Sydney Harbour National Park

G'day guys,

Today I actually went and did something, wooohoooo! After a glorious week of weather and being stuck inside working, Alejandro and I decided to restart our walking trips. To settle back into things, we thought a nice little walk around Sydney Harbour National Park would suffice. It's basically located throughout quite a lot of Sydney Harbour (surprisingly) with different sections spread over a fairly large area. We went to the Manly sector (aka North Head), the largest of them all. A short ferry ride to Manly later (I may have talked about Manly beach before - same place), and we were ready for our walk to begin. The weather was excellent - pretty warm today, nice breeze, a few too many clouds in the sky (I have become accustomed to clear skies since being back).

The walk wasn't particularly strenuous, probably 6-7km in total so very short by our standards (last time it was the 24km Royal National Park walk). The park houses the old Quarantine stations from the early late 1800s/early 1900s and an old artillery school which was pretty random. The later seemed very modern to me (you could walk through the grounds) so I don't know if it's still used as something today...? The treat of the walk was the fantastic views from the end of North Head, looking straight down into Sydney Harbour with the CBD and glimpses of the Harbour Bridge in the background. Twas very nice. Not much else to say about the walk; was short and sweet and that's what I like. Oh, I also got a sun burnt nose - whoops! Here are a few pictures...

My Bedroom!

Just incase any of you are interested to see what my new bedroom looks like, here are a few pics!

If you want to see the rest of the flat, you will just have to Skype me so I can give you a virtual tour!

Some Greenery!

Well, as promised, I have posted a few pictures for you guys. The first lot is actually from the first weekend back in Australia when I went for an early morning stroll around Centennial Park due to jet-lag. I have to say, I really like Centennial Park; it is perhaps one of my favourite places in Sydney - so full of life, both flora and fauna! Twas a beautiful day, very sunny, fairly warm, little wind. So here are the pics...

These second lot of pictures are from a place called Glebe Gully Reserve. It's a tiny reserve literally 2 minutes down the road from me - a small piece of paradise set between urbanisation. At only 491m long and probably only 100m wide max, it is a very small place so only took about 5 minutes to walk to the other side and back. As with Centennial Park, it's a very lush place - a great place to escape from the noise of traffic to hear birds instead. A few pics...

Other news from the week:
- fairly uneventful as per usual - busy trying to do some work before my meeting with Matt on Thursday
- Meeting went OK - got the feeling he wasn't too impressed but meh!
- Matt and I both decided that I wouldn't go to Tasmania to this conference...think I need to do some more work first
- I finally got my money that was stolen back! After waiting the extra two weeks, I went into the bank to have a moan to find that the dispute had already been resolved but the money hadn't gone in. So that was good news - goodbye credit card debt!
- Had a night out with people from the CCRC last night (both students and more important people). Had a great night - fun was had by all!

Hopefully I will be doing something exciting tomorrow, perhaps a trip to Sydney Harbour National Park! I hope the weather stays good.

Peace out

Back in the swing of it!

Bonjour mon amis!

After just over a week in Sydney, I feel like I am settling back into the Aussie way of life. I think I'm finally over the jet-lag too which is an extra bonus; waking up at 10am this morning confirms this!

Moved into my new place on Monday (well I moved into the spare room until the guy who was in my room moved out on Saturday). So far I am very happy. My housemates are really nice and friendly - I think they're looking forward to learning better English (although they are both fluent already)...I don't think they can learn much from me...! I moved into my actual new room yesterday (Saturday) and spent much of the day sorting everything. I even built myself a bookcase! I had a few issues with this, mainly because I didn't have a screwdriver and was working only with a knife. After about 2 hours, and still not completed, I decided to give in and go and buy myself a screwdriver....2 minutes later, the bookcase was complete! Lovely.

In addition to moving and overcoming jet-lag, I also managed to have a fairly productive week (OK 3.5 days) at uni! I guess waking up really early has its benefits...I'm hoping the productivity overflows into next week when I have a meeting with my advisor. I will update you all if he shouts at me due to a lack of work.

This evening I went to a lovely little chocolate cafe called "chocolate by the bald man" (or something similar). I went with one of my new housemates and two of her friends that she went skiing with for the past few days (this has very much made me want to go skiing...research is being done into how to make this possible). This cafe was bloody amazing. The smell of melted chocolate as I walked in was mouth-watering. I enjoyed a nice hot white chocolate which was bloody fantastic; like milky bar in a cup! To accompany this I had a gorgeous Belgian waffle with melted chocolate, strawberries, banana and ice-cream. Seriously, it was sooooo good. I can't believe I've never heard of this place before but I will most definitely be going back, perhaps very soon indeed!

Hopefully I shall do something exciting next weekend so I can post some pictures.

Love to you all

New Semester, New Blog Design!

As you can see, I have changed the design of the blog. I think the background picture reflects my geography geekness well...!

A Delightful Journey Back to Sydney

G’day guys & gals!

Firstly, I apologise for not blogging for ages; I think it’s nearly been a month! Doesn’t time fly? My excuse this time is that most people that read my blog have actually seen me recently so there has been no need to update you via my blog.

Well after nearly two months away, it was time for me to return to Australia. I had a fantastic time in Norway/Svalbard/England but I was actually looking forward to getting back; not really looking forward to the work though. Saying that, I did do a little bit whilst at home; my paper has been submitted to the journal “Climate Dynamics” so hopefully, in a few months, I should find out whether it has been accepted for publication. Fingers crossed!

My flight over was potentially one of the most boring EVER! Firstly, I should mention that the flight was typically delayed, not by long, but delayed nonetheless. For what reason I hear you ask...because the cabin crew were late! Can you believe it? I certainly could not. I managed to about half an hours sleep on the first 12 hour leg to Singapore (turns out this was my stopover), not nearly enough. The situation was not much better to Sydney, perhaps another hour....Moreover, for the first time ever, my top teeth on the right side of my mouth decided to really hurt upon descent...both times! Not sure if this is something to do with my sinuses but it was potentially one of the most painful things of my life! My eyes were actually watering because it was that painful  I did get some entertainment, however, when the girl next to me started crying because there was some turbulence. It was so funny, I think she actually shat herself.

20-odd hours later, I arrived in Sydney, took a taxi to my hotel (Jesus Christ the taxi was expensive), and slept! Woke up at 5am the next morning (don’t you just love jet-lag), and began the house hunt. The first place I visited was a complete shit hole and made me a bit dubious as to what other houses would be like. The next house I viewed was actually really nice though so I took it! There are only three bedrooms so the lounge and kitchen are pretty small but the bedroom is quite big so I’m happy. Plus it means I’m not homeless which is always a bonus. Will get back to you with more details once I have moved in on Monday. I’m spending the next few nights on the sofa at my old place; hopefully it won’t be too noisy. I also hope I get over this bloody jet-lag ASAP – I really do not like having a shit night’s sleep just to wake up at 5am. Maybe tonight I will get a good night’s sleep; they do say third time lucky.

Over and out.