Ok.... this is a little skip ahead and there's a fair bit missing inbetween this and the last posting but I just have to share this with you all.... I'm not going to tell you the whole story right now as there's an easier way for me to do it.......long story short, there was a bet, I won... go to http://starsofcctv.blogspot.com/2006/05/im-forever-blowin-bubbles.html read that first, then this.. http://starsofcctv.blogspot.com/2006/05/torture-me.html Read those 2 entries in that order and all will be revealed!!!
By now, if any of you have actually been reading any of my wafflings, you'll know who Luke is.. well, the web link is to his blog and tells a little ol' story of how he lost a bet.. to me.. needless to say, it made me and our other flatmates laugh a lot, and me breathe easy again once I knew I was safe from the fate that awaited me had the bet gone in his favour! Unlucky Loser!!! ;0)
I'll be back to update the blog properly soon, I promise!! xx
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Scarily Settled!
The week that followed, although still in the hostel, found me feeling more and more at home in Melbourne. I'd got myself a job, friends and a flat to move into at the end of the week.. life was good!
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent splitting my time between work, the bar and chilling out on Acland street and at the beach. On Wednesday the lovely Toby treated me to dinner at Greasy Joe's (yum!) he knew I was skint and couldn't repay the favour (at least not til I'm back home and earning again) but said he didn't want to eat alone.. well, what kind of friend would i be if I let him have dinner alone! ;0) We had a lovely evening, setting the world to rights and gossiping - despite only having known Toby for a couple of weeks, I consider him a good friend now, he's a lovely guy and I was sad to see him leave for New Zealand come Friday. Toby... enjoy your roadtrip and I look forward to catching up when we're all back home!
As well as fun and games with Toby, I recall making use of Base's bar, free champers (again) and the generosity of the Irish (& Scot) boys.. bless them..!
Friday finally came and while i was sad that it had cos Toby was leaving, Lindsay and I were also over the moon cos we got to move into our lovely new flat... woohoo! We were up and ready to go by 10am, checking out of Base seemed strange but definetly a good thing... I was so looking forward to not living out of a bag for a while!
You would think that as it was our first night in a proper flat we’d want to spend our time
relaxing in it and settling into our new home… oh no that would be far too predictable – and don’t forget, Lindsay’s Scottish and most definitely lives up to the infamous reputation of the Scots!! So, we spent the afternoon unpacking and getting settled… oh the joys of the little things, making tea with your own kettle, watching TV on a sofa without some dodgy drunk bloke dossing in the corner and being able to put food in the fridge without the wondering whether it’ll still be there come dinnertime! Bliss!
Then, once settled, we met up with another friend, got ourselves the obligatory box of ‘goon’, took advantage of some cheeky wine tasting and headed off to a BBQ at the Irish lads new place… well, in the park by their place anyway! Despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing (well, by Oz standards anyway) a good time was had by all I think, with copious amounts of goon getting drunk, some fab flute playing by Nicky and complaints from a few neighbours about the noise we eventually moved inside to the boys flat, toyed with the idea of crashing before finally dragging ourselves home in the early hours of the morning. When instead of doing the sensible thing and heading straight to bed I decided to call Jules as it was her birthday the day before… I finally got to bed at 6am after having a good old gossip with my lovely mate… miss you lots honey! All in all, not a bad day and how much was I looking forward to waking up in my own room (well, mine and Lindsay’s) and not a dorm!! Heaven!
