June ka-boom!

 

June marked the end of my current run performing Maestro shows with impro Melbourne, which means I had some time for some adventures!

Australians get a public holiday for the King’s Birthday in June (why don’t Brits get this?), so I fully took advantage of  headed off to warmer climates in Queensland for the long weekend. Originally, myself and Kate (who has been on the road since Sara arrived in April) hatched cunning plan to meet in Brisbane for dinner on the Friday before she left Australia for SE Asia. But in the end, our flights didn't quite line up, so a solo adventure for us both.

It’s funny, back in the UK I would totally be a bit cba to hop on a plane for a couple of hours for just a weekend, but clearly I’ve adjusted to an Australian way of thinking, that distances I used to think were mammoth are small. Anyway, I arrived to a gloriously warm Brisbane and stayed in the nicest inner city hostel I’ve stayed at in Australia (well done YHA Brisbane). One thing I have started to notice is how mixed ages are at hostels- frequently I meet cool, kick ass women in their 50’s and 60’s, just living their best lives. The future is hopeful. I decided to go and check out Brisbane’s supposedly buzzing Southbank in the evening. Although it was busy, I definitely would not describe it as buzzing. I've seen more action in Enfield on a Friday night!

The next morning a had a lazy start, then had about 4 hours to kill before my coach to Noosa heads beach. I’ve been to Brisbane before and remember it being pleasant, but a bit boring, and I wanted to see if this was still the case (spoilers, it was). I hopped on an e-scooter and wizzed around the city for a bit. I could write an entire essay on the pitfalls of e-scooters, but they are handy (and fun!) on a day like that. And at least they come with helmets here. The weather was mid twenties and the sun was out, so I spent some time at the street beach- a free public man made beach with huge lagoon swimming pools, by the side of the river. I thought at first there was something wrong with the pool as hardly anyone was using it, but quickly realised it was too cold for Queenslanders, but not for me as a Brit.

I then headed off to Noosa, about 2hrs away by coach. Noosa is a slightly bougie holiday destination and fairly popular among backpackers. Last time I was in Aus, I had to skip it out due to time, so was determined to make it. I stayed at the YHA, which was an old timber building a couple of mins from the beach and surrounded by rainforest. It was also formally called Hillcrest- the same name as my grandparents house. The next day, free pancakes for breakfast (my favourite!) before heading to the beach. Naturally the moment I finished head to toe factor 50 suncream,  the sun went in. Still, I enjoyed a swim, even in mid winter, the sea is 23c. In the afternoon, I went for a surf lesson. They gave us wetsuits, which I found kind of funny, but wasn’t complaining. Somehow, I get progressively worse with each surfing lesson (this must be about number 10), like the Benjamin Button of learning things, but it’s fun to splash about and drink sea water for 90mins. The rain poured and poured, very unusual for Noosa. The hostel was hosting a cultural evening though where a nearby First Nations Elder and some family members came to talk to us and show us some traditional dances. One particularly poignant moment was when he asked to describe what we could see all around us, then explained that even if we can't see them, our ancestors our always with us, much like stars above us*. 

The following day started off with free yoga (best hostel ever amiright?) then I went for a hike with a couple of people I had met in the hostel-TJ (Dutch) and Emma (French). It was still raining, but we ploughed on along the coast of the National Park. It was only my intention to do a quick there and back, but we decided tp gp back through the jungle/forest and I’m glad we did as there was some great nature and seeing the rain evaporate as steam off the trees was pretty cool. Naturally, I suncreamed upon on our return to the hostel to have a whole 5mins on the beach until the clouds came back.

Speaking of nature, I came face to face with my first big boy (or girl) spider in the bathroom. I would’ve been oblivious until someone pointed it out on the ceiling. It was about the size of my hand and definitely didn’t appreciate my screeching. I think it was a huntsman, so harmless, but terrifying. Me and my bathroom mate (also called Victoria haha) decided to call her Tiffany. I could spy her every time I went in and almost got used to her.

