Blog Post #4: Life in Sydney

Blog Post #4: Life in Sydney

The past few months we haven’t gone away much. Instead, we have been focusing on exploring the city. This blog post will mostly be about what we’ve been up to while staying in Sydney. 

We went to Vivid three times while it was on. Vivid is a light show that takes place around the city, where light displays are beamed onto buildings. I went to Martin Place with my friend Tusi and ate glow-in-the-dark donuts (the icing glowed under black light). Unfortunately, these were more instagram worthy than tasty! Drew and I went early one night to Circular Quay to watch the display, and we especially enjoyed the display on the Opera House. We also took in the Botanic Gardens; given the line to get in, we felt the display was underwhelming. 

We also have gone to a number of different theatre events at the Opera House. We saw Bennelong, which was put on by Bangarra, an Aboriginal contemporary dance company. It was excellent, as was the accompanying music. We also saw Hot Brown Honey, and a clarinet concert. All of the events were at smaller venues in the Opera House; hopefully sometime soon we can go to a main stage event. 

The one day trip we made was to the Blue Mountains. We went with some friends to take in the Winter Magic Festival, where there’s a parade and a market amongst other things. We took the train, which takes about one and a half hours per way, and spent the day there before coming home. 

We have continued our cooking adventures with our Thermomix. We made our first ever batch of pierogies. It only took us about three hours to make a batch, and they turned out great. The filling was definitely better than Chemmo Pierogies; the dough was not quite as good.  I also made a batch of Nanimo Bars using the Thermomix for a party hosted by our American-Australian friends from church. Both Drew and I have made a number of different breads: I made cheese and spinach scrolls and focaccia, while Drew made apple raisin custard scrolls. 

We had our first house guest since moving here, Gurbeer, one of the pain fellows. She is doing her fellowship in Tasmania. She came up for a conference, which Drew also went to, and it was nice to have her stay with us, as it gave us a chance to visit. 

We have added some more furniture to our house: we bought a nice indoor/outdoor gate-leg table from Ikea. We keep it inside, but when it’s a nice day we take it outside to eat. It, importantly, allows us to have people over for dinner. The current set up was quite awkward, with only two bar stools.

Drew and I both have exciting news on the job front. Drew will be at Royal North Shore Hospital for his second year of fellowship, which is a world-renowned facility for chronic pain. My contract was to end at the end of August, as the program I’m working for is winding down. However, my contract has been extended by a different area of Transport; until the end of December I will be working at the Transport Shared Services in Burwood. Unfortunately, I will have to commute by train, instead of biking. I am making good use of the commute by writing this blog and working on other things. 

One unfortunate event that occurred recently was Drew falling off his bike en route to work. He dislocated his shoulder, and cracked the humerus. In true Drew style he relocated his shoulder, hopped back on his bike and rode to work, where he was able to go to the emergency department. So, Drew is sporting a sling now, and is working on some physio. Thankfully, Drew’s fall wasn’t worse, and also thankfully, he has been cleared to dive in Queensland in September! 

Our next adventure is a proper one: we’re off to Queensland for two weeks. We are flying to Brisbane, where Drew will write an exam. Then we’re headed to the Gold Coast to relax for two days, before heading back to Brisbane for the train up to Cairns. Once there we’re doing a bunch of tours and a three day live-aboard (where you live on the ship and dive from it) on the Great Barrier Reef. Then we’re going to road trip it back to Brisbane. We’re really excited for it! After our trip I’ll do a whole post just on it. 

Blog Post #3: Finally Settling In

Well it has certainly been longer than I intended before my next blog post. We have been travelling quite a bit, and when back in Sydney we’ve had some very full weekends. 

It feels like we are finally starting to settle in, and I think that is due to a number of factors. The main contributor is that we have finally sorted out our housing situation. It’s a rather long story, mainly centred around renovations that were dragging on for over a month that limited access to certain rooms, and our inability to access the attic room for over three months. We diligently tried working with our rental agency, but only received resolution to our issues when we promised them a trip to the tenancy tribunal. Thankfully, that major stress is behind us, and importantly we’ve now been able to fully unpack and relax in our house more. I no longer wonder what problem I’m going to come home to, and it is truly nice to feel relaxed at home. 

Another major contributing factor to settling in is meeting new acquaintances, and, hopefully, soon to be new friends. Both Drew and I have very nice coworkers, a few of whom have had us over for dinner, which has been really nice. We also finally met our relocation agent, as she had a wonderful dinner about a month ago where we met a lovely couple she had settled in about two years before. 

We have started to attend the Uniting Church in Paddington, and so now it feels like we have a faith home. Mainline churches in Sydney are very interesting, as they tend to skew quite socially conservative, which is a bit odd for such a progressive city. In addition, the inner-city churches have tiny congregations, but apparently the farther out suburbs have the bustling congregations. We attend the evening worship at our church, and we like it because it is participatory in the sense that we are invited (but not forced) to share our reflections on the scripture or sermon. We also really like that our congregation is an affirming congregation, which means that is inclusive of all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The last thing that has really helped with settling in is having enough of the basics, so that we don’t have to constantly run out and buy things. Mostly, this is relevant to the kitchen, as we love to cook but didn’t have enough of the necessities (ex. Pyrex containers or dishes), which made cooking frustrating. Now that we have the kitchen stoked appropriately, it is much more enjoyable to cook. 

