Christmas - Manuell style

Still back-dating these. I'm being rather slow.

It's always weird having Christmas away from home. It's the second time I've done it. The last time was in Canada, where I was treated to the first green Christmas in 60 years. I realise now, this year was only the 3rd time in about 19 years that I haven't spent some of the day with my childhood friend, Liz. Wow. This was my first summer Christmas. And man, that is just a tad weird. This year, I was taken in by Romany, and her wonderful family.

On Christmas Eve, after I finished work, we caught the train 4 hours out to Bairnsdale in South Gippsland, where her Mam collected us and drove us to Paynesville to catch the ferry to Raymond Island. Once across I got my first real glimpse of what it's like to live in true bush. There's no space for a straight road, so it just winds around the trees randomly. Unfortunately the torrential rain started and didn't stop til the next day, so we didn't get to wander around. We spent the evening having a beautiful dinner with some of the family. Next morning, after brunch at Rom's uncles house and after laughing at the fact that the guy driving the ferry was dressed as Santa, we headed back into Melbourne. Rom with a goldfish in a bowl on her knee. For 3.5 hours...

Finally, back in Melbourne, on a grey day that could only be reminiscent of home, we joined Rom's sister for a huge Christmas dinner with a big bunch of family and friends. The food was plentiful and beautiful, and the company good. The day ended with a definite first for me... going to the cinema! Who knew the cinema was even open on Christmas Day?

All in all I had a great time. Huge thanks to the Manuell's for their hospitality and kindness. It is very much appreciated :)

Summertime :)

I need to backdate this one. I am mightily behind... life got crazy for a while there. Candles being burned at both ends and everything. I may well have pickled my liver, but it's all been good fun. Weirdly, I have been so busy that I can't think of anything much to write...

After I got back from the Great Ocean Road, I had a couple of weeks off while I was looking for another job. I got lucky fairly quickly, and landed a 3 month contract which not only takes me right to the end of my visa, but also gave me some extra time off beforehand, time which I used wisely by spending lots of time with friends and maybe not so wisely by spending lots of that time in various pubs with those friends. The weather finally heated up, and summer arrived. Well, as much summer as Melbourne can muster - consistency is definitely not it's strong point.

So (after peeking in the old diary to refresh my ailing memory), in the 6 weeks between finishing work and Christmas I:

• Managed to almost entirely miss a rather soggy Latin Festival in Fitzroy - the missing of the festival was definitely booze related, but man, it rained spectacularly that weekend.
• Got a free ride on the 'scenic railway' (note: NOT 'rollercoaster') in Luna Park at St Kilda at 8am on a Friday morning (after a rather wine drenched evening) courtesy of Cathy winning a radio competition. Random as hell and freezing cold, but pretty cool nonetheless (especially the free food).
• Checked out the Victoria Night Market... also cool, with good food. But crazy, crazy busy.
• Went to Neighbours Night at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in St Kilda with a couple of British friends. As ever, Dr Karl Kennedy was there, as was his band (which actually isn't that bad). Unfortunately, my camera was dead and the pub was full of rather young, drunken backpackers. The evening soon degraded into something akin to an 18-30s holiday night... we snuck out the door while the band were playing before they spotted that we were old and pretty sober.
• Saw Jarvis Cocker at the Forum. Most definitely COOL. The Forum is also a rather good venue. Hopefully I'll get to go back there again before I leave.
• Joined in the Walk Against Warming, which was a march down Swanston St in the city toward Princes Bridge where we were arranged into letters to spell 'Safe Climate Do It' from the air. We were in the 'I' of climate and it really did look rather cool from the photos they took from the blimp.
• Saw a play in the Arts Centre - set in an 1980s roller rink. Talk about nostalgia. Unfortunately this was later followed by a rather epic night where I managed to trip in a nightclub and lose a shoe! It literally disappeared. Later, when I was walking down the street someone knocked the other shoe out of my hand, and that also disappeared. Seriously... how do you lose 2 shoes in one night in separate incidents?!!
• Went up to the Rialto viewing platform again. It's closing and tickets are cheap. It was a beautiful night, and it's rather good to see the city from above again now that I know where everything is.
• Went to the rooftop cinema and watched a movie (Sixteen Candles) under the stars. Shame they couldn't get the punjabi subtitles to turn off... evidently the cinema operators don't know how to work a DVD player.
• And, of course, various parties. It being the season for it and all.

It's been a bit epic. Especially since I started work again in the middle of it all! But it's all good :)

The Great Ocean Road

So, your work contract ends and you're jobless on a Wednesday. What should you do? Book onto a 2-day tour of the Great Ocean Road, that's what. No chance for getting the unemployment boredom, especially with a 7am start. Sure, 600km in 2 days is a lot to cover, and you could easily spend WAY more time adventuring around there. But, it's better than nothing and at least they know where they're going, which is more than I can say for me.

I'd booked onto a travel tour recommended by a friend and wasn't disappointed. Thursday morning also brought with it the sun, so it was a great day to head along the coast. It was a scorcher in Melbourne (30 degrees at 5am), and the first day of total fire ban for the state. We spent the first 3 hours driving west of Melbourne to the far end of the Great Ocean Road, past Lismore, to Warrnambool (war-na-bul) and Tower Hill, which is a huge sunken volcano where lots of koalas, emus and kangaroos live in the wild. We managed to see all of them too... though I wasn't particularly happy about the emus joining us for lunch.

From Tower Hill, we headed finally to the end of the Great Ocean Road, working our way along the first section (the Shipwreck Coast) right down to Port Campbell. We stopped to take in the beautiful rock formations at the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Martyrs, the Grotto, and London Bridge. I've heard it described as one of the most beautiful sections of coastline in the world, and it certainly is stunning. Finally, we headed to see the 12 Apostles as the sun set before watching the Little Penguins waddle up the beach to their burrows. After a barbeque in the hostel, we headed out to the local pub in Port Campbell, where the locals lined up along the bar and just stared at us...

Next day, it was cooler, and clouder, but thankfully it cleared up a little as we headed back down to the Shipwreck Coast to Loch Ard Gorge. The flies were out in their masses, and annoying us like crazy but the scenery was just incredible, as were the stories of the history of the area. Next, we headed back to the 12 Apostles, where a bunch of us took a helicopter ride over the whole area. It was short but sweet, and well worth it for the view. After that, the Apostles just didn't look the same from the top of the cliffs. Another of the Apostles fell a few weeks ago, so now there are only 8 or 9 left, which is a little sad.

We left the Shipwreck Coast, and headed down to the Green Coast and inland to Mait's Rest for a walk through the temperate rainforest there. As if on cue, it started to rain the second we pulled up in the car park, and stopped as we got back in the bus! The rainforest reminded me a little of the rainforest on Vancouver Island, but on a much smaller scale. The rest of the day was spent driving the Green Coast via Apollo Bay, a cute little town right on the waterfront, and on down the section of road that was cut straight out of the rock face. Beautiful and dramatic. I don't envy the guys who got to spend years upon years carving that road out by hand!

Finally, we got to Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet, where they filmed "Round the Twist", which I used to watch as a kid. The weather was pretty inclement by this point though, and we didn't stay long before heading on to the Surf Coast, and Bells Beach. Bells Beach is probably one of the most famous surf beaches in the world. Typically, it was flat as a pancake that day. Hahaha. I'll just have to imagine the huge breaks that it's famous for.

I was exhausted when we got back to Melbourne, but what a great trip :)

Geelong and Torquay

There's been a lot of -est words flying around recently. 2009 has seen Victoria having the hottest temperatures on record (February), the driest winter on record, one of the wettest Octobers, and now it is having the hottest start to November since 1902. In the first week of November it pretty much consistently stayed above 30, much to my relief. I've enjoyed it immensely! The changes come quick here though, and it'll cool down again before long. As people keep saying to me... Welcome to Melbourne.

Weird to think that just a couple of weeks ago we still had our heating on, and I had two douvets on my bed. Now it's warm enough to chill out with friends in park without a jumper on until way after sunset. And of course, getting splashed in the boats isn't such a hardship when it's hot out.

