Happy New Year!

The highlight of the balmy summer days following Christmas was a trip to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch England v Australia on the 28^th December. The day began at 0600, painting our faces and t-shirts as well as having a few drinks before heading off into town. Everyone was in an excitable mood, and we left the house chanting, on our way to the Celtic Club Irish pub to watch Arsenal v Chelsea prior to the cricket. Amongst the six of us who went from Murray Street were 2 French who turned English for the day. Dimitri, despite being French, would be one of the most passionate on the day.

Early start waiting for the train

Having skipped breakfast at home, rob and I wolfed down some bacon and egg rolls at the pub watered down by a few pints.I had guiness- the first here and it was actually pretty good- I had expected the worst though. We drank beer wrapped in paper on the way to the ground(its illegal to drink on the streets here).

The cricket match itself wasn’t that great on the day, with the large radius of the MCG pitch giving a poor view of the ball. We were however on the bottom stand of the 100000 capacity ground, and the weather was perfect for the event. Only the English fans were singing (the score probably helped that) though the small size of the barmy army meant that they couldn’t be heard. The odd chant of “aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi” mumbled out of the stadium but the aussie fans were quiet. We sat and drank steadily, unfortunately you couldn’t bring your £4.50 plastic schooner (3/4 of a pint) of beer into the stands so had to stay at the bar. A fair bit of time was spent drinking at the bar as a result.



Beer in disguise



The Frenchies Nico and Dimitri on the left with Paul on the right 

Is that a plastic football fan?- I think so

 For new years everybody went into the centre of the city to a bar called section 8, which our housemate frequents. The bar was outside down an alley near chinatown with a ‘street’ feel, playing a range of hip hop and alternative music. It had just the right number of people fortunately not being packed out as with many venues in the city on new years. Before mignight Robert and I went to the fireworks a 20 min walk away on the bridge over the yarra river, next to federation square(the others weren’t interested which we thought was odd). The fireworks were spectacular, being set off from the roofs of the surrounding skyscrapers over the river, though I cant help but think Sydney would have been bigger-we wanted to go but left it late. The area was packed as shown by the photos though you weren’t ever squashed unlike the mare that is London Waterloo. On our return to section 8 the house lot had dispersed, so we stayed for a bit longer till it began winding down. Entry to any clubs and bars on the night was excessive- at least £50 to get in with many places charging £100+.

In the Centre on the way to Section 8

 

We have also moved the trip around a bit. Our flight to Singapore has been changed from the 4^th May to 20^th April, and so we intend to finish work 2 weeks early in mid February. The logic being that this trips purpose is to travel. We intend to leave Melbourne on 12^th February, drive the great ocean road to Adelaide using a campervan, see the city and head to Sydney for our flight to NZ which we have booked for the 21^st February.

I cant really see myself writing much more until that point as I feel I have exhausted much of the city. Plus, over the next two weeks 7 of the 12 people in the house are leaving so the house may well become unfortunately quiet. I am however, very much looking forward to going to the Aussie Open.

I leave you with the following pictures of captain cooks original cottage. The cottage was built by his parents in 1755. It was transported over here using 253 cases and 40 barrels in 1933 from its native ground in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. The cottage is surrounded by an English garden and is adorned by ivy taken from Yorkshire. It now resides in Fitzroy Gardens, a 15 minute walk from the centre of the city. With the red postbox outside, and the English spring like weather on the day, I felt briefly as if I was back at home in a country village, perhaps in Dorset or somewhere. 

 

A Christmas Special

The last few weeks have been spent working in the week and going out at the weekends. Most weeknights are spent sitting in the outside area at the back of the house playing poker for small pots (normally a $2 buy in). The housemates go through a lot of Captain Morgans, as shown by the bottle collection below.

 I have settled into my job now, with some aspects becoming slightly monotonous, however the people I work with are a great crowd. We had our Christmas social at a bar called the deck in the city centre, all expenses paid for with a bar and buffet, though it was annoyingly but cleverly (think of the savings to the company) put in midweek and everyone was scheduled to work the next day. Most of the work lot are quite old for backpackers, with many in their late 20’s. There are quite a lot of disillusioned teachers among them- those people going into it take note!

