Because of our impending trip, our friend Prasadi asked someone what it would take to convince us to stay. The response she got was that “the first 48 hours were critical”. So has she been successful? We’re here now just under 48 hours, and here are my first impressions of Sydney, all I’ve so far seen of life down-under.
My first of impression of Sydney was someone must have just picked up San Francisco and moved it half way around the world. Harbour Bridge emulates Golden Gate, the way its sheer size and structure somehow surprises you every time you see it even though you know it’s there. The quaintness of SF’s Haight\Ashbury type areas are pervasive, at least throughout the eastern suburbs, where we are staying. The number of coffee shops give Seattle a run for its money, except each has its own character, appear privately owned and unique like I remember from SF’s Castro district - not the “Starbucks and Tully’s on every corner” phenomenon that Seattle has become famous for. Driving through the eastern suburbs felt very San Franciscoy, houses are each different, land is obviously expensive given how close together everything is and the streets are narrow. Well behaved (off leash) dogs are everywhere, again something that reminded me of SF’s Castro district. The quays downtown could easily be mistaken for Fisherman’s Warf. Sydney certainly has a lot of characteristics of a North American city. The skyscrapers seem to remind me of Vancouver a lot, very modern and shiny. Being able to look through those skyscrapers and see water also reminded me a lot of Vancouver. Walking around, some of the nice big cathedrals made me think of St. Patrick’s in New York. The downtown shopping district felt exactly like San Francisco’s downtown, changing out the shop names of course. Yet the people, culture and lifestyle of Sydney seem to be way closer to Western Europe than America.
Travelling with two Americans, I feel like I’m more at home with the general lifestyle than they are. The amount of times already that I’ve said “yeah, that’s how we do it in Ireland” is getting ridiculous (they are likely getting tired of hearing this). There’s the obvious things; driving on the left hand side, spelling words like the English do “quay” (key), “draught”, draft. But there are more subtle things too. You’ll tip for good service, not because it’s the sole means of income of your waitress. The default is that you pay for your pint when you receive it, not that you run a tab. Coins matter – since there are dollar and two dollar coins, that bundle of change in your pocket is real money, whereas in America it’s generally not worth carrying around. The pubs feel very like they do at home; they are designed for standing crowds rather than sitting and having a meal with your pint. Even how the pub’s fridge is stocked feels like home – Magners (Bulmers) is everywhere, the fridges behind the bar display the offerings. Since it’s a lot more likely that you’ll order at the bar than from your table, those fridges become the menu and so you peer over the bar to see what they have, rather than read if from a list. That feels like home. When you walk in to a pub, you order a drink at the bar than then find a seat. In America, you find a seat first and then deal with ordering your drink (generally through the wait staff). I don’t think either way is necessarily better, but noticeably different.
The convenience stores are another subtle thing that feel very Irish-like. Yes, they carry real Cadbury’s and crisps like you get at home, even cold medicine and painkillers are familiar brands to me that I don’t see in the US (Lemsip, Neurofen) ,but the differences run deeper than the items on the shelves. The stores are clean, bright and modern. Convenience stores in America almost always feel like little dingy, dark, dirty places, owned and run by a small Chinese\Vietnamese guy who doesn’t speak much English but is very friendly in an effort to extort as much money from you as possible. Convenience stores in Ireland are almost all corporately owned (Spar, Centra), bright, clean, a million different choices of chocolate and crisps, operated by immigrants who don’t speak much English and don’t care how nice they are to you. The next customer is only seconds away. Sydney convenience stores feel more like the Irish ones than the American ones. For once I seem to prefer the corporate chain feel to the privately owned brand, though admittedly that might have a lot to do with the aforementioned chocolate and crisps!
So that’s my first impressions of Sydney. American on the outside, western European on the inside (I won’t say Irish since I acknowledge it’s actually English influences that have spread to both Ireland and Australia). Would I live here? Sure! Will I ever live here? Likely not, but who knows.
After a nice quiet Christmas work-wise, I’m utterly depressed to be back at work this week. While I was technically on duty over the break, besides keeping an eye on things to make sure nothing blew up, I took it pretty easy. By God is it a shock to the system being back to normal. Back to work blues have never quite hit me this bad before – it’s probably a combination of a number of factors, all I know for sure is that it’s no fun.
The Christmas season was enjoyable, though a little unusual since we stayed in Seattle for the first time. A week before Christmas, on the way back from a trip to Oregon with friends, we drove to Richmond, WA, to pick up our new dog, Shay. We had been thinking of getting a dog for a while and when we found Shay on petfinder.com, she sounded perfect. And that she is. She’s about 5 years old, half lab\half whippet, very well behaved and very friendly. She’s quite small (it’s hard to judge in the photos), at about 26 lbs (11kg). So far, she’s an angel. I’m convinced I deserve some kind of paternal leave since you get that if you adopt a child, why not a dog? Sadly, it’s not flying.Over Christmas, we had a houseful of both people and dogs. Cheeks (our friend’s whippet) came to visit for a few days as did a couple of human friends whose apartment got flooded out. Then Christmas Day about 10 more came for dinner and a few more for drinks later on. Lots of ‘Guitar Hero’ and ‘Seen it’ were played, a drink or two was taken and there were even a few songs were attempted. The day went off without too many hick-ups, even though Greg broke the leg off the dining room table late Christmas Eve …. after all the shops were closed so all chances of replacing it were slim to none (it was glued back together and somehow held).So Christmas in Seattle was certainly a little different but nice all the same. Shay has so far been a joy to have around, let’s hope I’m still saying that this time next year.Happy New Year to everyone, I hope 2008 brings good health, happiness and fun.
