Home sweet home.

It's six in the morning and I'm on an early train to London on business. It's 8 degrees and still dark - Sydney and our travels seem a million miles away!! We've been home now for six weeks so we've had plenty of time to settle back to the reality of home life, we're comfortable. We ask ourselves whether we made the right decision not to stay in Oz and make a go of it, then we go out to one of our old haunts and the thought becomes moot. We helped out at a hill climb organised by the club on Saturday on a steep climb out of Luddenden. It was a warm and calm afternoon as we looked down on the quant village below and across the valley to mills converted to flats/apartments', it couldn't have been a more Yorkshire view. All was well as we walked back to the HQ in the village pub in the company of friends we've known for ever.

The trips to Samoa, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand were all we hoped for (links to the photo's below). A very relaxing stay on Samoa followed by the madness of South East Asia proved to be a good distraction from the reality of picking our old lives up again.

The house inevitably needs some TLC. Calum has looked after the place but it hasn't had much maintenance work for the past couple of years. It's payback time, I've had two DIY free years after all, so whenever I have a spare hour I now have a paintbrush in my hand. Some of the jobs will need professional attention, we're beginning the process of organising all that. We don't think the garden has received much attention over the past two years either..... not that it ever got that much when we were around come to think of it! A radicle pruning of the borders and several cuts of the lawn have returned things back to an even keel however.

Ros was back to work within a week of getting back to the UK, I had a little longer to reacclimatise but we're both now settled back. Not much has changed at Huddersfield New College it seems but Ros is seeing the work and colleagues with fresh eyes, not necessarily in a good way in all cases! As for me, the final phase of the absorption of the Deanery into a large burgeoning national organisation has happened in my absence. I'm still hopeful that I can find a place in the machine that fits my skills and ambitions ..... and that I can set aside my scepticisms. Time will tell.

Our travels have had little affect on Ros' physique, she's as slim as ever. Unfortunately I can't make any such claims. I was a stone overweight (6 kg to our Australian friends) when we got home. A few regular bike rides has reduced the surplus to half a stone but clearly I have more work to do. I'm riding in to work most days so hopefully that will continue to help and when I return to training proper in January the rest should come off - in theory!

Here's a few photo's to finish off:

• Samoa
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• Thialand

Final post from Oz?

We leave Sydney later this week so this is likely to be my last post from here. I may write a couple more from the UK just to record our first impressions and thoughts on being home.

So we're well on our way to wrapping up the trappings of life in time for our departure. We've given notice on the apartment and cancelled the bills etc. The car, the furniture and my trusty commuting bike are all sold. Despite our best intentions we seem to have bought and accumulated an inordinate amount of 'stuff'. We'll be sending some but not all of it back in packing cases, a pile of which is growing in the study as I write. And we're saying our goodbye's to friends and colleagues, the impact of which I think we both underestimated. It was hard to do the same thing when we left the UK but at least that was a temporary goodbye. In contrast, we're unlikely to be seeing most of the people we've got to know over the past two years and that's now slowly dawning on us. So it's a mad mix of social get-together's and packing at the moment. There's also the small matter of two holidays to arrange for. It's a hard life!

As of Friday we're spending 10 days in Samoa, relaxing by the beach. We then return very briefly back to Sydney before going off on an exciting trip around Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. And then it's a flight back home, arriving on the 13 August. I'm sure the time will flash by now and we'll soon find ourselves on the tarmac in Manchester. We still don't know how we're going to feel about that, only time will tell. 

Niall is still currently touring around New Zealand, living the life of a backpacker and having a whale of a time by the sound of things. He'll be flying back to Sydney in a couple of weeks to say his goodbyes to the friends he's made here. We're hoping to catch up with him briefly between our trips. Niall then goes directly home, so he'll be back a couple of weeks before us. Perhaps that should be long enough for Calum to get into the swing of not having the house entirely to himself. He's had a batchelor pad for the last two years and we're wondering if he's going to feel a little crowded in before long. We'll see.

Tasmania in the Snow

Another month and another trip to report on, we really are in full swing now!

