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meet our new house 'Jessica'
Our studio is at the front right with the lovely hexagon dining area. We have settled into our new home very nicely, and have begun to get into some kind of routine when getting up in the morning or as it has recently been mid-day. As we are both on the job hunt for bar-work there are no bars open in the morning, in fact most of the bars we are attracted to work in open as late as 5pm and then stay open until 3/4/5am, so getting up early is of no benefit to us. To help me on my quest for new work I purchased a deck of playing cards on which have all the coolest/secrect bars in Melbourne (the hotspots) most of which are down little alleyways or small streets, therefore not too easy to find. On the back of each card, for each bar, there is a map showing you where the bar is, so that helps a lot, obviously!
Our daily routine these days consists of waking from our slumber then making our way over to the dinning area in the hexagonal window and having breakfast whilst watching the autumn leaves fall off the trees, enjoying crunchy nut clusters (they are amazing!), cup of tea, and then some toast.
I have a feeling the next few blogs aren't going to be quite the East Coast standard of fun and games as I have just realised that telling you what I have had for breakfast rather than the amazing sights of the Great Barrier Reef, for example, are worlds apart?!!
We then jump on a Tram from the end of the road and head into the city centre in search of these hidden gems (bars). We have only payed for a tram into the city once so far and that was the only time the inspectors have got on to check tickets... that was pretty good luck if you ask me!
The city itself is very cool. There's lots of inventive and creative architecture around along with the creative and interesting people that walk the streets here, people of all fashions... and I mean ALL fashions!
Melbourne is also the graffitti capital of the world so there is an abundance of graffitti art down all the side streets, some of which is very impressive. Another added interest and appeal factor of the city is the trams which are running all the time and from all directions covering a wide
area if the city. So we can basically get anywhere we need to on a tram and at the moment not pay a cent! We will inevitably buy a ticket when we use the trams on a regular basis for work etc. but at the moment every cent counts! These trams run and work how the Manchester trams should work, but fail to do so.
Melbourne is also boasting the comedy festival at the moment too. So not being one to shy away from such things as laughter Matt and I were keen to indulge ourselves with some stand-up comedy fun. One name that instantly stoud out for me was Daniel Kitson, one of the characters from Peter Kay's 'Phoenix Nights'. He plays Spencer the bartender. I have seen Kitson twice before and have always laughed my socks off so was keen to see his new material. $30 later and we had tickets to see his Thursday night performance. There were so many acts on it was very difficult to decide on any new comedy, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Our walk around the city usually ends up in a cafe for coffee and cake
to watch the world go by and let our sore and aching feet recover from the mission of bar hunting.
Thursday night came after our first full day of job hunting mainly down Flinders lane where there are lots of very cool bars. We decied to get a bit of goon down us at the apartment before enjoying the night of comedy ahead. Happy and excited we hopped on a tram to see Dan Kitson. On arrival to the venue we were lucky to be able to sit right at the front, which for some comedians would be suicide, but we felt comfortable knowing I'd seen him before a few times. (No Skinny to shout random stuff out to him though! ref. P&P)
As Matt got up to get a beer before the show he found, much to his disapointment, that the bar had closed because Kitson doesn't like people drinking during his show?!
Needless to say he came on stage in his usual geeky manner and proceeded to thoroughly entertain us and the rest of the audience with his quick wit and exceedingly clever anecdotes.
We laughed most of the way through fighting off the need for a
drink, and as ever was not disapointed with his performance... what a very funny man!
We haven't really done anything else too exciting, watched 'Motorcycle Diaries' which has now inspired us to leave the big cities and enter the wilderness, and went to the cinema to see 'Tsotsi' and independant film about a thug-ish African boy, which was very good.
We have made oursleves a rule that we won't go out until we get a job, so the sooner we get jobs the better for more reasons than one!!!!!
One place I handed my CV to called the 'Black Pearl' a very small and sophisticated cocktail bar I have a semi-contact with as one of the bar managers is a friend of Rob Creed's, my mate I used to work with at Dogma, so hopefully the link will enhance my chances of getting work??!
Monday saw the 'BIG SECRET BAR HUNT', walking the full length and width of the city centre we walked and walked down almost every back-alley and every trendy secluded street to try and find the various nice bars listed on my 'bar secrets' playing cards. I handed out about 12 CV's to some amazing
Australian autumnal imagery
...or a nice new windows desktop image. bars and some average bars, all of whom seemed interested amd will be intouch once the GM has looked over my Resume. Fingers crossed this week will see, at least one of them call me... but we all know what happened in Sydney so who knows????
The job hunt is still on and I am yet to use the follow up phone call trick.
Wish me luck!
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