A fitting representative for the Queen

This is Quentin Bryce. Apart from having a very cool name, she is the Governor General of Australia and today she opened Sydney's new Google offices as I and the rest of the Sydney media looked on.

It strikes me in a country often seen as bit behind the times/racist/sexist, she is a wonderful example of true girl power. She is Australia's first ever female GG. Her Excellency's role is to represent the Monarch (that's our very own Queen of England) in this country and she exercises the "supreme executive power of the Commonwealth". She very much reminded me of Queen Elizabeth, with her fabulous matching skirt suit and shoes (emerald, or perhaps Google green?) and was truly the epitome of ladylike.

The Google offices themselves were of course, amazing and I am now suffering from severe workplace envy.

What a swine...

This cruise ship, carrying 2,500 passengers and crew, is currently in the middle of swine flu hysteria. No surprises here in a country so paranoid about what—and who—it lets in, that I had to have a chest x-ray to get my second visa, just in case I had tuberculosis, riddled as the UK is with that particular disease...

This is also the country whose Customs quarantined the mulled wine spice a friend sent me at Christmas on the basis that that highly dangerous substance allspice was banned under quarantine law. (Although further investigation by myself on the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service website has in fact confirmed this to be wrong, but whatever). And let's not even get started on the fact that, as a Pom in Australia, I can't give blood, just in case I have mad cow disease. Fine, I'll keep my blood!

Whingeing aside, there is actually a serious point to this particular blog on Anglo-Oz comparisons. Easy as it is to mock Australia's paranoia, it's something fellow island the UK could probably learn a thing or two from. It's nothing new that immigration in the Motherland is through the roof and that it has a reputation as a pretty easy place to just turn up and start claiming welfare. Better still, have a couple of kids and get a heavily subsidised flat thrown in for good measure. I'm happy to have to prove I'm a useful, skilled, working, tax-paying addition to Australia. Just saying...

It's so not cold!

It's my second Aussie winter and yet again I'm amused by the amount of clothes people have started to wear because it's so "cold". I guess being a Pom, I am used to much worse weather conditions, but I wouldn't even call it chilly yet. I keep getting asked: "Aren't you freezing?!" when I continue to come into work without a jacket. We're talking the 15-to-20 degrees mark here. 20 is a virtual heatwave in the UK!
I must say, I'm really enjoying this Sydney weather. It's sunny and crisp, the leaves are changing colour and falling, and there's not much rain. The view from my balcony looks particularly lovely in the mid afternoon light.
And really hot all the time gets a bit boring... (OK, don't slap me, those of you in the Motherland!).

I'm back!

I've been back in Oz for 48 hours and the jetlag is still very much with me, but it's about time I updated on my first trip back to the Motherland since I moved here. And what a wonderful visit it was! I caught up with so many people and did so much that I barely had time to breathe, but I absolutely loved it and definitely made the most of the quickest three weeks of my life.

When I left Sydney I felt almost anxious about how I would feel when I got 'home'. Would I suddenly be hit by homesickness and not want to come back to Sydney and leave my family and friends again? And, if that was the case and I then decided to move back to the UK, how would I cope without my lovely Aussie friends? Talk about worrying about things before they even have a chance to happen! And that didn't happen of course. As much as I loved every second I spent with the many special people in my life over there, I didn't feel any urge whatsoever to abandon Australia for the UK. I'm not going to win any prizes for being a Great Brit, am I? I think I left my patriotism at the airport.

Talking of airports, the first thing I saw on arriving at Heathrow was a massive pink and glittery banner reading: "Welcome back, Jen!" being weilded by my lovely, grinning dad and my best friend/unofficial second sister, Danielle. At last, I got my Love Actually airport moment! It was fantastic. Second impressions of London were not so good, struggling with my 21.5kg suitcase up and down stairs on the Underground with not a single gentleman or offer of help to be seen. Then onto the dirty Tube carriage which stank of BO and burgers and was full of miserable-looking, unfriendly (and in some cases, unwashed) people. Yuck. Luckily when I arrived at my aunt and uncle's house in their leafy suburb, it was all pleasant again and dinner with them and my long lost little sister Kate, was great.

Then followed three weeks of meeting and greeting friends I hadn't seen in over a year (I'll have to summarise or this will be the longest blog in the world). Highlights included the wedding of one of my best school friends Bonnie and her now husband Phil in Cardiff. A beautiful bride and a great day all round, plus two nights in nice hotels with my sister and plus-one for some quality gossip and catching up.

