Toronto does Melbourne

Hello!

First the usual updates:

I have been working crazy hours lately. Cirque is ok but it's certainly a lesson in humility. It's pretty much the same job I was doing when I started working for Festival Cinemas when I was 18, selling candy, popcorn, beer, etc. and cleaning a lot. My boss the other night was 21! But at least I am making about 4 times as much as I was then per hour. The Red Cross has now extended our contracts until the end of May and since I get paid more there I am now f/t 9-5 with Red Cross and do a few nights and one full day weekend shift per week at Cirque. I didn't intend to travel to the other side of the world to essentially do the same thing I did at home for a year to save for my trip but the recession has made jobs for backpackers fairly scarce and so I figure I'll take it when I can get it and it's only for a few more months. At the end of June my plan at the moment is to take off up the east coast to see the rest of Australia. I also plan to go see some of the West Coast and to visit my friend Sarah from Toronto who is doing a semester of school in Perth. She had a week off school and came to visit me last week. I only had 2 days off while she was here so I didn't get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked but we snuck in a few fun nights...

One night we went out with my friend Karen for some drinks.

We went to this dinner theatre called Draculas which was really cool. We got to ride a ghost train into where we were having dinner! and all the people who worked there were dressed up like vampires...and anyone who knows me well knows what a big Buffy fan I am so Vampires are always a welcome form of entertainment to me. It was mostly stand up comedy and they spent a lot of the night taking the piss out of the audience which is very funny as long as it's not you (and luckily it wasn't). Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pics inside so this is the only one I have.

Then our friend Troy (also a fellow Torontonian) came to Melbourne because he is in Stomp and it was touring here for a week. We didn't get to hang out with him much cause I was working so much and he is a busy boy but here are a few pics of him Stompin' in the streets of Melbin'...(he's in the air on the right).

and here is me with Stomp tickets which he left for us at the box office. Thanks Troy:)

Here is Sarah and I at one of my favourite bars in Melbourne called Black Cat. It's pretty funky with all these 70's style couches and they are usully playing dub/hip hop.

On Sarah's last night in Melbs we went out with my friend Karen and some other people because it was Karen's last night in Australia:( Karen was such a great friend who I met at the Red Cross and I miss her so much already. She is now in New Zealand and goes to South America after that before going back to Leeds. First we went and hung out on the rooftop patio at her hostel and had some drinks. My friend Damien is 6'5" and Sarah is about 5'0". Creepy or cute? You decide...

Here's Nerys and I on the rooftop, another dear friend from the Red Cross from Belfast Ireland. Lucky for me she is here until September.

and here's a few group shots we took before going out on the town...(Katie: I think you will be happy to know that the outfit I am wearing is all one piece. A Short Suit, if you may)

Then I went to a house party and we played Twister. When was the last time you played Twister???








Not too much else to update at the moment. Been feeling rather homesick lately and thinking about/missing my friends very much. I was thinking the other day about why it is that I have chosen to do this trip and I've realized that part of it is because here I have absolutely no responsibility to/for anyone and after everything I went through with my Mom when she was ill it makes sense that this would be appealing to me. It's not that I feel overly responsible to/for anyone at home but sometimes you have to go to extremes in order to create a balance. It's not the only reason I am travelling. Of course seeing other parts of the world, stepping out of my comfort zone, meeting new people, learning how to completely rely on myself and ask for help when I need it, following my instincts and of course being warm for a year are other reasons I am doing this as well.

Just an FYI...if you want to comment on my blog, you don't need to have a google account. You can just click where it says "name" instead. I think 50% of the reason I blog is so that I have a travel journal for when I get home that I can look back on and the other 50% is to keep everyone at home updated on what I am up to without having to write a million personal emails with picture atachments but I have no way of knowing who, if anyone, is reading this unless I get feedback. It might be self-indulgent but it's so lovely to get comments because it makes me feel more connected to you guys.

I miss you and love you so much!

xx

Great Ocean Roadtrip, My first Footy game and a lesson in listening to your gut!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this blog but after you read this post, you'll understand why.


A few weeks ago 3 friends and I decided to go on a weekend roadrip to The Great Ocean Road. Here are the 3 lovely ladies who accompanied me. Karen (far left) I met at the Red Cross. She is from Leeds in Norh England. Nerys (middle) I met at the Red Cross as well and she is from Belfast Ireland and Andrea I met at the hostel where I first stayed when I came to Melbourne.


We rented a car and set off at 9am on Saurday morning. I was first to drive since I am used to driving in a city and although I was a little nervous about driving on the other side of the road, I am pretty proud of how well I did and how quickly I got used to it. I don't have an actual pic of me driving because I hate pictures of my profile so this will have to do. Even though I got used to driving on the opposite side of he road quickly, there were other things I couldn't get used to. When I got into the car I kept reaching for the seatbelt on my left side and turned on the windshield wipers whenever I was making a turn.

Just in case I forgot about which side of the road to drive on...we saw these signs every 20kms or so which seemed rather strange considering we were nowhere near a country border and if you had made it to the Great Ocean Road, chances are you've figured out what side of the road to drive on already.

It was the most perfect day for driving and beaching it up. It was about 35 degrees and the sky was clear. Our first stop was Torquay...

There were really cool looking rocks near the beach and one of them had a tunnel running through it.

This is what a lot of our view looked like on the drive...

Then we stopped at this place where we heard we would be able to see Koalas in the wild. The first one we saw looked a lot like me...

And here are the Koala's we spotted in the trees. How cute are they???

And here is a very pretty bird we saw. I forget what it's called.

