Settling into Aussieland

Rule number one when beating jetlag: Do Not go to your bed, even if it is just to read. On my first night in Sydney I intended to read for an hour or two in bed but fell asleep straight away. I thought that I would sleep for at least 10-12 hours as I was so tired but 8 hours later at 2am I was wide awake, oops. Finally 8am arrived and I was able to head out to explore Sydney. I walked toward the harbour stopping in at a recommended bank to open an account in the optimistic hope that I would find work at some point. It was a beautiful day and I found the Opera house and Harbour Bridge easily enough. The views were spectacular and I was delighted to give my camera a proper work out once more. I had lunch outside the Museum of Contemporary Art before heading inside to view the ‘Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990 – 2005’ exhibition. The exhibition was an interesting show with her professional works of celebrity portraiture and more serious photojournalism mixed in with her personal photographs of her life with friends and family. The collection was inspired by the death of a close friend. Some of the photographs were stunning and some very poignant: she said the when someone dies there photographs take on new meaning and that was evident throughout the exhibition. Culture bit over I headed back outside to enjoy the sunshine by walking through the botanic gardens from the Opera House to New South Wales Art Gallery.

Back at the hostel I dug out my laptop and bought some internet time in the hopes of staying awake until a reasonable hour. I never did get round to editing my CV but I did meet up with someone who was interested in going to see the Opera House at night so I headed out again with her and thanks to some good conversation and yet more spectacular views it was after 10pm before I made it too bed. I was knackered but content and best of all slept through until 7am the next day, success!

Saturday’s task was to upload my CV to some job finding websites and go shopping. The weather took a cooler turn which suited my Scottish blood very well, especially as I walked back from the shops with a large bag full of food. It wasn’t the most exciting day but it was a good day of settling in to the hostel way of life. If only the tax website had been working I could have applied for my tax number then I really would have been ready for employment.

One of the reasons I came to Australia was for the weather so it is typical that on my first weekend it rained both days! Despite the rain it was still much warmer than the UK and it was nice to have an excuse to have a lazy day. Having arranged to extend my stay I was under the impression that I was to move rooms on Sunday, unfortunately I was to move on Monday and only discovered this after packing everything up and trying to check out! Fortunately I hadn’t gotten up especially to move out, I had been up since 7:30am thanks to my jetlag. On my return to my room I discovered that my conditioner had decided that it wanted to live life outside of the bottle so everything in my wash bag got an extended wash and I think it’s safe to say that Sunday wasn’t going particularly well! Thankfully my day improved post-wash-bag-explosion. After a quick trip to the supermarket I spent a couple of hours applying for jobs before grabbing a quick meal at the hostel then heading to a local pub with a friend to see the first F1 race of the season. It’s been ages since I watched the F1 and though it wasn’t a very exciting race it was fun and it was nice to get out of the hostel for something other than shopping! I think I shall try keep track of the races whilst I am here, it will give me something to do every other Sunday if nothing else. For now though it is back to the struggle to stay awake until 10pm, this is not helped by the wine consumed during the F1 race. I may be on the other side of the world but at the moment I’m living a pretty normal life and so far I like it. Now if I can just get rid of the last of this blasted jet lag.....