I stand corrected. Apparently there are not 650 suburbs in Sydney, there are 763.

Through my real estate work I’m still visiting a couple of new ones pretty much every day, including a few way way out of the city (165km each way on the scooter in the rain aint that much fun)

At some point soon I will update my real estate portfolio to show some of my favourite properties from Oz so far.

Other than working long long days I’ve not had time for a whole lot of anything else really…except seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3D at the Imax (I was expecting an audience of kids and poor film and was actually surprised by it being pretty good and the audience being 90% adult)

So far, my overriding impression of Sydney is of bush with houses crammed in all over the place and a glimpse of water through the foliage somewhere. I’ve seen a thousand different versions of this scene and at the moment it just doesnt seem to get old…

Photo dump of yet more suburbs…

This month I emerged from my semi retirement slumber to shoot 44 houses (I will put some up in a post later), I’ve visited or driven through approximately 250 of the 650 suburbs in Sydney (many of which are named after English towns or suburbs), I’ve covered 2400km on the scooter (knackering), and earned…well thats none of your business but its certainly been the best month since leaving London 14 months ago…

Now just need a few more months like this to get back on my feet before the world turns to moosh, and then we can plan some sort of longer term future… This place is growing on me, its got a real sense of character with the water dominating everything in the east of the city…now if it just had some mountains within easy reach I could see myself sticking around for a while…

A few photos from various random suburbs I have liked whilest passing through.

Working hard on getting our lives set up here in Sydney so havent been posting much recently…

Shouldnt really post this but couldnt resist:

One of my first jobs for a new client here…

Huge apartment with a balcony with pretty outragious views…

Boat parking space…

Four (yes 4) swimming pools in the basement

OZ$ 6 Million…

Not bad really…:)

Tucked away in central Otago is a place called Bannockburn. It is an arid alpine desert which receives a huge amount of sun each year and very little rain. As a consequence it produces some of the best wine in New Zealand. It was also torn apart by gold hunters for years and rumour has it that there is still plenty of gold left in the hills.

I have been down there a few times recently to shoot plots of very expensive land…

A phone call out of the blue, a trial morning, and the contract was signed…dropped her off at 6am this morning to start here as a chef…

Its a 5 star hotel with an award winning restaurant and another A la carte restaurant about to open, so lots of potential to gain experience and move up in the kitchens.

Also as an employee of the Accor Hotel Group, she gets hugely discounted rooms in any of their hotels. So far I have narrowed down our next holiday to either Fiji or Bora Bora…:)

More on her hotel here: http://www.oakridge.co.nz/