The following weekend, I booked a day trip to the Grampians, a national park named after the one in Scotland. It’s about a 3hour drive from Melbourne, so better to do over a weekend, but difficult to coordinate with anyone, so I bit the bullet and just paid for a tour. The views were great, but as often is the case with these things not enough time to really enjoy them. It was raining too. I did get to meet some wild kangaroos up close though.

I spent most of the rest of June being a bit ill, over doing it I think. We did have a one year birthday party at work which consisted of a ‘sausage sizzle’ aka a bbq but less fancy- literally sausages and sliced bread. End of June marks the end of the financial year in Aus, where a lot of the videos I've been editing were due. I also was keen to get them done because… I was heading back to the UK for a brief 12days for my cousin Emma’s wedding. Some may think that is a bit mad, but it’s actually one of the easiest decisions I’ve made all year and will be a nice refresh before the last bit of my year.  I would’ve done the same for my cousin Ben’s wedding in Feb, but the timing and finances just weren’t right.

 

I’m actually writing this on my second flight of the trip home and I so bored. Hats off to people who do this on the regular because I am so bored right now. How long is left? 5hours I hope, or less. Let me check….

Erghhh 5hours 40mins.

It’s also why this is so long. So sorry for novel, this is also my entertainment as the films are rubbish.

Onwards to July!

*I'm paraphrasing here, hopefully I've done the story justice!

Brisbane

Street beach, Brisbane 

Noosa beach

The Darling (harbour) buds of May

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.

Margaritas and Mexican food with Sara

Two people who have just had an excellent brunch

Football Queens 👌

Maestro poster!

End of one of the shows!

Please donate!

Hello!

 This is not quite a regular entry, but wanted to mention this in it's own post.

 I've been doing lots of improv shows in Melbourne recently (wahoo!). I'm sure some of you reading might've come if this was happening in London/Bristol/where ever you are.

In leiu of buying a ticket this weekend, please could you consider making a donation to the Katie Lees Foundation? 

It supports young women making theatre in Australia. 

 

As you may know from previous posts,

Katie was a very good friend of mine and a kick ass comedy performer, who I first met when we toured Italy together in 2015. Sadly she died in August 2021 and the foundation was set up in her name.

I definitely wouldn't be the person or performer who I am today without her, so it would mean a lot if you could donate to support the foundation's work.

 Thank you very much!

https://katieleesfoundation.com.au/home 

Ch-ch-changes- Melbourne month 4

April has been a month of changes, a new job, new mates and saying bye to some. It really does feel like a new chapter.

The month started with the eagerly anticipated Formula 1 in Melbourne. I had decided back in feb that this was potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to a race in my own backyard. A lot of the day tickets had sold out, and lots of my mates were going, so I went for a weekend pass. I was pretty tired (#nightshiftlife), but it was like being at a festival. On the Sunday, myself and my friends Jack and Kuno (both of whom I met on Port Macquarie over Christmas) managed to find a good spot by turn 12. Though I'm not a superfan with the F1, it's something I've grown up with like a Sunday soundtrack, so was surreal being there irl.

April also marked the start of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, wahoo! It was so exciting to be living in a city where an Edinburgh style arts festival was taking place. My nightshifts restricted me slightly, with a bedtime of 8pm, but I was determined to see as much as I could. Over the course of the month I went to see an improvised Dr Who, Shakespeare and Cabaret (not all at once!) and one of my improv teachers’ solo show.

Easter weekend was spent mainly working, but I caught up with a uni friend Catrin, my pal Issy came to stay and we discovered fairytale/magical themed cocktail bar. I had a drink called Polyjuice potion that came with candyfloss made to look like human hair (or could be renamed hair of the dog as I was a bit hungover?). 

The following weekend, was a rare, visitor-less beast, filled with sleeping, watching comedy shows and going to some art galleries with my mate Jimmy. There’s some pretty cool ones in Melbourne, including ACMI which as a whole floor dedicated to animation, film and editing, wahoo! 

Myself and Kate were also doing touristy bits and bobs on our days off, ticking off stuff before she left Melbourne to go travelling with Sara, one of our pals from home. We managed to do a boat ride, a Botanical Gardens walk and a trip to the Casino!

