Melbourne: Week five

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This week has been pretty full on with work: almost 70 hours over seven days. I’ve done 80 in five before, but after being off for most of the year it has been more difficult to do these hours than I remember. The highlight of my week has been giving myself a half-centimeter long splinter whilst putting chicken on a wooden skewer, the most genuine “f– me sideways” escaped my mouth. It was so impressive that I had someone witness me pull it out of my hand.

During the week I haven’t really done a lot, I tend to sit in chatting to people in the hostel during my evenings. Currently, I’m sharing a room with literally the craziest person I’ve ever met, to the point of asking reception what day he’s moving out so I can count down. It’s been quite frustrating to tolerate but when I have the conversations about hostel crazies it will be gold.

Tomorrow I am expecting to spend most of the day in bed, then I’m working Tuesday to Friday,  with the weekend off.

Melbourne: Week Four

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This week wasn’t eventful besides work; I racked up 45ish hours by Thursday night – three ten hour shifts, then a fifteen. I’m very glad that I have done this on Australian wages rather than British.

I went out a couple of nights: Wednesday wasn’t a mental one then I went out for a drink with people from work on Friday, despite it being my day off. Saturday, I watched the second film in the Hobbit series and chilled – I had been woken up at 4am by a roommate and struggled to get a decent nights sleep. I was off today, supposed to go out but the plans have been pushed to next week which I don’t mind, so instead I took the opportunity to chill – I slept for almost 13 hours and spent the day watching films.

This coming week I have work six days in a row, which I’m expecting to be a 55+ hour one and am hoping to make it to a rugby game. I doubt the posts over the next few weeks will be more exciting than this as I’m hoping to pick up a lot of hours to pay for my travels once I’ve left Melbourne.

Melbourne: Week Three

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It had been a while since I’d been to a part of Melbourne that I haven’t yet been to, not that I’ve seen much of it anyway. I woke up at half 10 on Monday and started talking to one or my roommates about should I either stay in bed watching Family Guy all day or go to Brighton if the weather was nice outside – my bed was too far away from the window to see.

After a bit of reasoning, both of us got up, I made the pair of us some breakfast then we got the tram then train to Brighton Beach, where it was so warm that I didn’t need my jacket – in the middle of winter. It’s a pretty nice place to walk if you don’t mind filling your shoes up with sand. The girl I was with is hilarious and one of the people I have met on my travels who I get along best with, but left the country this week. We walked from Brighton back to the hostel, taking well over an hour. Once back at the hostel I didn’t get up to much apart from chatting to people, watching some Family Guy and making myself some chilli con carne cheesy nachos (minus the chilli because I have none). That night at around half 12 we had a snorer so I sent a Facebook message to someone across the room saying “do you play pokemon go? You’ll be able to catch a f–ing Snorlax in here” and laughed so hard at my own joke that I woke the snorer up.

Tuesday, I didn’t work and didn’t get up to much. I had a shit day on Wednesday, then during the evening I was going to go to the night market, but saw a friend in the hostel so we chatted and took advantage of the cheese and wine night, where the hostel was pretty tame.

Thursday and Friday I worked, volunteered to do overtime both days so I had a well-deserved lay-in. As I’ve been getting up for work at 5.15am recently, 8am does count as one. Saturday I caught a few hours of the Olympics, watched Deadpool and Borat, then after dinner the rugby. The hostel gets lively on Saturdays and I wasn’t in the mood for partying and drinking games; I would have much rather been in my pyjamas, in bed, watching cat videos. I’m pretty sure I’m on of the youngest in this hostel but I feel like I’m  one of the oldest.

Today, I went into the city for a bit, mainly because I shrunk some clothes in the wash,  then came back in to watch the first Hobbit movie – definitely one of the films that require a tea break or two. I haven’t got anything planned for tonight, but hopefully I’ll get a phone call in the morning asking me to work.

Melbourne: Week two

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My second week in Melbourne didn’t get off to a particularly interesting start; I worked Monday,  Tuesday and Wednesday. The whole idea of working for a few months is to pay pretty much just for accommodation during my year here and cheffing pays better over here than back in England, so I have the decision over the next few months as to whether or not to do farm work to extend my visa. On one hand, farm work isn’t something I want to do, but when I go back to England I’ll just get a job,  so it makes sense just to stay wherever pays better.

On Tuesday I had an alarm set for 5.15am for work, and didn’t wake up until the alarm was proper going for it, then much to the delight of my roommates, couldn’t find the phone and then I have to swipe the screen to turn the alarm off which wasn’t having it. Later that day at work I had a bit of a bitch to someone about how my socks were constantly falling down,  only to realise in the evening that I put them on upside down. I really need to up my morning game.

