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Published: December 21st 2007
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Jaysus lads, it's been a while hasn't it?? Apologies, apologies, BUT, in my defence, this is a TRAVEL blog, and we haven't actually been travelling at all for the last two months..... An alibi of sorts surely?? Anyway, I'm back, and a lot has happened since my last entry. Mainly, we've been living the the (second) best city in the world.....Melbourne baby! And I LOVE IT. We all do, and it has been treating us very very well, thank you very much. We arrived here back in September, with a rough plan to find a place to live and a job of some kind. For the first two weeks or so we were living in a hostel in Richmond, Bob's Hostel, and it really was a home from home. Bob is an impossibly tall and thin Swedish bloke in his 60s (at least), who first came to Australia when he was in the navy as a a young whipper snapper. Bob was only in the navy for a year or two, however one gets the idea that he garnered enough tales in that short time for a life time of stories.....bit of a male trait that one really isn't it?? Anyway,
Bob is a dote and we love him. Not only did he and his wife Christine not mind us taking over their house for a fortnight, they helped us move into our own place as well!! We were very VERY lucky when it came to finding a house; we had received a few scary warnings about a "rental crisis" in Melbourne at present (not naming any names: Paul Meade), and we were a tad worried that we wouldn't be able to find a place or get a six month lease bla blah blah blah blah. But we hit the ground running, and applied for about six properties after a Saturday afternoon of viewings, and wudyabelieveit we got our first choice!!
We now live on Canning Street, the most perfect street in the world, as it happens. Our house is a little old Victorian terrace, and while it may be a bit flaky around the edges, we love it! We all got jobs (me in a call centre, Sibs in an office, and Claud in a restaurant), and we have been living like proper little Melbournians ever since. The neighbourhood we live in is called North Carlton, and I love it
love it love it (let me know when you get sick of hearing that); Rathdowne Street is five minutes away full of gorgeous restaurants where we go for brunch every weekend (all we seem to do is eat out in this cit, and through no choice of pour own I might add - there are just too many goddamn restaurants!), Brunswick St is ten minutes in the other direction and it's full o funky bars, clubs and eateries, the city is 15 minutes away by tram, and I just don't think we could be in a better location. The city itself is full of hidden bars down alleyways and behind dumpsers - seriously the city is known for it, and myself and Sibs have been making our way around the bars with the help of a deck of cards she was given in work called "Melbourne's Secret Bars". How anyone finds them without the cards is a total mystery.
While we were staying in Bob's we met a few different people; Scottish friend Robin, and Martina and Gav from the North and Scotland, and we also been meeting up with various other people from home, all of whom live in
St Kilda, which is Ireland Central! My brother way away the first few weeks we were here, but he's been back every since and it's been great seeing him on a regular basis!
But what have we been doing, other than drinking in secret bars and eating cake at the weekend??? Hmmmmmmmm. Well, we went to the Melbourne Cup, which is the biggest day of the racing calendar. They go a bit mental for the races here; the Spring Carnival lasts for two whole weeks in November, I'm talking races every day, but the Cup is the big one, so we got ourselves some dresses and made a day of it. Ah, it was a fantastic day, the style was UNBELIEVABLE. Of course like the gobshite Irish we are we all got sunburnt, so there were a few sore shoulders afterwards. We also went to see the only and only Justin Trousersnake in the Rod Laver Arena in November. Good god, that man can wear a white suit like no other. I screamed like a 15 year old girl, he was fantastic!!!! Justin, whenever you get tired of Jessica, you know where to find me.
In the last few weeks
some visitors have begun to arrive......well, first of all, the only and only B-I-N-G-O Harmon has finally arrived in the country - wha hey! That was back in November, but the deluge really poured in in December, my folks arrived on the 10th, with Maco Mc Carthy arriving on the 12th - it was an emotional few days!! So ever since we have all finished up in work and we're all trying to show our little blonde visitor around our beloved city. Last Friday we had Sarah Mc's official birthday night out (her bday is actually at the end of November, but obviously we weren't in the same country at the time, so celebrations had to be postponed); it was all a big surprise, and we took her to see Priscilla the musical. Well, I have never laughed so much at any show in all of my life. Hilarious, absolutely hilarious; the music was brilliant and the costumes were fabulous. I think it's coming to London, so make a weekend of it people and GO SEE!!!
My Mum and Dad have been busy bees as well since they got here, with Paul acting as chief tour guide. Early this week
we went down to Wilson's Promontory for two nights; it's a huge national park that represents the southern most point in Australia. It is a stunning area, full of crazy contrasts; a lot of the landscape is very rugged and untamed, but there are some amazing beachs as well. We stayed in a really cosy beach house type pad and basically had a very Brady trip. Twas great.
I can't believe it's so close to Christmas....even with my family here it doesn't feel festive. And I can't say it's just the heat, cos it lashes rain every few days in this city. The plan is for us all to have a big aul Irish Christmas dinner in my bro's house - it should be a memorable occasion! Then it's up to Sydney for New Year's....I think the next few weeks are gonna pass in a bit of a blur......
Anyhoos, I have to run; it's Friday night and I have some serious getting ready to do - Bingo's coming over for a girlie night out!!!
So HAPPY CHRISTMAS everyone, I hope you are all happy, safe and well - I'll have a pint of Guiness for each of you
on Christmas Eve!!! EEEEeeeeeeeeesk!!!!!!
xxxxx
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Marko
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Soo jealous... :(
Hi Cuz, Goddamit, I'm soo jeaous. I've just read your account of Melbourne and it brings back loads of great memories. Live it up, Cuz - say hi to the girls. Hope to see you in some far flung part of the world in Soringtime. Marko