1 year in Oz - Blog Break

After 1 year in Oz I need to do some thinking. I do not know if I like it here and what I will do going forward.
There will be a break in blogging while I am thinking.
Thanking those who were interested in what I had to say up to now.
Sissi

A nice initiative

Having lunch at a pub with free WiFi so decided I could do some writing whilst waiting for my food (ham, cheese and pineapple melt on Turkish bread).
In my local supermarket, which is very nice, apart from that they only sell food, they have a customer service competition amongst the people who works on the tills. You cast a vote for someone who has treated you nicely, and don't if it is nothing special. They are quite service minded anyway normally, but this is quite a nice initiative. They always pack your bags for you, but you can see they are taking extra care what they put in each bag, fruit and veg in one, meat in one, not too heavy etc. The guy that served me yesterday had an A4 paper explaining who he is. It has a picture of himself in uniform, so that you can see it is him. It also have a picture of what I think may be his wedding. He answers questions like: What do I like to do when not working (playing cricket), what food do I like best (any Asian) etc. By the time it is your turn (they never have more than one person waiting at a time), you feel you know him, and then if he is nice, you vote for him. They even have league tables on the walls for individuals and teams.

Tomorrow is another food & Wine festival in Manly. Seems a lot bigger than last time!

More Winter

So, finally it is officially Winter in Manly. Last year when I arrived here, I happily went out in shorts and a sweatshirt most days. I did not really look for a jacket until we had a particularly horrible day.

The first real winter storm happened last weekend and washed away a lot of the sand from our lovely beach. The poles that hold up the nets for the beach-volleyball courses were washed away and a lot of the sand is missing. We have been told the sand normally come back - guess we will see.

Also, Manly is feeling less like a tourist town. There are not many people swimming (but the surfers are still in the water) although I am told the water is still warm, probably 20-22 degrees, but as the air is cool you don't really need to go for a swim to cool down.

Many restaurants are closing for renovations, including the favourite Fish Cafe. Yesterday was the last day so went there to say thanks for many great meals. They ended up thanking us for being good customers. We did ring in advance and they saved us half of our usual table (it is a table for 4 and two other people were already eating at it when we rang to book, but the moved it apart a little bit), the last 2 lobster tails and the last bottle of our favourite wine. They gave us free garlic bread for starters and extra side orders with the lobster. I think they are hoping we will be back after the holidays. They were really busy, looked like all their regulars were coming on the last day!

Today we had 15 degrees and I was wearing my denim jacket with thick white fluffy lining and was wishing for a scarf on the ferry. The pubs are advertising roaring open fires and everyone look miserable and cold. But really it isn't that bad.

The flu is here of course, both variants. I am pretty sure I had the normal stuff, but there are nearly 100 cases of confirmed swine flu in Sydney and every cruise ship that are visiting gets checked after they manage to let someone infected out on Sydney's streets a week or so ago.

So, all in all, winter here is like regular Swedish summer, but it feels worse for some reason.