"Chookie" wrote in message
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:

Only if you want a decent conversation with people. My biggest problem
when
in Sydney is finding someone I can be bothered talking to. I have
trouble
finding Sydney people who actually 'do' things - busy, busy, busy all the
ttime but not actually 'doing' anything other than what I would put into
the
category of 'socialising' and 'having fun'. There is only so much that
can
be meaningfully said about those activites before bordom sets in.

I've met them too, but I must say that none of them are librarians! Do
you
have relatives in banking or finance or something? They tend not to want
to
talk shop, for some reason... My friends tend to be in "Doing"
professions
like teaching and engineering.

No rellies in finance or banking, anywhere. I do have a number of librarian
friends, in fact all 3 of my closest female friends (of nearly 40 years)
trained as librarians but none of them have ever worked in Sydney.

The Sydney people I know best are my sister and her family, medicos,
business people (mostly better off), and my husbands family (most of whom
have now left Sydney and those that haven't are tolerable for a short time
but still have the "up with the Jones" Sydney mentality).

It might help if Sydney was full of librarians but even they might get
seduced by the typical Sydney mindset (Melbourne has a similar one).

One story I tell about my issue with the Sydney mindset is: for my sister's
big 50th, I bought her the complete Oxford in Micrographic form (cost about
$300 - she's a bibliophile). Her husband bought her a $50,000 diamond ring
a humungeous and very ugly single diamond solitaire.

Big party, we are the only non-Sydney people there. All those who arrive
should know of my sister's passion for books as she talks of little else
other than golf (her husband still hasn't figured out her preference for
books even after decades of marriage). Everyone who comes in the door
wants to see the ring, The first thing she says to them after a quick flash
of the ring is "Come and see what my sister bought me!" And she carts them
off to see a dictionary and they all look quite bewildered at her
excitement.

Mind you, even my book loving sister has only now got onto the No1 Ladies
Detective Agency and I can't remember how long since I read the last one of
those. I know there is a new one out coming shortly.

I can give Sydney about 2 days for the Opera and museums/galleries etc and
after that, I'm well over it and just want to escape.

The only thing that keeps me in S is money, or lack of it,

Yeah. I can understand that, having been a wage slave for years. But
then
in the country it is surprising how little some people live on very
happily
and very successfully.

Well, in our case it's the prospect of ageing relatives (my Dad is still
independent, but he turned 88 last week) and that my hubby will only ever
be employed in either Sydney or Bleak City, and he'll never stop being a
programmer -- it's his vocation, and not one that can be fulfilled outside
of
a major city.

:-)) I like that reference to Bleak City but it certainly couldn't be a
reference to the weather given that it gets more sunlight hours per year
than Brisbane.

But we've always known these things, and that's why I have a large block
(by Sydney standards, and given our other need for being less than half
an hour
from the city). It was one of the essential criteria for our house.

My husband started out as a programmer in Bleak City way back in the early
days of the industry. We escaped after only 10 years to live in the
country. He still commuted and stayed in the profession before moving into
straight management where his analytical skills resulting from the IT
background were very useful. Our earliest amibitions were to have 5 acres
in the country. Now we have 2 farms. Maybe a case of be careful what you
wish for?