First couple of months in Sydney

After a long flight from Turkey via the New Orleans Superdome inspired Dubai international airport, I finally touched down in Sydney, a little under a month after leaving London. The 32 degree shift in temperature upon arrival was something of a shock, but luckily it was just coming into spring, so the weather has been gradually improving.

I celebrated this by joining a random touch rugby team. Turns out that half the team are Japanese - they like to train pretty hard (first time I've ever really bothered for touch rugby) and they tend to be quite quick. The first training session I turned up to my performance was somewhat influenced by the amount of beer I'd drunk the night before (it was Sat mornng), and that it was around 25 degrees at 8.30 in the morning. A somewhat uncomfortable session followed.

After arriving in Sydney on the Saturday, and starting work on the Monday, I hadn't had enough time to find a flat or anything - so I made this my initial priority, settling (for the short term at least) on a place in Neutral Bay - North Sydney. As I hadn't been paid in a month, this involved living on credit until my first pay cheque - something that was not helped by HSBC putting a security block on my UK debit accounts (no matter how much I tried to convince them not to).

Optus turns out to be in Macquarie Park - which is a little way out of town. Whilst this is a little inconvenient, it's nice to have an office where everything works, and the main entrance doesn't smell faintly like urine.

It's also only 12km from Neutral Bay, meaning I've been riding to work. This involved rebuilding my bike, which I had stripped down to get under the 20kg weight limits flying through Asia. In addition to riding to work, I've also been going out quite often to Manly Dam - about 10km from my flat. It's great to be able to ride to the track, instead of sitting in the car for an hour or two.

Consequence of riding steps at Manly Dam

I also went back to NZ for the long weekend. It was nice to catch up with Mum and Dad, as well as all the old Wellington crew.