After our awesome day trip last week, we decided that another day of adventuring was in order. This time we took the road around the other side of Port Phillip South West to Geelong (pronounced ju-long), where we had lunch on the seafront, and beyond to the seaside town of Torquay. Torquay is mainly a surf beach, and very popular, so it was good to finally see it. We had intended to continue on and follow the coast along the beaches to Barwon Heads, but we got a bit sidetracked by the outlet centre... Still, spending an hour or so in the late afternoon lying on the sand in the warmth of the sun is not too shabby a way to spend an afternoon ;) Bliss.

Back to work tomorrow, and it's my last 3 days at the Bureau of Meteorology. It feels crazy that 6 months there has gone by already. Only 4 months left in Australia. Wow.

The South Gippsland Coast

I started the week well, resting up and trying to get better. Even taking the public holiday on Tuesday as a lazy day to try and recoup, rather than doing something intersting with it. Then 'me-ness' took over and that didn't really happen. Gladly, I doubled-checked the day I was due to start coxing at Melbourne Rowing Club, otherwise I would have gotten up at 4.30am a whole day too soon! After a few sessions, it's been great to be back in a boat, even if it is in the wrong seat ;)

The public holiday was for the Melbourne Cup. I did find it a bit weird that you'd get a public holiday for a horse race, but it's tradition, and the Victorians have missed out on a fair few public holidays that the other states have been getting recently so I guess it makes sense. Actually, the horse races go on all week, but the big one is on the 4th of November. I guess it's kind of like the Derby, or Ascot. It's all about the high fashion, dodgy hats, and ludicrous amounts of drinking. I (and not just beause I was on antibiotics) didn't partake. I was told yesterday that not going to the Melbourne Races (or Spring Carnival as it's also known) was like going to Dublin and not drinking Guiness, but what can you do?

The weather has taken a magnificent turn for the better, and you can imagine my glee when I looked at the forecast for the week, and discovered that for the next 7 days it is not likely to get below 30. How's that for spring? Yeehee! Cathy, Jen and I decided that nice days should be celebrated with adventure, and a trip out of the city. And what do you know? Sunday's are just made for that purpose. Cathy saw a travel section in the newspaper (actually it was a car ad, but they talked about the road they were testing the cars on) talking about a day trip from Melbourne and we thought it would be worth a go. 275km round trip South East (past Phillip Island where I was a few weeks ago) to South Gippsland to a short but beautiful piece of coastline stretching from Cape Paterson to Inverloch. We decided to check it out.

The sun came out to play, and the beaches are really pretty. We jumped off the Bass Highway at Cape Paterson and headed down to the beach for a while before following the coastal scenic drive around the various beaches to Inverloch, trying not to get sunburnt along the way. The coastline there is a series of cliffs and beaches. We headed back through the beautiful rolling mist-covered hills, which really reminded me of home, especially in their green-ness, presumably because of the rains in September. I wonder how long the green will last, since the rain has stopped and it looks like the heat is here to stay for a while.

Hallowe'en in Brisvegas!

So, they don't really 'do' Hallowe'en in Australia. One of my Aussie friends called me a tourist a few weeks ago for referring to the weekend by the term "Hallowe'en". Hahaha. Luckily, I have British friends here, and we know Aussies who are happy to celebrate anything that requires beer (and fancy dress). Much like my trip to Adelaide, please don't expect any tales of Brisbane or anything! The only bit of Brisbane I saw is the bit of Chinatown Craig drove through when he drove me to the airport on Sunday! No complaints though, I'll see Brisbane another time, and the weekend was awesome.

We spent most of the day on Saturday preparing the food, and getting everything ready for the party. It was a great lolly (or, in English English, 'sweet') filled day, as we overindulged with Hallowe'en shaped lollies - I am such a child, and fake teeth always make me laugh. The costumes were amazing. Everyone went to so much effort. I was so impressed! I can safely say I have not laughed that much in ages. Sunday was hangover day and we just chilled out before we all caught our flights/buses. The trip was so worth it though. It was great to see Lisa and Craig again, finally meet Sarah and Guy (who were in Vancouver at the same time as me a few years ago and who I had heard so much about), to see Lisa and Craig's beautiful new house, and to bask in the Queensland warmth (of course, I later discovered it had actually been warmer in Melbourne for once!)

Unfortuntely, my body rebelled AGAIN! I knew something was up on Saturday when I started to get the all-over body aches and a sore throat. But choosing to ignore them, and use the numbing-by-vodka method, I managed to forget about it for the evening. Sunday, it hit in force. I apologise to all for my moaning! Yesterday morning, I was given yet more antibiotics for tonsilitis (I know... AGAIN). Shake me, and I might just rattle.

I caught a taxi back to my house from the city because I couldn't be bothered with trams after flying whilst ill (and probably hungover). The poor taxi driver got the full brunt of my bad mood when he got lost despite using the SatNav. It was probably made worse by the fact that I KNEW exactly what he was going to do it but hadn't wanted to interfere, because after all, what do I know about SatNavs? It was worse because I had given him full directions when I'd first got in the cab. Still, he gave me a discount after I successfully redirected him across 3 suburbs. Actually, he was on my street the whole time, just 3km away - the numbers just restart every time you hit a new suburb, THAT's how weird this city can be sometimes. Last I saw him he had detatched the SatNav terminal from it's stand and was shaking it. Hahaha.

Today was a public holiday. It feels strange to have a Tuesday off work, but I think it has definitely been beneficial to my health! It was the Melbourne Cup today and Victoria got the day off for it. It's akin to Ascot I guess, but they take it so much more seriously here. None of my friends wanted to go, which in hindsight, is probably a good thing! Back to work tomorrow. Thankfully, this evening I double checked the day that I am starting as a cox for Melbourne Rowing Club (it entails getting up at 4.30am). I had thought it was tomorrow, but it's actually Thursday. Phew! It would have been seriously annoying to get up that early on the wrong day!

Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island

Since spring is finally here *blissful sigh*, and Sarah's Mam is away, leaving her house on the Mornington Peninsula empty, Sarah, Erin, David and I decided to have a weekend down there so that we could check out Phillip Island. The Mornington Peninsula is about an hour South East of Melbourne, around Port Phillip, and it is a beautiful area.

We started off by visiting the Maru Koala Park on the Peninsula. It's tiny, but one of the best animal sanctuaries I've been to in a while as you can get right in there with the animals. I had never realised how big kaolas can get, or how smelly they can be! After that, we headed around to San Remo to have lunch before heading over the bridge to Phillip Island.

After a rather disappointing start, where we discovered that the free samples at the chocolate factory were only free if you paid to go on the factory tour, we headed to Rhyll, on the coast of the island, where the Conservation Hill Reserve has a boardwalk through the wetlands, and a laughable 'view' from the viewing platform. The wetlands are the home to a vast expanse of mangroves, but as for 'wet', at first there was only vague glimpses of slightly muddy patches. In less droughtful years, I'm guessing that it used to actually live up to it's name as the 'Rhyll Swamp', rather than just having a river running through it. It was a peaceful and sunny walk though. The viewpoint was hilarious - (no joking about this by the way) it looked over the main road, a couple of trees, and a sign saying "Rhyll Swamp". And that's it. The information sign began by saying that if you look really hard you can see the concrete posts that hold the fence around the reserve, and these concrete posts were laid in an effort to create employment in the area in 1957. It went on for a while, but that was pretty much the substance. David had thought that I was making it up when I read the sign out, but then realised that unfortunately, I was telling the truth.

After that we opted for lying on the beach at Cowes for a while. Cowes is, to all intents and purposes, Phillip Island's main town. It's tiny, and kind of peaceful. Next stop, Summerlands, for the Penguin Parade - the main reason for most visits to the Island. After being told to arrive by 6.45pm, we were slightly confused by the fact that the penguins weren't expected to arrive til 8.20pm, but nonetheless, we took up our position on the beach to wait. To the uninitiated, the Penguin Parade is basically where you sit on the steps leading to the beach at sunset and wait for the Little Penguins (their real name) to come out of the sea and run up the beach towards their burrows which are inland. Really, they must be thinking that the humans are such a bunch of morons for sitting on the beach to watch them. They are tiny, super cute, and arrive in far greater numbers than I was expecting! Later you get to stand on the boardwalks and watch them some more. Hellishly over-priced at $20, but entertaining for sure!