 Next weekend was awesome one too- Sara, arrived. Friday eve was speant checking out the street art and a rooftop bar. The weather was back to being hot on Sat and we spent the morning hanging out at St. Kilda skate park (Sara skated, I filmed. A much safer combo than sticking me on anything with wheels) and the afternoon at Luna Park. Finally, I had cornered someone to ride on the Scenic Railway with, wahoo! Luna Park is a tiny theme park by the beach that reminds me of the rides near Morcombe, and there is so much fun to be had. The Scenic Railway itself was a joyful experience, made even better by the fact that it’s breaks are controlled manually by an actual human who is actually standing up aboard the train, with no actual harness, in what might be one of the world’s greatest jobs. It's also the world's second oldest continously operating roller coaster in the world. also went on the ghost train, another ride built at least 70 years ago. I was bracing myself for something jumpy/scary the whole way round, but apparently, I’m much less of a scaredy cat than those 1930’s chicks. In the evening we went to Chinatown for dumplings and then to see KitKat Prov, an improvised cabaret by my pals at Impro Melbourne. Then out to a Karaoke bar afterwards- my song choice was I Want to Break Free by Queen. It was a right laugh, and I was FINALLY able to enjoy myself on a night out because…

In amongst the chaos of April, I had received a call offering me a new job (it was actually one I had interviewed for months ago, but that’s a long story I won’t bore you with). I was sad to be leaving my current job, but excited to have a new challenge. And also be back to working regular hours. My highlight of my old job was probably helping set up a live segment where our Sydney reporter was on a fairground ride having just eaten fairy fries (chips with melted gummy bears on them).

My new job* meant that I got bank holidays off, so was able to spend ANZAC day on the beach in Brighton, one that I had been meaning to go to for months.  The new job came at just the right moment, I was considering moving cities/towns and doubting whether Melbourne was the right place for me.

That’s the other thing about Melbourne, the weather, the weather, the weather. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but the unpredictability here is more extreme than a summers day in Scotland. With this comes good and bad- sunbathing on the beach one day, followed by coats the next. A Melbournian (is that a word?) told me recently to pay no attention to the season, you are just as likely to have a day that’s 30c in winter as you are 12c in summer. In many ways this is a pretty good metaphor for my time so far in Melbourne- unpredictable, with sunshine always following the rain (pass the sick bucket!).

April finished with a BBQ and silly drinking games with my new mates. Good stuff.

*if anyone is interested, my new job is a video producer for a State Government Agency.

F1 Track!

All in a night's work (despite appearences, the reporter enjoyed it!)

More art!

Supplies from the UK!

Just your friendly neighbourhood Possum

Brighton beach

Melbourne month three

March started off with an Ed Sheeran at the MCG which was pretty special. It was the biggest concert in Australian history!

The following day me and Rich headed off on our big adventure. We had opted to do the 'Great Ocean Road' a road trip along the Victoria coast line, famous for it's spectacular views and rock formations. Despite my tiredness, we had an amazing couple of days stopping off at various beaches and towns, walking through rainforests and looking at lots and lots of rocks. If anyone is interested in itinerary, here it is:

Friday

•Melbourne- car pick up

•Bell's beach- nice beach

•Torquay- a nice seaside town and a lunch stop where we had Bahn mi, my fave

•Anglesea-  another nice seaside town

•Split point- aka the Lighthouse from 'Round The Twist'*

•GOR sign- with a bit about the history of the road, mainly built by ex-soldier

•Lorne- Erskine falls and Teddy's lookout

•Apollo bay- a seaside town and our overnight

Saturday 

•Apollo Bay- breakfast

•Great Otway National park- Maits rainforest walk, which was beautiful!

•Cape Otway Lightstation- A museum and decommissioned light house tour. On the drive in, you drive through a valley of dead trees.

•Gibson steps- a beach with the first glimpses of the 12 apostles and a good lunch spot.

