Summers coming ...
As the days are no doubt drawing in back home, spring is gradually turning into summer out here. Without wanting to rub it in, just the other week when the UK lost an hour of daylight as the clocks went back for winter here in Oz they sprung forward to help us make the most of the glorious blue skies and stupid warm temperatures, yes, it's true, life is still fairly tough over here!
Not a lot has changed out here since my last e-mail, I've continued my exploration of Sydney's bars, parks and sights and my weeks consist of a stressful combination of surfing, free drinks promotion (the likes of which haven't been seen since long forgotten student days) and as many $5 steaks as I can fit in down at my local. The Australians seem fairly good at taking advantage of their good weather so I've been to a few outdoor events the best of which was "Sculptures by the Sea", a walk between Bondi and Coogee beaches with around 100 sculptures in between, one of my favorites was a pram with a screaming baby in it poised on the edge of a cliff, but that might just be me...
In other news, a couple of weeks ago the whole country got rather excited about the Melbourne Cup (for those of you that don't know it's the Australian equivalent of the Grand National). I'll admit it, it was quiet entertaining but the English man in me has to say it wasn't anything compared to our great race, for a start every horse that started finished, where's the fun in that! The fact I didn't win a penny on it may also have detracted from the event's attraction...
The flat's still going well and I'm now into the phase of work where I'm trying to cover the harder yards, having spent 3 weeks getting people interested in ECM (enterprise content management - don't ask!) I'm now having to prove it's vital for the future of their businesses that we help them implement sweeping changes to improve their work flow and ... oh hell I can't bring myself to type this crap. The jobs actually ok and the people are great but I don't think I'm going to look into staying in sales once back in the UK.
Halloween and Nov 5th seemed to passed unnoticed by all Australians so we (the flat) found a few packs of sparklers and did our bit to remember the enduring greatness of the British parliament and then went out and reminded a few Australians who owns them.
Talking of foreigners that can't look after themselves.... it would appear none of them can speak proper! Did you know, there appears to be no word in Norwegian for steak sandwich! I mean really, come on... and though I've pretty much got used to the fact Australians call flip flops thongs, and that they call Aussie rules footie straight footie, but now I'm working I'm finding a whole new level of ignorance of our fair tongue.
For example, hands up if you know what shambolic means or even if you realize it's a real word! Now I'm guessing people are looking at you a little oddly now but out here no one would've even twitched unless it was to check on google or in a dictionary before being surprised by a definition jumping off the screen and off the page. Australians may be able to play our sports rather well but I really think someone should have a word with old John Howard on education!
Ranting over that's pretty much me. I've done my RSA (responsible service of alcohol - don't ask) so hopefully going to get a bit of extra work to earn a few more travel pennies and as there appears to be a good steady stream of holiday makers between the lot of you I now have different visitors from the UK right up until Jan. I'm beginning to ramble and as it's tuesday there are 2-4-1 pizza's waiting for my attention (part of busy routine!) so must be off.
Bye for now,
Jonathan
Internet Cafe
Haymarket
Sydney
Not a lot has changed out here since my last e-mail, I've continued my exploration of Sydney's bars, parks and sights and my weeks consist of a stressful combination of surfing, free drinks promotion (the likes of which haven't been seen since long forgotten student days) and as many $5 steaks as I can fit in down at my local. The Australians seem fairly good at taking advantage of their good weather so I've been to a few outdoor events the best of which was "Sculptures by the Sea", a walk between Bondi and Coogee beaches with around 100 sculptures in between, one of my favorites was a pram with a screaming baby in it poised on the edge of a cliff, but that might just be me...
In other news, a couple of weeks ago the whole country got rather excited about the Melbourne Cup (for those of you that don't know it's the Australian equivalent of the Grand National). I'll admit it, it was quiet entertaining but the English man in me has to say it wasn't anything compared to our great race, for a start every horse that started finished, where's the fun in that! The fact I didn't win a penny on it may also have detracted from the event's attraction...
The flat's still going well and I'm now into the phase of work where I'm trying to cover the harder yards, having spent 3 weeks getting people interested in ECM (enterprise content management - don't ask!) I'm now having to prove it's vital for the future of their businesses that we help them implement sweeping changes to improve their work flow and ... oh hell I can't bring myself to type this crap. The jobs actually ok and the people are great but I don't think I'm going to look into staying in sales once back in the UK.
Halloween and Nov 5th seemed to passed unnoticed by all Australians so we (the flat) found a few packs of sparklers and did our bit to remember the enduring greatness of the British parliament and then went out and reminded a few Australians who owns them.
Talking of foreigners that can't look after themselves.... it would appear none of them can speak proper! Did you know, there appears to be no word in Norwegian for steak sandwich! I mean really, come on... and though I've pretty much got used to the fact Australians call flip flops thongs, and that they call Aussie rules footie straight footie, but now I'm working I'm finding a whole new level of ignorance of our fair tongue.
For example, hands up if you know what shambolic means or even if you realize it's a real word! Now I'm guessing people are looking at you a little oddly now but out here no one would've even twitched unless it was to check on google or in a dictionary before being surprised by a definition jumping off the screen and off the page. Australians may be able to play our sports rather well but I really think someone should have a word with old John Howard on education!
Ranting over that's pretty much me. I've done my RSA (responsible service of alcohol - don't ask) so hopefully going to get a bit of extra work to earn a few more travel pennies and as there appears to be a good steady stream of holiday makers between the lot of you I now have different visitors from the UK right up until Jan. I'm beginning to ramble and as it's tuesday there are 2-4-1 pizza's waiting for my attention (part of busy routine!) so must be off.
Bye for now,
Jonathan
Internet Cafe
Haymarket
Sydney
posted by JP at 3:39 am
