New home

After staying in a serviced apartment for a few weeks, I had found myself an apartment to stay in.  This was my new home!  It was a strange feeling being inside this apartment, high up off the ground.  I had lived in apartments before and I had even lived in Asia before when I was young, but this was the first time I had ever lived by myself.  I had always been in dorms or later on in apartments with housemates, so it was a unique experience to be coming back home every night to an empty apartment.

It felt a bit small, which wasn't a surprise given it was Hong Kong.  It still felt exciting though.  This was something new and it was all mine.  It was the first time I had lived somewhere where the entire space was completely mine.  Looking out at the view, it couldn't have been further from what I used to have in Coogee.  It looked incredible!

Time to move on

The time had finally come.

I was leaving Australia.

Living overseas was something I had wanted to do since I was young, yet it had taken a lot longer than I expected to arrive at this point in my life.  It had taken me a a long time come to the realisation that I need to leave Australia to be able to do the things I wanted in life.  This felt like I was getting myself back on the track of experiencing the different life I had wanted for so long.

I arrived back in Sydney from Newcastle and checked myself into a hotel.  It felt strange to be in a hotel in what was still ostensibly my "home".

Looking out across the city was a strange feeling.  How long would it be before this family sight started to become just a memory for me?  I had lived here for such a long time and had gotten to know all the ins and outs of the city.  Looking out at this view, I could name all the streets, find you all the best places to eat, to go out.  Sarah came to visit me in the hotel before I left and we sat there eating cheese and talking about all our different plans for the future.

The next day, I checked out and went to the airport.  The final drive to the airport felt surreal.  I was incredibly excited and happy to be leaving, but it didn't mean I wasn't going to miss this place.  The last few weeks in particular had been fantastic as I had been blessed with incredible weather which let me spend almost every day at the beach.  As I was checking in, I found out that my upgrade request had come through!

The plane ride to Hong Kong became a far more luxurious trip than I had originally anticipated.  I had only been in business class once before when I was a kid, so this was definitely a treat.  The wide and comfortable seats along with the good food made this one of the few times I wished that the trip would actually take longer!

I landed at Chek Lap Kok airport in the evening and there was a car which had been arranged to take me to my serviced apartment.  This would be my temporary home until I could find something more permanent.  Once I was inside, I dropped my bags on the middle of the floor and I look out of the window at all the lights of the city.

I was a world away from Sydney.  I was a little bit nervous, but I was also excited about this adventure.

I used to live by the beach

The day has finally come for me to leave Sydney.

I never thought I would stay as long as I did.  I only ever thought I would stay for a few years, but instead it's been over 7 years.

I never liked Sydney to begin with.  I was stuck in the city and it just didn't appeal to me.  It didn't have that much life to it and I still remember feeling exceptionally bored on the weekends when people would desert the city centre.  Things changed a lot once I moved to Coogee.

I have grown to love the place.  I didn't even realise that it had become my home.

Without even initially realising it, I have lived in the paradise that many aspire to and I am glad that I was able to come to that understanding with enough time to appreciate it.

There were so many random little things I would miss.  Just the feeling I got on the weekend of walking down to the beach and having a milkshake at a local cafe on Coogee Bay Road or up at the Spot.  That was always hard to beat.  I liked becoming the local.  With the local shops recognising me.  I would get a nicer greeting at the butchers or the bakery.  The waitresses would give familiar smile when I sat down.

Just looking at Coogee beach on a busy day also used to make me happy.  There was a lively atmosphere to the place which was warm and inviting.  Coogee has never been a surfing beach, so unlike some of the other beaches around Sydney there were always far less of the posers seeking to be seen.  It was more of a family beach where people would come with their kids to spend the day.

