Book Eight

I finished reading Book Eight today.

It was my least favourite book that I have read since I've been here. I really couldn't understand what all the fuss was about but I don't doubt for a second that I have missed something glaringly obvious.

It's only 118 pages long but it took me a week or so to get through it. I grabbed a few pages here and there as I got the ferry too and from work. In hindsight I should've tried to read it in one hit. Maybe I would've enjoyed it a bit more if I'd done that.

I think I read the book without really understanding what it was trying to get at. When H bought it the guy in the book shop said that the book "really sticks with you". I suppose it is very well written but I don't think I have been asking myself the questions I am supposed to. Why did you think it was so good Mike and Andy?

Anyway Book Nine is another one that finds itself in the 'Classics' section in bookshops the world over. I never thought I would ever pick it up, let alone read it, but I'm really looking forward to it. Details to follow in due course.

My First Day At Work (II)

Apart from the odd bit of labouring, today was my first day at work for six and a half months. I didn't have to be in until 10am so I was able to fit in a decent early morning surf before I had to get the ferry into the city.

The day itself was fine although slightly chaotic as first days always are. I didn't have a desk. I didn't have a PC. I didn't have a telephone and I was given a huge folder of documents to look through. I spent some time being shown around the office and being introduced to people whose names I instantly forgot, and I certainly couldn't remember what they actually did in the business. I went to three meetings (it's a sign of things to come) and didn't have a clue what they were about.

By the end of the day I had a desk, a PC and a phone. But someone somewhere along the line had managed to spell my name wrong so my email account needs changing.

I left the office at the end of the day exhausted. As for the job itself, it is definitely going to be a real challenge for me which can only be a good thing, but I am worried that I could be a bit out of my depth and that I won't be able to do the job.

It's all in a "first days work" I guess. I'm sure it's the same the world over.

"All Night" Dwight and Terry "The" Butcher

Ok, so you all know by now that I am a huge football fan. So it therefore comes as no great surprise that I bought a season-ticket to the mighty Sydney FC back in June.

The first game of the season was today against the Central Coast Mariners. Sydney play their home games at the impressive "Aussie Stadium" which holds about 45k spectators. I'd bought a ticket for "The Cove" end of the ground, which is where the most vocal supporters sit. It also has a bar.

Given the fact that Sydney are the defending champions of the Hyundai A-league, and that Australians are still basking in relative World Cup glory, I was very much looking forward to watching my new team in a decent stadium with decent, vocal support. And I wasn't disappointed. Last year the "hardcore" fans were given one bay behind one of the goals. This year membership has gone through the roof and they now occupy four bays.

I'd arranged to meet some friends in a pub in the city en route to the game. I've always enjoyed going for beer before a game - it's part of the ritual - and this was no different. It was very much a Sydney pub, and given the new season and the call for new songs, some fans were handing out songsheets to get the punters in the mood. It's always healthy when opposition fans walk into the pub (yes, there was an Away contingent! Australia is obviously massive but the Central Coast is only a couple of hours away).















So after a few beers and talk of last night Premiership results we made the short walk to the ground.















I'd never seen this before - a DJ spinning some tunes outside the ground. Maybe you should try that at The Gate Andy?















As soon as we entered the ground it was straight to the bar in "The Cove". After all, being allowed to drink beer in a stadium is not something us Poms are used to. As a season-ticket holder this year you are allocated your own seat (last year it was a free-for-all apparently). It soon became clear that the chances of me sitting in it all season are pretty much no-existent. Not when there is a bar in the stand with a much better view.

You also get a free hat with your club membership.















James (on the left) and Rich in The Cove bar.















Over the last few years football has been synonymous with chavs. When you think of the word "chav" you will probably think of Burberry. For the last five years I've been watching Bristol City, a club which has it's fair share of chavs. Since I've been in Australia I haven't seen any Burberry gear. So it comes as no surprise then that I should see my first checked cap at the football. I'd say he was a Pom. I'd also say that the coat is snide as well.















Whilst enjoying a pre-match beer I asked Rich what standard Sydney FC would be comparable with. To start with his reply was "The Conference", which he later upgraded to "League Two". Great! It was going to be like watching Bristol Rovers (but with Dwight Yorke playing in midfield).

So the game kicked off and we tucked into more beer. There were about seven of us enjoying the schooners of VB in the bar. It was just like watching football in a pub with your mates but instead of watching it on a TV screen, you watch it in real-life widescreen.















I don't actually remember watching that much of the game so I can't really comment on how good or bad I thought the teams were. Some players should some nice touches and Dwight obviously looked a cut above the rest. It'd be interesting to see how they'd get on against a Premiership team (although the outcome would perhaps be a bit too obvious if they are League Two standard).
















