Sydney and our apartment.

So I thought I'd write a little bit about the apartment we're living in just so everyone can get an idea of what it's like. Sydney is a city unlike any other in that it has many suburbs within it's centre; people don't say that they live in Sydney, instead they say they live in Surry Hills, or Paddington, for example, these suburbs ranging between 10 and 30 minutes from Sydney's CBD. Each suburb has it's own distinct character and many have wonderful boutique shops and cafes.

We live on the 12th floor of a very plush apartment block in Sydney's CBD so we're right in the heart of Sydney's business centre next to Darling Harbour. This has both positives and negatives. On the plus side we're really close to some great restaurants, cafes and bars, plus all the amenities you'd expect in a city. On the down side, it is dead at the weekend because all the city-workers live in the suburbs and don't venture outside of them once their working week is up. The lack of Sydneysiders at the weekend though is made up for with tourists visiting Darling Harbour and the Opera Quays.

Coming in through the front door, our apartment has a massive lounge/diner/kitchen, which goes out onto the balcony and is complete with all the necessary appliances to make life easy and happy! Off the lounge to the left is the bathroom, a nice neutral colour with a wall full of mirrors and the best power shower. Luckily we also have a washing machine and tumble-dryer in a little utility room off the bathroom so we don't have to share with anyone or wait around at the launderette. Off the lounge to the right is the bedroom complete with a wall full of built in wardrobes (which are all mine!) and glass doors which lead onto the balcony. The apartment block itself also comes complete with it's own gym and pool for residents, plus a barbecue and sunbathing area which is going to be amazing once the weather heats up.

We're lucky to have a lovely apartment in a lovely location - my only complaint would be the colour of the carpets - they are dark blue and show up every little bit of fluff. Coupled with the fact that we have the worst Hoover known to mankind (it is a strange contraption which you have to ensure is completely flat on the floor and then bring towards yourself, rather than the normal kind of Hoover which you push away from yourself), it can get quite annoying! Such is life, I suppose. I now know never to rent or buy a house with blue carpet (or white worktops come to think of it, they never look sparkling no matter how hard you scrub them!).

The Apprentice Australia.

Australia has followed in the footsteps of America and England and is showing it's first series of 'The Apprentice', which started five weeks ago. The concept is exactly the same and the big man with the power to hire and fire is Mark Bouris, an Australian businessman best known as the founder and chairman of Wizard Home Loans, Australia's largest non-bank mortgage lender. One thing is for sure -he is no Sir Alan Sugar.

So far we have seen similar UK-Apprentice related tasks including a cereal challenge, where the teams had to develop a cereal brand for children; an Australian pie challenge, where the aim was to create, market and sell pies; and last night a hotel challenge where the teams had to provide a 5-star service to paying guests at the Sydney Harbour Marriott hotel.

Needless to say there have been similar embarrassment inducing moments for all of the contestants concerned. A particularly hated contestant of mine is Sabrina, past Miss Australia (which she uses to her advantage, but to the embarrassment of others, at every opportunity) and member of Mensa. Both mine and Dave's favourite, and potential winner, is Morello (yes, as in the cherry) who claims he can "sell sand to the Egyptians, oil to the Arabs, and ice to the eskimos"! Whilst the show is in no way comparable to the English version with the absence of Sir Alan himself and brilliant contestants such as Raef Bjayou and Ben Clarke, it is a good way to spend a Monday night!

An antipasto to remember.

We've spent the past few weekends exploring Sydney and enjoying the sunshine (which only seems to happen at weekends here). This weekend was no different. After work on Friday we went for a few drinks to Ryan's Bar - an outdoor bar in the centre of the city, full of corporate types in desperate need for an end-of-week drink. Check it out here: http://www.ryansbar.com.au/. We then took a ferry over to Kirribilli to sample a fish restaurant which we'd walked past and decided was a must-try the previous weekend. It was disappointing considering the price but I did have an amazing dessert (again!) - a Belgian waffle with chocolate and hazelnut nougat with white chocolate ice-cream. Yum. We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and ended the evening with a walk around the Opera House.

Saturday morning we went to the Australian National Maritime Museum in search of some culture (culture?? In a country that's only a hundred or so years old...unlikely!). Needless to say, it was quite boring. Saturday afternoon turned into a beautiful day so we decided to make the most of the weather and visited a restaurant down by the harbour for happy hour. We ordered some cocktails, a pizza to share and an antipasto platter; the platter turned out to be nothing like the description on the menu so Dave complained and managed to get the price knocked off the bill. Brilliant! In the evening we went to see 'Mao's Last Dancer' and, luckily, managed to find some toffee popcorn to munch on during what was a very good film, one of the best I've seen in a while actually.

Sunday was possibly the wettest day I've ever seen in Sydney and unfortunately we got stuck out in the middle of it on our weekly food shopping trip. The walk home from the market was NOT fun and we were both absolutely soaked and freezing by the time we got back. A sure way to put me in a bad mood! The rest of the day was spent indoors in the dry and warm with another roast and a film.

Night Noodle Markets.

Last Wednesday we went to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park, part of Sydney's International Food Festival, which is going on throughout October. There were various street-style Asian food stalls selling a variety of Chinese, Japanese and Thai food. Alongside this there was free Asian-style entertainment (although this mostly consisted of two men dressed up as a dragon, scaring little children!).

We managed to scramble our way through all the people to find a little Thai stall selling pad thai for $10; the queue was really long so we thought it was probably a safe bet that the food was good. After a hungry wait we finally got our food and went and sat down - it was nice, a little cold and not enough to satisfy our hunger though so we went on the hunt for dessert. I found the most amazing little stall selling sticky black rice, which is a Thai dessert a little bit like rice pudding, with coconut ice-cream and mango sorbet. It was absolutely delicious!