The rest of the weekend was spent basically sleeping or working, getting settled in our lovely new flat and getting to know our 2 new flatmates; Mitzi and Trish, mad Irish girls (in the pic with me).. you'll be seeing more of them in posts to come!! I was beginning to feel scarily settled in Melbourne, it's definetely one of my fave places in Oz so far. xx
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent splitting my time between work, the bar and chilling out on Acland street and at the beach. On Wednesday the lovely Toby treated me to dinner at Greasy Joe's (yum!) he knew I was skint and couldn't repay the favour (at least not til I'm back home and earning again) but said he didn't want to eat alone.. well, what kind of friend would i be if I let him have dinner alone! ;0) We had a lovely evening, setting the world to rights and gossiping - despite only having known Toby for a couple of weeks, I consider him a good friend now, he's a lovely guy and I was sad to see him leave for New Zealand come Friday. Toby... enjoy your roadtrip and I look forward to catching up when we're all back home!As well as fun and games with Toby, I recall making use of Base's bar, free champers (again) and the generosity of the Irish (& Scot) boys.. bless them..!
Friday finally came and while i was sad that it had cos Toby was leaving, Lindsay and I were also over the moon cos we got to move into our lovely new flat... woohoo! We were up and ready to go by 10am, checking out of Base seemed strange but definetly a good thing... I was so looking forward to not living out of a bag for a while!
You would think that as it was our first night in a proper flat we’d want to spend our time
relaxing in it and settling into our new home… oh no that would be far too predictable – and don’t forget, Lindsay’s Scottish and most definitely lives up to the infamous reputation of the Scots!! So, we spent the afternoon unpacking and getting settled… oh the joys of the little things, making tea with your own kettle, watching TV on a sofa without some dodgy drunk bloke dossing in the corner and being able to put food in the fridge without the wondering whether it’ll still be there come dinnertime! Bliss!
Then, once settled, we met up with another friend, got ourselves the obligatory box of ‘goon’, took advantage of some cheeky wine tasting and headed off to a BBQ at the Irish lads new place… well, in the park by their place anyway! Despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing (well, by Oz standards anyway) a good time was had by all I think, with copious amounts of goon getting drunk, some fab flute playing by Nicky and complaints from a few neighbours about the noise we eventually moved inside to the boys flat, toyed with the idea of crashing before finally dragging ourselves home in the early hours of the morning. When instead of doing the sensible thing and heading straight to bed I decided to call Jules as it was her birthday the day before… I finally got to bed at 6am after having a good old gossip with my lovely mate… miss you lots honey! All in all, not a bad day and how much was I looking forward to waking up in my own room (well, mine and Lindsay’s) and not a dorm!! Heaven!
The rest of the weekend was spent basically sleeping or working, getting settled in our lovely new flat and getting to know our 2 new flatmates; Mitzi and Trish, mad Irish girls (in the pic with me).. you'll be seeing more of them in posts to come!! I was beginning to feel scarily settled in Melbourne, it's definetely one of my fave places in Oz so far. xxDays at the Deli!
I worked again on Sunday afternoon/evening, although comically I wasn't actually rostered on, I'd somehow, in my 'oh-so'organised' head, decided I was meant to be working so turned up to find I wasn't meant to be there.. I did end up doing a whole shift though which was handy moneywise and showed willing so all was well. 
The following day was mine to enjoy and enjoy it I did. It was Russell's last day before leaving us for New Zealand and so Russ, Toby and I ended up spending literally the entire day at the Acland Street Deli.. one of my favourite places from my time in St Kilda and a place frequented by us on many an occasion. It's a fab little deli with seating on the street and a gorgeous roof terrace, away from the hustle and bustle where you can while away many an hour. The food is amazing, with lots of gorgeous greek delicacies and lovely friendly staff. They also have a licence to sell wine and beer and the roof terrace is a good little hideaway for cheeky afternoon drinks in the sun! Anyway, on this particular day the weather wasn't that great so the three of us sat inside and spent a lovely day chilling out together, the boys playing chess (yes, I know I should be practicing my chess skills but this wasn't the day for it), me reading and the 3 of us chatting and setting the world to 
rights over numerous chai latte's, coffee's and naughty cakes and yummy food. It was such a lovely relaxing day, the evening was somewhat less peaceful but just as enjoyable and inevitably spent in the bar and at the Vineyard, indulging in some very comical drinking games!;0) I was very sorry that Russell was leaving us, it's been fab catching up with him again and I look forward to seeing him when we're all back home. xx
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
It's all coming together...
