After silence that’s lasted rather too long, my recent half-anniversary of living in Sydney has kicked me back into blogging action. I can blame many things for the silence, but one of them is definitely that I have much more of both a routine and a social life than I did even a month of two ago. Nothing like my London life, but enough to keep me (new me?) entertained! So what have I been up to?
My routine is based around exercise – I’m more active than at any time since I stopped rowing vaguely seriously at uni 12 years ago. This is partly because I’ve got a bit more time on my hands than I used to, but it’s also the Aussie lifestyle! I now run twice or three times a week (including a new-found love of Parkrun), swim twice most weeks and go rowing at daft-o-clock on a Thursday morning. The running may reduce a bit after the City2Surf (a massive 14km race/fun run which I entered on a whim – if I can run half and walk half then I’ll be happy!), but I ought to pick up a second rowing session a week again soon. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d enter the City2Surf, she wouldn’t have believed you! It feels really good to be exercising a fair bit again, and go more quickly and further, and the encouragement of my work friends to get running definitely helps – as does the wonderful setting of the North Sydney Olympic Pool.
So that brings me to work… I wrote in a previous post about all the things that were different and why it was a challenging transition from my role in London. The good news is that I think the transition is mostly in the past tense! I can’t explain exactly when that happened, but the difference has been having a couple of projects to get my teeth into after the first couple of months were dominated by business development and some seriously quiet patches when I wondered how I’d be chargeable in a new market. It took me most of the six months to feel I’m working “at my level” but I definitely think I’ve got there now. And you can tell I’ve settled into the team because I got the “human megaphone (loudest in the office)” award at the End of Financial Year party!!
I’ve also done a fair bit of exploring. I’ll write about the Sydney Explorers meetup group in another post soon (maybe next weekend as I’m doing a walk with them on Sunday), but through that group I’ve done a fair bit of walking in and around Sydney, as well as having a weekend away camping in Jervis Bay, a beautiful spot three hours south. I’ve become a confirmed North Sydneysider and, much as I enjoy getting out and about, some of the best weekends have been ones when I haven’t crossed the Harbour Bridge. I’ve discovered some great local eating spots, lovely parks and a fortnightly farmers’ market, all within close walking distance. And I still love the fact that whether I get the bus, cycle or walk (which I’ve done once), I get a pretty fantastic view crossing the bridge every day.
In store for the next six months is more of the same active life and hopefully getting quicker, probably getting involved with a local cricket club if one is looking for a scorer, and lots of travel – weekends in Auckland, Brisbane and Melbourne, a few days skiing in NZ as a birthday present to myself, and three weeks off at Christmas with visitors and travel in Victoria and Tasmania.
Regrets? None at all!