10 Months in Sidney

Old Jan 3rd 2011, 12:19 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Originally Posted by Andy1875
So, arrived in Sydney on 24th February, after a 5 day stop over in Singapore. Stayed in a Short Term let for the first 17 nights and finally found a rental and moved in there on 13th March.

To give you an idea I’m 39, from Edinburgh, moved with my missus (age variable, depending who’s asking). Not married, no nippers.

I used to live for the updates to see what other peoples experiences of Oz were, so figured I’d post my experiences.

As with everything in life, this is all subjective opinion. I try to be objective, but what works for me, wont work for others.

The Good:

‘Straaaaaylian Punters: On the whole, open, friendly and genuine. As with any place you get a small number of troglodytes but these seem few and far between, especially in the rarefied circles I move in.

Vandalism: Or more accurately the lack of it. Every time I go to a public space, it’s clean, there are BBQ’s available for use and haven’t been nicked or vandalised within 10 minutes of the sun going down by pre-pubescent ne’erdowells who roam parks drinking White Lightning trying to stab people. I haven’t seen a Burberry cap for months now. People genuinely seem to care that they will not be the only person who uses this stuff and therefore tidy up after themselves. I still can’t quite believe it.

Summer Festivals: Seems like something is going on every weekend. Was at the Newtown Festival a wee while ago. 80,000 people sitting around drinking beer, listening to music, eating great food possibly buying a bong or other such hippy tat that seems to be purveyed at any sort of market. Again no roving gangs of f**kwits. Doesn’t seem real somehow, people can enjoy themselves in peace. It’ll never catch on I tells ya.

Beer: The only beers I’d tried before coming to Oz were VB, Crown , XXXX and Fosters, quite frankly they all tasted like arse. However, there are loadsa different varieties of Looney Juice to choose from. Coopers is my bevy of choice at the moment, and if you genuinely cant find anything you like in the pub, I guarantee you’ll get what you want down the Bottle Shop. OK that’s not strictly true, a good Guinness aint happening and I haven’t seen any Cobra (I thought this was an Indian beer, but I’m beginning to suspect* it may be a bit UK-centric after I asked for it in the Indian Restaurant I was in today and the wee waitress looked at me like I’d asked for the moon on a stick)

* and by “suspect”, I mean I cant be arsed Googling it.

Vegemite – Friggin love it. On toast every Morning.

Coffee – Had with Vegemite on Toast

Sushi – Fishing bait wrapped in Rice with Seaweed. When it’s 90 degrees in the shade. Accept no substitute…….Well apart from maybe beer, although this doesn’t tend to be as nutritious and has a much lower fish content.

Sydney CBD Thursday Night Drinks: Genius. Feeling lonely? Struggling to make friends? Looking for a bit of familiarity with people who remember when Den and Angie ran the Vic, know who the ***** Benny and Miss Diane were, and remember vividly when Amos and Mr Wilks finally came out of their Narnia like Closet on Emmerdale by wearing ass-less chaps and explaining that Amos’s well kept Sideboards were in fact buggers grips? If you need to get out and meet people, and lets face it, you’ve just moved to a brand new country and you don’t know anyone, it’s a genuinely brilliant way to do it. So if it’s all feeling a bit weird this is group therapy with as much bevy as you can handle on a Thursday night.**

** Generally I mean any expats meet up……..and *eh* I may have dreamt/made up the bit about Amos and Mr Wilks

Scenery: Devastatingly beautiful, and to be fair I’ve only seen little bits of NSW. Really looking forward to seeing what the rest of what Australia has to offer.

The Music Scene: Vibrant and different, way better than I expected. I’ve quite an eclectic taste in music, from Indie to Hip Hop. Triple J and Radar Radio takes care of all my needs on this score, as well as loads of music venues catering for every musical taste. Obviously if you stay in a city, you’re also still going to get the opportunity to see your favourite bands.

The Bad:

Expensive: $4.80 for a loaf of bread from the local shop, which appears to consist of 75% sawdust and 25% bread scrapings. Which translates, at a very generous ForEx rate of $1.6, 3 quid. Bringing me nicely to:

Exchange Rate: Gertcha!!! (to coin a Chas and Dave-ism) Currently about $1.53. Nightmare if you’re emigrating, but once you’re earning AUD (and it’s been said many a time on BE) it costs what it costs in relation to that salary. Never, and I repeat never convert back to Sterling/Euro once that happens. However, if when you started planning your trip to Oz, like we did and the ForEx rate was $2.4 to the Pound, it’s a bit of a sore one.

Rent: See Expensive, although it’s considerably dearer the bread, but cheaper than a Mortgage (at least it is for us)

Traffic: I live in Siderney so, Yep loads of it. This is offset due to the fact there’s roughly the population of Scotland living in 1 city.

Chuggers (Charity Muggers): Look, I’m a good person, I don’t need to feel like I’m an insensitive murderer when I’m trying to get some lunch. As discussed last night (dans la Boozer). When the woman said to me, can you spare 5 minutes of your time for Cancer Research, I said yes, but I don’t think we’ll get much done (Think it mighta been a Jimmy Carr gag).

