To Sydney

After nearly a week on the Sunshine Coast I flew off down to Sydney. I arrived in the morning and took the train into town. From there I found my hostel, dumped my stuff and went for a wander around the town. And wander I did. From the hostel near central station I walked to Circular Quay then through the botanical gardens and back along the waterfront to all the way to Darling Harbour and then back up to the Observatory before heading back to the hostel via The Rocks. It was a big walk!

Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Observatory

Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House


Bridge climbers

The hostel itself was like any other hostel. Big, noisy and full of strangers. I was sharing the room with seven others. I think that I’ve just about reach the age when I’m over hostels. I’m over sharing a room with seven flatulent, snoring strangers. Still they’re cheap, I guess that’s the main thing.

Presenting at Uni

I left Alice Springs around lunch time today bound for Brisbane. This was one of my trips back in order to give presentations as part of my continuing uni course. As I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight I listened to the people getting called for their flight that had already boarded. It seemed there were quite a few. The calls kept coming until the boarding gates were empty, yet still all of the passengers hadn’t arrived. The plane ride was uneventful as was the lunch that was offered onboard the aircraft. The plan was for Stewart to pick me up from the airport and then I’d head up the coast and start preparing the presentation which would take place the following day.

That’s why on a sunny afternoon I found myself inside a cavernous lecture theatre in front of 40 bored faces as I began to give my presentation on the Photovoice community engagement strategy in practice in Alice Springs. I talked about the project, my group, the photographs taken and finally how the practice went and what the conclusions were. After saying “the participants used photovoice” seven times on the one slide and “basically” 38 times throughout the presentation, I sat down amongst the audience and tried to melt into the seat as the next presentation started.

Freezing in Alice Springs

It's just past six o'clock on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon. The sun is still out yet you wouldn't know it. Sitting in my flat I can hear the wind whistling through, under the doors, through windows and anywhere else through which the wind can flow. It's 11 degrees here at the moment and has hovered around there for the the past couple of days. We had a bright and sunny spell a couple of weeks ago and I really thought that spring had arrived. Now, as I'm sitting here wearing two jumpers, it seems like that was just a dream. I've been sitting here listening to the rain and watching it splashing against my window as I try and work on my assignments. My mind keeps wandering onto other things leaving me with a blank page after an hour sitting in front of the computer. I'm blaming the weather.

Lots of assignments

The assignments are now coming thick and fast and so I've been trying to do some and finding out how to do others. Yesterday I uploaded the reflective essays from the first 17 days of my work experience. As this is only worth 10% I was wondering how many more essays will I need to do to pass. The course outline is written very vaguely and so I have to keep asking the teacher what is required. This seems to be quite common leaving me wondering what I'm actually supposed to be writing about in my assignments.

My subjects are taking up a lot of my time and I don't seem to have any to spare. Every night is spent doing readings or writing long and pointless essays. As I say, it is hard to know what amount of effort to put in. I don't think there is much use trying for more now my time is limited and the past marking variability of assignments does not mean that a lot of work will pay off. Even so, it's hard to juggle it all. I actually wrote this in a letter to one of the teachers. It's taken three years but I'm finally realising how annoying and frustrating it is.

Spring has sprung!

Today is the first day of spring and already I can feel it. Today was the first morning I've been able to walk to work without a jumper on. It's kind of nice that it is warming up as it makes it so much easier to get up. On the other hand, the fact that it is starting to warm up means that soon it will be very warm. There is no real middle ground when it comes to weather out here. It's either freezing or hot. Still, hopefully there might be a couple of cooler days before it really starts heating up. We'll have to wait and see.