Tasmania was the only state we hadn't visited here so we can now tick that one off having spent a short week there a few days ago. The time away spanned a long weekend (as the Aussies call any weekend with an attendant bank holiday/public holiday attached to it) celebrating the Queens birthday of all things. They do seem quite pro-royal here it has to be said but despite our strong republican stance we weren't going to quibble as the extra day came in very handy. Annual leave is at a premium for both of us at the moment as you might expect. 

We were obviously aware that we were visiting the coldest part of Australia in mid-winter. Not the best time to visit in some ways but it did give us a very different perspective. Snow was still lying on high ground from a heavy fall a few days before our arrival which made for some refreshing sights. Seeing the varieties of trees and bush that we now associate with a warm climate covered in snow was somehow enthralling. 

Tasmania in general is a sophisticated corner of Oz, it was one of the earliest areas to be developed after Sydney and in contrast to the big city much of the old (historical?!) buildings are still actively used. That combined with locally produced produce and wines makes for a cultured experience. It also has a rugged beauty that we did our best to explore in the short time we had. 

We spent a couple of nights out on the west coast in a small resort town called Strahan. It was quite wet and a drive into the high ground to see the famous Cradle Mountain didn't improve things. Put it this way, we only caught a brief view of the mountain as the cloud skidded across it. We had more luck on the East coast on the Tasman Peninsula where we took a boat trip to see the famous sea cliffs . We landed at Port Arthur where one of the first Australian penal colonies was built. We were told that the biggest problem back then was the inmates writing home to friends and family urging them to commit crime to ensure a passage out. Such was the relative ease of life compared to Britain in the throes of the industrial revolution. We took a drive and walk to the picturesque Wine Glass Bay, by now the sun was very much out and we enjoyed the views in the best possible conditions. We then topped off the trip with a couple of days spent in the capital Hobart. We visited the art galleries and climbed Hamilton mountain for a view over what is a small, sophisticated city by a wide estuary with the Southern Ocean in the background.

We're now back in Sydney for our last month here. So it's down to the business of wrapping things up and saying our goodbyes. Mixed feelings all round! 

A couple of sets of photos this time:

• Tasmania 
• Vivid Sydney (a winter festival of light show installations around the city)

Adelaide and Perth

We've done a couple of brief trips over the past weeks.

First up, we took mum down to Adelaide for a stay with my cousin Nichola and her family. Nichola and Neil have made the perfect life for themselves over the 8 years they've been out here. They have a large open house with the obligatory swimming pool out back, set in a large garden. We were staying in Gawler on the border of the Barossa valley, the biggest (and ? best) of the wine regions in Oz. We had to oblige. We spent the day calling into one cellar door after another, Nichola was graciously driving so the rest of us got progressively 'relaxed' - shall we say. Another highlight was an evening barbecue. This was the biggest one we've yet been to here but ironically was composed of Brits only. It was very much the expat experience for us, we sat around by the pool into the evening reminiscing about home and putting the world to rights. I say the world, it was more about putting Australia to rights in truth. If only they'd listen to us we could fix their country for them! At the end of the stay we sent Mum off back to the UK while Ros and I spent a few hours exploring the city before heading back to Sydney. There's a very pleasant University/Museum quarter by the River Torrens - felt quite European in fact. 

Last weekend I joined Ros in Perth where she'd spent the week at a conference. Perth is over 5 hours from Sydney and we reflected on the fact that in Europe such a flight would take you to Moscow. Would we consider flying to Moscow from the UK for a weekend? We haven't in the past but perhaps that will be something we'll take home with us - a more open mind about travel? 

We were very much impressed by Perth, helped by the fact that the weather was near perfect. Given that we were limited on time we took a couple of coach tours into the surrounding area. It's such a beautiful and diverse area with rivers, rolling vineyards, wide open seascapes, dense Eucalypt forests, massive sand dunes and spooky deserts!! We spent a couple of days sampling all of the above. The last day we kicked back and stayed in the city, taking a train to a suburb at the mouth of the Swan River and returned by ferry. We even saw a couple of dolphin pods from the boat. The locals took the sightings in their stride, it's obviously a common occurrence - lucky them!

We're back to the routine of work now but have set an end date (at work etc) so we're now very much in the final phase of our stay. Niall is in a similar position as he's also finished his sales job and sets off for New Zealand at the weekend - his final phase (or perhaps the start of the next one?)