It wasn't just any beach for me anymore either.  It was home.  When I looked out at the sands and the water, I felt a level of belonging that I really hadn't felt since I had been in Melbourne as a kid.  I had never felt any affinity with Canberra and it was only after I had left Singapore that I had started to appreciate it properly.  This place was different though as I had become part of the surroundings.  I was most certainly one of the locals of Coogee now and there were more than enough of the cafes and bars which recognised me as such.  Like other locals, dressed in my scrappy clothes and thongs, I would wander in without challenge whilst the out of towners would be dressed up in their fancier clothes.  I remembered one day in particular at the fancy new Coogee Pavillion when I wandered in with Sarah.  The Pavillion is one of the new places to be and to be seen in Sydney.  Sarah looked mortified with how I was dressed as I walked in.  I must have looked close to homeless in my board shorts, old t-shirt and thongs, but the security happily waved me in.  Others around were a bit shocked as they had clearly put in a huge amount of effort to look good for a night out at the Pavillion.  This acknowledgement of the locals seemed to have been part of a wider desire to keep the "beachiness" in place.

I really did love hanging by the beach, and when I wasn't at the beach I would be at a cafe.  There would be the ones I loved on Coogee Bay Road or up at the Spot, but on occasion I would also go a bit further out to Surry Hills to get myself a ginger broulee tart at Bourke Street Bakery.

I stuck my head out of my apartment window one last time to look out at the view I used to have.  Well... the view I had if I stuck my head out the window!  I lived a few hundred metres from the beach!  I lived within a few minutes walk of the sand between my toes, the ocean breeze through my hair and the sun of my face.

I was leaving all of this now.  It was time to go.

The joyful life

I have tried to embrace living by the beach as much as possible, but even then I think I have taken it for granted at times.  It's such a privilege to have the great beaches of Sydney at my doorstep.  Over the last few weeks, I had tried to go to the beach as much as possible and my tan was turning darker and darker.  My routine was generally quite set.  I would start off by walking to Coogee beach and then having a quick swim.

I would then make my way across to Clovelly, where I would bake on the concrete of what must be Sydney's greatest natural swimming pool.  More often than not, I would have a milkshake as well.  It was a weekday, so it was relatively quiet, even though the weather was spectacularly good.  To my right there was a photo shoot going on, so a smallish crowd gathered to gawk at them.

The concrete would warm up in the sun, and so laying down on its hot surface with the sun above was akin to being baked on a pizza stone.  I moved between swimming and sunbaking for a few hours.  Back and forth I went between swimming and sleeping.  Eventually, I had my fill of this so decided to start heading back.

The walk back home past Gordon's Bay would always be slower and more relaxed than the initial walk out, but I was always half asleep so it didn't matter.

As I walked back up Coogee Bay Road, I stopped in at Tropicana for a coffee.  The waitresses had grown used to seeing me wander in and already knew my order.  It's nice having a "local" and it seemed to create an additional feeling of welcome.

I sat back with my coffee and read the paper.  There was nothing else to do and that was completely fine by me.

Wylie's

I've been living in Coogee for years and I rarely go down to Wylie's Baths.  I'm not sure why I don't go more often.  Maybe I'm just a bit too cheap to pay the fee (it's very cheap...) to go in given there's the free beach just to the side, but I think that's been a mistake by me.  There's something lovely about going to Wylie's Baths.  It is often much quieter than the surrounding beaches and its has an old world charm to it.

The water itself isn't very deep.  It definitely needs a bit of a clean up at the bottom, but it's nice to wade around in the sheltered waters and to lay down on the concrete surrounding the water.  There's a whole bunch of regulars who seem to do laps around Wylie's every day.  It's a nice habit to have and I wonder whether it's one I should have formed a bit earlier myself.

After sunning myself for a while, I went upstairs and got a milkshake.

The whole area is such an echo to the past. It's from a gentler time, when people didn't go to the beach to swim, they went to the beach to "bathe".  It's a lovely working reminder of how things used to be and I'm very lucky to have it just around the corner to my home.

Art in Australia

Having just been immersed in the New York art scene, I thought I would go and look at some of the galleries in Sydney.  Whilst nowhere near as big as New York, there were still some decent sized galleries and I hadn't been to them for a long time.  I went first to the Art Gallery of NSW.  It's a classical old building, but I've never liked how the outside of it is labelled with large brass letters listing out the names of famous artists through history.  There's something strangely tacky about it.  Inside, there are some very nice exhibits, and that should be the focus.  There's a great collection of Sidney Nolan for instance.

