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Friday 8 April 2011

Playing Tourist (mostly)

My second Saturday in Sydney was spent inside a class room being lectured to about the licensing laws of New South Wales. After a quick test at the end of the day I was NSW RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) certified and legally allowed to sell alcohol in NSW. The day was nicely finished off by a walk down to the gardens and the discovery of how lovely caramel hot chocolate can be on a cool afternoon. In the evening I was introduced to ‘Goon’ a truly awful “wine” which I hope never to experience again (I swear I could taste the eggshells! ) before heading out to a nearby pub. Sydney is a vibrant city with a very active nightlife which I have decided I am either too old or maybe I was just too jetlagged to enjoy. It was an alright night but not much different than you would find in any city and post-midnight I was happy to find a McDonalds for a quick burger before heading back to the hostel and my bed.

I like to save my tourist activities for during the week based on the idea of there being less children about but Sydney laughs at this reasoning as everywhere I go there are multiple groups of school children exploring the places I visit! However Monday came around and off I went to the aquarium only to be sidetracked by the Sydney Tower; which is one of the few places I’ve visited completely lacking in school groups. It was a sunny day so I was tempted to buy a skywalk tour which is when they take you outside to see the view from the highest point and without any glass. Sadly I wasn’t allowed my camera so I purchased the CD of the official photos which included a dozen photos of Sydney takes from the tower at various times, the CD was worth the money for those alone. The views from outside the tower were fabulous and I was glad I had spent the money to take the walk.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I visited the Aquarium and wildlife park. The Aquaruim was pretty good. The first thing I saw was a platypus which amused me no end even though I couldn’t get a photo as he kept darting playfully through the water. The aquarium had three big tanks which had dugongs (the original sirens!) sharks, coral and some smaller fish. They were extra fun because they had glass tunnels under them so we could see the fish swimming around and over us. There were plenty of smaller aquariums housing funky fish, seahorses, jellyfish, lobsters, starfish and even a squid. At wildlife world I braved the creepy crawlies to make it through to the Koalas where I saw a little 10 month old Koala who was outside in the public enclosure for the first time., He was very cute hiding behind some leaves though it did seem to make the job of the official photographer quite difficult as he tried to capture the moment. I got my first look at a real Kangaroos and was slightly taken aback at the size of their gianormous crocodile! In the Nocturnal room I managed to get some good looks at the speedy night time animals but the darkness proved too much for my little camera.

Despite my many tourist activities I have managed to fit in some job hunting. I have sent numerous CVs had one interview for a housekeeping job at a ski resort and one at a engineering recruitment agency. I didn’t really expect much from the latter as I had sent my CV on the off chance and right enough there aren’t many jobs here in my line of work still they have my CV and said that they would let me know. It strange that after working so hard to become a physicist out of the two I would rather hear from the housekeeping job than the engineers. Anyway it’s only been two weeks so who knows what week three will bring? I for one am looking forward to finding out.






4 comments:

  1. Wow, you have achieved such a lot in just two weeks. Small wonder work is catching up with you. They should be grabbing you with both hands to hire a girl with your qualifications. I am enjoying seeing all that you do from the comfort of my living room.
    We have had wonderful sunshine here, all of 21 degrees and everyone in their shorts and T-shirts, but weather doing what it does best, yes its raining again.
    Hope you get used to the pace of work soon :)

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  2. Still following you. Looking forward to the next chapter. Good luck with the job hunting.

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  3. Lynne Guildford15 April 2011 at 17:07

    The platypus was hiding when we went so never got to see it, but loved the dugongs. Didn't go to the wildlife place but saw loads of roos in the wild at a golf course in Nowra and koalas at the Nowra Wildlife park where we were allowed in the enclosure with them. It was fab to have them walking round your feet! Loving reading your adventures Lynne xxx

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  4. I hope to meet some wild animals on my travels, I guess I shall have to leave Sydney to do that though!

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