Blogs from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 657

I also attended a protest against a Conference of the world's top 300 CEO's, which was organized by Forbes. This was also quite disappointing. I didn't really get the feeling that the protest was a popular movement, but just a group of a few hundred students, anarchists and other disaffected groups of people. The group of people marched to the Opera House, where the conference was being held. However the Opera House had been completely fenced off, and surrounded with hundreds of cops (who probably out numbered the protesters). Some people started swinging on the fences, and eventually broke through, at which point the police charged in en-masse, including a number of police on horses! It was about then (with the adrenaline pumping from the excitement of it all) that I decided that I didn't want ... read more

Sunday morning came early and we headed to the airport. We were so sad to leave Lynds, but just kept praying that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. MN and I arrived in Sydney at about 12 p.m. to a most beautiful day! We were so excited to be outside, it was awesome! Before we left we had decided to rent a car, because our apartment was a $75 dollar taxi ride away. So after getting all that squared away, he hands us the keys and we put our luggage into our Holden Astra. MN and I were really really nervous because of the left lane and driving in the passenger side. I volunteered to drive and we were on our way. Talk about a scene! MN had about eight maps out ... read more

Over the weekend I attended the Sydney Social Forum. In all honesty I was a bit disappointed. It did provide an interesting insight into how things are in Australia. Their government is WAY worse than ours on things like refugees and the war in Iraq. Most of the sessions just seemed like a bit of a talk-fest, with no real talk of action which could be taken immediately. Many sessions were about plans of how the world could work (grand socialist schemes) which didn't seem to place any focus on the implementation. The turn-out of 300 people seemed a little low for a city of 3 million! The whole forum seemed a bit scattered, there were no events which brought all the people together, and I thought that more could have been done to introduce people ... read more

Hey one and all... Sorry we haven't been on much, internet isn't easy to get to... Tomorrow we leave for Cairns, and the real world comes crashing back. No more sleeping in til 10, sitting on the beaches all day reading, we have to find jobs. Manly is awesome...soooooo quiet, awseome beaches, lots of Ice Cream and Fish and Chips... Love you all and Talk to you soon, Tahnk you everyone for replying, please keep us up to date on whats happening on the other side of the world... Love Neil and Heather ... read more

Sunday before last: Adam ran in the City to Surf race, and did a great job. With him running were tons of people in costumes..Our favorites included Men at Work (running, towing a fridge with beer), men dressed in sperm outfits (promoting condoms), gorillas (apparently there was a whole pack of them), and Tricky Dick (a man wearing a Nixon mask and undies, and nothing else.). After Adam finished, Mel, Jan and I sat on the beach for the afternoon and played frisbee (much to the chagrin of our surrounders) and played with the waves. There were people in the water; the water was relatively warm, but there was some wind, so it was too cold outside for my tastes to go in. Soon, surf lesson though. Last Sunday: Andrew, Adam and I set off with ... read more