The day after our little jaunt to Phillip Island, Russell and Toby arrived back from the Great Ocean Road, they were now staying for a week or so before heading off to continue their travels in New Zealand. It was lovely to have them there. I had met a few other people, some lovely girls that had been in our dorm for a few days and some Irish lads that Lindsay knew but other than Lindsay and Laura, at the time i remember not feeling that close to anyone, so it was nice to have Russ and Toby back and be surrounded by more friends. Not that I'm greedy you understand! ;0) As it was, some other Irish lads - and one scottish - (that also knew the first lot) moved into our dorm around that time and we ended up becoming good friends with them so all was well in the end, don't fret people!
Anyway, I can't really remember the rest of the week in any detail. I know we went out, took advantage of the free 'champers' for girls (or anyone dressed as one) at Base on Thursdays, went for a nice meal one night and yay... found out that we'd got the nice flat!! We were ridiculously pleased, it was like a show flat and so much nicer than any of the others we'd seen. Now all I needed was a job! That came along on Saturday... or maybe it was Friday.. not sure but i managed to get 2 in as many days.. like buses and men, i believe the saying goes! The first one was in a restaurant on Fitzroy Street, the Street Cafe, who said I needed to wear full length black trousers, simple enough you might think, unless you don't own any.. it seemed a bit pretentious and the guy that offered me a trial asked me to bring my own wine opener and pen.. i wasn't keen on a place that couldn't even provide it's staff with a pen to take orders with!
I was obviously going to take the job, the need for money was greater than my frustration at the ridiculous things expected, but while I was catching a few rays at the beach with Laura that afternoon, I decided to pop along to a restaurant on the seafront on the offchance they'd have anything... that was about 3pm, they asked me to come back in for a 6pm shift and that was that, I cancelled the Street Cafe trial and started work at Beachcomber that night. The picture shown is of said restaurant, where my uniform was a very 'sexy' bright orange t-shirt!! I am however in this particular photo, not working, but having a drink with a friend, it was actually taken after my last shift, a few days before I left Melbourne... now... where's wally? game for you... can you spot me?!
It was a bit of a 'thrown in at the deep end' kind of shift as it'd been baking hot that day and everyone wanted to eat by the beach... I'd forgotten what hard work waitressing is!!! By the end of my shift I was dead on my feet, the shoes I'd hurriedly bought that day were holding up well but I couldn't believe how much I ached. I headed back to the hostel and immediatley crashed. I was glad to be working though and the place seemed pretty decent, a big restaurant with the majority of staff being travellers so the social environment was good too. Pay not great but cash in hand so can't complain and it was enough for me to live on, if not save, while I waited for Kate to arrive.
The Irish and Scottish lads in our room now proved very sweet and a foot massage was promised by Scott (the scot) the next day.... although despite his continual promises that never actually materialised... typical man! ;0) Not that I'm complaining though, the boys - I'll give them names shall I... Jeff, Ricky and Scott... had all been very good to me, following my realisation that I was actually utterly skint they spoilt me and bought me lots of drinks - depsite my assurances that i was fine staying sober, they wouldn't hear of it and many a night was spent in the bar in Base... bless them! Thanks boys, you're all fab! So, it seems, I have a job and a flat... it's all coming together!! I like it here! x
Anyway, I can't really remember the rest of the week in any detail. I know we went out, took advantage of the free 'champers' for girls (or anyone dressed as one) at Base on Thursdays, went for a nice meal one night and yay... found out that we'd got the nice flat!! We were ridiculously pleased, it was like a show flat and so much nicer than any of the others we'd seen. Now all I needed was a job! That came along on Saturday... or maybe it was Friday.. not sure but i managed to get 2 in as many days.. like buses and men, i believe the saying goes! The first one was in a restaurant on Fitzroy Street, the Street Cafe, who said I needed to wear full length black trousers, simple enough you might think, unless you don't own any.. it seemed a bit pretentious and the guy that offered me a trial asked me to bring my own wine opener and pen.. i wasn't keen on a place that couldn't even provide it's staff with a pen to take orders with! 
