Melbourne Identity

We've been in Melbourne for just over a month now. After we spent a couple of days resting after the travels with Dylans brother Ronan in St. Albans we started house hunting. we saw a couple of places in the St. Kilda area. The first place was owned by an Austrian guy called Frank who wanted us to share the smallest aprtment you've ever seen with two people we didn't know. We told him we wouldn't be going down that road again. We saw another couple of one bedroom furnished places also in St.Kilda but we would have had to pay a months rent and a months deposit (bond) up front. We didn't mind that but the places weren't great. We went to see another place on brighton Road that wasn't furnished but it was beautiful, really spacious and recently done up and we seriously considered taking it, in fact we made the guy an offer but having slept on it we realised we'd probably made a mistake because furnishing this place would have been expensive. Thankfully the guy wanted a longer lease so we dodged a bullet there. While we were waiting for him to ring us back we saw a place on Gumtree website in St. Kilda that had no deposit and no bills. i phoned the guy and he agreed to let us see it. Of course the bloody van wouldn't go so we had to find our way there via trains and trams. It wasn't that difficult to get there and when we arrived we saw another couple hovering down the street. Emma knew that they were here to see the same place and when it started to rain we congregated under the porch at the front of the building we discovered that they were the competition. They were a couple from Cork who had been here for 4 months and had been sharing with friends in a very small apartment. When the guy showed up to show us around the girl from the couple rushed ahead of the rest of us to see the place first. When we saw the apartment we all wanted it, not that it was the best place i've ever seen but after 2 and a half months living in a van it was a palace. The guy who was leasing it didn't want to choose between us so he suggested we flip a coin and just before we were gonna do this I asked a question "so can we move in straight away?" and he said "yes you can move in now if you want" the other couple suddenly looked forlorn and said "oh we can't move in for 2 weeks or we won't get our bond back from the other place" I immediately said "we'll take now" and that was it. The couple from Cork skulked out the door and we had an apartment. No bond, no bills, one weeks notice when we want to leave, leave the rent money on the kitchen table every week and some guy comes in and collects it (we thought this very odd in the first place but they let out a number of apartments in the building and it other people we've spoken to said it's fine and it has been so far) great location between chapel st. and fitzroy st. on the edge of St.kilda.

Next thing to do was to try and get jobs. we went through the process of registering with agencies again and we both started off getting a few jobs here and there for a day or 2. I worked up in Collingwood for a few days in the best office i've ever seen. It's a converted loft all open planned with a huge kitchen area, dining area, pool table and real coffee machine. They love their coffee in melbourne. All the Starbucks are closing in the city because they tried to introduce coffee culture but it was already here! I've got into drinking coffee a bit. A mate of mine from home Donal McGoldrick has been over here for 6 years and we've met for coffee a few times. It's winter here and it's pretty cold with the wind coming up from the anarctic but people still sit outside all wrapped up in coats and scarves. We had to buy ourselves winter coats because when we first got here we were froze. It doesn't take you long to get used to the heat especially after we'd had almost 6 months of it so it was a bit of a shock when we got here to find that it may be 12 -15 degrees but with the wind it feels like it's minus sometimes. We were warned though if one more person says to me "four seasons in a day".....

After a couple weeks working in a variety of places I got a 3 month contract doing payroll for Victoria Police. Emma has a 2 month contract with TAC. i think they are like a state insurance company who provide medical care and rehab if you've been in a car accident and she is recruiting staff to provide rehab or something like that. Anyway it's great to not have to worry about where we'll be working for a while so now with the apartment and jobs we've got a bit of time to explore Melbourne.

The city centre is really cool. It's on a block format like in the states and it has all these cool side streets and alleyways full of shops, pubs and restaurants. We walked down by Southgate last night after work and the few of the city is amazing from down there. The trams and trains can take you to just about anywhere you need to go. The are losing a clean fortune on them trams because nobody pays for them and there is very rarely inspectors to check tickets. Chapel St. is right beside us so we've spent a good bit of time down there checking out restaurants and bars. we went to a Nepalese place a couple of weeks ago, the food was delicious. There is a cinema at the end of the street called the astor. it's really old fashioned and when we went to see "There will be blood" a couple of weeks ago they had an intermission. There's a gym across the road from it that I've joined as well. It's in an old church thats been done up. Inside it reminds me of gym tech when it was on Hill St. in Newry. I've started boxing training as well. It's more like circuit training but it's a good work out.

Melbourne is really multicultural. There are loads of Greeks, Chinese, Balkans, Italians, Indians, Israelis,Vietnamese and of course Irish here. All boiled together the city and the suburbs have a really good vibe and we look forward to sampling as much of it as possible.