After a late finish we opted for a slightly more lazy day on Sunday, heading out late to take a drive up Arthur's Seat, a big hill on the Mornington Peninsula right next to Dromana where we were staying. The view of the peninsula from the top would have been awesome had it occurred to someone to trim the tops of the trees that have grown in the foreground! Still I managed to get one pretty good shot. [pic to follow]

We drove on to Red Hill, where first of all we went to the local Red Hill Brewery for some beer tasting and a cheesery for some cheese tasting (surprisingly enough). Unfortunately, the brewery only does weekday tours and the cheesery wasn't big enough for tours. Next we went on to Flinders, which is a small town on the other side of the peninsula, looking out onto Phillip Island. It is a peaceful and pretty place, and the beach would have been lovely on a warmer day. (I can't complain though, I had a nice catnap in the sunshine so it can't have been that cold)

On the way back to Dromana, via Cape Schank Lighthouse (which we decided we couldn't be bothered to pay for when we got there), we stopped at The Blowhole, which is a little 'bay' where the waves come crashing over the rocks, and presumably shoot up the middle of a hole in the rocks. I was far too chicken to go and investigate (such a scaredy cat), and the tide was definitely coming in! It was nice to see the power of the waves though.

The drive back to Melbourne felt long, though it's only an hour or so. I'd been ridiculously tired all weekend, but had just put that down to not sleeping well through the week. On Monay I discovered the real reason! On waking up I discovered I had a badly painful elbow (and no recollection of injury), which proceeded to swell up during the day, go bright red, hot and start throbbing. So many people expressed concern about spider bites that I bit the bullet and paid for a doctors appointment (you KNOW it's bad when I do that!), only to discover that I had cellulitis. From what I can work out, it's and infection in the skin cells around my elbow due to bacteria getting in to a cut of some kind... maybe a spider bite. Ouch! Antibiotics and a ridiculous amount of sleep later, it's finally gone down a bit :)

This evening I am flying to Brisbane for the weekend! My excitement definitely increased when I realised yesterday that I wasn't flying with Tiger (Australia's answer to EasyJet) Airlines, but in fact Qantas. Hooray! Okay, so Qantas aren't that great, but better than Tiger...

Mt Macedon and Hanging Rock

[i'll add some photos when i can]

It's festival time in Melbourne. Just as the Fringe Festival draws to a close, the Melbourne Festival is beginning. Half the time I wonder what exactly the word 'festival' is supposed to mean; take the Fitzroy St festival in St Kilda last week. I couldn't work out what that was, except for a whole bunch of people hanging out on the patch of grass near the end playing giant chess. Apparently there was even a Victorian Seniors Festival on this week too. Even after 7 months here I can't quite get used to hearing the word 'Victorian' used to describe people from the State of Victoria rather than people from another era. Weird.

I hadn't seen anything at The Fringe Festival, which is a shame, especially since it ended on Saturday - so I was glad to catch the closing night of Titus Andronicus. The Melbourne Festival is actually an international arts festival, which opened on Friday night with bell ringing displays. I had to laugh when I read the description on the events page as a 'splendorous event'. Jen and I were going to head down to watch, but got distracted by food... maybe I'll catch one of the shows later this week.

The Leica/CPP Documentary Photography Awards exhibition is touring nationally at the moment, and as it's in Bundoora, which is helpfully on a tram route that passes near my house, I went along to check it out. I'm not normally a documentary photo kinda gal, but you gotta check new things out. I hadn't realised that the Bundoora Arts Centre is actually a historical house - and it's apparently haunted (if that's your thing). It's at the edge of Bundoora park and it was a beautiful day, so I wandered around the park for a while after I checked out the house.

We've been planning to go to Hanging Rock in Mt Macedon (two places with what could be the WORST tourism websites ever made - especially considering how many people go to Hanging Rock, and apparently the basis for a creepy movie I now discover) ages ago, but kept getting foiled by illness and injury (and not just my own). So today Sarah, Erin, Dave and I decided enough was enough, and jumped in the car for a day trip. It was a beautiful day again, and so amazing to get out into the bush and away from the city for a day. I was really struck by the fact that spring here almost looks more autumnal than springlike and had to laugh when Sarah said everything was looking really green at exactly the moment that I said everything looked a bit dead... and there we have the main difference between Australia and England. Water!

I discovered last week that my work contract ends in 5 weeks, when I'll be jobless once more. Yet more revisions to the visa laws mean that no extension is possible. I definitely can't afford to be without a job, and don't think I want to go through all of that looking process again, so there's a few big fat decisions to be made.

Ballarat

Seeing the months stack up on the side-bar is scaring me a little! Where did the time go? I can't believe it is October already. I am fairly convinced that it must be spring, due to the new leaves that are budding on the trees, but am still waiting for the warmth. We have the odd nice day now, yesterday being one of them, most of which I spent in St Kilda chilling out with Toni.

I've spent a fair amount of time this past week with my camera. I have been learning some more techniques with processing and just generally feeding my growing obsession with (fixed) visual art. I had a couple of walks in the city after work a couple of nights and managed to get some fairly good pics, and hope to make it a habit. If you're interested, I'm trying to post new images to my flickr page at least every week.

Continuing on a photographic theme, I discovered a listing for a exhibition called Ballarat International Foto Bienalle which ended yesterday after exhibiting for a month. It consisted of lots of photographers who were invited by the organisers, along with a whole host of photographers who requested exhibition space, showing their work in exhibitions at various venues throughout the city of Ballarat. I decided I should check it out, and also Ballarat while I was at it. My favourite of the exhibition by far was an Australian photograher, Tim Griffith.

Ballarat Town Hall (montage of 15 images in fleeting blue skies)

Ballarat is about 65 miles west of Melbourne. About 80 minutes away by train, it is one of Victoria's historical centres - being a Gold Rush town in the 1800s. They say there's still lots of gold in them there hills... While the wealth was on the increase, they set up the town as though it was going to be a major city - with all the big, important buildings and municipal parks etc - and it was until it was surpassed by Melbourne. While all the old ornate buildings still stand, it's so quiet that you can hardly imagine it being a bustling metropolis. I kept wondering if I had gotten the day wrong, so many shops shut considering it was Saturday. At the train station there is a single A3 sheet that lists (in detail) every train that leaves the station every week. One A3 sheet. That's not a lot of trains.

Ballarat Train Station

The area is really drought stricken after years of low rainfall, and especially after this year, which has seen the lowest rainfall ever recorded in Victoria. It was really evident at Lake Wendouree, where it took me a little while to realise that at one point I was standing on the lake bed. The boat houses are on stilts which look a little odd now that there is no water to be raised above. It's difficult to believe that this was the location for all of the rowing, kayaking and canoeing events for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

The boathouses on Lake Wendouree. Everything in the foreground used to be under water

The path around Lake Wendouree. The lake should be in the lower left corner of this image. This track is a 6km circuit - I just read that the record time this has been run in is just over 16 minutes. That is seriously fast!

The train journey itself was a bit of an eye opener drought-wise too. After a moment, I realised that the dirt track we were following was actually a river bed. After that I started noticing the empty lake bed, and the yellow, patchy grass. It's still beautiful though. The scenery kind of reminded me of home, just not as green.

back to reality

I now have an En Vogue song stuck in my head...

I'm a tad disgruntled at the moment. Partly because I am penniless - the trip home pretty much wiped me out for the next millennia, and partly because Melbourne is teasing us. One week it is 30 degrees (which I sadly missed), the next we have the heating on again. I am assured that I will be over-hot soon enough...

It was difficult to get back into working after almost a month off. I took the edge off this by joining some friends at the High Vibes Festival in Northcote (just round the corner from my house) for some Sunday drinking, and started the week with a hangover. Good plan Pip! The festival was fun - a slightly raucous affair with far too many people squeezing into tiny 'bar areas' patrolled by overzealous security officials on a power trip. The whole street was cordoned off and the place was heaving. We managed to see a good band, and not spend too much time in the line for the bar which is always a good thing.

I got in to work to discover that my co-worker has not only decided to take 6 weeks off work, but that I am him (and me) for 6 weeks. Would sure help I knew what his job is! But, since I'm always one for a challenge (and a payrise), I'm sure it'll be fine. The rest of the week was spent catching up with friends and generally settling back into life - and trying to keep up the photography despite the crappy weather:

Flinders Station from Southbank

Last Saturday

brought the Aussie Footy League Grand Final. Where the Geelong Cats were playing the St Kilda Saints in the cold and hail. It was a tight game, which made it more entertaining, but the Cats won out in the end. Apparently Geelong (a town abut an hour out of Melbourne) went mad (think FA cup, and that would about explain it). I watched it in a quiet (by comparison) pub in South Yarra, and on walking through Richmond (where the stadium is) a few hours later, I discovered that this was by far one of the better decisions I have made in a while. The place was crazy! This city is AFL obsessed (the vast majority of the teams are Melbourne based), so I'm not sure how they'll handle it now that the season is over!

