G'day Pommies!

(That's not gonna get boring for some time yet i warn you!) Well, alls changed since the last blog and without Joe falling down drains im at a bit of a loss as to what to write about?!

Have felt extremely weird ever since leaving Joe at the airport on monday, but as usual the last 5 days have whizzed by and slowly but surely im getting used to being on me todd! Had loads of reminders of him wondering around Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday - HSBC signs and buildings and the monorail all made me chuckle to myself as i passed by, remembering how easy pleased he was by such things and hearing him in my head muttering 'monorail, monorail...' Homer Simpson style. It wasnt chuckling i was doing to myself wondering the city though, i actually occasionally found myself mumbling to myself - slightly concerning maybe for the Sydneysians but it was a comfort to myself...after 10weeks of living in someones pocket its been hard getting used to wondering around alone.

Enough the sob story anyway i guess, i wasnt and haven't been completely alone as a friend of mine & Joe's, Rich, who we met in Asia came and met me in Sydney on my first day which was great. He is a keen photographer hence the arty farty snaps i've posted - curtesy of his handy tips. Im now also staying with Ali & Tony, friends of mum and dads, south of Sydney city, so again im not quite alone. Planning on hanging around here until perhaps Tuesday, but the thought of getting the bus alone is pretty daunting without Joe to pester, poke and natter away to!

For how familiar Oz is supposed to feel (and i am definately feeling pretty at home here at Ali & Tony's - iv been hoovering, ironing and making millions of cups of tea a day...feeling like a home away from home! Plus it's freaken freezing so there's another reason for feeling at home, though not so handy when im packed mainly for asian climate) there is certainly some differences which are a bit baffling. For e.g. the lingo is even more bizarre than i imagined - they have entirely different words for toilet, kettle, fridge, etc - vital everyday objects, which makes for pretty confusing convo's...though highly entertaining ones i must admit. Im learning, albeit slowly. I've got dunny, eskie, hoons.......and thats all i can remember at the minute. So much for there not being a language barrier here! They also have a very odd supermarket system - Woolies (for a start, this is one of their main food chains, not the Woolies as we know it back home) is laid out in the most bizarre fashion, so milk for eg. isn't with the rest of the dairy as you might imagine but actually the other end of the store. They also dont sell alcohol......?!?!?! I spent about an hour in there on my first night here just trying to find some basics but got so disillusioned with wondering the same aisle severl times that i gave in and lived on salad, tuna and grapes for 2days.

So far no scary insect encounters though there was a teeny tiny spid in the shower with me the other day and, despite the fact that it was less than half the size of my small finger nail, i leaned in cautiously just to check it didnt have any red markings on it's back. Thankfully not, so i left it to watch me shower.

Seen some awesome sights already in only the few days iv been out here - huuuge flying foxes/fruit bats across the botanical gardens in the city which were just brilliant, the colourful rosella parrots that i put pics of up, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House at sunset, Hyde Park, The Greatest Artist in The World.Com (seriously the coolest artist ever with a gallery right on the harbour - he chatted away to me a Rich for about an hour about how he doesnt just believe but KNOWS that he is The Greatest Artist......etc etc! I must admit he was very very cool, awesome paintings which reveal loads of intricate little stories when you get closer, all painted solely with a plaster-scraper-type-thing), cool man making big-ass bubbles (see above!) on Darling Harbour, the beautiful coastline and bays south of the city and probably my favourite sight/experience so far was the crazy lady sitting at the coach station in the city chatting away about communist china and the secret conversation that two imaginery people ahead of her were apparently having. I thought when i first took a seat near her that it seemed strange for a woman of, i guess, about 75/80 had skull&crossbone designs on all her luggage. Anyway, that was one of my first delightful tasters of the city!

Well, thats about all i have to report. As you will see from the pics, despite my early concerns that a bunch of scary hostile Austrains had knocked all the confidence and sociabilty out of me, banishing me to a life (well 3months) of loneliness, i did infact manage to make a few friends in Sydney. Could have done better, as they are all either staying there or not heading in the same direction as me, but i was pretty chuffed all the same to discover that my horrific (blimey it just gets more and more dramaic at each mention!) Austrain nightmare hadn't scared me for life! But seriously the guys i met were a great bunch, so at least iv got some new facebook friends!!!

Well, love to all, if anyone fancies popping over feel free i would be more than happy to have a companion or two...let me know?!

Loads of love to you all,

Vic..........just lil' lone pommie me from now on!

x