I'm between minds at the moment over maybe starting an MBA. On the one hand, I'd love to have done one (or be one or whatever they say), and have all the knowledge that I would have gained along the way. It's the doing one that's making be reconsider. If I did it, it would be part time and I'd keep working, so it would take at least 2-3 years. And it's a hell of a time commitment for that time.
At the same time, I'm thinking of all the other things I could be doing with that time ..... I could take all those courses\classes I've always wanted, learn a musical instrument, train for a marathon or triathlon or something. Though the sensible part of me knows that I probably won't have done any of those things regardless of whether I do the MBA or not. But it's made me think of what are those other things I'd like to spend my spare time doing. So here's the list this far... in no particular order.
Car maintenance class, First aid course, Learn Spanish and\or Italian, Run a marathon, Do a triathlon (at least Olympic), Learn to play piano, Learn to play guitar, Volunteer....somewhere, Golf - and get good, Sail - and get confident, Play ladies gaelic football with Seattle Gaels, Get back into soccer\basketball\squash, Learn to cook...
Decisions, decisions....
I'm declaring golf the most frustrating sport in the world.
I recently decided I should start playing golf. My friend Eilis at home plays, and I always thought it was a kinda cool and different "young woman" sport. So I've taken it up. In general, I'm a pretty sporty person and I generally pick up a new sport without too much effort. But hell golf is difficult.
What's so frustrating about it is that I can take 2 seemingly identical (to me) swings, and the ball decides to do 2 totally different things. It doesn't make sense! I've worked out that being consistent is going to take quite a bit of practice...and then some more...and then just a little bit more.
I haven't worked out if it's helping or hindering that I've played camogie all my life. While I'm sure it's given me good ball eye coordination, the swing is totally different and I feel myself doing a camogie swing from time to time.
The other thing I've discovered in my golfing career thus far is that I'm a lefty. Although I write with my right hand, playing golf right handed feels really wrong to me. I believe I have a brother and a sister in the same boat. Is this normal?
After years of putting off creating a Bebo\Facebook\MySpace profile, I eventually gave in when a friend bribed me into it by uploading pics of her new baby **exclusively** to her Bebo account- so it's join Bebo, or don't see pics of baby Cillian. So I gave in.... embraced the modern world and become someone. It's like when I was in college and my friend Allie had a mobile phone, and I refused to give in and join the masses with this "phone craze"...... I guess I gave in on that one too.
Anyway, Bebo is addictive! I've spent way too much time today viewing people's profiles... people I haven't seen in years, checking out people's photos and philosophies on life! This thing is worse than any drug! I've found loads of people I went to school with through people's networks, "friends" of "friends" of "friends" ect.
I almost don’t need to bother going to my 10 year school reunion that’s coming up next month anymore. I know everything I need to know about everyone now. And OBVIOUSLY, if they have not made it to Bebo, they are not worth worrying about and are nobodies. And none seems to have changed much - at all. I’ve heard a lot of people say that 10 year school reunions are not really worth it – everyone still cares about how they look, who’s friends with who, who broke up\got married\how cool a job someone has and treat it as an excuse to show off how well they have done. They say after 20 years people are past all that crap, and are actually more genuinely interested in reuniting with their old school buddies. I don’t know, ping me in 10 years and I’ll let you know.
Hi,
I came across a couple of interesting happenings at the recent track meet in Rome. Firstly a French long-jumper was hit by a javelin.
Javelin went in 5 inches - he needed 14 stitches. Wouldn't that freak you out?
Watch it on UTube.
Second thing is that there is big controversy about a South African 400m runner, who is a double amputee (from knee down) and runs on fibre blades. Apparently in a 400m race, towards the last 100m, your calves fill with lactic acid and runners generally can't go as fast as for the previous 300m. Since he doesn’t have calves, he doesn't have this problem so can keep going at the same pace throughout. So the controversy is whether or not he should be allowed run in an able bodied race. Video clip can be viewed from here:
Thought these were mad enough to merit a blog entry for first time in 6 months!
Clodagh
So I come back from Greg’s work Christmas party…a little inebriated let’s just say. I sit around for 2 hours before I go to bed, make a nice plate of chips and beans, watch multiple Coronation Streets, take off my jewelry and make myself comfortable. Next morning, I can find all my jewelry except my good diamond earrings. All week I search the house for them, but to no avail. I’m afraid to hoover the house in case I accidentally hoover them up – after spring cleaning all drawers and their usual “homes”, I start to get worried. I’ve been telling my friend Prasadi about this and she’s suggesting places I could have left them (including the fridge??)