•12 apostles- spectacular rock formations poking out of the sea

•Loch Ard Gorge- more rocks

The Grotto- even more rocks

•London Bridge- rocks that look like a bridge

•Port Campbell- no rocks here but a nice seaside town

Sunday 

•Port Campbell beach

•Back to Melbourne on motorway

We had good weather the whole weekend and had some great food too. I was still figuring out my shift sleeping pattern/catching up on sleep, so was in bed by 9pm both evenings. My highlight was probably the Round the Twist lighthouse (haha!) and the rainforest walk. There was also thousands of butterflies everywhere, which made the former Countryfile/Farming Today worker in me was very excited! Three nights might've made for less of a rush, but we ticked off everything on the list.

More nightshifts the following week while Rich went off to the Goldcoast. 

On Friday we went to our friend Meli's leaving BBQ at Albert Park (whereas they do the F1). What's nice about Australia and NZ is that they have communal BBQ's everywhere in parks etc that are free to use and great for a party. The following day, we hired a car (through uber car share this time, aren't we tech savvy!) and headed to Phillip Island. Not before a quick stop off to Pin Oak court aka Ramsey Street. Myself and Kate were incredibly excited, Rich pretended not to be, but I knew his was secretly.

Philip Island is about 100km southwest of the city. We stopped off for lunch/swim/icecream in one of the beach side towns before heading to the far end of the island, the real reason for us going there. Every day at sunset, thousands of little penguins come ashore to their burrows. It's pretty much guaranteed, so a huge conservation site and tourist attraction has been built around it, with hundreds of people sitting on tiered seating on the beach. Our tickets said 7pm, so we thought we would arrive for 6pm and get a good spot. When we arrived, we discovered it was doors at 7pm, penguins at gone 8pm. This is important info as we had originally planned at eating after. By the time the penguins did appear, we were cold (having been sat for 90mins), super hungry and, in my night shifted state, very tired. It definitely was spectacular, but the penguins mainly avoided the audience that night. Afterwards, you can walk around the reserve and see them up close and in their burrows etc. which was amazing, but the hanger was ruining the moment a bit.

The following day me and Rich chilled out and I got back on the early bed bandwagon.

The week played out much as the previous one- nightshifts while Rich went to Sydney.

We mainly chilled out in Melbourne on Friday, just visiting the Botanical gardens and going for pizza on westgarth highstreet. It was still warm enough to eat outside too.

Rich flew home on the Saturday. 

On Sunday morning, I cycled along the nicest bike path to a nearby park to play football for the first time since leaving the UK. Joe and his friend Alex had found a friendly kick around group through the app meet up. They had several games going on, so I played some 7 a side before joining the boys on the 11s pitch. This game was more like 15 a side, so much more like a rugby scrum. I'm quite used to playing with just men, but do have to sound it out to see if it's being played in a safe and friendly manner and players aren't going to charge at me full pelt. (Side note on that, with my mixed team in Bristol, I had only been taken out once in 4 years). This didn't feel very safe, Joe and Alex didn't find it much fun either. I think I'll stick to the 7s which was lovely.

The following week, my improv classes had their last sessions. I'll be sad not to have improv, but glad to be able to control my sleep a bit more. Me and Kate had a day out on the Wednesday- getting a boat along the river and out to Williamstown.

On Saturday I flew back to Sydney. Two of my best friends, Scott and Ros, were over there for the weekend wrapping up their honeymoon in the southern hemisphere. Scott and Ros in my comedy group, and I miss them loads. We usually rehearse/hang out at least a couple of times a week when at home in Bristol, so it's been weird not being with them all.  

I grabbed dinner with my friend Peter on Sat eve (he's moved over from Auckland!), some delicious dumplings and headed to my hostel for an early night. I had forgotten that other humans don't like to be in bed by 9pm in a Saturday, but just about persuaded my roomates at 10pm to turn the light out. Which was obviously a popular decision. Not. I cursed myself for not just sucking it up and getting a hotel room and was greatful that at least this wasn't every night. I then had a terrible night's sleep due to someone using a cpat machine in my room. And I thought I had seen it all in hostels!