I've put together a few photo's if you're interested:

• Adelaide - 
• Perth  -

? Last Visitors

Another holiday, another house full. We had a wonderfully chaotic Easter with my Mum; sister-in-law Alice; and our nice and nephew Sophie & Micheal staying with us. That equates to seven of us in a small two bedroomed flat - i.e. bodies everywhere! It was particularly good to have kids around (especially over Easter - we're still finding forgotten chocolate in the fridge!).

We now have a regular routine for visitors:- show them the best of Sydney but then go somewhere we haven't been before - just to inject some variety into the mix for Roz and I.

The trip away this time was to Port Stephens, a collection of resorts in a large picturesque bay 3 hours north of Sydney. Again we were left feeling we wanted to go back, if only we'd discovered it earlier. Blue seas, endless beaches, steep hills to climb for views across the bay. We only stayed over for one night but it was enough to be transported back to the eighties. The low to mid range hotels we find ourselves in here are all a bit dated (can't speak about the upper end - perhaps that's what you pay your money for?). That's fine when it's just for a night or two, it becomes a nostalgic experience. The evening meal in particular was a blast from the past - deep fried everything. I don't think prawn cocktail was on the menu but it wouldn't have been out of place there.

We went out on a dolphin watching boat trip on the second day. There are several pods in the bay and despite the high winds we caught sight of quite a few - what a thrill. We had intended doing some snorkeling too as there's a renowned nature reserve in the bay with lots of sea life. Unfortunately the winds has whipped up the sea bed and there was nothing to see. We swam among a flock of Pelicans instead - they were particularly unimpressed as a they sheltered by the shore from the winds.

Alice and the kids have now gone on to Hong Kong, visiting friends before returning to the UK. Mum is still with us experiencing all the extremes of weather that a Sydney autumn has to offer. We're currently in the middle of a storm that's lasted for 3 days now. We're just about to set off for Adelaide, weather permitting, for a stay with my cousin Nichola. Unfortunately Nichola and her family are stranded on a cruise ship outside of Sydney waiting for the storm to bait before they're allowed to come in to the harbour! So we don't know how things will turn out, but in true Aussie style we'll be making the most of it.

New Zealand Trip

We've just returned from a two week touring holiday around New Zealand. Ros and I hired a camper-van and greedily set off to see as much as we could in the short period of time we had to play with. The adventure started in Auckland on the northern end of North Island and continued for a short week before we caught the ferry to the South Island where we spent a long week.

The roads were perfect for driving a van around, quiet and perfectly formed. And there's so few of them that it's impossible to get lost. We were not alone, camper-vans were everywhere to be seen. As everyone knows NZ advertises itself as the home of adventure activities. We sampled: Black Water Rafting, Jet Boating, Luge, Paragliding and Sea Kayaking (twice) among more sedate activities.

If I were asked to sum the country up I'd have to say it has all the best elements of Europe packaged into a small country with English speaking, friendly, and relaxed locals. With the bonus of volcanic activity!

We finished up with a visit to Christchurch which has a strange atmosphere post earthquake. 70% of the buildings in the central business district are either flattened or unstable and due for demolition. On the positive side the people who are left have a certain defiant energy and are coming up with all kinds of innovative methods to regenerate quickly - including the use of freight containers for just about everything!

Returning to Sydney was a little strange as it didn't feel like coming home as such. The trip was more like an extension of our travels, almost a holiday from a holiday - very odd!

We briefly thought about emigrating to NZ about 15 years ago. Our trip has left us regretting that we didn't pursue the idea!

And here's a few photos to view

Final phase??

Given that we're now into 2015 with just a few months to go before we return home it feels like we're in the final phase of our Australian adventure. The thought is focusing our minds as there's just so much we still want to do. We had a long list of places we wanted to visit out here and I suppose we're a good way through that but we keep finding places we'd like to go back to a second time - they're now in the mix with all the others! Our solution to this problem? We plan to finish work a few weeks early, pack up, and do some travel before taking a final flight home. We'll 'mop up' any Australian destinations we haven't managed to get to and then perhaps a south pacific island or two. 

