not 'arf bad for a yank!

I just finished reading 'Down Under' by Bill Bryson. I finished it in a little under a week. It's truly a great read and, for the most part he's spot on. It's the second book that i've read by him after reading 'Mother Tongue' in college. I decided to read it as a sort of fitting end to my travels in Australia. It's rounded things off nicely and I think it was the perfect time to read it, having been to a lot of the areas he's writing about. However, I do think if you're a novice when it comes to Australia it would be a good thing to pick-up. It's not a definitive travel guide (and doesn't claim to be), but his scholarship provides a great insight into the history of Australia, plenty of interesting facts and musings on a lot things I, myself have been wondering. It's nice to know I wasn't the only one. To quote my friend Jack, Bill Bryson most certainly 'drops knowledge.' He manages to fulfil all of this criteria whilst combining it with real experience and comedic relief in the form of his numerous encounters. Most importantly, he tells it like it is. Give it a go.

I can't wait to get my hands on 'Neither Here Nor There', Bryson in Europe. But, for the moment, it's back to the natural state of affairs - reading early modern history. I managed to pick-up a rather large biography of Francis Drake by Stephen Coote. If you don't know you Drake is then you can't be helped. Otherwise, get your wiki on.

A week on Friday is Soundwave Festival in Melbourne. It's at the Flemington Showgrounds which is only the next suburb over which is convenient. Ingrid got us both tickets for my birthday and I've been looking forward to it for a long time. I've never been to a festival at home, but I've experienced them in Norway and Sweden so it'll be interesting to see how the Aussies handle it. The bands I'm most looking forward to are Glassjaw, The Almost, The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World.

I need the motivation

I thought it was about time that I got back into this. If not for anyone else, but for myself. It’s partly to do with a complete lack of interest, that we all get sometimes with certain things. It’s all to do with not having the motivation as well.

Over the last few months I just lacked interest in most things. It’s a real shame because I’ve haven’t had this much time myself in years. I feel like I pissed away a lot of the down-time I’ve had between travelling and trips, by just sitting around on my arse, watching tv and complaining to anybody that would listen. I am a little annoyed with myself for not utilising it and listening to the nagging feeling in my head that kept on saying ‘read, write, read, write - go to the fucking library for Christ’s sake!’ But it never went down like that. Looking back at it from the vantage point I have now and with perspective on my side I think it happened because I was unhappy. I don’t know exactly why this was happening but part of it is because I let myself get stale. I was, in no way exercising body or mind and I’ve realised that this is what I need to do. If you’re not a complete moron, this is usually the case for most.

The realisation came to me about three weeks ago when I was in Sydney. Over the last few months I’ve been travelling all over the place, and (to be honest) not really enjoying a lot of it. I don’t know precisely why but I was snobbish and lazy about it. I wasn’t totally uninterested in where I was going and what I was doing but I wasn’t writing or recording anything at all (which is usually my thing). I have loads of notebooks in England with musings and thoughts and observations. And from Australia? One page and then I gave up. So, to cut a long story short - I was in Sydney, knowing my money was running out, knowing the summer was nearly over, running out of steam, looking forward to going home, feeling relieved to be going home (to Melbourne) and I was the happiest I’d been in weeks. Why? I don’t know, do you?

I find this realisation quite interesting. I’m not quite sure what it tells me about myself though. What I’m most looking forward to now (and it sounds a bit of a cliché) is getting my life back on track. I don’t mean this in any epiphany-bullshit sort of way; I just mean getting back to some degree of normality. I’ve got myself a pretty standard retail job in Melbourne with Puma to give me something to do and make some numbers in my bank account. I’ve started eating healthy and drinking less booze. I’ve purchased some weights and started doing a proper workout like a used to. I’ve started going to the library and compiling a reading list to really get my teeth into a couple areas of history. Finally, I’ve started writing again - well, some semblance of it. If I don’t get anything concrete down I’m still making sure I put some ideas down, at least. Sometimes it can be the hardest thing to take the pen and paper out of your pocket at that exact second you think of something. Basically, it takes discipline. I used to have it, I taught myself to have it, I lost it and now I’m teaching myself to get it back. This isn’t supposed to be a self-critique or motivational rant - it’s just what’s happening right now.


I swear it's not vanity. I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of myself before I started working out again, so I could see my progress. I'm going to track it every two weeks to see how I'm going. There was no way I wasn't going to look smug.