Sydney Photies

Beautiful Sydney!

It may well have been lunacy to book flights to Sydney the day after getting back from the UK, but my gamble paid off as I only seem to get jetlag going the other way. So, Thursday morning I set off for the airport once more. I was going on my own, partly for some time to myself, and partly because everyone who would have gone with me had already been and I wanted some time as a complete tourist without feeling guilty about dragging people around things they have already seen. And I now discover, a few days later, that it was a very good time to go, as a couple of days later (23rd Sept) Sydney was engulfed in a red dust storm which, whilst looking coolly apocolyptic, would have been a bit of a hindrance considering the havoc it has caused there!

I was only there for about 48 hours, but I managed to cram in a hell of a lot. I walked 'til my feet hurt and my shoes literally died. I took a stupid amount of photos, which have took me an age to sort out (as ever, they are on Flickr, and also in a slide show which I'll post separately). I really feel like I know the transport system and that map inside out! I actually did a first too... I read the guidebook. And not only that, I read it BEFORE I arrived. Jokes aside, this truly is the first time I have actually done that. And in doing so, I actually a) knew where I was going when I arrived; b) knew how the transport system worked; c) knew where things are; and d) knew what I wanted to see and do. It's amazing! Might have to do that again.

Coming in to land at Sydney airport is actually a little scary if you don't know the flight path. As far as I was aware, we were heading in a rapidly downwards trajectory in a definitely seawards direction. They bank steeply at what seems like the last minute. Panic over, I was overjoyed when the captain announced that it was 33 degrees out. Aside from a fleeting day in Melbourne in March, I haven't been that warm since summer in Toronto 2 years ago. Bliss!

I headed down to Circular Quay, to take a look at the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. After seeing so many photos both surprised me. The Harbour Bridge is huge, but so unbelievably similar to the Tyne Bridge that I think my brain scaled it down a bit for easy computation. The Opera House is tiny! And very beige (I was expecting it to be white). Well, not tiny exactly, just not as big as you'd think. Still, such an unusual and impressive building. I'd love to go inside some day.

I took a walk around Farm Cove, behind the Opera House at the edge of the Royal Botanical Gardens. There I discovered not only the flies, but also that the sea wall there isn't solid, and when the waves came up, they came THROUGH the wall! Since they shut the gates to the Botanical Gardens at 6, and I didn't want to get trapped on the other side I opted not to wait for sunset, headed back to Circular Quay, and up to The Rocks where the stairs to the Bridge are.

I never had any intention of doing the Bridge climb. Money aside, my increasingly severe vertigo meant that anything close to that was most definitely off the agenda! I saw a group on their way down the bridge through the binoculars up the Sydney Tower the next day and my stomach turned at the thought. I climbed the steps to the road level, and that was enough for me. The Opera House looked pretty all lit up, and I kicked myself for not taking my good camera with me and missing the opportunity for some cool long exposures (damn budget airlines and their check-in luggage charges). I'll just have to go back again. Oh dear, what a shame.

That night I discovered that just because the hostel has been voted best in Australia and has rave reviews, it doesn't mean there's not a (loud and bassy) nightclub in the basement. It also doesn't guarantee that your roommate isn't a complete moron (I'm too old and grouchy for hostelling these days). Still, the fact that she woke me up so early did mean that I had more day to adventure in. And a beautiful start it was too. I headed back to Circular Quay and checked out Mrs Macquarie's Seat at the edge of the Botanical Gardens. According to the guidebook, this is the best viewpoint in the city. I'm not sure whether they had their specs on or not, but you can't actually see anything from the seat anymore - there's a great big tree in front of it! There was a good view from around the corner though:

Next I hopped on the ferry to Manly. I had been told that one of the best ways to see Sydney is to catch a ferry, and that the Manly Ferry is one of the best. I had also had Manly highly recommended to me, so I obviously had to comply. Credit where credit's due, the Sydney skyline is rather stunning from that boat.

Manly is cute. I think the beaches would have been more idyllic had the clouds not come over and the wind not been so cold. I started to wish I could surf - I might have to give it a go some time. Preferably while no-one is looking. I didn't hang around for too long, both aware that time was ticking, and also getting colder by the second, and headed back to Sydney.

I wandered up to Observatory Hill, where the sun was warm, the views pretty, and the Observatory itself looked like something out of a children's illustrated book. I had a look in the Observatory, but I was met by a hoarde of school children, so that didn't last long!

I wandered back up into the CBD and on towards Haymarket, where I jumped on the monorail. I can't figure out exactly what use the monorail has, except for letting tourists get a better look at Darling Harbour and Haymarket, especially since it only goes one way. But it did give me some great views of Cockle Bay Wharf and all of the bits that I didn't go to - the aquarium, Paddy's Market, and the Chinese Gardens.

Next stop was the ANZAC memorial and pool of reflection in Hyde Park, which were nice, but understated, before heading to the Sydney Tower. Apparently you can see the Blue Mountains on a clear day. Evidently it wasn't clear enough! Or, at least, the glare from the setting sun obliterated that bit of the landscape. Still, the views of the Sydney area were great. I just wasn't too impressed by the broken pane of what seems to be very thin glass that separated me from the inside of the tower and a very long drop...

Next was Bondi. I caught a train to Bondi Junction, and the followed the hoardes catching the bus to the beach. It was only 9.30am but the beach was already full. The sun was shining and the surfers were out in droves. As one of the most famous beaches in the world, Bondi was smaller than I'd expected, and the view of it from the viewpoint rather unassuming. But I have to say, I am a fan - despite how busy it is. Maybe I was swayed by the beautiful weather, and the fact that I just love to be near the ocean. I could have happily stayed there all day. However, time was, once again, pressing, so I headed back into the city to take a final look around.

I was headed for the Domain, a section of greenery joined to the Royal Botanical Garden where the Art Gallery of New South Wales sits on one side, and the beautiful Sydney Hospital sits on the other. Mildly disturbed by the "Rock in a tree" outside the gallery, I checked out the inside, where I found a cool Aboriginal art section. I continued my wander on into the Botanical Gardens via the Woolloomooloo Gate, and promptly got lost! They are bigger and far more complicated than I was expecting! It being a Saturday, and a lovely day to boot meant they were heaving, so I didn't stay too long. I did stay long enough to see the bats however. Fruit bats I presume, hanging from the trees in broad daylight. I was shocked by how big they were, and how loud!

After heading back up to Haymarket to check out the Queen Victoria Building which is just as beautiful on the inside as it is out - originally built as a monument to QV in 1898 it has been a concert hall, library, and is now a shopping mall, housing some of the more up-market shops, I headed back down to The Rocks, to pay Dawes Point Park a quick visit. There I discovered that there is an awesome market on in The Rocks at the weekends, so I wandered around there for a while, wishing that I had more time (and of course, any money at all!). Finally, I got down to Dawes Point, and look what I found!

Pirates! Ah harrrrrr

Nice amusing conclusion to a jam-packed 48 hours. I don't think I could have done much more in the time allowed (I even managed to get some shopping in!). Sydney is beautiful, that's for sure. I definitely only scratched the surface. I want to go back and check out all of the beaches and beautiful coastline sometime, there's just so much more to see.

Home Sweet Home

What a crazy few weeks!

I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it. Except falling off my bike twice in one day perhaps (first in a nettle bush by the side of a busy road when the gear cable snapped, second on a patch of grass in the cul de sac where I grew up whilst testing out the newly fixed gear cable. The latter hurt more, and was far more embarrassing because it was in front of my dad who looked at me like I was an idiot. It’s a good job my bridesmaid dress was floor-length. I had scrapes and bruises a 12-year old would be proud of).