Then there was meeting my quite frankly GORGEOUS six-month-old god daughter Genevieve, aka Bob (don't ask), for the first time. A relaxing two days in the country were spent hanging out with her, her mum (my good friend Kelly), dad and brother Roan. Three year-old Ro's vocabulary had increased one hundred-fold since I last saw him and even when he would bang on my bedroom door at 6am shouting "Auntie Jeno, is there a monster in your room?" he was still adorable. Sort of....

I spent the most time with aforementioned best friend Danielle, who, amazingly, took two precious weeks' leave from work to spend with me. We had a great time and I can't wait for her to come over here and spend Christmas with me and our friends Matt, James and Jo.
Then there was the girls' day out to Paris with Lucy and Ruth. It's amazing how much (food) you can fit into one action-packed day! Fantastique!

Around 40 wonderful peeps turned up to my Back From Down Under Party at a Covent Garden bar and although I felt like I only spoke to each of them for about 5 minutes, I was really touched to have so many there. If only the music hasn't been quite so loud (I'm showing my age).
So many lovely, memorable times were spent with people inbetween, I can't possibly list them all. Suffice to say I left feeling incredibly lucky to know so many great people who are great friends and great company, many if whom went out of their way to spend time with me.
The only regret I have is not having met baby Troy (although I did see his mum, Lou when she was a week from 'popping' so I almost did!) before I left.

But it's good to be home. The most important thing that trip taught me is that Sydney is home now.

The god in godmother

One of the things I'm most looking forward to when I'm back in the UK is meeting this gorgeous girl, Genevieve, aka Gen/Vivi. She was born in October and I was DELIGHTED to be asked by her mum, my good friend Kelly, to be godmother. What an honour! Now Kelly and Vivi's dad aren't particularly religious and they won't be having a christening. And good on them I say. I think that's better than all those hypocrites who don't believe in God in the slightest and have a christening in church for the party and some nice photos to keep for when Junior's older.

When I told someone the other day they asked if they'd be having a christening while I was in the UK. I explained the situation and they then proclaimed that I wasn't really a godmother at all. Pft! Like most of the people out there who are godparents believe in God and really look out for the religious and spiritual education of their godchildren? It doesn't make it any less of an honour to be picked for this special role, especially when I'm on the other side of the world.

I for one am taking it very seriously (and we'll leave my religious leanings out of it because this is not really about that). I will be watching this little one grow up with genuine interest (as well as sending her excessive amounts of cute new clothes and toys by airmail) and fondness. Her mum bandied around the words "good role model" and I hope I can live up to that. I'll be that exotic Auntie Jen in Australia who sends the best presents for her birthday. But I also hope I can teach her a thing or two about what it means to be a positive and independent kind of gal in this day and age.

Will you look how cute she is?!

Feeling kinda homesick

My little (25 year-old) sister will be meeting me at London Heathrow on Friday lunchtime. We haven't seen each other for 13 long months. I'm convinced it's going to be the kind of Love Actually airport moment I've always hankered after, unlike the tears when I left. Can't wait.
It's funny, I've been here in Oz over a year and I've not had many moments of real homesickness. But now, knowing I'll be back in just a few days, I'm remembering all the people I'm missing and how much I miss them. And I'm already dreading saying goodbye to them again at the end of my three-week trip.
I love my life here, much more than my old UK life, but living on the other side of the world is tough. I think it's easy to forget just how far away you are and then, faced with a 24-hour plane journey (ugh), it brings it all back into reality. If I'd stuck to my original plan and not fallen in love with this country, I'd be home by now and there'd be no going back to visit, then leaving again. It's going to be a real test and I think it will make me realise whether I love it here enough to leave all those people behind again. Because if I didn't, I'd sure as hell miss all my friends here, big time.
There are a lot of things to consider when you move overseas. And if you had to make the final decision whether it would be forever before you made the move, few would do it. But you just have to take a chance sometimes and you never can predict what's going to happen.
On the plus side, only three more sleeps until I leave! Yippee!!!

Whingeing is good for business

Seems those Aussies quite like whingeing poms after all. The Whingeing Pom is the name of my 'work' blog on dynamicbusiness.com, and more often than not I use it to have a rant. It's so therapeutic! Psychological benefits aside, one particular blog got 1,800 hits in ONE DAY this week which is great news for our website. The page about me also ranks in the top ten pages (the homepage being the most popular, obviously) on the entire site this week. Who would have thought all those people would be interested in reading my rantings? Such is the power of the world wide web.

I must admit I have been heavily self-promoting the blog via social networking tool twitter (follow jenbishopsydney) and messing around on the internet chatting to people has now become a justifiable part of my job. That Facebook ban's still on at work though. Sulk.