Category: Australia (Page 13 of 22)

2013/08/01 / Nic / 41 Comments

Sydney has been having a pretty warm winter. I think the average has been around 19 Celsius and it regularly gets into the 20’s. I haven’t bothered that much with warm clothing but last night the temperature dropped and I was out in only a light jacket.

This isn’t the first time it’s been pointed out to me that winters in Korea are really really cold. I’ve only been in Korea during spring and summer but when we move there it will be winter. I’m in for a nasty shock I think. My body will not be used to that at all, which why I think 13 degrees is cold! Meanwhile British people in Sydney are walking around in t-shirts saying, “What lovely summer weather this is!” but Sydney-siders are rugged up in winter coats and scarves.

Stay tuned for my commentary on Korean winters next year! If I haven’t died…

Also, I’ve just arrived in my hometown and I’m staying here for a few days. My husband is still in Sydney for work though. It is colder in my hometown than in Sydney. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Australia is always warm and sunny, there is a huge variation of temperature and weather.

Also, I still have that poo song stuck in my head. Arghhhh!

Cuddle Time

2013/07/23 / Nic / 27 Comments

I think I won in the end and made him come over to my bed. So we’ve moved into a much better place but we haven’t got everything sorted yet. Still need a double bed and some other stuff.

We are sharing with another couple who I kinda already knew so looks like things will be a lot better here. If you are wondering why we just don’t get an apartment to ourselves – it’s not that we are super poor – Sydney is just so expensive! Especially where we need to live (it’s cheaper the further you go out into the suburbs but we need to be in an expensive area because of work). Studio apartment prices start at about $450 a WEEK. So it’s cheaper to just share. Sydney is a beautiful city but there are a lot of problems too. I wish developers would stop putting in luxury apartments and just put in normal apartments people can afford.

Shut Down

2013/07/15 / Nic / 2 Comments

He likes to think that it shut down because he got food poisoning from there over a year ago. Actually it’s a chain restaurant so it could have just moved. Anyway he wanted to feel like he had a win against a restaurant that did nothing when we complained and didn’t even apologise.

It was 2 days after our Australian wedding and we had taken his sister and father to Sydney because they were flying back to Korea. We were staying with my parents (in my home town) at that time so didn’t have an apartment in Sydney. We were going to have a nice day in Sydney before going back to my home town. Then he got food poisoning from that place and was sick all night and the next day had to be on a train for a few hours. Poor Mr Gwon! I knew he was so sick when he was refusing to eat…. or even talk! I managed to get him to my aunt’s house where we stayed until he recovered.

Just a reminder: I’m not uploading comics on weekends now so I have enough time for some other projects.

Chop Chop

2013/06/30 / Nic / 14 Comments

“Chop Chop” meaning to “hurry hurry” is something my mum says a lot. My husband picked it up from her and uses it sometimes. The funny thing is that phrase was originally in Cantonese! I didn’t know that until I did a quick search about it. It was adopted by English seaman from Chinese workers. The earliest mention of it in print is in an English newspaper in China in 1834. And the earliest mention of it outside of China was in a London newspaper in 1909. (Wikipedia).

It obviously became a part of Australian English as well and I find it funny that my husband is learning a phrase in English that was originally rooted in Cantonese. I always find the history of words and phrases really interesting.

Supanova Sydney 2013

2013/06/24 / Nic / 9 Comments

This is our video of our Supanova experience! We didn’t have much time as my husband had to work that night and my brother was only in Sydney for the day. It was really crowded inside, even more so because people couldn’t hang around outside as much due to the rain. I’d really like to see it in a bigger venue next year (though we are unlikely to go as we’ll be in Korea).

We really liked seeing the Game of Thrones costumes. My other favourite was the Futurama ones. It’s always cool seeing the effort people go to.

It would be nice to see more areas for people to sit and talk to others. People are forced to sit on cold cement up on the second level walkway. Also an area for children is needed as well I think, there seems to be more children every year and it would make it easier for them and their parents if they were catered for too.

Overall it’s still a really cool experience and we enjoyed it, even though we were functioning on only 4 hours sleep.

Sneeze

2013/06/12 / Nic / 54 Comments

Ew boogers. I think he is a little bit more ready than me. Probably because he doesn’t have to be the one giving birth.

We have a plan for children but we need to wait a few years. It does help having a plan about children, especially when we go to Korea and get asked when we are going to have a baby all the time. That is a bit of a difference between Australia and Korea. Some people in Australia might ask, but a lot of people don’t because it is a very personal question. It’s way more acceptable to ask in Korea so I’m glad we can easily say “In a few years” when we get asked. If we weren’t planning on having children or if either of us had some medical problems or something, that question would get really stressful. We’ve already had some Korean friends urge us to have a baby right away, so sometimes even the “in a few years” line doesn’t work, but the time isn’t right at the moment.

So for now we’ll just enjoy all our friend’s babies.

Homeschool

2013/06/06 / Nic / 54 Comments

This is another one of those times we realise the differences in our childhoods. I wasn’t home schooled but I knew lots of people who were for at least part of their education. So that joke is quite funny to me.

I tried to research a bit on home-schooling in South Korea but mostly got sites for foreigners. I did read it is illegal in Korea, but I’m not sure if that is true. When I ask my husband he just says something about “duty of education”.

From what I can gather foreigners are allowed to home-school their children but Korean children must attend school. Leave a comment if you know more about this.

Were you home-schooled? Do you know other people who were home-schooled? Any other jokes about being home-schooled?