Well folks, the title of this one pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? I’m out! Tonight is my very last night (ever, in all likelihood) of being a resident of Sydney. I’m starting this entry from my little townhouse in Enmore, although I imagine it will end up getting finished and posted sometime during my travels tomorrow. It’s been 4 months since I landed here, jobless, dazed and confused, not knowing a soul, with my 130 pounds of luggage and nowhere to live. I’m now no longer confused, have been meaningfully employed, and probably have about 160 pounds of luggage. Success!
I’m a bit ambivalent about this phase coming to an end. While I’ll be back in Sydney several times before I get on that long flight home next summer (or winter… July. Let’s just call it next July), this is the end of me living and working here, and just enjoying being a resident. It would be so easy to just stay here, but I must remind myself that I did not set out to live for a year in Sydney – I set out for a year in Australia, so perhaps I should go out and see some more of it!
My last week here was quite the whirlwind. After my mother and aunt left, I headed in to my very last weekend at HSBC. It was pretty easy stuff, since Manila took most of the hours of phone coverage, which left us with the administrative stuff only. My last call ended up being informing a merchant as to why we couldn’t use the document he had sent in. Then 6 pm came, and that was that! My grand tally for number of calls taken? Any guesses? Anyone? No? Ok, ok, I’ll just tell you then. The grand total for 3 months of HSBC phone answering: 1,933. Now that number has a margin of error of about plus or minus 5. I kept track of my calls on an excel spreadsheet, and while I was super anal about it, it is possible that somewhere along the way I recorded a call twice, or perhaps skipped over one during a very busy time. But yeah, I answered the phone 1,933 times. In 3 months. I wonder how many calls I picked up at Bernstein in 3 years? Probably nowhere near that figure!
Sunday the 30th was my last day, and it worked out nicely that Cheryl’s Halloween party was that night, so I had somewhere to go and unwind after a bit of a bittersweet day. I had asked Cheryl if she could make her famous “piggies” for me for dinner (everyone else at the party was going to get store-bought frozen dumplings), and she said of course, but asked if I could bring some Long Island Iced Teas with me. We had found them at one point pre-mixed in a 4 pack, and they were quite yummy. I said of course! Homemade chicken dumplings, in exchange for running to a liquor store and picking up a 4 pack.? No worries, mate!
Yeah, 17 liquor stores later I finally handed the merchant my debit card to pay for them. I went all over the CBD, Newtown, Enmore, and Paddington, before finally stumbling back into the place where we had found them originally, in Darlinghurst. 17 liquor stores in about 30 hours. I’d never faced so much rejection in my life. I had no intention of drinking any of them when I first set out to buy the pack, but I did drink some in the end. After 30 hours of searching, I wanted to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Anyway, the party was lots of fun, there was even Halloween themed trivia! There was also a pumpkin to be carved, because apparently pumpkin carving is a North American thing, and Aussies don’t do it. Towards the end the four of us that were left hung out on her balcony on the “patio furniture.” It was a good night.
Monday was back to work! New work anyway. I’d managed to get myself a part-time gig at a company called Red Balloon. I worked for the whole week, from Monday to Friday, 1 pm – 5 pm. Any Australians out there, if you bought an “experience” voucher from Red Balloon during the week of October 31st, then I was the one who mailed it to you!
The work was easy and mindless. I mailed out the orders every day, and did a bit of stock work and data entry. I was able to wear jeans and sneakers too, which made me happy. The same place that had gotten me the Aquabocci drain gig back in July (my more diligent followers may remember that job) was responsible for this job as well. I really like that firm. They were great at keeping in touch with me, and seem to be good at coming up with super random short term gigs.
Red Balloon afternoons meant that I only had the mornings to get all my stuff done. It was a very stressful week. I had hours of journal writing to catch up on, about 5 loads of laundry, food to cook for the week, future trips and accommodation to book, a computer to back up, and an apartment to pack up and move out of. Plus there was NO way that I was cutting out gymnastics (I went to my usual Tuesday and Thursday night classes), and I had one last dumpling-a-thon to attend on Wednesday as well. Everything had to be packed up by Friday morning, since I had to get my stuff over to Cheryl’s for storing. I think I have too much stuff. Getting those bags out of the house and up the street to the intersection where I could catch a taxi was NOT easy. Passers-by kept commenting on how heavy my stuff looked. You know what? If you see someone struggling with 130 pounds of luggage in hot, humid weather, walking UP a hill, then unless you are going to HELP them, then keep your peanut gallery comments to yourself. In the span of about 5 blocks, there must have been about a half dozen people whose faces I wanted to bash in.
In the end, I got it all done though. I got myself packed up and moved out, got my journal all caught up, went to gymnastics twice and had a lovely dumpling dinner outing with Cheryl and a couple of my HSBC coworkers. Soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung, followed by dinner part 2 at Chef’s Gallery. The food was all amazing. Sydney might have super crap pizza and crap Mexican food, but the Asian stuff is outstanding!
My last night in my little house in Enmore was spent booking the next phase of my excursions here. I am now set for plans up until January 9, 2012. So For the next 2 months, I more or less know where I will be going and what I will be doing. I will certainly miss my little house (even though it was a smidge dumpy J) and my comfy duvet and my queen-sized bed, but it was time to get out there and see what else awaits me! Phase 1 of the Australia trip has been ginormously successful. One of the things I wanted to do here was to live in one of the big cities, and make it my own home away from home. I certainly did that quite well. But now what, you may ask? Cattle mustering, that’s what!
Yup, I’m headed up to Bingara, in the northern past of New South Wales. I am going on my very own “City Slickers” adventure. One of the other things I wanted to do in Australia was to spend some time up on a cattle station or ranch, so that’s what is being tackled next. Two weeks up in the country, living in a big farmhouse with no phones and no Internet. Horse riding, sheep shearing, and cattle mustering will fill my days, instead of phone calls, dumplings and gymnastics. I even had my mother bring me a Mets hat from home. I somehow neglected to bring one when I left, and if I’m going to be doing my own version of City Slickers, then I must wear a Mets hat! That’s what Billy Crystal wears in the movie, so that’s what I want to wear in my pictures as well. Yes, I am that big of a dork. After my two weeks at the cattle station, it’ll be off to Byron Bay for the weekend, and then surf camp!
I don’t anticipate having access to the internet again until after the cattle station class is over, so you’ll just have to wait on the edge of your seats for 2 weeks to find out how good of an Aussie Jillaroo I’ve become. In the event anyone is interested in the gritty details, here’s the website:
So that’s that! Wish me luck everyone! Hopefully I won’t get trampled by a horse or knick a sheep while shearing it – I’m pretty sure they don’t enjoy that...
Once you rump a sheep they pretty much just sit there. It's kind of like scruffing a ferret. Which I guess is useless advice since you wont see this until your done at the ranch
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