Living on the wild side: part 2!

The term “wildlife” has taken on a whole new meaning this week.  Having lead a life full of yoga, peppermint tea, running and all things healthy (Gillian McKeith would have been proud) during the last 8 weeks, we fell off the band wagon spectacularly.

What was supposed to be a civilized Thursday evening listening to live acoustic music in a local bar, escalated to befriending one of the bands, drinking copious amounts of alcohol in the bar with them, further drinking in their hotel room and then a few extra drinks at another bar down the road, just to ensure we were well and truly dead and buried.

Needless to say, we experienced the hangover from hell the following day…just in time for the arrival of my good friend Helen from Nottingham and her boyfriend David, who are currently traveling around the world.  We had a brilliant day together, walking along the coast, catching up and having a few more drinks to ease the hang over.

The slower paced Friday was a strategic move to prepare us for a night of live Cuban jazz on the Saturday, which we correctly predicted involved lots more alcohol.  It was an excellent evening though, that lead to some Cubans who were sitting on the next table to us, teaching the clumsy English, who moved like robots, how to shake their stuff.

Special prizes should go to David and Martin for instigating the whole dance school movement, especially as they both hate dancing.  There was some excellent hip action going on and I’d say these two are ones to watch Cuba!

Living on the wild side

This week, we have become well acquainted with Australian wildlife and man, do the creatures here give the ones in the UK a run for their money.

First, meet the birds with extremely long beaks – Australia’s answer to the common Mallard. These things are very bizarre.

Then, there is my favourite species, which Martin has given the genius name of “Pigeons with attitude”!:

I’ve always thought of pigeons as flying rats but there’s something quite likable about these ones.

Magpies, Ravens and even the friendly Robin look extremely boring compared to the multi-coloured parrots that flap around all over Sydney!

A trip to the Botanical Gardens also allowed us to see Eels in the pond and Flying Foxes (massive bats) in the trees!

But now to move on to the elephant in the room – SPIDERS!  I voiced by concern to many of you about my fear of encountering the notoriously large 8-legged creatures before I even left the UK and I have been on my guard ever since I set foot on Australian soil. Well, I got away scott free for 6 whole weeks, until last night when my nightmare turned into reality….

I was sitting in my creative writing class, with 15 Australians and 1 American, when someone casually pointed to the wall.  I followed their finger to see the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my whole life.  We’re talking MASSIVE – hand size, with finger-length, hairy legs and a furry body.  I broke out in an immediate sweat.  Everyone else, bar the American who looked as terrified as me, looked completely un-phased. I have never wanted to run away so much in my life but had to remain rooted to my seat, staring at this monster who was stuck to a wall 10 metres away from me, for another 45 minutes.

I am now on permanent spider watch and trying to formulate a strategy of what the hell I do if/ when one of these terrifying creatures finds its way into our apartment!

Mixing with the locals and other folk

Our move to paradise has been everything I'd hoped.  But there had been one missing piece.

During the first couple of weeks in our new home, the only people I knew (other than Martin of course) was the friendly bank manager at HSBC, 2 jovial women at Specsavers, a girl I met on gumtree when buying some furniture and our elderly neighbour Peter, who lives across the hallway.

I knew I had to work on this dire situation.  Having returned from Cairns, I’ve got the wheels firmly in motion and I must say I’m enjoying the ride.

First, there’s the creative writing group.  Turning up at this made me feel a bit like I was going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The prospect of sharing my writing, my thoughts, my feelings with 15 strangers was a daunting one. But they're a lovely bunch – 14 women and Bob, a man in his mid 40s who clearly didn't know whether to be terrified or elated by all the female company.

Then, there’s Zena – who is the girlfriend of a guy Martin works with.  We're lunch / wine buddies.  So yes, I can’t fight it any longer…I am a proper doctor’s WAG these days.

Last night was my first outing with the film club.  Off I trundled to meet 8 more randoms to watch ‘The girl who played with fire’, followed by dinner at Wagamamas.  The main organizer is a slightly eccentric man it has to be said, but eating out with 4 Aussies, a dutch man, a Turkish girl and an Indian woman certainly made for a refreshing change and I’ll be going back for more.

I’ve also enrolled for a stint of volunteer work and have become a regular at the yoga studio down the road.

So, all in all, a very productive week.  Life in Sydney is shaping up well!

Finding Nemo and friends

One of the main objectives for heading ‘up north’ (which is very different to driving up the M1 to Leeds by the way), was to go to the Great Barrier Reef.  We booked a trip with ‘Sea Star’ and powered out to sea at 7.30am on a very speedy boat; blueberry muffin and coffee cup in hand.

I’ve never been a huge fan of boats but it’s funny how I only remember this fact once I’m on board and in the middle of the choppy ocean, turning green.

Needless to say I was pleased to arrive at Michaelmas cay, our first stop.

Although the temperature was a good 24 degrees, I’ve never been a very warm blooded person so was happy to be handed a wet suit to shoe horn myself into.

Wetsuit and flippers on, I jumped into the sea and instantly felt the ice cold water soak through my wet suit-it was freezing!  Turns out wetsuits don’t work too well if they are too big for you.  Thankfully the sight of colourful corals and baby nemos was a good distraction and I managed to stay in the water for about 20 minutes until my lips turned blue.

We clambered onboard, warmed up and journeyed on to Hastings Reef.  We then had to climb back into wet, wet suits (a truly horrible feeling) and jump back into the cold sea.  I didn’t really warm to this idea, but told myself to ‘man up’ and I’m so glad I did.  There were so many tropical fish everywhere, it was amazing!  We also saw a turtle, some people saw a sting ray and Martin thinks he saw a small shark.

The day ended with a glass of cold white wine in the evening sunshine on dry land.  One glass turned into several which led to a 2 hour conversation with a fisherman called Darren, who owned a pit bull terrier called Roxy, who wore a diamonte collar.