The Wondering Jew

What the hell is this thing!? Actually, on second thoughts, I don’t want to know! Considering that this picture really belies the size of this thing (about the size of a stick of ginger, which is what I thought it was at first), and the fact that whatever it is, it lives in the garden, I think that under the circumstances, ignorance is bliss.

If you ask me, it’s probably some kind of advanced scout trooper from an insectile race of aliens, on their way to Earth to enslave all mankind. Either that, or it’s a hunter/killer supersoldier on a seek and destroy mission. Either way, the insectile race of impending alien overlords is clearly the most viable explanation for this hideous affront to my humanity. If you recognise it and want to let me and my curious readers know what it is, the ideal place to do so is in the comments. Don’t though. As I said, I don’t want to know! I’m sure there’s a more terrestrial explanation for this thing than my alien invader theory, but I fear the reality may be much, much worse. You can see a higher resolution image of this thing in the gallery by clicking on the image (but seriously, why would you want to!?). There’s also a couple of pictures of one of his pals, slightly smaller, but equally ugly. Probably some kind of insectile alien ninja, that’s only let me live this long to gain more insight into how to kill me more painfully.

In other news, I didn’t get the job I interviewed for. I don’t think I was convincing enough in my response when they told me they were worried I’d leave if something better came along. Still, it was my first interview and it’s slim pickings on the job market at the moment. So i’ll keep applying for jobs this week, but after that I might just give up looking for work and enjoy the summer. I’m thinking of taking a couple of two day trips over the next couple of weeks, one to the Blue Mountains this week, and then off to a surf school next week. Both look really fun, and are relatively cheap, with transport, accommodation and food included in the price. The surf school even has a pool party in the evening!

You know what? I’m not thinking about it anymore. I’m doing it. Stay posted for my report!

Matt x

So, today’s post was going to be all about the beautiful day I’ve had, and how I had this gorgeous walk down to Newport Beach, up through Bilgola Beach and Avalon, and then back. It was going to be about what a gorgeous day it’s been here, and how the views were breathtaking; the rugged cliffs and rock faces, the bush, the ocean, the crisp sandy beaches. It was even going to feature an amazing collection of photographs I took along the way. And then I realised something. And that’s that I don’t know jack about photography.

I discovered this while playing with a picture I took the other day. I was looking at it and thinking that although it had come out under exposed, and therefore quite dark, and not captured everything I had wanted the picture to be of, it was still quite atmospheric, and I was debating with myself whether I could pass it off as artistically creative rather than consigning it to the trashcan. And then something incredible happened, an epiphany of sorts. I moved a slider in the Levels dialog of the software I was using, and suddenly, the dark areas of the photograph, the bits that I thought light had not been captured from, the areas that I thought were forever lost, suddenly came into clear view. And I don’t mean the sort of grainy night vision you get with a camera that doesn’t really have night vision. These parts of my shot had actually been captured clearly on camera.

Anyway, to anyone who knows anything about photography, this will all seem quite basic, and there’s probably a few among you shouting “noob!” right now. I mean, I’ve read that this is what’s supposed to happen, I’ve just not experienced it first hand yet. Until now. What this means for you in practical terms, dear reader, is that I’ve discovered a newfound shame for all the pictures I’ve uploaded so far, and am reluctant to show you any more until I learn how to actually process them correctly. So, I have lots of stunning pictures of the Northern Beaches that I took today on my long walk (about 3 hours or so, by the way), but I’m not gonna let you see them. At least not yet.

In other news, I still haven’t heard anything back following the job interview. I called the recruiter, but they failed to call me back as promised, and then neglected to answer the phone again, so it’s been a weekend of no news on that front. The interview did go well though, and if I don’t get the job, it will be because they want someone at more of an entry level point in their career. That’s fine, whatever floats your boat. I did however have a great day on Friday doing the office setup and some training for Shared Conversations (I’ll change that to a link when their website’s up). And today, after the walk, I had a lovely beer (or three) called Fat Yak by Matilda Bay breweries. So still working my way through the local tipple, but still some way to go.

Pictures soon to follow, hope you’ve all had a great weekend.

Matt x

Well, it’s not quite like that, but it may be soon. I’ve been a little worried that the job market might have dried up for the next couple of months, what with Christmas and New Year, and it being the middle of summer here. That said, I’ve seen a lot of positions advertised, but I’m starting to sense a real reluctance among employers to give any consideration to people on the working holiday visa. That’s understandable, if it’s for long term or permanent positions, (you’re not allowed to stay in the same job or with the same employer for more than 6 months), but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be considered for contract positions.

Still, since I’ve been here I’ve managed to do some freelance work; a few hours for my uncle’s company, and I’m booked on Friday to do some private Mac training, but it’s not enough to keep me going indefinitely, and my savings will only go so far. But today things picked up. I got a call this morning asking me if I was interested in a service desk position. I’d be joining an existing team of 20 people, supporting over 22,000 users for a large financial organisation. It’s exactly matched to my skills and experience as well as some of the other jobs I’ve applied for, but it’s definitely a challenging and interesting position, and it will give me exposure to a broad range of technologies and systems that I’ve not come into contact with before, and I’m quite excited about it.

