Sydney
Differences and similarities of Byron Bay and Sydney
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney, Life | No Comments
As I grew up in Byron Bay and have lived in Sydney for the past 3 years (and 1 year 14 years ago) I thought I’d write about the differences and similarities of the two places.
Firstly both places are growing very fast.. when I was a child Byron Bay’s population was about 6000 people, now it must be around 20,000 or more and tripling in holiday season, however due to land and building restrictions, the population of the town can’t increase too much more unless there are major building changes - at the moment the council has restricted the height of buildings to be no higher than about 4 stories. Byron Bay’s house prices are among the most expensive in Australia in particular from about 2004 house prices went through the roof with some house prices tripling in a matter of weeks.
Sydney’s population is growing all the time, and the population is spreading out through the suburbs, at least the houses can go upwards in Sydney with taller buildings being built all the time. House prices are also very expensive in most suburbs of Sydney and finding a place to rent in ‘07, ‘08 is a difficult task indeed, with usually over 50 coming to inspect a place at the one time.
Some people say Sydney is like a big Byron Bay, as Sydney also has beautiful beaches, and good pubs and shopping, just go to places like Newtown for the hippies :). . I can see what they mean, as there are many beautiful places in Sydney, the headlands around the Harbour, the beautiful bushland walkways around Manly, Lane Cove etc. the excellent restaurants and entertainment of the city. For me Sydney is like a bigger version of Byron Bay, however bigger isn’t always better. As the uniqueness and petiteness of Byron Bay is that you can see all of the town and most beaches in one big walk, however in Sydney you could spend days just going to all the beaches.
Sydney has a lot of great places, however they aren’t as accessible as places in a small town like Byron Bay, I guess you could make a place like Byron Bay if you mix, i.e. Dee Why with Palm Beach and Newtown with Lane Cove, however that’s silly and it may also be an insult to those unique places. Byron Bay is unique and so are those suburbs….. there’s not much point in saying you can make Byron Bay in Sydney.
Some people say Sydney is boring, well Byron Bay can also be boring, any place can be boring if you let yourself be bored. Some say Sydney is an exciting place, and it can be if you allow yourself to get excited and put yourself in the right situations. Byron Bay can also be a fun place.
Sydney beats Byron Bay for jobs… more jobs there, that’s one of the reasons I moved there. There are more people in Sydney, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have a better social life, it depends on who you spend your time with and who your circle of friends are. Cities can be a lonely place, if you don’t find people to mingle with, it can be hard. Small towns are friendlier, maybe that’s why many people like Byron Bay… these days it’s on the most part a backpacker town.. so you can play “spot the local” they are becoming a bit rarer to see.
The air is fresher in Byron Bay, water probably cleaner, night time much quieter.. however there are many tranquil places in Sydney, you just have to be lucky to live there.
I’m a bit of a city person myself..(even though I spent most of my life in a small town) there’s more to see in the city, more people to meet, (however more is not necessarily better), I like meeting people from Asia as I speak Japanese, and some of other Asian languages, so Sydney is a good place for me as there are many students studying English there. The population of Sydney city has a majority of Asians, however the ethnicities of the suburbs vary.. quite diversely. Byron Bay’s main ethnicity is Caucasian, with a wide variety of backpackers going through the town, most from Europe however it is slowly becoming more popular with Asian tourists, with Byron Bay now having it’s own language school.
Any facts welcome.. I’ll try and modify this blog from time to time.
-Lindsay
www.sydney-friends.com
The Making of SydneyFriends Part 4
Monday, September 1st, 2008 | SydneyFriends StartUp | 2 Comments
Here I would like to write about and ask questions about what it takes to make an effective/popular website.
Firstly, I’d like to say that my website, sydney-friends.com, is a new site (at the time of writing - 1st Sept 08) as I started making it in June 08, and didn’t get a forum on it until July, so I am still in the experimentation stage as to what works and what doesn’t. So some may say - instead of experimenting with a new site, why don’t you read up about other success stories on the web and emulate them. This is where originality comes in to play, original ideas work, copies of original ideas do not, for example the milliondollarhomepage, was a great idea however copies of that idea, have been much less successful. You might say, why don’t you read a book like “The New Rules of Marketing“, by David Meerman Scott, so I can get great ideas on how to market my site.. Well I am :), however, marketing itself may not be the answer, depending on the content of my site . I mean it’s not much point having 100 youtube videos, great word of mouth advertising, parties, viral marketing, brochures, ads etc, leading to a site that isn’t attractive, has little useful information, doesn’t sell anything and has ads noone will click on.
Websites that are appealing, seem to have either good social connectivity/interaction, provide some kind of communication service, has great products for sale, offers a free service/information, is informative or helps people in some way or other.
So far, SydneyFriends, has 17 pages, plus a forum - (SMF forum), the pages are mostly trying to be informative (see about page), with a little interaction using a few google widgets, however, I have found Google widgets are not really effective.. as if someone uses the widgets, they may click on an ad on the widget, which generates income not for my site, but for the owner of the widget, so there are limited benefits of using widgets - they may attract guests but they also take the guests revenue. I have tried applying for the preview release of “Google Friend Connect“, however they haven’t got back to me.. after 3 attempts.. there is also “Facebook Connect” and “Myspace Data Availability“, whish require more programming than Google’s application.
