wietske's blog

THANK GOD! I´ve been paid!! After four months of living within the financial confines of a (very limited) graduate overdraft, my bank balance is back to zero & I just can´t even begin to tell you how good that feels.. Actually, that´s not true. I could probably try to explain,  but I doubt that´d be very conducive to the image I´d like to convey of myself as at least a reasonably responsible individual. Not one who schleps half way across the world on a shoestring… So, I´ll just stick to the fact that it´s really really REALLY good to actually see some wages come in, to see the proof that no I haven´t lost my mind over the past few months, living with delusions of a lifestyle that will only serve to bankrupt me. And that yes, I can continue to live this lifestyle which, despite some of my moans to the contrary, I do in fact enjoy thoroughly. Of course now that I actually have some money to spend, I´m struggling to even find the time to update you all on this joyful fact, let alone take an afternoon off to go shopping or find some other way to spend these much deserved dollars. That´s is a good thing no doubt, but its just not half as much fun as I had imagined this momentous paycheck moment to be. I´m also not quite sure when exactly I will be able to turn around and enjoy the fruits of my labour, as I stupidly have filled up my diary space so efficiently I´ll be one step behind for the next month at least. But at least I wont have to live off beans on toast while doing soJ

 

Three months in Australia. That`s three months of near permanent sunshine, of holiday feelings in a real life setting, of writing more than I will ever care to remember and of considering the fact I am yet to be paid for any of my efforts a mere triviality. Three amazing months that could have lasted a lifetime, were it not for the fact that there are limits to overdrafts, an unfortunate fact of life I found myself confronted with early last week.

Isn`t it great how easy it is to be a “true artist”, a real “struggling writer” so long as there`s money left in the bank to ensure you will not actually have to struggle much at all… Well, with the prospect of living of beans on toast until an as yet undefined payday becoming increasingly realistic, this dream notion is now rapidly turning into a nightmare. Especially as there is nothing I detest more than beans on toast.

 

In actual fact there is very little I can do about this (aside from beg for an extension to my overdraft, and I`d rather go bankrupt than grant Barclays bank the pleasure of doing that). Rule number one of freelancing (one I conveniently forgot about when comparing it to nine to five-ism) is that it`s as much about writing as it is about chasing people for invoices, a process which apparently can take up to three months.

It also doesn`t help that Sydney is, in effect, an extremely expensive place to live, matching London in the financial stakes. So for the next few weeks at least, I will have to be extremely careful with my last remaining dollars. Watch this space for my next update on how to enjoy Sydney on a budget. Now that will be a challenge…

One month since I last wrote and what a change. Australia is heating up, work is pouring in and I`m quickly becoming an expert at juggling my time between appreciating the one and completing the other. A great taster session of what is ahead in the work life balance stakes came last week when we travelled up North to attend a conference on pension schemes – useful to both boyfriend and me – in Port Douglas. While Port Douglas, home to idyllic beaches and luxurious hotels, is a perfectly pleasant place to be, we couldn`t miss the opportunity to check out the nearby Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest, two world heritage sites that have topped my to do list ever since arriving here.

So we took the rest of the week off, accepted the fact that mobile phone reception in a rainforest is as likely as life on Mars and that high speed internet access – or any speed for that matter–is a concept as yet undiscovered, and drove up to Cape Tribulation – an area of complete unspoilt natural beauty about an hour north of Port Douglas.

 We checked into a beach hut, far North into the forest and spent four days just simply living outdoors, hiking through the forest, riding the beaches and forests on horseback and snorkelling the reef with giant green sea turtles, while living side by side with some of the world`s most deadly, yet fascinating creatures.

Evenings were spent drinking beer with some of the locals and hearing their stories on life in the tropics and I`m amazed to say my view on animals which would have scared the life out of me a week ago, has changed completely.

 

 I`ve seen crocodiles at only a few metres distance, come up close with a red belly black snake which – had it bitten me – would have only given me 20 minutes more to live on this planet and have conquered my fear of snorkelling the reef and entering the world of sharks and snakes. This has truly been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life!

Feeling much much better and all it took was one long Sunday stroll along Sydney`s Northern beaches... Sun, blue skies, breathing the fresh air and enjoying the ocean views – so simple and yet it once again made me feel the luckiest person alive.

It is perfectly normal to feel down every once in a while but there has got to be more to life than worrying about what might go wrong... The bonus of my little outing? 

My head feels clear, my motivation has quadrupled and for the past two days, words just seem to find their own way onto paper Effortlessly…       

Lesson number one in my new existence, take time to relax & don’t worry about things that might not happen.  

Week five and I`m beginning to understand what people mean when they say Australia isolated. Call me complicated, but when I said I would like a more relaxed lifestyle, I did not mean I`d like to completely ignore the fact that there is a whole rest of the world out there. If it weren`t for the fact that checking European papers has been a part of my daily routine for so long that I can´t imagine going through a day without looking at the headlines at least once, I honestly would not have known there was a war going on in Georgia. This is somewhat worrying, as is the fact that I have now on three occasions had to explain to someone where the Netherlands is and why “Deutsch” is really not the same as “Dutch”…  Of course I wouldn`t be able to point out Adelaide on a map here either and it took my mother to explain to me that “the top of Australia” was really the North and not the East as I - with admittedly the most appalling sense of geography of anyone I know – had assumed. But in the greater scheme of things, surely some international news coverage beyond the performance of Australian athletes in Beijng surely wouldn`t hurt?  