The call came from a recruitment consultant, and she set up a telephone interview. That went rather well, at least well enough that they’ve invited me in for a formal interview tomorrow. So, tomorrow morning I’m heading into the City to meet a friend from Stroud for breakfast (believe it or not!), and then I’m heading off to this interview for 1pm.

Wish me luck, and who knows, maybe tomorrow I’ll have some exciting news!

Matt x

This has been my second weekend here, although not having a job makes it not a whole lot different to any other day. Having said that, it’s been a really cool weekend and I’ve done some fun and interesting stuff. On Friday, I went with Amanda down to the Markets by Moonlight at The Rocks, where we met up with a couple of her friends. You can see some pictures I took there by clicking on the pic at the top of this post.  I must admit, it was still daylight when we were there, but pretty cool nonetheless. There was lots of ethnic food on sale, being cooked fresh in front of you, as well as stalls selling mostly ‘ethnic’ gifts, including one Irish stall selling, as well as ‘Celtic’ goods, various Guinness branded items. I was a little confused by the two people in this picture, who were walking their way through the crowds; the woman was dressed as a Flamenco dancer (albeit on stilts), while the man followed her around playing distinctly French sounding music on an accordion. Either the pair of them were somewhat culturally confused, or I’m just a philistine, ignorant of the famous French Flamenco.

Outside The Rocks Centre in the middle of the markets, a stage was set up where throughout the course of the Markets various performers will, um, perform. While we were there a guy named Eli Wolfe was playing (there are some pictures of him in the album), and while nobody else seemed particularly impressed by him, I thought he was really good. So having wondered through the market, we then walked through another little indoor arcade, where for some reason we discussed huntsman spiders, and my two Australian cousins’ complete inability to deal with one that was in our bathroom, while I happily casually trapped the thing under a plastic tub and dropped it off outside. Perhaps I’m blessed with the benefit of ignorance, or perhaps my profound hatred of insects truly does overcome any innate fear I’m supposed to instinctively have of spiders.

Anyway, back to the market. After that we wandered back to the central area with the stage to grab some food. After giving serious consideration to all the available options, Alice and David (Amanda’s friends) decided to go look for paella, while Amanda and I decided to try some Ethiopian food. If I’m being perfectly honest, my first reaction was that Ethiopian cuisine would involve sitting at a table and waiting for the UN to bring you a food package. I’m pleased to say I was proven spectacularly wrong. With a choice of rice or sourdough flatbread, the vegetarian option consisted of two kinds of lentils, salsa and mixed vegetables, wrapped into a tasty package. Amanda made the sensible choice and declined the additional chilli sauce, which I allowed them to generously heap on top of mine. The meal was delicious, but I could definitely feel flames coming from my mouth afterwards. This pretty much concluded the trip to the markets, as Amanda was heading on to a party after. So following the food we headed for home.

I managed to kill a few hours on Saturday by going shopping with Jeremy (uncle). This involved a trip to the supermarket, as you would expect, but also into a shop called Dan Murphy’s, a chain of what can only be described as alcohol supermarkets that seems to be popular here in Australia, and I can understand why. Aside from the rather impressive selection on offer (I feel I have understated that), the staff there are all cheerful, and extremely knowledgeable about what they’re selling. Rather than what you’d expect in the UK (”if we’ve got any, they’ll be…”), they are actually eager to help you, and all seem to be either wine or beer experts, or are very well trained. Something is definitely keeping them enthusiastic about what they’re doing, I wonder what it could be?

Saturday evening was also interesting. Went out to a Japanese restaurant called Sushi Samurai in Neutral Bay. Went by recommendations and ordered a vegetable tempura and noodles dish, and was advised, despite the ‘vegetarian’ assurances of the menu about this dish, to specify ‘no shrimp’ when ordering. This turned out to be a somewhat more complex task than you might expect; the Japanese waitress responded with “What’s shrimp?”. We thought it would be easier to just say no fish. So when the food was eventually brought out, there were crab sticks in it. Technically not fish, but still, not something I was prepared to eat. I took it back and explained that I’d specifically asked for no fish. They were apologetic and took it away from me. About a minute later, they brought it back with the crab sticks removed. This seemed to infuriate Amanda, who took it back over to them and demanded that they make me a fresh one. This approach seemed to work very well; they did in fact make me a fresh one, although the length of time taken for them to bring it out leads me to hope that they weren’t all taking turns to add ’special sauce’.

After the food we went to a pub called The Oaks, where we had a couple of drinks and played a couple of games of pool. I, as usual, sucked, but managed to get a couple of cheeky shots in and salvage some dignity. Didn’t stay too late, and headed back home in time for midnight.

That brings us to sunday. Not much interesting happened today; went to the Warringah mall, where I wandered around with Jeremy while Ariella went off and, I presume, shopped. Tomorrow brings another day of fresh job hunting. Plan is to slip into my suit and walk straight into the offices of some recruitment companies, and demand flat out that they give me some work. Failing that I may just politely introduce myself and explain my circumstances, and hope that there’s somebody there who’s got enough time to talk to me. Haven’t decided yet, but hopefully my next post will have some job related news!

