Chuck Another Brim on the Barbie

Hey all, I know I have been really bad at blogging since I got to Australia but it has been a busy time! I know some of my family like to read this to see how I am getting on out here in Oz. Because of that, I’ve decided to do a few entries over the next 2 days. In all honesty, I am probably going to write them all in one go and let the blog post them itself over the 2 days (the wonders of technology).

The reason I stopped blogging shortly after getting here wasn’t just because I was busy (I was, I promise!) but it was also because I had trouble finding things to say on a day-to-day or even a week-to-week basis that didn’t just involve me saying “I went to work, then lunch, worked some more, played frisbee, went home and ate some more”. No one really wants to read that so I’m doing a “2 months and a bit” catch up.

I’m going to split it into 6 parts to make it a little easier to digest. Trying to split it all nicely took a little planning but I think I’ve picked 6 topics (in the loosest sense of the word) that spread things quite evenly. Obviously, this is the first part. It’ll cover mostly what I have already covered but I have selected some pictures to try and give the whole thing a bit more context.

Anyway…

From the title, I am sure you have guessed that this is about my early days in Melbourne and all the new stuff I had to discover. Unfortunately, when I first arrived here I ended up working a lot so most of my findings were things I saw while walking around and things that I saw every day (like my flat).

My first real impressions of Melbourne came with my accommodation. I’ve spoken a lot on this before as the place was so awesome (Will B dubbed it “The Fortress of Brolitude”). If you have forgotten, here is a picture of my apartment:

Pretty swanky eh? Yeah, I loved this place. My favourite part of the whole building though was the terrace: 

The terrace was on the 10th floor of the building and as well as being amazingly peaceful and serene, you got some great views of the the CBD (Central Business District). I spent a lot of my time up here, even when the weather was rubbish, just chatting to others I saw and people watching the streets. There was usually something going on in in the courtyard area outside the building (more on that later) so there was always something and someone to watch.

As I said before, I spent most of my time working (even the weekends) when I first got to Melbourne so I didn’t get to explore as much as I would have liked to. In hindsight, it was probably a good thing as even now I am discovering little things like hidden art work and nice cafes every week which I might have done all in one go if I had too much time off!

Although I did work most weekends, my first weekend (I arrived on a Wednesday and worked the Thursday and Friday) was spent just wandering around the CBD area and taking photos like a proper tourist. There are a lot of photo worthy things in the centre of Melbourne and I did take lots of photos. When planning these blog entries I decided to limit myself to 4 photos for each post because otherwise there would be very few words and too many pictures. It also meant that I had to choose pictures that I thought would both go well with the post and reflect my experiences of Melbourne at that time.

In my explorations I was getting lost a lot. This whole grid system confused me! Was this a vertical or horizontal street? Am I going north or south? East or west? There was one place that I always found myself looking for because it was a) easy to find and b) was close to the apartment. It’s also one of the most iconic buildings in Melbourne. Flinders Street Station is just one of those places that everyone meets (all of the city Metro trains pass through Flinders) and is the hub of the city. It also has that “old-timey Victorian look to it”:

It reminds me a lot of Paddington in London. I’m not sure why, they aren’t every similar. It may just be the fact that they both have a historical exterior but are modern inside. Maybe.

Another thing that I noticed about Melbourne was that it was full of art. Melbourne is a very ‘artsy’ place with all the typical stuff that comes with it (lots of people who are dressed funny, coffee shops that are full of people in the middle of the day, art galleries on every corner and posters everywhere for some aspiring performer’s next one-man show). As well as all of the independent art, there are some big art groups that can afford to do bigger exhibitions. On my first weekend in Melbourne, the CBD was full of demon babies:  My reaction to these sculptures can be accurately summed up by a comment by Mathew Wilson (aka “Old Mat”): 

What the fuck is wrong with Australians?! This weird shit should’ve been in China! Not Melbourne!

He has a point, there was a lot of weird stuff to see in China but most of that I put down to cultural differences. Stuff like this is just plain weird. And that’s what I like about Melbourne!

The title says that this post is about my first impressions and I haven’t really said anything about them directly but there were a few things that stuck in my mind right from the first day:

• The coffee is amazing here (nobody goes to Starbucks because it is so rubbish in comparison to almost anywhere else you can go)
• People here are really friendly. This was really surprising after living in London for a year. If you asked someone in London for directions you would probably get what you wanted but it would be accompanied by a scowl that says “stop wasting my time, I have somewhere to be” whereas people are more than happy to help out here.
• Australia is sport mad. In the UK we like to think we are big on sports but we don’t really compare. If it is outdoors, you can bet there is an Australia following for it. The strangest one I have found so far is Yukigassen. This is a sport that is an organised snowball fight (it’s obviously Japanese). Guess where they play it? That’s right, Australia!
• Food. Food is so, so good here. Everything. When I was getting lunch at work in the UK it would invariably be a sandwich. Ok, there were other things to have but it was never worth the effort. Here there are huge American style food courts selling all different kinds of food in one place. You have to keep active just to justify eating so much good food for lunch.

There is one other thing that hit me like a brick when I first got here; cost. Everything is so expensive! My favourite example is beer: beer in London is about £3.00-£4.00 a pint (for something decent, no Carling thank you) depending on where you go. I have yet to see a pint of beer in a pub for less than $6.00 (that’s around £4.00). Ok, so everyone earns more here and the exchange rate makes the numbers look crazy but it is expensive here. I didn’t want to put that in the list because it is a bit negative and although it was always in my mind and I have complained about it a lot, it hasn’t really affected me in a really bad way. I now have a big lunch (spend around £8 a day on lunch) and then have a smaller dinner. Food is generally higher quality too so I don’t want to go on about it too much.

Wrapping things up, my few few weeks in Melbourne were a little daunting but I really enjoyed the exploring and just being in a new place. Work wasn’t too bad either, but the less I talk about work, the more I can talk about more interesting things :)