In Transit: Sydney and Dubai

You know how on the plane they always give you way too much food, way too often, but you can't help but eat it all (down to the last cracker and cheese), because like, what else are you going to do?

So anyway, I arrived late, sweaty and flustered at Karen's house in Sydney (the taxi driver, the single worst of my life, dropped my sister and I off in the wrong place) - and I was thinking, oh no, she's such a sweetheart, she will have cooked us something amazing and I am SO FULL. I mean it. Stuffed. Don't need food.

Well. Yes she was cooking us something, and let me tell you, Karen's potato greek salad was a) just what the doctor ordered anyway (fresh food!) and b) so good I forgot all about how full I was. Then I drank gin and tonic. Then I ate that piece of cake. Yep. I am the boss.

Anyway, I think I'm making a name for myself - internationally no less - as the World's Worst House Guest. I turn up, flustered and lacking in charm, eat your delicious food, get slightly drunk and then pass out at 9pm before getting a taxi back to the airport at 3am - which means you need to get up to lock the door. I won't always do that exact combination of things, but similar - for instance, in Wellington, I drunkenly snuck in to my friend's house (albeit with her consent), borrowed her boyfriend's tent and left before she ever saw me. Oh and ate their bircher muesli and drank their excellent coffee. I am a true blue. (I think these kindhearted idiots must see me as some kind of 'long term investment' ... dear me!).


Anyway, back to important topics: dessert. Above: the pomegranate flavoured frozen yoghurt my sister bought me in Dubai airport. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. Way to combine my top favourite things ever in one genius idea. Also, yeah, fresh blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and pomegranate seeds just sprinkled on top. The Middle East fucking rules and don't let anyone else ever tell you any different.

Speaking of - see my window view of science-fiction Dubai below, featuring the Burj Khalifa tower and the Palm Islands.

Retrospective: Sydney + Surrounds

The central reason I even came to Sydney = above. Karen - my darling friend you may remember from Colombia. Karen is wearing a puppy umbrella, a penny-farthing t-shirt and a real Greek fisherman's hat she just found in a vintage store. AMAZING.

After an all-night train journey and a morning at the most amazing market (more below), Karen bundled me into a car with lovely Lydia (below) and we drove to coastal NSW on an ill-planned, mis-informed and riotous road trip.

On the first night we stayed at Karen's mother and grandmother's house in Ulladulla and, despite us turning up with about 40 minutes notice, they were some of the kindest and most hospitable hosts I've ever had the pleasure of being hosted by. It was also fascinating to see where Karen gets many of her traits from, both physical and psychological. See the three generations below.

Karen's mum Judith is going to NYC for Christmas this year, and plans to wear her vintage fur coat (passed on through generations) - "Well when else am I going to wear it?! In Ulladulla?! I don't think so."

After a much-needed sleep, we drove to a beach famous for it's wild Eastern grey kangaroos - here is one of the cutest ones. They were everywhere and quite used to humans gawking at them. I amused the Australians by being constantly blown away by the whole event = "oh my GOD. oh my. I can't believe there is a kangaroo just literally standing right there. I mean, I knew they had kangaroos in Australia, but not just everywhere like this, not just like hanging out."

While in Melbourne and prancing around the gardens, Telford made this statement: "This is just like, so nice, I mean, where are the homeless people?! If I was homeless, I would come to the park to hang out." I've never been to a city as consistently rich and secure seeming as Melbourne - this is not to say there is no poverty (I am not an idiot), but that the poverty is not visible to a casual observer, in the main areas of the city.

In Sydney, this is not the case. Sydney has a much more visible and arresting 'under-belly', and the wealth there, maybe by consequence, doesn't feel quite as cushy and definite.

Above are the old carriage works - a fantastic red-brick industrial space now used as a huge open air farmers market - i.e. a farmers market which can still function comfortably in the rain; genius. I had a savoury crepe there with spinach, mushroom and cheese and it ruled my morning. Across the street, there are the old workers' homes which are now, of course, highly desired and trendy places to live.

I really liked Sydney, quite a lot more than people had led me to believe I would. It has more of a harsh edge than Melbourne and is certainly busier, more competitive and more corporate, and I can see why that puts people off, but it is also an exceptionally pretty city with really interesting history and wildly varied neighbhourhoods. I think I'd have to be feeling very secure (and wealthy) to want to live there though.

In chronological order: Sydney

To be honest, I was expecting my 6 hours in Sydney to be a boring waiting period before the real fun began - Bangkok! As often happens, this did not go to plan. While my first night in Bangkok was AWFUL, my day in Sydney was absolutely glorious and one of the nicer days of my life.

In my brief time there I managed to stroll through the Museum of Contemporary Art which was housing an exhibit on protest art (awesome!) and an entire floor of amazing digital art and video art. I thought a lot about lovely Jenna and the kinds of cool company she finds herself in (conceptually I mean, I'm not calling myself cool).

After my compulsory dose of High Culture, I headed for the more mass produced work of Paddy's Market. For anyone who hasn't been, this is a sprawling market housed in a brick industrial building where you can buy pretty much anything from organic chinese cabbage to oversize (and I mean oversize) calculators. I felt like I had already landed in Asia:


But no, there was still a distinctly Australian feel:


More on Sydney coming up! (for those not -in the know- it does not take four days to travel to Sydney, I am in fact in Chiang Mai now, but I thought I'd use this stationary month to gradually post things as I find the time/ inclination).

Question: If you could have any one of the undies/ soft toys/ dinosaur model things - which one would you choose? (you may want to click on the image for close-up detail to help with this important decision).