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Drinks, art, football and drinks

November 12, 2012 by Fran Leave a Comment

As I promised in my last blog, there are a few things that I was going to update you on. Things I had been up to since my last dispatch. Not that much of it has been overly exciting but my mum seems to enjoy reading about it. And it saves me the cost of a stamp, sending her a real letter. So mum, this is for you, but you may be sharing it with many of my other friends.

A couple of weekends ago saw me attending the annual beer festival at the Australian Hotel (pub, remember) in the Rocks. I met up with a mate from England who was over here with work. Budget constraints within Lloyds Banking Group means that they can no longer afford to provide biscuits for team meetings. However, they can fly a couple of people business class to the other end of the world for beer festivals. I was assured by Steve that he was also here to work on some other stuff, but I’m not so sure. I think Steve thought I wanted to meet up with him as we had not seen each other for a while. Actually, the real reason was that I was hoping he was going to return the box of Lapsang Souchong tea that I lent him in 2003. I ended up very disappointed. That said, we had an excellent day that seamlessly segued into an evening bar crawl around some of Sydney’s less touristy pubs.

With a head that was as tender as a heavily worked over steak, I again met up with Steve and Andy on the Sunday, to do the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk, along with Scott and Kelly. It was like “Yorkshire’s day out”. All we needed was for one of the cafes along the way to start selling Yorkshire Puddings. It didn’t happen. We picked a good weekend for the walk as it was the “Sculptures by the Sea” event. A random collection of art pieces placed along the walk; some better than others in my humble opinion. But then, I’m no art critic. I can’t tell a Manet from a Monet.

Tuesday of the following week saw me attending my first ever Spanish class. Something that I have been threatening to do for years. For a long time I have been dipping in and out of Spanish language books, listening to Spanish language podcasts, and even immersed myself in Spanish for 3 months last year whilst travelling around South America. For the first time I am now formalizing my learning and have started an 8 week, level 1 course. I have grand intentions of continuing post this course and taking my learning to a level where I could actually have a conversation in Spanish. Some cynics have suggested that it is my way of trying to meet dark haired, buxom senoritas. Me?

My weeks really are beginning to develop a structure, and this continues on Thursday nights with me signing up to an outdoor 5 a-side futsal league. Futsal is an extremely popular sport around the world, just not so in the UK. It is essentially “normal” 5 a-side but with a small, less bouncy ball, large goals, and mainly no contact. The no contact thing is the hardest to get used to, especially with a referee as fastidious on the rules as the one we have each week. That aside, it is great fun and I’ve met another bunch of lads, both European and Australian.

Two other events of note have been Balmoral Uncorked and the Air BnB party. Balmoral Uncorked is an annual event at my local beach. Various wineries of the Hunter Valley set up stall and allow you to taste, and subsequently purchase their many fine drops. Complemented by stalls selling cheeses, olive oils and various other foods, you had everything you could need for a fabulous Sunday afternoon.

For those not familiar with Air BnB, it is a global website whereby people advertise rooms in their homes to give traveller’s a more authentic experience than staying in a faceless hotel. I used the site for my first month in Australia, which is where I was ~~unfortunate~~ lucky enough to have met Steph. Based in San Francisco, the founders of Air BnB held a party on Cockatoo Island in Sydney for hosts and their guests. So I went along with Steph, together with Darrol and Claire, two more guests that have stayed with Steph.

Not knowing what to expect I have to admit I was blown away. Ferries were laid on every 30 minutes to shuttle us to the island from Circular Quay. The bar was free all night. It was, I kept checking! And with a great selection of bottled beers, wines and cocktails. There was free food served up from the excellent food trucks that have been doing the rounds of Sydney recently. And once the guests were suitably inebriated, there was a DJ spinning some quality tunes, allowing us all to make idiots of ourselves on the dance floor. Brilliant. Oh, I did I mention the beautiful actress, Mila Kunis, was there too? And her eyes are even more captivating real life. She was with some fella called Ashton Kutcher who is mates of the website founders and did a little speech on their behalf.

The last couple of weekends have been very quiet and tame in comparison, but judging by the number of shops getting in the festive spirit, I guess Xmas is just around the corner. That being the case, I better start consolidating my finances and make sure I have enough to celebrate Xmas in style, have a rocking New Year’s Eve and usher in 2013 and all it holds.