There was a decent atmosphere in The Cove. That is partly to do with the new-found Aussie enthusiasm for football but also because a large number of expats like myself go along to get their football fix and join in with the chants, some of which are very amusing indeed. Their rendition of "When Sydney Goes Marching In" has to be seen to be believed. I've now been to a Super 12's game of rugby (back in 2000), an Australia vs England rugby test match and an AFL game but the best atmosphere was definitely at the football and I never thought I'd be able to say that.















Anyway, Sydney won the game 1-0 so it was a great start the season and the defence of their title.

I look forward to my next game on three weeks time when Sydney face the Newcastle Jets.

Book Seven

There's no denying it. I am definitely onto something here. I have just polished off Book Seven in just over a week, and what a beauty it was too. At 320 pages I think I have just set my own "Jonny Does Reading in Australia" Personal Best.




















I'm not quite sure how I found myself looking at the shelf of Ben Elton books in Dymocks on George Street last week. I had been looking for (what will now be) Book Eight but I couldn't remember who the author was (and one of the shop assistants couldn't help me either). Anyway I do remember seeing the Ben Elton books as I walked around the shop and I remembered how bloody good High Society was. I'd read that book on the flight back to England, from Sydney, via a quick pit-stop in Bangkok, last year. Yes, I can read books quite quickly if I put my mind to it and have nothing else to do, in a confined space with no leg room, for the best part of 24 hours.

As it says on the cover, Popcorn is an "Award-Winning No.1 Bestseller". I was intrigued. But then don't all books say that they are award-winning these days? And if they don't say that, then they almost always say that they are a Bestseller. Anyway, I was sucked in. I read the comments on the back, got a phone call from my agency to say I'd been offered the job I was after, walked around the shop a little bit trying not to be too noisy, ended the conversation, returned to Popcorn, picked it up and bought it. Job Done!

So far as the book is concerned I thought it was excellent, and at times (dare I say it?) "un-put-downable". I guess that's why I polished it off so quickly. I'll be sure to read some more of Ben Elton's stuff at some point.

I managed to find Book Eight over the weekend as well. I'd used good old Google to find out who the author was and I got H to buy it as she needed a book to read. She's just finished it (the Manly ferry affords the user plenty of reading time) so I'll be starting that today.

Oh, and while on the subject of Popcorn, thanks to Mr Skinner, H and I now can't sit through a movie without cooking up some "Popping Corn". We're addicted.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

I love weekends in Sydney. Even though I am not working at the moment and am used to hanging around Manly all week, there is something special about the weekends. There is a real buzz around Manly.

Having said that, H and I went into town on Sunday afternoon after our second volleyball lesson (where we learn't the overarm serve and "spike").

We met Will at Darling Harbour, drank some beer, ate some food and enjoyed the weather which was an absolute beauty.

H.














Beer.














Timmy.














After a few beers we took a stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens, which was nice!














There are lots of fruit-bats in the Gardens. They are huge.














And there are birds that look a bit like albino parrots.














There are also birds that don't really look like birds.














It is also a good spot to watch the sunset.














We went to The Opera Bar afterwards for another beer.














What a great way to spend a Sunday.

So here I am now in my last week of freedom before I start work again. I am trying to get into the habit of getting up nice and early and going for a dawn surf as I want to do that before I go to work. I have managed to do that both times I have tried this week. It's a bit of a shock to the system but one hell of a way to wake up. At the moment the sun rises just before 6.30am and when I start work I'll have to leave the house at 7.15am so it won't give me much time in the water. It'll be better as we go into summer but that would mean getting up earlier and earlier.

My intentions are good but we'll see if I stick at it.

Book Six

I finished Book Six earlier on this week, and it only took me a week to read it.




















That's a whopping 235 pages in 7 days. What's going on?

Actually, I have read this book before, but considering I have just re-read it I am still going to include it on my list. I have allowed myself to do this. H recently read it as well, and Mike picked it up whilst he was here and read it in a matter of minutes. Both of them really enjoyed it.

It's a cracking read and hopefully lots of rah-rah toffs around the world would have picked it up on their trust-fund travels and read it and realised just how bloody annoying they really are. That also includes those who aren't travelling right now but who live in Clifton (in Brissol for those of you that don't know) and who have big hair, wear beads around their neck, wear thier collars up around their necks and think they own the bloody place.

Anyway, the funniest thing happened recently. I was going through the motions in an interview (actually I was getting grilled) but then they came up with this question;

"So what are you interests outside of work?"

Well, you know what's coming don't you. I only went and said "Reading" didn't I! I nearly laughed out aloud. Ok, I said it amongst other (more important) things like surfing but the thing is, I didn't really need to think about saying it. It just came out. Bloody hell, this is life-changing.

