After 14 weeks of backpacking across eight Asian countries using trains, planes, boats, Jeepneys, Tuk Tuks and every other imaginable mode of transport, a restful week at my dad's in frosty Mittagong N.S.W. and two more in the plush basement billiard room of my kindly family's pad in leafy northern Sydney suburb Turramurra, Ric and I have successfully moved in to our own significantly more modest abode in (the reputedly) hip, trendy and 'gay' Surry Hills.
Hurrah!
As documented here previously, it was an absolute pain in the back-side looking for a place, getting our deposit in on time, waiting for the approval checks to be done on us and then trying to organise the $4000 bank cheques (for the bond and rent deposits) without yet having bank accounts here. 'Why can't we pay with cards or in cash' we asked, exasperated?! The bureaucracy with which seemingly everything here comes is bewildering, time consuming, often costly and means that essentials including mobile phone accounts, renting properties, visas and health care are so difficult to sort out. It's also highly embarrassing to have to borrow off my family when I can't access my UK money! Today I was told that in spite of proof of my new address and my Aussie passport I am not allowed to register with Medicare until I have proved I lived in the UK before now. Funnily enough, I have neither an NHS Card, a tenancy cancellation letter, work cessation letter or Tax form here. I might have to wing it without.
The Internet here is also very expensive. Almost twice as much as back home. We were meant to sign the lease two days ago but realised (almost too late) what the financial consequences might be if we decided to cancel a 12 month lease with the agency. So we asked them if the owner would agree to a 6 month rolling one instead. Thankfully he did.
Having only arrived in Australia three weeks ago it's just impossible to say where we want to be in 6 months! This is a big country after all and one with many faces. Besides, we have got a round the world ticket, so New Zealand, the Cook Islands and America are still on the list of places to visit before next April.
It's not grand in any way this flat and it needed a good clean once we'd got in, but it is an adequate size, contains the basic large pieces of furniture and the city and Central train station are a short walk away. Better still, we are surrounded by cafes, pubs, restaurants and fashion factory outlets. There is also a fabulous cheap Thai Cafe right on our doorstep for when we are feeling lazy as well as a small park round the corner for when I'm feeling fit. Today as I did my laps, there were about 30 Asians doing beep tests in there jeans. As the name suggests, it sure is hilly round here. Fortunately we are situated near the bottom of a very long, very steep road. I hope our guests (my sister is coming in just two weeks!) wont mind having to reach the bathroom via our bedroom. It's not an ideal lay out!
We decided to find an Ikea as there were lots of things we needed including ALL our kitchen utensils, cutlery, crockery, bath towels and bedding. It turned out to be near a place called Homebush (where the Olympic Park is) and not Moore Park as the Yellow Pages suggested, so we ended up traipsing round for hours before we found it. Ric's sister Charlotte gave up on the mission long before we got there at 5pm. It was strangely reassuring to be back in the store experiencing the oh-so-familiar love-hate feelings towards it as we pushed our trolley round with all the other couples, choosing once again between the cheap, simply designed and oddly named items we have both become so accustomed to during our time in shared houses and student digs. We have taken this cheap-skate stance as we don't want to spend much on things we might have to leave behind eventually.
Two hours, two hotdogs and $650 later we escaped the place and in spite of a rude and stupid taxi driver dropping us off at the wrong station we somehow managed to haul our huge bags on to a train and get back home. If we've forgotten anything, I'm going to a local KMart!
Now all we have to do is stock the kitchen cupboards, repair the hob, dishwasher and bathroom light, sort out the electricity supplier (all seem to be government regulated which is good), organise the phone and Internet connection, direct debit our rent, perhaps buy a hardy pot plant and then have a housewarming party to which all our friends (4 to be precise) will be invited. Rock on.
I also want a bike as I miss cycling!
Now we have visited the family and have started paying rent in a flat, my holiday remorse has properly kicked in. In Asia, where it is the norm to see people just hanging around with their paunches hanging out, lying in hammocks and generally not working much at all, one doesn't feel too guilty for doing very little in a day. Here on the other hand, I've been surrounded by suited city workers and commuters and by my relatives going to their respective offices, schools and universities and I am feeling the need to be part of that, pronto. More to the point, it's cheap to live in Asia - not so here, though it's probably on a par with London!
Shopping has lost it's appeal even for me and Ric is also itching to put his mind to more productive pursuits. I am going to have to keep an open mind about what I do as I feel very out of the radio and media circles I was once in back home. It's also been more than three years since I went for a job interview. I'm fairly confident I'll find something I can enjoy, although thus far the jobs advertisements haven't exactly been calling out to me from the careers section of the paper.
If only I had web this week it would make life so much easier! Patience, patience. I just hope at least some of the better jobs here are advertised externally, else I'm not sure how to get a foot in the door. I might have to temp for a while or even take up the offer of a job in the stylish cafe/restaurant/gig venue next door. The manager offered me work this morning when I went in for a coffee in my sweaty running gear. It's tempting.
Meanwhile, we have been checking out the city, sorting the flat and various accounts out and huddling under our new duvets to watch the telly. Its all about the Olympics here. Every time we turn on our wee box Stephanie Rice seems to have won another gold in swimming or is being interviewed about her successes. Ric thinks the green and gold colours of the Aussie team are pretty unflattering. It's hard to see how the Brits are doing in the games unless they happen to be competing in the same events.
The Chinese are doing well. They are an impressive race. It's a shame the Australian press doesn't stop moaning about the poor air conditions in Beijing. Give them a break I say! I was sad to hear that the little girl who sang in the opening ceremony was actually miming as the real singer was deemed not pretty enough just minutes before she was due on stage. Imagine how that would feel for a five year old! The predictable censorship continues. They have blocked the news of the miming girl scam, a bus crash and on the news now we are learning how a British ITN news reporter was arrested for reporting a pro-Tibet protest.
As for my OCD, mood and eating, I'm afraid to say the mental wranglings continue. I vacillate many times a day between fleeting bursts of pleasure and extreme happiness and almost overwhelming depression, heart-stopping fear and a sense of loss and loneliness.
As we start to settle down here I am still feeling very much in limbo and I find myself questioning my identity as a London-raised half Australian like never before. It is an unusual and sometimes painful thing to have two dearly loved parents living on opposite sides of the world. There's also no escaping the stark culture and personality clashes between myself and Ric and my young sports-mad cousins which has heightened my feelings of separation from this place which was once, a long time ago, my home. That's not to say I don't like it here. Sydney is an easy place to navigate around and the people are friendly and bubbly, it's just too early to call it home.
Perhaps it's not surprising that I am clinging to the security of my old routines and bad habits. I am so disappointed in myself though for simultaneously yearning to quash the demonic desires and craving the comfort of my sugar binges and obsessive rituals. Ric says I seem far more on top of things which is good to hear.
Ric made Tacos last night and we'll be hosting Charlotte and Paul later. We just love having our own kitchen in which to cook meals as we like them and not having to order food, be waited on, sit in a restaurant with fussy tourist or have to decipher foreign menus!
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