Til the next time amigos…

You have a choice…

November 20, 2012 by Fran 2 Comments

Too much choice!

“We are our choices”, said Jean-Paul Sartre.

Which would be OK, if we were actually able to choose. But that is where the problem starts.

You want to go out for dinner. A restaurant would be the logical place to start. But what type of food do you want to eat? This used to be a simple decision, a process of eliminating a couple of choices and off you go. Now things are much more complex. Not only do you have the age-old dilemma of nationalities, curry over chinese, or maybe the English stalwart, fish and chips. Now you have the problem of nationalities joining forces and creating “fusions” of each. The word fusion and it’s morphing into a genre of food probably originated in Australia. A cultural melting pot in which many foods converge, and then merge, giving fusion cuisine.

A great concept. To begin with. But has it gone too far?

Quite possibly when we have Japanese/French, or Australian/Mexican fusion restaurants amongst others. I don’t want sushi on my pancakes. If I order a few bbq’d shrimps or a bit of tender kangaroo, I don’t want it in a taco. Stop!

Technology is as bad. Not many years ago, going into a shop and asking for tablets would usually result in the question, how strong sir, is it for a migraine. Now you are more likely to be asked, what screen size? Retina display? Do you want jellybean, ios or a google based one? Help, shoot me now. The market seems awash with tablets and not many a month goes by without either a new launch, or a “refresh” as they are euphemistically called.

And mobile phones? Don’t start me on mobile phones. Seriously. Don’t.

I recently was looking at ways of organizing the paper based notes I’m making in my Spanish classes. This proved to be a minefield. Evernote? OneNote? Useless note? (OK, I made that one up). And where to store them? The mythical cloud seems to be the place these days. In Skydrive? Apple’s cloud? Dropbox? The irony of DropBox is the tagline, “Simplify your life”. Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is it too late to want to go back to when the world was a simpler place? We all had the same Nokia phone? People weren’t messing with my food. My capacity to save documents was determined by the memory available on whatever device I was using.

Am I kidding myself? I fear the answer is yes. Have we gone too far in western society? Have we gone too far full stop? There are books written on minimalism. In fact, there are dozens of books on minimalism. Appreciate the irony in this?

And coffee shops. Further irony. The more independent coffee shops we have, offering more choice, they all suddenly look the same. What was once the homogeneity of the big chain coffee shops, has now morphed into homogenous streets of endless independent coffee shops, all offering the same arty flat whites, or lattes with a pretty little flower made in the milk on the top. The only way they can differentiate themselves now is by going to such extremes as offering overpriced vacuum made coffee (also called siphon), as seen so long ago as 1945 in the film “Brief Encounter”. And people are paying for this. It’s complete nonsense. Give me an Italian espresso house any day. Without menus and silly offerings such as skinny decaf soy lattes. You want coffee, you pay your euro and you get a shot of pure gold. You want a ridiculous concoction that involves messing with the heart and essence of coffee making? There is the door.

Well, that’s my rant over. I just suppose I am going to have to deal with the abundance of choice, despite how it makes me feel.

In the meantime, fish and chip pizza anyone?

And if you want proof that too much choice paralyses our decision making abilities, Google “the jam experiment” which details a study by an expert in the field, Columbia University Professor Sheena Iyengar. In 1995 she conducted an interesting experiment that highlighted just how difficult we find it to make a purchase when given too much choice.

Happy New Year, and all that

January 7, 2013 by Fran 2 Comments

If you are reading this, the zombies didn’t come and get you either. Or you had a very effective anti-zombie kit stashed under your bed. Whichever, it’s good to speak to you again. Zombies and Mayans have been avoided, at least for 2012. <<breathes a sigh of relief>>. Then again, the Mayans were notoriously bad at calendar management so the threat from those chaps may come around again this year.

It’s been a while since my last blog, and I know that I split December up because of so much happening over the festive period. In fact, I think too much has happened, or the copious amounts of mince pies, Tim Tams and Freddos, washed down with litres (quite literally on Christmas Day!) of wine, have addled my brain to the point where writing something coherent for you to read will be a challenge into itself.