It's funny how we're already getting nostalgic about Sydney now that we're into this 'final phase' mentality. We're saying things like "this time next year we'll be.....". Not so sure I like it, I think we need to adopt a less introspective attitude! 

A happier Christmas

We're just settling back into a work routine this week, having taken a couple of weeks off over Christmas and the New Year.

Calum and his girlfriend Jess made the trip over to spend the festive season with us and see something of Australia. So in contrast to last year we had a family Christmas, complete with the swapping of presents etc. plus stockings for the kids (yes, despite the fact that our sons are now 22 and 23!!). We couldn't quite go as far as trimming up the flat, it still doesn't feel right in 30 degree heat, but it did feel like a joyous time this time around. We did the expat thing of meeting friends at the beach on the big day. So we joined the Forrests, Flowers, Atkins plus Goran to swim in the ocean followed by a shared Christmas dinner al fresco. All in all, a perfect day!

This was followed with a busy week showing Calum and Jess the highlights of Sydney, culminating in a New Years eve in a perfect harbour-side vantage point to watch the spectacle of the fire works. 

We began the new year with a family trip to see the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland and then Uluru in the so called 'Red Centre' of Aus. Highlights of the Queensland leg were undoubtedly the two dives on the reef itself. First up we did a Scuba dive from a pontoon anchored close to the Agincourt reef. There's nothing like joining the fish to weave in and out of multi-coloured coral stacks several metres high. It is literally another world! Then a couple of days later we went snorkeling off Cape Tribulation. The reef is less spoiled there and is teeming with marine life! We swam with multicoloured fish, stingrays and turtles. We even saw shy clown fish (aka Nemo) and reef sharks hiding in the coral. Northern Queensland has a tropical climate so it was no surprise to get some rain there most days - I guess it was fitting for what is a rain forest region. That said, we didn't expect it to follow us into the desert! The weather in Uluru was a big surprise. It was cool from the moment we touched down, by the next day it was raining and didn't really stop until after we left. According to the locals this is a once in a decade occurrence. It was a mixed blessing as we were able to do a few of the more energetic activities we'd dismissed as unsuitable for summer heat. So we were able to cycle around the rock itself and to take the rim walk around Kings Canyon for example. On the other hand we never saw the star filled night sky we were expecting and only got a brief glimpse of Uluru in all it's sunset glory. Such is life, we experienced the red desert under conditions few people get to do.

We returned to Sydney and Calum and Jess flew back home on Wednesday. So the flat is feeling a little quiet now with just the three of us. Niall continues with his tele-sales job, Roz and I are back to developing medical courses for imaginary students for a living. Next up is a trip to New Zealand -  plans already in process. 

I've put together a couple of photo sets if you're interested:

• Christmas and New Year in Sydney
• Port Douglas
• Uluru

A day at the races

Niall and I spent the day at the Sydney Olympic Park yesterday watching motor racing. A street circuit had been set up around the Olympic arena to host the last race of the V8 Supercar national series. (I’d happened upon the circuit earlier in the week while out on the bike and had fun doing a few laps on virtually closed roads.) V8 is the big thing in Australia, the nearest equivalent would be Touring Cars in Europe. The race cars use the bodies of standard saloon cars but with massive, powerful V8 engines. The noise is incredible! Despite the fact that the circuit was narrow and had short straights (think Monaco) the cars were reaching 250 km/hr -  all very exciting.

This being Australia an earlier race had featured ‘Utes’ i.e. Utility Vehicles. As far as I know Utes are exclusive to Australia, they’re essentially flat bed vans and would normally be driven by workmen (aka ‘tradies’). I don’t think racing was foremost in the mind of the engineers who developed these vehicles so stability at 200 km/hr isn't their strength! It made for an entertaining hour.

We’re into the rainy season here and we’ve had thunder storms virtually every evening for the past two weeks, yesterday was no exception. In fact the deluge came early and ruined the main race, it was abandoned half way through. We had a good day nonetheless and felt we'd witnessed another slice of Aussie life.

