I've always thought of Australian winters as everyone else's summers, and to be fair, its not like that. We've experienced the coldest winter here since way back when, but in all honestly its not been so bad. The worst thing is that they don't have heating or insulation in the houses, as it would literally cook you to death in summer, so the frustrating thing is not being able to get properly warm ever. At least back in rainy Manchester you get home, take off your sodden clothes, put your warm comfies on and have a hot tea and biscuit and bask in the cosiness. In Sydney you sit in front of your tiny ineffective heater, cursing the country for not being as warm as promised on the brochure. We even had 2 weeks solid of rain, and I got so pissy it was sort of ridiculous, given that I come from a country where rain is the chief produce and have just lived in a country where "-20....-35 with windchill" wasn't an unusual morning forecast.
However, that lasted only for a few weeks, and it's started to get warmer again - or at least the weather is tricking me into believing so this week. It's that perfect sort of weather where you're not shivering but also not sweating out of every pore on your face and working out how many clothes you can dispense with without becoming a hoochie. I enjoy it.
I've also found that surfing in the colder seasons is quite different to catching waves when its baking hot and you're constantly worrying about getting the top of your ears burnt. Yeah, you have to wear a wetsuit, and getting the damn thing on and off is sort of an ordeal in itself, but the breaks are cleaner, it's much more of an achievement that you managed to drag yourself out there in the first place, its less busy, the Manly Surf Liability School's numbers are thankfully depleted, and its actually warmer in the water than it is out of it. Plus I've started to get passable at it. I stand everytime, I'm catching both smaller and bigger waves (the first is difficult because there's less power to push you; the latter is difficult because you might actually die) and I am sort of carving here and there, and riding the swell right in rather than getting overexcited at being up and nosediving into the white. The dude at my favourite cafe told me back in January that it would take me 4 months to get good; he was right. It all just comes naturally now, and even the board doesn't seem so solid (crew) when it hits me.
Other updates......our house is now a happy little 3-person home, and living with a boy is actually fabulous. He cleans and washes and doesn't really cook but he does buy chocolate and download movies and heats up my bed at night, so we'll let him off on that one. I think 3 is the perfect number to live in a place, and this is my third house in which that has been the case - the first two times I was the gooseberry with a couple, and as much as I loved both those situations its nice to escape that role!
Work is going well, and we're opening up a new venue in 2 weeks with a huge ass drum n bass party for everyone, with 11 DJs playing. Its all on my shoulders a little, as I named it, am doing the graphic design for the flyers / logo / website / everything, and have to book all the performers and promote it and arranged a paint party for all my friends to help my tag and stencil and spraypaint the massive ass black wall on the far side, and its a lot of pressure, but it's also pretty awesome. It might give me chance to stay in Aus too - something I didn't want to do, but something that is seeming more and more appealing as time goes by.
I've discovered my spiritual home, which is Cult Sinema at the Annandale hotel. They play really bad b-movies every Tuesday, and you can eat Thai food while you chill on couches and try to win awesome giveaways such as a Shinto boxset! They showed Pin (A Plastic Nightmare) as well as the amazingly-titled Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter, which was not only unexpectedly fantastic, but made me want to see the whole series, and confused the bejeesus out of me for the whole night.
I went to Melbourne and fell in love with the place. It's a lot more indie, funky and less pretentious than Sydney by a long shot, but then again Sydney has its positive side too. I am hoping to go back for at least a weekend to visit the friends I have there, as the city also contains what I strongly believe to be the best bar in Australia. Sydney doesn't have much of a bar culture, and this place is basically just a basement with a ton of couches thrown in there, a good vibe and great music pumping throughout. I could not have been happier sat down there with a group of good friends from Canada, Sydney, Melbourne, the US and a bottle of Bulmers in my hand. Pure bliss.
I was also in a music vid with my favourite Frenchies Astrid and Laurianne, which was heaps of fun and a total pleasure as I love the band and their music. They're lovely people, kick the ass of every venue they play in, and have a hell of a lot more ingenuity than most famous performers around at the moment. They love what they do and do it because they love it, and that's so commendable it makes me want to hug a bogan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex-D9_TmRVg
It seems I've also convinced David to move to Sydney - I hope its as good as you expect mate, we can't wait to have you stay!