How did 2012 end? I had recounted the two Christmas parties I had and all that was left was a few quiet drinks with mates on the final Thursday before breaking up. Did I say quiet drinks? These boys just don’t know when they are beat, and just as I was saying adios, another round was procured, of Coopers Red ale. Yes, the bloody strong stuff. Salud gents!

One sausage, or two?

Christmas Day rolled around, along with my big birthday plans to spend it on the beach, in our Santa hats, getting slowly inebriated. And what happened? We had the wettest Christmas Day in Sydney since 1942. I kid you not. That is an official stat. I just about managed to cook up the breakfast on the BBQ, sipping Bucks Fizz, and the heavens opened. And they stayed open all day. All day. Plan B wasn’t too bad, setting a challenge to drink 4 litres of goon (cheap Aussie wine) whilst watching “It’s a Wonderful Life”. And we completed the challenge, worryingly rather too easily.

Typically, and thankfully, that was the only real bad day of weather and normal service was resumed on Boxing Day. We waved off the boats in the annual Sydney to Hobart race from Georges Head lookout. One of the city’s finest vantage points in my opinion. With sweeping views across the whole harbour, and out to the sea between the North and South Heads. Watching the start of the race is a bit of a tradition for Sydney-siders, one that I can easily see me adopting.

Waiting for the starter’s gun

The evening saw my first ever visit to the SCG (Sydney cricket ground) for the 20/20 match between Sydney Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes. We were fortunate enough to see two Australian cricket legends face off against each other, Brett Lee and Ricky Ponting. The 20/20 is all a bit razz-ma-tazz, with cheerleaders and loud music, but it was great fun.

The rest of the Christmas holidays have been filled up doing great tourist things. A meal up the Sydney Tower in the revolving restaurant with amazing 360 views of this stunning city. A visit to Taronga Zoo, where the giraffes surely have the best view of any captive animal in the world. The Aquarium and the Wildlife centre were great. Once again seeing my favourites such as the sharks, wombats, koalas and Tasmanian Devils up close and personal.

Finally, we had the coup de grace. New Year’s Eve. Knowing there would be a few of us, with a number coming from the UK, I had been very prepared and bought tickets for the party in Luna Park (affectionately renamed La Luna Park in reference the excellent restaurant in Halifax run by Tony). And what a night it turned out to be. Starting off at Cormack HQ, we had a couple of bottles of Prosecco just to get warmed up. We then went to Barton/Hannon-Dalby HQ for further beers. Although not sure everybody in our party needed much more at this stage. No, she hasn’t had a stroke, it’s her “wine face”.

A short time later we were in Luna Park, drinking, and working out which of the rides to go on first. Yes, it may have been an adults only party, but all the rides were open. I’m not sure us all going on the pirate ship that swung us upside down was our best idea. But what fun. In a nefarious attempt to make me sick (I believe), we went on something that just span us around, very fast. Queasily, I gingerly stepped off, to get my land feet back. A cold Tooheys helped.

The evening passed by so fast, with surprisingly short queues for drinks and more space than I imagined for a party beneath the Harbour Bridge. And finally, the end of 2012 drew to a close, and we kicked off 2013 in style, with one of the world’s greatest fireworks shows. Kylie Minogue’s lips lighting up the Bridge and a coordinated fireworks display across the whole Harbour.

Breathtaking.

And now, into 2013, and time to look at what my personal goals for the year will be.

The expat’s goals for 2013

January 11, 2013 by Fran Leave a Comment

I’ve recently been thinking of my goals for 2013. I wonder why that is?

And I have come up with a short list that I’m sure is achievable. Well, at least 3 of them I’m sure of. One of them I’m less sure but feel that by writing it down and sharing publicly with you, I’m more likely to commit to it. I may even blog regular updates, until you tell me you are bored with them.

Anyway, here is the list. Can you spot the one that fills me with trepidation?

– Drink less.

Not abstinence, as I love (really love) drinking. But definitely reduce my intake and frequency. Perhaps tailoring my current philosophy of only having a drink on days with a “Y” in them. And limit myself to spirits, less calorie laden than my usual Coopers Pale ale, or Dirty Granny cider. This of course will have to wait until after Australia Day on 26^th January when it seems the whole country shuns sobriety.

