Updates from Sunny Sydney

It's been two months since I last wrote anything - and it seems that so much has happened in that time. I may try to capture a few of the events in more detail, but to start, here's a very light roundup of what's been going on, and some quick updates from down under.

First was leaving France. It was a whirlwind for both of us. There was a lot to do, and then a baby on top of that. Overall, the move was swift and relatively well executed (not that we had much to do with that). Over the span of three days we managed to go from having an apartment, to being totally packed and living in a B&B, to travelling 25 hours by plane with 8 suitcases, a baby and a cat, to landing in Nevada. 

We had a very nice Christmas break with our Family. Winter in Reno is interesting. It's a desert that's high in the mountains. So, it's very dry (no snow), but still very cold. It can change in temperature by about 20 degrees between midnight and lunch time.

The view from my inlaw's backyard

We spent a lot of the holidays eating, and drinking, and shopping. Overall, very therapeutic.

We also managed to fit in a short trip to Vancouver where we got to catch up with some friends, and a lot of family. I even got to say good bye to a few colleagues in person when we were near the old Vancouver office for a drink.

Being able to spend Baby's First Christmas with family was amazing. I'm so glad we got as much time as we did between jobs (three weeks total) to chill with friends and family before travelling out this way. France felt far away; Australia is much further.

This was a lucky shot - most of the time he was chewing on the boxes

As for Sydney - so far, things are going pretty well. The weather down here is lovely - high 20s and sunny most days. Much of the city is a little on the urban ugly side, but the downtown core, the parks, and the waterfront are all great.  I haven't learned to surf yet, but it's still on the agenda. At the moment, we are staying in the center of the city, which looks a lot different than Paris. 

We have a nice view of Darling Harbour from our hotel window

Oddly enough, I've been hearing a lot of French when I'm walking around the city. It's nice to hear it. I realized in the first week we were away that I'd actually forgotten a lot of English. The first time we went into a Starbucks in Reno I ordered "Un Cafe de la semaine s'il vous plait." The lady just looked at me for a while, until I realized what I'd done. So I instead said "Oh, sorry, I'll have a cafe de la semaine, please." It took me another week before I was ordering just 'coffee' again.

One downside though is that the cost of living is fairly high. To go out is comparable in cost (maybe a little less when you factor wage into the picture). But things at home are higher priced. Beer, for example, is about 7 or 8 dollars in most bars (which is fine), and 3.50 a bottle in the grocery store (about 3x more than I'm used to). Most things are running about a 20% markup, but some items like liquor, makeup or imported large objects (cars, furniture, etc) may be up to 150% more expensive. That said, there are way more options for things than in France, or even Canada. It's definitely more free market than any other place I've been, including the US.

So, there's the roundup. X isn't leaving a lot of time for updates at this point, but I'm going to try to schedule a little bit of time on the weekend for a quick update while he naps. 

Tiny Blankets

Last week I was in Germany again for my final mothership trip before we vacate Europe.

The trip itself was inconsequential. But I did leave with one head scratcher. I've now stayed in every hotel in the city next to our office, and each hotel has the same teeny blankets on there beds.




I really don't understand why you would want a blanket that doesn't at least cover the bed on which you are sleeping. Is this a German thing? Perhaps a government regulation on blanket sizes to encourage population growth?

27 days and counting.

This week marks two important milestones.

This past Saturday, the clock rolled over on our last month in France.

On Thursday, we will hit our Parisian three year anniversary, and potentially my last day at the office, depending upon what the prefecture has for me.

As of today, my countdown is set to 27 days in France, 19 days left at the office, and 55 days until I start work in Australia. And there is so much to do!!

On the move again.

A couple weeks back I quit my job and bought 2½ one way tickets to Sydney.

Surprised?

From the people I've talked to in the last few weeks, I guess this was seen as a bit of a surprise, but this was a long time coming. Sarah and I first started contemplating a variant of this plan back in October 2010 (or maybe October 2008, depending upon how far you want to dig).

You see, when we first moved to France, we made a choice to stay here for at least two years, no matter how homesick, down or lonely we may get. We didn't set a max, but the government gave me a three year visa, expiring in November 2011, that seemed to make a pretty good upper boundary.

So, last October we hit our two year mark, and we started asking ourselves how much longer we really wanted to stay. We didn't feel totally done in Europe, but we knew that if we stayed one more year, it would easily cascade into six - in 2011 I would renew my visa to 2014, at which time I could apply for a passport, and in 2016 I would qualify for a French pension. But were we really happy here? Well, kinda yes and kinda no. Once the consumerism withdrawal subsided, we noticed that the quality of life in France is exceptionally high and we came to really appreciate a lot of things about living here. However, not everything was rosy. There were a number of negative things in our lives at that time as well, things that I won't get into publicly - some were due to the environment, some due to work, and some were social. And finally, we really wanted to do the kid thing, and while we were happy to raise children in France from 6 weeks to 6 years we didn't really want them born or educated in France.

So, with all of that, we devised a plan.

1. Leave my job via a 1 year sabbatical.
2. Move to an English speaking country (other than Canada, USA, England, or South Africa). 
3. Find a job.
4. Have a kid.
5. Find a new, better apartment in France and move back.

We did this. We just did it backwards.

That was weird... blog was broke but now it's fixed.

Sarah pointed out to me this morning that she didn't have permission to read the blog. Strange. I checked just now and it looks like for some reason blogger had forced my account into a more strict privacy setting, where only specific people (from a list of size 0) have permission to read the site.

Should be fixed now.

Sorry about that.

Know your audience

Sarah's mom found this on the Vatican's ticketing website. I think they don't fully understand their audience.