Touristy things...

Sunny Autumn day in the Botannical Gardens


The Welshies return for a few nights of mayhem (them - not me dad!)




The thing about living and working in a place is that you become so accustomed to your daily routine and the places you know that you forget to do all the things you came here to do.

So I'm trying to fill out the last of my time in Melbourne doing the touristy things and not just watching dvds and working.

On Monday, Swedish Jen and I explored Chapel Street - a long road crammed with boutiques, one-off shops, cafes, funky bars and music shops. We spent a few hours traipsing along and wishing we had money before catching one of the ancient-looking trams back to St Kilda for a movie night.




Yesterday, we returned there and ate Thai food at a pavement cafe in the sunshine (it was about 30C at the start of the week) and bought loads of fresh fruit. When Jenny disappeared off to work, I walked further up the street and explored the suburb of South Yarra with it's lovely old houses with wrought-iron balconies, tram lines criss-crossing the tree-lined streets and pavement cafes.

Eventually I came to the Botanical Gardens and wandered around in the afternoon sunshine for an hour or so - the autumn weather here is like those wonderful late summer days in England - perfect weather for a walk.

Then it was the Shrine of Remembrance - a large memorial to those who gave their lives in the World Wars. Rather like an ancient temple, it is a commanding structure in the city. Around it are an eternal flame, the nation and state flags and dozens of memorials to various battalions, commanders, police officers killed in the line of duty, and also a specific one to the men who died building the Thai-Burma railway. That had special significance for me - having seen the places many died.

I wandered around the arts centre and then walked to Collins Street and the Rialto tower - the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere. I went to the top of the observation deck to watch sunset over the city and stayed until it was dark and the lights of the city were winking and blinking away up to the mountains in the distance.




I then bumped into a couple from Churchdown in Gloucester. Which was weird.

Other than that, I have been working a lot of hours - 13 hour shifts again at the weekend which is great money wise but bad for the energy levels. The bunch I work with are great and I am sad in a way that I'm not staying longer to work here. But Autumn is truly rolling in now - today was miserable and rainy - and the restaurant is quiet on those days. Tonight I went in for an hour and a half. Hardly worth getting out of bed for.

Two people - Alisa and Matt - who I work with have moved into Jenny and my apartment for the next week and we're all planning a road trip to see the Penguins at Philip Island on Friday. Right now, I'm off to watch Flubber with them...


Sunrise after an all-nighter on Tuesday

Melbourne and St Kilda

Been having a very productive week.

Last Thursday we met up with four girls here who had been staying at Manly Backpackers over Christmas and New Year - two of them I shared a room with at the hostel.

There is Tania and then, would you believe, three Jenny's - English, Swedish and Finnish...

We went out and partied with them in St Kilda - they live in a cool little residential area near the Botanical Gardens. It's away past Acland Street - a cool street full of funky shops, cafes selling THE most amazing cakes, all sorts of eateries...

Anyway, we met up with Wolsey, who had come down from Manly with Oirish John and his lady - so it was a bit of a Manly renuion.

As Tania was leaving the following day, the Jennys said we could move in. Rent is fairly decent (and cheaper than the hostel) so we went back to the hostel on Friday night and moved into the girl's place on Saturday.

On Friday evening, Danielle and I went to watch March of the Penguins at the Moonlight Cinema in town. There has been a huge water festival over the holiday (Labor Day) weekend in Melbourne so there was a carnival along both sides of the river bank with rides, live music and so on.

So we huddled on our beach towels on one side of the river, watching a screen on the other bank and behind it the skyscrapers of the city. It was pretty special.

The next day we lugged our stuff to St Kilda and into the flat. It's pretty awesome to have our own place again - and all girls! No smelly boys!

After moving in, I hauled ass around town handing CVs into cafes and bars. It's pretty backpacker orientated so there aren't many jobs going - esp as it's the end of summer.

But I ended up scoring a trial at a restaurant called Amello's at St Kilda baths on the beachfront.

So Sunday, I rocked up and was sent back 10 years to when I started my first waitressing job - and was polishing cutlery like a demon. The people there were pretty cool and the food is great - cheap staff lunches at $5 (two quid) for a delicious pizza, pasta, fish and chips, salads, pretty much most of the dishes off the menu or anything you can think of.

They asked me to stay on a few hours (paid) and then gave me a job which was awesome, pretty fast work.

So of course we had to go out and celebrate with a few beers... We hit a few bars and ended up meeting Wolsey and two surprises - Chandler who had left Sydney in January and Patrick - one of the first people I spoke to in Manly.

So we had a ball dancing and drinking the night away - until my head hit the pillow at 6am. It wasn't so great when i had to be at work at 12...

But things are going well. St Kilda's has grown on me massively although I am sad to be a little out of city life. It's awesome to have friends here already - although English and Finnish leave in two weeks or less.

Life is good, the sun is still shining (sort of) although the winds and stronger and cooler now. Winter is on it's way...