Privacy is for Wimps

Still here you know! You can't get rid of me that easily! New York, New York, so good they named it twice. Sydney. So good they only named it once, after some bloke. Sydney is actually a fantastic city, but after three and a half months, the novelty has worn off. I've been working solidly since I got here and living in the same hostel with the same people for the last three months. It became a lot like home, which is really good, but there came a point where I figured it was time to go before I got too comfortable and got stuck there forever. I've also been sharing the same room with the same blokes, and after three months it has a smell that only the four of us don't notice.

I've been working for Sabre for the last couple of months which has been really good. The job itself, which was to do with airline fares and system testing, was pretty boring but the office itself was a fun place to work and the people there were great. In a lot of ways it was like working in London as I had to commute in (at least a 45 minute bus journey), was working on the same system, and even had the same stapler. On the other hand, Australian ofices are a lot more laid back, the view from my desk was great (over the lovely Darling Harbour), and they had a great coffee machine (and I don't even usually drink coffee). Best of all, all the Aussie offices I worked in had a tradition of buying lots of cold beers for their staff at about 4pm on a Friday afternoon. Fantastic! Before Sabre I did a few other jobs including one place where I was responsible for the travel of the Australian football team (including Harry Kewell, Stan Lazaridis, etc.), and a few days in another that specialised in travel for photographers, and more importantly models. And they asked me to work there permanently! And I turned them down! Fool.

Sydney itself is completely different from anywhere else I've been to in Oz. It' a real city for a start, with traffic and tall buildings, and suburbs, and people, and expensive pubs and restaurants. Everywhere else in the country seems empty in comparison (bearing in mind I haven't been to Melbourne or Perth yet). It feels like you're in a busy country so it probably comes as a bit of a shock when people leave the city and they find that the next big town, which is Newcastle, is a two hour drive to the north, and there's not a lot after that for hours. Transport in the city is very good with there being buses, trains, trams and a monorail, as well as ferries which are a major part of the transport network in a city built around such a big harbour. Saying that, Sydney bus drivers are possibly the worst in the world and also seem to have some kind of training whereby any rogue helpfulness or niceness is removed. There seems to be a lot of psycho cab drivers too, but that just seems to be an international thing.


I was luck enough to be in Sydney during my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I've now officially moved from my mid-20's to my late 20's. If you thought this email had a more mature touch about it, now you know why. I had a meal in Chinatown, watched a 3D film in the Imax cinema, and had lots of drinks in Cargo, a very posh bar on Darling Harbour. I also went to a rugby final game at the Aussie stadium that weekend. My company gave me four free tickets to their corporate box so there was me, Kelly, and two of my mates from my hostel tucking into the free sandwiches, pies, beer, wine, and whatever else we could find. I have to admit that I wasn't paying that much attention to the game, but was enjoying the corporate hospitality like a big chav. We even ended up blagging a lift home from one of the company's marketing people who was foolish enough to let slip that she lived in Coogee and had brought her car. I think her first brush with the town's backpacking community might also be her last!

Other than working and the odd night out I haven't been up to too much in a vain attempt to save money. I finally got the bottle to go to a salsa class by myself, and although it sounds a bit gay it's actually good fun and far less boring than most other types of dancing. Girls love it too, which can't be a bad thing. I did a bit of sunbathing on Coogee beach, although it's only just getting warm enough to spend the day on the beach, and had a decent go at a lot of the pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and Hungry Jacks that Sydney offers. I've had a good time in Sydney.

So now I'm sweating, and it's not because I'm working. I wanted to go back up to Queensland until Christmas so after a bit of decision-making I decided to fly back up to Cairns where I arrived last night. When I left Sydney it was raining and there was a thunderstorm (fun take-off), and now I'm back in Far North Tropical Queensland where the exact temperature is now 'bleedin hot'. I'm determined to do something different, so I'm trying to scam my way into getting a job on a reef boat which sounds fun. How successful I'll be remains to be seen, but I'll givce it a go.

That's about it for now. Next time I write I should have done a lot more fun things to write about. This is the home of the Woolshed after all.