But what about the people?

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Ok, I have chatted about places I have been, where I work, things I am discovering about the world and me and a many other myriad of topics. But there is something currently missing from my diary that I want to record for future memories. The people.

Obviously I couldn’t live my life as a separate entity circulating in this busy world, without establishing connections with people. …… Well, ok, it is possible for many people to do this. But let’s face it I thrive on human interaction! Call it my innate need to talk, discuss, dissect, laugh, cry, gossip and sometimes just be in the quite company of others.

Essentially when I first arrived I knew Liz, Paul, Emma and Rosie over in Switzerland. They have been great throughout, but now I find that I am ever so lucky that my life is coloured by many players who are enriching my experience. I know that in all reality I haven’t been here for that long, but it really seems like my sense of time is warped, because in the nicest possible way, I feel like all these people have been in my life for ages. Not just a couple of months!

I have mentioned a few people at various times in different journals, but now instead of making fleeting references to them, I want to remember them, the things that have made me laugh or made me sit back in wonder, and as always give you a glimpse into my funny little cosmos!

Well the most logical place to start is with those I live with - my housemates. Sometimes it is a little bit like living in the Big Brother house- except we don’t drink and do silly things for the sake of a camera and ratings. Honestly if you ran a camera in the place 24/7 oh the stories there would be to tell!!!!!

It is a fairly multicultural household with the commonwealth well represented: England, Australia (me!), South Africa, Canada, Spain and Brazil!!! Of our 7 inhabitants, 6 of us get along famously. In fact sometimes I feel like I have so much fun at home, that it seems wrong to think I am an adult. I am sure that when I move out I am immediately going to dislike my new housemates, as they surely cannot be as good as my current living buddies! Surely this is what it must be like living in shared student accommodation with more money, better wine, and fabulous dinner parties every Monday night?

Ok, so I have to start with Kevin, not only because he was the first to impact my life here, but because he has been waiting for me to write this diary for ages! Ah Kevin. When I first was announcing my move to Brighton, a few friends told me that it would be compulsory to ensure that I found myself a fabulous gay male friend.

Not only would it be necessary in Brighton, but it would ensure that there is someone in your life who you can; drink fabulous cocktails with anytime of the week, or day, for whatever reason; go out dancing with and have an obscenely good time; someone to shop with; someone to tell you if you are looking nice (or shyte); and someone you can always have a catty conversation with! Well Kevin certainly fitted into all of those requirements and more!

If there has been a key defining moment in our house, it has been Kevin moving in. His infectious personality soon saw us bonding over mountains of food and copious amounts of alcohol. And always keeps us entertained with his partying hard ways, and a funny procession of friends, and stories to make you blush!

A prime example is Gary, the very funny, but slightly evil little Irish Leprechaun. I was away one night, when Gary and Kev had gone on an absolute bender. So drunk in fact that Gary did not merely step out of one’s taxi, he simply fell out and cracked open his head. Whilst left to languish in pain on the couch, Kevin decided he simply had to go get some cigarettes from across the road. When he got home Gary was gone. Assuming that he had taken himself home, Kevin retired to his room for sleep.

Enter the next morning and a very, very sheepish Gary knocking on Kevin’s bedroom door. With a look of sheer embarrassment (apparently) Gary admitted to Kevin that he had stayed in the house last night, but in trying to find Kevin’s room he had found mine across the hallway. But his embarrassment did not stop there, oh no, he had thrown up in my room!!! Thank goodness I was not there, Gary was fairly sure, that even if I had been home, he was in such a state that he would have assumed that I was Kevin, and proceeded with his behaviour.

But poor old Kevin was left with the stress of how to break the news to me that night. Well he did a pretty good job, after a very embarrassed apology, I was the proud owner of a very beautiful bunch of peach coloured roses and some very freshly washed linen and carpets! All I could do is laugh - it really was like living with first year university students!

We had all moved into the house for various reasons, all within almost a month of each other. Kevin had been through a tough break-up with his long-time partner. But there was a silver lining in all of this, as Kevin and Kim, who had also been through a recent tough relationship breakdown, were able to bond over the evil nature of men!

Kim is an incredibly sweet, and gorgeous Canadian girl who has a wardrobe to die for. I am practically salivating with envy every time I see a new article of clothing or outfit. This is a girl who knows how to put it together!

Whilst she has gone through some tough times of recent, it has been so great to see her figure out her life, who she is, regain her status as a hip young thing about town, but most importantly a confidence to stand up for herself on some very important issues to her.

