Nick Abroad

My Sydney friends have emerged from the holes they’ve been hiding in (or the lives they’ve been living in) over the last 24 hours.  I feel reassured that I’m not in fact going to die lonely.

I now have people to swim with (the Wett Ones Swimming Team are a good bunch of Sydney folk), eat with and drink with.  It gunna be all right.

Sydney’s warming up again too, marginally, but enough to notice in the mornings.  As a result, or perhaps as a cause, the blue skies have been replaced with a smidgeon of steamy cloudy weather.  Not to worry, winter’s on its way, it’ll clear up and chill up again soon enough.

Another thing I’ve discovered is that Melbourne has shipped its street artists up to Sydney.  Perhaps not all of them, and perhaps not quite as creative, but this town’s not devoid of some pretty impressive graffiti.

Mornings are the best time in Sydney, I reckon.  Don’t know what it is, but everything, and everyone, is a bit crisper.  Probably explains the proliferation of tiny coffee shops in the backstreets of most inner city Sydney – people wake, shower, dress, step out their door and sit down for coffee, all in one fluid motion.

And you know what, the town also has it’s share of kooky.  I noticed tonight that at the corner of the street where I’m living the pub decor is traditional 1930s deco pub but with the walls stripped back to bare brick, and with elaborate electric chandeliers over the bar!  What’s that all about?  Seems to be one big mash up.  End result is character, but not much style.  Not to worry, as the signs proudly proclaim to passers by, there’s $10 meals 7 nights a week – so style really isn’t critical to the business model. 

Well, guess that’s installment one for Sydney, it’s back to Melbourne for the weekend to pack a few more warm jumpers for next week.