Friends, Family and Finding a Job - Life in Melbourne!

For the next few weeks James and I have decided to post our own blogs as we shall be doing different things. So this is my version of life in Melbourne so far!

Having spent a cosey week in my Mums friends house it was time for me to move into the city to begin my search for a job. Moving into a really nice hostel just south of the Yarra river I began handing out CVs and applying to jobs on numerous different employment websites. Having no luck here I decided to give a friend from the Olympics a call. Cleanevent, the company I worked for back in London, has numerous contracts in Australia and I finally managed to get some work at the tennis - big relief!!

Prior to beginning work Alice was over here visiting one of her friends from work so we decided to meet up for the day and visit the Queen Vic market and the Old Melbourne Gaol. It was a really good day buying souvenirs and getting involved in some of the prison experiences that are run at the Gaol.

James and I also decided to go and visit the ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Images) which was great fun and resulted in a rather amusing 'matrix style' video!

Working at the Australian Open was a good laugh, despite having to work night shifts. It also meant I managed to secure some other work in Adelaide, here and in Sydney over the next two months. This does mean our travel plans have changed slightly but I couldn't really miss out on the opportunity to earn a fair whack of money!

During the second week of the Open my parents were over in Melbourne which was really nice. The first evening they were here I kindly went over and cooked them dinner before work. On the Monday we went on the Tram Car Restaurant with Mums' friend Amanda, who Id been staying with over New Year. This was a really fun experience and gave us a good tour of the city.

After our tour of Melbourne and a lovely meal, we headed over to the tennis where Amanda had managed to get us tickets through Cadbury. These seats were AMAZING - only five rows from the front watching Serena Williams followed by Federer!

The following evening we went to see the production of War Horse which was also amazing but emotional. Wednesday was our dedicated 'Australian Open' day where we again had seats in  he Rod Laver Arena (this time we has purchased them!) We got to hear Azarenkas screams, watch Serena Williams get knocked out by Sloane (yes!) and watch Murray beat Chardy, much to the annoyance of the french people sat next to us. That evening we decided to head to the Queen Victoria night market which was absolutely heaving, but had some awesome food on offer, from spanish paella and sangria, to burgers and potato swirls.

The following day we all headed down to Mornington Peninsula in the hope of seeing some dolphins. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to see any, but we did get to swim with seals and relax on board the boat in the gorgeous 30oC heat! On the way back we drove along the coast and stopped along the way for some photo opportunities and a drink, before heading to Chinatown for an awesome Chinese!

The Saturday after my parents had left was Australia Day. Unfortunately I was called into work on the Friday night so I spent a good proportion of the day in bed asleep. When I did finally wake up, I met up with  one of my old roommates, Jenny, and we sat in Federation Square watching the free concert, the Australian Open Women's final on the big screen and the Australia Day fireworks - all in all it was a good Australia Day!

The following day was of course the Australian Open Men's final. I managed to get cheap ground passes for myself, James and his Mum so we headed into the ground to watch the match on the big screen outside Hisense Arena. For those of you that didn't watch it, it was tense and at some points quite close, but of course, Djokovic reined victorious! It was still a great night with a great atmosphere though.

Following on from everyone's hard work over the Australian Open, the majority of us who had worked for Cleanevent decided to head out for the night. This was great fun but also hilarious with the highlight being when we all got escorted out of Crown Casino! Safe to say that we all felt pretty rough the following day.

I now have a week and a half before I leave for the Great Ocean Road and Adelaide so I will be filling my time visiting tourist attractions and hopefully my next post will be slightly more interesting than this one!

I hope you all survived the snow, and for those of you immersed in busy season, I hope it's not too horrendous!

Take care all!

x x x

Christmas and New Year Down Under!

Firstly, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! We hope you all had a great day and stuffed yourselves with Turkey! Here's our tale of what we did over the festivities.....

On arrival to Sydney we headed straight to Manly for two nights where we spent our time walking along the coastal walk (well a short distance of the way anyway) and lazing on Manly beach and the coves on the other side of the peninsula. All in all it was a good few days of relaxation!

Back in the city we spent our first day doing the rock walk and visiting the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Although we didn't do the Bridge Climb we did go up the Pylon lookout and walked halfway along the bridge. At lunch time we lazed in the park overlooking the Opera House - it was very peaceful and relaxing, and a great view!! Finally we finished our day with a walk through the Botanical Gardens and Hyde Park via St Mary's Cathedral and the Anzac memorial. In the evening we headed up the Sydney Eye where we watched the sunset and got to see the city both in the light and dark.

