Australian Adventure

Episode 1

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...in which our hero (that's me folks) arrives in the New World with little more than the clothes on his back, and a corporate Amex card, does a brief tour of his new home, and fails to get a mattress up the stairs.

I tell you what, this is a place I could live. If you're looking for something, there's a fairly good chance that Sydney has got it. Unless you're looking for fog, that is. Riding back from the airport my first thought was how much more like the UK Sydney is, than Vancouver. It's not easy to say why, but I think it's a combination of the building styles, the width and curviness of the streets, and the way people drive. When I first got to Vancouver I thought it must be the newness of everything, but since Sydney is not that much older than Vancouver I might have to rethink.

Eve has already sorted out an apartment, on the eighth floor of a block in McMahon's Point, just across the water from the famous bridge, and with excellent views over Lavender Bay. From the garden you also get a good view of the Opera House, the bridge itself, and Luna Park, (big picture - takes a while to download) a fun fair that is permanently closed on account of the noise disturbing the people in the blocks all around it. A bit sad really. The best feature of the apartment is undoubtedly a balcony, on which I intend to spend many hours surveying the land and, more importantly, the inside of a wine glass.

Determined not to get jet-lagged Eve and I went out for a walk soon after my arrival. The block has a garden, pool and BBQ area, and goes right down to the waterside. I got quite excited by some funny looking birds, only to be told that they rate right up there with starlings and sparrows on the excitement scale. Undeterred, we spotted some green parrotty things too, and a lone Kookaburra. I knew those elementary school bird projects would pay off one day.

Bondi beach was the next destination. Some recent visitors had complained that despite its fame, Sydney's surf-central had got to look more than a little shabby. Well, the good news is that it's in the middle of a big refurbishment, and is looking pretty smart now. Still heaving with surf-heads, looking just as stereotyped as its possible to be. Far too many six-pack stomachs for my taste - my shirt will be staying on for the foreseeable future, at least until "lardy" comes back into fashion.

Typical of a rented apartment our mattress has seen better days, so we decided to invest in a new one. Eagerly we awaited delivery. With mounting excitement the delivery man arrived - and disappeared somewhere between the ground floor and the eighth. X-Files? Transporter? Nope - an exploratory search found that he was stuck in the lift, and wasn't prepared to hump the mattress up the stairs. Can't blame him for that. So, having got within sniffing distance of the new mattress we're still going to have to wait until the lift is working again before we get to use it!