01 April 2010

After giving a shout-out to Cousin Cynthia in our last blog entry, I now am starting to wonder what she got us into with those City Walk cards.  Gina is obsessed while my soles are wearing thin.  Agreeably, they are the best way for us to get out and experience the multitude of neighborhoods Sydney has to offer, but Cousin Cynthia may need to send us a follow-up gift in the form of new Nikes.

Today started off with coffee with my new boss, Mark.  Actually, it technically started with us walking to the Camperdown neighborhood to meet him.  According to Neighbor Cynthia (not to be confused with Cousin Cynthia), this would be about a 20 minute walk.  According to my timepiece, this was more like a 35 minute walk.  And having walked it with Greyhound Gina, it’s not possible that we were going slow.  (We have since noticed that to nearly every “how long of a walk is it” question we have asked of Cynthia and her fellow Aussie friends, the answer is always “about 20 minutes.”  Lesson learned.)

Having never met Mark in person during the interview process, it was nice to finally shake hands and have a conversation that did not entail me first wondering how to dial that 18 digit phone number or if the living room were tidy enough to pull up a Skype video call on the computer.  After coffee and a brief tour of the office, we confirmed my Tuesday start time of 9:30 am.  Yes, 9:30 am.  I think this job will be a perfect fit.

From Camperdown we ventured toward downtown by way of the metro bus, not wanting to risk another “20 minute” walk, as we’re sure it would have been described.  Our goal for the afternoon was to experience the Eastern Suburbs; more specifically, the great Coastal Walk along the city’s eastern beaches.  After a city rail ride followed by another bus, we had reached Bondi Beach, perhaps the most famous beach in the world.

It was easy to see why – stretched out before us was a kilometer of golden sand, washed clean by the brilliant aquamarine waters pounding in from the Tasman Sea.  Although a weekday, there were plenty of sun worshippers and surfers littering the beach.  We can only imagine the scene this will be on Christmas Day, when that number will swell to about 35,000.  And by “imagine” I definitely mean see with the minds eye, as spending Christmas with that many fit, bronzed, and far better-looking bodies will no doubt not be my preference, as I consume yet another frosting-laden Swedish Christmas cookie that I’m hoping mom will send in a holiday care package.  Some bodies are made for Bondi; others for the ‘family’ beaches we discovered farther south.

Following the Coastal Trail in the direction of Tamarama, or Glamorama as the locals call it, we decided that in addition to the Paddington neighborhood, this part of the Eastern Suburbs also held great promise – even more so due to its proximity to the enchanting South Pacific.  The Coastal Trail itself is a work of art, stretching several kilometers north of us to the South Head, where the Pacific Ocean meets the outer Sydney Harbour, all the way south to Maroubra, another coastal community just north of the International Airport.  Kilometers of public access along the crumbling sandstone headlands, peppered with pristine beaches and saltwater pools.  No landowner signs dictating “No Trespassing” or “Keep Out” or “Beware of Dog”.  Just a beautifully maintained path with wide-open ocean views, a workout circuit, and a stretch here and there though native bush.  We loved it.

We ended our walk in the beachside community of Coogee (pronounced “Koodjgie”), which had a nice community feel and a real grocery store – definitely a bonus for car-less residents like us.  While I picked up a few staples, Gina chatted up the salmon-sampler lady, who not only sold her on the Basil-Lemon salmon, but perhaps on Coogee as well, telling her it was the best neighborhood to live in in all of Sydney.  We may end up taking her advice, but there is more exploring to do before we make our final decision.  City Walk cards #25, 26, and 27 – two more thumbs up.

02 April 2010

Today we got on the correct ferry to take us across the harbour to Kirribilli, the lower north shore neighborhood we meant to walk a few days ago.

Being a public holiday (Good Friday) here in Sydney, we expected the wharf to be teaming with tourists, but instead found it to be a virtual ghost town.  This may be why we boarded the right boat this time – no peer pressure to get on the first one that arrived.