Drew with our Thermomix

In the not a kitchen basic, but totally awesome, department, we recently bought a Thermomix. It is a multi-cooker; instead of buying a bunch of small appliances, we chose to buy one appliance that did most of the functions of the others. We just had it delivered on Thursday by our consultant (they’re sold via in-home sales), and I was really impressed, as she unpacked it with us and explained in detail how to use it and helped us make a vegetable stock paste. When she left we made an amazing butternut squash (or as the Aussies call it, pumpkin) risotto, and last night we made a beef stew with dumplings that was delicious. We highly recommend watching the Thermomix episode by the Katering Show, as it is a pretty hilarious comedy show that featured the Thermomix on an episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr_etbfZtQ 

We’ve also bought a few hobby items, which has been nice, as we couldn’t bring any of that with us due to space constraints. In March I bought a sewing machine, so it has been very nice to be sewing again. I bought a Janome, which made me a bit sad because I love my Pfaff machines back home. Unfortunately, Pfaffs are prohibitively expensive here, and not very popular, so it’s hard to pick them up second hand. I also had intended to buy a machine on Gumtree (Aussie Kijiji), but the prices were just ridiculous, and I didn’t want to buy someone’s lemon. So far the Janome is doing well, and I’ve made some cushion covers with it. 








April & May were big travel months for us. We went to Adelaide one weekend in April for a conference Drew was attending. We had a great time on the Saturday as we started with an amazing breakfast; I had a beauitful, and more importantly tasty, waffle. Then we went on a McLarren Valley bike tour, which saw us biking in the forest, and biking to two wineries. As we were driving to our first stop we quickly realised the other people on the tour were also attending the same conference as Drew. They were a lovely group from Melbourne, and we really enjoyed our time biking and visiting cellar doors with them. They even invited us to Jamie’s Italian for dinner, which is Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Adelaide. Apparently, they had made the reservation two months prior, just to make sure they could get in. I did some touring in Adelaide on the Sunday before coming home, and Drew attended the conference for a few more days.

Drew biking

Overlooking the McLarren Valley

My tasty and beautiful waffle

Over Easter weekend we went to Jervis Bay to take in the famed white sand beaches and to dive for the first time in Australia. We tried Airbnb for the first time, and it turned out to be great. We saved a lot of money on accomodation, and our hosts were very friendly and welcoming. We had an amazing shore dive with an independent dive instructor, who operates out of her home/garage. We saw 29 stingerees (very similar to stingrays), octopi, wobbegongs, and a grey nurse shark (an endangered species). The dive instructor was extremely knowledgable, and even had a hot shower at the back of her dive van! The white sands also didn’t disappoint. The sand was so soft, and squeaked when we walked on it! 

Leah at Greenfield Beach

Leaving Jervis Bay (far behind Drew)

Fitzroy Falls on the way home from Jervis Bay

The most amazing donuts! This is in Berry.

Last weekend we went to Brisbane, and had a great time. I took the Friday off, so I could make a long weekend out of it. I went on an excellent walking tour of Brisbane on the Friday, and learned a lot about Brisbane. I took in other sights by walking, and I also did a fair bit of shopping, as the prices were very reasonable in Brisbane compared to Sydney. Drew was attending the conference the whole time, so we went out together for dinner in the evenings. Drew really liked the conference centre in Brisbane, and said it was nicer than some of the big ones he had been to in the US.

Leah with Brisbane CBD in the background

Highlights:

• Our bike trip in Adelaide
• Our trip to Jervis Bay 
• Our trip to Brisbane
• Getting a Thermomix
• Getting mail from home-thank you!!!

Lowlights: 

• My neighbours singing—it is so awful. She also sings in a room adjacent to our living room. 
• Missing friends and family.

Drew on the Bondi to Coogee Costal Walk

Finishing up the Costal Walk, Bondi Beach behind me

Post dog park nap

Our first 6 weeks in Australia

Six weeks have really flown by! It feels like so long ago that we arrived on our bumpy flight from Vancouver. We had turbulence from Vancouver until almost Hawaii, which wasn’t the best. We also ended up on the 777 versus the Dreamliner, so it wasn’t nearly as nice. But we were both so exhausted from lack of sleep before moving that we thankfully slept quite well on the flight, which was good because when we touched down we had a lot of things to do that first day. 

When we had left Winnipeg with all of our 7 checked bags plus carry-on we had planned to hire porters in Sydney. Unfortunately, none seemed to exist in the customs hall, so we were stuck trying to haul three very heavy luggage carts by ourselves. Thankfully, a very sympathetic man helped us out, and so we only had to struggle out of secondary by ourselves. 

