Likes and dislikes
Things I like/dislike about Sydney/Australia
Likes:
- The weather (obvious, but all too true)
- The city itself – the layout, the architecture and the natural beauty are just stunning. Plus there are so many funky little areas to check out and enjoy a breakfast before you hit the resident local market – this is so the life.
- The variety of activities that are available – outdoor and indoor; there is always something going on
- The food – restaurants, cafes, hot food stands; you name it, Sydney has it
- The beaches (and the weather to actually use them)
- Community education. Since I have started my nightclass (there will totally be more) I have found out about so many other places where you can ‘study’. There is so much fun stuff to do and it is really handy to do with your evenings and SO cheap to do. Well done Australia. I am going to do about 10 courses or something this year – bring on life long learning.
- The people are pretty friendly and outgoing and have been very good to me so far
- It might be Australia or it might be the corporate sector, but another thing I like is that if you show signs of having a brain they like to tap into that. It seems to be a real get up and go and do culture – you can live the ‘Australian’ dream here and it really seems possible.
- Dual flush toilets - just so sensible and not that difficult to live with.
- The magic bookshop
- Banana bread. This is one of the great inventions in life.
- Swimming pool, gym and sauna as part of our apartment complex. An absolute joy – Where are these in the UK?
- Top loading washing machines. So easy and quick - what a joy.
Dislikes:
- The local wildlife, just too many beasties and potential death to deal with
- Cars turning on red – oh my God! This annoys me so much. The number of times I have almost been run over is just not funny. In fact the drivers over here do my head in – they have no pedestrian etiquette at all! They are always driving over zebra crossings too! Goddamn it!
- Street lights – where are they? They must be about every 200 meters or something, but they really are not big into street lighting here. Dark, scary and makes you fall over.
- The Australian media….SUCKS. TV, radio, magazines, newspapers are all rotten. I have tried my best with the magazines and the newspapers and they are bearable, but the TV and radio are so bad that it hurts sometimes. Bring on the BBC, all is forgiven
- The cold and the potential to get warm. Contrary to popular belief (my own included) it actually does get cold here and although it isn’t anywhere near as cold at home or like Iceland or something, it sure as hell feels that way. The houses/units/offices are just NOT built to cope with the weather. Our unit has single glazing, tile floors and gaps you could get a big snake through – not the bet for trying to keep warm
- Fashion – when it arrives here I will let you know. Now, I am being a bit harsh because there are some great designers from this neck of the woods but they only seem to do one style as far as I can see and that sure as shit hasn’t translated to the rest of the people over here. If you want to buy decent things you need to do the American thing of shopping at designer places as the high street (trying to model itself on the UK) just doesn’t cut the mustard and everything is just cheap China crap. I know that is what is going on in the UK too, but it seems to be a bit better made or something (rose-tinted spectacles perhaps?)
- Transport – if you want to see or do anything over here you really need a car. Full stop.
- This place is so goddamn far away from everything. You feel deserted sometimes. Great place for a prison, if they haven’t thought of that already ;)
- Outside of Sydney/the ‘capital’ cities, you are laughing if you think there is anything resembling a welcoming place to be. That could be a lie as I haven’t seen that much of the rest of this enormous country yet…but so far that is how it seems. Will keep you posted.
- Everything is geared to the working week. You are practically stranded if you want to buy bread and milk at the weekends where we live, as we live close to a commercial centre.
- Scented toilet roll everywhere. So wrong.
- Culture, what culture? That is a bit unfair as of course there is a lot of (turbulent) history here and they are very good at representing that and could teach the world a thing or two about good museums, but seriously when it comes to music, film, art, the usual, etc…this place is SO far behind – like actually you can measure it, it’s about 2/3 years behind.
- Internet connection – Broadband, what’s that?
- Dialing 0 for an outside line instead of 9; I just can’t get used to it.
- Boy racers. They love their cars over here. Just so dull.
posted by Yogini @ 3:22 am
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