More visitors from home

We've just had the Cleggs to stay. Ros's cousin Rebecca and husband David have spent the last two weeks with us. With the exception of last weekend we've continued to work so Rebecca and David have been heading into the city to do all the touristy things Sydney has to offer (with Niall tagging along on several occasions). We've then been meeting up in the evenings and doing trips together at the weekend. It's always good to have friends/family from home and the Clegg's are good company anyway. If nothing else you realise how much you take for granted after living in a place for a while. We went to Shelly Beach on Saturday to do some snorkeling, for example, and they were blown away by the number and variety of fish just off the shore. We are aware that this sort of thing is special when compared to home but we're no longer amazed by it, is that a bit sad?

Since Rebecca and David wanted to catch up with friends in Melbourne we all took the trip down there last weekend. Melburnians Keith and Andrea played host to all four of us in the end so we spent a couple of days travelling down the Great Ocean Road and two days in the centre of Melbourne itself. The road trip was fabulous, as the name suggests the road hugs the coast as it winds south of the city for over 200 km from one dramatic bay to the next and so on. We had perfect weather for the most part, clear and sunny, so we were looking out over azure water as far as the eye can see with waves smashing into and over beach after beach. There are a series of stone stacks at one point, the so called twelve disciples, vast gold coloured rocks projecting upwards, the highlight of the brief trip without a doubt.

This was our first trip to Melbourne and we were struck with how European it felt. It was tempting to make comparisons between it and Sydney. Sydney has it for the natural beauty of the sea, the harbour and the beaches but Melbourne has far more sophisticated architecture and as a bonus a more efficient transport system (the lack of which is a daily frustration in Sydney). We intend making another trip back to Melbourne before we head home that's for sure, it did have a good vibe going on.

Here are a couple of sets of photos:

• Blue mountains trip with Rebecca and David
• The Melbourne trip

Central Coast

We've spent the last couple of weekends exploring the Central Coast. This is a stretch of coast an hour north of Sydney  (from the Hawksbury River north). The first weekend was spent with the Flowers and the Forrests in a hotel in Terrigal - a small resort with fabulous beaches. On the second weekend just the two of us went off camping in Budgewoi, a narrow stretch of land between a lake and the sea. In many ways the scenery is no different from other areas of the NSW coastline, in other words ….stunning! What sets it apart, certainly from Sydney, is the suburban hinterland. It might be stating the obvious but things are so much more relaxed than in the big city -  people are able give you the time of day. Things are a lot friendlier and it worries us that we are getting the wrong impression of what Australians are really like. I suppose it's a big philosophical question - what is the real Australia? Is it the rich mix of first generation immigrants  all desperately trying to get a foothold in the busy city? Or is it the relaxed, established Australians of European extraction? TV and films suggest the latter and so inevitably it was the picture we had in our minds before we came out. We're finding out that the truth is more complicated - which has to be one of the benefits of living in a place (as opposed to merely visiting).

Encounters with the local wildlife

I seem to remember talking about the absence of dangerous animals in an earlier blog, despite all the talk of deadly creepy crawlies prior to coming out. I've now come into contact with an example of one - though not one that I was expecting! The local birds are busy tending their nests as spring is in full swing here but one species in particular are particularly vigorous in their defense of said nest, namely the Australian Magpie. The male magpie sees any fast moving animals coming into their territory as a threat and do all they can to discourage him coming anywhere near a second time. In the eyes of the magpie cyclists fall very much into the category of threat and swoop down from behind to attack either the back of the head or preferably the eyes. Just to add to the fun the bird has a very good memory and attacks the same individual if and when they return. So I'm now taking a detour at both the beginning and end of my regular ride to work and will be doing so for the next 6 weeks. Two birds have currently got me marked down as public enemy number one and no matter what I do I can't persuade them otherwise, so that's that!

Niall has now returned back to Sydney having done his 3 months of service to rural Australia. He's successfully applied for his second year visa and is now considering his next move. Possibly staying in Sydney for a couple of months if he can find work or maybe going back to Queensland with friends? Time will tell.

Sunday was the first beach day of the spring so we took advantage and met everyone at Balmoral beach. It made us realise why we're here. The winter hasn't exactly been cold by UK standards but it's amazing how quickly we've acclimatised and how relatively colder weather has affected us. It's good to be swimming in the sea again!