The next day, I went and met my friend Katie's best friend Grace for a cuppa. It was so nice to finally meet her and to chat about Katie. Afterwards, I checked out the theatre where they performed a lot at. Speaking of which, the charity made in Katie's honour has recently been made official. The Katie Lees Foundation supports young women in the creation of new theatre work. Any donations would be most welcome.

Fed up and sleep deprived, I decided I didn't care what the cost was to move to a hotel that night, so I managed to book a last minute 'capsule room' at a nearby space themed capsule hotel. It was only $10 more than my current hostel, which allowed me to check out early with a refund, wahoo. A capsule hotel is essentially a hostel, but you get a little pod to sleep in and can shut out the outside world. Bliss. Plus, it's cheaper than a hotel room. Result.

Anyway, I skipped off to meet Scros at Bondi. We were joined by Chantal, a friend of Ros' from home, who had also flown in from Melbourne. We had a great day swimming in the sea, walking some of the coastal walk followed by dinner and drinks at the Opera house bar and cocktails nearby. And lots of laughing.

I was so excited to test out my space capsule when I got back. Naturally, I didn't know that they auto locked on closure, leading to a frantic minute pressing buttons then banging on the door until my Korean room mate calmly told me to press the big button to unlock. Lol. Although outside noise was largely blocked out, every pod had loud fans, so it sounded like being on an actual spaceship with a constant, annoying hum of other people's fans. Mine did nothing to make it colder. So much for silence and darkness. It was still an improvement on sleeping next to darth vadar*, even if it was like being aboard the Death Star. I would definitely go back again, but if I really did want to sleep, a private room would be better.

On Sunday morning, I met with Mia, my Korean friend for a coffee. It was so nice to catch up and hear what she's been up to in Sydney.

Then I met the gang by the Rocks for lunch. The rocks is an area near harbour bridge that has old ish stuff and history things from when Sydney was being built. We then did the harbour bridge museum which included going up one of the towers. At the top, we bumped into someone we knew from Bristol! After a mooch around the Botanical gardens, it was time to go our separate ways- W

we all agreed that we had had a lovely honeymoon.

Myself and Chantal were booked sequencial jetstar flights back to Melbourne. They leave several times an hour from Sydney and it's now the busiest flying route in the world as there is no sensible train option (current train takes 12 hours!).

*a bizarre Australian children's TV programme that was randomly shown in the UK and therefore etched into the memory of most millennials

Ed Sheeran at the MCG 

Great Ocean roading 

Iconic

Lunch spot 

London Bridge 

Ramsey Street!

A few people from one of my improv classes

Melbourne by boat 

Space pod!

Before I locked myself inside

Reunited

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!

Koala-ty times

Stef, Eleni and Becca

Pretty ironic considering what happened 5mins later

Townsville 

Bats in Port Macquarie 

A long beach

Sarah giving Jude surfing tips

Beach life

G&T's feat me and Sarah

The whole gang

Melbourne month one

Dear Reader (haha, I sound like a Sunday times columnist)

Again sorry for the slow update. It's been a month of cliff hangers for myself, so why not keep everyone else waited with baited breath for the next chapter? Ha!

In truth, it's just been a pretty busy, stressful and messy month. 

We arrived in the drizzle and cold to a glum Melbourne on the 2nd of Jan at around 6am. I had promised myself never to take a night bus again, but actually, I got some sleep and was less stressful than flying can be sometimes. Our hostel wouldn't let us check in early (an early red flag to the beginnings of a toxic relationship) so I took myself off to see "A Man Called Otto"*.

The next day, myself and my cousin Sarah had a fab night out in Melbourne bar crawling round the lane ways.

The following morning, myself, Kate and our pal Joe we had met on the Kiwi Experience bus, met up and devised a cunning plan where we would look for a share house together. Wahoo! Or so we thought. What followed was an intense couple of weeks where we ran ourselves ragged, going to close to 30 house viewings, writing beautiful cover letters that would rival Shakespeare's work and basically begging estate agents to let us live somewhere. Alas, our hard work was slightly in vein as every mandatory house viewing pitted us against about 50 other hopefuls who's credentials were much better than 3 foreigners without much employment between them. Most the time, they wouldn't even look at our paperwork as all of our 8 (yes, 8) different references were foreign. We were tired and our bulletproof optimism was deflated. In the end, we decided that splitting up would help as there were lots of rooms in already established share houses going. A lot of them would be more off the record too which would mean we stood a higher chance of getting somewhere. This plan worked nicely, myself and Kate found somewhere within a week together and Joe in two. 

