Sydney Life

If you read Cath’s terrible experiences with “Evil George The Real Estate Agent”, it’s easy to be perturbed by the thought of looking for a place to move out to. Whilst the Evil Georges of the world may scare you into staying put at home, I think the obvious solution is avoid agents all together! Which is what I did!

A few months ago I sent an email to all my friends saying I was looking for a place. It worked! A friend heard my call and forwarded an email from a friend of his who needed a co-tenant for a sharehouse in Newtown. The beauty of word of mouth marketing!

I went and had a look at the place during the week. It was better than I could have imagined! So, I’m doing it! I’m finally leaving the sticks and moving to the inner city!

Faced with the task of packing my stuff and moving out, I’ve compiled a list of ultimate songs. Here are my Odes-to-Independence, Inspirational-Numbers-to-Pack-To and Songs-for-Riding-Down-the-Freeway-with-a-Mattress-and-$20-in-your-Wallet.

Bohemia, bills and the big city here I come…

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The Ultimate “Heading to the Big City” Song: Buenos Ares. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Performed by Madonna on the Evita Movie Soundtrack.

I’m reminded of the number in the hit musical, Evita. The young Eva Peron ambitiously wants to leave her rural Argentinean town for Buenos Ares to live with her lover. Amid the sexy Latin percussion, her lover tries to convince her to beware of the city’s evils but she retorts:

Bad is good for me
I'm bored, so clean, and so ignored
I've only been predictable, respectable
Birds fly out of here, so why, oh why, oh why the hell can't I?
I only want variety, of society.

I wanna be a part of B.A.
Buenos Aires, Big Apple!

The Ultimate “Going Through Your Stuff to Decide What to Take With You” Song: Photograph. Written and performed by Jamie Cullum.

Imagine this. Sprawled across your old bedroom floor is all the bits and pieces you’ve collected through the years: photographs, ticket stubs, love letters, concert programs, school diaries and first-year essays. Deciding what to take with you and what to throw away, you suddenly get lost in beautiful memories:

It's just another story caught up in another photograph I found.
And it seems like another person lived that life a great many years ago from now.

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

The Ultimate “Looking Back as You Leave Your Old Town” Song: I Wonder (Departure). Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus. Performed by ABBA (my favourite, Frida – the red-head – on lead vocals).

Few people know this, but the boys from ABBA were writing a musical called The Girl With the Golden Hair before the super-group split up in 1982. “I Wonder” was recorded in 1977 and has a beautiful melancholy to it. The verses are reflective:

My friends and my family
This dull little town
Buses I’ve missed
Boys that I’ve kissed
Everything old and familiar.

But the song takes courage in its stride, as the chorus, which begins as a timid staccato figurette, turns into a soaring melody, where the singer takes the leap forward:

I wonder,
It’s frightening,
Leaving now
Is that the right thing?
I wonder,
It scares me
But who the hell am I
If I don’t even try?
I’m not a coward!
Oh no, I’ll be strong.
One chance in a lifetime,
Yes, I will take it
It can’t go wrong.

The Ultimate “Throw Caution to the Wind as your Sailing Down the Highway” Song: It’s My Life. Performed by Bon Jovi.

Moving out is all about claiming your autonomy and your right to choose when you do, what you do and how you do it. It also means taking responsibility for the consequences of that choice: so there is an apprehension and a sense that you’re taking a big leap into the unknown. And what better than a dirty, rock voice to sing it for you:

It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it “My Way”
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life.

The Ultimate “Finally Free to Be Openly, Unashamedly Myself in my Own Home” Song: Here’s Where I Stand. From the film, Camp. Performed by Tiffany Taylor.

In the movie Camp, this is the gospel diva moment. In a class recital, the shy undiscovered talent of the class blows everyone away, including her father (whose always told her that she’s too fat), by singing a diva song about standing on your own two feet. This is a song for every child whose been pressured to live up to their parents’ ideal, and not their own image of who they should be. It’s a song about generation gaps and the chorus say it all:

Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
Love me, but don't tell me who I have to be
Here's who I am,
I'm what you see.

Here's where I stand…

The Ultimate “Stumbling Towards Making my Own Decisions for the First Time” Song: Silent All These Years. Written and performed by Tori Amos.

After you’re over making reactionary statements to your parents, it’s time to make original statements for yourself. And suddenly you find, yeah, you can…

…Hey, but I don't care
’Cause sometimes,
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent all these years.

The Ultimate “Surviving Through Student Poverty” Song: Independent Woman. Performed by Destiny’s Child.

Long before the shameful grovel that is Destiny’s Child’s "Cater 2 You", the girls brought out a song all about makin’ your own money and livin’ your own life. Yeah, girlfriend!

The Ultimate “I Did It” Song: No Such Thing. Written and performed by John Mayer.

After you’ve moved in and settled down, there will come a point down the track when you’ll look back and think, “Wow, I really did it”. One day, you will get the opportunity to 'run through the halls of your high school' at your ten year reunion, 'knock down those double doors... and know what all this time was for'.