The O'Kanes come to Sydney

I seem to have settled into a trend of only posting here to report on trips away from Sydney. And I suspect that will continue - inevitably we've settled into a weekly/workday routine and very pleasant as that is, it doesn't make for good writing! This last week has been a deviation from our usual 'another day in paradise' routine, hence the post. 

The flat has been a hive of activity as the O'Kane family (Pat, Karen, Sam, Elliot and Alice) have arrived from the UK for a long planned visit. We expected that the confines of our two bedroomed flat might wear thin after a day or two so we arranged a stay in a lodge in the blue mountains for us all. As it's still winter and the lodge was a few hundred metres above sea level we were half hoping for snow (they get a couple of falls each year apparently). That wasn't to be, but we experienced our first frost in Australia - sad I know but its funny the things you miss :-) 

We've done a couple of day trips to the blue mountains previously but it was good to go further afield this time and explore more of the stunning landscapes up there. We also took a drive to Bathurst, the first inland town to be settled here and also the site of the mid 19th century gold rush - all interesting stuff. Bathurst also sport a motor racing circuit, it's a normal road for most of the year, all be it one with chicanes and crash barriers. It was slightly surreal to be driving round a race circuit at 60km/hr in an 8 person automatic Kia , in Australia, with friends from back home?!

I've posted photos of the trip as usual on flickr - if you fancy a look.  

Pat, Karen and Alice are now doing a couple of weeks visiting the wider Australia (the lads headed straight home from Sydney) and will be spending another couple of nights with us before flying back to the UK. There's already been tears from Roz but I'm sure there'll be more when they finally leave. That said there's a good few promised visits from others to come, we're not going to be lonely! 

Hunter Valley

It's well and truly winter here so it's not the weather for sitting on the beach and as we've pretty much seen the sites of Sydney we're finding ourselves seeking places further afield on the weekends. A case in point - we did a short impromptu trip to Hunter Valley this last week. The Hunter, as it's referred to, is a celebrated wine growing region two hours north of Sydney. We threw the bikes in the back of the car and having booked a room for the night set off. After a wet start to the day the sun came through just as we got there - as if on cue. We spent the rest of the day cycling from the cellar door of one vineyard to the next. Each had several wines on offer so it would only have been rude not to partake of each. A glance at our bank account reveals that as the afternoon went on we bought an increasing number of bottles at each vineyard. I suspect this is how the economy of the region works! The wineries and the abundant number of restaurants makes it all very pleasant and civilised.

Niall is now in Tasmania doing a couple of months unpaid work at a Hotel/ Eco Village. He's been working reception so I guess it's a pleasant contrast to spending his days in fields picking one fruit or another. This is in aid of getting his second year working visa, a government scheme to encourage backpackers to work in the more rural areas of Australia. And rural it is, he's an hour from the nearest town and is out of mobile phone coverage. So we've only had the one update from him so far - no doubt we'll get more details on his experiences as time goes on.

Canberra

We were away for a long weekend in Canberra last week. It's a three hour + drive from Sydney so a relatively easy trip to make. We had mixed feelings about the place even before we got there - you tend to get a tepid response from Aussies when you mention the city. One colleague in particular advised us to see everything we could on our first visit as he predicted it would be our only visit! We'd also been advised to take our bikes with us as that's the best way to get around the city. And they were right, it's a place blessed with wide open boulevards, a large sculpted lake, lots of green, and lots of bike tracks. And all of this devoid of people! It was eerily empty for a capital city. Our first visit of the weekend was to the National Gallery - we arrived on bikes and so went in via a side entrance. We didn't see another punter until we'd been through at least five large galleries, it was just us and the omnipresent security staff. This is a gallery with a massive budget and priceless art on display. It just goes to show that 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink' - or whatever the saying is. Canberra, as you may know, was only conceived a century ago and despite all the money, excellent town planners and the best architects money can buy can't guarantee a buzzing capital city. It's people that do that (and perhaps the gravity of history). That said, we had a very pleasant break drinking in culture between leisurely bike rides and learning a little Australian history along the way. An interesting place, but no, we won't be rushing back.