Matt x

Australiana

Yesterday was pretty exciting. Met a guy for coffee and a chat about a job. He emailed today to say that it’s not going anywhere, but still, less than a week off the plane and already moving things along work wise seems pretty impressive to me. After that I walked round the city taking pictures, looking for all the world like a slack-jawed tourist on his first trip off the farm. You can see the album by clicking on the picture at the top if you want to take a look at some photos of Sydney, but don’t expect anything artistically creative.

Still, it was another lovely morning. The beach was far more packed out with people than it had been the previous day, with people partaking in activities ranging from splashing in the water to surfing, and rowing to kite-surfing (without the surf board – no, honestly!). The majority of people seemed to be crowded at the southern end of the beach, so a couple of strolls up and down from one end to the other offered quite a variation in scenery, both human and natural. One thing I did notice is that the seaweed here that washes up onto shore seems to have these kind of grape things growing on it. Maybe that’s common, but it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me so couldn’t take any pictures, I will however ensure I bring it along next time I go.

After that we got back to the house, and that’s when the heatwave really kicked in. Over a hundred bush fires flared up around New South Wales, although they were too far west to be of any serious danger to us. Being just on Pittwater, it was quite a moist heat round here, and in fact you could visibly see a haze rising off the water, so nothing like the dry, instantly parching heat that slaps you in the face like a boiled sock when you get off a plane in Tel Aviv. Still, unlike in the UK, where if it’s too cold people complain, and if it’s too hot people complain, everyone here just went about their business. That left me with not much to do, so I wondered round the garden taking some pretty boring photos. You can see one at the top of this post, and clicking on it should take you to the album. But you’d probably have to be pretty damn bored to do that.

Anyway, today I’m back off into the city, to hand in a couple of forms to the bank, and this time for a bit of job hunting. I’ve applied for some online already, but thought I’d make myself known to some of the IT recruitment agencies around town. I’ll probably have another blog post ready this evening, maybe even with a couple of pictures of the city. No promises though!

Stay tuned!

Matt x

Woke up early this morning and went with Amanda and Ariella (cousin and aunt) to Palm Beach. While they went for a swim in the seawater pool, I went for a stroll up and down the beach. I must have looked a right douche. Jeans rolled up, sandles in hand, rucksack on back, wearing my Darth Vader “Your Empire Needs You” t-shirt, getting absolutely soaked by some of the less forgiving giant waves that were pounding the shore. Every aspect of me screamed “tourist”, or “pom”, or some kind of ridiculous combination of both.

I didn’t give a shit. It was fantastic.

The jet lag’s now pretty much gone, I managed to stay awake until after 10pm last night but couldn’t hold it together much more after that. Woke up today feeling refreshed and ready for new challenges, so snagged a lift into the city with my uncle. FYI, the following bit is a little boring, but will be useful on the off chance that anyone reading this ever decides to follow in my footsteps.

More to follow folks, thanks for reading!

Actually, I’ve already gone further than that. A lot further. About 11,000 miles in fact. And believe it or not, the journey was actually not that bad. Flew from London to Sydney via Singapore with Singapore Airlines, and not only was the fare reasonable (compared to other airlines, at least), but the journey was not entirely unpleasant, the staff were friendly and helpful, and perhaps most surprising of all, the food was actually very good! The first leg of the trip was on an Airbus A380, which was not nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be. Having said that, first class on one of these things means your own private suite, but alas I was in economy class with the rest of the cattle.

Arrived at Singapore Changi airport with a five hour wait to kill. Managed to eliminate three of these hours by hiring a little nap room and a shower. This came to SGD$46 (about £20), which I thought was nothing short of bloody marvellous. There’s loads more to do here too if you’ve got the time (and, more often than not, the money) for example in the Transit Lounge where I hired the nap room there is a gym and spa, where you can work out, get a haircut, massage or various beauty treatments. There is also a cinema which is free, some very good restaurants, free internet access via terminals across the Transit Mall, and the usual gaggle of duty free tat brokers, coffee shops and fast food joints. One of these caught my eye, ‘The Toast Box’. In case you’re wondering, yep, they sell toast. While this amused me, I managed to refrain from parting with my not-so-hard-earned cash in exchange for, essentially, a slice of toast.

Eventually boarded the plane for the second leg of my journey (barely – I nearly missed the flight due to, um, biological complications), and that was another uncomplicated, easy and uneventful part of the journey. Touched down in Sydney at 11.10am local time yesterday. My uncle and cousin were waiting for me at the airport, and brought me back to their house, which I will be calling home for the time being. After a few hours, I gave in to the jet lag and fell asleep. Managed to adjust myself away from UK time, but woke up at about 3am local time, so still have some adjusting to do.

Anyway, that’s the beginning of my adventure. I’ve taken some pictures already which I will upload in due course, which will hopefully be accompanied by words a little more interesting than these. No solid plan at the moment, just a few ideas, but give me a couple of days and I’ll have some typical tourist snaps for your perusal.