I'm back
Ok, so technically this was supposed to be a blog about my travels, but even though, for the moment, the globe-trotting may have come to an end, I thought I would share some of my happenings in & around Canberra. Since moving here in May I've found some things refreshingly new, such as the lack of general madness of London and other big cities, and some depressingly similar, like the bureaucracy that I suppose comes with any developed country. But overall, I've come to enjoy living here quite a bit.
The more I get involved in day to day life here, the more I think this place seems to strike a good balance between having all pros of a decent 21st century city without the drawbacks of much bigger cities. It's clean, the 'city with a small town mentality' makes it more personal, friendly and peaceful, and, something incredibly valuable to me as a ex-Londoner, traffic is a rarity.
One of the best things I've found is that I only have to travel for a few minutes to get out into nature. Canberra's surrounded by forest (I can't quite get used to calling it bush) and mountains, which makes for some great cycle routes and even greater views from the top. A beach would be nice, the nearest one is a 2 hour drive, but it's also quite cool to be equidistant to ski resorts, and anyway I've always preferred beaches that take a bit of a drive to get to.
In terms of what I've been upto, well not a lot to be honest. I've been saving money for a while, and due to a combination of lack of mates and frankly just not really wanting to, I havn't been venturing out to the pubs or bars. Having seen the state of some of city-centres here and in NZ at chucking out time, I'm not really too bothered. Christmas is coming up however, so perhaps I'll see what's out there.
Work has the usual ups and downs of the public sector. Unlike some of my previous sales roles, the lack of enthusiasm here can be a little grating, and things move painfully slowly at times. More positively I did get promoted, which I can only assume would be a boost to my skilled migrant visa application, and the hospital has some life-affirming characters that make it more worthwhile.
When things are a bit rubbish I think it's natural to have thoughts about returning home; I miss my family, mates and doing the crossword in the pub, but looking back, I've had an incredibly fortunate run of events to get me here, so it would be a shame to cash in my chips now. Long term, I'm pretty much decided that I want to set up a base here, it just makes sense.
I'll try to update as I get out and about more, for the moment here's a few photos of my antics.
Ciao
