Now, where do I start. As I write this, I'm chilling at Melbourne Museum, home of the biggest Imax screen in the world and a ton of cool stuff. The date is 25th March so I am welllllll behind, considering I've been living in the city since early January.
Melbourne is the capital of Victoria and has 4 million people living inside it. It's pretty much Australia's capital in terms of the arts, sport, entertainment and most importantly, cooool stuff. It has the biggest tram network in the world (easy for getting around) and is ranked as the 3rd most liveable city in the entire world.
Arriving into Melbourne, me and Tom didn't know too much about what to expect. The reason for heading here next was primarily for work reasons. Also, our great friend Robert Weber has lived here on and off for a number of months and had raved about the city, so we felt we ought to jump on a plane and see what the fuss was about. For the first week or two, me and Tom checked into various hostels, trying to find those that were reasonably priced, did lots of exploring of the city and it's various metropolitan districts, and did lots of job hunting before Rob got here from trip number 50000 to Thailand. Arriving in January meant that the weather was very, very warm and actually included the 'hottest night' in Australian history. I think it was something like 46. Absolutely mental. Somehow, I managed to sleep really well that night regardless.
The first significant event to occur in Melbourne was myself getting a job at a marketing company called Red Hot PR. This 'job' basically involved me walking around shopping malls, the streets, universities, food courts, offices etc and trying to sign girls up for a VIP hair session at some of the top hair salons in Melbourne. With an 85% discount. In theory, it sounds like the perfect job, however, it's much harder than you think getting 90 dollars off someone in the street. I have just finished my employment with Red Hot after just over 2 months. For the most part, these were months that I thoroughly enjoyed. I made lots of new friends, hung out in the sunshine talking to girls from around the world and at times made a lot of money doing it.
I decided to leave as I wasn't saving enough, due to spending quite a lot of money on lunch each day and alcohol after work a lot of the time. Also, I lost enthusiasm for the job as I was having to get up quite early each day and felt I was missing out on things other people were doing. This means that as of this second I am UNEMPLOYED. Here's a look at some of the people that I was working with:
Due to being so far behind on this, I'm not going to recall every week I've spent here but fill you in with some of the things I've been upto. Melbourne is a city that always has things going on, from tons of live music, festivals, sporting events, parties, it never stops entertaining. During my time here I've watched live music and eaten barbeques on the beach, sat and watched massive protests, visited museums and exhibitions, Thai festivals and met people from a hell of a lot of countries. At the moment (27th March) I call Melbourne my home. I'm staying at a hostel with a bunch of mates and have no intention to move on until I have saved enough money to travel.
The second big significant event to occur since I've been in Melbourne was the departure of Thomas Kevin Wright. Now, as you will remember I left England with Tom and we did Thailand, Sydney with each other. Unfortunately, due to running out of money and not being able to find a job, Tom decided to leave and finish his round the world tour in a much shorter time. This was sad for me and Rob and I'm sure Tom, and it still feels odd that I am to do the rest of the travels without him. Here's a picture of me, Tom and Vinay out on the razzle dazzle.
RIP
Soo yeah, in the room in my hostel we have some quality people. There's Rob, obviously one of my oldest buddies from home and travelling companion for the last 4 months give or take a bit.
Also, in the self titled 'Room 5 LEGENDS' we have Jon Lee. A man so in touch with Asian culture, cooking and women he may as well change his first name to Bruce. Jon is a quality guy and me him and Rob spend a fair amount of time hanging out.
Simon 'Unbelievable' Colenbrander. The nicest dutch guy you will ever meet. He uses the word unbelievable a lot, and every time he says it I'm reminded of Chris Kamara from Soccer Saturday. Simon has to put up with a lot from us English guys, putting lockers in his bed, stealing his mattress etc but he always has a smile on his face!
English Meg is the only female in here at the moment. She is a cool girl, often forces me to watch Sex and the city, steals alcohol from the restaurant she works in and puts up with our very male senses of humour.
The final member as it stands is European Phil. He is a funny character, looks a bit like Jimmy Bullard and sleeps a hell of a lot. He doesn't speak much English but will always greet us with 'here he is' which is nice.
At the moment there is potentially one or two spaces available as a room 5 legend, with the departures of Meg and Phil. All we ask from possible candidates is that they don't go to bed too early and kill a member of the rival King Street backpackers which is across the street. How they complete the killing is entirely up to them. Frontrunners for the available spots in the room are Leeds Matt, quality guy who ALWAYS wears some sort of Leeds sporting top, has a good taste in music and gives us free stuff at Grill'd the restaurant where he works. Personally, I'd like the other spot to go to American Mike, a MASSIVE bodybuilder from Texas. The only things that put me off him are the quantities of protein he would bring into the room and the mood swings he often has (as a result of all the protein he eats no doubt)
Other characters include; Maclorraine, a Phillippino, Hawaiian, Canadian who enjoys getting naked, drinking chocolate milk and generally being absolutely mental. There's a Nottingham contingent with James, Christian and Ben all being decent guys, Ben earning the name racist Ben despite being nothing of the sort and James walking around saying 'Fuck em' a lot in a northern accent. Noey is the most french person I've ever met. Vincent Van Bueren knows more about football than anyone in the world. It's quite mindboggling. He also refers to himself as Prince Vince, used to play for Ajax as a kid, is possibly the most over confident person I've ever met, looks like a young version of that old model Fabio and is the cause of split opinions.
Anyway, back to the subject of what I've been upto. As I've made a massive balls up by not writing about specific dates, I'm just going to mention some of the stuff I've been doing.
Cinema trips (including a free one to watch 'Kick ass'
Drinks with boys
Drinks with girls
Hostel chilling and causing mayhem
Walks down Brunswick Street/Chapel Street
Museum
Graffitti checking out
Watching football at the hostel/Casino at god awful times
Reading books in the sunshine
Beach BBQ's
St Kilda
Over the next weeks, I hope to be able to add an AFL game at the MCG (120,000 capacity!), Reginald D Hunter and one other comedian at the Melbourne International Film Festival, trip to Dandenong mountain ranges, trip to see the penguins at Port Phillip, checking out the Australian Centre for the moving image, Rugby League at the new stadium and joining a gym to my activities list. The beauty with Melbourne is that it never gets boring. The coffee culture, the street art, nice weather, interesting people, music all makes living here very enjoyable.
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