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The journey to Sydney begins again! After a fantastic summer eating cake and pies and coding prolifically, I’ve spent the last six weeks applying for jobs. After lots and lots of rejections (reminds me of my nightclub days at Uni) I’ve got myself a job in the Sydney Central Business District about 5 minutes walk from the Opera House. But I need to get over there by the 14th June and find somewhere to live. It’s gonna be tight and I intend to cycle as far as I can, but I might have to take a train or ride in one of the many Winnebago’s and Campers filled with stoned travellers that offer me lifts at the service stations. You’ve no idea how hard it is to say ‘no’ sometimes!

I’m a bit sad about leaving Adelaide… when I arrived here in December, it was just for a week. Then I rented a place for four months through the summer and loved it (Glenelg / Somerton Park is a stunning place to live). My intention was to move onto Sydney afterwards so I did as little as possible during the summer. I mean, really: I’m surprised Rigor Mortis didn’t set in. It’s only when I came to leave Adelaide I realized it’s where I wanted to live so with hindsight I’m rather angry I wasted those four months when I could have been looking for work.

That said, being in IT, I realized that Adelaide was ‘not’ the place to be. There is work here, but it seems to be arty-farty Web/ASP.NET/SQL Server type stuff. Not dismissing Michaelangelo’s work at all, but I’d rather build the Cathedral than paint the roof. If I’m writing code for a living, I enjoy lower-level programming such as C++/ATL/COM. And most of the local C/C++ skillset in Adelaide seems to be the realm of the Defense Industry – Aussie Citizens Only.

So this is what I’ll miss about Adelaide:

As well as applying for work, I’ve also been working on an Add-in for visual Studio that… well. More on that some other time if I get around to releasing it Most of the effort has been putting in place the infrastructure to do what I wanted (Grom, testing infrastructure, code generation etc.) and now it’s just ‘work’ to get the first version finished. In fact, I only got to that point this week and progress is now rapid. Once I get to Sydney, I’ll try to finish it off: I’m looking at a release date around October.

Adelaide is the most livable city I’ve ever visited, ever. It’s easy to get around, cycling infrastructure is superb, the whole city is surrounded by hills for hiking and it has some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen. It’s big enough that it’s got everything but small enough that it doesn’t feel chaotic. If Sydney doesn’t work out: this is where I will return. The role I’m taking on in Sydney is entirely new for me but still a chance to leverage everything I already know. I figured it was worth a shot and the work does sound interesting.

I was dreading the first day out of Adelaide. Blocking my way to Sydney to the East are the Adelaide Hills which I had to cycle over via Bel Air, Stirling and Hahndorf. And it was hard. Really, really, hard. I think today is as close as I’ve ever come to looking like a Smurf. As I sat on Windy Point overlooking Adelaide, I had a moment of panic: where is my fleece? Where is MOOOOO!? There was absolutely no way I was going to descend to get them! Then I realized: I had left a load of stuff in Albany with a friend of a friend before Christmas. I hadn’t even missed this stuff for the last five months. So Ian: I will be in touch soon!

Just outside of Tailem Bend I saw my first official Sydney Sign:

I’m not sure if I found that motivating or not! I’m trying to put in 70-100+ Kilometres a day which should see me in Sydney by the 9th June (the latest I can arrive).

Now that winter is nearly upon us, the daytime temperatures are stuck at 20-24C, the skies are clear and blue and the wind is fresh. No need to get up at 5:00am anymore to try and put in 120KM before lunch when the thermometer hits 40C. No need to drink piss-hot water from my water bottles after 8:30am. No need to carry 8 litres of water per day. No need to Bukkake myself up with sunblock every time ye ol’ Anglo Saxon here nips out to the shops. The days are still long, and the scenery is the same as ever, but cycling at this time of year is much more pleasant.

This is a bit of a slapdash update given it’s five months since my last one I’ll try and post another two before I get to Sydney.

Tchau!