Sydneysiders and Aspirations

Saturday Morning June 5th

Yesterday it poured and poured. Apparently this has been the wettest May in about 10 years, great for the Australian drought, but not so great for the locals. It seems most ‘Sydneysiders’ cannot cope with poor weather. To them it’s the greatest and most unbearable nuisance. A depression of sorts has settled over the locals who would prefer their sun-oriented city just that, sunny. Either way on account of the rain I stayed home snuggled on Anna’s couch with Taylor the B&B’s cat and watched the Australian food channel. Australian TV reflects closely the actual vibe I’ve experienced while here so far. “Laid back” is the best way I can label it. No one is freaking shouting at you in commercials and they use slang freely in supposedly serious newscasts. Watching TV is like slowing down. Or at least the food channel appeared that way. My personal favorite was The Cook and The Chef, a show with a middle aged woman and a young trendy chef stand around exchanging recipes that are completely the opposite. In fact most of the Australian cooking shows I watched, all consisted of two hosts playing off of each other and making light-hearted jokes at each others expense.

After my day of vegetating, Anna and I attended a going away dinner for one of her closer friends here, an American who’s been here for close to a year. I’m happy Anna has found the people she’s always wanted to surround herself with in life. Two of the American’s in attendance had just returned from a 3 week road trip via camper van through southern Australia and all the way up to Alice Springs. My god I’ve never wanted to walk in someone elses shoes so badly. Road tripping through Australia (or New Zealand) is one of my top travel ideas. Meeting two people who actually did this, had an amazing time has really left me with an intense desire to do something very similar, and very soon. Sadly not this trip, but damnit I’m coming back. I need to find that special travel partner however. I think what made this couple’s trip more amazing, is that they weren’t a couple at all. In fact they were acquaintances with similar aspirations, which were introduced, as ‘you guys would be perfect travel buddies’. Maybe I’m saying this because I’m beyond jaded still, but I find the appeal of going with a boyfriend type figure to be obnoxious and stifling. I feel like if this distant goal ever comes to fruition I’d want nothing romantically to do with the person I’m traveling with, and frankly I’d want it to be a boy.

Something else rather interesting I learned through conversation with the Australian’s at this dinner party, is that Australian’s don’t suffer from a lack of employment. In fact most people in Sydney are relatively comfortable expense wise, but they’re not challenged enough with opportunities for advancement, and that has caused a sort of lull in the need to strive to be the best at something. I mean who the heck knows if this generalization is anywhere close to fact, but I’m just passing along the information that some locals feel about their city.

Anyway, that is all for now, off on a market food tour!