home or holiday?

I've been in Sydney for two months now.

It's fair to say the original 'wow' feeling has long since gone. But, hey, that's to be expected. I arrived on a gloriously hot day and was effectively on holiday.

I'm now in 'I live here' mode. I complain about the buses, whinge about the weather and get annoyed about trivial stuff. This isn't a statement of unhappiness, it's merely an appreciation that I am now more 'resident' than I am 'tourist'.

Everything is starting to feel more real. I guess I feel at home and quite settled. If I'm being completely honest, I am now starting to consider whether or not I want to stay beyond July. I guess it's an inevitable consequence for anyone when you start living and working in a place and actually like it.

Backpacking, traveling or whatever you want to call it is very different. Sure, you can love a place while you're exploring it and not want to leave. But you're on holiday. It's how you feel on a Monday when you've got to get up to go to work, when you're having a difficult time and under pressure in the office, when the weather starts getting rubbish that really determines how you feel.

I personally have a much better standard of living and overall feeling of happiness. Perhaps I am still in the honeymoon period. But, then again, I can't help but compare little things here with their equivalents in the UK. Little things like my harbour side stroll to work every day, that begins with a walk past beautiful water, then continues through acres of the enchanting Royal Botanical Gardens, and then ends with, erm, well ends with me sat at a fucking desk in a fucking office, but you get my point.

I never cease to be amazed by the plenitude of fantastic restaurants, cafes and bars that are on my doorstep. Brunch here on a Saturday morning is compulsory in my eyes. Gone are the days of rolling out of bed half pissed and into my front room where, surrounded by the debris from the previous night's festivities, I would heat up a tin of beans or a pot noodle.

Now I roll out of bed half pissed still, but at least it's to an alfresco cafe for some of the finest coffee in the world and food to die for. Today I had poached egg, rocket, sun dried tomatoes, bacon and asparagus on turkish toast, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Top noshing.

This afternoon I will take advantage of the clear blue sky to go to Bondi Beach and this evening I will meander around the bars of Sydney's gay scene, which I can walk home from in around 15 minutes.

I'm not trying to portray this as some kind of holiday lifestyle, because it isn't. I've just done a 45 hour working week, some of which was indescribably boring and last night I had a shit night that ended with me having an argument with a friend.

My point is, I'm living a normal lifestyle here. It just has the advantage of being better overall than my one in London. As I said, time will tell. Maybe location was my biggest problem back home. After all, the fact I used to heat up beans on a Saturday morning in an unclean flat says more about the way I was conducting my life and where I was living than it does about the availability of decent places to have a meal in London...

Time will tell