Little things…

It’s quite surprising how ‘foreign’ Australia seems – I was expecting it to feel just like home – another English speaking Western country – but nothing is familiar and there are loads of things that throw me.

1) Everyone pronounces my name properly! It’s great – even without me saying it first. Hallelujah.
2) The bleeping things at pedestrian crossings are hilarious – I keep expecting Pulp’s ‘Common People’ to blare out…
3) It’s warm in the evenings, people spill out of bars onto the streets, sitting at outside tables, and there are Christmas decorations everywhere – I can’t describe how odd and incongruous this looks… I just don’t feel festive at all because it’s so sunny, and I keep getting confused when people talk about Christmas being close. I guess this will help me not miss home so much over the festive period.
4) Lots of the buildings look like they either belong in Bath or Bristol, or they should be in some one-horse hick town in an old Western movie. Very ornate and ‘New England’. Will upload pics to illustrate.
5) A ‘long black’ is a black Americano.
6) Everywhere is named after somewhere in London. It’s really disorienting because loads of place names are familiar, but totally geographically different. So Oxford Street is parallel to Liverpool Street, which are both just south of King’s Cross, which is north-west of Paddington - it’s soooo confusing! I’m amazed I find my way to work every day.

And more, but gotta go, am off to Bondi to check out the markets.

(PS some pics are up - check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/66099107@N00/ - but bear in mind they are in the opposite order to the order I uploaded them in, so work backwards so to speak.)

cx