This is pretty much my uniform: just a plain red t-shirt with the Puma logo on the front. Not bad.

I've spent about 2 months finally reading all the Bond novels I never got round to. Before I'd read 1-7. This time I read 8-14 and none of them dissapointed.

Reading: Bill Bryson - Down Under (Travels in Australia)
Listening: The Almost, The Dodoz and The Early November

lazy

i'm alive...just lazy. ended up travelling western and central australia to come home, watch some tv and read. had the parents over for christmas and new year. final bit of travelling to the great barrier reef, sydney and tasmania. then - i go back to work in feb. wooo!

The Start of Summer

It’s been a quite a while - but, with the prospect of a month of travelling looming ever closer and a day of sitting on the sofa being ill and feeling sorry for myself, I thought it was time to post an update. The last time I posted was around half an hour before I left for a 10-day trip up to Queensland. I’ve since been to Queensland, come back, hung around Melbourne for a little while and sat here.


We flew up to Brisbane on the Monday night and spent two nights and one full day there. We never really intended on staying any longer in Brisbane as Papa Med isn’t crazy about cities and, besides, I think we all needed a break - Ingrid had finished uni (all but one exam) and I was more than ready to get out of work and out of Melbourne. So we saw the sights of Brisbane by taking a day to stroll around the city at a leisurely pace, frequently stopping for a beer (it seems me and Mr. M think alike here); so all worked out well. Brisbane happens to have around 1.5 million inhabitants, but, like many Australian cities, the suburbs sprawl for so long that they bear the brunt of this burden, leaving the city fairly compact. The first thing that struck me wasn’t the city itself, but the difference in the weather; it was so warm. I don’t know why I was surprised because Brisbane is almost sub-tropical and I’d been stuck in limbo in Melbourne for over 3 months. This was to prove the case over the entirety of the trip - we only saw rain twice, albeit briefly and it rarely dipped below 25c. I was forced into shorts - poor Aussies!


strolling in the park in brisbane

The following day we headed up north along the Sunshine Coast. We decided to rent a car. I covered the driving and Papa M covered the bill. This arrangement was to work out well as I need all the practice I can get before me and Ingrid head out on our own travels. Anyway, my experience didn’t let me down and, after a somewhat shaky start, we were well on our way. We decided not to pre-book anything and make our mind up along the way; allowing us a lot of freedom. This proved to work-out well. Before long we were heading up the Sunshine Coast and I’d fulfilled one of my boyhood dreams - I caught my first sighting of the Pacific. We stopped for the night at a hotel-type-resort-thingy in Marcoola that I’d seen on the internet the night before. It seemed exactly what we wanted - somewhere quiet and secluded. We initially picked the Sunshine Coast, towards the north because it’s renowned for being the quieter of the tourist areas around Brisbane in southern Queensland (the other being the Gold Coast, lying to the south). However, this place was too secluded. After I’d woken up to view the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean; and took a walk along the miles of empty beach, we moved on further north.

Marcoola

The next place we stopped was at Coolum Beach. We struck it lucky and managed to find an apartment we were all happy with straight away. Coolum was a definite improvement on Marcoola. It’s a fairly sleepy seaside town where tourism had penetrated to some degree; but not yet to a point where it became unbearable and offensive. The beach stretched on for miles and the weather was fantastic and above 27c everyday. We mostly lazed by the pool, on the balcony and at the beach all day, everyday. However, after receiving a text from a family friend Ingrid and I drove north to the town of Noosa. Noosa, is different from the other towns along the Sunshine Coast. It manages to combine beach with woodland giving a very quaint sort of feeling (an Australian type of quaint). However, how I imagine Noosa to have been as a small town with beautiful sights, has been taken over by tourism. Because of its idyllic location it has begun to attract a richer type of toursit and because of the high-brow nature its scenes have been left largely unspoilt. But, the branded designer shops are abundant for a small outpost such as Noosa and the stares of the rich at vagrants such as me are ever present. Oh well, if I had their money, I’d stay there too. I knew Alice was in Australia, and had flew into Brisbane but I wasn’t hoping for much and figured she’d moved on. It just so happened that she was making her way back down the coast and luckily, we were afforded the chance to meet. I’ll be the first to admit that Alice and I don’t really know each other at all. The last time we spent any real time together was when we were kids. But, when you’re so far away from home you have to look-out for one another and it’s always reassuring to see a friendly face from home - with the same accent! It proved to be one of the highlights of the trip and it was a shame we only gently brushed paths but I’m sure we’ll see each other again for a longer, more purposeful visit.