– Lose weight

This will no doubt be aided by the one above but also by reducing my intake of Tim Tams, Anzac biscuits, Lamingtons and Charlie Lovett’s banana bread. I also have my bicycle now so have no excuse not to get out on it on a weekend, helping trim inches off the burgeoning waistline. I don’t think Mosman, or indeed the rest of Sydney, is quite ready for my truffle shuffle just yet.

– Travel to new places

This appears on my list every year, and will continue to do so whilst I am still breathing. However, now I am based on the other side of the world, and am upside down, I should explore the opportunities now open to me. Places like Vanuatu (which I had not previously heard of) immediately spring to mind. And Tasmania, one of the only major places of Australia that I have yet to visit. And what about all the gorgeous little coastal towns, with sun kissed beaches? Friends of mine are going to Jervis Bay soon so I immediately checked it out on the internet. It looks amazing. And not far from home. In a car, not on the aforementioned bicycle, or my beloved Besbi scooter. I could spend the whole year exploring places like this. Even better, fulfill a life’s ambition of travelling in a campervan.

– Read “War & Peace”

In literary circles, widely regarded as one of the THE best books ever written, this is one of Tolstoy’s that I have yet to tackle. At over 1400 pages long, it is not an undertaking to accept lightly. Having completed the 1079pages of “Infinite Jest” (David Foster Wallace) last year I know tomes of this size are possible, but how many other books would have to be sacrificed? I suppose there is only one way to find out.

So there we are, my (potential) goals for 2013. Now, do I commit to them???

Where’s the baby?

March 29, 2013 by Fran 2 Comments

Calm down mum, there is no baby. At least not that I know of. Or at the very least that I’m admitting to. If anybody comes knocking at your door, you don’t know where I am. You think I could pay both Sydney rent AND child support?!? And don’t you think you currently have enough grandchildren?

Photo credit: Classical Beaver

No, the “9 month” of the title refers to the month that I’m now entering as a Yorkshire Expat in Sydney. Yes, I don’t know where it’s gone either. Did I really leave the UK all those months ago? Evidently I did, yet would struggle to describe how I have filled those months. Without, of course, recourse to these blogs. Maybe I should do that one quiet night, get a(nother) bottle of wine in and recall what I’ve been up to.

It’s been quite an emotional few weeks, for one reason or another. Not withstanding the running out of Manchego cheese, counter balanced by finding an amazing Chilean pinot noir to drown my sorrows, the major event this month has seen me saying goodbyes. When I was in the process for coming out here, a work colleague was counting down the days til he left Blighty, for these shores, on a 12 month working holiday visa. And we were more colleagues than mates. Sharing the Yorkshire love, we met up in my first week in Sydney and over the intervening months we have forged a really strong friendship. Alas, the sands of time on his visa expired and he has now returned to the UK. I’m keeping my eyes on the Nando’s share price as I expect it will be the thing that will suffer most.

In traditional fashion we had his leaving drinks. And boy, can he put away his liquor. Decamped in Paradiso bar near work, at Darling Harbour, we were on the cinnamon whisky shots at about 16.30, followed not long after by Patrone shots. Some drink I had never heard of. Don’t worry, I was told, it’s only tequila based. Oh, that will be ok then! A great night was had. I think. It went by in a flash. Or, as I tried to recount the day after, a series of flashbacks. Shots…beers…friends…taxis…chicken tikka roll kebabs (seriously, you have to try this Neutral Bay speciality)…friend’s irate neighbours…wine…walks…international phone calls…unconscious. In that order. I think.

I had a more sedate meeting this week. Catching up over coffee with somebody I haven’t seen for a long time. About 20 years she reliably informs me. Really? I was young then. And had dark hair. Moving out here last year we figured it was time we met up finally. And we had a great catch up, chatting like we had last seen each other only the other week. Us Yorkshire expats have to stick together.

