Posts Tagged ‘Melbourne’

So, it’s already been a whole fortnight since the big move. And what have I learned?

Not much.

I have learnt that the weather down here enjoys screwing with people. When I arrived the temperature was rising, by the second day I needed a fan just to cool down so I went and bought one.

The next morning I woke to find that the temperature had dropped. I would be needing to break out what little cold weather gear I brought with me – which was one long sleeve t-shirt. I would have to buy a new jacket sooner than expected. So that’s what i did, I also grabbed myself two more long sleeve shirts (It was a 60% off sale)…

The next day it was warm again. Not so much that I needed the fan, but just enough that I didn’t need a jacket.

The weather likes screwing with people down here.

I have also learnt (or re-learnt) that Job searching is a pain in the patootie. At this point I think I’ve sent my resume off to at least twenty odd places. I’ve applied for sales jobs, mail room jobs, reception jobs, front desk jobs, and even called up one place to get a job as a Paintball Referee.

So far it has all been to no avail, but no matter. Keep crossing those fingers (and anything else you can find) for me.

Also, in the previous two weeks, I’ve learnt about how funny Ugly Betty is… Especially season 2 (since that’s all I’ve seen).

Well, that’s it from me down here in Melbourne right now. On to the next two weeks where I’ll be job-getting and jacket-wearing soon enough.

P.s. Remember that you can buy Death, Dismemberment and a Little Bit of Sass here and now you can also become a fan on facebook – Over Here

Plane tickets and boxes and bags. Oh my!

In just under two weeks (right before new years) I’ll be moving south. Just in time for the middle of summer. It seems like a good idea, Melbourne being just about next door to the south pole and all. But no, I learnt last year that they get heat down there too. Weird.

(Note – I just typed several paragraphs discussing the weather and the differences between here and there. Then I realised I was talking about the weather and decided I didn’t want to write about that in my blog, so I deleted it all.

But it was very very articulate, insightful and interesting.

Just so you know.)

Back to the point -

The move to Melbourne is no longer an ambiguously dated plan, no longer “some time in the future”. Not only does it have a date and a time, it also has plane tickets.

And time is moving quickly again, the end of the year is approaching like a tidal wave. The lists of things to do is enormous. Less than two weeks and I’ve barely begun to pack. I still have things that need organizing.

And there’s Christmas shopping as well!

Then there’s things to do once I’ve moved. Looking for work, looking for a place to live and most importantly – Looking for a scarf and a good jacket.

But I’m looking forward to all of it. It’s exciting and frightening all at once, as the best things are.

I’ll be starting the new year in a new place with a whole new beginning…

Wish me luck.

With the move to Melbourne fast approaching… Much much too fast (Yet too slow), and with my place in urgent need of cleaning for a long time now I thought I should get some cleaning/throwing shit away. I finally got down too it yesterday. I set up a large sturdy bin bag (one that can “stand by itself” but not quite.) and a large garbage bin, and I start throwing shit away.

I’m quite a pack rat so there is a fair amount of junk to throw out. In my usual pack rat fashion there were a few things that made it through but fortunately not a great deal. I made some strict rules to stick by when sorting through things.

1. if it’s in anyway broken – It goes
2. If I haven’t used it or looked at it in five years – It goes
3. If I were to show someone and they’d look at me like I was a crazy person for keeping it – It goes

And the most important one -

4. If in doubt throw it out

The most important rules always rhyme.

It didn’t take me long before I was filling both bins.

But, as always happens when I sort through my shit personal belongings, I find quite a few things that I’d forgotten about or things that bring back old memories. I found notes (upon notes upon notes) of old stories that I’d forgotten all about – anything that looked important I scanned into the computer and then threw them out. I found old letters from a penpal, instructions for a homebuilt tattoo gun (which I also still have), I found floppy disks and old kinder surprise toys, lots of crap interesting stuff. I also found lots of old doodles I used to do at work. Including this little fella –

And suddenly my procrastination drive kicked in and I spent the afternoon turning it into this -

I call him Reginald.

While working on him I was considering what to do with him. One thing I always wanted to do was make a little logo thing-a-ma-jig with my initials to put at the bottom of my blog posts, not sure why – just cause. A little see-ya-later at the end of the post… And that’s exactly what I did with him. He’s made his way into the PHP code of my posts so I don’t do anything, he just pops up there. See? See him down there?

I also put him up in the Header Banner for now. So that would make this the most monkey-filled post you’ll see today.

Well, that’s it for now. I have to get back to cleaning and throwing things away.

So, Bye from me and from Reginald “Spanky” Monkey.

On my flight back to Brisbane, for the first time ever, I wasn’t seated behind someone who leaned their seat all the way back. Added to that, there was an empty seat beside me – making this the most comfortable flight I’ve ever been on.

The only downside is that I can no longer complain about my streak of misfortune in air travel.

I’m sure to be headed back to Melbourne some time soon though, for the plums and the dirty old yaks, and I’m sure I’ll be able to start a new bad streak.

It’s the end of January now and I’ve a pretty decent start to the year. I got some dental work done which I’ve been meaning to do for a while now, and scored a cute dentist which makes the visits a fair bit more enduring. I got a week in a silent house, where I had time to myself to think and ponder and read in the yard without interruption. I got a holiday in Melbourne where I got to flirt with a bar girl, play the ‘blind fold someone and make them eat a donut while wacking them with a stick game’, and drink coffee shop coffee each morning.

But now, holidays are over. It’s time to get back to work, start sorting out my life which has somehow, somewhere run off the tracks and crashed into the side of a mountain and all the little passengers waited around for help until they died of pneumonia.

Step one will be looking for a new form of employment. I’ve been standing in the doorway for far too long and now they are beginning to shrink the doorway, forcing me to either go in further and join the dark side or be squeezed out and left in the cold.

And I’m opting for the latter and a chance to find some work which I don’t despise more than I’m able to.

On the whole, I think things are starting to look up.

This year will be a good one.