mehman

I haven't been swimming for a while, need to get my endurance back first...

All the best! Is there a website that lists all upcoming an past ocean swims?

Aha! You're onto me. Though I haven't done any ocean swimming yet, I'm planning on the Bondi to Bronte this December. Do you do many?

Aha, must visit. http://concreteplayground.com/sydney/travel-leisure/leisure/the-ten-best-outdoor-pools-in-sydney/

Many of my friends are Reds and they are not so bad after all. I think I'll let it slide this time around ;-)

Manchester eh ? Which side of the train tracks? Red or Blue ?!

I am more keen on making the North Sydney Olympic Pool my local. Looks stunning and a mere 20 minutes away door to door !

You keep attributing the 'beige' quote to me, I NEVER said that. I never said it was beige. I said I disliked the place. Show me where I said 'beige', its getting a bit irritating now.

If you move to Canada, then eventually it leads to getting the legal right to live/work in the US. That could be a +ve for some people as the job market there is better than Australia. Just something to think about.

PG = Paying Guest. While I don't have any experience with Hobart, my advice to you is to go visit the place before you move lock stock and barrel. It might not be what you are expecting in your mind. All the best !

Theres a thicket of trees between the station and Burra Road, that probably helps as a natural sound barrier :-). Good to know, thanks for sharing.

Hello, Sorry to hear that! It seems you are right at the edge of the M1/M2 and the Industrial area ! I'm looking at Francis Road. When I checked out the apartment it seemed quiet enough...now I'm worried again bah !

Yeah, I was having a horrid time viewing apartments, and then I saw this one and I had an 'aha' moment. Well comparatively speaking it is better. Not the best, but its OK. I've been wondering for a while why a lot of these apartments/houses have not been upgraded at all. The property market is so hot, that landlords have no incentive to spruce up their lettings. They know that anything and everything gets rented so why bother. Shame really, but hey, thats the price for living in a big metro. I'm just stoked that I'm only 15-20 minutes away from the North Sydney Pool. http://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/Odi15M7AKWaCZU6qm_yX1g/l.jpg

Actually, I quite liked Artarmon. Its leafy, 20 minutes into the city, 20 minutes to the North Sydney Olympic pool (being close to a pool is super important to me). I checked out a number of houses in Cremorne, Neutral Bay and Crows Nest and sad to say the noise levels are pretty high in some of those areas. Also for what I can afford, the houses are way too small. I happened to see a link somewhere which says freight trains headed north usually take the Strathfield -> Epping route, so we should be sorted on that front !

Not on weekdays, only on Saturdays it seems.

oh! Any idea how I can figure out how many trains pass through Artarmon at night?

Hi Folks, I'm thinking of renting in Artarmon, on the west side of the tracks where the highrises are. I'm worried that the trains might make a racket though. Does anyone have any experience living in Artarmon and what the noise levels are like? Especially at night. Thanks! M

No ramot, I wasn't pointing fingers at anyone in particular. Thanks for taking the time out to try and help me get over the blues :-)

Hahaha, you're onto something there. I was considering deleting my post as the quick fix solutions I was being given were intellectually lazy in my opinion. Anyway, I don't want a flame war, I was feeling down and out and just vented. Won't happen again on here! Some dude is judging me for renting in Willoughby, I don't even know what to say. Maybe I should say Lakemba and let the stereotypes play out.

US, UK, Singapore now Australia. In the order of my preference: UK > Singapore > US > Australia. I've spent the past decade or so flitting about and having a whale of a time. I liked the UK for the sheer diversity of it all. Easy access to the length and breadth of the country, easy to assimilate into the local culture. A great drinking culture. Pubs beats Bars any day :-). Craic. Accessibility to Europe which is great. Most importantly the weather. I love the cold and mist. Not kidding. Singapore was amazing as it helped me springboard into the rest of Asia. Introduced to an amazingly different cuisine i.e. South East Asian, Chinese and Japanese. Though the weather is a bit extreme for my liking and one does get cage fever after a while, Its a fun place to live for atleast a few years. The US was an experience in itself, however, I need to temper it by saying I only lived in NYC so I have no experience with the country as a whole. NYC was fast, furious, exciting!. Theres a buzz in that city which is hard to describe. I felt that I could achieve anything in that city, its like a drug. If my decade of adventure has taught me anything, then it is that one cannot generalise a whole country and its people. Every place has its USPs. So in terms of MY experiences, Sydney is not high up there. I know a lot of you don't agree and want to psycho analyze my inner demons (lol), but yeah, its average at best. For all the people who say...THE BEACH THE BEACH, well...unless you are very rich, you get cooped into small houses by the beach and that is not my scene. Different strokes for different folks.

Folks, I had not meant for this post to become adversarial. All I wanted to do was vent a bit. This is not my first time at the rodeo and I have lived and worked in 5 different countries. I am well versed with the initial settling in blues and apprehensions. For me this move is missing that oomph. The sense of excitement and adventure that everywhere else has offered. It feels drab and boring. The narrative of 'is there a deeper malaise' is one of the most used pieces of advise whether it comes to questions of job satisfaction or personal relationships. Thats just lazy in my opinion as the person giving that advice has not afforded the poster the benefit of the doubt of not being an idiot. Well, I hope my post helps people weight their decision before they make the jump here. Circumstances are different for all of us, just let this serve as a cautionary tale that its better to come suss this place out before you make the plunge.

2 hours of a commute might be OK for you, but its not for me. Just because some people do it does not mean everyone wants to :-)

Thanks! So I'm not some idiot who feels this way, there are others. This only resolves it for me, that this is not my place after all...

I guess we just got caught up with all the hype. I'm thinking of renting in Artarmon. The houses are a bit of a shocker here but hey, its only 20 minutes into the city, so I'm leaning towards this place.

Good on ya! I cannot move as I work in a specialized field and the few jobs in that field are here in Sydney :-(