Sydneysiders Us

So we now have a flat. Move in on Wednesday with any luck. Yay.

The flat is a studio flat off Oxford Street, quite near Hyde Park (yes, Sydney thinks it's London). We're also quite near The Botanical Gardens. Not bad! We lowered our budget quite a lot once we realised Anne may have a problem finding a job, but it'll certainly do us for three months, and we like the location. Oxford Street is quite back-packery, and Anne likes to think it's quite bohemian. Anne would like to be bohemian, but I'm a chartered accountant so I think that excludes me from ever joining her. The Mardi Gras (big gay parade) goes down Oxford Street on Sunday, so we'll have front row seats.

Another member of The Economist staff has arrived in Sydney - Hassan. He's over for two weeks and is staying with Andrew and Shae too. Anne is feeling left out since she's never worked at The Economist. We tease her, but try to sympathise as much as we feel we ought.

But the really important thing on everyone's minds? What films have I watched? Glad you asked. We've been quite slack since we got here really, prefering to run round Sydney in a sweat looking for jobs and somewhere to live rather than watch films. However, since we thought it was to wet to go to the short-film festival on Sunday we hired The Castle on video instead. This is an Aussie comedy from 1997 and I remember it received good reviews in the UK when it was released. It was a funny, strange man-versus-government film and deserves the four stars I'm giving it.

Then, on Monday night, Anne and I went to the Manly Twin Cinemas and saw The Quiet American. This is directed by an Aussie, Phillip Noyce (who also recently directed Rabbit Proof Fence), stars Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser and is set in Vietnam in the fifties. A very decent, interesting film which didn't out-stay its welcome. Four stars. (I'm being generous lately aren't I?)

So two films in just over a week. Not a terrible rate, but not up to my Tokyo score. Keep watching this space.