Killing Machine...

I received my first pay cheque this week - a grand total of $488 dollars. But what should I spend all this hard earned money on? A new skirt? Dinner out? I couldn't quite decide until.....

... I came home to a flat full of cockroaches.... well, 2 MASSIVE ones at least. Just sitting on the floor looking at me. Luckily Helen was able to advise on the best products to get rid of these pests so the next day I went out and bought the lot.

Spray, sticky patches, little death traps... seriously, I don't have a bed, I am sleeping on a mattress on the floor so they could be crawling all over me all night. NO MORE COCKROACHES!!!

I do feel a bit bad about it and I know Australia has a lot worse to offer in terms of wildlife, but I'm sorry they just have to go.... see ya..... bye.... dead.....

"Miss Teacher Julia"

Last Thursday I had the shock of my life when I had to get up at 6am in order to get to school for my new job as English Teacher.....Most people will tell you that early mornings are not my strong point.

It was relief teaching which basically means "go in and make up a lesson for 4 hours when you haven't taught since 2002 when you taught Spanish children on a summer camp...." I must have done ok though as they asked me to come back on Friday and then this week too.

Meet:
Tracey from Thailand
Julie from Columbia
Stan from Japan
Nancy from China
....Looking at these names now I am wondering if they are their real names or if they were just making things easy for me....

I've really enjoyed it and hope they will ask me back but school will have to fit in with speech therapy which starts next week!

Spoke too soon...

There might not have been any bad luck on the 13th but I certainly made up for it the rest of the week! On Sunday, just before going to the cinema with my housemate and all her friends I somehow got myself locked in my room.... I had to shout to Clare to come and save me.

She managed to pass a screw driver under the door but I couldn't work out how to unlock the thing. I was just starting to panic when Clare remembered Raymond from next door. Raymond reported that a similar situation had arisen just a couple of weeks ago when his wife had locked herself in the bathroom. He knew just what to do and after a slightly stressful half an hour I was FREEEEE! Thanks Raymond!

Surely this was the week's quota of bad luck but alas it was not to be. I was on my way to Aldi (saving money) - in Helen's car, when the police pulled me over and told me that because they couldn't see my license plate (too dirty) I would have to pay a $500 fine and have points on my driving license.... After putting up a bit of a fight I was let off under the condition that I would clean it up "as soon as I got home".....

Friday 13th..not all bad luck...

Look at my beautiful flowers! I had an excited phonecall from my flatmate to say I had some flowers waiting for me at home...

Obviously I was expecting lots of cards and bunches of flowers on Valentine's Day, but who had been thoughtful enough to send them the day before??? Could it have been the man upstairs? or the bus driver that knows me on the 7.09 bus to Bondi Junction?

No... they were all the way from a secret English/Swedish/American admirer - you know who you are....



No bad luck for me on Friday the 13th - Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! x

He's behind you!!!!

Everyone visiting Australia is worried about the scary animals that live here. Snakes, spiders and of course sharks. But apparently there hasn't been a shark attack in these waters for 80 years.... UNTIL TODAY!

I was a bit unhappy when I saw this story on the internet this morning - yes a shark, yes at my local beach, yes it had attacked someone.....

I headed down there to see if I could spot the killer beast....

I couldn't see anything interesting at first - apparently sharks are quite camera shy.... but then my underwater camera captured something fishy....


I might give swimming a miss for a couple of days until things have calmed down a bit.

Ouch...!

I have been doing a lot of walking (see entry "these flip flops were made for walking" - 5th February) but I didn't think it would cause actual damage to my ankle. This morning I woke up being unable to walk - my foot is clearly screaming out for some sensible footware.


I hunted through the freezer and found some beans (frozen in May 2008) which I presumed Clare didn't need any more..... these seemed to help and with the addition of some sensible trainers I've managed to walk some short distances today.

I'm hoping for a full recovery by tomorrow as I have an interview and I don't want to have to explain my slightly unusual gait to my potential new employer.



Neither do I want to turn up with a face like this.....

Rewind to "Cavalleria Rusticana"

Last Saturday Helen and I decided to take advantage of the Sydney Festival by going to the free Opera in the Botanical Gardens. Most people had got there 3 hours before the beginning to get a good spot, but we arrived just as it started and squeezed in between some keen opera lovers.

The organisers were kind enough to give a brief synopsis at the beginning and also provide subtitles throughout which made the whole thing much more enjoyable considering how far back we were.



It was brilliant! but far too much culture for one evening so we headed to the pub to meet Fin who had stopped off briefly in Sydney before beginning his cycling tour of the world while saving the planet blindfolded. As you can see the sun tan is coming on a little bit now.....

These flip flops were made for walking....

I really, really want a scooter but for now I have to walk EVERYWHERE which is weird when you're used to having a car. Last night, I decided to take a walk to Camp Cove. I left at 6pm as it's too hot to walk in the day. I walked....

.....and walked....
...and walked a little bit more until I finally reached my destination - phew.

The beach was beautiful, quiet and still warm despite the fact that it was now 7.30pm. I had a little sit down to admire the view which was absolutely stunning.....

And then I headed back home for some fish and chips. It's a hard life not working but the good news is that there is a private speech pathologist (that's what they call them here) in BONDI!! looking for someone to fill in some hours. I'll let you know how I get on when I talk to her....

A Room With An Ocean View

The Whittles really have looked after me very well, but I thought it was time to ship out and leave them to spend some quality family time together - just the three of them?!??

So this weekend they helped me move in to my new flat on Ocean View Avenue. And, yes, it really does have an ocean view! To be honest it's pretty much like Boscombe Grange, just a bit sunnier.....

I'm quite happy about the view from my bedroom window.........

.....and the lounge balcony (there's just enough room for a BBQ out there).

I'm sharing the flat with an Australian girl called Clare. She's lent me some coat hangers and a towel so I think we will be friends. My room looks pretty bare at the moment as it was unfurnished an obviously I didn't bring my bed from England, but the Whittles have helped out with key items and Ikea should do the rest.

Thank you very much Helen, Jock and Fergus for looking after me during my first two weeks in Sydney. You haven't got rid of me though as I'm just around the corner! x