For the rest of the evening we sat on the grass, watched and listened to the entertainment and chilled out. Unfortunately we didn't plan ahead - the event was BYO - a nice night would have been topped off perfectly with a good bottle of wine (and a few bottles of beer for Dave)!

My first ever yoga session.

Last night I went to my first ever session of yoga (I did try to persuade Dave to come but he was having none of it). I found a studio near where I work who are offering two weeks unlimited yoga lessons for $25 so I thought I'd give it a go! The type of yoga they practise at the studio is called "Vinyasa"; the word itself means "arranging" or "placing in a special place", and refers to sequencing a yoga practice in a particular way, moving progressively from simple to more complex poses in a flowing manner. The sequences of Vinyasa are designed to release tension in the body, while bringing about a state of inner harmoney and radiance. It is a more demanding type of yoga than say, Hatha, for example.

With very little experience of yoga other than the odd DVD here and there, I turned up slightly apprehensive but excited all the same. I met the teacher, Michael, before class who assured me that I would be fine - although I might find the room, which is heated to 30 degrees (to warm the muscles and work them deeper, apparently), a little uncomfortable to begin with. Michael was right - I don't think I've sweated as much since I went to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt! Nonetheless the class was brilliant - I found some of the poses quite challenging, especially the balancing ones, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half. I felt incredibly relaxed both during the class, despite the heat, and afterwards. I can't wait to go to the next class, and rather than going to the gym all the time (to burn off all the cake I eat) I'm going to alternate it with yoga. Maybe Dave will come with me one of these days...there were quite a few men there actually, all without their tops on - shame they were all skinny little Thai boys!

Another weekend goes by.

This weekend was another fairly indulgent affair. Having had a bad day at work, I was in desperate need of a glass of wine by 5pm! First we went to the Slip Inn near our house. Luckily the weather was warm enough to sit outside so we spent a few hours in the garden bar sipping on wine and beer with friends(and at $5 a drink, we had a fair few!). Check it out here: http://www.merivale.com/#/slipinn/gardenbar. We followed this by going to the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay with the intention of getting some dinner (apparently they do amazing fish) only to find out when we arrived that the kitchen had literally just shut. Damn!

Saturday was a chilled out affair wandering around the shops and markets of Sydney followed by a stint in the sunshine at a jazz festival in Paddington. In the evening we took a ferry trip to Balmain (and a very long walk!) for a friend's birthday - lots of good wine, good food, and birthday cake to top it all off.

Sunday has become our food shopping day so we went to Sydney Fish Market, which incorporates a working fishing port, wholesale fish market and a fresh seafood retail market. It was incredibly busy and incredibly smelly, but we did get some good deals on fish - and hopefully it will taste nicer than the rubbish you get in the supermarkets here. The rest of the day was spent reading the newspaper, cooking a roast and an apple crumble (good British fare!), followed by a film. Then bedtime for another week of work....

A food orientated post.

So Wednesday night was our first trip to an Australian cinema, our nearest being by the Opera House. After some deliberation, Dave wanting to watch 'Mao's Last Dancer' and myself wanting to watch 'Julie & Julia', we decided that 'Julie & Julia' it was, provided Dave could choose the sweets.

The film itself, which according to Dave had two of my favourite things in - a love story and food - was somewhat a disappointment. Even more disappointing however were the maltesers that Dave decided to buy. After the massive box that Toni and my brother sent over to us and which we devoured with pleasure in a very short amount of time, we decided that they are nothing compared to the ones we have in England. Here they are smaller, crunchier and with less chocolate; we didn't even finish the pack, a sure sign that Dave didn't like them! Generally, we've found that chocolate here is not great: Cadbury's tastes like tobacco, maltesers are horrible; good job really that they have so many beautiful cake shops to make up for the lack of chocolate!

Despite this, it was nice having a night out similar to what we would do back at home. The cinema itself was quite plush - and almost empty. You can buy alcohol there too so it makes for quite a nice night out if you want to see a film, get some popcorn and have a glass of wine. Only problem is you can't buy sweet popcorn here, only salty - the Australians I have spoken to about this gripe react disgustedly even at the thought of sweet popcorn! Still, it would be nice to have the choice like we do at home; a cinema trip without popcorn isn't quite the same.

The blog begins...at last!

So I actually completely forgot that I had started this blog until today when I was a bit bored at work. From now on I am going to try and regularly update it so everyone can keep up with what we're doing out here. My job fluctuates between really busy and really dead (today being a really dead day where the phone has barely rung) so I'm sure I'll manage to write something every so often.

It seems pointless updating you on what we have done up until now so I'll just start with Dave's birthday weekend. Friday, the day of his actual birthday, we went out for drinks with some of his colleagues by Darling Harbour, and then ended up going for dinner to an Indian restaurant called 'Holy Cow' (nice name, huh) in Surry Hills with some friends. This was followed by even more drinks at an Irish pub in the city. Saturday followed a similar drinking and eating theme with a night of tapas and cocktails in Kings Cross for a friend's birthday. I ordered a litre jug of sangria for Dave and I to share only to find out that he hated it - so I had to drink it on my own; followed by half price cosmopolitans, I was rather tipsy before we'd even sat down to eat! Finally Sunday we just chilled out and went for a nice long walk over to Kirribilli (where I saw Alf Stewart of Home&Away fame) to walk round the art & design market where they had lots of vintage clothes, jewellery, and stalls selling really cheap seconds - I'm going to wait until pay day then take down $40 and buy myself some goodies! We also went to see the Prime Minister's House and Luna Park, apparently the theme park where they have been the most deaths; probably why it's free to get in! A walk round Wildlife World (we have an annual pass) to check up on the koalas, wombats and wallabies finished the day. A good weekend in all!