Views of the city from where I work

 

Robert has had a lot of work in the last few weeks for Unger, the Jewish Events Company, though he worries about the work drying up after Christmas. He says it’s horrendously unorganized, with many occasions where he has turned up at events and had to wait around for an hour before someone arrives to direct him. The business is family run, and often operating at small private events- dinners or drinks at family homes. It does also cater for larger events such as bar mitzvahs and weddings- though the events are all always jewish. When he turns up at an event there is little structure with the boss making brief appearances throughout the event to moan before disappearing and leaving the waiting staff to run the show on their own. However Rob does benefit from the lack of organization as last week he was paid extra, and it seems he is rarely monitored. Also he is always fed there, occasionally bringing some stuff back to Murray Street.

Australia has many similarities to home, many of them are quite discreet but noticeable as a sum. They love a good pie as we do at home(including at sporting events), they queue(unlike the europeans), they all stand on one side on escalators so people in a hurry can walk up the other, the queens head sits on the back of every coin. Even the shape of the 50c coin has similarities to the 50p. Walking down an Aussie high street and looking at the people, the you could easily think you were in Britain- they just look British, not European or just Caucasian, just British(which is no surprise considering they are 80% British/Irish descendents), with the same dodgey sun tans as a Marbella beach resort. Aussie culture though generally a mish mash of everybody elses(including Christmas stuff which I wish they had developed into their own to fit in with the climate- why have snow on adverts?) with the odd lazy attempt to make something their own.

No chance of a white christmas here

The perfect example of this is taking a margarita pizza and dumping a fried egg on top, then calling it ‘The Aussie’. Another favourite(which is Melbournes local dish) is taking a beautiful Chicken Schnitzel smothering it in tomato paste and cheese and calling it an Aussie Parma.

Christmas tree near Federation Square

St Pauls Cathedral from the christmas tree

Christmas day was spent as a house in the house. Four hours after hitting the hay following a Christmas eve session with Robert, a bottle of bourbon, beers and a few other housemates(most went to bed early), I drearily awoke to get turkey no 2 into the oven(having cooked the first the night before). A few weeks ago I put myself up for taking charge of cooking the meal, a job which for most people was the one they wanted to avoid. I took the reigns as I wanted to make sure I had a proper Christmas dinner. I worried if it were left to someone else it would have been a flop or it simply wouldn’t have happened. The nightmare would have been Christmas without it. Everybody chipped into the day, peeling veg, washing plates, clearing and laying tables, sweeping floors, making stuffing and countless other contributions. The meal was a beast, to borrow a phrase from Chris Sheldrick, the meat (ham and turkey) literally fell of the bone.

House Christmas Meal

We also had a house secret santa (or kris kringle to aussies) in the morning. Rob received an oven glove(which had been desperate for for weeks), a T-shirt and a travel journal.  I got beer which was whilst practical, seems like a bit of a cop out. I bought my ss a porno, boxing gloves and a toblerone whilst rob bought his some hair removal cream(he is bare downstairs), a santa outfit and chocolate.

Secret Santa @ Murray Street

Paul presenting rob with secret santa

We ate around two o’clock outside at the back of the house, everybody sitting in shorts, sandals and t-shirts as the temperature hit a warm but not irksome 25˚C. 

During the afternoon some people went to the nearby park to play some cricket and footie, but others including Robert and I, ended up slobbed in front of the Tele watching the horrendous Christmas day TV here. For many the evening was spent drinking outside-my exertions throughout the day meant I ended up watching back to back South Park Christmas specials on the tele.

Christmas was strange not being at home, though good fun nonetheless. The only time I felt homesick in the period was Christmas eve on the train back from work but otherwise the good weather, proper roast and good spirit of the house meant it was more than an adequate replacement.

I will post on the recent trip to the MCG to watch the ashes when I write my next blog.


 

                                Found this gem of an alley in the centre

A Change of Fortune

The week before last was slightly mad. Having spent over a fortnight looking for jobs, and having got nothing aside from being employed at a casual events company, I was feeling dispirited and loosing faith about the whole working in Australia thing. However the situation changed radically on Monday. I was given the contact details of a recruitment consultant by someone from the hostel, sent them an email with my CV, and was called up at 8am the next morning. I went in to see them at 11am and by 3am had a full time job sorted, working at an inbound call centre for midibank. The same day I was offered a job at an outbound call centre selling to the public and was offered a trial by a restaurant, strange how it all works out.  