Continuing with our City Walk cards, today’s focus was on #43 and #44 – a walking tour from Kirribilli, a view-laden suburb adjacent to the Sydney Harbour bridge, to Mosman Bay, several kilometers to the east.  The walking tour primarily hugged the coastline, although we deviated inland here and there to check out housing and service options.  A devoted Christian flier also reminded us of what day it was with this artistic message:

Yes, it was upside down and backwards from our point of view, but we are getting used to things working that way here in the southern hemisphere.

Perhaps the best part of our walk was through Cremorne Reserve on Cremorne Point.  Here we strolled along a paved path through native bush – a very jungle-like setting – to open spaces with fantastic views back across the harbour to downtown and the bridge.  Lining the path on the other side were magnificent mansions, places we would love to call home but would require more than Gina just getting a job.  Admiring the natural beauty of the setting, we were also awestruck by the size (and number) of horrifically disgusting spiders dangling from their equally humongous and disturbing webs alongside – and sometimes above – the path.  None of the Sydneysiders walking and jogging past seemed the least bit disturbed by these nightmarish tangles of legs and silk and venom, so we tried to fit in and not focus on them, but it definitely gave one an itchy feeling that was hard to suppress.  God forbid we should ever feel that sticky post-sensation of passing through a web around here.  They’re so big, though, that I think you’d actually bounce backwards as soon as you made contact.  At least that would be my hope.

03 April 2010

Today was Susan day (the Susan friend of Football Stasi).  Susan picked us up, Susan drove us to the Pyrmont Market, Susan drove us all around town, Susan drove us to Watson’s Bay for fish’n’chips, Susan earnestly but unsuccessfully tried to find us a flat in her Tamarama beach-view neighborhood, and Susan dropped us back at the train station to make our way home.  We like Susan.  She is fun and funny and makes proper (i.e., non-head-on-collision) turns in her little green Peugot, something we still find quite baffling.  Maybe Susan can teach us how to drive.

04 April 2010

Last night we gained back the hour we lost just a few weeks ago, as Sydney switched back to Standard Time.  It’s odd to see the deciduous trees here losing their leaves when back home they were starting to leaf-out when we left.  I guess we really will go a full year without summer.  Probably a blessing though, for the heat of the fall here has been more than ample and may well surpass that of an entire Seattle summer.

Up early thanks to the time change, Gina busily shuffled the deck and selected a rather frighteningly large number of cards for today – four, to be exact.  Apparently that hour we gained was meant to be spent walking.  On today’s agenda were card #s 20, 21, 22 and 23 – from the Paddington neighborhood all the way east to and through Centennial Park.  An ambitious goal to be sure, but the quiet, leafy boulevards inspired our ambling and we were fueled by the coffee culture we have hesitantly bought into.  I say hesitantly because (a) it’s expensive (like everything else here, as Gina would say) and (b) Gina never drank coffee before and I am not convinced that someone with her naturally over-energetic personality type should add drinking caffeine to their daily obsessive-compulsive habits.  Besides, if we keep blowing through 4 cards a day, the deck will be nearly played out soon, and then what will she do while I’m at the office?

To further my point, when we reached the end of the fourth card, it wasn’t enough to catch a bus back to Central Station.  No, we were now within striking distance of Bondi Junction, so shouldn’t we go check that out while we’re here?  Yes, Gina, we should.

Admittedly, our jaunt through the Junction – full of services difficult to find in the smaller neighborhoods, e.g., real size supermarkets and a breakfast plate under $10 – inspired us to add the area to our list of potential future homes … a list that necessarily needs to grow larger if we are to be successful in the highly competitive rental housing market down here.  We hope to have more to report on that next week, as Gina ventures out to a property management company and hopefully an inspection (showing) or two.  The way I figure it, though, other renters don’t stand a chance if Gina’s competing against them.  I’ll first fuel her up on lattes and then arm her with a stack of numbered cards pasted with pictures of each prospective property and then send her out the door.  They won’t know what hit ‘em.