Brrr!

Its bleedin' freezing in Sydney in winter! When the English arrived, they brought with them the artesan terraces which are typical of British cities and areas like Fulham and Hackney, where there are rows and rows of them. Unlike the British ones, they made the windows small, presumably to keep out the heat in the summer, but they did bring with them the fireplaces and grates, perfect little fireplaces for coal.

Those days are long gone, coal is no more in cities such as these and those little fireplaces have been left to crumble so are nothing but outlets for warm air. We have no heating, nothing dries and I feel like a student again.

Thank god then for Delia! When merging our stuff, I was told that there was to be no Nigella, no Jamie (except when my dad took us to Jamie's uncle's pub on our first meeting and he had to be polite, whilst sitting under a Jamie shrine!) I ignored those but I felt the need to sneak in the Delia winter cookbook and hide it under the bed. It reminds me of the late '80s and I haven't used it in years. However, leafing through the pages made me warm again and lusting after 'luxury fish pie'.

I scored 10 out of 10 without announcing the author. It was then demoted to an 8 but I think that was mostly because M is bitter and twisted... and probably a bit cold.

Next stop - Surry Hills

So with the boat on a mooring, we've moved into the centre of town which is the complete opposite of where we were before. Surry Hills which is an up and come area just south of the CBD with rows of terrace houses, shops and cafes.

We' ve rented a terraced house with the luxury of a roof terrace on one of the main streets. Bizarrely, it feels all very normal. Inner city living again, and car noises and people and very few animals. Its an old area and feels like there is a bit of history in the walls - all bent and crooked in our place anyway. My dear friend Clare sent me a book which was set in the area in the 1930's called 'The Harp in the South' by Ruth Park, which has given me an insight into what came before. I also went to see a great exhibition called 'Skint - making do in the great depression' , which rather frighteningly gives an insight to what it was like back then, with no money and furniture and clothing made from whatever could be found - mostly tea chests from the docks and sacks.

The Movers

At 8am, a wide barge appeared at the mouth of our bay, and chugged up the channel to our deck. On board were four men and a dog. The barge moored up at the end of our jetty and the boys loaded on our possessions in a matter of minutes, before they lost the tide - a window of some 20 minutes.

Once loaded, it moved out of the bay as fast as it came, on its way to cargo jetty, at Church Point where it was to meet a truck. I watched my possessions piled high, hoping that the wind wouldn't pick up as the boat went around the corner, which is often the case.

Possibly the most bizarre move I've ever done, but certainly the easiest and a lot easier on my knees than carrying up boxes 127 steps through brush turkey decorated steps.

Our last guest

This little fella was on a rug that we had stored during our rental and uncurled on our last night. On first poke, we thought he had suffered a similar to fate to the funnel web spiders we had found in the house, and died. But as it turned out, I think we had just woken him up and he wasn't too happy.

Despite the bad photo, his curled-up tail makes it obvious that he is a scorpion of about 3cm in size. Apparently he is a marbled scorpion and his sting would be painful, but not fatal. Lucky really as we were padding about in bare feet when we found him. There are apparently hundreds of different types of scorpion in Australia, yet very few people see them and very little is known about them. This type however are occasionally found in homes, hiding behind furniture.

What I did find out however is that scorpions fluoresce brightly under UV light and this is a good way to find them at night, when they are at their most active. They are also arachnids like spiders.

I've become slightly obsessed with spiders and other creepy crawlies since being in Sydney. I have always been scared of them but realised that this was futile in an environment where they are everywhere. My dear sister bought me a book for Christmas and I have been avidly studying and identifying the different types as I find them, boring the pants off anybody who will listen as I rave on about their green and yellow colours and strange behaviour. I am surprised how few Sydneysiders have actually seen or know anything but the huntsmen - stuff of nightmares who are actually like baby giraffes, all legs and no idea what to do with them. This was our last guest in our Pittwater pad so perhaps this is a sign that we will be seeing less of his type in our new Surry Hills place. I almost feel sad. M, on the other hand, is delighted.

Japanese packing

Prior to the anticipated arrival of our belongings from Japan, we rented a large storage unit which we believed would give us plenty of space in which to unpack and edit our saucepans. However, when the Japanese shipment arrived, the unit was filled to bursting and we could barely close the doors.

And the picture above demonstrates why. It shows the contents of a cardboard box, approximately half a metre square. Its contents were a plastic mustard pot and spoon, a metal pencil sharpener and a tiny clip of about 4cm high. Each was carefully and individually wrapped in layers and layers of paper. Many boxes contained similar items which, in reality required little, or no protection or space.

It made me angry. Not only the wasted packing, but also the shipping miles, not to mention the waste of our dollars in storing boxes. Whilst I believe that the Japanese do things beautifully and with such finesse, some things are over the top and a total waste of natural resources.

One consolation is that the cardboard boxes were strong and have now survived two moves and along with the paper wrapping, have been freecycled in Sydney.