No, I didn't go to Sydney in May as the very niche (but hilarious) pun would suggest. I didn't even leave Melbourne, but, although it's not Spring here, those metaphorical seeds planted are a growing. Despite beginnings smeared in manure at times, the flowers have arrived. Ok, ok, enough of the weird horticultural metaphors, I'm sure you get it.
One of the reasons I haven't gone adventuring is because I am now officially in grown up land with a full time job.
But, also, I was invited to be part of an improv show that was running for a month or so on a Saturday night. Wahoo, back to my roots of making people's Saturday night a giggly one. For anyone interested, the format is called "Maestro" improvisers wear bibs with numbers which correspond to numbered pingpong balls. They are then called up and asked to do a short scene, often with complicated constraints e.g. two people on a train who must keep swapping characters. The audience then gives it a score out of 5. Players are slowly eliminated until a maestro crowned. It's not really about who wins, but about creating a good show overall. So naturally, I wanted to win. And gave the big boys (literally) a run for their money with near consistent top 5 finishes. But it's not about winning. I swear.
I also had an opportunity to perform at the improv theatre's open stage night. I'm developing a comedy show about women's football (or soccer as it's called here) which was fun. My new housemate Hannah is an actor too so she helped me out.
In relation to these shows, please do read my last blog post!
Plus it's 'term time' again at the theatre so I am doing a course once a week again and learning heaps.
I've also found a casual women's football meet up on a Saturday morning. Mainly south Americans and a few Europeans, tunes are blasted out of a huge speaker and I feel like I am playing fifa street. They are all absolutely lovely too. It's nice to be doing more exercise too, the lure of the nice quick train is hard to resist against the busy cycle lane along a noisy road as a commute.
Activities other than footie and comedy have mainly included chilling out and going to the pub after shows. A few people have visted Melbourne as well- Sara was back from hers and Kate's east coast trip, so we went out for margaritas, mexican food and to watch some shorts at the Melbourne International Animation Festival (!). One of my Bristol mates Hannah was in town so we brunched and charity shopped it up. And my pal Issy was back after her farm work, so we kareoke'd the night away along with her friend Fabian. Who was turning 19, but, like many German's I've met, inexplicably cool and grown up!
Just as May was drawing to a close, something random happened- there was an earthquake in Melbourne. I had just fallen asleep on Sunday evening, when I woke up to an almighty crash noise like thunder and the room was shaking. At first I thought maybe a car had driven into the house, and confused, I put my lamp on. I didn't have my glasses on but the whole room was moving. Then it stopped. My housemate Daniel was up too- "Did you just feel that? Did I just imagine that? It was almost like an... but no way" "yup, I think we just had an earthquake" Daniel replied. I then went back to my room and scrabbled around for my glasses for about a million years, before heading to the lounge to google it and wait for an aftershock that never came. Our other housemate was out at work (uber eats bike delivery) but hadn't felt a thing. Turns out we were close to the epicentre and it was 3.8 on the richter scale. Melbourne doesn't often get earthquakes and it was the city's strongest in over 120 years*. Obviously this pales in comparison with other parts of the world. But I thought it might be interesting to write about anyway. It's funny, I was low key worried about earthquakes in New Zealand, but I don't think it ever crossed my mind it might happen in Australia. There's probably a life lesson in there somewhere...
June is promising more gigs and more football. Lovely stuff.
*being the good journo I am, I've fact checked this so I'm not misleading anyone.
This was the largest to occur nearest the city centre in terms of distance- 3.8 and an epicentre within 40km of the city centre. In 2021 there was a 5.9 that was 130km away. I'm not sure what this means in real terms. Anyway, the fault line was only discovered this year interestingly.
Two people who have just had an excellent brunch
