DSGamer Down Under (Australia) and back

It's been a while since I've posted an update. Things are going really well right now. My job is great. Everyone at work is really nice and the work suits me. I don't love my commute on days where I take the bus because the bus is packed and it's really hot, but otherwise I have no complaints. My wife got me tickets to the Prince concert here in Sydney for my birthday, around the time of my job change. It's pretty much been all gone great since then. The commute via the ferry is beautiful. I've never gotten so much sun.

IMAGE(https://www.dropbox.com/s/jonqiw59nqz882p/SydneyHarbour.jpg?raw=1)

I think the sun is really really good for me as compared to Oregon. I don't think I've been happier in years, honestly. I just feel better mentally. I feel sharper, I feel happier and I'm enjoying just living right now. In the short time I've been here I've been to the beach almost every weekend, I've swam almost every week at least once, I've been to that concert and I spent a week on vacation in Fiji.

IMAGE(https://www.dropbox.com/s/el14npfu6h8zrx2/Fiji.jpg?raw=1)

IMAGE(https://www.dropbox.com/s/rc2ca8oq6t6vdvn/FijiSunset.jpg?raw=1)

The vacation in Fiji felt a little preposterous since I had been off work for months, but my wife really needed the vacation and the move was really stressful overall. But it's been a nice run. I need to explore Sydney and greater Australia more, but so far the move has been really positive. More later when I have time.

Are you planning on Melbourne PAX?

Great to hear DS I figured less talk in here meant more clearing the air out there, so it's great to have that theory confirmed

Bruce wrote:

Are you planning on Melbourne PAX?

I am. I need to buy tickets, but right now we're planning our big holiday. Probably to SE Asia. Once that's done we'll know for sure that we're going to be in town for PAX.

DC Malleus wrote:

Great to hear DS I figured less talk in here meant more clearing the air out there, so it's great to have that theory confirmed :)

Indeed. Too busy going to the beach, enjoying the ferry into work, running errands, etc. My Facebook and Instagram feeds are filled with pictures and commentary on the things I'm seeing and doing in Australia, but for the most part a low profile here means I'm enjoying life out there.

DSGamer wrote:

a low profile here means I'm enjoying life out there.

Couldn't be happier for you, and your wife must be super happy too.

So glad that leap of faith worked out for the best.

Glad to hear it! Bit of a tangent, but what were your thoughts on Fiji? Thinking of heading there later this year.

Yeah the idea of commuter ferries was really unique to me when I visited Sydney.

Glad things are going well!

Sonicator wrote:

Glad to hear it! Bit of a tangent, but what were your thoughts on Fiji? Thinking of heading there later this year.

Fiji is beautiful. Abundant sun, warm, clear water for swimming and very lush and green. We didn't sight see. We went there for a beach getaway so we just went straight to a resort and relaxed there. So I can't speak to what there is to see. The people were really nice and friendly and the food was amazing where we stayed. There's definitely a slightly uncomfortable "ghosts of colonialism" thing going on there. We find this in many developing countries we travel to. They have abundant fresh fruit, food and natural resources, but it's so obvious how poor they are, how much they rely on tourism and how much their poverty is a complete accident of history. I generally spend a little time on trips to places like Fiji feeling really guilty about the randomness of my station in life and hope that brining my tourist dollars there helps in some way.

We didn't do much there other than relax by the pool and swim in the ocean. The snorkeling wasn't amazing, at least what we saw. But swimming in the ocean was great. Some warnings about sting rays in mating season and reef sharks, but we didn't see anything. The water there is so warm, really comfortable. There was hardly any rain and it was very quiet there. It was exactly what we needed, especially my wife.

We'll definitely go back again.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Yeah the idea of commuter ferries was really unique to me when I visited Sydney.

Glad things are going well!

Thanks!

I am glad everything is going great for you DS, and that the second job is working out much better!

DSGamer wrote:
Sonicator wrote:

Glad to hear it! Bit of a tangent, but what were your thoughts on Fiji? Thinking of heading there later this year.

Fiji is beautiful. Abundant sun, warm, clear water for swimming and very lush and green. We didn't sight see. We went there for a beach getaway so we just went straight to a resort and relaxed there. So I can't speak to what there is to see. The people were really nice and friendly and the food was amazing where we stayed. There's definitely a slightly uncomfortable "ghosts of colonialism" thing going on there. We find this in many developing countries we travel to. They have abundant fresh fruit, food and natural resources, but it's so obvious how poor they are, how much they rely on tourism and how much their poverty is a complete accident of history. I generally spend a little time on trips to places like Fiji feeling really guilty about the randomness of my station in life and hope that brining my tourist dollars there helps in some way.

