2nd Feb- 26th Apr Days 139-184 ( I think)
Ok so right now I’m sat in our apartment, Liam is at work and I am supposed to be going for a jog but ive found a million and one things to do instead- including attempting to write about the last 2 anda half months!
For those of you that are close to me you know everything I could possibly write down already. For those who aren’t as close perhaps you may read this some day but as Ive said before, this is mainly a media for Liam and I to keep track of our travels so I apologise if this is boring.
Over the last couple of months we really have settled into a routine of “normal” life, so we havnt especially felt the need to record what we have done. None of it has felt particularly out of the ordinary, but thinking back I guess we have done some interesting things. Its very easy to get caught up in every day life here, Australia is a very odd mix of England and America so if youre in the right mind set you can almost forget you’re here! We have hardly taken any photographs, but looking back on some of the things we have seen we probably should because, to you guys, things maybe do look a bit alien.
Its going to be difficult to sum the past few weeks up so I’m not even going to attempt to do it in any particular order, that would just be making too much work for myself. So I will just sit and try and remember things as they come to me.
I guess because Im sat here I will begin by describing our apartment. We had been living with some old friends of my mums for the first 2 and a half months, and we are extremely grateful to them for having us for so long. We’ve had some real issues getting work over here, you think you will get here and pick up work straight away but its not like that. For my Occupational Therapy work it has been near impossible to find anything, I called a bunch of places up, sent resumes (oh dear, you will perhaps find me saying things like this that are just a bit different to how I would usually say them!), emails you name it to hospitals, small businesses etc…nobody is interested! I called a load of agencies up for locum work but they had very little work as it was, and basically told me that the work was so hard to come by in Victoria right now that as a girl on a working holiday visa I didn’t stand much of a chance. So, with the registration fees being in the region of $2000 I regretfully decided I would not be pursuing it any further. I moved on to try and utilise my skills in care work, but even they would not have me due to me missing a particular certificate you need over here. Apparantly despite my degree and experience without this certificate it means NOWT! I was told it was one of these things that take months to get so again, that was out of the question. Bear in mind at this point in time we were not planning on being here any more than around 4 months at the most.
In the meantime, Liam found work for a corporate company called CPA Australia. They are world wide but unfortunately the branch in the UK doesn’t have an ICT programme so that’s a bit of a shame! Liam took to the job instantly, as we all knew he would. He really looks the part in his suit off to work every day, and you can tell he enjoys it. With Liam out of the house in the day, I was at more of a loss with what to do with myself. The only people who were vaguely interested in me were the companies that pay you depending on what you manage to sell in the day and I will be honest I’m not a sales person and never will be so that was never going to work.
We had a few days out during our time up there. I was initially spending my days helping take care of the children on their school break, helping to keep the house tidy and helping to renovate. We did get quite a bit done, but I figured out why it was taking them so long to complete everything. There were a couple of tasks I was put to and spent hours doing them only for them to change their minds a couple of weeks later and it all be taken down and done somewhere different. It was a little bit frustrating but it was keeping me busy and I was helping them out so it wasn’t all bad. I also helped with some odd jobs at the school, and did a lot of baking and cooking for everybody in the house. They also had a couple of “working bees” where they would send an email out (everybody seems to know everybody) and a bunch of people would come over on a weekend and help move stuff and be rewarded with a BBQ in the evening.
Unfortunately for these I wasn’t particularly well, for some reason my headaches started to flare up very badly around this time to the point where I could hardly walk and it hurt to open my eyes. I was getting terrible pains down my neck and into my shoulders and it was stopping me from doing a lot of things. I ended up going to see the local osteopath and have been to see him a fair few times over the last couple of months. My head is feeling a lot better the majority of the time….our purse strings arent though! Im not the only one who has had health isues, Liam had a mole that was concerning us a while back which warranted us going to the doctors a couple of times for it. He ended up having a biopsy on it and luckily it turned out to be a benign something or other. Actually as I write this now he now has another growth of some kind behind his ear which has swelled in size over the last few days to about the size of a golf ball. Liam insists it’s a boil but I think its some kind of cyst and the poor man struggles to move his head fully. Doctors today (which ive insisted I go to so that if they lance it I can watch, film it, and potentially put on the internet depending on how utterly revolting the goo is).
