dressing down....

Still struggling with wearing the right amount of clothes (i.e. less) for the hot and humid conditions. This is partly because everyday Coogee-style is basically a very casual cross between swimwear, sports gear and pyjamas.  People seem completely calm about going around in their underwear whilst I have neither the aptitude nor the physique to do this.

So, still wearing too many layers (and carrying a jumper with me at all times ‘just in case’). Even when I walk down to my tennis lesson ( – I know, I am impressed too! -)  in shorts and a teeshirt I feel a bit naked. Who knows how long adaption to new climes is going to take. Probably just in time for returning to London.


As many of my friends will know, I am not a snappy dresser. Happy to lounge around in my PJs for much of the day if allowed. One of the things I like about Moscow is that - inside - everyone dresses down like this, even to visit their neighbours in nearby blocks. But that is inside, and amongst people you know, not on public display. Here my old-fashioned English reticence definitely leaps to the fore. 

more on santa(s)

Keep seeing half-life-sized inflatable Santa figures outside people's houses that look like they have been lynched. Thought it was some kind of freaky joke until I realized that he is meant to be climbing up (down?) a rope.  

The Santa in the photo, though, tells a more complicated and sorrowful tale; is prone on the ground, his arm wrapped around both a cricket bat and an emu, his face buried in the latter. A remaining - and Christmas-themed - memorial to cricketer Phil Hughes, after whose death last month many Sydney-siders put out a cricket bat on their front porch, as a sign of respect.

going the whole ho-ho-hog

There are so many impressive christmas themed houses and apartments around, enough to make it difficult to choose which one to show. I have gone for this beaut - mainly because at other times of year it has had a full-sized model sheep on display instead. 

christmas time

Finally beginning to feel a bit Christmassy. Have been out buying presents and decorations; was given a freebie sign saying 'let it snow' in silver glitter which is now hanging on my front door mosquito screen - hilarious! Have found this plant - kangaroo paw - as a suitably appropriate floral arrangement. Better than a poinsettia or a Christmas tree, both of which are of course also available everywhere.

rough

Meanwhile, the ocean at Coogee  is not behaving as normal. The small island in the middle of the bay usually acts as a kind of breakwater, making the incoming waves friendly and unsurfable. But with a seemingly endless stream of tropical-style storms, the waves are up - crashing into the beach with a previously unseen fury. Surfers have arrived and the usually protected Giles baths is foamy and turbulent. Additional fun for all. 

siege

In the aftermath of the siege in the Lindt café in Martin Place, there has been much sadness, and some debate about whether this was a terrorist attack, or the actions of a mentally unstable man. Unfortunately – if perhaps not surprisingly, - there are continuing anxieties about more terrorist threats, something that has not yet touched Sydney or the Australian mainland. It feels weird to be a bit blasé about this - having experienced the London IRA attacks back in the 1970s, as well as the more recent bombings both in London and Moscow.

This doesn’t mean not being affected by the awfulness of it, just less willing to allow an impact on everyday life. I was talking to someone yesterday who was no longer planning to go to the NYE events in central Sydney. He clearly felt very vulnerable, and all too willing to be suspicious of, and conspiratorial about, what happened and/or could happen.

true or false

And whilst I am on the birds - is this notice a sign of typical Aussie humour ("doesn't have a name but may respond to James") or a real cry for help?

PS: Australian magpies are yet another of those slightly over-the-top local species; they are renowned for physically attacking people, if you happen to walk or cycle past their nest. 

10 of the best ...

Worried this blog could just end up as a set of lists - 10 of the best skies, 10 of the noisiest birds, 10 of the most ridiculously strange plants, 10 of the most eccentric building details. I have the photos already. Just planning to slip them out now and then.

So welcome to the lorakeet. Very bright plumage. And very noisy in a squeaky kind of way.

sky, sky, sky

Also thinking that I have a surprising number of pictures of Sydney storms, accumulated through my various trips here. And of Sydney skies in general. 

more weather

Continuing to be more like tropical Singapore or Hong Kong - high humidity, hot winds, building up to major thunderstorms at the end of each day, torrential rain, that kind of thing. Had the joy of being at K's wonderful new flat overlooking Elizabeth Bay last weekend; spend an inordinate amount of time watching the storm clouds roll across central Sydney with my mouth slightly open.

snow time

I realise it is common to note the incongruity of having all the winter paraphernalia of Christmas (snowmen, santa, reindeer) when the temperature is 30 degrees, but it is still flooring me every time,  every shop window, every street corner.

Just too weird.  

swimmingly

And talking of 40 degree days. Another of those weekend mass events (with associated, multiple, open-air parties) that turn Coogee into a place packed with nearly naked and often wet people, hundreds happy to swim a kilometre out and around wedding cake island, hundreds jammed on the beach happy to cheer them on – and all of us suddenly buried in a damp sea fog, rolling in off the sea as the high temperature and humidity made its own huge and thick condensation cloud.

fashionable

I have been taking inordinate numbers of photographs of the older Australian – both male and female – because I really like their style, which definitely tends to the eccentric. Although given that most everyone, particularly near the beach, seems to wear relatively random items and not much of that, maybe just part of a more general non-age-specific continuum. Makes me feel very uptight and British; all those layers I am used to hiding behind. The combination of 40 degrees, glaring heat, torrential rain storms and high humidity is playing havoc with my sartorial choices.