We didn't do much there other than relax by the pool and swim in the ocean. The snorkeling wasn't amazing, at least what we saw. But swimming in the ocean was great. Some warnings about sting rays in mating season and reef sharks, but we didn't see anything. The water there is so warm, really comfortable. There was hardly any rain and it was very quiet there. It was exactly what we needed, especially my wife.

We'll definitely go back again.

Sounds like exactly what we'll be needing at that point, thanks. Had very similar feelings about colonialism with Bali.

Thanks, everyone. Today I had an annoying experience. Mostly lol-worthy and definitely not an Australian thing, per se. Quite the opposite.

Where we lived in the US there weren't really payWave card readers. They weren't common, at least. Today I was going to a lab for a test my doctor here ordered. I have to pay for everything myself since we aren't on the national insurance. We pay full price (which isn't terrible, honestly) and then we get reimbursed via our insurance. It works fine, for the most part. It's slow and a bit off a hassle, but it's worked so far. So today I go to pay and the woman doing the test pulls out a carbon-paper slide reader. Like 19th Century technology. I was so confused. Back in October when we visited to check out Sydney our credit card number was stolen due to letting someone do this. So we switched to all chip and pin and credit cards without raised numbers. She was so frustrated that I didn't have an ancient credit card. It confused me so much given what my experience in Australia with payments has been so far.

jonnypolite wrote:

Good luck and good adventures, DS:) My brother's been living in New Zealand for the past 4 or 5 years, working and loving it. I love that part of the world. Been thinking i'd get down there in the next 5 years or so to live/work. Hope it works out for you guys.

p.s. stuff is overrated.

Hopefully you're still following this thread, Jonny, because this has been one of the most surprising aspects of the move. Stuff matters so little right now. We brought too much, #1. The stuff we left back home doesn't matter. It so doesn't matter. I don't play games much here. I mostly spend my free time relaxing with the wife, cooking healthy meals and reading. I've been toying around with selling my PS4, actually. Usually when I finally take the time to sit down and play it I go on a 3 hour bender of Rocket League and hate myself for it. I never get on my gaming PC. It's crazy how little stuff matters after a move this big.

Glad things are continuing to go well, man.

Love hearing that!

DSGamer wrote:
jonnypolite wrote:

Good luck and good adventures, DS:) My brother's been living in New Zealand for the past 4 or 5 years, working and loving it. I love that part of the world. Been thinking i'd get down there in the next 5 years or so to live/work. Hope it works out for you guys.

p.s. stuff is overrated.

Hopefully you're still following this thread, Jonny, because this has been one of the most surprising aspects of the move. Stuff matters so little right now. We brought too much, #1. The stuff we left back home doesn't matter. It so doesn't matter. I don't play games much here. I mostly spend my free time relaxing with the wife, cooking healthy meals and reading. I've been toying around with selling my PS4, actually. Usually when I finally take the time to sit down and play it I go on a 3 hour bender of Rocket League and hate myself for it. I never get on my gaming PC. It's crazy how little stuff matters after a move this big.

Glad to hear it's going well.

DSGamer wrote:
jonnypolite wrote:

Good luck and good adventures, DS:) My brother's been living in New Zealand for the past 4 or 5 years, working and loving it. I love that part of the world. Been thinking i'd get down there in the next 5 years or so to live/work. Hope it works out for you guys.

p.s. stuff is overrated.

Hopefully you're still following this thread, Jonny, because this has been one of the most surprising aspects of the move. Stuff matters so little right now. We brought too much, #1. The stuff we left back home doesn't matter. It so doesn't matter. I don't play games much here. I mostly spend my free time relaxing with the wife, cooking healthy meals and reading. I've been toying around with selling my PS4, actually. Usually when I finally take the time to sit down and play it I go on a 3 hour bender of Rocket League and hate myself for it. I never get on my gaming PC. It's crazy how little stuff matters after a move this big.

Great to hear!!! So glad to hear you're prospering down there, sounds like a life reboot:) I have a friend from college who just relocated to Brisbane for the next couple of years with his 3 and 5 year old in tow. Australia/NZ is definitely trending in my mind. Makes me want to go on an adventure, and soon.

Keep posting pictures, they're great!

p.s. re: gaming, you could try seeking out one of the board game groups there in Sydney, there's a few on BGG. Hooking up with a group like that after moving to a city where i knew not a soul changed my life, literally.

jonnypolite wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
jonnypolite wrote:

Good luck and good adventures, DS:) My brother's been living in New Zealand for the past 4 or 5 years, working and loving it. I love that part of the world. Been thinking i'd get down there in the next 5 years or so to live/work. Hope it works out for you guys.

p.s. stuff is overrated.