We grew tired of Coolum and the traveller’s bug in us became restless. The next day we headed further north leaving the Sunshine Coast to travel to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island (if you don’t follow then get a map). We ended up more than doubling our mileage for the entire trip in one day. However, Ingrid got her wish to see more of the country away from the coast as we travelled along the Bruce Highway up to Gympie. We diverted back to the coast through the Cooloola National Park to Rainbow Beach, crossing through what seemed like endless forests and straight roads up to Maryborough. I gunned the hell out of the rent-a-car, until we passed through the wilderness into civilisation again. When we reached our destination we employed the same tactic as before - show up, park up, walk up and find somewhere to soothe our travel-weary arses.

the view from the balcony; alice

Our main incentive in travelling to Hervey Bay was the promise of seeing more of the country, finding something similar to what we had experienced in Coolum and to see Fraser Island. What we found at Hervey Bay was a sleepy town but big enough to accommodate our needs. With Fraser Island to the east sheltering the bay from the winds that blow off the Pacific we found ourselves on a pristine, uncrowned beach protected from the waves that bring surfers to stretches of coast we’d found further south. We couldn’t believe how lucky we’d been to stumble along the coast, progressively finding better places to stay. With everyone happily content, a wave of calm passed over me and I began to sleep a little easier knowing that Ingrid, and especially Papa Med and Mona - who’d come such a long way - were getting what they wanted out of their trip.

hervey bay classic sunset; representing ifk - for the swedes

After a couple of days relaxing on the balcony and the beach, we embarked on a full-day tour of Fraser Island. Fraser is the largest sand island in the world that juts out from the coast of eastern Australia into the Pacific. There are two ways you can see Fraser: you either rent out a 4-wheel drive and tackle the sandy inland roads and miles and miles of beach to yourself - or, like us, book a tour. I’m the first to shout-out all the negatives of day-tours: stuck with an international crowd of camera-clicky, snap happy tourists - always thinking I’m so much better, original and easily above them. However, with time-constraints it proved to be the best option. Although there was a lot more of the island to see than we covered, and we still managed to see the rainforest, fresh-water creeks, an inland lake and drive along the beach; all with an informative guide. The only thing that peeved me was how - when referring to the history of the island - they didn’t mention that the Australian government kicked-off all the Aboriginals in 1905 and removed them to a purpose-built settlement just north of Cairns. How are they meant to even attempt to repair the damage of past generations if they won’t confront the past itself!? Eh, enough.

rainforest; the clearest water i've ever seen; the boat back to the mainland

After another day of relaxing for me and Mona and a bout of what we suspect to be food-poisoning for the Medby’s, it was time for me and Ingrid to go home to Melbourne. We had to take the car back to Brisbane and tackled the mileage we’d gradually clocked-up over the entire trip. It was fairly simple, burning down the highway in 4 and a half hours. The only downside - we had to set-off at 8am. Our flight wasn’t until 10pm so we killed the day in Brisbane; sluggishly and lethargically wandering the streets and not seeing any sights. We were tired, in transit and just wanted to go home. The flight was fine, except for having to fly through a lightning storm that was threatening to encircle Brisbane when we were on the ground; keeping us longer than we could’ve bared. I was just happy to get through it, especially in the knowledge that it was similar conditions that had kept us on the tarmac for two hours after landing at Brisbane only ten days before.

We came back to Melbourne to a preview of what can only get worse. The temperature has been a solid 30c to 36c through the day and rarely dropping below 25c at night - and it’s going to get hotter. It reached 47c last year and it promises to be as hot this year, but for longer. Because of this, my lazy nature and lack of employment I’ve spent the majority of my time watching such shows as Michael Palin’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, ‘Pole to Pole’ and ‘Full Circle’ (acquired from the library and completed in three days - impressed? You should be!). I’ve also found time to see friends at work and most of the time looked forward to seeing Papa Med and Mona again. I’m glad to say they enjoyed the rest of their trip relaxing and swimming on the Great Barrier Reef. Coming back to Melbourne with no other agenda than to relax we took it easy drinking and eating; managing to fit in some sights by seeing the zoo and going to the viewing platform of Melbourne’s ‘Eureka Tower.’ I’m both really sad to see them go and to see family leave. I had such a great time hanging with them here and in Queensland, and it’s especially sad not knowing when we’ll meet again. They took really good care of both of us and I’m glad to be leaving for more travels to help take my mind off this. Ingrid has now officially finished her first year of university and we’re leaving Melbourne for a month, when we’ll be returning with Mama Medby, Brother Medby & girlfriend…and of course THE GRIMSHAWS WOO! We’re heading out for Adelaide on Wednesday and then flying onto Perth on Saturday. I’ve waited for this for so long. What holds for the rest? Who knows let’s keep it ambiguous and unplanned for as long as possible - the best way!