There are also some beautifully curated old rooms which have much of the same grandeur as their cousins in the Northern hemisphere.  It was a quiet day, so I was able to enjoy much of the gallery in peace and without any disturbance.

I walked across the Domain and back towards Darling Harbour.  I had a bit of time so I wanted to go and have a look at the MCA.  The MCA is much smaller than the Art Gallery of NSW, but it has one of the best spots in Sydney looking out across to both the Habour Bridge and the Opera House.  Inside, the collection is small but I find it well curated and there's always a series of exhibits to catch the eye and attention.

Once again, it was almost empty.  It was a shame that these galleries didn't have more people giving them the patronage they deserved.

Three peat

The Hawks had won a third successful grand final when I was in New York!  I remember sitting in bed in the hotel with the radio streaming over my phone, listening to the plays being called by the commentators.  The Hawks started out well and by three quarter time, it was clear they had won.  I put my phone away and went to sleep happy.  In hindsight I should have gone and found a bar in the area that was showing the game, but a win is a win.

It had become a yearly tradition for the Sydney based Hawthorn fans to gather to see and hold the premiership cups.  This was a particularly special year, as the Hawks had completed a three-peat.  I had run out of hands to hold all of the cup!

Everyone had huge beaming smiles.  How often is it you get to see your team win once, let alone three times like this?  A lot had happened since the Hawks had last won as well.  The year before, my brother and I had been in Melbourne to watch the Hawks beat the Swans, and now he didn't even live in Australia anymore.

Everyone joked around and laughed.  As people left, we all arrogantly called out "see you next year".  Such presumptuousness!

Walk in the park

My last full day in New York had arrived.  I thought it would be best to spend it with friends.  Early in the morning, I went to catch up with Rachel in Soho.  She hadn't been living in New York for all that long, so we both went to get breakfast in one of the fancy restaurants in the area.

After I said goodbye to Rachel, I headed up to Central Park to catch up with Reks.  She hadn't been living in New York for very long either, having moved there from London.  We walked through the park on this beautiful day, admiring the scenery and watching the random shows.  At one point, some of the performers tried to drag me into the middle of the performance before I made a lucky escape.  It was all part of the tried and true shake down and the person who took my place wasn't allowed to leave until he parted with $20.

Over the last few visits, I've probably only walked a small fraction of Central Park.  It is such an enormous space in the middle of New York and its presence adds to what makes this city so special.  I can't think of many cities in the world which have a dedicated park space the size of a small city located within its heart.  As we walked around, we saw a Jewish wedding happening and joined the small crowd of people watching the happy event.

Before I headed back to my apartment to pack, I walked over to get a Papaya King hotdog.  They're probably the best hotdogs in New York and it was kind of on my way back.

I then went back to the apartment and packed my things.  It was sad for many reasons.  Not only was the trip over, but it also meant I had to go back to work.  That alone was enough to depress me.  I decided against a cab to save some money and tried to get the subway to JFK.  Several lines were closed and so my well timed trip out to the airport became far tighter than it should have been.

As I walked to my gate inside of JFK, I saw a Shake Shack.  I wasn't hungry, but it would be the last time I would be able to get any of their burgers for a long time so I jumped at the opportunity.  One for the road wouldn't hurt!

Spring Awakening

I was down near the Meatpacking District and I needed to get back to Midtown.  I was hungry though, so I popped into a pizza joint for a quick slice.  The rain outside suddenly started to come down hard as I ate my pizza and drank my grape soda.  As I sat eating my pizza, others started to dart into the store for some refuge from the heavy downpour.  They would shake themselves off, then look at the pizza with an almost "why not" expression before buying a slice.  A New York slice seems so universal in this city, an activity that seems to be common to all.

I had bought a ticket to a show earlier that day, so once I finished eating I caught the subway back up to Broadway.  The options for entertainment in New York are so varied.  One of those options which is constantly available are the shows on Broardway.  I had been taught about the cheap ticket booth in Times Square and had bought a half priced ticket for "Spring Awakening".