I´ve been feeling a bit funny all week. Maybe it`s the fact that it has all of a sudden hit me that, as of now, I am fully responsible for myself and my income. I know, I should have probably given this some thought before I embarked on my one way mission to the other side of the world and spent a fortune on a desk and a printer, but that´s just not the way my mind works. Or maybe practicality is not one of my strongest features.

That said, there are a whole host of people who make a very successful living out of freelancing and I am just going to have to make sure I`m one of them. Life`s too short to spend too much time worrying and what better place to practice this art than in Sydney... So... back to work and if I´m lucky, I`ll get it all finished in time for another great night out....x

Week four in my Sydney-side existence and I am absolutely freezing cold. Of course it`s only after moving into our flat that we realised most houses here come without central heating - not usually necessary apparently, except of course this winter during which -  trust my luck - it`s snowed for the first time since 1938. I`m taking comfort from the fact that locals are coping even less well than I do, but needless to say stocking up on warm winter clothes was not part of my plan when I moved here.     The winter does have its advantages. For one, there are still a good few months to go before it is summer time. This gives me plenty of time to learn to surf and shape up –a necessity in a country full of fitness freaks whose concept of a fun run (City to Surf) equates to half a marathon.

For another, I am not remotely tempted to check the great outdoors, which can only help my work ethic.

 After two weeks of trying to juggle meetings, deadlines and internet sourcing without a telephone or broadband connection, I am glad to say that`s all sorted now and my life as a freelancer can finally kick off in earnest (somehow sitting in internet cafes surrounded by backpackers didn`t quite qualify as such). My commute to work now consists of walking from bedroom to living room (via the kitchen to grab a cup of tea) and I feel the luckiest person alive.  

We still spend our weekends taking trips to check out the great outdoors and as there is a lot of that here, we won`t be bored for quite some time. The pictures included are from our walk from Bondi beach to Maroubra beach – a beautiful path past rugged cliffs, impressive surfs and azure blue water. It amazes me every time I see it and I can`t wait to see more of this beautiful country…

So... We're here. In Sydney. Have been for two weeks in fact and guess what; not a single spider, snake or otherwise disconcerting animal in sight. It is of course midwinter, but at 20 degrees plus I consider that to be a dismal excuse for any animal worth its poison to not at least make one frightening appearance. Maybe it's really not as bad as everyone says.

Everything has gone remarkably well in fact: the flight (on time), no excess luggage charges even though we were blatantly at least 15 kgs over the weight limit... we were even allowed to jump the queue at immigration, a god's gift after nearly 24 hours on a flight. To top it all off we have managed to find ourselves a fantastic flat after a mere 1 1/2 weeks of searching- a miracle, at least if the horror stories of others are to be believed. All this leaves me wondering whether this move is simply  "meant to be" or whether I am just so used to European bureaucracy that I can't imagine any issue resolving itself without at least a hitch or ten.

The apartment is superb, fantastic views over Elizabeth bay (my favourite area by far) and a rooftop with 360 degree views over city, bridge and bays. Even the fact that the flat next door is being renovated, resulting in the electricity being cut off precisely on the morning of my first day of meetings (no hair dryer, no iron and worst of all, no cup of thee to wake me up) does little to dampen my spirits. Neither does the fact that internet and home telephone cannot be connected until the morning of my first deadline - in ten days time - leaving me confined to the computers in the internet cafe next door. If anything, without a telephone to conduct interviews from, I am guaranteed to go out and meet my contacts face to face, which can only be a bonus. 

In other words, so far so good and fingers crossed this stroke of luck continues!

Until next time!

x

Even as I am writing this, I can barely believe it’s really happening. Only 1 ½ months half ago, I was enjoying life as a London-based financial journalist, looking forward to summer -okay, the UK version of summer- and hoping the credit crunch (and by extension my workload) would ease up. Now, thanks to a boyfriend who’s been offered an almost too good to be true job in Sydney (which naturally he could not refuse) I have a visa to Sydney and a one way flight scheduled for the 7^th of July. I have no idea where we are going to live, have never set foot in the country and am wondering whether arachnophobics like me and Sydney funnel web spiders can ever live in peace but my god, I am excited.

The plan is to set up shop as a freelance journalist, capitalising on my years of experience as a financial journalist in London. So far, so good, the work is already rolling in and the feedback so far has been great. A fantastic comfort – even if at this rate, I’m beginning to wonder whether I’ll actually be able to enjoy that sun, sea and surf I’ve been looking forward to.

The downsides? Packing up my future in 23 kgs is proving a bit of a challenge. The thought of spending a day on a plane to even get to my new home doesn’t entertain me much, nor is the thought that my friends and family are an equally unappealing 24 hours away. However, it’s a chance we’ve just got to take.

Over the next few months I’ll be posting stories about my experiences as a freelancer in Oz & I hope you’ll enjoy reading them!

Wietske

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