The Elixir of Life

It’s been a while since we last updated this which I take as a good sign that we’re actually really busy doing stuff rather than just being lazy!

We’ve been here 4 months now and are settling in. Firstly I can report that we appear to have acclimatised just as the summer has ended and we’re entering the cooler autumn months. Apparently this year has been very wet in Sydney which is great news for most people as they’ve had precious little rain the last 10 years.

What we’ve noticed is that pretty much on the dot of 4pm throughout the back end of the summer the weather would change with a stiff breeze blowing in off the sea and up the harbour, occasionally turning into a full on raging storm. It makes for very entertaining viewing from the safety of our balcony. Some of the sunsets here have been incredible, we’ve tried to capture some of them and posted pics here but they really do fail to do them justice. I blame it on the camera personally.....

We celebrated Australia Day in full on Aussie style with a BBQ and the best of Slim Dusty! I got to try out the obligatory Barbie which seemed to work a treat despite tales of horrific blowback from the died in the wool Aussies present! As a bonus we got to witness the fireworks taking place over the harbour in Darling Harbour.

Liz has been busy working for a company translating tapes of random conversations being used by a company who are developing speech recognition software. Through this she’s made some good friends who are sadly now off travelling Australia before heading back to the UK. Although the job has had its moments, Liz starts a new job working for a government agency based in the heart of the CBD.
Her role will be as the Stakeholder Engagement Analyst for a Health project called E-Health which is based around the implementation of a Digital Health Network here in Australia. She’s really looking forward to it, especially as at the end of the day she can just walk to any one of the cities great bars for a quick glass of vino!

My job also has an office in the city so we will be able to meet up after work and also share the same transport to work. In most cases we get the train but occasionally we treat ourselves to catching the ferry. Our route takes us under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera house, all up only a 10 min trip. One of the things that has been difficult for us here is making new friends. We’ve hosted a couple of parties but return invites have been sadly lacking – I don’t know why this is but Liz reckons it might’ve been my BBQ skills!

So to make more of an effort I’ve recently joined a local Rugby Seniors team called Lane Cove Oldies much to the apparent amusement of Pedro! Oldies being the operative word as most of us are getting on a bit, going grey and carrying a few decades worth of beer and pies. Still, it’s a good way to meet a bunch of blokes and as a bonus we’re sponsored by the local pub.

We’ve once again been blessed with lovely neighbours; Phil and Maggie have helped us settle in and introduced us to the main golf course in Sydney. Liz had her first 18 holes the other day and is now hooked so we’re sorting out lessons. Back home our tenants have final beaten us down with their trivial complaining so we’ve just served notice on them which is a blessed relief.
It does mean that we are going to struggle financially paying a full UK mortgage and rent here but the hassle and stress of dealing with them was unbearable. To compensate we’ve taken on a lodger for a short term and so far this is working out very well. I spend a fair amount of time in Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth and it’s been good for Liz to have another female for company. Sadly she’s heading off on her own travels shortly so we’ll begin the search for a replacement until we either rent out or sell Corner Cottage.




Most of our spare time is spent at the beach with one memorable visit being to a place 45 mins north of Sydney where we caught a ferry over the Pittwater River to the Kuringai Chase national park. It’s an absolutely magical spot and a great day out.

This Easter weekend we headed off down the Kangaroo Valley, a national park area about 2 hours drive south of Sydney. We bought some basic camping gear and slept on a blow up mattress in the back of our 4x4. The area is stunningly beautiful with a resemblance to the Sussex Downs in terms of luscious, rolling, green meadows and hills with rivers full of fish (that I couldn’t catch) running through it. Liz’s university friend Alex was there with a group of her friends who we didn’t know before the trip but they were great fun. We managed a spot of off roading and tasted some local wines at a wonderfully cavalier vineyard where they left us the bottle with instructions to “help yourselves” so we did! We also did a bit of river swimming, kayaking and waterfall watching during the day and spent the evenings eating and drinking with our new friends.

Finally a little thank you to Mum and Keith for helping us get the new Corner Cottage window sorted and to Mandy, Anna and Dom for saving our lives with emergency rations of chocolate just in time for Easter. You simply cannot get good choccy here and that, my friends, is a terrible thing.