Fast forward a week or so and we have a small get-together with a few friends. I’m showing them the Christmas tree, and the cute nativity scene that Greg’s father built for us last Christmas. Prasadi (not really appreciating the serenity and beauty of the nativity scene) eyes something sparkly in the manager with baby Jesus. Low and behold – it’s my diamond earrings!!! After much joyful screaming and jumping, we’re trying to work out what my state of mind was on the night in question that I decided to offer my earrings as a gift to the baby Jesus! Gold, frankincense myrrh…. And diamonds!
it's been a long time since I blogged... let's play catch-up...
- At home on a "bad weather day" - strong winds last night caused power to be out across a lot of the area. Campus is completely closed in work today so we're at home (yay). I feel better about staying at home since the last day when work was closed myself and hubby stupidly went in anyway. So I feel I am well deserving of a day off :-)
- Went to San Fran to visit Eilish a few weeks ago. San Fran is nice and warm, everyone seems to run marathons or triathlons and everyone has dogs. Weird place ....:-)
- Went to NY to visit Jude last weekend. Ended up in some crazy club with hot tubs and beautiful people... followed by a late bar... next day was not so enjoyable as you can guess.
- Going home next week for about 10 days for Christmas. Will be nice to be home without any wedding arrangements to make! Coming back here for the New Year...still working on what the plan will be for that night.
- Maybe I'll make a new year’s resolution to blog more in 2007...
Bye
About 5 years ago, I bought a pair of black sling-back shoes for some friends' wedding (in Barratts on Graften St. if anyone cares). Over the years, they became honoured and treasured, being rehealed and repolished many times. If they could talk, they could tell manys a tale, as they say. I often bought other black shoes, but for some reason I always went back to wearing the old reliables. Not only could I walk in them, they gave me a decent lift and of course, were sexy as hell. The time has come to admit they have past there day and for a while now I've been trying to replace them. This, I've decided is simply impossible. My requirements are as follows:
Black, leather shoe
Covered pointy toe (must cover entire toes, no “in between” parts peaking out)
4"-4.5" heal
Durable heal (meaning made of either metal or black wood, just not leather basically)
Sling back or full pump (see? I’m not fussy)
I can find combinations of all of the above, but finding one shoe that fits all requirements is proving impossible. Why is this so difficult?
So I’ve been talking about starting blogging for quite a while now - I am eventually embracing this blogging thing. Let's see how long it lasts....
I had planned on starting my blogging on Kinasewitz.net with the story of how I became a Kinasewitz. It's a few weeks ago now, but I'll give a quick few notes on the wedding and honeymoon.
Nota Bene - I still go by Lancaster. My excuse is that my visas are in that name so if I change, they will throw me out of the country. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
The wedding was fun, but I have to admit I've enjoyed other people's more than my own. As anyone who knows me will attest to, I'm not afraid to be the centre of attention, but your wedding day is more attention than you ever thought possible. Making sure everyone else was content and smiling every 2 mins for a photos takes a lot out of you. I was very narky on the day and could probably have done with a swift brandy from time to time to calm the old nerves. But despite the monstrous spot on the side of my face and a hair style that let's just say didn't turn out according to plan, the most important things went off smoothly. Suzanna scored, Ailbhe taught all the yankees to irish dance and Ryan spun Josephine into the next world. Oh yeah, and we both said I do and promised to love and honour each other till death do us part. No obey, sorry Greg :-)
The honeymoon - now this was worth getting married for! We stared off in Cinque Terre (5 coastal villages north of Pisa). This is my kind of place. We hiked through the villages one day and although it nearly did us in, it was worth it. We stayed in Monterossa - one of the busier of the villages. Multitudes of restaurants, gelateries and the local wine was great. Then onto Milan, where the highlight was of course, the World cup final. The atmosphere was like nothing I had ever experienced but the only comparison I can make is when Ireland went soccer mad in 1990 when we got to the Quarter final - times 100. It was pretty cool.
From Milan to Venice, which I wasn't as impressed with but my judgment may have been impaired by the 20 million mosquito bites on my body. With the air-conditioning in our room not working, the night porter trying to convince us that 24 C degrees was "very cold" and my entire exposed body adorned with massive red bites, I spent my first night in Venice reading in the bath! Things did improve from there though once they fixed the air-conditioning the next day and we found something to ease the itching a little bit - but I still maintain that Venice was my least favourite of the places we visited. Everything was for the tourists - maybe there is an authentic part that we missed but from what we did see, spend the extra days in Cinque Terra.
Then on to Rome, which I liked. Lots to see, do and eat :-) We stayed near the Colosseum and every time I'd see it, I'd still go wow. When you see photos of something all your life, seeing it in front of you is a weird feeling. It takes a bit of getting used to.
Enough, they will never return to your blog.
-Clodagh
This is a test blog entry.