Where's Vic?: Melbourne month two

Hello!

A long long over due update this time. Apologies, I've been rubbish.

I wrote the last post on a plane my way to Townsville for the weekend and now I'm writing one on a plane to Sydney.

February definitely got off to a good start. I had moved into my lovely home near Westgarth in Melbourne and had the promise of work on the horizon.

A few months before, I had organised to go and see my friend Rebecca in Townsville. Becca is another one of my friends who I met working in Italy (they were/are all such a great bunch of humans and definitely my kind of people!). We hadn't seen each other since 2016 and I was so excited. I'd visited Townsville before in 2014, it's a holiday town in Northern Queensland and where you catch the ferry to nearby Magnetic island. Leaving a rainy Melbourne behind and arriving in to balmy, tropical Townsville to eat greek food on the beach was great.

Becca's parents run a motel in town that they kindly put me up in and it has the most beautiful swimming pool and jacuzzi area surrounded by rainforest trees.

The next day (after a great brekkie at a nearby cafe I found), myself, Becca, her partner Stef and their 2 year old Eleni headed out to Billabong wildlife sanctuary. We admired some Koala’s for a bit, and headed over to feed some kangaroos. On our way, a family mentioned seeing a crocodile in one of the lakes, but seeing as it was a crocodile sanctuary, we didn't think it was unusual. Just as I was about to get my ultimate kangeroo selfie, we were told we needed to evacuate because there was an escaped croc! I wasn't particularly worried, but the staff did seem quite stressed out as we waited in the safety of the cafe with an icecream. I thought it was just a classic Oz experience, but it had never happened in 30 years and even made the news. I never did get that selfie.

Townsville gets very hot in feb, so we chilled at home, accompanied by a nandos and watching Married at First Sight. Which for those who know my love for that reality show know it was perfection to me.

In the afternoon we went for a swim in the sea pool (too many sharks and jellyfish mean a lot of towns in QLD build sea pools or invest in nets).

Then in the evening I went for a walk then grabbed a beer and had an early night watching the Big Bash Cricket League final on the telly. I was hoping to go to a game at some point but accidentally missed the boat. Whoops.

The following day, myself, becca and her friend headed to magnetic island for the day, wahoo. The beach we were hoping to go was closed as a dead turtle was attracting sharks and when we arrived to the second, it was also closed as the net had a hole in it. Instead we had some margaritas before the next bus arrived. It's a hard life, haha. Third time we got to a beach where you could swim. Apparently a baby turtle had gotten through the net, so I was on a mission to find it and rescue it. Alas I did not succeed.

When we were back on the mainland, we headed up the hill for spectacular views of the town and coast before I headed back to the airport home.

The following week was a quiet one, I just did a few shifts working for the hospitality agency myself and Kate had signed up to and went to an improv show.

Then the big day arrived for my first 2am shift at ABC. It flew by, I had much to learn but I definitely felt as though I had all of the fast editing and writing skills needed (ironic as this is post is about 6 weeks overdue). The second shift was the same too. Funnily enough, fitness guru Joe Wicks ended up being a guest on the programme, which now means I've now hiit (get it!) some sort of Joe Wicks bingo at work as 3 out of 4 departments/programmes I've worked on have at some point crossed paths with him. A sign to do more exercise perhaps?

That evening, very tired, I headed out to watch my pal Scott in a play which was nice.

On the Wednesday, I headed over to Sydney ahead of a weekend away with my cousin Sarah along with Lochie, Jude, Leo and my aunt and uncle Ian and Shirley in Cresant Head, a town 5hrs north of Sydney and about an hour from Port Macquarie.

On Thursday, I hopped on a plane to PM and spent the day chilling on the beach before having dinner with my friend Jack, who is from there, before heading to Cresant Head.

The next morning the 7 of us headed to the beach in town. It was particularly fun because the towns creek runs into the sea from there and has a moderate current like a lazy river. Very fun for floating down on lilo's and body boards.

In the early evening, I went for a run along another beach (a highlight was a very cute Jude running towards me on the 'finish line'). And we all went out for pizza. Lovely stuff.

The next day to a different beach, with some attempted improvised 'sand boarding' and snorkling. Then rice wraps for dinner. Yum.

Day three started with a video call to the UK to virtually attend the evening part of my cousin Ben's wedding. It was heartbreaking not to be there, but so nice to have a chat with Ben and have a dance with everyone there. Particularly funny dancing around in my pyjamas while being passed around the dancefloor. Thank goodness for modern technology! I'm looking forward to catching up with the newlyweds when I am home!

We headed back to town beach before heading back on Monday via a small beach town. The sat nav decided to take myself, Ian and Shirley on a scenic route and we had quite the adventure driving through the bush. Luckily excellent we had an excellent driver and co pilots.

It was a lovely weekend and so nice be with family again.

Back to Melbourne on Monday night, and back to work for the rest of the week.

The following weekend was spent mainly sleeping. Meli, my YHA Volunteer roomate, coming for brunch on Sunday.

Then on Sunday evening, Rich (my brother) arrived, wahoo!