Cars and bikes

A couple of significant happenings this week!

Our shipment from the UK has finally arrived -  pots and pans, bedding and extra clothes etc. Of course it makes a massive difference from a practical point of view but what we weren't expecting was the emotional aspect of all these extra's. It's like getting lots of home comforts in a box, all at once. Perhaps most importantly we now have our bikes! Niall and myself have already been out on an evening and we'll be dragging Ros along for weekend rides before long. I've already got a few routes worked out and we're eager to get started. 

Over the past few weeks we've become increasingly aware that society here has a very American approach to car ownership - it's pretty much essential. Everywhere is set up with the assumption that you have access to a car and we've been getting the feeling that we're missing out on things as a result. So we've finally taken the plunge and bought one. I'll admit to being a bit of a car snob normally and only consider certain makes but I've taken the 'when in Rome' approach and have chosen a second hand Hyundai - the most popular small car here. It's not a brilliant car to drive but it doesn't half make a difference to day to day life and that sense of freedom that easy mobility can bring. I suspect it's going to be the most significant of the incremental steps we're making towards normality here. 

Finally, I realise I've been getting behind on the photos front. Here's a couple of links to the latest two sets :

• Royal Botanic Gardens
• Sculptures by the Sea 

Adventist hospitals and the like

I came across a Church sponsored hospital while out on a bike ride at the weekend - The Sydney Adventist Hospital . There was an Emergency department and I got to wondering if they turn you away if you're not Adventist??  I don’t think I’ve seen such a thing before but it didn’t come as a surprise as it appears to be a very religious society here... to a point. By which I mean the majority of schools, both Primary and Secondary, are religious i.e. under the auspices of one church or another. I have to say the kids are very polite particularly when in uniform - there do seem to be some benefits to what is probably a strict school regime. I say things are religious to a point and that seems to be where it ends - school! There are churches around, probably as many as back home, but like the UK they seem to be empty the majority of the time….. and I haven’t seen anyone queuing to get in on a Sunday either.

The preponderance of Religious schools has worried Ros. Despite the fact that she’s applied for a number of teaching jobs she still hasn’t even managed to get an interview. She thinks it might be down to the fact that she can’t demonstrate that she’s a devout catholic (the predominant church here from what we’ve seen) i.e. provide a reference from the priest. Some schools actually insist on this!

Too close for comfort

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about the problem with bush fires out here. Today, with temperatures in the low thirties,  they got a whole lot closer. There were two burning in close proximity to the University campus as we looked slightly worryingly from the office window. One in particular was burning in West Pymble, about half a mile away from work and even more worryingly about quarter of a mile from our house. The services were straight onto it, with three then four helicopters in the sky within minutes. Two of the helicopters (one nicknamed Elvis apparently) were fire-bombing the worst of the flames and within a couple of hours had things under control.

I walked across the campus to get to the gym at lunch time (no sign of our road bikes from the UK yet, so I'm still interval training on a static bike a couple of times a week) and took these videos as the helicopters took water from the University's lake. You can probably see the smoke coming up from the bush beyond the lake in the second video - the site of the fire.

Click for

• Video 1
• Video 2

And so on...

The school I’m working for (the Australian School of Advanced Medicine) was in need of cover for one of our educationalists currently on maternity leave. Knowing that Ros was looking for work she’s been interviewed and has secured the job. So we’re now working together! At least for the next few months. We’re less than 10 minutes walk from the campus so we walk in together, usually in warm sunshine with cockatoos and the like singing from the trees. All very cosy! We don’t see too much of one another during the day but we do hope we don’t get on top of one another in all of this.

I’ve been making a few observations on how Australia seems to fit with the wider world.

The media seems very inward looking. The focus of the main evening news on TV is not even Australia wide it’s concentrated down to New South Wales i.e. Sydney! On the one hand it’s reassuring to know that not much crime happens here but on the other it doesn’t half make for boring news, it’s like Local Radio on the TV. When an international item is run it’s very much in the context of Australia and how it might affect things here. (maybe it’s the same at home and it’s just that I’m more tuned in due to being new here?) I’m reading Bill Bryson’s travelogue on Australia and he makes the observation that perhaps this inward looking aspect springs from the fact that the outside world pretty much ignores Australia. So Aussies think ‘if they’re ignoring us we’ll ignore them’ kind of thing.

That said, the city is very cosmopolitan, I’m working with a multitude of nationalities and the University seems very international - more so than I’ve ever felt at Leeds Uni. (or perhaps working in a foreign country opens up your eyes and I’m now more aware of how ‘small’ the world is) We have more commercial partnerships than would be tolerated in a UK University and so we’re surrounded by big multinationals placed strategically on the periphery of the campus and that adds to the sense of globalisation. So it probably depends on where you’re looking the new is colloquial but business certainly isn’t.