Anyway a couple of the things we went to see…lets see. I forget what I have already written and what I have just spoken about to people. We went to Puffing Billy which is a famous little steam train station in the ranges. It was actually only a couple of stops down from where we were living at the time so due to it being nice weather we walked to it. It was a Total Fire Ban day due to it being so hot, and on those days the steam train isn’t in service. If I remember correctly its when the temperature reaches above 35c, which was a lot of the time this summer. You cant do anything involving flames or the potential for flames, the trains generally all start running late due to the tracks being so hot and things just get a bit slow and sweaty. Anyway there was another going but it wouldn’t have been quite the same and besides, at the time we had very little money at all so couldn’t really afford it! We were happy to go for a walk and we watched the train go by with all the people waving as they went past. We went into some shade for our lunch but didn’t stay there long as a big branch crashed down to the ground right next to us and Liam got freaked out. It gets so dry things just start cracking and falling over.
I found that out when I started going for jogs/walks in the area, I learned to stay clear of certain parts of the path because Id go some days and big bits of branch had fallen because it was all so dry!
One day we decided to go for a little picnic because we had seen “picnic ground” on the map. We came across a wonderful area with lots of fit people running around and doing godknows what stretches everywhere you looked. We sat to look over our central America book because at this point in the trip it was getting to the point where we were running out of money and still didn’t have jobs! After a little while doing this and eating at the picnic bench we decided we would go for a little walk and see what the fuss was about with all these people in spandex. Wow was it a long walk….its not called the Thousand Steps for nothing. It felt like we were going forever but the walk was pretty. It was winding through lots of big green trees and all the lovely birds were around. Liam in particular loves the birds here, you get all kinds of colourful parrots and parakeets in the trees everywhere.
We went into the city on some other days, we went to the Arts Precinct and into one of the Museums which was a couple of hours of enjoyment. We particularly liked the pottery area with a whole room dedicated to pottery from up our end duck.
We went to a couple of festivals, one being White Night which was really interesting. We met up with John and went to China Town for some Asian food which was really good. We then wandered around the city looking at the various little light shows that were on. They had lights on all of the buildings making it look like they were all coloured in, and every hour or so they would change the patterns. Flinders Street was all lit up too and the place was absolutely full to bursting. There were a lot of bands playing but unfortunately most of them wernt playing until past midnight and with us being so far we had to catch the train back. It was also way too busy to even find somewhere to sit and have a drink so we would have been struggling by the time the bands came on.
Another festival was Moomba which was also a really nice day. It was sunny and Liam and I went alone which I always love to do. There were loads of bands playing, big fairs all the way down the yarra, lots of food stalls, water sport and other competitions like skating for example. Lots of things to keep your eyes darting around and generally enjoying the sights and sounds. After spending the afternoon looking around we found a nice cosy spot to sit and have a cider along the yarra, it was just beautiful with everything all lit up.
We also went to Knox Festival with the family we stayed with which was nice. There was a big fair ground, but we mainly went there to watch Ice Age 3 on the big screen outside. Lots of people set up blankets and picnics and as soon as the sun started going down the film started. They do a lot of stuff like this around here, this one was free but the other ones are generally quite expensive and we couldn’t really afford to do it before then unfortunately. We went out for a meal a couple of times with the family we were staying with for Birthday stuff etc, nothing special to report from any of that though.
Around this time I finally managed to get myself a job in a residential home as a catering assistant. I thought I would at least have some input with the elderly residents there…boy was I wrong. I worked there for 1 month working about 3 or 4 shifts a week and I’m sorry to say I absolutely hated it! The pay was little, the hours were long, there were no breaks and the pace was out of this world. It was taking me 2 hours to get there, and when my shifts were beginning at 6am that was just crazy! The Dandenong Ranges are just so hilly, I initially tried to use an “adult” sized scooter so I could go down the hills quicker. I very quickly gave that up as I only had to carry it up the hills and when going down I was fearing for my life! I broke down into tears more than once during my time there and in the end decided it just wasn’t worth it. By this time Liam had worked his way up his bosses bottom and earned himself a nice little pay rise, along with the odd trip away here and there (Sydney and Brisbane). So we decided to find ourselves somewhere to live closer to the city where we wernt being bothered by people all of the time and where it was easier to get to work.
