printemps

The rain was hammering down in Melbourne the other night. Most people find it strange that I miss the rain, but I don’t know what else they would expect; I’ve spent half my life in the rain in Manchester. Not only has it been getting rainier here, but at the same time it’s been getting hotter. Spring has officially sprung in this part of the world and Melbourne has it’s own unique take on it. For example, today - not unlike other days - saw glorious sunshine in the morning, a dull, overcast afternoon and then torrential, night-time downpours. This is something not all uncommon here. Most people will tell you (myself included) that you can never leave your house without a jacket as you can find yourself getting all four seasons weather in one. I haven’t found myself caught up in it yet but, as a retail worker (lab rat) I usually see the happenings from the window (bars) on the street outside my store (cage).

The last two to three weeks have been marked by various peaks and troughs. I’ve had the usual dull and monotonous tone of working 30+ hours a week in a shop, combined with the simple pleasures of studying history, Norwegian and reading fiction. I’m forever relishing the fact that I get to wake up next to; spend my free time with; and go to sleep next to Ingrid. However, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been quite ill with some sort of chest infection (I can‘t remember what it’s called) and some sort of muscular problem with my chest also. The two are unrelated but continued to aggravate one another. The good news is - albeit with a couple of jump-starts - that I’m a lot better and relishing feeling in (fairly) decent health again.

Work has already began to lose the novelty of it being fresh and new, but my workmates and the occasional decent human being who walks through those doors keep me going. The continuing battle between me and Izzy over the music that gets played finally took a turn to my side. I haven’t go access to a cd re-writer to make my own cds but Ingrid suggested taking in Airship’s ‘Spirit of the Beehive’ EP. Airship are a burgeoning Manchester band containing one of my best friends Steven, on drums and the other lads who I’ve had the good fortune to be able to get to know over the past couple of year. What a fantastic idea it was to play them in work. Not only does it give them some airplay on the other side of the world, but it’s great to hear a little piece of home every now and again as well. I get an immense sense of pride whenever somebody asks me who is playing. Thanks for the music guys!



Airship's EP; the boys themselves; Izzy and myself at work - the battle rages on!

Being ill does have it benefits. Although I’d spent a lot of time sitting around at home, or in the library (where it’s warmer), it was obvious to me that going out drinking and hanging around the city all night weren’t the best ideas for getting my chest better (nor did I want to). So in an attempt to get out of the house and do something new me and Ingrid decided to take a walk around the city’s gardens. So far we’ve taken walks through the Carlton, Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens when the weather has been reaching into the 20s. These are smaller, more compact gardens with no particular theme; just somewhere nice to relax or have a game of footy. We also wandering down just south of the Yarra where there’s a great expanse of land that comprises the Royal Botanical Gardens, which reminds me of Hyde Park in London just because of it’s sheer size. The point is - in the smaller gardens you still feel like you’re in city, with a brief feeling of respite from the hustle and bustle. In the bigger gardens it feels like the stress of the city is a thousand miles away; something that I think any well-planned city needs.
In the 'conservatory' in Fitzroy gardens, where they had recreated scenes from Monét's paintings; in the Treasury Gardens; a beautiful day in Melbourne proudly displaying my colours!

Another place I’ve ventured out to is St. Kilda. Most people think that it’s named after a Catholic saint, but it’s actually named after a remote village in the far west of Scotland, in the Hebrides. St. Kilda is a suburb of greater Melbourne towards the south, on the coast. This is somewhere that was suggested to me on the second day I got here and I’ve been intrigued, even compelled to go to ever since. St. Kilda definitely didn’t disappoint either. I’d felt like I was getting stale in Melbourne over the last couple of weeks and needed a breath of fresh air. It was one of the first places Ingrid saw when she got here as she was staying with a Norwegian girl who was living down there. It seemed like everybody but me had been there so I had to find out for myself. I expected to be disappointed but it turns out that SK was exactly what I’d been looking for. It’s only about 10-15 minutes out of the city and it has a completely different look and feel to it. It like a small, Mediterranean sea resort in the close-season: beach, closed ice cream stands, buildings with white walls, palm trees and nobody but me, lady and a gale-force wind! There are a lot of backpackers’ hostels down there, so I get the impression that it’s somewhere a lot of people identify as typically Melbourne. This is something I, and most residents of Melbourne would tell you isn’t true. Melbourne, to me, seems like any other city in the world (well, the centre at least), and sometimes it’s hard to not get bogged down in the routine of the city; SK I think, will be my respite. Summer is coming and there are a lot of cool bars down there just itching for an all-day pub crawl to happen! Another good reason to visit is because my Aussie-rules football (AFL) team is the St. Kilda Saints. A lot of people think that I’m just riding along the back of their good season (we’re in the final on Saturday - but I have to work) but this isn’t true; I only found this out later. I picked them because they have the same colours as United, my beloved. A good and apt reason? I think so!

I’ve been making steady improvements with the Norwegian learning. The major problem is that I don’t actually find learning it all that interesting. This is no offence to Norwegians or the Norwegian language; I just don’t find language-learning particularly interesting anyway. Nonetheless I continue to plough on through. The major boost in encouraging me over the last couple of weeks have been my encounters with real Norwegians. The first appeared in work and then the following week I happened to sit down next to and befriend a couple of Norwegians in the library, who invited me out for coffee. Even with my minimal understanding of the language I found myself able to hold the most basic of conversations; a major win for me. Another boost came when me and Ingrid were watching a Norwegian film ‘Tatt Av Kvinnen’ (meaning literally ‘gone with the woman’). A strange film about an ongoing love-affair between a regular guy and a somewhat psychotic, control-freak of a woman. It’s an offbeat comedy, mostly conducted in a southern/Oslo dialect (one that I’m not all too familiar with) and I was able to pick out words and understand a lot of it. I don’t think I’ll be watching it again though… P.S. I promise I’ll email you back soon Mama M, and in Norsk!

My housemates have recently got me into an American sitcom called ‘Arrested Development’. This follows the story of the Bluth family whose father is jailed for dodgy practices and its left to their son to keep the business running and the family together. It is possible one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen; not only due its humour but also the storylines and the way it’s linked together. I’ve successfully managed to plough through all three seasons in about three weeks (a season a week, I guess).


The beer brewing has continued in the household. We use a pre-packaged brew from Cooper’s, based in Adelaide. Cooper’s is a fine brew so it’s no problem using it. The main benefits of using something ready and waiting is that you’re guaranteed it to taste alright. However, at first I was sceptical, as in England a lot of the pre-packaged recipes for amateur beer-brewers taste like death. It’s basically like brewing a regular beer only it’s cheaper and with slightly more effort. It roughly works out at about 30 cents a beer which is about 15 pence. Win!

Ken and I brewing in the kitchen

We had a party on Friday and I actually had friends there! Sadly, Ingrid was too busy consuming vodka jellies to record this momentous occurrence. Here are some dull photos anyways…

me acting like a lunatic in the kitchen; ingrid through her bottle of vodka (probably as good as her own vision; everybody was either downstairs or outside smoking, leaving me and sach to fiddle the tunes!

See you soon :) .

Reading: Kafka and Rilke: collection of short stories.
Sebastian Faulks, ‘The Girl at the Lion D’Or.’
Wiesner-Hanks, ‘Early Modern Europe.’