So much has been going on that I skipped updating the blog in over a month !
After leaving the Philippines, I landed in the big land down under on December 21st. I think I had never really realized how really DOWN UNDER this continent is. I thought to come here to visit my long date friend and sister Isabella, who lived with my family in Italy 8 years ago and whom I still hadn`t visit in her homeland. And I thought that being in the Philippines I was just a step away from Australia. Well, hell of a step since it still takes a 9 hours flight from Manila to get here !!!
All the way on the plane I still was not realizing I was about to reach this brand new continent. And this first month here has been such a full immersion one that I find it hard now to recap what has been going on.
So I will try to mention some epic / representative / meaningful events that happened.
When I landed in Sydney, Bella came to pick me up, and we drove through the City and up along the peninsula of the Northern Beaches to get to Avalon, where I am living with Bella`s mum Jeanette and brother James (or better, I was living also with JJ because he just moved out 2 days ago). Now, it took me a very short time to understand how peculiar of environment the Northern Beaches are. They are a series of fantastic surfers` paradise beaches alternated with stunning landscapes made of headlands, Pittwater, land points and rocks jumping into the ocean. When you reach the lighthouse at the top of the peninsula in Palm Beach (where they still are filming a surfers TV series “Home Away“ – just to give an idea of how beautiful it is!), there is no way to get back to the mainland, so you just have to drive all the way back through the peninsula and reach the rest of the continent from there. When I asked why they don`t build a bridge or something to connect Palm Beach to mainland they just got perplexed. Why would you want to make their paradise so easy to access?? These are Northern Beaches: a very privileged place to live in, where every corner hides a pearl of a viewpoint.
My first morning in Australia, Isabella woke me up at 6 am to go with some of her friends for a morning walk. Here everyone wakes up SO EARLY (so hard for me who loves long sleeps or just lazy mornings) to go walking, jogging or just grab coffee with friends before starting the work day. That made me think that everybody has such a healthy lifestyle. Inner thought : I shall try to do that too !
Soon after my arrival, Christmas *CHRISSIE* came ! How lucky to have to chance to spend it with an Aussie family, with their traditional food and drinks, songs and presents. We played Bad Santa, which is a sort of game that allows big families to just buy one present that can suit anyone. Then one at a turn you can whether pick an unwrapped unknown present, or just decide to steal one present that has already been opened by someone else. Bad, bad Santa!! (I got a 50 dollars coupon to use in a very nice bar on the Pittwater! 😉 ). If in Europe Christmas is more about presents and eating, I had the feeling that here in Australia it is more about the drinking. Like, literally. People here drink quite a lot i`d say, I guess especially in that Chrissie – New Year`s period. So a correction of my first thought about healthy lifestyle : they balance it quite well with unhealthy habits. 😛 I still thought I shall adopt it anyway.
In less than 2 weeks here, so many things happened : Rihannon (Bella`s sister) had her baby Remy Belle.
I had my own bedroom with a big bed, and a home with a garden! And also a bike!!
I went from being a traveller to working 3 jobs — now I just kept 2 ! So I spent NY eve working, but then I still had time to watch the fireworks on the Pittwater with some colleagues.
Basically, I settled a little after so long.
Just in the last weeks I started travelling and exploring again.
I finally went to explore Sydney and really, the City is beautiful, full of green spots and parks and surrounded by beaches.
I met up with Anna and Marco, whom I knew in elementary and middle school and I had pretty much never seen ever since, when they were passing through Sydney on their way up to Brisbane by car, about to start their life here. We went to Bondi Beach together, and then they changed their itinerary and spent one night in the Northern beaches, and of course they got caught by their charm. And the Bengalley Headland walk also stunned me – especially because it is so close to where I live and I still hadn`t been !
On January 26th we celebrated Australia Day (big debate at the moment, because basically it stands on the day when white people arrived in OZ and basically terminated the Aboriginals – so soon the day may be changed or moved). To me, it really was a nice day spent with friends of Bella living in an amazing house in the woods having a BBQ ( or *BARBIE*) and drinking games (OF COURSE), where people just gather and have a great time in the middle of summer.
But the most exciting Australian experience I had it in the past weekend: I went out camping with my friend Wilkie (snake lover, adventure seeker, great friend!!!!) down South, 4 hours drive from Avalon, in Kioloa camping. All along the way my best entertainment was to read the signs with these hyper funny names with a drunken voice (that`s because I really think that to call a city ULLADULLA or WALLANGONG old times Australians must have been drunk and just gave random names to places!). For the first time I saw KANGAROOS (so, so cute, and we were basically living with them at the camping spot, right on the ocean), DOLPHINS freely swimming in the ocean (when I went to see Bella and her boyfriend in Bawley Point), an OPOSSUM (another lovely animal who wants to eat everything!), a sort of IGUANA, and a special kind of DRAGON !!!! I was and still am excited like a kid. I think it is not so common in an adult life to see for the first time so many new creatures, and all in a weekend !!!! And to make it perfect, we had amazing weather so we could watch a perfect clear sunrise and billions of stars in the night sky…
Well, now I just have to deal with a little foot infection (I know, I know, no troubles no fun for me!!!!), but I am sure it will be okay soon, and then more enjoying this endless summer. *Cheers MATES* !!!! xxxxx
Electricity in Space 