Talking to strangers...

Having grown up in London, my manners end at please and thank you, holding doors open and sometimes not pretending to be asleep and giving up my well earned seat on the Northern Line!
So when we first got here, it was a bit weird that the woman in the bank wanted to know all about what we had planned for the weekend!

Don't worry - I have adapted well... I quite look forward to going to pay the rent on a Thursday now... last week Chris at Commonwealth Bank in Manly told me all about how May-June were the warmest months to go for a swim in the sea (yea, I think I will take your word for it!)

Clothes shopping is still a bit scarey as the shop assistant insists on following you around and taking anything you pick up from you and leaving it in the changing room for you!

The funniest story I heard was from a girl I used to work with who knew the first names of the 3 bus drivers that were on her route to work (one bus, different driver depending on what time she came in, I think!)... she knew their kids names and even bought them Christmas presents! Bless her!

It still freaks me out sometimes though... a few weeks ago, Helen and I were in a bottleshop (an Off Licence to some of you).. this old lady who looked like Pat Butcher at 80, leppard print coat and all, was starring at me. So I apologised for being in her way and got my vodka (what?? it was for sharing, honest!) and moved out of her way. As I walked past, she touched my arm and told me I was "a beautiful colour"!! All I managed to do was say thanks!

So, although I think its lovely that school kids always give up their seats on buses here and everyone thanks the bus driver when they get off, I think it will be a while before I am on first name terms with him!!

I am, after all, British, and we are taught to not talk to strangers!

I take it back!

I take back all my moaning about the weather! We went to Balmoral Beach for brunch with Mark and Anita today - it was 19 degrees and amazing!

I went to the Dirty Dancing Wrong Prom this week with some of the girls.... it was basically a mass dance lesson put on by a dance school in Sydney - was a great laugh... and we now have a little routine we will no doubt be showing off at our next girlie night out!

Sydney is currently hosting a festival called Vivid Sydney- Sydney's festival of Music, Light and Ideas. The coolest thing about this Festival is the light projections they are dong on the Opera house... they change every 15 minutes and are very, very cool!


Photograph courtesy of Helen Roebuck!

For those of you that aren't on Facebook, click here for some pictures of our winter in Sydney... so far!

A weekend of much food and drink!

Things really are different here - we are having a bank holiday weekend, and the weather has been AMAZING all weekend!


We spent Saturday at the Manly Food and Wine Festival... or as I came to know it, the Wine and Wine festival!

In my defence, there was a noted lack of vegetarian food... and I am told that the Indian food stand was sub standard... so, if we are still here next year, we are seriously going to look into having a stand at the festival!






The rest of the foodie weekend included a Sunday roast (although I missed out on the Yorkshire pudding), Homemade apple crumble with the Apprentice final and a yummy Lebanese feast in Surry Hills!

I will not be stepping on the weighing scales for a few days!

The Apprentice final deserves a special mention...
I refused to log onto Facebook and Twitter yesterday until I had watched it - and boy was I glad I did! No lees than 17 of my Facebook friends had Apprentice related statuses! My personal favourite was Priyen threatening AGAIN to apply... put your money where your mouth is P Man... not that we need another Shah embarassing us - once was really enough!!