And I got the job!

I was also in a bookshop buying Book Seven when I got the call to say I got the job.

A: A Job

Yep, I was recently made a job offer to work in Marketing company in the city. It's an 8 month contract covering someone who is going off on maternity leave but I guess it could lead to something more permanent (or an extension) if I do a good job and a position becomes available. We'll see. For the moment it's nice being out of the job hunting market. Although the last six weeks have been fine it is nice when an offer comes in and it is for something you want to do. I had been quite picky with what I wanted to go for. There was always going to be a point when I would needed to have taken anything but I'm glad I kept pushing that deadline back and this opportunity came up. I'm still waiting to sign the contract but I should be doing that tomorrow.

The job is going to be a good challenge for me and although still within a marketing arena, it is slightly left-field from what I used to do in the UK. Of all the places I went to this company was the one that stood out. Any business with a nice wide-screen TV showing music channels in the reception area is all good by me - and rumours are that there is a break-out area with table football, pool and Foxtel! It's also in the same complex as two radio stations and a TV channel. It also means I will get the ferry to work, plus a short train ride and a walk (but I may look into getting a bike and cycling to the offices from Circular Quay). And the dress code is casual so I wont have to wear a suit on those boiling hot summer days.

I will be starting on the 28th so I've got next week off to relax and enjoy the winter. It was 25 degrees today, 7 above average. Hopefully there'll be more of the same next week.

Q: What Do You Get If.....

....., over a period of six and a half weeks, you

- email your resume to 27 different recruitment agencies

- register your details online with company career sections and 2 of the biggest job websites around (and spend what seems like hour upon hour trawling through them)

- go to 9 different recruitment agency interviews (plus speak to many others on the phone)

- go up and down numerous skyscrapers (the views were sensational!)

- state your interest in a large number of jobs, whether it be online, via email, over the phone or in person

- attend 8 job interviews (one of which I arrived twenty five minutes late for because I walked for forty five minutes in the wriong direction - logic states that road numbers should increase, or decrease, sequentially - well they don't on the Pacific Highway!!), and,

- get told you are over-qualified on 3 separate occasions?

Beach Volleyball

Ever since arriving here I'd quite fancied playing beach volleyball so recently I booked H and myself onto a three week Beginners course, running on Sunday mornings at 9am. Not only would it be a good excuse to get fit, but it would mean we wouldn't go out and get ruined on a Saturday night.

I was reminding myself of that fact at 8am this morning when I woke up wondering how the hell I'd got home last night. What had supposed to be a quiet night in turned into a bit of a goon-drinking session at a house party in the City. Still, waking up to weather like this on a winter's day sure helps the hangover, even though I think I was still a little bit drunk.















So H and I left the house just before 9am and made our way along the beach to the courts. As you can see, H was up for it and raring to go.















The first lesson was good fun. We learnt how to serve (underarm), "dig" and "set" the ball and I seemed to spend most of the lesson diving around in the sand. I thought I'd broken one of my toes at one point. It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning, honest! I think it was the earliest I have had to get up since I have been here.















It was a bit sore on the arms and legs but I'm sure we'll get used to it. It looks really easy when you watch other people playing it but it is pretty tough. At the end of the lesson we were both chuffed that we had made the effort to do something like this.

We are still in winter here but the temperature today was around 20 degrees, which was a beauty. I've noticed a lot more bikini's around, and there are some surfers in the ocean without wetsuits on. It goes without saying then, that the best thing about beach volleyball is this.....















I can't wait for summer.

Book Five

Ladies and Gentlemen. I give to you Book Five.




















This, apparently, is what they call a "Classic". "They" being literary geniuses or those whose job it is to stack the "Classics" shelves in bookshops.

Anyway, it is clearly obvious that I am no literary genius. So maybe you are wondering how this book became number five on this little reading mission of mine.

Well, when I was Salta, in Northern Argentina, we were hanging out with Shane, an Irish guy, who some of you will be familiar with if you you read my blog updates from South America. He is a huge bookworm and is one of those clever people who can multi-task whilst reading, rather like "The Machine". Whilst in Salta he suggested that we go to the cinema and see this film. Now, I had no bloody idea who Truman Capote was. Shane said that he had written "Breakfast At Tiffany's". I thought that was a crap song by a crap band, not a book. Anyway, Shane said that the guy who played Capote in the film won an Oscar for his performance, so I thought I'd give it a watch. And the cinema we were in was pretty cool, one of those old-school ones with comfy seats, a huge screen, lots of dust and no-one in there at all except us. Watching a movie in there was like being in a movie. Unfortunately the sound quality was quite poor though.