I was obviously going to take the job, the need for money was greater than my frustration at the ridiculous things expected, but while I was catching a few rays at the beach with Laura that afternoon, I decided to pop along to a restaurant on the seafront on the offchance they'd have anything... that was about 3pm, they asked me to come back in for a 6pm shift and that was that, I cancelled the Street Cafe trial and started work at Beachcomber that night. The picture shown is of said restaurant, where my uniform was a very 'sexy' bright orange t-shirt!! I am however in this particular photo, not working, but having a drink with a friend, it was actually taken after my last shift, a few days before I left Melbourne... now... where's wally? game for you... can you spot me?! It was a bit of a 'thrown in at the deep end' kind of shift as it'd been baking hot that day and everyone wanted to eat by the beach... I'd forgotten what hard work waitressing is!!! By the end of my shift I was dead on my feet, the shoes I'd hurriedly bought that day were holding up well but I couldn't believe how much I ached. I headed back to the hostel and immediatley crashed. I was glad to be working though and the place seemed pretty decent, a big restaurant with the majority of staff being travellers so the social environment was good too. Pay not great but cash in hand so can't complain and it was enough for me to live on, if not save, while I waited for Kate to arrive.
The Irish and Scottish lads in our room now proved very sweet and a foot massage was promised by Scott (the scot) the next day.... although despite his continual promises that never actually materialised... typical man! ;0) Not that I'm complaining though, the boys - I'll give them names shall I... Jeff, Ricky and Scott... had all been very good to me, following my realisation that I was actually utterly skint they spoilt me and bought me lots of drinks - depsite my assurances that i was fine staying sober, they wouldn't hear of it and many a night was spent in the bar in Base... bless them! Thanks boys, you're all fab! So, it seems, I have a job and a flat... it's all coming together!! I like it here! x
Road Trip.. another one!
On Wednesday, I think, Lindsay, Laura, John and I decided to head off on another little road trip, this time to Phillip Island.. to see the penguins! We set off pretty early and this time managed not to get lost (and yes, i was navigating!) On the way down there we stopped at this random little place (no idea of the name) just before we crossed over to Phillip Island for some food and happened upon the changing of the Commonwealth flame/baton/torch.. whatever it's called!We decided to stick around for it as it was clearly the event of the century in this little town - there was even a free BBQ going on in the gardens... so the meat-eaters amoung us feasted on the freebies (a travellers dream!) and we whiled away an hour waiting for the main event... it took all of about 10 minutes and was just a change over but was pretty cool to see, unbeknown to us, we'd be able to see the exact same thing pretty much on our doorstep just a matter of days later but hey, it was fun!
With that over we climbed back in the car and went on our way... we'd decided we wanted to visit the animal park, beaches and main town before the evening when it's time for the penguins... thanks to our delay watching the commonwealth torch thing, we managed to pretty much miss everything... the animal park was closed by the time we got there.. we did make it to the main town - can't remember the name of it now - and had an ice-cream and drink in the RSL.. we decided to carry on in the tradition of trying out randon RSL's around Oz! Then went to see the seals.. that was cool - although very cold by then but the views were amazing and we saw the blow hole too which was pretty cool.After that we headed to the beach for the main event... the penguins.. where all the penguins come up out of the sea into the dunes... they're so cute, just waddling up the beaches in big packs... so adorable. Unfortunately camera's aren't allowed so I don't have any piccie's of them but believe me, they were so cute, i wanted to steal one and take it home with us!
After a few hours spent there, it was time to head home, we had a few hours drive ahead of us. We made it home, with a small interlude where we thought the car was about to blow up - thankfully it wasn't! - and arrived back about midnight.. the others went out drinking but i was shattered so headed to bed. Was another good day. xxx
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