North Sydney at night

So for the past couple weeks I've been reassured daily by this one recruiter that the company I interviewed with was interested in progressing with a job offer, but found out yesterday afternoon that they decided to opt for local candidates that didn't need employer sponsorship. Pooey deal. Anyway, I had the feeling something was up before I found out officially, because for the first time in two weeks, the recruiter stopped calling me daily!

On Thursday morning, I pre-emptively started job applications again. Recruiters are quick when they want to be! In less than a day after I'd sent that application in, I'm told I'll be interviewing on Wednesday. Better get all my lucky charms out.

In the meantime, I'm considering more temporary type work to bide my time while also facilitating some travel when my friends are here in a couple weeks... Now who will hire me to do service/hospitality/clerical work with the loads of experience I have in those sectors!

On a different note, I tried to get into the Sydney Observatory this evening (it's like the planetarium) but it was closed. Uh, what? Is the telescope broken?? Does one use their imagination to observe the stars during daylight hours? Maybe there is an astronomers strike, who knows.

All was not a loss though. The Observatory is perched atop a hill beside the Harbour Bridge, so that means fantastic night views. Here's a view of the North Sydney skyline. The second one is the Harbour Bridge.

Seal-like tendencies

I haven't been back to the fish market since the first time, but looking at this sashimi makes me want to hop over the other side of the glass and start chomping on a piece of fish. Could I have been a seal in a past life?

Winged dumpster divers

The cool thing about Australia being an isolated landmass separated from the other continents is that its animals have evolved to become so unique. The first time I saw this bird I wondered if it was some rare bird that had escaped from a zoo, so I started snapping photos like crazy. That pretty much gave me away as the new kid in town because the locals didn't even bat an eye. Since then, I've spotted quite a few more of these dumpster-diving birds around the city, always scavenging for their next meal.

Beach weather!

For the past couple of weeks, the weather has just been marvellous. Although it gets a little chilly at night, during the day, it reaches a comfortable 18 to 20 degrees.

I went to check out Bondi Beach on the weekend. I'd heard from so many about how gorgeous Sydney's coastline is, so I was hyped to see the beach for the first time. Well, for a winter's day, there were a LOT of people at the beach. Some just strolling, lots were surfing, and a couple beach volleyball games were going on.

So this is winter in Sydney? I think I've found heaven on earth.

Terrace houses

This past couple of weeks, I've been house hunting. Well, room hunting in particular. I'm hoping to move a little closer to the city centre so I don't have to take a train into the CBD where I end up spending most of my time.

The neighbourhoods that surround the city centre have long been considered inner-city working-class neighbourhoods but are quickly becoming gentrified. You can distinguish these inner-city hoods by their terrace homes, which are townhouses built in the Victorian style back in the late 1800's.

Inside, these terrace homes are typically 2 or 3 stories, and have anywhere from 4 to 8 bedrooms, and 1 or 2 bathrooms. The floors are usually polished wood but some places have been covered over in carpet. A few of the houses I visited were set up as backpacker houses and were so dilapidated inside that the worst hostel I've stayed at would look like a 5-star hotel in comparison. Most of the houses have been renovated inside, to varying degrees of modernness.

However they look inside, the exteriors of all of these terrace houses all retain this old-school charm that the filigreed wrought-iron fencing gives them.

The high-tech izakaya

It's been a little over a month since I've been in Sydney, and for the first couple weeks, I was battling sashimi withdrawal symptoms. With the lack of cheap and tasty sushi joints here, I've been trying to wean myself off of sushi and sashimi. Now just when I thought I'd gotten over my addiction to Japanese food, my climbing buddy Sam suggested that we check out an izakaya (a place that serves Japanese food, tapas-style) in the city. Well that was the end of my short-lived sushi abstinence.

This was some high-tech sort of izakaya, because at each table you had touch-screen LCD monitors displaying the menu in one of four selectable languages. We placed our order, and watched the status of each item change from "cooking" to "served" when it arrived at the table. Asking for the bill was as easy as pressing the "check out" button. All this without having to speak a word to any of the staff, whose jobs are reduced to bringing food and change...

I don't think I should be surprised if the next time I dine here, they've replaced the staff members with androids.