Here we are, our one bedroomed apartment less than a 10 minute walk from Flinders Street Station. After some initial problems when moving in we are now settled quite nicely and loving living together just us two. From our balcony you can see the city when you look one way, and the Docks when you look the other. I have taken to jogging (sometimes a few days in a row, sometimes a few days break!), and the track is just beautiful. I walk through the grounds of the Shrine of Remembrance which in itself is just a magnificent building. On a warm day there are lots of people sitting on the grass enjoying themselves, on a cooler day not so many people but very relaxing. There is always a flame lit in the courtyard as you look out towards the city. Its on a slight hill so you feel like you’re on top of the city looking at it. We actually went to the Shrine a while back when we were in the city to try and do a little sight seeing and had a tour round the place. There’s a lot of memorabilia from the war, and lovely elderly gentleman volunteers who just relish in showing you around and telling you a bit about each thing. The view from the top is stunning, when we went it was absolutely scorching hot so we couldn’t stay up there too long ( because we got into the mind set of the Aussies that sun is BAD! – and they wonder why theyre all vitamin D deficient!). Theres a lovely foyer in the centre with a stone plaque in memory of those who died, and they have made an ingenious little hole in the brick work of the ceiling so that on a certain day of the year at a certain time ( I forget what exactly), the light falls just in the centre of the plaque. They actually do a pretend service every half hour in the day to show visitors how it looks in the actual ceremony.
As well as the Shrine there is also the Botanical Gardens, which unfortunately when we were in the city doing the sight seeing we left it a little too late in the day to bother going through. Also as I mentioned it was a scorcher too. But I go round the outside of it on my jogs and get to see the lovely gardens and lakes through the trees. We will go in before we leave, its just now its winter and the sun has pretty much gone we’re now wondering what on earth we were playing at by keeping out of it!! Why on earth didn’t we get ourselves topped up with our tans rather than staying inside all of the time, the Australians are obsessed with keeping out of it. But we know from experience that when you have it all the time you kind of get fed up of it…like I say its only now its gone again we feel like twits.
We have since been back to visit the family we had been staying with to give Pippa her birthday present. Turns out she already had one of what I got her from somebody else, so Liam gave her cash instead (double what I actually spent!!), and that was that. On the walk to their house a dog started following us, we tried to ignore it for a while but it was like it thought we were walking it. We tried to lose it a few times because its not uncommon to see friendly looking dogs wandering about around that area, but we just couldn’t shake it. After it had riled up some other dogs behind fences and we almost got told off by some other owners we decided to check his collar. Liam used his laptop bag strap and attached it to his collar before walking him back to his house which was pretty funny!
It’s the Comedy Festival at the moment, we met up with John and Emily last week and went to see a funny lady for an hour which was good fun. She was called Ursula something or other, and was a South African who lives in New Zealand and quite a bit lady. All of these things were used to great effect in her stand up. Liam of course grabbed a photo with her at the end which is up on facebook now. We are going to see another show at the end of the week just us two which will be nice. We have started having our Date Nights which is a really great opportunity to spend quality time together whilst making sure we are seeing one new thing each week around the city so hopefully we will have been to a few different places by the time we leave. We went out last weekend into St Kilda to one of the bars there for a few drinks and it was just like being at home (only we didn’t have our friends with us).
We are loving it here, now that we are earning getting by isn’t difficult at all because of course, all the costs are relative to what you earn as they generally are at home. Ive been making sure to go to the markets for our weekly grocery shop, Victoria Market and South Melbourne Market.
The Australian people are generally all very nice and we’ve not had any trouble since living in the city so far. I have to say Im getting to the point where Im missing my friends and family now, probably because we are settled into a routine but I don’t have anybody to call up and ask to come over or to go out with. Liam is feeling similar to me I suppose but has a bit more to keep him occupied than me.
Liam is of course still working at CPA which he loves, and I’m now working as nanny for his boss 2 days a week as well as doing some work surrounding their development and meal planning. The children are adorable and Im really enjoying it. I not only get to spend time with the children in the house Im also insured for their car so I can take them out to places. I took them to a childrens comedy show in the city last week and it was paid for me, as is anything else I take them to so it has its perks. The other week we went to a place called Bounce which is a big indoor area for kids and adults where most of the floor and walls are trampolines so you just BOUNCE all over the place, that was fun. Its not much money but between us (mainly Liam!) we are getting by quite nicely and are saving to go to New Zealand in a couple of months. I forget what we’ve already said, Im assuming Ive written about the Great Ocean Road already and a few other things Ive not mentioned in this post. I probably havnt said everything, lets face it its been a long time and we have seen a lot of stuff, said a lot of stuff and done a lot of stuff. That’s the main points I suppose and I will try and keep a bit more up to date in the future.
