Thursday, 12 July 2007

Australian Citizenship

After nearly 5 short years I'm a few weeks away from finally being able to apply for this. On the way back from London a few weeks ago I was looking at my passport, and it had something like 9 different Australian visas plastered inside it; 417, 457's and permanent residencies. I'd forgotten about half of them.

It's the same ordeal for every ex-pat living down here, never ending hassles with the Immigration department. On television, the Australian Government advertise how easy it is to become one of them now, but in reality you need atleast 4 years of living in the country and setting yourself up is far from easy. Still, it has definitely been worth it, and I reckon the passport will be quite a milestone for me.

Over the jet lag now, and back into the swing of things now. It hasn't stopped pissing down with rain for the last week, so Sydney makes even London look like a bright cheerful city at the moment. On Friday I just signed up for the marathon again this year. It's in mid-September again and I'm already beginning to have doubts.  Doing the marathon itself is great, you get a huge buzz from everone cheering you on and ultimately crossing the finishing line, it's just the 2 months training leading up to it that gets abit tiresome.. running 4 times a week.

Survival theme this week; i've been watching the 2nd series of Man vs Wild, Bear Grylls has been in the Everglades, Iceland and Mountains of Mexico�and Outback in Australia so far.  I'd recommend this tv programme to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I've also been reading Miracle in the Andes- 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, the story of a plane crash involving a Uraguyan rugby team, cannibalism and a amazing story of survival an endurance.  I think the movie Alive was based off this.

Going surfing this weekend.

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