We then realised we hadn’t gone through immigration, and were quite worried we were unintentionally illegally in Australia despite carefully following the signage. Drew went to ask where the customs front desk was, and the info booth lady was clearly quite accustomed to this query and informed Drew not to fret that due to the e-visa process we were legally in the country. I fully expected to be in immigration for hours, so it was quite the surprise, and an indication of how customs agencies are changing. 

I waited at the airport with our three luggage carts, and Drew picked up a Go-Get (car share) van. I felt quite badly for Drew, as just an hour after a long haul flight he was driving on the opposite side of the road in a big van. Like a champ, Drew successfully picked me and our stuff up, and we went about doing errands for Drew’s medical license that first day.

We had a whirlwind first four days, as we had to buy a bed, as well as a fridge and combo washing/drying machine, as rentals here don’t come with major appliances, except for the stove. We also bought new bikes, as this is one of our primary forms of transport. On a side note, Drew has done an impressive job hauling purchases home on his bike, including the Dyson stick vacuum and a 12kg bag of dog kibble plus our groceries. 

Our Bikes!

After our first week in Sydney, I headed down to Melbourne to pick up our dogs. I took the train from Sydney, which took 10 hours, and got me right into downtown, where I was able to take a tram to the hotel. The next day I rented a Go-Get SUV, and drove on the left hand side of the road for the first time, and picked up the dogs in a far flung suburb of Melbourne. The quarantine facility looked like a penitentiary from the outside, so the joke about picking them up from dog jail became a little more literal than I preferred. The dogs were happy to see me, although very bewildered because the quarantine employee insisted on bringing them out in their kennels. I think they were worried about going on another flight, so they were very excited when they realised the vehicle was there to drive them home. 

Unfortunately, there is only one quarantine facility in Australia for dogs, so that is why the dogs had to stay in Melbourne. It was quite the journey for the dogs, as they flew from Winnipeg to Toronto to LA and finally to Melbourne. 

The happy reunion 

I stayed in Melbourne for four and a half days, and Drew joined me halfway through for his perfectly timed mandatory work conference. After spending the entire first day with the dogs, I spent half days with them and went about touring the other half of the day. I saw the Victor & Rolf exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria, and it was amazing! I also saw the sites in the CBD (downtown), and on the last day went driving through the Dandenong Ranges, which was very beautiful. 

Alfred Nicholas Gardens in the Dandenong Ranges

Alfred Nicholas Gardens 

We drove home from Melbourne in a large SUV Drew had rented, and we stayed overnight in a motel in Albury. It was quite a long drive, but it was the easiest way to get the dogs home.  

When we got back from Melbourne I started my work search, and quickly learned that the job market here is extremely competitive. For contracts/temp jobs, positions fill in a day or two, and for permanent jobs the positions can fill in under two weeks. I met with a lot of recruiters, and two Fridays ago I had an interview with Transport for NSW, a state government department. I had the interview at 3:00, followed by a 30 minute Excel test, and the recruiter called me at 5:30 and asked if I could start Monday! The team I am on is quite small, but nice. My boss is very nice, and likes the work that I’m doing, so I am hopeful that this contract will set the stage for either another contract or permanent role. The entire project team will be disbanded in six months when the project ends, so I definitely will have to look then. 

Drew has been working since February 6th, and has been enjoying his work so far. It’s quite busy, but the program has matched his expectations, which is good. Drew rides his bike to work, and it takes him about 20 minutes. His coworkers are nice, and his friend Giles took us to our first rugby game here. He is also going to watch our dogs when we go to Adelaide for the weekend. 

Drew's Birthday Gelato Pie

Highlights:

• Getting the dogs back
• Coogee Beach is a 22 minute bus ride from our house.
• Drew’s birthday at the Chophouse was very tasty and nice. 
• Buying a toaster and BBQ from the Sunbeam Outlet this past weekend; we have had toast everyday this week and used our BBQ a lot already. 

Lowlights: 

• Everything is so expensive here!
• Cockroaches love Sydney, Leah loathes cockroaches. If you have a house in Sydney you have to preventatively spray for them, and everyone here acknowledges that they are a fact of life :(
• Being homesick

Blog Post #1: Why A Blog?

When Drew and I decided to move to Australia we identified missing our friends and family as one of our top concerns. We also reflected back to our last move from Calgary to Winnipeg, and recognised that we had not stayed in touch with people as much as we had wanted to. We both resolved that this time would be different!

But why a blog? To start with, social media doesn’t lend itself well to any sort of longer posts, and while instagram is fun, it again lacks a certain depth. The other reason I chose a blog was a bit of a commentary on social media. I find with social media there is a strong urge to post a polished and veneered view of one’s life. The sheer audience size of not just friends, but colleagues, and casual acquaintances reinforces the need to keep one’s page polished and restrained. I know that at different times of my life I have certainly been guilty of this either in what I post, or by what I omit. So, my aim with this blog is to have the space to update all of my friends and family in an honest way. 

I hope you enjoy this blog!