5 minutes when I felt a tingle on my foot. Looking down, I saw a MONSTROUS mosquito, about the size of a 50p, hopping happily around and treating my foot like a soda fountain.

This morning my foot and ankle were super swollen and I could barely walk properly. Mark went to the chemist and got me superstrength anti-histamine, and it's gone down a bit, but I still have a big fat foot and it looks like I'm stuck on the couch for the day :(

whinging pom

Oh hello there.

I am so fed up of winter! It feels so odd complaining so much about it since it still hits 17-18 degrees most days which for most Englishy types in England is lovely and warm. BUT it is just SO COLD?? Things don't really get a chance to warm up properly because of the short winter days, so 18 degrees in wintery Australia feels significantly cooler than the same temperature in summertime UK. The house is freezing because all the older houses here are just made to not get too hot in summer, rather than stay all warm in winter. Mark has taken to wearing two jumpers, a dressing gown, gloves and a blanket whilst working at home, which is an amusing sight to behold. No washing dries and consequently everything just smells of damp the whole time. It doesn't help either that we are now well into our FOURTH WEEK OF RAIN. EVERY DAY. I can't actually remember what the sun looks like? Not good enough, Australia, not good enough. The house is dark and depressing all the time because, like most houses in Australia seem to be, it is built in a way that no direct sunlight comes into the windows (presumably again to prevent excessive summer overheating). WA WA WAHHH!!!!

Ok enough complaining.

We have mostly been sitting in and getting over our colds and watching DVDs. Last night watched Charade, a 1963 thriller with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, that Mark's parents got me on DVD when I was in Paris, cus it's set in Paris. It's a good, silly film. Good but silly. I wish they'd remaster it or something though. The sound quality is quite poor, particularly in the first 30 minutes and in the scene on the boat, and the picture quality varies throughout. It's a shame cus it's a good film, I bet there's lots of good, forgotten classic films out there that could be rereleased quite successfully with a bit of polishing up.

Bank holiday weekend this coming weekend, for the old Queen's birthday, would you believe! I intend to do gardening - we acquired a passionfruit vine that needs putting out. I'm pretending it's Bank Holiday for My Birthday. One week tomorrow and I'm 25, officially a bit old. I suppose nothing much changes. I suppose I might have to finally accept the fact that I'm not going to grow out of my bad skin. I've been living for years in the mistaken belief that my greasy, blotchy visage will soon develop into nice, normal, smooth adult skin, and that I'll be able to gander about in public all fresh-faced without a layer of oil-control foundation coating my face for security. But no. Oh well. For any miserable 14 year olds reading this who are currently battling the terrors of adolescent skin, here's a bit of news: IT MIGHT NEVER END!!!!