On another topic, I seem to remember I had written about homesickness recently. The “elephant in the room”. So on that, I must pass on a heartfelt thanks to all my UK based friends. Thank you all for knocking any residual homesickness out of me with all your arctic “spring” pictures. I may be suffering in the unseasonal Autumnal heat, yet don’t have to contend with being snowed in and having my life disrupted as seems to happen with increasing frequency at home. Be careful what you wish for is an adage close to this pom’s heart. I just hope the snow has cleared by June.

At the time of writing this, I have the long Easter weekend ahead of me. I think I’ll make another trip up to the Blue Mountains. I went over Christmas when a friend was over from UK, and we couldn’t have picked a worse day. The train ride itself was trying enough, with a very annoying little lad shouting “are we there yet” at every station. On a 2 hour journey. I kid you not.

And when we got there it was a proverbial pea souper. Probably even worse, a mushed pea souper. Not a mountain or a eucalyptus tree in sight. Anywhere. We had to buy a postcard just so I could prove to her that the “3 Sisters” mountain range does in fact exist.

Photo credit: environment.nsw.gov.au

Hopefully, this time around, I’ll get a better day. You’ll find out next month. Until then, hasta la vista chicos.

Hasta Pronto Amigos

May 20, 2013 by Fran 2 Comments

And I will see (many of) you soon.

As I start to reflect on what has now been the best part of a year being an expat, I now also look excitedly to my upcoming trip to Europe.

I will be flying into Munich on Friday 14^thJune to meet up with the “annual get away” crew. As with our previous jaunts to Las Vegas, and Prague, no doubt there will be much marveling at the architecture and we will surely see the insides of many churches and museums. I’m even told the Germans brew quite a mean beer so maybe we will get to sample a few of those, if the itinerary allows!

Then I join the boys on an EasyJet flight into England late on Sunday 16^th for just short of 2 weeks catching up with as many friends and family as I can possibly fit in. Being the commensurate project manager, I have a timeline, and an almost full spreadsheet covering each day that I am there. There could yet be a couple of slots made available so if you fancy a beer / wine / cup of tea, let me know. I have a UK phone number for the time that I will be there. If you want it, just drop me a message or a mail.

But what I will say, can you please collectively (or even individually!!) not make it TOO enjoyable or I will not want to return. And then I will have some very big decisions to make. From memory, England is bloody cold at Xmas.

What have I been doing in the lead up to it, besides counting down for the last 3 months? I managed to complete level 3 of my Spanish lessons. This means I have now done 24 weeks of lessons and have to say I have managed to learn a lot. Although the further you scratch the surface of learning a language, the more you realise you have to learn. Having a Spanish speaker at work helps and despite my feelings of inadequacy when we speak in Spanish, she tells me she is very impressed with what I know, and my accent. I must be doing something right then. Muy bien! I have put a temporary hiatus on my studies due to the holiday.

You Facebookers out there will know that I recently did something in Sydney for the first time. Something I always said I wouldn’t do because of the cost. No! Not that Steve. Kings Cross isn’t that expensive these days 😉

Top of the world mamma!

I finally did the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. Taking the philosophy that a) life is short, and b) I don’t really know how long I will be here, I decided to take the plunge. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I joined a “Twilight Climb” which entailed going up in the day light, and down in the dark. It was a fantastic experience and would recommend anybody ever in Sydney to do it. And rewarding yourself with beers in The Australian pub across the road makes for a great day and night.

Whilst I was in the spirit of smashing the #sydneybucketlist I booked myself onto another first, whale watching in the ocean off Sydney harbour. I had a great day, in the sun, on the water, but “whale watching – whales = watching”. Yes, as the season had only started the day before, all I got to see was lots of dolphins. However, all was not lost as I was given a voucher for a free return trip to take anytime I like before the end of the season in November. So I may get to see whales yet.

Anybody seen a whale passing here? Not very big!

Other than the usual stuff of crazy nights out, a couple of rugby games (both league and union), and the daily grind of work, nothing much else has happened. We are now very much in Autumn, and I can feel it. I am going to even have to buy a thicker duvet, or get a bed mate, as the nights are getting very cold. Where did I put those pyjamas?

I have put in an early order for sunshine whilst I am in England, so can you all see what you can do for me #prayforsunforfran

With that, I will sign off and the next time I speak to many of you may well be in the flesh. To say I am giddy is an understatement. See you all on the other side.