These next few pics were taken in a town called Lorne where we stopped. It was very beautiful.

We got to Apollo Bay where we were staying the night at about 7pm and checked into our hostel which turned out to be more like a cottage.

The next day seemed like a completely different season. The temperature had dropped about 10 degrees and it was rainy and very misty. Thankfully we had seen most of the beaches the first day.

We went from wearing dresses and bathing suits to wearing scarves and pants and even then it was cold!

We decided to do a tree top walk and drove on a very curvy and narrow road to get there. A little nerve racking but Andrea somehow got us there safely. Despite living through the crazy drive, there were no guarantees against other elements. We are in Australia after all.

We even ran into some dinosaurs...

Most of them were friendly but Nerys wasn't so lucky...

The tree top walk was really cool. They built these walkways high above the ground.

One of the towers went super high. Karen is afraid of heights but she braved it and we all walked to the top.

I took a lot of pictures of trees but they are pretty boring. It's hard to capture something like that on camera but I thought this one turned out pretty good. I like the way the colours turned out.

Finally we made it to our last destination, The Twelve Apostles (more like 6 1/2 now) in Port Campbell. The forces of nature gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs which became arches and when they collapsed, rock islands as high as 45 metres were left isolated from the shore.

They are apparently the most beautiful at dusk or dawn but we needed to get back Sunday night for work Monday morning so we couldn't wait until dusk.

It was a great weekend but didn't end on the best note. My flatmate had been away for 3 weeks prior to this road trip and I had made a point of cleaning on Friday knowing that she would be home on Sunday. I found the place by answering an ad on Gumtree which is the Craigslist of Australia. She had mentioned cleaning a few times in the ad and mentioned it again when I went to meet her but she also told me how she had previously had a bad experience with a flatmate who never cleaned so I assumed she was just being overly cautious (this would be the first time I should have listened to my gut!)

Things seemed ok with us when I moved in but right away it became very apparent that she wanted things kept a certain way...a very certain way and I felt more like I was renting a room then sharing an apartment. So we are driving home from the Great Ocean Road and the first text I get from her says "the back door was left unlocked and open. Did you check it when you left?" This seemed highly unlikely to me since indeed I had checked it not to mention there are several other gates with locks you have to go through before even getting to the back door so the likelyhood of someone breaking in was very low. I decided not to respond and about an hour later I got another text that said "and I think we need to revisit the cleaning situation". Wtf? "Revisit"? Did I mention that I had cleaned on the Friday before I left? I felt like I was being scolded. I responded with "what specifically was not clean"? No response. Now I'm pissed. I mean, I'm a perfectly reasonable person and am willing to discuss any concerns like adults but could she not have waited until I got home? When I got home she wasn't there but arrived shortly after and I immediately asked her what was up with the texts and she was pretty hostile. She didn't understand why I found her text innapropriate and her complaints about the cleaning were INSANE. She said there was food on the walls (what? ok, maybe there was a one splat from like sauce that I made or something but Andrea...back me up here...have I ever left food on the walls when we lived together?) and she had moved my cereal from the counter into my cupboards even though it didn't properly fit because she didn't want to "see" it. I told her that I didn't feel at home there and she said that she felt the same because I always had my friends over. Again WHAT? I think she came home a couple of times when I had a friend over and we were in the backyard. Needless to say, the conversation basically ended with me telling her that I think she needed to live alone since living with someone else means compromising, something she obviously was not willing to do and with her telling me she wanted me to move out. Looking back on her gumtree post and initial emails to me, I should have never moved in with her in the first place. She was so obviously a control freak. I think I was blinded by not wanting to spend a long time looking, the fact that she was Canadian and the area where the flat was.

I moved out the following day and spent 2 weeks couchsurfing with friends. I felt so uncomfortable there and just wanted to avoid her as much as possible. During this 2 weeks I was also working overtime at the Red Cross and searching for a new apartment (hence why I haven't had time to update this blog). So exhausting! The good news is I have found a lovely, big home with 3 other flamates (2 girls and a guy) and I have a room that is detached from the house AND it's only $430/month. Amazing! The bad news is that my old flatmate continues to be a douche and has not returned all of my bond and has made it very difficult for me to come and pick up my dresser. She is the most passive aggressive person I've ever met! She's the kind of person who pokes and pokes at you and then when you can't take it anymore and finally react she says "Why are you over-reacting so much? Calm down. What's wrong with you?" Grrrr! I can't wait until I have my bond and never have to make contact with her again.

During my homeless bout I went to the first Footy game of the season and it was sold out. I actually really enjoyed it and the rules are much easier to follow than American/Canadian football.

I went with David from the Red Cross...

and Nerys and her friend Lisa (also from Belfast, they are travelling together)

As you can see...it wasn't much of a competition...

Thought you might enjoy this sign that I saw in Lord of the Fries with the "French Canadian" option!

These last 2 pics are mainly for my bro and Tiina. They were just in the middle of the street for anyone to use and take care of.






Other than that I start my job with Cirque du Soleil tomorrow. Should be super fun times but there is a lot of upselling that I have to do. Whatever. I can handle it for 2 months. Everyone who works there is in their 20's (and we all know I like to pretend I am) and I will be working behind the snack counter much like I did at my jobs with the cinemas in Toronto. Also on Sunday my friend Sarah comes to stay with me for a week. She is doing a semester of school in Perth and has a week off. AND my friend Troy who is in Stomp which is currently on tour in Australia comes next week as well. I am both excited and nervous that their visits will leave me feeling homesick.

If you want to send me anything I am now at 24 Maghull Street, Brunswick East, Melbourne 3057.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo