Tuesday, April 17th, 2007...6:56 am
You Gotta Love This City For Its Body And Not Its Brain
The title of this post comes from a song by The Whitlams called Gotta Love This City. If you don’t live in Australia chances are you will have never heard of these guys. The song was written shortly after Sydney won the bid for the Olympic Games and is a bitter view of how the city sold out. It says alot about how superficial we can be sometimes.
I love living in Sydney but peoples attitudes are often frustrating. There’s a certain level of detachment to Sydney folk, a touch of arrogance, and of course there’s the posing and posturing. Everyone gets caught up in it, myself included. It comes with being the most fast paced and competitive city in the country. But it also means it can be a very lonely place at times.
When I was in Melbourne for the Formula 1 a few years ago I was surprised at how different the atmosphere was. Everyone was so laid back and friendly. I found myself having casual conversations with complete strangers when I was waiting for trains. In Sydney it’s the complete opposite. Everyone keeps to themselves and avoids making eye contact most of the time.
Yet for all Sydney’s shortcomings I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. The picture below demonstrates why.
7 Comments
April 17th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
I’m Sydney born and bred, which is partly why I am saddened by the characteristics you describe and why I now enjoy living up on the coast, where it’s actually ok to make eye contact and say g’day to perfect strangers. I really do think the Olympics caper was one of the worst things that could have happened and no doubt has something to do with NSW being currently a financial mess with collapsing infrastructure.
And up here on the Gold Coast (the southern, basically unspoilt part) you can stop and have a chat. Besides which, the air is so clean and you can swim in the sea without wondering what lurgy you are going to come down with tomorrow. I still love to visit the Smoke. And try as the coffee shops do up here - i.e. not hard enough - it’s not possible to get coffee made well, consistently, so I OD on coffee when I visit. Great place to visit and I love getting together with my friends there. American colleagues find the hotel rates a shock.
Enjoy it while your lungs stand up to it, mate.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Des - The Olympics were fun at the time but when the excitement wore off everyone quickly realised how pointless it all was.
You must have great whether up on the Gold Coast. It’s been a mess here over the last few years. You get hot days in winter, cold days in summer - the lines between seasons really seems to be blurring.
The coffee might be terrible in those coffee shops but I find the food is great. The cafes in smaller cities and towns really put some effort into their cooking, and the nicest part of all is it’s so much cheaper than Sydney.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:38 am
hey Dan - one thing to say to you mate - Brisvegas (we even have a bridge)
Still a big country town in some ways which is part of the appeal to me.
Love your work - cheers - Coach
April 18th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
That’s right, gloat.. but come global warming us brits’ll have the last laugh MUAHAHAhahahahahahaaaaa
April 19th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Coach - I really need to get up to Queensland. People rave about it but I’ve only ever been there once when I was very young and I can hardly remember it. Alot of people I know have moved up to Queensland so there must be something to it.
Vics - When you freeze to death?
April 19th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Dan
I’m technically in NSW, as in Tweed Heads, but I swim at Coolangatta and Rainbow Bay so I guess there is rarely a day I don’t spend some time in Qld. I came to Qld - specifically Brisbane - years ago to work and it was a different place, which a lot of people, e.g. some well known journos, were keen to get out of and down to the bright lights. Quite different now and with cheap flights you can do the Sydney or Melbourne thing much more easily than before.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Sydney does have a lot of visual appeal, that’s a certainty but there are days where I feel like packing up and leaving it all behind, but they’re related more to the CBD. The ‘burbs are where it’s all at. The city does have it’s hot spots, clubs and the like, as well as the shopping, but the suburbs are friendlier, and -right now- I wouldn’t swap Dully (and all its surrounding suburbs) for any other.
I felt the same way about Melbourne, random people are willing to initiate a conversation. In Sydney, due to its density, it’s always the opposite. My relatives recently complained about the lack of eye contact, and they live in rural SA.
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