My first visitor in Sydney

I’ve only been here for two and a half weeks and I already have to tour my first visitor around Sydney. My former coworker and co-unemployed from Hood & Strong, Amin Namakian, decided to do his last leg of his tour from Japan to China to Australia before heading back to the bay area…and because he gets a free stay at our house!

The same day he arrived, I got my Medicare number. That means I can go to a primary doctor, do physical checkups, go to the emergency room all for free! Whew!!! I didn’t have insurance for almost a month since leaving Hood & Strong. So I’m glad I didn’t get sick. That’s the nice thing about their Medicare here. They’re very generous. Although if you need to get an eye check up or go to the dentist, you will need to purchase your own insurance (companies don’t usually provide insurance to their employees so most people buy their own insurance). But Medicare will pay a portion of your cost for going to these doctors. Nice!

Anywho, so I took Amin to Darling Harbour (I’ve never been there myself), took the ferry towards Circular Quay, walked to the Sydney Opera House then went home. We walked around Norton St (the street just around the corner from our house) and checked out the night life. Amin liked the area.

Next day, we went to the Blue Mountains to see the 3 Sisters. I would associate the Blue Mountains to our Grand Canyon in Arizona. The place is just amazing. The theory was there used to be water below the mountains and the 3 sisters used to be 5 spikes. Overtime, they crumbled and broke off. In a few years, one will fall off. Then another. Then there will be none. The tale of how the 3 Sisters came about was that these three sisters were turned into stone by a witchdoctor because they were not allowed to marry the men they were to marry. Unfortunately, the witchdoctor eventually died and so the sisters never came back to life. That sucks! After the blue mountains, we went to the small town of Leura while waiting for Natasha who went bushwalking at the Valley of the Waters. I’d like to go hiking one of these days back at the blue mountains to see more of it and to see the beautiful waterfalls. One of these days.

We got back to Leichhardt (by the way, we learned that Leichhardt is not only the Italian Community here but I guess its also were the lesbians live….yikes! Not that there’s anything wrong with that). We all had dinner at the Universal Hotel (hotel really means a bar and restaurant around here) for less than $10 steaks. I got the rump steak…I didn’t know that meant an ‘ass’ of something. But it was good! I’m not really a steak person anyway…mama, did you guys use up the Ruth’s Chris Steak house giftcard? Better use it now and get a taste of what celebrities eat. Avoid chicken for now because of the bird flu.

After dinner, Amin and I went to check out Newtown where they have lots of cafes, bars and restaurants, too. (FYI for me next time: take the bus on Norton St and get off at the corner of Norton and Paramatta. R on Paramatta, L of Railway St and find the Petersham train station ahead. Take the train towards the city and get off on Newtown station). We went to Kelly’s Sports bar to watch a soccer game then went to Zanzibar for some drinks. This was a nice one. Inside the bar, there were a couple of women wearing ‘3 minute angels’ T-shirt who were giving massages to anyone. We found out that these women are all over the city giving 10-15minute massages and collecting a charge to whatever the customer felt the service was worth. Amin got one. Overall, Newtown is a nice hang out place. More people are dressed down in this area compared to Norton St (maybe because they’re Italians???).

Next day, Amin and I went to check out the Powerhouse Museum (another place I haven’t been to). Since it was raining that day, we couldn’t really go to the zoo or the beach. Then we went to Chinatown to look at some cheap stuff. I didn’t buy anything…still on a budget. I saw Easy Way (the boba place) but I resisted myself…still on a budget. That was about it for the day coz it was raining all day.

The following day, I had a few interviews with a couple of recruiters and a company called Verisign (I’m sure you are well aware of this company. When you make payments online or log on to some secured websites, Verisign is the one that authenticates and provides the security). For some reason, the interviewer and I got to talk about sports in the bay area. Coz he’s been to the bay area (including Silicon Valley as I assume that’s where Verisign is). I mentioned to him that the Niners and the Raiders had won their respective football games and that I am rooting for any bay area teams. He says, “did you say ‘rooting’? How long have you been here?” I said two and a half weeks. It took him about 30 seconds to explain to me that ‘rooting’ is a slang word that means having sex. We had a good laugh about it. Cool guy. Good company and that job seems interesting. I just hope they offer it to me…only after I approve that the chocolate candies (Tim Tams) he offered me are good. Apparently, a candidate accepted a job because he liked the free Tim Tams around the office…I’m sure he was just kidding.