Since writing this on the 15th Liam has had an appointment for his cyst (or testicle as I liked to call it). He went to the doctor who said it was too infected to do anything with it there and then and gave him some strong antibiotics and a number to call a consultant.
He saw the consultant a couple of days later on his lunch break from work, and from there was told it was in a bad place and very infected so he would need to go to hospital immediately. It was lucky we went home to get him changed out of his uniform because he was told at the hospital he would need to stay in for an overnight observation after surgery. We knew it was bad because he was in a lot of pain from it and it was very big but had no idea of the extent of the infection. I was gutted I couldn’t watch what came out of it, I’d made him promise to let me film it before! That was the main reason I went with him to each appointment just in case they did the procedure there and then! He went into surgery in the evening and was in there for about an hour and 15 minutes, he said it wasn’t a pleasant experience as when he woke up he was very very sick for a few hours. I went back to him in the morning and he seemed ok, he now has a vagina on his face rather than a testicle. It’s a massive gaping wound which they don’t stitch up they just let it heal. He had to have a nurse come in every day for about 5 days to keep filling the hole with gauze and dressing it. Hes also got around 5 different medications to take including pain killers, anti-inflammatory, antibiotics and anti-nausea. He isn’t himself at the moment but he’s ok and back at work. I’m continuing to fill his little vagina with expensive padding and dressing it every day.
Its also past the day we were supposed to be going to another show for the Comedy Festival, we were looking forward to it as it was for our weekly date night. We set off in plenty of time, had a nice leisurely walk down only to find out that we had gone to the wrong place. Or should I say it was the right place, before it closed down and moved. After a while of trying to figure it all out we were already 15 minutes late, then realised the place had moved quite far away and it would take us half an hour to get there, plus a 15 minute wait for the tram. It was a 2 hour show so we could have perhaps made it for the second half but we really wernt in the mood for paying more for the tram and all the travel so we decided just to go for a short walk together (which is where you will see the picture on facebook with us stood in front of the lit up fountain). We then went home and had a bowl of porridge, date night complete! Wild kids.
Ive also since been caught out for fare evading on the trams. They have a system here where you buy a card called a Myki and you can top it up at various places. They have swipe machines on trams and buses and at all the train stations where you swipe in and out. For longer journeys (anything over 10 minutes as a rule) we will always swipe. But for shorter ones (such as the tram to the station from our apartment which is a 3 minute journey) we don’t swipe on. Naughty we know but it costs almost $4 for what would take us 10 minutes if we could be bothered to walk it. Anyway we’ve been getting away with this, as have a lot of other people. We just have the card at hand and if we see an officer come on we swipe it quickly so they’re none the wiser because they have card machines to check.
Well I was on my way to work at 6.40am the other day, did the usual thing and got off and before I knew it there were loads of fare enforcers everywhere and they were stopping people as they got off the trams. Oh dear. I started to run because the stop is right next to the train station and it’s a common sight for people to be running for the train but they stopped me. I was kept for 10 minutes of so whilst they asked me lots of questions and made me feel like a real criminal for evading a $4 trip. They even called Liam up to confirm everything which made me very snarky as it was his first day back after his operation and he wasn’t well. The fee for evading is $207. I’m hoping the first catch is a warning, we are just waiting to see what comes in the mail!! Needless to say we aren’t taking the tram to the station anymore.
Liam keeps seeing famous people everywhere, I’m not sure if they’re actually the people or if he’s seeing things but he assures me the backstreets around here are full of TV stars!
We have also experienced Anzac Day right from where most of the tv is aired around Australia. It wasn't so nice being woken up for the dawn service with us being right by it but when we went out at 10am to watch to march it was wonderful. Liam had his camera and was snapping away and seeing all the old service men and women brought a tear to my eye. We were there for about 2 hours watching everybody come up. Elderly men and women were walking up with sticks and simmers with their badges on, some arm in arm with family members and some marching up with no help. They all had families with them and some people were clearly there wearing badges from relatives who have passed away but still honouring their memory. Others came up in lovely old cars. The sun was shining and it was a lovely day.
Anyway I keep not posting this which is why things are added at the ends so I’m going to try and post this now.