Wildlife: Only two encounters with the dangerous indigenous wildlife. Saw a snake on Manly Heads 3 days after we arrived (although it was a Green Tree Snake and I’m struggling to justify this as a “dangerous” *ahem* encounter) and a Spider that accosted me on the bus the other day as I was heading to work. Again it was probably harmless, but I didn’t like the way it was looking at me.

Sooooo, In Summary

All in all it seems to be working out for us and generally the good outweighs the bad, although I do miss my Family and Friends greatly, and this is the only real downside to moving to Oz as far as I can tell.

It ain’t England/Scotland/Ireland or Wales in the sun (although you’d be forgiven for thinking that down Bondi) and I’m happy it isn’t. It ain’t Nirvana, Navan or Northampton and with all things in life, generally you will get out what you put in. You will get frustrated by bureaucracy, crap driving, banking/supermarket monopolies and a multitude of other shoite (Wishing for Tesco’s, Next or Marks and Spencers equally ain’t going to help). But every place has it’s problems. We didn’t leave Edinburgh or the UK coz it was knackered (Daily Mail readers insert reason for Broken Britain here), we just fancied a change so this doesn’t bother us so much, you accept it and move on. Equally the UK has its problems too, for now we prefer to deal with Australia’s foibles and enjoy what she has to offer.
Cracking post that mate.

We're sacrificing quite a few comforts and spending a fair bit getting out but what you've listed is pretty much why we are doing it. We're in a similar situation to yourselves just a couple of years younger and you've summed it up well.

Cheers bud
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Old Jan 3rd 2011, 7:49 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Great update
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Old Jan 4th 2011, 12:17 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Awesome update, am looking forward to those Thursday drinks already! I'm so over London at the minute, I reckon anything i hate about London (commuting, overcrowding etc) CAN'T be as bad in Sydney*

*no-one rain on my parade please, it's the first day back at work...

Tx
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Old Jan 4th 2011, 6:58 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Ok, I'll wait 'til tomorrow to tell you how awful the trains are, and that a lot of buses don't have aircon, and that we're often gridlocked
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Old Jan 4th 2011, 8:20 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Originally Posted by RedT
Awesome update, am looking forward to those Thursday drinks already! I'm so over London at the minute, I reckon anything i hate about London (commuting, overcrowding etc) CAN'T be as bad in Sydney**no-one rain on my parade please, it's the first day back at work...

Tx
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Old Jan 7th 2011, 9:41 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Loved reading this. Kept waiting to hear some really bad experience from you.

We're from Glasgow and due to be moving to Sydney very soooooon.
Am very interested in the Thursday night piss ups sounds the best way to meet people (we'll be the ones in the Burberry caps)
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Old Feb 9th 2011, 8:40 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Originally Posted by KellyC948
Loved reading this. Kept waiting to hear some really bad experience from you.

We're from Glasgow and due to be moving to Sydney very soooooon.
Am very interested in the Thursday night piss ups sounds the best way to meet people (we'll be the ones in the Burberry caps)
The missus and I have been here 2 1/2 years.

One small revelation for us was discovering Dan Murphys. Up until then we'd been paying $15 for a six-pack from those little liquor outlets attached or near to Coles/Wollies.

Dan Murphys you buy in bulk and it works out HEAPS cheaper!
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Old Feb 20th 2011, 11:40 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Originally Posted by Andy1875

Scenery: Devastatingly beautiful, and to be fair I’ve only seen little bits of NSW. Really looking forward to seeing what the rest of what Australia has to offer.
Great post. Pop up to the Blue Mts and then drive out to Jenolan or Bathurst... more rolling hills and gorgeousness. Sometimes I think I'm in Bucks.
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Old Feb 21st 2011, 12:02 am
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Cool update, thanks. Made me hungry, going to kitchen now for Vegemite toast and a cuppa.

By the way Sydney Beer drinkers, my bloke and friends go to this place to make their own at a fraction of the price, I think they have something like 200 types of beer recipes.
http://www.thebeerfactory.com.au/whoweare.html The only thing is the beer does not have a preservative in, so has to be kept in a fridge (got a fridge for $30 off ebay), but therefore does not give you a hangover headache, and trust me, he has tried.
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Old Mar 17th 2011, 2:59 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

nice update!!
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Old Aug 18th 2011, 9:48 am
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Great Post!

From my Perspective any encounter with a spider is an encounter with a dangerous animal
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Old Aug 18th 2011, 1:40 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Originally Posted by GreenMan72
HEAPS cheaper!
a true sign of morphing t'into an austrayeean ... HEAPS vs LOADS

Oh and OP very funny post..., true art
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Old Aug 20th 2011, 10:14 pm
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Default Re: 10 Months in Sidney

Great post- really enjoyed reading it.

OH's commute is half the time it was in the UK and, compared to the tube, there are far fewer delays and overcrowding.
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