It was a good five degrees cooler than Sydney so the drop in temperature and a good number of deciduous trees dropping their leaves gave us a real autumnal feel - just in the nick of time as winter officially starts this week. The nights are drawing in so the working weeks are rather routine at the moment. We're already debating about where our next trip should be. Watch this space.

Steady away

We're enjoying a quiet period at the moment. Niall is still away on the Sunshine Coast hoping to pick up enough farm work to qualify for a second year visa so that he can stay on a little longer. As for us, we're enjoying the fantastic weather, mid twenties and sunny most days - perfect. We're settling in to a daily routine in our new home - so just to shake things up we've bought roller blades. I could already skate, all be it a little wobbly. No such luck for Ros, she's learning from scratch and is already sporting a large bruise on a certain part of her anatomy. She's persevering - so we'll soon be powering along the water front here with the best of them. 

It's late autumn down under but a combination of unseasonably warm weather, a lack of deciduous trees (and therefore autumn colours) and a preponderance of flowering plants means it simply doesn't feel like it. Not the first time I've said that I know but neither of us can get our heads around it, the seasons seem, well, upside down!

Ros has now been promoted at work and has a fixed term job until we  leave next September. So no worries on that score. We've just got to get through the year without falling out! It's all a bit too cosy, being in one another's company 24/7 ;-)

Here are some photo's from our travels over Easter:

• Port Douglas
• Out and about in NSW

Phew!!!

We're just coming down from a manic period! Our guests, Mick and Sue returned to the UK at the weekend having spent the last two weeks with us - they arrived just two days after we'd moved into our new apartment. Prior to that we'd had 4 backpackers staying with us (Niall and three of his friends). So now it's just Ros and myself, a chance for the two of us to settle into our new home. We're loving getting up to a wide panorama over the river and sitting out on the balcony eating breakfast while watching the runners and cyclists passing by on the waterfront. We're adjacent to the Olympic Park - a vast green area with cycle / running lanes through mangroves and manicured grassland. So Ros has no excuses for not getting her running back on track. As for me, we're a little further from work now so I've bought a second hand bike for commuting - I'm hoping to get fitter too as I've neglected my cycling over the past few weeks.

Mick and Sue's visit was the catalyst for a couple of trips over the Easter holidays. In particular we spent a few days in Port Douglas, Queensland. It's a seaside resort on the edge of the oldest tropical forest in the world and also happens to be adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. Two world heritage sites for the price of one! So we spent two days in each! Mick and I went scuba diving on the reef while Ros and Sue went snorkelling - all from the luxury of a large boat. We did three fantastic dives at different sites to see as much of the amazing sea-life as possible. We were so enthralled that we just had to go out and do it all again and found ourselves on the Low Isles a couple of days later, this time diving from a tropical island. In between we did a couple of trips into the rain forest..... spending time with an aboriginal guide, diving into a natural plunge pool, going on a Crocodile safari and pretending to study the massive number of ancient species of plant. I took so many photo's that it's going to be a week or two before I process them all. In the meantime here's one I didn't take myself -

Diving, visitors and a new home

Mmm, I've just noticed that my posts are becoming less and less frequent - sorry for that. It's not as if I'm running out of stuff to talk about, in fact it's quite the opposite - we're going through a very active period.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were planning on doing some scuba diving and we have since started on that. However it hasn't been plain sailing - we had a false start a couple of weeks ago. A combination of poor instructor, poor conditions and Ros's instinctive fear of drowning (!) led to a panic attack and a bail out. So we re-arranged the training with a more experienced instructor in a swimming pool (rather than a busy beach/bay) for this last weekend. Unfortunately Ros just couldn't overcome her natural fears and despite several attempts has called it a day. I've carried on and so far have completed two of the three days of the PADI Open Water Certificate. Just two dives to complete next Saturday and I'll be certified and ready for our visit to the Great Barrier Reef over Easter.

We had visitors from home a couple of weeks ago, my Auntie Bernadine and Uncle David. They were on their last leg of a tour around Australia and were staying in a hotel in the city centre having booked it before we even came out to Aus. It was good to see them and show them a few of the sydney highlights - felt like we were seasoned locals showing them the ropes. Not only did it make us realise how comfortable we've become in our surroundings in just six months but also provided us with a link to home, short lived though it was.