I also broke my camera. And my kite. I actually broke the camera in the process of breaking the kite. There is a lesson there: sandy beaches, cameras and stunt kites (of the lean-back-and-take-the-weight variety) aren’t a good combination when the wind drops. The result is that you’ll end up flat on your back on the sand, your brother will laugh at you, and you’ll get sand in the lens mechanism which won’t come out even after your friend Dan takes it apart and puts it back together for you (minus the obligatory unexplained piece of plastic that doesn’t seem to do anything and you can’t remember where it came from).

To everyone I left in Melbourne, gloating that I was headed to the summer side of the world; I definitely spoke too soon. It was warm and humid when I arrived, which was lovely, but I think that a Placebo song covers it nicely for me:
‘English summer rain, always seems the same, nothing ever changes. English summer rain always lasts for ages.’
Yes, that definitely covers it. I mind it less here though for some reason. Probably years of getting used to it…

My flight to the UK was long but eventless. I even got 3 seats to myself on the 13-hour leg. Two seats free on the whole plane and they were next to me… bliss! I ignored the hate stares coming from other, less spatially advantaged passengers and caught up on lots of movie viewing, almost strangled some idiot in the bagel place in Heathrow terminal 5 who couldn’t work the till, tried to order coffee in HK airport without actually having any HK dollars (they wouldn’t accept anything else and I was being pretty blonde), and didn’t sleep for 39 hours (in total – I was travelling for 30). The jet lag lasted days. 3pm was a killer. But it was amazing to be home and see everyone.

It’s a pretty rare treat to have the whole family in the same place at the same time these days so the bank holiday weekend was crazy but fun when we all descended on the parent’s house. I spent 3 days being used as a climbing frame. In the last 6 months my 3-year old nephew has become boisterous and incredibly articulate. I spent the weekend discovering the delights of pre-drooled chocolate (yum); that he has very sharp elbows and knees (ouch); that girls are not allowed to play football (soccer) under any circumstances; giving a small child a bedtime (i.e. calm-down) bath is definitely NOT my forte; the only reason Grandma can’t beat T (my nephew) in a race is because she’s old (apparently); children think nothing of going into the North Sea fully clothed in September (until they go in head first); that not all plastic food tubs are microwave safe (woops); that turning children upside down might seem clever at first, but they like it too much and it just gets exhausting (and has drool-in-the-face based dangers); and that I am, apparently ‘a funny one, aren’t I, Aunty Phillippa?’ Hmmm. He is, quite simply, enchanting. And hilarious. Mustn’t forget hilarious.

I have caught up with lots of friends over the few weeks, eaten a lot of meals out and drunk a little (not as much as you’d think!). I spent a fabulous (if rainy) day in Glasgow with Donna. Drinking cocktails in the beer garden in the pouring rain at 4pm on what should be a work-day is far more fun because you’re probably not supposed to be doing that as a ‘grown-up’ I think. I was visited by Dan for the weekend, which was fantastic. Though he did spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fix my camera… sorry about that mate!

And of course, the reason for my trip home… Sanna and John’s wedding. And they couldn’t have had a better day for it. The day before, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Who’d have thought that we’d be able to have drinks on the lawn if they’d been there the week before? The day went (almost (and nothing to do with us)) without a hitch. I even managed to not fall over or down the stairs on the entrance to the room where the ceremony took place. Note to self: must check on the surface you have to walk on before getting your dress fitted with 4 inch stiletto heels on – steep stairs and thick carpet aren’t good for that! Linden Hall and the gardens are beautiful. As was the bride. The speeches were entertaining, and the dancing was crazy. There were some sore feet (and heads) the next morning.

The journey home was long. 42 hours door to door. Ouch! Second only in time to the epic 72 hour bus journey across Canada. I only found out when I got to Heathrow that my 2nd flight had been changed and was now an hour and a half longer, and only found out the reason for that when I got on the plane. They'd added a stopover in Jakarta. Considering we were setting off from Kuala Lumpur that didn't really make all that much sense to me but what can you do?! By the time we'd gone over timezones, back again and then again, we were all so confused we didn't have a clue what was going on!

Catching up with so many people came with one major disadvantage: it made me even sadder about all the people that I couldn’t catch up with. I would have loved to have made it down to Oxford, or London, or to Manchester (and Liverpool, Gillian!) but time and money were not on my side. I must say a huge thank you to everyone for their phonecalls, and effort made to catch up in person; to Donna for taking a day off work (what a hardship ;) ); to Dan for hiring a car and driving all the way to Northumberland; to the wedding crew for a great couple of days; my family for, well, being there (and being fun); and to everyone who made the trip as fab as it was. ‘Til next time. Big love.

Crazy Adelaide!

It’s been an age since I last posted. In that time, I managed to continue being ill in a way that only I know how. Tonsilitis wiped me out again… I’m actually quite impressed that I managed to get a GP to say “Holy Crap” (when he saw the state of my throat), though was less impressed by the size of the antibiotics he prescribed me (akin to horse tranquilisers). They worked a treat though and I was all recovered in time to well and truly wipe myself out once more during a manic weekend in Adelaide with my friend Mary from the UK.

I’ve never been a massive fan of flying, but for some reason in the last few months I have developed an intense fear, which was in no way aided by the gale force winds that hit Victoria on Friday. The gusts uprooted trees, and closed all but one of the runways at Melbourne International. Let’s put it this way, the word ‘stressed’ probably doesn’t quite cover it! A few delays later I was finally in Adelaide – my first real trip somewhere other than Melbourne since I got here. And it only took me, oh, like 5 months. Woops. How unlike me.

Now I must be honest, if you are expecting tales of Adelaide itself, and any photos at all you will be sadly disappointed. I couldn’t fit one of my cameras in my bag, and forgot to charge the battery on the other one, and generally didn’t see much of Adelaide anyway! I will be headed back that way again sometime for sure though. The weekend started with a birthday celebration Mexican style (piñata included), finishing ridiculously late considering our early start in the morning.

Saturday took us to the Barossa Valley, one of South Australia’s most famous vineyard regions. It was (another) winery festival, and we had 2 minibuses of people along for the ride. The Barossa is really pretty, and the wine was surprisingly cheap – I’d love to go back there in the summer. Everyone was in the party mood, and we managed to keep going for 15 hours straight. I haven't done that for a long time!

Sunday brought high winds so we went out for some lunch then just hung out in the house before heading out to Glenelg for dinner. I think I’ll have to go back there next time so I can actually see something – going to the beach in the dark isn’t quite the same! From what I did see, I do like Adelaide. It’s more laid back than Melbourne and that’s nice for a change.

I’m half way through my work day now, struggling through the tiredness from getting up at 4am for my flight back to Melbourne (I can’t even say that that seemed like a good idea at the time). Tiger Airways (the Ryan Air of Australia – and no, that is not a good thing) stood up to their reputation and got me home 75 minutes late. I only just made it to work in time!

I’m about to go meet some friends from home (they’re paying Melbourne a flying visit) for lunch today, and then home the day after tomorrow for a flying visit of my own. Good times!

smiles per hour

I met up with a friend for lunch today in South Melbourne, and just as we were heading back to work Penny spotted a sign that looked rather like a speed limit sign, but was green and actually said "2 smiles per hour zone". I couldn't help but smile... they do say they are infectious after all.

(Image from the Port Phillip Website - taken at Lunar Park, St Kilda)

It made me curious though, so have just checked it out on the City of Port Phillip* website and apparently it is a whole scheme geared towards 'bringing the community together'. It was on the back of some research that found that people wished the community was friendlier in general, and that people would say 'hi' (or, in aussie speak, 'g'day') as they passed in the street. They are trying to promote friendliness in an effort to increase a sense of community pride and overall community-wide mental health.

Here's a snippet from the website I linked above:

"Smiles are free. They are simple. You can do it straight away as you've already had lots of practice. You don't need a funding grant. You don't need to know another language. You don't need to have a long-term relationship with someone - smiles can test the water. Try smiling at someone you feel safe with first.

Smiling and friendly behaviour is contagious. They can boost people's sense of pride, safety and enjoyment of their neighbourhood. They can start new friendships. They can brighten someone's day. They can break the ice and build good relationships in your street. You never know when you might need someone's help or have to negotiate with them over something prickly. Physiologically, smiling has well documented health benefits.

Smiles ask for a small investment, but offer a big return."

As Newton Faulkner said: "People should smile more". What can I say? I agree. Of course, people will say that the money could have been better spent, and maybe it could have been, but I think it's a quirky, interesting and refreshingly simplistic and original idea.