My seats were fantastic, and I was only a few rows from the very front.  I sat down and waited for the show to start with almost no expectations about what I was going to see.  I didn't know this show, I didn't know the story or the background.  I was a true clean slate.  What I saw was incredible and inspiring.  The story and music in Spring Awakening are catchy and memorable, but this production was something different again.  Half of the cast was deaf and so the production was built around their dancing and movements, with other actors providing the singing as required.  It was seamlessly done and the additional actors didn't crowd or overwhelm the stage.   When the show finished, the entire theatre jumped to its feet in applause, with many people giving the sign language version of applause with their hands outstretched into the air and waving.

I walked back into the evening air, truly awed by what I had seen.  The talent of the performers was undeniable, but the courage and dedication of the deaf performers was as inspiring as anything I had seen for a long time.  Walking around outside, the noise and lights of Times Square seemed even bigger than normal.

It was getting late now, so I got the subway to head back up to Spanish Harlem.  When I got out of the station, I walked past the taqueria near the apartment.  It was still open, so I immediately went inside for a quick taco snack before bed.

Food and a show, it's an easy way to enjoy New York.

Whitney and Mona

My time in New York was nearly over, but I still had enough time to complete some final cultural visits.

I went over to the Whitney to have a look around.  I hadn't had a chance to visit the last time I was in New York, so I was excited to see what it had on offer.  Besides having an incredible building, it has some pretty weird and wonderful exhibits on display.

For a New York gallery, it has a huge space, but there didn't seem to be any particular theme which drove what they were trying to show.  It must be difficult for many of these galleries to get the right balance between the older (but more famous) pieces that everyone wants to see and some of the newer (but clearly less popular) pieces that no one has heard of.

There were a few pieces in the Whitney by Jasper Johns which I really liked.  His work with the American flags in particular caught my attention.  Besides the obvious fact that they were American flags, the texture and the style embodied true "Americana" for me.  It looked like something which had been created in the sweeping plains in the country's West.  Something which had been made from weathered scrap wood on someone's ranch.

After walking around the Whitney all morning, I walked across town to visit MoMA.  I remembered my visit to MoMA from my last visit and I had fond memories.

MoMA is in such a huge space, it means that it's able to maintain a truly enormous permanent collection of works, whilst still giving lots of attention to some different temporary exhibitions.  The Andy Warhols were all still on display, their bright colours grabbing at the attention of everyone who walked past.

The Piet Mondrian section was still there.  I still remembered when I was first properly introduced to his works back at the Tate Modern all those years ago.  I loved his work then, and I still love it now.

One of the loveliest pieces in the entire museum is a small work by Dan Flavin called "Roses".  It's quite a small work, but it literally glows.  Dan Flavin was another artist that I grew to admire when I first walked through the Tate Modern when I was younger.  "Roses" is such a different piece to his other works.  Flavin often created huge works, large scale pieces which used the light to create structures and images that took up an entire space.  It was often close to being installation art, such was its size and also because of its ability to dominate a room.  This lovely little work though, it was different.  It was a small little sculpture, shaped like flowers inside of a lightbulb, which let out only the faintest of light which brought out the colour of the flower.  It was a subtle, but beautiful work of art.

The space of MoMA is also exceptional.  From the outside, it seems fairly non-descript with its imposing and clean facade.  Inside it is a towering building, with huge rooms and vast open atriums.  There is even a small garden, hidden away from the busy streets where you can sit and contemplate the world.

New York's cultural side is really something to behold.  It is such an amazing concentration of different ideas and values.  I'm really not sure there's anything like it anywhere in the world.

Big city

This city is incredible.  It really is one of my (if not my actual) favourite places in the world.  I love just walking around and looking at the views, stopping by the random shops everywhere and soaking in the atmosphere of all the different neighbourhoods.

I caught the subway across to Brooklyn Bridge Park so that I could look at the skyline.