the view of the cbd from the eureka tower

Take the Money and Run

My Australian birthday, my first away from home was great. Despite having to work all day it was a lot more than I expected, and, as it fell on a Friday, it left the whole weekend free to party. I got an array of presents which were fantastic! I never fail to be amazed at how awesome my friends are back home. This time they sent me some great gifts but the fact that so much forethought and effort was put in. Special thanks to Luke and Lauren; Fischer; Mum and Dad; Annie; Josef and Lina, Lisa; Karl; Mama Medby; Papa Medby; Leon and Priya; the rest of the Aussie crew and, of course, Ingrid! Although I didn’t get to see a lot of people it was extra-special because I got to spend it with Ingrid.

On Friday night we went for a few drinks and ended up in a pool hall. We got fairly toasted and ended up spilling kebab all over the back of the taxi, while Brandon bragged (rather loudly) about successfully putting his testicles on the pool table without getting thrown out. Nice!

On Saturday - complete with an immense hangover - Ingrid and I travelled north to Bendigo, which takes a couple of hours on the train. We headed up there for Sach and Kate’s engagement party where we got to meet the family, who, I have to say, are a great laugh! They were all so kind and welcoming, sharing their food and drink, their house and their town with us. They even bought me a cake, complete with mini footballs. Thank you SO MUCH! You can’t comprehend how lovely it was to be so far away and feel right at home with just one gesture. We had a royal piss-up on the Saturday and then got to see the town on Sunday before we headed back. It was extra-special for us because it was a very important event for our friends, but also our first time out of Melbourne. We were definitely ready and barely took our eyes off of the window of the train the entire way there. Good luck to Sach and Kate - hip hip hurrah!

I finished work yesterday. The last couple of weeks have been long and dull. It’s partly been because the end has finally been in sight and it has been quite hard for me to pick-up the pace there. Part of it has been because of how quiet the store is in general. We recently got our new season of stock that is very expensive and very hard to sell when it’s $200 just for a flimsy t-shirt. It’s also a lot tougher to sell anything when there is a lack of sizes. The mood has been fairly down at the moment but hopefully it’ll pick-up in there. In general it’s been a really positive experience. They’re all great people in that place and - whether they realise it or not - they’ve done so much to ease me in to being here. Thanks guys, I’ll miss you but I’ll see you soon enough!

Ingrid’s Pa and his girlfriend, Mona got here last Monday and it’s been really cool to hang out with them and see some friendly faces from the outside. I really enjoy spending time with them as we have great conversations, plenty of booze, and generally, just a really relaxed time and a good laugh. I feel we’ve done our best to show them around Melbourne, and oddly, I’ve surprised myself at how much it has felt like I’ve been advertising my own city. I guess it’s a sure sign that I’ve really settled in here. However, it’s time to leave for a little while now and go on holiday to Queensland. We’re flying out to Brisbane today and after a couple of days we’re thinking of driving up the Sunshine Coast to Fraser Island. We haven’t booked anything past Brisbane yet so we’ll how it goes. We’re going out for 10 days and then Ingrid and I will be back in Melbourne for probably another 10 as well before we go to the west coast for a month or so.

Thinking back over the past few months here has really got me thinking about how much (and how little) has been done. I’ve managed to get and hold a job down, make some great friends and make some money. We’ve seen Ingrid through her first year at uni (all but for one exam - I’m really proud) and I’ve managed to settle in to life across the other side of the world. However, now it’s time to uproot all that and put this time and money into travelling with my girl! It’s true that you have to make the most out of life. It’s also true that in order to get the most out of life you need to (for the best part) try hard and work hard. So my advice is to get off your arse and make sure you’re doing something with it! If you have to sit tight for the moment, then make sure when you get a chance, break free, make a choice, and enjoy it.