* The City of Port Phillip is the area that encompasses those suburbs of Inner Melbourne which are closest to Port Phillip, including Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Albert Park and St Kilda. I didn't know that... they say you learn something new everyday, so there you go!

ramblings

First things first. I’m not sure that the news reached the UK but there were a couple of big earthquakes in New Zealand’s South Island (7.8 and 6.1 on the richter scale apparently) which caused a bit of structural damage and tsunamis along Australia’s South East coast on Wednesday night. Actually, the tsunami alert was more of a precaution than anything, and they only reached 17cm in height, but I’m glad to know that the Aussies are on the ball… I do have a few questions though: How do they actually know that there had even been a tsunami, as surely that is just a small wave? Why did they only realise during the alert that there is no such thing as a ‘safe distance’ from the water on Lord Howe Island? And, are the the people who actually headed down to the beach to get a better look at the impending tidal wave (before the alert was scaled downwards) not, in fact, clinically insane? Seriously. Some people need their heads examined.

Now that I've recovered, it’s been a busy week as usual. I’m not feeling particularly literary though, so here’s a list. Some may think that is a bit boring, but I do like lists. Does that make me a geek?

MOVIES This week, I discovered the cheap night at Nova cinema in Carlton – a cutesy little place that reminds me a bit of the Rainbow Cinema in Toronto (minus lethally steep and long staircase) with half price(ish) Monday’s that bring the price down somewhere around normal. In an alarmingly unqualified review, I will say if anyone ever suggests watching ‘Two Lovers’ to you, don’t. It’s crap. ‘Nuff said. I followed that up with a rather less bargainous but altogether more entertaining (in a weird, perverse manner) trip to Crown Cinema later in the week, to see ‘Brüno’. What can I say? That film is wrong. So very wrong! Sacha Baron Cohen at his best oddest. Some interesting messages though.

MUSEUMS Saturday, we finally made it to the Melbourne Museum. Unbelievably, when we booked our tickets online on Thursday all entry allocations before midday were sold out for both Saturday and Sunday! Maybe I am not cultured enough, but I was pretty shocked by that! There’s a special exhibition on at the moment about Pompeii and the 79AD eruption of Mt Versuvius. I am fascinated by it, even if I did get rather creeped out as a child when I learned about it at school. They had made a 3D movie showing what it would have been like at the time – aside from looking like an idiot in the glasses (over the top of mine… lovely) it was really rather clever.

SPORT I went to another AFL game on Saturday! I’m seriously addicted now. I even find myself reading the sports section of the newspaper over a coffee from time to time. I have also bowed to peer pressure (actually, not strictly true since most of my peers were against this decision…) and have decided to adopt Collingwood as my team. The black and white stripes won out in the end (and I’ll just turn a blind eye to the boguns (chavs) which make up a vast percentage of the support). But no, Cathy, I will not learn the words to the song. I refuse! And should they sink in by osmosis (i.e. Cathy yelling it at me repeatedly) I will not sing! Unfortunately the Magpies lost this game, ending their run of 7 wins in a row.

You know, someone actually said to me the other day (in reference the fact that I am pretty busy most of the time, and they do nothing most of the time) "you have a great life." - to which my response was "well, you can go out and do stuff too you know". Duh.

Last but most certainly not least, due to my being on the wrong side of the world, I missed a wedding of a very close friend in the UK this weekend. I am rather sad about that. But huge congratulations to Dan and Farida, and I can’t wait to see the photos.

cough cough, splutter splutter (amongst other things)

I was completely thwarted in my attempt to lead an ‘interesting’ life this past week by a chesty cough to which I finally admitted defeat and owe an (thankfully short-lived) addiction to cough syrup. On complaining about a voice which comes and goes as it pleases, a pharmacist gave me a rather scathing look and told me to rest because he "bet I hadn't". He was right, as it happens. Spurred on by a friend who managed to get rid of exactly the same illness in a fraction of the time by staying home and doing nothing, I took heed, and had a rather boring weekend of cabin fever. Well, to a point (this is me after all).

On Thursday night I took a walk with a friend down to Gertrude Street, which connects Fitzroy to the neighbouring suburbs of Collingwood and Carlton. It was the penultimate day of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival, and since it was a clear (but cold!) evening we figured we should take a look. Some of the projections were a tad weird, but some were really clever: a tree which came to life; a building that had all of its edges and windows outline - particularly cool since the projector was off centre so that must have been really difficult to set up; a genius bit of advertising in the from of projected moving fly posters for a band, amongst others. Gertrude Street itself was a bit of a discovery for me, with loads of cool bars and coffee shops, and 'curiosity shops'. And so close to where I live too. Seriously, I need to start walking around with my eyes open!

Saturday took me on a wander around the Queen Victoria Market, which I have been to a couple of times, but never really paid any attention/dedicated any time to it. I went with the intention of a) buying something, and b) taking some photos, but neither came to fruition. My heart (and head) just wasn’t in it. The Market is cool though. I’d read the history of it the day before, (I know! Me! Turning into a PROPER tourist who reads the guidebook and everything. I’m still in shock!) and was a little disturbed by the fact that a) there were shootings there once upon a time (disagreements over price fixing in the wholesale section) and b) that it is built on a site that used to be a cemetery, particularly the carpark where there are still some 9,000 unknown bodies buried!

I have spent a great deal of time this past week booking trains and planes. After about 9 months of almost solid winter, I am need of something exciting to look forward to!

and on the 8th day, God created coffee

Okay, so I saw that on a billboard outside the coffee shop downstairs and thought I'd steal it. I'm pretty sure it was very unoriginal anyway ;) My caffeine-free days were pretty much over when I arrived in the land of the maple leaf (Oh! Canada) almost three (!!!) years ago, but here I am hitting new heights with those heady caffeine highs. God, I love the coffee shop culture here (and the Italian hob-top coffee pot my housemate just bought!). Just a shame that with it comes mild nausea and that shaky, shivery feeling...

The initial stages of the 'challenge' didn't work out so very well. Apart from Toni and I discovering the wonder that is Brunetti's in Carlton that is... seriously; chocolate and cake heaven :-). Me getting sick proved to be a little bit of a hindrance. If one more person wants to say "swine flu starts with a sore throat you know", I would like to take a moment out from beating you over the head with a large stick to point out that you are being very unoriginal. To be fair, I sound worse than I am - decidedly husky voice - but I can't wait to go home and sleep!

The other hindrance of course, is the weather. It's not so nice just now (as you can see from the photo above - which I took while I walked down Brunswick Street in Fitzroy on Saturday afternoon. For those of you not in the know, this is my neighbourhood). Didn't stop me going to Fitzroy Gardens (which are actually in Jolimont) to get some photos of the Fairies Tree though. I saw a photo of it one day and just had to go check it out.

The Fairies Tree is actually a preserved dead tree stump in the park, which a lady name Ola Cohn sculptured between 1931 and 1934 and dedicated to the children of Melbourne. Actually, according to the plaque it is mainly dedicated to the fairies... The carving is pretty awesome, but at the same time I found it a tad sinister. If you look closely the gnomey type people (elves?) are stuck in spider webs or getting carried off in the talons of a hawk... nice.

The AFL game on Friday was awesome! I did have a few wobbly moments of vertigo in the stand though! I don't think the Bomber supporters in our midst were quite so happy with the result ;-). Disappointingly, I managed to sleep my way through wimbledon - the games don't start til 11pm at the earliest here, I loved everyone's photos though - lucky sods!

the challenge

While the UK swelters in record heat (not entirely sure of the actual level of truth in that statement) it's a little chilly here and the days are short. But that's okay, because in this wonderful city there is always something exciting happening. Or so I am told. Um. Ahem. *cough*

So, I got a little bored of hearing about the exciting things that 'finished last Tuesday, it was great! You should have seen it', or seeing photos and on investigating further, discovered that this event was on the previous day, 2 streets away from where I'd been at the time. Next stop... tourist information centre!

I wholeheartedly advise to anyone, wherever you are - even if you are in your home town, and have lived there for 30 years. Head to the tourist information centre, check out the 'what's on' boards. Ask! There's a whole other world out there.

