Mardi Gras madness

Every February, Sydney hosts a festival called Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It's the biggest event of this kind in the world and a giant tourist attraction. I went there to see it, but it was so horribly crowded that I couldn't see anything of the parade itself. There were just thousands and thousands of people, some costumed and most drunk, and it was not enjoyable to be pushed through those masses of jostling (anrumpelnde, schubsende) people. In fact, it was pure madness and I wouldn't recommend to visit the Mardi Gras parade unless you can either participate in it or watch the spectacle from the safety of a balcony.

This weekend our fourth housemate moved in, a German girl named Anna. She's nice and we are both glad to have found a comrade in this place. Anna has just arrived in Oz, it's her first time here and she had not seen the house before, so she got a bit of a shock about the dirt and poor condition of the house -- understandably. We went to Ikea to buy some items for home improvement, and are painting the bathroom now. The Australians are lucky to have two Germans in the house...

Our wildlife guests

Here are my two new friends! They seem to come every evening to our house and they looove a dab of honey, which they lick with their grey tongues off the plate! And they will also jump on my hand if I hold it still enough.

They are so beautiful, and what I like best is that they are free -- not caged like the parrots in Europe. They seem to have every colour of the rainbow, which is why they are aptly named Rainbow Lorikeets.

My new home

I moved to my new home, a shared house (eine Haus-WG) in the suburb of Greenwich on Sydney's "North Shore".

I'm very happy because the location is fantastic. It's a quiet street and it's directly next to the beautiful remainder of untouched bushland that I had discovered three weeks ago (see This is Sydney too).

The house is built on a steep down slope (an einen steilen Abwaertshang gebaut). Because of that it is not visible from the street and on the other side (where my room is) it is in the height of the tree crowns. We get lots of birds there, and I greatly enjoy the "rainforest" feeling of that side. This photo is the morning sun coming in through my window, so this is what I see when I wake up!

The house itself doesn't have a view, which is probably why it is in not such good condition and needs some cleaning and repair, and this in turn is why it is affordable despite the good location. And when you walk just 100 m down the street you get a beautiful view of the harbour and the city in the distance (see photo).

From here I can get to work conveniently by train (or maybe also by bicycle). So all in all, I think the place is ideal for me!

Valentine's Weekend

I had a really lovely weekend at Rosco, seeing my friends Peter, Toni, Pete and Ange again. They had a Valentine's day party at the club on Saturday night, with dinner and a live music band. More than 60 people came, and we had a great fun night with dance.

Peter and Toni are about to leave us, sadly, but for a happy reason: they have accepted a position as wardens of Broome Bird Observatory, at the far north-west of Australia, until November.

I spent Friday and Monday night inspecting potential rooms for rent. The good news is that it's not hard to find something, but the bad news is that you get poor value for money -- sometimes very poor. The options can be extremely different, each having its own pros and cons, so I need to give it a good think.

This and that

The rain is over, for the moment, and it's hot again. This week I started looking for a room to rent. I haven't looked for a car yet because I might not need one: depending on where I will live, parking can be a problem and I might also go for car sharing if I need a car only occasionally.

Through Sydney LETS, I joined a contact improvization dance class that's on Monday evenings. It's fun, and I can feel the exercise is also really good for me. It's in Newtown and I can get there by train.

The coming up weekend is Chinese New Year (end of the year of the Ox, beginning of the year of the Tiger) and also Singles Awareness Day (Valentine's Day). I plan to spend the weekend out of town, in Rosco Club, seeing my musical friends.

Rainy days

There's nothing really to do on a Saturday that has nonstop rain from morning till night.

Here's my view from my balcony onto the wet roofs outside.

I decided to go out for a walk no matter what. When I came back, dripping in my rain trousers and hooded jacket, I met another young man the elevator. "What a weather!" I said to him. "Well, I suppose if it's gonna rain, it might as well pour", he said dryly and I had to laugh and agree.

English for runaways

Englisch wird die Arbeitssprache in der EU!



Danke Heinz!

Settled in

On Friday I had my first day of work. I already knew the office and the colleagues from when I was here in January 2009, so the only difference is that my contract is now with NCR Australia instead of NCR Germany. My sabbatical year is over now and I'm happy to have work again.

On Sunday I moved into a nice serviced apartment that is just next door to my office -- for the next three weeks, then I'll need to find somewhere else to live, here it would be much too expensive. But boy, I haven't had so much space for myself since November 2008.