Goodbye Surry Hills?

Hello there. Seems like there have been some complaints about the blog maintenance in terms of updated entries. Hey, I actually do have a life too! But here goes again for the loyal readers (if any).

It's been over a week already since we got back from NZ and I must say time goes by just like that. Last week in school was quite tough - a lot of classes and assignments due. On top of that, I got sick (as mentioned) adding to the pain caused by university work. Last weekend we took it easy though. One older guy called Ahmed from our Analysis Tools class had invited me and Gordon to visit his place in Gosford, which is an "exurb" about 50 kilometers from the Sydney CBD. Don't get fooled by the name, he is Australian although has some family in Egypt. The weather on Sunday was gorgeous and we took the Manly ferry from Circular Quay and made our way to Manly beach, located on the north shore of the city - a beautiful area. Ahmed picked us up from there and we started driving towards Gosford.

It's funny how everything changes so fast when you get out of the city core. There's hardly any Asians, rather just peaceful suburban areas with idyllic scenery and well-kept front yards. Gosford was not an exception to this. It was extremely nice to get out of the downtown hustle and relax, drink some beers and grill in a "real" house with aussie people. I also insisted that we listen to country there as FoxTel has a channel dedicated to my favorite music!

I suppose the "big" news now is that I got (with 99 % certainty) a part-time job here. This entails monitoring and tracking inbound shipments for a large multinational distributor of alcoholic beverages. They already gave me booze when I stopped by to say hi so I couldn't refuse the offer! The job starts probably in a few weeks and the biggest thing for me is that they offer an apartment to use for free. In other words it's time to pack my bags and leave Surry Hills behind. Remember my early blog entry about Coogee beach? Well, that's where I'm headed now. The apartment is five minutes from the beach (walking), is fully furnished and modern. I will have to share the place with another (American) employee but that's fine. I will probably have a house warming party there too so come on over!

Only a bit over four weeks to go! Then we've wrapped up the first semester and I'm off to Vanuatu&Finland for a while. I'll keep you posted of course. Don't diss my blog! Instead, check out the new pics from Manly&Gosford.

Cheers.