Listening: The Dodoz, The Grates, Frou Frou.
Reading: 'A History of Norway'.

Aw Yeah

There have been a couple of amazing nights out here over the last two weeks. Most nights out here have so far have been pretty average; enjoyable in their own way but occasionally I’m used to a manic, bender of a night, something that I’ve been missing. The first of these was a week last Monday. Sach and Kate had booked a room in the city for their own romantic evening. That afternoon they came into work to see me where I informed them of my day-off the next day. As soon as I uttered these words it was game-over: the framework was set in place and if all went well a messy, manic, drinking-bender of a night was to ensue - this was to prove the case! We met up in the city later on and hit some bars for a few casual beers. The problem was that it was TOO casual. It got to about 1am (fairly late by most peoples’ standards) and after wandering around looking for any essence of a watering-hole, we realised it was a Monday night. ‘Shit, why don’t more people want to drink on a Monday night!?’. Kate’s answer, and indeed Melbourne’s answer to this crisis was the Crown Casino! Woooo! The casino is the biggest in Australasia, and, like many casinos, pretty much as you would imagine: gambling, drinking and flashing lights. The casino floor is crazy - it was just what our night needed. I’m not a gambler myself so I didn’t bother, but the very nature of the casino means that you lose all track of time. With drinks offers on mojitos, martinis, cocktails and nothing to do but die the next day, it proved to be the craziest night I’ve had since I left home. Fantastic.

looking progressively worse as the night wore on.

The second of these nights was on Saturday. It was our work’s night out. We had accumulated a little over $1000 over the previous few weeks from making and exceeding our sales target. For a quite a while we’d debating what to do with the money. We were originally planning to go on a boat cruise on the Yarra river with some ‘fine dining’ to go along with it - free booze and an unlimited bar tab of all kinds of magical, boozey treasure, enough to give yourself a haemorrhage. This, unfortunately, didn’t work out as the waiting-list was too long so we opted to keep the fine-dining and free booze. We went to a fancy Italian restaurant with a 6 course meal (most of what I can’t remember). The night was amazing from start to finish, but I’m especially proud of having five different alcoholic beverages on the table at the same time. The one downside to the night - I had work the next morning…ouch.

In other news - I’ve taken to the idea of writing some fiction even more. My housemate Ken has put me on to a quarterly-issued young writers’ journal called ‘Voiceworks’ where - hopefully - I may be able to get published. I think the prospect of having something to write for, or at least something in mind is good encouragement to start. I’ve had a few ideas floating around up there for a while but I’ve never really put anything down on paper. I’ve jotted down a few, scattered words and ideas so hopefully I can pluck-up the nerve (and have the ability) to put something worthwhile together.

Last weekend was a little crazy to say the least. It was Leon’s birthday on Friday and it’s been a good chance to have a back-to-back piss-up into the early hours. We’ve jammed in the basement, accosted the neighbours into an impromptu street party and drank everything that’s come our way. OH, and we’ve also got a cat. She’s called ‘Fugee’ and has come to us via Ken’s friend who needed to pass her onto a nice home.

The cat; me doing...something.

The prospect of getting out of Melbourne and actually seeing Australia is growing ever nearer. Papa Medby is coming over this month and we’re definitely going travelling with him. Me and Ingrid are also going to get out of the city to the west coast for a while when she finishes in November. It’s something we’ve been discussing for a while, but only recently it’s come to my attention that it WILL happen. I’m excited at the prospect of putting on my backpack, dragging along my girlfriend and going on a drunken adventure. The way it’s worked out means that I finish work in next week. It all happened quite fast (over the course of a day or two) when I realised that my availability will suffer due to travelling. I’ve decided that it’s the right choice to make - I came here to be with Ingrid and to travel; and besides, there will always be other jobs (I hope!). I’ve worked there for three months and feel that now the opportunity to travel has come, it’s time to take it. Thanks to all the guys and gals at Miss Sixty: they’re all fantastic individuals who really have made my time here so much better and more enjoyable than I had initially thought was possible. I’ve made some great friends there, as I always hope to do along the way and I’m sure this won’t be the last we’ll see of each other.

P.S. It’s my birthday this Friday.
　
Reading: Peter Handke, ‘Short Letter, Long Farewell’.
William Burroughs, ‘Naked Lunch’.
‘Voiceworks’.
Various history books :)

Writing: short stories.

Listening: ‘The Grates’ - absolutely fantastic.

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.’