Interaction.. Can someone leave a comment if you have ideas on interaction. I’ll put some ideas relating to my site - Sydney info/events/learning a language/cultural exchange, here:
- Have offline meetings - monthly parties
- Planners meeting - would be good if I had other interested parties
- Weekly events - barbeques, karaoke, looking at galleries/museums.
- Once a week (or as often as possible) free skype group English lessons.
- Make a stamp… SydneyFriends approval stamp (hehe) for culturally positive sites.
- Have a button on the front page - Ask your English questions here - for English learners. (answers to be published on the forum)
- Have an upcoming event section on the front page… (would need to be updated regularly)
- Have a list of sites that are friends of SydneyFriends….(not really interactive.. but at least may encourage some sites to interact with SydneyFriends.
- Have a form where people could input their name and the output could be a Chinese/Japanese character for that name… (would need a bit of programming I guess… unless I could suck the info from an online dictionary or similar site).
- Have a page where people could write how to say certain phrases in their language.. (probably sent via cgi mail to prevent spam)
- Have a cultural page… where people could send me information regarding their culture, to put on the page … a seemingly slow process… as first people would need to find my site, then be somehow interested enough to send me information regarding their culture… maybe some kind of reward could be given for the best answers… free writing check/SydneyFriends stamp of approval (^-^)… financial rewards?
Ok…. that was a reasonably good brainstorming session… now, another thing… I was considering going to Japan this year.. a month after the opening party possibly for the long term. The more I think of it.. the less keen I am… as I have lived there for almost 3 years.. and thought it was great, however am also starting to get more involved in life in Sydney… changing places may not be my best solution this time.. then there are girlfriend concerns.. and hey.. I’m getting off track.
What is needed and steps to take
Ok, so having an informative site is good.. having really unique, original and a very informative site is much much better… so I need to work on that/ask others to help me work on that, so far it has been a solo job, but that could change.
Next.. make more interaction, on and off the site, as seen in the brainstormed list above.
People also want to have the right range/selection/options to suit their individual needs, so I am also considering to make the site more customisable (Make a members section… to be able to change the look and feel of the page, and what they see on the front page.. I guess a bit like igoogle).. however I rarely use igoogle, so maybe people like myself, mainly just use a site for what service it provides.. eg. email, logos, free stuff…. so..
Lastly, I want to put more free stuff, on my site.. which may be right next to the better not so free stuff..
such as…… logos, English checking, postcard pictures (that I’ve taken), code?, letters of some description… etc.
So this is where I’m up to….
Advertising and marketing is an ongoing process.
Yesterday was the first day I really put out some advertisements, just 2.. one at gumtree.com, the other at jams.tv .Feel free to comment on this blog or write to me in the email/forum section at SydneyFriends.
-Lindsay
Meeting people in Sydney - For English Learners
Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Meeting people | No Comments
After teaching ESL in Sydney at various places, I have heard many times students saying they would like to make friends with a native English speaker to practice their English, and being a teacher I couldn’t cater for everyone, so I’d like to offer some advice here.
Where to meet people:
Firstly I’d like to say, there is no one solution meets all needs, as everyone has different tastes. So I’ll write about a variety of places and hopefully some may suit your needs.
At an outing - There are many clubs in Sydney that welcome new members. Such as language exchange clubs (eg. Auspeak), or you could go on a tour (see SydneyFriends tour page), to a great place such as the Hunter Valley or a river cruise. Usually the ones for backpackers are more social, however you could meet someone on an expensive cruise too. If you are on a budget, there are plenty of free outings to go to too, eg. barbecue’s, bushwalks, and beach trips, that some clubs such as the Sydney Japanese Language Group.
At a pub - Pubs can be a social place, or a lonely place, so if you go there, make sure you go with someone you know, or go for a special occasion such as to join in a game of free poker or a pool competition, such as the free ones with cash prizes at Jacksons and the Windsor Hotel every Tuesday nights. Pubs can be a dangerous place too, so be careful whom you place your trust in.
Some language exchange groups meet at pubs, and they can be a fun place to practice your English.
Join a sporting Club - If you like swimming, ask a local pool about training squads, tennis -> ask local clubs about when they have social tennis nights, for most sports though the best way is to just look out for it at a sporting centre.. when you see someone playing the sport you like, ask about how to join it. I did volleyball in Sydney for a few seasons, that was a very fun sport, and the people we very friendly to socialise with.
Join a church - Even if you are not Christian, some churches have free English lessons, such as the Crows Nest bi-lingual English-Japanese church. You may have a bad impression of some churches as a boring place… they don’t have to be, and some have great social circles outside service hours.
Take on some extra study/night course - There are courses popping up all the time, from short day courses on how to do coffee art to very long courses. These are excellent places to meet people as you will find people who may have the same interest as you do. I am currently in the process of making a courses page on my site, until then you could check out some of these:
- Fun fitness courses at Sydney uni.
- General short courses at Sydney Uni.
- Short courses at UNSW
- Short courses at TAFE
Hope you enjoyed reading this first entry about where to meet people in Sydney.
I will continue to write entries about meeting people for English learners and meeting people for other reasons hope you will be back.
-Lindsay
www.sydney-friends.com