Sunday 27 July 2008

Sydney in Winter


With black clouds looming and ice creeping across the Southern Highlands, Ric and I have said goodbye to Mittagong and escaped to the warmer climbs of Sydney, which is a crisp 7-9°C. Not at all cold by English standards but bloody freezing for us at the moment!

We're staying with more of the Crawford clan, my uncle and aunt and their five - yes five - offspring at their gorgeous house in the leafy suburbs north of the city. They are kindly putting us up while we search for a flat.

I haven't seen any of them for about fourteen years and I'm finding it hard to resist the temptation to tell them all how big they've grown!

As lovely as it is here and as wonderful as it is to see my family again, we don't want to outstay our welcome and are longing to unpack our grubby bags once and for all, so the pressure is now on for Ric and I to sort ourselves out. We've been thumbing through the rentals listings in the weekend papers and emailing agents and tomorrow we'll head in to town to register with a few estate agents.

I ain't cheap here that's for sure; probably about the same as London. We're fairly confident we'll find a nice flat somewhere though, despite the waiting lists we have been warned about. We don't need a palace to make us happy! A swimming pool and gym would be nice though...

Depending on Ric's level of patience, I will also be on a mission to find pair of long woolly boots (yes, perhaps even Uggs), some warm trousers and a couple of jumpers since I have arrived woefully ill-prepared for the Aussie winter which wont last long but long enough to warrant at least one shopping trip! My cousins are finding it hilarious that we, the Londoners, are walking around the house wearing scarves, gloves and rugs over our shoulders!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Alex I left some tips re house-hunting in Oz on your Facebook page. I found out pretty quick that finding houses isn't the same over here! You have to do all the leg work and registering with agents is rarely successful as they can fill most houses ten times over! You have to be hard core! Helen x