G'day Oz

After living in the soft, protective cocoon of Tokyo for the past 5 years, life back in London would be a bit of a struggle to say the least, but Sydney seems the perfect median. I can’t believe that after all this time living so far (6,000 miles) from home in England, I’ve actually moved even further (10,000 miles). People must think I hate my home country...

...which is ofcourse not true, I love England, but I have no arguments whatsoever about living 5 minutes away from Bondi Beach! After a month of crashing with the legendary Chris and Cathy, searching for somewhere to live all over Sydney, the place I ended up renting was 1 minute walk down the street from them, in an eastern suburb called Tamarama. And not just any eastern suburb - the Ozzies call it Glamarama. You should see the state of the topless sunbathers! (and that’s just the guys.)

Due to fortunate geographical positioning, the cunning estate agent can write “Tamarama”, whereas my postcode shows clearly I’m in the next-door, not so glamorous district. So, just to summarize, Chris: massive balcony looking out over sea; me: tight alleyway leading out onto street. But who cares! ... especially when I’ve got a spare key to Chris’s!!

Check out the movie clip below of Dr Chris trying to clear up after a gratuitous stomach pancake next to the amazing views from the Sydney Olympic Pool. For more clips of "You've tried the best, now try the rest!" Dr Chris in action, there're some more movie clips at the foot of this post.

Actually, I’m just trying to make it all sound worse than it is, as I feel SO SORRY for all my mates living in freezing England!! Check it out!! Bondi F’ing Beach!! 5 minutes away!!!!!

Mai’s friend Yuri came to live with us for the first 2 months, so it was Japanese food everyday like I’d never left Toyko. Sydney’s got a big Asian population, but I think Japanese are the minority - lots of Chinese, Korean and Thais. If we ever eat out, it’s always at a Korean restaurant of which there are many.

Currently we’ve got 2 other Korean dudes Kaka and Kyo, living together in our spare room. They’re perfectly happy spending 12 hours a day in their tiny room, only surfacing for school or Korean food, which is stinking my fridge out something rotten. I admire their tolerance of small spaces, especially in the heat, so I’m contemplating starting a sweat shop. Nike UGG boots anyone?

It was hard work finding a place to rent. Summer in Sydney is the worst time to look for places near the sea, since obviously that’s where everyone wants to live. Also, you need to have a rental history in Australia, which is a bit of a Catch 22, since if you’ve only just arrived in the country, you can’t possibly have one. I got lucky since the place in Tamarama was open on a 3 month lease, which is generally unpopular for new-movers, but which got extended to 6 months after I’d moved in. Renting here is similar to Japan in that rooms come totally unfurnished. The big difference is, whereas in Japan if you are moving you have to pay disproportionate sums to have furniture and appliances disposed for you (for example, the council tried to charge me about 50 quid for my 30 quid fridge when I wanted to throw it away!), here you just leave it out on the street and it’s collected for you. That means that if you live in a decent suburb, every week there’re all kinds of goodies left out in the road for the keen eye. Check out this 32” LCD I picked up!! I found it lying around behind one of the electric stores, and it was even in its own sealed box with instructions! Couldn’t believe my luck!

All the Ozzies who live in the area seem to be fitness gurus, with most of them jogging the famous Bondi coastal walk, which is interspersed with exercise stations. I’ve seen this kind of thing before in other cities, the only difference being that here, the benches aren’t urine soaked, tramps aren’t hanging their washing out on the chin-up bars and there aren’t any used baby nappies and broken lightbulbs on the sit-up benches. Plus, as everyone else is doing it, you don’t feel like a total prick!

The coolest thing we’ve done so far? Probably the open air cinema. Ironically, the ad on the screen when I took this photo was made by the same agency that decided to blow me out after 4 interviews and 2 months of waiting!

Or maybe even the Blue Mountains. Look closely at the photo on the left and you can see me behind a waterfall in a rainbow, and the one on the right, Clive taking the slow way up.

The crappest thing? Easy! CHRISTMAS IN SYDNEY SUCKS!!!!

New Year’s made up for it though. Check out the fireworks display in the movie clips at the foot of this post.

So, whilst Sydney’s nothing on Tokyo and I miss my mum and friends back in the UK, I don’t have much else to complain about. I might need to invest in a dog to keep Mai happy though. The local pet shop has got a Poodle and Shitzu mix, or “Shoodle”, which looks about as cute as its name, better than the Bulldog and Shitzu mix anyway.... parp.

Apart from the beaches of course, festivals are what make summer in Sydney amazing. I managed to make it to two this summer, Good Vibes and the Future Music Festival. Good music, but made me feel a bit old with all the kids running around in their flouro, plus hearing Jon Digweed play a classic track from the first Renaissance album and me being the only one in the crowd to shout TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNAAA!!