The JaYmes Escape

“It’s arctic out there isn’t it”, said the man in the shop this morning as I bought a new umbrella. In Sydney anything below about 15 degrees seems to be considered ‘freezing’ so I suppose 10 would be ‘arctic’. “Ooh yes”, I politely responded, remembering to myself the subzero snow and ice of Russia and Finland 18 months ago, not to mention a lifetime of English winters. So much for ‘whinging Poms’.

I last bought an umbrella eleven months ago on my first day in Sydney, when after months of drought torrential rain drowned the city. No such luck for me this year; that same umbrella caught the wind and bit the dust on a rainy day last week.

The distinct arrival of winter is a reminder that my time in this country is almost over. If I’m still here in another month I’ll probably get locked up in one of those scary looking immigration centres and what with that and the weather, heading north seems like an all-round good idea. The long journey home is going to start with a visit to Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the outback. Then it’ll be on to Darwin up on the north coast where I’ll fly to Singapore.

Pictures from last month’s trip to Byron Bay and Brisbane are waiting for you in the gallery along with some other bits in the New South Wales album.