PocketCultures

Meet Liz, our new contributor from Sydney!

Meet Liz! Liz is our newest regional contributor here at Pocket Cultures, and joins us from Sydney, Australia. Liz has lived and travelled all over Asia, but now she and her family have settled in Sydney, at least for the time being. In today’s interview, Liz tells us all about the best and worst parts of living in Australia, and what surprises people most when visiting her in Sydney (hint: contrary to popular belief, there aren’t kangaroos running wild all over the city!)

 

Tell us a bit about yourself

I live in Sydney, I’m married with two little girls and I love to travel, eat and write. I used to be Deputy Editor of AsiaLIFE Phnom Penh, a lifestyle magazine where I wrote a lot of the food articles and interviewed interesting locals and expats, plus the odd celebrity like singer Ronan Keating when he toured Cambodia. I updated the Phnom Penh section of two editions of the Cambodia & Laos LUXE city guide, wrote a Saigon column for Tiger Tales magazine and have freelanced for various other publications and websites. I also joined the blogosphere a few years ago, first with A Girl in Asia where I blogged about food finds, shopping, cafes and travel in Asia, and now at devoured (www.devoured.com.au) which has similar topics but a Sydney focus.

Where do you live? Where are you from? If those are different, can you tell us a little about what inspired your move?

I live in Sydney’s inner west, which is close to the city centre and a vibrant area with lots of young families and great cafes and markets. Before that I spent a lot of the last decade travelling or living overseas interspersed with some Sydney stints. I spent a year living and working in Canada in the early 2000s, embarked on an 8 month backpacking trip around Asia and the subcontinent a few years later, and more recently spent a few years each living in Phnom Penh  in Cambodia then Saigon in Vietnam. We moved back to Sydney a year ago after having two kids and wanting to be back home amongst loved ones while they’re young. We absolutely loved living in Asia for so many reasons, but there’s a nice feeling of stability, safety and comfort being back ‘home’. I wouldn’t rule out living somewhere overseas in the future though!

Why did you decide to become a Pocket Cultures contributor?

I love the idea that Pocket Cultures reveals intricacies of everyday life from other countries, and is an online meeting place for like-minded travel lovers and people with a more global outlook. One thing I’ve really enjoyed about travel blogging is connecting with great people from all over the world, and I’m hoping that my involvement with Pocket Cultures will provide a similar feeling of connectedness. It’s also a great platform for practicing and sharing writing amongst other bloggers.

Can you describe a typical day for you?

Most days consist of playdates, playgroup, parks and library trips with my extremely energetic 1 and 3 year olds. We try a lot of local cafes and restaurants with cheap eats which they fortunately love just as much as I do. I write and blog when they’re sleeping, or whenever I can sneak it in!

What is the best part of living in Australia? The worst?

Some of the best bits about living in Australia are the opportunities for outdoor activities in a clean, natural environment – something I appreciate so much more after living in urban southeast Asia. The multiculturalism is another thing I love, especially the great food available from all over the world. Again, this is something I realised I really crave after living in Asia where there’s no such thing as popping over to a Greek, Italian or Middle Eastern neighbourhood for food shopping or exploration. Australia’s variety and accessibility to other cultures is fantastic. As for the worst, Australia’s distance from the rest of the world and the cost of reaching most of it is the first thing that springs to mind!

What’s something that visitors are often surprised by when getting to know your country/culture?

Some people are surprised by the rules and regulations of Australia, particularly visitors from less developed places. A friend from Vietnam who was visiting Australia for the first time couldn’t believe you had to stop and wait for a green light before crossing the road – they just wanted to charge out into the traffic and have it magically part like it does in Vietnam! Other people are surprised at the lack of ‘wildlife’ in the cities expecting to spot kangaroos and koalas at every turn, while others perceive  Australia as quite expensive compared to many parts of the world, even the US where most things are considerably cheaper.

