Weekend

I spent last weekend on a plane, so it shouldn't be too difficult to make this one a little better... Keeping in touch with my European roots I accepted an invitation to a Cologne Carnival here in Melbourne. Having spent many years hearing about the annual festivities from German colleagues its quite fun that my first experience of it would be on the other side of the world. As is traditional at the Carnival's source, our German hosts had insisted on fancy dress, so I spent most of friday panicking around the costume shop in town...
When Saturday came I enjoyed meeting others that had moved to Melbourne in the past year, although I'm not sure that I would ever recognise them again! I asked Oscar the Mexican (who was dressed as a nun) why he had chosen to come to Australia and he said that it was a choice between Australia and Canada, and Canada was cold. I could relate to that sentiment. I think that the real carnival in Cologne would have been a lot colder than our party!


I also played my first game of squash in Australia this weekend, turning up at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre for their social squash afternoon. Did my fair share of whooping and getting whooped, all whilst it was a balmy 38 degrees outside. I miss playing in England, but it is usually at this time of year that I am considering the development of sports-earmuffs to help stop my face from freezing up on court...

Day 4

Day 4 and time to step up the job search. Since having so much to sort out in the UK, I've found that I'm not very good at just doing nothing. My CV should start hitting the agencies this afternoon and hopefully somebody somewhere will be interested in employing me.
Maybe I should be spending my spare time studying the local maps. I have been asked for directions twice today. I take this as an indication of a natural air of confidence in my new country, but I invariabley end up disappointing people with my lack of knowlegde. I manage to excuse this by putting on my best BBC-style english accent and answering with something like 'I'm terribley sorry, but I'm unable to help you there. I have been here but four days'. I think I still hear them sigh at my incompetance though...
Still, in celebration of my apparent aussie-ness I decided to indulge in a Smoothie on the way home. I even took a photo of it in context:

Got Mail

There was some post for me today - nothing particularly exciting, a letter from the National Austalian Bank, but it was addressed to me. Makes me feel official.

One of the best things about where I was living in Chelmsford was that I could stroll to the station (and out of Essex!) in a leisurely 15 minutes. Today I discovered that for approximately the same effort I can end up here, on the beach, in the sunshine...



I also met a new cat. It seems quite comfortable with coming into the house and hanging out. That suits me - nice to have something to talk to during the day without the responsibility of looking after it!

Um, Hello?

Oh my god, someone just said ‘good morning’ to me in the street. I was just walking along, minding my own business and definitely not making eye contact, and yet they still spoke. Where I come I would have to assume that this man was a psychopath…but things might be different here. I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

I am making other efforts to accept the australian culture. This week I will mostly be wearing:

Arrival

The guy at the immigration desk at the airport just waved me through into Australia. No questions, no confusion, no paperwork…that’s it. I’m in. Just like that.

Leaving the UK had been tough enough – what with all the security restrictions as well as saying goodbye to all my friends. Not wanting to face another 22 hours on a plane to return to everything I'd left I had prepared myself to tackle a barrage of questions to allow me to pass into a new country. I needn’t have worried.

It got better too, cos after I’d collected my baggage (which all arrived in one piece, all the way from England via Hong Kong an’ everything) I joined the customs queue where everyone’s bags were being searched under Australia’s overly strict importation rules, only to find myself herded straight out of it again and through a secret door which slid open x-factor-style and left me in front of a crowd of cheering aussies almost as delighted by my arrival as I was!