i’ve been back in Sydney for more than 2 weeks now and am starting to settle in a bit more. having more time than my usual short holidays here means i actually get to spend some quality time hanging out with people which is nice. it’s also given me time to work on organising my photos, tagging them and hopefully at some stage soon getting some of the better ones up online here.

last week i made a spur of the moment decision to visit my grandma down in Melbourne - “grandma, i’m arriving tomorrow night”. my feeling like a tourist in my own country syndrome got even worse as i bumbled my way around what was, even when i did live in Australia, a strange city. not strange as in weird (let’s not even start that whole Sydney/Melbourne rivalry thanks folks!) but just that i had no idea where to go or how to get there and after well signposted Japan it was a real struggle even to buy train tickets! the other week someone stopped me in Sydney’s CBD and asked how to get to a place. i had to apologize and tell them that i had no idea. if they’d asked me in Tokyo i might have been able to help but here in Sydney, where i grew up, i’m hopeless.

on the bus from the airport to Melbourne’s main train station the driver gave us a running commentary about the places we were passing. it was fascinating, not because i found what he was saying overly interesting but for the fact that it gave me a really interesting insight into what he thought people were interested in. As we left the airport he pointed out a range of mountains which had first been surveyed by Matthew Flinders. more important however was the fact that an Australian hit drama had been filmed at the base. “on your left is the Woolworths depot where all supplies for all Victorian stores are delivered from…if you follow that road to the left you get to the track where Holden test their cars”.

once on the train to my grandma’s place i rediscovered that sometimes it’s nice not to be able to understand everything that people say. a group of recently graduated from high school girls derided the shallow and meaningless conversations that high school girls have on public transport and then spent the rest of the train ride discussing eyebrow waxing, that slut Amy, cosmo magazine and other things that i would call shallow and meaningless. i guess people a few years older than mesay the same things about my conversations?

i could say that my stay at the nursing home was fun filled and action packed but that would be a slight mistruth. though i did see the Siemen’s choir, a trio of call centre girls who got time off work to sing to oldies. we also had a very exciting coffee break where i got to see that it’s not just young school girls and their recently graduated alumni who bicker amongst themselves. the single male in the nursing home made a guest appearance, was the centre of attention briefly then zipped away on his walking frame which was emblazoned with “my other car is a mercedes”. what a stud. (i’m not making that up).

and now it’s back in Sydney where i continue to plot and plan our big adventure. the blog posts will become more interesting in a few months :o)