We soon discovered that we were members of the same gym in town, and now try to encourage each other to yoga every Wednesday night. Although she cracks me up a little with her enthusiasm (or lack there of) for going any other time in the week! But I have her on board to get her new plan, and I am hoping I can convince her to be a more regular gym buddy for purely selfish reasons of course J I never said that the gym was fun did I?

So one fab gay male, a super stylish girl - it’s time to cue our Alpha Male: Rich! The ‘baby’ of the house at 23, Rich is our token: football playing, lager drinking, corporate aspiring Essex Boy!!!!! Whilst Rich already had his own established sense of style and living, I am almost positive that ever so slowly but surely the influence of the house is morphing our young Richard into a ‘Metrosexual’!!! J

After a good Bachelors meal of sausages, or pasta or pizza or ‘cookies’ for Sunday breakfast, Rich is now inclined to pick up one of the many Elle, Glamour, Cosmo or In Style Magazines that Kim or I have left lying around. He gleefully informs us that the articles in Women’s magazines are as equally deluded and misguided as those found in say FHM or some other relevant men’s magazine! But he is always great to sit and have a chat with; be it a discussion on world politics, financial affair, or how we can influence Kevin to like football and yell out ‘Roooneyyyy’!

But if only he could find the instructions on how to effectively use the oven. Whilst the stove appears to be of no challenge to Rich, the oven has mystical powers of cooking and cremating his food the moment he walks out of the kitchen, very mythical indeed…. Is that the smoke alarm? Oh Rich must be cooking something J

In this same Pavlovian sense, we know that every time that the phone rings in our house, it must be for the lovely Myriam! Myriam is a sweet Spanish girl from Madrid, who has moved over here to improve her English, and ultimately job opportunities when she goes home. But whilst here, she keeps in regular nightly contact with her mother. Every time the phone chimes, you secretly hope it is for you, but you always know that it will be Myriam’s mum tracking down her daughter for their nightly chat. Heck I am only jealous that it would cost the earth to have the same ritual with my mum!

Her English skills are often a source of much good-natured humour in the house though. Once upon a time at one of our dinner parties, space cakes were introduced at the table. Thinking that they were normal brownie, Myriam dove in. We tried to desperately stop her, explaining the ‘implications’ of consuming such treats. She giggled on munched away! The next morning she told us that when she went to bed, she felt like she was floating above her body - she thought we had all been having a little joke with her on the true baking ingredients!

Frequently Kevin and Rich are figuring out the differences in barn sound between English and Spanish. Did you know that birds don’t tweet or cheep, they Peo Peo! Naturally we all get a lot of delight out of saying little Spanish words like que? Ola! Or frequently Peo Peo!

Whilst the 5 of us roll up our sleeves to prepare our Monday Madness Meals, Dean languishes in the lounge room waiting for his meal, and his eventual role as chief washer-up! Deano (as he is known) is a young South African guy who works at the local Bar - Barneys (which has kinda become our Secret-Life-of-Us-style-local).

Deano has been here for quite sometime now and is madly saving all his pounds to go home and cash in on the Rand. He has like a 7 steps Donald Trump plan to success and riches for when he gets home. I think it is all based around property, I can’t be too sure, but he assures us that he will fly us in from any part of the world in his private jet to visit!

When he isn’t devoting his energy to work or his grand scheme of life, Deano can be found with Rich in front of the television, playing Soccer Championships on the PS2. Ahhhh boys and their toys huh?

But that makes 6 people - so what of the seventh? Ah Marcello. He is somewhat of an enigma, and doesn’t really care to interact with us. He more or less lives in his room and uses the kitchen - or to Rich’s chagrin, the bathroom at very inopportune moments for other users! Now don’t get us wrong, we have tried to interact with him, and have never shut him out from our activities. He just chooses not to join us. If this were Big Brother he would be the only person up for eviction!!!!

But my life isn’t spent solely at home, no matter how much I wish I could. A girl has got to earn a living, so off I go every morning on my 10 minute walk to Legal & General, and the faces of Frances, Jo, Peter, Kristie, Sue and Gianna.

Everyone has such different personalities, but they are all fun no less. Frances almost immediately took it upon herself to become my surrogate mother here ( as I am the same age as her sons). I must admit, even I have appreciated this when I have been sick, or had little gossip items to share. Actually as most of the team is around the same age as my parents, they always hen peck me to ensure that I go to the doctors, that I am eating right, or that I am getting enough rest etc, etc, etc. We joke that I have moved half way around the world to move out of the shadow of parental guidance, and stepped into having 5 mothers!!!!!!

But in all honesty, everyone in my working environment has been great. They accommodate my needs to travel and have a life, or leave early on a Friday, and just generally made me feel really welcome and part of their team. I really couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with in my first job over here.

