Australia - Sydney

Aunty Jo-Jo@ Circular Quay, Sydney

Sydney, Australia was my home for over two years.

I fell in love with it at first sight, as countless others have. Once I got over the seduction of the the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, I began to explore other facets of the city. Here's a sample of what I discovered...

• Sydney Olympics 2000 was another dream come true! Living right of the city was the best thing that could have happened. I watched volleyball, badminton, marathon and best of all - I witnessed Cathy Freeman cross the finish line to win the 400m gold medal! That night, I learnt to sing Advance Australia Fair, the national anthem
• Music is alive and well in Sydney. Together with my best friend Trish, I heard some of the best live music ever. I was introduced to the sounds of Van Morrison at the Basement, Kylie Minogue at Sydney Entertainment Centre and even the Harlem Gospel Choir at Angel Theatre
• Food is an art form. I learnt this from some of my friends, Glenn and Pierre, who are professional chefs. Glenn taught me that freshly-squeezed organic orange juice is one of the best things in the world. And Pierre taught me that IKEA knives are a no-no(at least, not if you want to be taken seriously ;-)
• Alternative lifestyles are OK. We are all different and we need to learn how to embrace those differences, while still holding on to our personal values and beliefs

Australia - Dubbo

Where, you ask?

Well, Dubbo is a town in central-west New South Wales, approximately 420kms from Sydney. While it may not feature prominently on the world map, it has a big place in my heart because of the Christmas I spent with the Mawbey family - the warmest, loveliest, down-to-earth people I have ever met.

L to R: Mawbey's Daughters - Michelle, Marie (a.k.a Mum), Lyndal, Tania...and Grant (in orange)

Tania and I worked together in PwC Sydney, and she kindly invited home to spend Christmas with her family in 2001. The Mawbeys welcomed this lonely little Asian into their home with such warmth, they completely won me over! I was introduced to classic Aussie fare such as ham, curried eggs, tuna bake and coconut tart....and I loved it! I even got the recipes off Marie, but unfortunately, have never succeeded in re-producing her masterpieces. It's probably because of the lack of one key ingredient - unconditional family love.

One incident that I remember fondly took place during the Christmas Carol Service at the Dubbo Oval (cricket ground). A reporter from the local newspaper approached us to take photos, and Barry (a.k.a Dad) introduced me as Joanna Mawbey!

Aunty Jo-Jo facing her first bull on the Mawbey family farm...yikes!

Another first for me was a real-life bull rodeo! One of Tania's cousins gallantly offered to ride a bull for me to watch. So off we went to the family farm at Gilgandra and I watched him battle a one-ton bull. WOW...

He later killed a goat and threw it on the barbie just for me - DOUBLE WOW...

Australia - Memories and Images

I have so many memories from the four years I lived in Australia - and even more photos! Here are some images that spring to mind whenever I think of my life Down Under.

Beautiful nightime view of Sydney Harbour Bridge & Opera House, taken from my friend Rene Bommer's apartment in Mc Mahon's Point

And in contrast, a sunrise view of Brisbane's Story Bridge taken from my apartment. I spent countless hours looking at that reflection off the water, contemplating life..

Noosa Beach on the Sunshine Coast was one of my favourite weekend retreats when living in Queensland. Especially one delightful weekend when I discovered the lifeguard training grounds ...heh...heh...

View of the amazing 75-mile Beach on Fraser Island, from a single-engine Cessna plane. I stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort gratis, thanks to my pal Jo Cabritit who worked there

Aunty Jo-Jo on her annual pilgrimage to the Floriade in Canberra. The sight of thousands of colourful flowers does indeed make one's heart sing for joy!

Australia - Brisbane

Views from Aunty JoJo's apartment in Brisbane, Queensland

The State of Origin Rugby League match is played annually between Queensland and New South Wales. And although I've spent more years living in Sydney, I am an ardent supporter of the Maroons (Queensland). And this is because Brisbane was the place where all my adventures in Australia began.

In August 1999, I was offered the chance to work for Queensland Power Trading Corporation as part of the PwC team. I jumped at the chance and re-located to sunny Brisbane. Some of my happiest moments include:-

• Waking up every morning for a walk along the river to the Botanical Gardens, and back, before going to work. It's especially beautiful when the purple jacaranda trees are in bloom


• Lobster dinners (almost!) every weekend at Breakfast Creek Wharf for A$10 - and they come with free champagne ....aah...those were the days before I had to worry about cholesterol


• Watching my friend, Jenette, scream when a Chinese waiter unveiled the "phoenix claws" dim sum (a.k.a chicken feet) in Fortitude Valley


• Visiting Newstead House - Brisbane's oldest surviving residence - for the first time. It was a museum that allows visitors to touch and try, which was fantastic!


• Driving around in a cool Toyota Celica that I rented from Georgie, a colleague from QPTC

Best of all were the PEOPLE - Queenslanders are dinky-di Ozzies and proud of it! I quickly discovered that I needed to learn Strine after missing two meetings because I didn't know what an arvo was. It's Aussie slang for "afternoon". By the time I left a year later, my collection had expanded to over 100 phrases and here are some of my favourites...

• Free grog - Alcoholic beverages free of charge (good to learn in any language :-)


• Up Shit's Creek in a barbed wire canoe without a paddle - Hopeless situation


• Off like a bucket of prawns in the hot sun - Spoilt / Rotten


• Up at sparrow's fart - Wake up very early in the morning


• Technicolour yawn - What happens when you're drunk :-P

But please don't ask me the difference between a woos and a sook. I innocently asked this question at work one day, and set off a 2-hour debate which left me none the wiser.

Australia - Great Ocean Road

Australia is a blessed land, "girt by sea" and filled with mile after mile of gorgeous (and expensive!) ocean views.

I fulfilled one of my dreams in August 2006 by driving the length of the Great Ocean Road. Staying just ahead of a tour bus filled with Chinese nationals, I drove all the way from Geelong to the London Bridge - 260kms (one way!) and back to Geelong.

• All along the way, I found myself torn between the majestic ocean views and the emerald green hinterland scenes. So I stopped for morning tea, lunch, coffee, afternoon tea and lots of photos in between.

In addition to the world-famous Twelve Apostles and London Bridge, I fell in love with a little town called Apollo Bay. The foreshore views of the bay are breathtaking - among some of the best I've seen in the world.

Aunty Jo-Jo@ Twelve Apostles, Victoria