Despite all this activity we've just signed up for a new property. We move into a smart riverside apartment next week in a trendy district adjacent to the Olympic Park. It's 5 miles from work so in some ways is less convenient than where we are at the moment but there's a little more life down there and will give us more of a city vibe for the next 18 months. We're both looking forward to the change of scene.

Rain, rain go away

Shock, horror, it rains in Australia!

I don't think either of us were naive enough to think that it didn't literally rain but we imagined that it would be more of the tropical variety i.e. brief heavy downpours immediately followed by sunshine . That's certainly not the case in Sydney if the past month here is anything to go by. It's been miserable ... more rainy days than dry ones and when it has been dry the skies have been grey. Not what we signed up for, perhaps we should be asking for our money back? But I don't suppose I'm going to get much sympathy if you're reading this from the UK

Given all the rain I haven't been getting out on the bike as much as I'd have hoped so I braved the weather on Sunday and got a couple of soakings while out on the morning club ride. We set off for a 90k ride on dry roads but I think we all expected to get wet at some stage, the forecast wasn't good. I went prepared as if in the UK, so I had arm warmers on and a waterproof under my saddle - all standard practice back home. As it turned out I was the only one making such adjustments - it was simply too warm for extra clothing.  I was expecting that 5 degree drop in temperature that you get back home, even in the summer -seems like doesn't happen here. And the other thing is that it's a relatively clean drenching you get here, the roads are much cleaner, none of that road dirt blackening your legs and bike. So not exactly a positive experience but even getting wet in Australia presents surprises to this naive Brit.

Niall is away again, this time in Muldura doing some fruit picking (it was Oranges initially, now Grapes). He seems to be enjoying the experience as a whole but is rather disgruntled by the rates of pay. And who can blame him, the Orange farm were paying 40 - 50 dollars for a 9 hour day and taking 10 dollars back for transport costs. So he was getting up at 5 in the morning and getting the equivalent of 2 pounds fifty per hour doing a long day in the sun. Needless to say he's now happier to be moving on, hopefully the vineyard pay more than 'slave' rates.

We've just heard that a couple of Ros's friends from work, Mick and Sue ( - 'Darth' to her students) are coming to visit us over Easter. It did come as something of a (pleasant) surprise when Mick announced they'd booked the tickets and were virtually on their way out here  - though Ros had enticed them with the promise of warm autumnal seas so we shouldn't be too shocked. As a result we've quickly booked a trip to Port Douglas to see the Great Barrier Reef with them. It'll be our first trip  outside of the state, hopefully the first of many! 

Creepy Crawlies

Before we came out numerous people warned us about deadly snakes, deadly sharks, deadly crocodiles, deadly jellyfish and deadly spiders in out here. And yes all these things do exist, and I might be tempting fate here, but we haven't seen a single one of them in the wild - never mind been threatened by one! The fact is that we're spending the vast majority of our time in a major city and creepy crawlies don't like cities. Of course everyone likes to talk about their close encounters or about a friend of a friend who rescued his son from the grips of a python .... or whatever. And we did have a large (harmless) Huntsman spider in the house a couple of months ago. But I'm beginning to wonder if it's all a fuss about nothing. That said, it strikes me that these posts can't be deleted once they've been published ........ so I could be setting myself up for an embarrassing backtrack if we're attacked next week.

We were away on a camping trip in Jarvis Bay last weekend. It's a popular destination about 3 hours south of Sydney. The beaches have the whitest sand in Australia (it's in the Guinness Book of Records apparently) and go on for miles, so it's obvious why it's so popular. Part of the reason for the trip was to try out snorkeling - we bought all the kit while we were down there but things didn't quite go to plan. Turns out that facial hair doesn't help in forming a seal between skin and mask. Drastic measures may need to be taken! Here's a short set of photos from the trip.

The snorkeling is a prelude to scuba diving as we've been bought gift tokens for a local dive school (birthday presents from the Smith family back home - thanks folks!). If the snorkeling goes well the plan is to upgrade to the full scuba course and give that a serious try. It could prove to be just one of many new experiences we're picking up here.