After perusing the brochures and discovering that the weird (but pretty cool) display at Federation Square is actually a festival of lights that's on all winter, I started digging more and more. Suddenly I realise there's stuff on all over the city... seek and you shall find! It occurred to me that so many people have made recommendations for places to go eat/drink/chill/dance and I've made it to very few. Instead we claim that 'the laneways are hidden! we can't find these places!'. Or (perhaps the slightly more common at the moment 'but it's cold outside, can't I just curl up in front of the TV with my dooner (aussie for douvet) and a glass of wine?'). No more.

So the challenge is set:

I have made a list of everywhere that has been recommended to me by friends, and by the brochures, and we're going to work our way through it! Hopefully at least 1 a week. You never know, we might find something exciting out there. Any suggestions from current/previous Melbournians most welcome!

I managed to hit the first one last night, by going to the Vegie Bar... somewhere we attempted to go to a while back but they lost our booking. The place is always heaving, and people rave about it... and for good reason I found. Yummm. Okay, so that's 'just another restaurant', but it's a start.

it's a flickr thing

And finally, I managed to work out how to put a slideshow on my blog!!

it's getting competitive now

Cathy and I went to see the (Collingwood) Pies thrash (Freemantle) Freo at the weekend in the AFL. It was exciting stuff. Helped massively by the fact that we were only about 8 rows back from the touchline, and the fact that Freemantle are from Western Australia, so most of the 41,000 spectators were gunning for the Pies. The cheers at the end were so loud that I didn't hear the end buzzer. And that thing is LOUD.

It's the first game I have seen the Pies win a game (just to clarify, it's not the first time they've won!), and they did it with style... ending up with a score of 169 - 85. That's massive! Afterwards we headed to the Lexus Centre where the team train for a post game drink, and watch the traditional interview with the players. Well... I can certainly say that I now know why the Collingwood fans have a rather stereotyped reputation for being boguns (Aussie version of Chavs). Still, the enthusiasm is contagious...

So, this Friday sees a big twilight game between the Pies and the (Essendon) Bombers, who also had a big win this weekend. A bunch of us have tickets, but we're split down the middle with who we support. I have a feeling there's going to be some bad winners...

I'm really getting into this!

birthday loveliness :)

Woops, these posts are getting fewer and further inbetween. Mostly because I got lazy, and I can't imagine anyone actually wants to hear about my work! Except that it is going well and all is fine of course. I am even provided with the odd comedy moment from time to time too... like this morning when I got in and turned on my computer I had a global email from site services entitled: "Office not warm this morning". Just in case I hadn't noticed perhaps??

Sadly, there is not a lot to report from the last few weeks even though I would like to assure you that I am actually having a pretty awesome time. Some of you will be glad to know that I have rediscovered my camera (just need to find a cheap enough tripod) :) and I promise I will do something 'interesting' soon...

Monday was my 29th birthday!!! Many, many thanks to all the lovely people who made it wonderful :) Oh yes, and allowed me to drag it out for pretty much a whole week without a single word of annoyance! Unfortunately I work for pretty much the only Australian employer who follow the apparently European tradition of bringing your own cake to work on your birthday. Grrr. One of the best things about being away is that cards and unexpected presents have arrived during such a broad interval that it feels like my birthday has lasted for weeks! Unfortunately the much cherished UK chocolate did not. Woops.

a brief escape to nsw

I haven’t posted anything for a little while because I haven’t really been doing anything! I started work a few weeks ago and I am a little surprised how easy it was to just slip back into working life. It is actually nice to have a routine again (not to mention knowing I have money coming in), and I’ve just been getting into the swing of it all (along with replenishing the depleted money stocks!!). I’m working in the Publications Department of the Bureau of Meteorology, which is feeding an ever-growing obsession with the weather!

Gladly, last week brought the arrival of Romany - a friend from Vancouver who I have not seen in almost 2 years - on a whirlwind holiday in Melbourne for a few days. Other than that, life has been the usual whirl of work, gym, pub, dinners out, gigs, trivia nights. Oh yes, and discovering just how delicious cookies and cream ice-cream in Baileys is. All good.  

Yesterday was a public holiday in Australia; celebrating the Queen’s birthday – something which most of the Brits found pretty strange. I’m definitely not going to complain about a long weekend though, even if I didn’t get paid for the day off work. 

This weekend also heralded my first real trip out of Melbourne. I actually managed to make it out of the state too - albeit briefly - as we were staying in a cottage in Albury, which is a surprisingly Canadian-looking township just over the border in New South Wales. I joined a friend and a bunch of her mates for a weekend Winery Walkabout in Rutherglen, a beautiful region about 3 and a half hours North of Melbourne – I am seriously starting to wonder if I am going to do all my travelling of Australia via winery tours! Not a bad way to travel though…

By the way, apologies for the continuing complete lack of photos. I think my camera is beginning to forget what it’s function is. Must remedy that. 

tribute to the bushfire victims

On my last day of freedom before starting work, Sarah and I decided to go for a trip out into the bush. Partly to get out of the city for the day, but also to visit Marysville, which was almost razed to the ground by the fires on Black Saturday (7^th Feb 2009). At first I felt a bit funny about going, like it was voyeurish or something, but Marysville was once a picturesque village whose economy ran entirely on tourism. Without people going to visit and spend money in their (one remaining, and somewhat understaffed) café there is no way they will ever be able to get back on their feet.

It was humbling. Even though I had never seen Marysville before the fires, it was easy to see what had gone because of the (sometimes peculiar) items that remained. Many of the houses were reduced to a brick chimney-stack, an alarmingly twisted piece of tin roof, and concrete foundations. Bizarrely, most of the mail-boxes and front picket fencing remained almost completely in tact; there were fences and benches that were burned only on one piece - looking like a bite had been taken; signs for shops that no longer existed swung untouched in the wind; a play frame stood untouched in the rubble; the police station sign (the police station completely gone) was melted only on one side; a park bench sat untouched next to the incinerated pay-phone; the playing field looked lusher than any grass I have seen since I arrived in Australia. Everywhere, trees were standing (surprisingly green); some of the brick buildings were still standing (though a couple were new-builds); and weirdly, one lone weatherboard house stood untouched in a clearing.

They’re doing a lot of cleaning up, and there’s dust everywhere while they ‘dozer the rubble so they can rebuild. The regrowth of the natural area (trees, plants, grass) has been so quick that the whole area is so green that you could almost think that it happen years rather than months ago. It took me a while to realise the track that I was looking down was once a proper street. There are so many trees. It really must have been terrifying.

We also headed to Kinglake, which looked much the same, and beyond, to where no one had been living, and where the regrowth hadn’t occurred. The trees were a see of blackened stumps as far as the eye could see over the undulating land. It was strangely beautiful. Driving through the bush was interesting – so many remnants of old fires, trees with blackened trunks everywhere. Fires are just part of the natural circle of life in the bush, it is just such a shame when they destroy the livelihoods and lives of so many people.

 

Just a little background – on 7^th Feb max temperatures in and around Melbourne were up to 23 degrees (celcius) above the February average, and in many places was the hottest day on record. Melbourne City recorded 46.4 degrees, but the highest temperature reached that day was 48.8 degrees. Unfortunately, there were also fierce hot dry winds – gusts of 115km.h were recorded in some places. Though the wind speed did drop later when the wind changed direction, there were still gusts in excess of 50km/h for some hours afterwards. 

Southeast Australia has been in drought for some time now, and the relatively low humidity and super hot temperatures had dried out the bush to the point where it was like tinder just waiting to be ignited. Bushfires in Australia spread as a thin front of flame – they normally pass a spot in 30-60 seconds. Unfortunately, when the wind suddenly changes direction (and because of the natural flow of air, it normally changes by 90 degrees), the long side of the fire suddenly becomes the front of it. Terrifying.

This year, more than 170 people died, and 2000 homes were destroyed. In previous bushfire years the death toll has been less – Ash Wednesday 1983: 71 in Victoria and South Australia, and 62 in Tasmania in Feb 1967. Now that I am working for the Bureau of Meteorology, I now have access to more information than I did before, and I am realising just how tragic the bushfires in February were. Previously it was a little hard to compute.

and finally, a holiday

After 10 weeks off work you’d have thought I’d be getting bored of doing nothing, but you'd be wrong. I have enjoyed this last 11th week off so much that it’s going to be difficult to get back into work. So difficult… haha.

It’s been a busy, busy week or so. But fun.