So that is home and work, but surely I have managed to make a few other friends? Well, I was lucky that I really got on famously with a good group of people I met on the Bank Holiday weekend in Amsterdam. As my you can see in previous blogs, I regularly catch up with some of these people for outings, drinking sessions and all manners of fun!

Some on a regular basis, others semi-regularly and then there are those that you keep in contact with the ‘millennium’ way- email each other jokes as a form of staying in contact! But there are two people in particular whom I have kept in regular contact with, and in fact I even ventured off to Dublin with both of them.

Sharon is quintessentially the best e-mail buddy you could ever ask for on those boring, long days in the office. Tap off an e-mail and you are sure to get a reply within a matter of moments! It almost seems impossible how quickly she is able to respond and in such volume!

Like a few of the others, a change in circumstances and relationships back home, she made her way here to merry England to cut her teeth as an accountant for the City of Westminster. I always figure it takes a bit of courage to do this in your late 20’s or early 30’s, as the responsibilities back home seem to have mounted by this stage.

Always happy for a chat, a drink, a good gossip or any kind of adventure you want to take, it has been fun and sometimes a little funny to exchange e-mails with Sharon. With such sweet sincerity, she truly wears her heart on her sleeve and in recent times we chat much as she progresses through her relationship with Bruce and finds herself falling in love with him! It seems these days she walks around with a big goofy teenager grin on her dial! Who could blame her I suppose? Although what Bruce doesn’t know, is that this unassuming girl was a great source of amusement for me in Dublin with her riotous behaviour with all the men in Temple Bar. Hehehe even now she feels a little awkward about the memories, not to mention the photographic evidence!

I had initially met and gotten to know Sharon whilst venturing around the Heineken Museum in Amsterdam (Hmmmm Heineken, Ahhhh). It was running on an empty stomach after several half pints that we queued up for our canal boat ride, slightly tipsy, I got chatting to Brett about AFL and a common love for the ‘Hawkers’ back home, but Sharon and I were fairly confident that Brett and his friend Martha were a couple. You should have seen their shocked expressions and very quick explanations of friendship when I suggested that as partners, surely they would want to have their photo taken together!!!!

Even though Brett and I seem to get along well, we didn’t get much more opportunity to get to know each other on a one to one basis that weekend, although there was a bit of flirting at various times. Hehehe, actually, Brett swears black and blue that I flirted outrageously with him at lunch that first day. I still stand by the fact that I was only a girl holding a conversation with him, and interested in knowing a few things about him! We agree to differ on this one.

When we came back from Amsterdam we decided to catch up and get to know each other a little better. At the time I was pretty strident about not looking for anything or anyone, I just wanted to have fun, I was still fresh off the boat after all. So I went in with that attitude and thought it would be cool to make another friend or acquaintance, but instead found a really nice guy who made me smile, challenged me in a new way, seemed to see past my carefully constructed façade, and made me feel at ease. Without expecting it, I changed my opinion on what I was looking for.

It’s a bit of a giggle really; I travelled here from the other side of the world a determined singleton looking for fun, travel and a career, and have found myself with a guy from QLD! Just keep us off the topic of whether Brisbane or Melbourne is the better city!!

You know, I always thought my knowledge of sport was pretty good, and musical repertoire solid. I am nothing in comparison to Brett. He would watch World Championship Lawn Bowls if Australia was likely to win! Let’s not even start on rugby 😊 As for music, oh my, he is like a living, breathing musical almanac. His collection is astounding. It’s amusing though, I am pretty sure that he has this confused expression reserved solely for use with me when I don’t know a particular song, band or musical fact! That or when I incite him with comments such as ‘Robbie Williams is a god or ‘’John Mayer is a great lyricist and guitar player’!

But there are covert plans afoot for my improvement on both elements - I did see my first John Butler Trio concert on Thursday night, and it was AWESOME, by far one of the best musical experiences I have had, and will totally be searching out some HIS cd’s when I stop home. And this Tuesday I am heading into London to see my very first live football (aka soccer) match, Australia takes on Norway for a friendly at Craven Cottage, Fulham and I am really looking forward to it!

And so my life here is coloured by many different characters that make my life and time here so far fun, adventurous, glamorous and unique. Whilst it will still be hard to say hello and goodbye to everyone in my Melbourne life at Christmas, at least this time it will be made a little easier to know that when I leave home, in a way I am coming home to my new life as well.

That and the fact that I am going skiing in France with Kevin, Richard and Brett 4 days after I get back! Oh boy, wait for those stories; they are going to be fun 😊
Well I suppose possibly my next diary could be from Melbourne, until then love to you all!

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