The following day we met up with Sandra, a friend we had met in the Elephant Sanctuary. She took us round the Olympic Park which was quite interesting, especially for Em who could see how it differed from the London one. We also got to see the rowing course and the canoe course.

From here we headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park which was awesome!! We got to feed and stroke Kangaroos and also stroke and cuddle Koalas! =] There were also other animals there like Tasmanian devils and Dingoes etc. It is much more personal than a zoo and was a great experience.

To finish our day we feasted on a 1.2 kg tomalhawk steak which was soooo good and definitely made up for the lack of meat we had had back in the elephant sanctuary.

For our third day we ventured to the fish markets where we managed to sample some smoked salmon. Although we didn't buy any fish, we did buy some big strawberries covered in chocolate!! From the fish market we headed over to Darling harbour via the Chinese gardens. This is a fairly modern complex with lots of attractions nearby.

We decided to go to Sydney Aquarium, which was by far the best aquarium either of us have been to; the Dugongs were really cool!

That evening we decided to head to Kings Cross for a look around before going up to the opera house and harbour bridge to get some awesome photos of them lit up!

The next day saw an early start to get up to the Blue Mountains National Park. Here we went on several long walks, totalling well over 10km for the day! These included walks around Wentworth falls, Echo Point, Gordon falls and Leura cascades. Whilst in Katoomba we also visited Scenic World, which has three rides giving spectacular views of the surrounding scenery. The most impressive of these was the worlds steepest railway, which goes down a 52 degree incline!!

We decided to have a more relaxing day the following day and headed to The Domain, in the Botanical Gardens to set up camp for the Christmas Carols. Arriving at 11am we had 9 hours of relaxation before the show started. It's safe to say that these are the busiest Christmas Carols we have ever been to! They were also the best Christmas carols we've ever been to!

Our final day in Sydney city was spent lazing around and going out for a nice Japanese lunch with Emma and Lee (our friends from Vietnam).

Christmas Eve on Bondi was gorgeous weather and we spent the day topping up our tans on the beach. Of course it was typical that the weather on Christmas Day was horrendous. In true English style is rained all day!!!! Luckily for us our hostel put on an awesome Christmas Day. Emma and Lee headed over from the city and we started the day with egg and sausage breakfast, shortly followed by Bucks Fizz and from then the wine was in constant flow. Christmas lunch consisted of BBQ chicken, salad, bread, chocolate Yule log and ice cream and of course, more wine! The four of us then decided we weren't going to let the weather beat us so we walked down to the beach for a very quick dip in the sea. We were even lucky enough to meet H from Bondi Rescue! After a warm shower and treating ourselves to some Brie and crackers, smoked salmon and cream cheese, pâté, sausage rolls and Christmas cake we headed back to the main part of the hostel for the evening party where there was, surprise surprise, more free wine! It's safe to say that most of Boxing Day was spent in bed! Despite an extremely different Christmas, it was definitely a very good one!

On the 27th we said good bye to Sydney and flew to Melbourne, which would be our home for the next 3 months. After an evening of relaxation, we got up early the following morning as James had kindly treated Em to a day at the MCG! Unfortunately this turned into half a day as a woeful Sri Lanka side were obliterated by Australia. This was time enough to get a sense for the atmosphere at the ground and see several beach balls popped by a rather grumpy man who got showered with beer for his fifth assault on a beach ball by a drunk woman.

For the next few days we were based at a friend of Em's mum and were dog sitting until after the new year. This was more than a fair trade given this house has a pool and spa! We spent the two days preceding New Year's Eve wandering round the city centre as well as St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra. On the first of these days we went to the Moonlight Cinema in the Royal Botanical Gardens to see Taken 2. Being able to sit outside until 11.30 watching a film and having bats flying overhead was definitely not something we are used to!!

For New Years Eve we went to Flagstaff gardens where we were able to get a great view of the awesome Melbourne fireworks! Unfortunately this was an alcohol free event (Australia and their stupid alcohol bans!) so we started early with pink champagne and sausage and egg sandwiches by the spa before we left!

New Years Day was a very lazy day, again spent by the pool. We even decided to celebrate British New Year at 11am our time with a nice glass of wine. On the 2nd January James moved into his apartment to begin his cricket training and Em went in search of a job in the city after her au pair job fell through last minute.

Here begins a new chapter of our travels which will be motivated by cricket for James and a job (hopefully!) for Em, for the next 12 weeks. Stay tuned to find out how we're both getting on!

Take care!

X x x