While all of this was going on, we were bouncing between hostels. We left the first hostel, much to my relief, and moved to another in St. Kilda, which was much more homely and, thankfully cheaper. The Australian Open was now on, and rooms were in excess of $80 (£37) a night in the city and double the price of our first week. In our downtime between house viewings we looked for jobs and hung out at the beach. Kate had managed to arrange for us to volunteer in exchange for our accommodation back at hostel 1, so we headed back there after a week. I really didn't want to go back, but glad we did as we ended up in a better room and saved a lot of money. Which was great as I still hadn't managed to get a job. We settled into a routine there, my volunteering shift 8pm-9:30/10pm cleaning the kitchen. It meant not being able to go out in the evening, but I was able to swap one night so I could meet up with Scott, one of my ACLE pals, wahoo! There was a group of about 50 or so Fijian men living in our hostel, all working at a meat packing factory. At first I wasn't too sure what to make of them, but had made friends with them by the time I had left. Every evening, they would sit around drinking Kava, a midly narcotic drink they stored in a large bucket and scooped out with a coconut shell. 

During the day I job hunted. I thought finding a job would be easy. All of the recruitment agencies seemed to think it would be. So I popped into them and had a couple of interviews and waited and waited. A lot of offices close at the start of January, so I kept being promised that it would pick up next week, but it never did. Eventually, after a couple of weeks of waiting, I marched around the CBD with my CV. Nearly everywhere was hiring and seemed impressed by my cv, but again, despite chasing, I heard nothing. Finally I got a call and had a successful interview to a cafe/restaurant in Port Melbourne. "Great", I thought, "I'll do that until a 9-5 comes my way". It was all going swimmingly until I was randomly  fired on day 2. I've never been fired before, and had been doing a good job and working hard. My colleagues thought so too. So I'm not really sure why it happened. I was pretty upset and annoyed, and was starting to question why I had flown to the other side of the world to live to be fired from a job that I didn't really want anyway. But after a cup of tea, I applied for a load more and trundled off to my improv class. More on that later. The following morning, one if the agencies rang to tell me that they were putting me forward for two jobs and I had a call from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) less than two hours after applying for a job. The next day, I interviewed successfully to be a casual Producer on their Breakfast show. Wow. The only snag is the casual element and that my shifts will probably start at 2am, yikes. So I'll have to be careful with fatigue management.

Anyway, sorry if this has been a bit boring and gloomy. Here's some cool stuff that's happened.

I've essentially been 'adopted' by Impro Melbourne, a improv theatre in the city. I'm volunteering in exchange for doing two classes a week and making heaps of new friends in the process. Like so many times in my life, Improv is the one consistent thread that keeps going no matter what. It's never intended to be an escape, but provides lots mindfulness, laughter and being silly. You've got to be 100% focused on the scene you are in. I'd deffo recommend improv to anyone because of these reasons. And could wax lyrical for hours about all the soft skills it helps with. But I won't bore you (drop me a dm if you do wanna chat about it!). Anyway, I've had such fun painting and organising their new theatre ahead of opening night and creating social media content. They've even offered to pay me for the latter once I've used up my credits on classes. I really feel I'm going to improve my craft and it's nice to have instant friends to pub with post class.

Anyway, I'm hoping February will be a bit more settled.

*this is based on a Swedish book- "A Man called Ove" that was featured on BBC R4's "A Good Read" when I worked on it, and subsequently done the rounds in our family. David loves it. Though I've never actually read it lol. 

Myself and Sarah out on the town 

House hunting gang 

Tennis!

Melbs skyline

Kate's birthday on St. Kilda beach with Meli our room mate and her friends

Sharing Kava one evening 

All moved in!