On Friday last week my friend Phil arrived on the Melbourne leg of his mini world-tour. He was here for a few days, so I have had some fun having the odd meal and drink with him. Also, a trip to Melbourne Zoo! I felt that I really had to get some blatant tourism in. We got there really early, and managed to avoid the school kids and screaming children for the first couple of hours. I got a tiny bit worried when a kangaroo grabbed my scarf (they're cute but kind of scary), couldn’t find the cassawarys (I'd been told to look out for them), and was shocked by how small the duck-billed platypus was (I have been the focus of much ridicule since I admitted that I thought they were enormous, whale-sized creatures). We finished up with an awesome meal cooked by Janet and Henry, our friends from Oxford who now live in Port Melbourne – from whence I almost missed the last tram home. Lesson learned… always be aware of what time it is!
This past week has also seen me get really into Aussie rules footy. I just need to work out what team to support. It’s tough! Everyone has an opinion, and there are so many teams (mostly Melbourne based), but no one seems to support the team for where they’re from. I have been to two AFL games this week. Unfortunately, both of them Collingwood (Magpies) games as I was with Collingwood supporters, and both of them saw the Pies getting absolutely slaughtered first by Saint Kilda (Saints), then Carlton (Blues). Still, I’m more or less down with the rules now, general admission tickets are cheap and it’s always a fun afternoon!

I’ve also managed to catch a band called The Skylines twice this past week. A friend is in the band and I’d had other friends bigging it up no end for months. It had a lot to live up to… and it did! Awesome evenings had by all (except for the poor souls who missed their last trams home (detecting a theme here?) – I’m lucky because my last tram is THE last tram) with lots of shapes pulled on the dance floor. I’d walked past the bar so many times and never even noticed it was there… Melbourne is just one of those cities.

Other than that, I have spent the week in various coffee shops; found awesome cheap food in the form of dumplings at Camys Shanghai Dumplings in China Town; tried out Danny’s Burgers – the burger bar opposite my house which is always full regardless of what time it is – which is just too good for it’s proximity to my house; actually got my lazy butt out for a run along the Merri Creek and discovered the el cheapo gym down the road from my house; saw the New Star Trek movie (better than I expected), watched more episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Entourage in one sitting than I care to admit to (not sure when I became a TV junkie), had a bit of a Wii tournament where I managed to more or less destroy my shoulder again taking a swing at a baseball; and interviewed for a new housemate as two of mine are moving out in June. Unfortunately (for my back/leg and also for the poor guy who was viewing the house at the time) I managed to fall down the stairs whilst carrying a cup of coffee. Top tip: don’t walk down wooden stairs wearing socks and carrying a cup of coffee, especially if you have a hangover and are talking to someone at the same time.

On Thursday, Sarah took me for a drive to the Dandenong mountain range out to the east of the city. It was great to get out of civilisation for a little while, even if the weather was really rubbish. We drove up to a town called Olinda, where we ate at a coffee shop that served steak pie swimming in pea and ham soup. It’s actually an awesome combination. Who knew?! We headed up to the view point on Mt Dandenong, where we discovered the view is a bit restricted on a cloudly day (but still pretty remarkable - see the photo), and took a walk through the forest (where we randomly came across an old plane crash site), before heading down to the town of Sassafras for cream tea and then back to the city.

it all falls into place in the end

It’s been a while since I last posted… mainly because I haven’t done much! My days have mostly been days of job hunting/working/feeling mildly guilty about not ‘making the most of it’. Money was getting tight, and I was starting to wonder a little. The job market imploded. Recession has hit here, big time. I have never been so relieved as when today, I had the call to tell me I have a 3-month contract. I feel a million times lighter. A million. Best of all, I don’t start for another week. While I need the money, I can’t say I am anything other than happy to kick back and relax and enjoy myself without having to job hunt. 11 weeks of not working… I think that might actually be a record, even for me.

While the UK basked in the May Day bank holiday, we plodded along as usual here (well, if I’m honest, it didn’t make all that much difference to me). Victoria didn’t even get the public holiday that the rest of Australia got at the end of April for ANZAC day (a kind of remembrance day for the Australian and Kiwi troops killed in the war). I pretty much entirely missed ANZAC (but unfortunately not the rain or the complete lack of public transport). Though it did cause some amusement to watch while friends got obsessed about the AFL match that day: Collingwood (Magpies) vs Essendon (Bombers). I have friends who support both; it was starting to get a little vicious.

I managed to catch the end of the German film festival (which I didn’t know was on), and discovered that the jazz festival (which replaced the comedy festival) entails the appearance of random jazz playing musicians along the sidewalk restaurants of Hardware Street. Personally, I think they should always be there. I have also discovered that what constitutes a relatively warm spring day back home is bloody freezing over this side of the world!

After a really cold spell (in my defence, it did get down to 4 degrees one night…) it got warm again, at which point I discovered the botanical gardens. They are beautiful. I really think I could just lose myself in there. It reminded me in a way of the hours I used to spend wandering through Stanley Park in Vancouver. It was a great feeling to find that tranquillity again. I have also discovered how close I live to Merri Creek which runs for miles through the northern part of the city – a great place to go for a walk and literally seconds away from my house. Unfortunately, finding out that your shoes give you blisters an hour and a half into walking AWAY from your house isn’t such a great plan...

So, just to make the Brits happy back in blighty – yes, it’s really that cold (even having lived in Canada) and no, we don’t get the whitsun bank holiday either! No clue what the week has in store for me but I'll try to make it more fun (though still on a budget - I won't get paid for 3 more weeks!)... til next time then. Love to you all

grape grazing and other things...

Okay, so the blatant tourism has come to a grinding halt in the face of... aherm... alcohol. Well, mainly. Haha.

On Saturday we went Grape Grazing in the Yarra Valley. I'm not so sure about the term 'grazing' myself, since it was more like 'guzzling'. Forget any ideas you might have about clasy wine tasting, this was just an opportunity to buy bottles of (surprisingly inexpensive) good wine, and enjoy it with friends. Most people end up in Rochford (the 'party winery') at the end, as we did, where there is a band playing and by this point in the day most people are in a pretty damn good mood. It was a lot of fun, and for a good cause too... a lot of the wineries in the area were badly affected by the bush fires in February, so the proceeds were really helping out towards the recovery. Excepting the part of the day where we (re)discovered my inability to walk, talk and carry (thankfully, white) wine at the same time without spilling it, one of the most amusing moments for me has to be the that when I looked on the website I discovered a disclaimer at the bottom which says, "no BYO food or alcohol". I know, I'll head to a winery and take some wine of my own...

I've had a few amusing days since then... Tuesday I had a job interview which I almost didn't make it to, and at one point I rued the moment I had turned down some temp work for a day of getting lost. I was late leaving the house, and only just managed to catch my bus, which was early and driven by the craziest kamikazee driver. Eventually, I made it to Port Melbourne where I had to change to another bus, only the stop wasn't where the transport website had told me it was. Chances of making it to the interview on time were rapidly diminishing (the bus only goes every half hour), there were no taxis in sight, and an old guy at the bus stop kept talking about the buses I couldn't get and wouldn't let me leave to go search for the stop. I finally broke free and scurried off down the road, when the guy - who must've been about 80 - started yelling and running after me, telling me hed give me a lift ("Gotta help the old Poms, you do"). Bless him. 10 (mildly scary - he rarely looked at the road) minutes later I was deposited on the the doorstep of the interview with the admonishment; "didn't your mother ever tell you never to get into a car with strangers?!" Haha.

I've also been spending a lot of time in the city library, slowly turning into an icicle (oh how I love aircon) and getting mildly frustrated at the intermittent internet connection (though it is rather better than my pay as you go Dodo (who calls a company that?!) internet). Still, it's free, so I definitely cannot complain, and it's quite nice to sit and work while some dude plays piano on the mezzanine. I can't help but be slightly amused and disconcerted at how many people come to the library to sleep these days. They don't even make any pretense that they have come for anything other than that... Romany assures me that this is perfectly normal, and that libraries have become the 'third space' between home and work...

Other than that, I have been to see a friend's (awesome) band play, and caught up with some comedy in the form of Charlie Pickering, who is hilarious. The festival ends on Saturday and I don't think I'll catch any more. I'm catching up with friends for after (their) work drinks this evening. Things are hectic, but good. I could just really do with a job. Oh, and some more hours in the day...