 Our time at the hostel ran out on Friday and we were tired of the place so nailed a house in a day on Thursday, having looked round one sharehouse with 30 people crammed in amongst others.  

That night we took a trip to a local burger joint called Danny’s Diner before drinking in the bar with our hostel roommates. The place was labeled Melbourne’s best burger bar by an Australian masterchef and so was defiantly on the hitlist of things that needed to be done in Melbourne. The burgers there were damn good, I went for their imitation of McDonalds Big Mac which they had created perfectly with the taste of the secret sauce being so much fresher, and the burger appearing exactly as it does in the adverts. However the meat was tender, the salad fresh and crisp and bread soft and fresh meaning the burger so much better than the real thing. 

The next morning we moved the 30mins into our new house, which is in a suburb called Prahran.

St Kilda Beach House- Our Hostel for the first 3 weeks

Moving On- Waiting for a tram to take us to the new place

The internet cafe which was our 2nd home for the first 2 weeks

We live in a room with two others, in a house of 12 people, all of whom are backpackers who work or are looking for jobs. It is essentially a bungalow with three rooms each containing 4 people. There are 5 English, 4 Irish, a Fin, Canadian and two French in the house. We have an outside area to sit as well as a living room with full sports channels on TV so we can watch the premiership and champions league games live in the night. It’s great to have an oven, the internet(rather than be consigned to a café) and some storage space for clothes(amazing how you miss such simple stuff). Robert the landlord comes round every night to have a moan about something, hence has aquired the name dickhead amongst the house. Annoyingly there is only one bathroom(probably illegal) though there is no long term contract with rent paid in cash on a weekly basis(costs $130pw all bills included which is not far behind my house at uni where I had a room to myself), so we can give a weeks notice and then leave.

Kitchen with an oven!

The house from the front entrance

The room we share with 2 frogs

On Monday just gone, my Auntie visited me in the city as she is over for 2 weeks in part because of her job as a lecturer at Nottingham, but also as a holiday. She took me out for some fancy food on the Southbank(from which the following photos of the centre were taken). The area is pedestrianised with many fine restaurants following the path of the river, offering great views of the city. Its green, airy and laid back with people sitting around sunbathing on the grass riverbanks beneath the shade of the trees along the front. I had a rare steak and cabernet(that’s cooked rare, though interpreting rare as irregular is just as accurate for this description).  Recently the weather has been quite bad with rain and overcast conditions all week gone, like the UK in September. The soft Aussies are finding it freezing. However we are expecting 30 degrees and sunshine over the weekend- have to say I do miss the snow back at home. Its also weird that its December, and that watching the TV you get adverts for summer barbeques and clothing alongside Christmas adverts which depict cosy Christmas scenes with snow!-get some culture.

Saw this in town- check out the crazy price!!

My job involves working in a call centre. I have spent the first 4 days on training and worked properly yesterday. I work for Midibank and advise customers about health insurance options, rebates and do admin work. The job pays far better than any at home with an annual salary of £24K- as I’ve mentioned before wages at the bottom scale are insane here(though I cant see wages in the top jobs being much better than England) The jobs is located in a plush office on the edge of the city centre, overlooking the CBD, with views from the 16^th floor being fantastic. The job will last for 3 months till March as this time of year is really hectic for them and so the 15 of us who are employed are mainly backpackers. Every week pizzas are ordered for the employees and there is a social for us noobs next week which should be great.

I have also done a few shifts as a barman for the events company, and worked at the etihad stadium last night where Jay-Z and U2 performed. The house is planning on buying tickets for the boxing day test at the MCG, though Rob and I need to work out what we are doing for new years- think a trip to Sydney may need to be arranged(though getting accommodation will be nightmare so think we may have to hire a campervan).

Off out with the house to nearby Chapel Street tonight with the house- should be great now there is some money coming in, though need to watch out as Mickey (who incidentally comes from Kingston Upon Thames and is looking to migrate permanently) managed to spend $900 on a night out last week(though it included a solo visit to strip club).

  

Whilst I’ve been bring home the bacon, Robs been in the house most days though works most evenings waiting in various venues around the city. I have put some pics of the city taken at night below. Some call Melbourne the NYC of the South and these pics show why.

The CBD taken from the southbank of the Yarra River

 

The entrance to Chinatown

Chinatown in the CBD