I sat in the park and I looked across the water and admired the beautiful view.  The size of the imposing Manhattan skyline doesn't make me feel small or insignificant as you might expect.  It has the opposite effect on me.  It makes me feel invigorated.  I look at it and I think about all that is possible, about all the heights that people can reach if they are working together in unison.  It is a scene that demonstrates what adversity can be overcome when we strive for something great.  For me, it is one of the most inspiring views in the world.

After walking around the park, I went and bought a shake at Shake Shack (always chocolate with some malt added) and walked back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge.  I felt I had been overindulging of late, so the walk did me good.  It was a scenic walk and there were dozens of other people who had the same idea.  The weather was exceptionally good, so I couldn't really blame them.

The walk across this famous bridge is a great way to see the city, and the walk across the water comes with a strong breeze which helps to clear the lungs.  It takes you out of the density of the city and into the natural surrounds.  It also gives the truly wonderful experience of seeing Manhattan slowly growing before you as you get closer and closer.  As you're about halfway across you feel completely enclosed by the web of cables that cover the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge, I kept on walking until I reached Russ & Daughters.  New York's old Jewish eateries are spit into delis and appetizers.  Traditionally, the delis deal with all of the meats like the pastramis and salamis, whereas the appetizers deal with the various fish like sturgeon and salmon.  Sadly for New York, it seems like the continued gentrification of the city is pushing more and more of these great places out to the wayside.  Thankfully Russ & Daughters remains and it still does a great bagel with lox.

I didn't have anything to do that day, so I just took advantage of the good weather to walk around.  I walked up towards midtown and looked at the elegant art deco forms of the Chrysler Building.  There's no climbing to the top of this building, and you don't really get much out of visiting it.  Instead, it is there to be looked at from a distance, to be admired from a far.

As it started to get dark, I walked over to One World Trade Centre.  I had booked a time to go to the very top, so I needed to get in line to make my way up to the top.  Before heading up, I stood at the bottom of the building and looked straight up.  This is now the tallest building in New York, a reminder of the loss of the old towers which used to stand in this space.

From the viewing floors near the top, you get an incredible view of the whole of New York.  I've always enjoyed going to the top of the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, but this may now take the crown of the best viewing platform in New York.  It's location downtown along with its height means that you can see far off into the distance all the way to Midtown.

I loved standing at the windows and looking out at the city.  Even from up here, it was such a hive of of constant activity.

The New

I'm glad I went to Montreal.  It was a nice change from the United States.  It's such a close flight, I'm surprised there aren't more Americans visiting for a holiday.  Maybe that old cliche about Americans never leaving America is sadly more true than we realise.

I was back in New York now.  I had a few more days before I would be heading back home so I wanted to embrace as much of this great city as possible.  I got myself an airbnb up in Spanish Harlem which was now firmly in the grips of gentrification.  I had been traveling for a while, so I had some chores that I needed to do first, in particular laundry.  I walked downstairs and found the closest laundromat.  Hanging around in a laundromat felt like something out of a sitcom.  The low hum of the machines and the occasional sounds of Spanish conversations continued on as I sat there patiently waiting for my clothes to wash and dry.

Once all my chores were done, I set out for the New Museum in Nolita.  I had tried to visit the last time I was in New York, but it had sadly been closed.  New York is filled with galleries and museums, but the "New" would definitely be considered one of the "big" galleries of the city, even if slightly below the likes of Mona, the Guggenheim and the Whitney.  I went in and found it almost deserted.

There was a strange mixture of art and displays throughout the gallery.  There wasn't a particularly theme to anything and each floor seemed dedicated to its own particular show or category.  I wasn't quite sure if there was a permanent display, possibly this was what was there on the top floor, with all the other floors instead seeming to be dedicated to temporary exhibits.

Nothing really grabbed me.  The displays were interesting enough, but nothing was memorable.  What I actually found to be far more eye catching was the interiors of the building itself.

There was a sparseness to the design of the building, with huge amounts of polished concrete, white and light being used to accentuate the clean designs.

I walked around for a bit before I walked towards the cobbled streets of Soho.  The contrast between the New and the old world charm of Soho was as dramatic as it comes.