Old News - Newsletter February 2006

So, six weeks in Sydney now:
Milord and I are still getting on well.
I’ve been for one interview but didn’t get it.
Life is still good ;-)


And… it keeps raining! Who said this place is hot and dry? It’s a myth – I’ve seen more rain in the past six weeks than we had in the entire English summer. We have the odd hot dry day, but the rest of the time it is overcast and drizzly. They tell me to enjoy it while it lasts, but it’s affecting my beach-time! I’d be on Bondi right now, not writing emails, if it was a nice day!

The job hunting is very slow – although there are a few jobs going my visa status puts me at the bottom of the pile. Because sponsorship would take 3+ weeks, and everyone wants someone to start “tomorrow”, I’m not getting much interest. There is one possible nibble at the moment, so I’ll keep you posted! I had an interview just over a week ago, but it was in an area I don’t want to work in, and didn’t really go all that well anyway (over in 10 min – not a good sign!). I keep reminding myself that I’ve only been looking for two weeks and that it took me 3 months to land my first London role… Don’t panic!

Getting a little bored with being alone during the day now… sightseeing is not nearly the same on your own. I meet Milord for lunch a couple of times a week and do the odd exploration to stay sane, but I could do with a job – or a girlfriend to hang out with!

The house is completely rearranged cleaned and tidied, and I am now very comfortable in it. I’ve been doing a bit of gardening too and we moved all the containers around a week or two ago, so that occupied me for a couple of days. Milord has flowers growing outside now, which he grumbles about but I think might secretly like! Anyone who saw my garden last summer will know I like a riot of colour, so I’m slowly sneaking flowers into the shrubbery ;-). We also now have a herb garden which is fun. I used our own chives in the scrambled eggs on Sunday!

Milord is looking after me very nicely. For Valentine’s he took me out to a restaurant called Café Sydney, which overlooks the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was fabulous! Apart from that he generally spoils me and treats me like a princess, which I could definitely get used to! He is avoiding any “future” discussions until he gets to know me better, which is probably sensible… but frustrating! I sometimes feel like I’m on an indefinite probation period! He has some emotional baggage from his horrible marriage to work out, but I’m hoping that when the divorce comes through (in about a month) he’ll be able to move on and do the commitment thing. Or at least stop looking at me like I’m about to grow snakes for hair! He’s the best boyfriend I’ve ever had so I really shouldn’t complain - I’d probably run a mile if he suddenly got serious :-p.

What else? I’ve done some exploring, and got terribly lost trying to drive from home to Manly beach. I ended up circling the eastern suburbs of central Sydney for a while, which is utterly in the wrong direction! Turns out the SatNav doesn’t know about one of the newer tunnels under the city so accidentally sent me into it… and sometimes the GPS gets confused and thinks I am 2 blocks away from where I actually am and tries to take me the wrong way down one way streets! I am reverting to paper maps!