The day I met my first PROPER Aussie...

So, I've been in Sydney exactly a week today and so far everything seems to be happening at 100mph, that is everything except finding work....getting around to getting my bank account and also TFN, but besides that were has the time gone??
Gawd knows!
Anyway, the latter has been done and the former is in the process of being found.
My general feeling of Sydney is that its not very Australian, i mean there is the occasional Australian person doted about but they come few and far between, everywhere is fast food deli's and 24/7 conviniance stores run by Asians who speak very little English let alone with an Australian twang to there accent....
Earlier i decided to go and grab a coffee, actually, to be precise a Mocha - a nice lil coffee-come-chocolate combination - and walked until i found a suitable, non-Starbuck run coffee shop and proceeded to sit and sort out my documents into a easily readily accessible and easy to find order such as flight information (outbound and inbound), my medical information (which has recently been updated thanks to my own stupidity of being unable to determine were the floor began), hostel info and other important pieces of paper that i would be stupid to loose. Anyways, whilst sifting through the papers a mid 40ish something (I'd guess) fella sat next to me and, not right away, but after a couple of minutes popped the question of 'where you from', thus entails a healthy conversation of my life back home and his life from up the east coast in Cairns. Turns out that he was down in Sydney in a legal tax battle with something to do with his Yacht that he has harboured back home, he's had a heavy day at Court which had ended up costing the poor fella about $6000. I'm surprised he wasn't drinking something stronger.

The natural progression of questions ranging form what was i doing in Sydney to what else will i be doing whilst in Aus followed and i eludicated that i would be staying in Sydney for a while doing the classic working and shared accommodation combination.

He shed some light on his youth and his hometown and said that it was a wasted trip to stay in an un-Australian run town such as Sydney and that i should venture north not only for the surroundings and scenery but also for work, which was allot easier to come by especially as it was just going into fruit picking season. It made sense to me.

With our visa we were given a platinum card which enables a free night stay in hostels and apartments dotted up the east coast and southern Australia (well a free night should you book 3-4 nights with them first) and today (because we are waiting on our Bank card to be sent through the post which can take up to 5-7 working days and which we had to give out an address for) we had to book another week's stay in the hostel, because of this it was worth while getting something called a 'Mad' Card (short for Nomads, the hostel company we are with) and this, just like the visa card, enables free nights, money off bookings and also up to $400 worth of vouchers ranging from free meals, free entry to clubs, free drinks and also money off attractions and events and there are hostels that this card lets you stay in all over the Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tasmania so i believe it would be stupid to let such opportunities go to waste.....


The fella also highlighted that, unlike Sydney, people up north are allot more talkative and friendly and are more likely to help you out and generally be more 'human' towards you, it was funny for an Australian to highlight the fact that in Sydney everyone pretty much keeps them selves to them selves and that on several occasions you will look up from reading a paper or book or having a sip of your tea to see a small number of eyes staring at you from various places in the room, its weird but because of they number of eyes looking at you it leads you to believe that you may have something on your face such as a huge spot that's appeared in a matter of minutes or someone behind you is pulling faces over your shoulder.....its a little off-putting....


Anyway, besides his inspirational talk and knowledge of his hometown he was actually using proper Aussie lingo and on several occasions i had to ask what it was something meant after he'd say a word, it was cool and reassured me that all the slang terms I'd read about in the Lonely Planet guide hadn't totally died out, up until that point the only slang I'd heard had been 'schooner' which is not quite a pint but more than a half when ordering a beer...


Finally here are a couple of pics of nothing in particular but it will give you guys something to look at anyway, the graffiti I've been doing to pass the time (tilt head to the right), theres a picture of a billabong from the Blue Mountains and also a pic of some ugly git (small children be advised).....