In the meantime…

So, I hear you coming: “what the hell are you doing in Sydney for so long?” Well, there are a few good reasons for that: great city, great company and eh… money.

The city

Sydney is said to be poshy and boring, as opposed to the ‘more alternative’ Melbourne. Well, they don’t know what they are talking about!
To be honest, the main reason why we chose Sydney over Melbourne was the weather (spring and autumn are much nicer here), but in the meantime we came up with a lot more reasons why Sydney is to be preferred:
– the bay: the city is built around a huge bay, where ferries and sailing boats rule the place. Given the fact that we networked our way into the Balmain Sailing Club, the bay is also ours now.
– the beaches: If you’ve seen my post about running in Sydney, you will know what I mean
– the cozy bars, hidden in small alleyways, and only known by Sydneysiders
– the parks: there are so many of them all over the city
– the suburbs: Sydney is known as ‘the city of villages’. Where tourists usually only see the Central Business District (CBD – ruled by skyscrapers, business people and the typical tourist attractions), most of the city life is lived in the numerous suburbs that each have their own charm. There is beach life in Manly and Bondi, the designers live in Surry Hills, if you’re fancy you move to Balmain, and Glebe and Newtown are home for the bogans (NL: marginalen) to trendy peeps (that’s us, the castle, ahum 😉 ), …

Great company
I already bragged about the great house we live in, and I’ll do it once more… It’s awesome, inspiring, touching and also very exhausting. I even dare to say that it’s the best thing that could happen to us in Sydney!
Here’s a little snapshot of our life in “the castle”:

Money
It’s not because in Oz it’s made of plastic (for surfing reasons, they say) that it’s worthless. We just can’t live without it, do we?
While Tom spends his weekdays being a “suit”, I found myself a hobby pouring coffee. I work in a French coffee bar called “Le Petit Tarte”; serve typical Aussie things, such as banana bread and bacon&egg rolls; and work for my Chinese boss, named Mark.


I can tell you that the rumours about Chinese people are true, they work very, very hard! He’s literally ALWAYS present during opening hours (that is 7days a week). And at night, he keeps himself busy with fixing loose tiles and painting the kitchen. He is barista, chef and bartender at the same time, and above all: a pain in the ass…
Mark and I have a love-hate-relationship; I’m always doubting between wanting to give him a punch in the face or a comforting hug.
But, as one of my colleague said, it would be good if everybody gained some experience in the hospitality sector (NL: horeca), just to know what it feels like. And I might not have learned a thing about performing a perfect functional analysis, but I sure worked on my soft skills!

…and my barista skills…
Here’s how to do it:

And here’s mine. Not quite the same, but close…

– MJ