Digging holes to fill them in

Settling In

April 10th 2009

It's been ridiculously long, I know. It takes patience, dedication and commitment to keep a blog up to date and interesting. These qualities I clearly possess in abundance. Instead of trawling through events since before Christmas, I'm just going to skip ahead to do a recap of February to date - or more specifically from when we finally arrived back in Sydney to settle down for a few months.



Coming from the south and Canberra we arrived back in early February full of notions about new jobs and apartments and getting into the groove of a thoroughly cosmopolitan and independent lifestyle in Australia's premier metropolis. Then we spent four weeks on an air mattress in Colin's living room in Dee Why. This was much appreciated of course, and we had some great laughs, but when we finally got ourselves together and moved out it felt damn good. We spent our time job hunting, swimming and lazing on Dee Why beach and frequenting Manly's public houses on occasion to partake in a tipple or two. A few trips were organised up to the Kiwi's and Lill and Phil's in Bondi too.



I drove Sarah around the Northern Beaches to about 50 pharmacies until after about two weeks one took the bait and offered her a job. We celebrated that one I can tell you. With the pressure somewhat off me I began the hunt for somewhere to call home for a few months. Manly seemed like a great option for us, we liked it from the moment we got here.



Eventually we stumbled across a stunning apartment on Addington Road and moved in with, wait for it, five other Irish girls. Fake tan, GHD, VIP, Hello, Barry's Tea heaven. I'm soooo in touch with my femininity I just cant quite find the words to describe it, you know what I mean like...awwww go on you know what I mean like, don't you like??? The clincher was the Dawsons Creek box set. All 52 or so series of heartwarming, tear jerking, gooily sound-tracked tripe-ology for me to desperately avert my eyes from.



Sarcasm? Naaaaa.



In fairness the girls are a great laugh and tremendous company (when Dawson's not in the room). The views from our balcony are stunning and take in a sweeping vista of the North Heads to the left, the city centre in the foreground, and Manly Wharf to the right. We can watch the ferries chug out from the Wharf toward the CBD from our bedroom. Sunset is a special experience. Its an amazing location with 5 beaches and the town centre on our doorstep.



"Union? It's all about league mate"



After about 4 weeks of banging my head off a recruitment wall, one conversation at rugby training turned into a labouring job that I have been stuck into since. I should mention the rugby actually - out for a run along Dee Why one evening I passed an ad looking for players under 85 kilo's to play for a local team - the Dee Why Lions. So off I went to training, and havn't looked back since. It's fast and furious and all down to speed and skill, not the width of your neck and biceps. While the former two characteristics I cannot proclaim to possess in any form of abundance, the latter are almost non-existent unfortunately. So playing with lads the same size as me seemed like a sensible option!



We spent the first few weeks running around after a demonic little ferret of a fitness coach, Tommy. One session consisted of carrying electricity pylons around the pitch over our heads in between bouts of circuit training. It didn't take long to get up to a reasonable level of fitness. We played against the New Zealand Barbarians on the day after Paddy's Day and came a glorious and deserved second. It was a great experience to play against the best New Zealand has to offer. I had a hard time with basic movement in my legs and shoulders for a day or two after though, haha.



The art of shovel leaning


As a prelude to any kind of description of my current employment, I think a brief foray into the history of economic thought is in order.


Seriously.


The 17th century English economist (I can hear you snoring - wake up! I promise this will go somewhere) William Petty was so obsessed with the notion of full employment that he quite soberly put forward the suggestion that Stonehenge be relocated across the Salisbury Plains in order to create a few hundred regular wage packets. He also advocated the burning of produce to ensure idle hands be kept busy and stimulate the economy. Thank you William Petty. Without you I fear I would still languish amongst the masses of unemployed backpackers in North Sydney.



Myself and my fellow grunts will arrive bright and early at one of the three sea-side mansions in Mosman the builder I currently work for is constructing. Brows will furrow and a concerted examination of site plans will take place. This is followed by the utterance of expletives and curses at anyone who has worked on the site (not presently in ear shot of course) from the foreman. He will then sigh, and offer his instructions for us for the day. A typical example will be "move that ten tonnes of sand down the back there up to the front here. We're too stingy /incompetent to hire an earth mover for an hour or two so would you shovel it into buckets and walk it up here? Cheers".

Off we go delighted to have something stimulating to fill the day with, and chat about the global recession, the NRL, economic theory, Ancient Greek philosophy, and of course, titties.

"Smoko" rolls around at 9.30am for half an hour, then back to the shovels for another three hours before lunch. Around and hour before knocking off time (which is 3.30pm) the foreman will come bumbling out of his 'office' cursing the 'facking architect' while spilling coffee into his bellybutton in his rush to get to one of us. It will transpire, as it always does, that the architect is directly related to the devil himself and has decided that "all that sand actually needed to stay down there where it facking was to fill a hole you have to dig out tomorrow that the facking architect will decide the following day didn't need to be dugatall damnitall!!". We shrug, laugh inwardly, and secure another day or two of work.

So yes, life on the Northern Beaches is indeed sweet. A typical weekend consists of hitting the Sailing Club/Wharf Bar for a few bevvies, a bbq on the beach, a spot of snorkeling. Its tough. I will lean on the shovel for 3 or four days during the week, train with the Lions on Mondays and Wednesdays and go with Sarah to athletics training once or twice a week too. (We signed up for the Sydney Half Marathon in May).

Next time I'll make an effort to fill the gap between the last post and this, and tell you all about our Hunter Valley adventures from last weekend.

J