Hopefully you're still following this thread, Jonny, because this has been one of the most surprising aspects of the move. Stuff matters so little right now. We brought too much, #1. The stuff we left back home doesn't matter. It so doesn't matter. I don't play games much here. I mostly spend my free time relaxing with the wife, cooking healthy meals and reading. I've been toying around with selling my PS4, actually. Usually when I finally take the time to sit down and play it I go on a 3 hour bender of Rocket League and hate myself for it. I never get on my gaming PC. It's crazy how little stuff matters after a move this big.

Great to hear!!! So glad to hear you're prospering down there, sounds like a life reboot:) I have a friend from college who just relocated to Brisbane for the next couple of years with his 3 and 5 year old in tow. Australia/NZ is definitely trending in my mind. Makes me want to go on an adventure, and soon.

Keep posting pictures, they're great!

p.s. re: gaming, you could try seeking out one of the board game groups there in Sydney, there's a few on BGG. Hooking up with a group like that after moving to a city where i knew not a soul changed my life, literally.

I will. So far it's time consuming enough to figure out how to commute / take care of regular weekly stuff like dry cleaning in a new city. Now that I mostly have that stuff down I should have more free time soon.

It is definitely like a life reboot. I wish I'd done this sooner. At least the big move part to somewhere, anywhere. Shedding myself of possessions has been so huge.

Apparently there is some massive sale on where you can get a return flight to Australia for ~$500 for those that want a taste of the down under life.

Bruce wrote:

Apparently there is some massive sale on where you can get a return flight to Australia for ~$500 for those that want a taste of the down under life.

I've been trying to rope family and friends into that and no one will bite. I'm so confused. I know people are busy, etc. but those prices are insane.

Indeed! They should get on it while the AUD is so weak!

Any more info? Best i can find is like $1200 roundtrip to sydney. For $500 apiece, i'd consider a spontaneous family getaway:)

Well... at least you're saved from having to fly United for 26 hours.

bnpederson wrote:

Well... at least you're saved from having to fly United for 26 hours.

My thoughts exactly.

Had a bloke get in my face today. Could have done without the fear of getting into a fight during my commute. One of my few complaints here is that there seems to be a rule of "walk on the left". You can get death stares for not following this. It took me all of 1 day in Sydney (back in October) to pick up on this and adopt it as an article of faith.

Unfortunately during rush hour Sydneysiders will take up the entire sidewalk / staircase / subway tunnel. Like, literally when I'm walking to catch my train they will walk 10 abreast through the entirety of the subway tunnel and I have to hug the left and duck out of the way of people to even get to where I'm going.

Sooooo.... today I'm hugging the left, as usual. And I was looking behind me to make sure no one was trying to pass me on the left (also happens) and an older lady was coming down the stairs on the right. Of course, there were people walking to my right. Not to pass me, just because reasons. So I stayed where I was and the woman had to go slightly around me. A bloke behind her lost his mind and started cussing me out for not moving to the right. I guess I was supposed to elbow out whomever was there to get to the wrong side of the footpath and incur their wrath instead.

I thought he was going to want to fight me. Thankfully it didn't escalate to that. Anyway, the downside of Sydney, I suppose.

I'm trying to picture the person who wants to randomly tussle with you and coming up blank.

Hehehe, you called him a bloke! You're one of us now.

Sydney seems to have more walking etiquette than Melbourne. It's only recently that Melbourneinans have learnt to stay on the left of escalators so people who are in a hurry can walk past them.

I do miss the Sydney rules a little.

I reckon you'll find dicks wherever you go. Sounds like you did the right thing!

In Japan, I was recently starting to enter the ticket gate so I could exit the station. A guy coming the other way clearly entered the other side of the gate without putting in any ticket or pass (dodging fare) and presumably expected me to give him some room to slip past. Instead I gave him a solid shoulder check on the way through. He yelled something at me that could roughly translate to "You motherf### something something". I just ignored him.

I left the station yesterday with my blood pressure shot up. I had trouble getting to bed after recounting the story to my wife. I woke up early and still felt bad. I think I need to stay in my house and not spend in time with Sydneysiders for a couple of days. At least during rush hour. I don't know how people cope, long term, with that kind of rudeness. I'm being so deferential to other commuters and the payoff is stress and anxiety.

I don't like to think of it as long-term rudeness. Most of the time people are great! Every once in a while you get someone who isn't but think of all the thousands of people that you pass by all the other times.

Even yesterday it was just that one person. Who knows what was going on in his day? maybe he was having a terrible time in his own life.

I think that when something like that happens we have a physical response to it, and it takes a while for it to go away. To make it worse, if we are people who don't normally get into that kind of situation, we don't know how to react or how to deal with the effects of it. It's horrible! others will get into that kind of situation and walk away almost exited, or happy that they held their ground or whatever.

Would it help to keep in mind that probably everyone else there, including the lady, thought the bloke was being an idiot?