Hong Kong Transport

We’ve got three lovely photos today! Our contributor, Ski, has sent in these snaps of some of the variety of transport options there are in Hong Kong. She’s also given us some great commentary!

Tram: These historical trams (since year 1904) certainly deserve a ride (or even more)! To get the best view, head directly to the upper deck and grab a seat/standing space near the windows. Be careful not to stick your head or arms out of the window. Watch out for incoming trams!This is one of the most affordable forms of transport in Hong Kong. Tip: Enter the tram from the back. You only need to pay when you alight.

Private Minibus: You see them in Hong Kong movies. I termed them as the F1 racers of Hong Kong. If you find yourself in one, please sit tight and buckle your seat belt (if any). They drive fast! Tip: If you realise the minibus you are in is not stopping, that is because they won’t, until someone requests to alight or to board. So you’ll need to be familiar with Hong Kong in order to inform the driver when it is time to get off the bus.

Taxi: Not many people in Hong Kong own a car. Most of us rely on public transport or the taxi. So the streets on Hong Kong are usually filled with these red cars! All taxis in Hong Kong go by the meter, so you don’t have to worry about exorbitant charges.

 

Read more:
Ski: The Pursuit of Greater Passion in Life in Hong Kong
Living in Hong Kong
How Difficult is Chinese?

The French and their bread…

As you most likely know, the French could not have a proper meal without bread! How would they eat their cheese, wipe off their plates or make the tartines they dunk in their café au lait?

Bread was discovered by our hunter-gatherer ancestors some 30,000 years ago! No need to tell you that we have had quite some time since to master our technique for producing perfect dough !

10,000 years ago, we domesticated wheat and barley in our green and fertile valleys and were producing a type of flat bread, a modern version of which is still baked in many Mediterranean cultures.

It was not before the Middle Ages that we adopted and institutionalised the art of producing leavened bread which had been “invented” many centuries earlier.

Why didn’t we adopt it earlier!? No one really knows…

Not only bread then became an indispensable part of our feeding habits, but we used large slices of stale bread as “plates” or trenchers. Once the meal finished we gave the trenchers to the poor… or to the dogs…and the beauty of it is that no dish-washing was involved!

Weren’t we generous and smart?!

The colour of our bread evolved with society. Until the late 20th century, wealthy people would not been seen dead buying and eating anything else than white bread, while the less well-off contented themselves with dark bread made from whole wheat flour.

The irony is that whole wheat flour is much healthier as it has superior nutritional values. It has now become the ‘thing to do” if you are health conscious as too many chemicals are added to obtain perfectly white flour!

The whole world thinks that French only eat Baguette…well, it is not entirely true! We keep it for the tourists as it is what they expect to see in our boulangeries… and we buy grey or dark bread for ourselves and eat it with immense pleasure in the privacy of our homes!

But don’t tell anyone….

Picture Postcards: Bucharest carriage

Have a gander at this beautiful carriage photo taken by our contributor, Carmen Cristal, in Romania. She says, “This little carriage decorated with flowers is not a normal means of transport in Romania (we can find carriages only in small villages or they are used for tourism purposes) . The picture was taken in September 2010 at an annual event called Bucharest Days. The event took place in the neighbourhood of People‘s House in Bucharest and included a traditional fair, music, dance and carriage rides along the boulevard.”

Read more:
Sweet-sour Topoloveni Plum Jam
Blogs for Expats in Romania
How to Overcome Your Shyness

Picture Postcards: Bali boats

This week’s photo was taken by our contributor in Bali, Carrie, who says that these boats are used by fishermen and to get in and out of the islands. She says they are being used less and less. I hope they don’t disappear as they are beautiful.

Read more:
Picture Postcards: Bali street scene
The Magnificance of Indonesia
A Slower Pace of Life

Picture Postcards: Cowboy boots in Texas

This week’s clothing photo has been sent to us by our contributing editor Ana. She says these boots were spotted in Sheplers Western Store in Texas, USA.