Wednesday I worked during the day, then it turned out to be (free) wine and cheese night at the hostel, and those who follow this blog may have correctly guessed that I took advantage of this. Luckily I escaped a goon hangover.

For me, staying in one place for so long gives me the choice of whether or not I should do something with my day. It sounds a bit wasteful, but sometimes you need to do nothing which is what I’ve done the past few days. I did go out on Saturday night as it’s my birthday today and I had a fair bit of wine – the palm of my hand is bruised and I have no idea how that happened. I got to know a few people in the hostel over the past week, a couple of people bought me a bar of chocolate, and someone else took me out for pizza tonight. One of the reasons I like to stay in hostels is because people are so eager to be kind and to get to know one another, which I’ve experienced over the past few days.

City-wise, I’ve explored the CBD and a bit of St Kilda, but I’ve not had to much of a look at other areas. If it’s nice outside one day this week and if I’m not working,  I think I’ll be off to Brighton to have a look around the area, I’ve heard that it’s a nice corner of the city.

Over the past few days there’s been some talk of me moving to a ski resort for the end of the season, and if it actually goes ahead then I’ll be buying a ski pass and hitting the slopes a few times. I’m quite excited for it, but I feel now that I’ve settled into my hostel; it definitely is home for me over the next few months.

I’ve also booked up over Chinese New Year to go to China for a week, and I’ve decided that I’ll be splitting my time there in Hong Kong over the celebrations, then the ex-Portuguese territory, Macau for a few nights. Nothing is set in stone for the time being, but once everything has been Googled, I’ll have everything booked.

Melbourne: Week 1

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After around two years of wanting to come to Australia, I arrived in Melbourne on Sunday at 5am. There was a baby on the flight so I didn’t sleep, in the end I gave up tying and watched Friends instead.

Once at the hostel, I chilled for a bit before going to explore the city. I wasn’t too sure where to go so I got off the tram at Flinders Street and walked for ages. At one point I popped back to the hostel for a nap, but someone put their dvd on without headphones in the room, so I went back out again figuring that walking around would keep me up. During the evening I went to the penguin sanctuary at St Kilda to watch the pengins emerge from their nests and go fishing which is pretty cool to see.

Monday, I met up with my friend Hannah from back home. We weren’t too sure what there was to do so we went for breakfast, then walked, then had lunch, got soaked in the rain and then went to St Kilda beach as Hannah hadn’t heard about the penguins. For dinner, we went to Brunswick area with her cousin to get some ramen which was bloody good.

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Singapore

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I thought it’d be a waste to have a connecting flight to Australia and not to visit an Asian city, it was a choice between here and Hong Kong, so as the title suggests, Singapore won. I was intrigued by the cultures here as it is where Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Thai and of course, Singaporean people live, amongst more cultures,  with the city being seperated into districts.

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On the road again

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Tomorrow I am setting off again after three and a half weeks at home. I spent half of today in London, staying in a hostel on the other side of the road my studio flat was when I lived here. I went to Borough Market, got shouted at by some crazies, ate in my favourite Mexican restaurant and some last-minute stuff.

In the morning I’m heading to the Denmark, then I’ll be stopping off for a few nights in Asia before staying in Melbourne for a bit. I have nothing booked apart from flights, a couple of concerts, the first two hostels and another for a week in Australia. Over two years ago when I moved to London I had decided a year in Australia would be on the cards and I’m so excited that it’s happening now

Dublin – the last stop (for now)

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I decided to go to Dublin mainly because there were very cheap flights from Oslo. Once again, I manged to get seats in row 1 on the plane as I found out how to alter the seats on the check in machine at the airport.

Once in Dublin, I stopped off for some breakfast – I had been up since 2.30am afer having around 3 hours sleep, then walked around to find the Jameson Distillery before having a cheeky nando’s. With my stomach lined properly, I went on the tour of the distillery which was really well done. It was interesting to hear how it’s made as well as the differences between whiskeys made in Scotland and the USA – and got to compare them. What made it better was that the woman running the tour seemed to really enjoy her job. The tour ended with a whiskey, ginger ale and lime drink which was bloody good.

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Norway in a Nutshell

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I’m not usually the type to book anything as a package as it’s usually cheaper to do it yourself and you’re not stuck with people, but this time I figured that I’d book this as part of a package as it’s easier and won’t have the all day anxiety of worrying about all the transport being on time as I’m travelling across the county. It cost quite a bit of money to do, but then again I did pay almost £20 for a burrito.

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