I thought the film was pretty good. It follows Capote as he did his research for his book, "In Cold Blood", a true story about the Clutter family murders in Kansas, in 1959. It was interesting stuff.

So I guess that's how I came to reading the book. Having seen the film about the author, and seen how writing the book had affected him so much, I thought it'd be worthy of a read. And it was. I really enjoyed it. It took me a while to get through it, but that was mainly because "The Machine" was visiting and unlike him, I can't read and hold a conversation at the same time. Apart from the first third of Book Three, at 335 pages long, this work of non-fiction was the first real test in this read-athon of mine. I thought it would drag on a bit but it didn't. I'm interested to see what "The Machine" makes of it as he had started to read it before he came here. But he read four different books whilst he was here. You see, that's another one of his talents (and Shane's for that matter). He can start one book, put it down, and then read another (or more) and go back to the original book without getting confused. Incredible.

Anyway, "Well done me" for reading this.

"And What's Your Visa Status?"

Over the last few weeks I have been re-introduced into the world of the shite recruitment agent and the good recruitment agent. If you are one, then you will know on which side you sit.

I have also been up some very high skyscrapers to be interviewed by the said recruitment agents.

You see, I am still looking for work. I am in my sixth week of looking (although I have really got into the swing of things in the last couple of weeks) and have so far been to four job interviews, with three different companies, not to mention the eight agency interviews. I've also been introduced to the joy of a competency based interview. Twice. I think I did a lot better in the second one than the first, but I'm wating to hear on the outcome of both.

There does seem to be plenty of work in Sydney but at the moment I am being quite selective. I am hanging out for a decent job that will utilise the skills I learnt with LTSB, in a similar enviroment, although I am now getting tempted to take any old contract, just to get some bucks coming in. It's a bit of a tricky situation, and it certainly hasn't been for any lack of effort on my behalf. I am ready to work now and looking forward to it. But if the job isn't out there, it isn't out there. Yet!

I've been using two websites over here to aid me in my search. When I first started looking I was very particular as to who I sent my CV (or resume, as it's called down here) out to. I wanted to retain a marketing focus to my job search. Five weeks later and twenty four agencies now have a copy of my resume. And some of them are terrible. In fact, I haven't even spoken with some of them. They leave an email address on a job spec and request that you send them a copy of your resume if you are interested. Then you hear nothing. For days. And days and days. I haven't even heard back from some of them. Others phone you back straight away. It's the joy of the job market I guess. If you are one of these rubbish agents who is spending their days surfing the web and not doing your job (hence the reason you have discovered this site), then I'd really appreciate it if you responded to my job application. Actually, sod that. I don't want to give you any potential commission.

Oh, and whilst on the subject of crap recruitment agents, I am gobsmacked (or maybe I shouldn't be) that so few of them actually read the resume after you have sent it to them. Over here you have to have a visa to work. I have Permanent Residency which, apart from Citizenship, is the best status to have. I have clearly written this on my resume. So I guess it makes sense then, that rather inevitably, one of the first questions each bad agent asks me when we speak is "And what's your visa status?".

Anyway, I had a good (well I thought it went pretty well anyway), second interview with one company today and whilst I wait to see if I am going to be put forward to a third stage I think I will go back to the labouring. Apparently the flat-conversion has been given the go-ahead by the residents who live in the block so I have been told that there should be plenty of work for an un-skilled labourer like myself. Hopefully I'll get my hands on the sledgehammer again soon.

See You Later Vanny V!

Vans recently made the momentous decision to return to the UK, after spending one year out here. She is moving to Brighton.

Last night she had her leaving drinks at The Opera Bar.

Vans has been such a brilliant friend to me and H. Will introduced us to her just after we arrived in Sydney and she has really helped us settle into our new lives over here, and for that we are very grateful. In the short time we've know her we've had so much fun. Australia is such a transient place for so many people, and it's a real shame when such a great person has to leave.

Thanks for everything Vans. Keep in touch and we'll miss you heaps!

Some Sydney Panoramas

Andy is the Panorama King (although he had a bit of a howler recently - didn't he?).

He has inspired me to use the Stitch mode on my camera.

Here's my attempts. What d'ya think? I don't think they are too bad for a novice like myself.

Sydney Harbour, from The Opera House.





Sydney Harbour, from The Royal Botanical Gardens.






Sydney Harbour, from Mrs Macquarie's Chair.





The Opera House, Circular Quay and The Rocks.





Bondi Beach.





Bondi Beach, from North Bondi.






The Sydney Cricket Ground.







The Pylon Lookout, looking East.





The Pylon Lookout, looking South.






The Pylon Lookout, looking West.





The Pylon Lookout, looking North.

Saturday afternoon, Manly.

Saturday evening, Manly.