Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

I do find that my mindset has changed and when I am out and about I am thinking to myself "Oh that would be good to talk about in my blog" and then when it comes to the crunch, I find myself staring at a 27" screen thinking, "What the hell do I talk about?". Such is life I suppose, although it could be worse - I could be in Gaza or communist North Korea without Facebook. (Sorry Kim Jong-un). Anyway, I digress...

Work is still maintaining its appeal. It is still a place that intrigues me greatly and I love that every day is different - literally. For me to walk into a Local Court in Sydney, with no Law background was extremely daunting, but I feel that I am slowly clawing my way up the ladder of knowledge and actually retaining the monstrous abyss of information that comes with working in a Local Court. 
I feel that I have settled in well in these past few weeks and I am thriving on the opportunities to learn new things and make myself a better, less judgemental person. Being totally honest here, it is so easy to judge a person in a Court House without giving them a fair crack of the whip. Our clients are normally people who have committed a crime. It is rare, but there are times when cases are thrown out and people walk away free men/women. 


I am, and I forever will be grateful for the opportunity to work in such a great office, with, by and large, great people. The area I work in is such a diverse socioeconomic area with an expansive range of cultures and with that, inevitably comes cultural indifferences. 
We live in 2014, yet some archaic members of Sydney's social scene still think it is perfectly fine to strike their partners. That's what Friday's are for, right? A(pprehended) V(iolence) O(rder) day! 
Don't get me wrong though, it can be tough. Really tough. Only yesterday I was in Court with a client who had an evident mental disability and I don't think it would be wrong of me to suggest they didn't really know what day it was, let alone what or where they had to go. It's hard at times when people who aren't necessarily compos mentis are in front of a Magistrate for some wrong doing. Impartiality is the key, but to anyone with even an iota of a moral compass, they would find it extremely hard at times.

Segway-ing away from work now and onto the Wedding for a paragraph or two. We've been really lucky in the preparation for it that it has all fallen into place really nicely. Once the venue and photographer were chosen early on, it was a case of slotting the other pieces of the jigsaw in place and we're almost finished - well not quite, but we're getting there slowly but surely. 
There has been a bit of stress recently regarding wedding cars and Erin encountered a bit of difficulty in securing people to do both hers, and her bridesmaids hair and makeup on the day, but just this week both hair and makeup have been sorted. Both were a little stressful as it felt that every avenue we explored, we were met with a metaphorical closed door. We're still thinking about cars for the wedding, but given the recent increase in size of the bridal party, a car of sizeable length might have be used on the day - especially to take the whole bridal party from the Church to the place for the photos before the reception at Summersalt.

Planning a wedding isn't something I would recommend for someone with OCD. How do you cope with knowing that your groomsmen won't be here until a week before, and then suits will have to be bought/rented then? How do you deal with not knowing what your bride is going to be wearing, or how her hair will be? When looking at exchange rates of AUD to VND, how can you sleep at night knowing the amount of AUD you're taking will be converted into an odd number of VND!! The stresses man!

After work ended early for me on Friday, Erin and I returned to the scene of our Australian engagement party for a much quieter family affair. I experienced my first taste of Fondue, and it's one I'll be looking to enjoy again soon. 
Today we had a large lunch outside with family to celebrate three birthdays and the impending Fathers Day. The food was exceptional and the weather, again, held off and resulted in a lovely day. I did manage to take some photos, all of which are below. 

You may not be able to see clearly, but there are 4 Kangaroo's in this picture.

One of them was carrying a joey in its pouch too. So great to see them in the "wild"

My first encounter with a Huntsman! I know it won't be my last!! 

I can see a rainbow, kinda! 

This fella was waiting for us when we got home. He was so brave and inquisitive when I was taking a photo. 

Things synonymous with Sydney...?

If someone were to give you three choices of what you deemed to be synonymous with Sydney, I would expect to see the likes of "The Harbour Bridge", "The Opera House", "Bondi", and, at a push, "sunshine/oppressive heat" mentioned time after time. 

One thing I wouldn't associate with being synonymous with Sydney would be rain. And when I say rain, I don't mean the light stuff you folk in Manchester call rain, I mean the biblical sh*t that you can't even begin to comprehend. I mean the stuff that falls so elegantly sideways from this Sydney sky. I mean the stuff that has been battering this wonderful place for the past couple of days, and looks set to remain until the close of this week. 

It seems sometimes you just have to throw away your umbrella and get on with it. 

I didn't sign up for this. Sydney, you sold me down the swanny! 

The journey home tonight was of biblical proportions! 

As nobody told me that Sydney expects precipitation within the month of August to be one of the highest months of the year, I was a caught a little off guard when this constant deluge appeared early Saturday morning. 

Erin and I had things to do though during the day on Saturday, mainly looking for our wedding rings and procuring gifts for two of her newly appointed bridesmaids, Lou and Emily. Naturally this led us to one place, and one place only, DFO! (Think discounted Trafford Centre). 

Tangible success was enjoyed by both Erin and I as we easily navigated both Coach and Michael Kors and got what it was we needed. A little pit stop at a rather creatively named Mexican establishment, named "Mad Mex" followed. Now, the only thing that would be mad about this place is the prices. You pay way over the odds for an abundance of carbohydrates, very little protein and a burrito that becomes trickier and trickier to eat with every passing bite. It was well timed stodgy food. It did the trick. 

