Category Archives: Making a Home in Sydney

Narrative Disorder Redux

The flattened boxes and packing material have finally been taken away, and everything except my desk, which was damaged and is being repaired and refinished, is in its new place, so I guess ‘I’m still settling in’ can no longer excuse a lack of blog posts. I find myself in the midst of a problem, though – about what should I blog?

The plan was to do our best to treat Sydney as though it were Japan and continue to travel, playing tourist in our own land, and continue to blog about life as an ex-pat wife, hopefully hitting on the odd issue that could be helpful to someone. It seemed a good plan…

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In which Phase Four begins with Valentino-red leather

When contemplating the enormous task that this move would be, we divided it into four phases to make it feel more managable. Phase 1 was packing up Japan, two was getting back to Oz (an easy one to check off in comparison), three was the house hunt and four settling in. I'm delighted to say ...

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The Hunt is on…

 Home hunting in Sydney is proving harder than we expected, and we expected it to be difficult. There is a little something extra in it when you don't have anywhere to live if you don't find a place before the company funded apartment stops being funded. At the end of the first week things were looking ...

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The Locusts are Coming!

Urgh. Feeling very much in the midst of this at the moment. We are pretty much in the same position as we were when I wrote this post from Sydney in Jun 2008 - the packers are coming on Tuesday morning at ...

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There, I’ve said it.

We’re returning to Sydney January 8th 2010. I haven’t written about leaving Japan yet because, frankly, I’m quite sad about it but some boxes have arrived (for what purpose we aren’t quite sure) and the packing company is coming Tuesday to ...

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Last post from Sydney!

As we take a break from packing to enjoy the bounty that is the-last-stuff-in-the-fridge, I thought I'd take the opportunity to make what will no doubt be the last post from Australia for quite some time. I say "packing" but we are, of course, not actually packing but rather preparing for the packers of ...

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Hybrid cars blah blah, biofuels yada yada, public transport …

..."crickets". At least that's what it feels like here in Sydney.  Buses are particularly bad here. In their attempt to be seen to encourage public transport the State government "encourages efficiency and punctuality" by fining transport companies if a certain percentage of their buses or trains are late according to their own timetables - ...

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My feathered, very aussie friend.

I know that there are many cockatoos who fly around the area from the national park but noone can tell me that this not-so-little guy who visits me everyday at around 5:30 daylight savings time is not the same bird - I mean seriously that's a pose struck for a friend, don't you think? ...

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On Sydney Skies and their Storms

Some people are City people, some people are mountain people, some feel landlocked if they are not on the coast - myself, I can live anywhere if there is enough sky. From our balcony here in Sydney sky is plentiful and spectacular. My high school geography tells me its the meeting of the mountainous terrain ...

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Even good capitalists go to Sunday school in The Shire…

I took this a couple of months ago and forgot till I was clearing my phone's memory card. I know Christmas and Easter have become a commercial opportunity to clear the shelves of excess product... but Lent? :)

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