Putting the Mad Mex episode to one side, something else "mad" happened within the walls of DFO. As both Erin and I were walking back to the car after "exhausting" all our energy buying gifts for Lou and Emily, we walked past a shop called JB Hi-Fi and were both immediately stopped in our tracks by a subtle banner that proclaimed, in permanent marker "10% off all Apple products". 

Now, the tech savvy of you out there, assuming of course, that there are people out there reading this, would know that it is not an everyday occurance that Apple offer 10% off ANY of their products, so we were both a little intrigued as to where this might lead us. 

Instantly, as most people are when presented with Apple products, we were drawn to a gleaming, brand-spanking-new 27" iMac (3.2 GHz, Intel Core i5, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3).  The geek in me resisted the $200 price tag to update to a faster 3.4GHz quad-core processor and marginally better graphics card. 

Anyway, to cut a very long story short, we conflicted with our inner selves, then we reasoned, then we justified and then we paid. It really didn't take that long to convince each other that this was a purchase that had to be made. 

Four figures and a metaphorical dent to our credit card later and two giggling consumers seat belted their wedding rings* into the back of a Citroën C4 and made the journey home, VERY happy indeed. 

Saturday night was a little less eventful, and less expensive too. Erin and I had been looking forward to this night for a while, as we met up with some of our married friends (social practice for when we are married too!) and went to a place called Alphabet St for some Thai cuisine. 

Picture the backdrop: On the cusp of the surf, with an industrial outdoor heater fanning flames into the late winter air as the food is brought to you, al fresco on Cronulla esplanade. All punctuated by the sound of brutal horizontal rain! 

Weather aside though it was a lovely evening, good quality food and was spent in great company. I would recommend the place, the waitresses were extremely knowledgeable and amenable. 

Sunday was a quiet one. It was the sabbath day after all. I had a late one as I stayed up for the Newcastle United vs Manchester City game, which kicked off at the ungodly hour of 1AM. It was all worth it however as the incumbent Premier League Champions ran out comfortable 0-2 winners. There will be sterner tests than this one, I'm sure. 

Das Wetter ist lächerlich. 

*Wedding rings still need to be purchased. 

My New Life - Down Under

So, since I have moved from Manchester, my home for the past 27 years, to the wonderfully diverse and expansive Sydney, Australia, I have had this burning desire to document what it is that I am doing out here. 

Whether that be ramblings of my new interesting job that I have within the Courts of Sydney working as a Clerical Officer for the Department of Justice (sounds WAY more official that way), or writing about some of the leisure activities I have tried since being here, such as riding on the back of Harley Davidson's around one of the most iconic cities in the world, I thought I would document it. 

I won't even begin to kid myself that the outreach of this blog will be anything but minimal, but, to get a sense of belonging with people whom I won't have the chance to see that often now that I live on the other side of the world is enough of a reason for me to start such a creatively named blog. /sarcasm

Not to mention that I find writing, or typing furiously onto an Apple keyboard seriously therapeutic.

It's been nearly 12 weeks since I made quite a bold decision in my life to make the move from Manchester to Sydney and I have had more than enough time to reflect on it now. It's hard to not miss family, friends and the like being so far away, but I am lucky that I live in a world where everything is so easily accessible. Whether you pinpoint that to there being so many technological advances every year, or the fact that, even though 24 hours+ on a plane from Sydney to Manchester might seem like a long way, in the grand scheme of things it isn't really* that bad.

One thing I get asked a lot of the time when people learn of my situation, is "Don't you miss your family/friends?" and the answer to that is, "Yes! Of course."
I normally counter that though, with a little anecdote of my own. Nothing too sickly, but just to reiterate the fact that, even though my family and friends I have come to love over these years might be thousands of miles apart, if I wasn't with my beautiful fiancée Erin, then I was never, really, truly happy. 
I might have been able to put on a good face to people that all was okay, but behind closed doors the reality was much worse. 

I am blessed to be in the position I am, with a good solid bunch of people in Manchester who love me and will always remain a huge part of my life. I am equally lucky and I feel blessed to have been welcomed into such a wonderful family, and equally into the circle of friends Erin has out here in Sydney. 

Not a day goes by when I don't think of you all back in Manchester, and what my life might be like had I not chose to make such a bold move out here, but not one day do I ever regret this decision. In life, sometimes you have to be selfish and do what you want to do, and for the first time in my life I am truly happy with what I am doing. I am happy to be living in such a diverse City which is iconic and synonymous with so many things. 
Manchester, while not on the scale of Sydney will always be home for me. That will never leave me. There are things back home I do miss, family and friends being the obvious ones, but places like Kosmonaut and my second love, Manchester City. 
Sydney might have the weather, it might have the better lifestyle, but it will never have the music or the football scene that Manchester does. 

A shameless little plug now for two important people in my life. Firstly Erin, she's the one!
Secondly, one of the most sincere and kind hearted people you can ever wish to meet. I was so honoured he accepted my groomsman request of him, and I can't wait to see him again in March!! - Dan. 

*Unless you have an annoying little shit behind you kicking your chair for the duration of your Dubai (DXB) - Sydney (SYD) flight.