9 months in...
Nice to have developed some familiarity with this city and its inhabitants. Pork sausage dealer has been located! Now know where to go for brekky on a Sunday morning... egg and bacon butty served with a bloody mary at the end of the street. I would consider this decadent if they had heard of HP sauce.
Not much evidence of the 'global financial crisis' in our neighbourhood. Streets are quiet by day, chock-a-block at rush hour. A nearby wreck of a corner shop (derelict) is about to be auctioned for over $600,000, even though it sits on a tiny plot, with zero garden, no parking, and needs to be demolished. And it is 3 yards from a busy roundabout. Would fetch around half of that in a comparable suburb of Manchester at the moment.
A bit strange to arive home and find that the interior of the house is 49 degrees. This was the urban reality on Black Saturday, when horriffic bush fires claimed the lives of hundreds of people in rural Victoria. We made for the safety of a distant shopping mall to sit out the worst of the heat. So did many others. And like many other malls the aircon had died. Long queues for icy slush. The outdoors was literally like being in front of a massive hairdryer on full heat. Difficult to imagine how harsh conditions had been for those in the areas affected by the fires.
Once the aftermath (and the removal of the remains of those who had perished) had passed, radio DJs were promoting the idea that businesses in the affected areas were suffering due to lack of customers (tourists). When a friend from Manchester arrived on a holiday, we decided to visit one such area and spend a bit of cash in a shop or pub. Neither of us hold some morbid fascination or 'rubberneck' trait, but both were interested in landscapes and the processes of nature. Once we hit the affected areas we very quickly understood what had occurred. All thoughts of being a useful tourist evaporated. We were not for stopping, and felt guilty for taking a trip into the scene of such loss. We were only clipping the edge of the affected areas, but reports suggest that an area the size of Wales went up in smoke. Hell on earth.
Emotions aside, there must be some questions about the suitability of such heavily wooded areas for development. An 'expert' speaking on the Aus equivalent of BBC radio yesterday said that such fires can cross a 5 kilometer fire break of cleared forest. Another interesting claim is that indigenous peoples regularly torched areas of land in order to maintain the environment. Apparently many species in these areas rely on fire to regenerate. Given the Aussie resilience to negative events, humanity might be one such species. The outpouring of aid from the population was staggering. Hundreds of millions of dollars and rising. To see a bunch of recent migrants respond collectively to this disaster made me realise that there is something positive in this place that may be absent in more 'developed' countries.
Given the scale and repetition over time of such events I was a bit surprised to find that in VIC there are no standards for the construction of fire shelters. Build one if you like, but no-one will officially advise on how to do it. While personal freedom is great, it does not preclude the ability to choose between an official solution or your own or none at all.
I might phone the radio people and raise the issue.
Beyond the fires, the team here is enjoying life in Melb, and soon our numbers will grow by 50% with the arrival of our new nappy requirer. Exciting times!
Friday, 29 May 2009
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
3 Months in Melbourne
Well... 3.5 months actually. Hard to find time to update the blog.
Getting fat on the fine food and abundant beers and wines. The hot weather is here, and it's 2 days before christmas. Driving down Sydney Road on Sunday and very surprised to see a group of carol singers on the steps of a church. Don't they realise it's summer? They looked a bit odd to me in the blazing sun and wearing shades.
In the city at the weekend there were crowded pavements full of festive shoppers, but a closer examination revealed that most were empty handed at 5pm... maybe the economy is in trouble, or maybe they were tourists. Or simply waiting until the last possible moment before deciding on which packet of soon-to-be-forgotten plastic gadgets would represent their kindness to others.
Everything (well almost) is made in China. Apart from HP sauce which hails from Holland. The orient is also providing the average Melburnian with some great food. I'm on a diet of Japanese cuisine about 4 times a week... fresh, healthy, cheap, long queue.
Pork sausages, which are necessary as a base for HP, are hard to find. Beef? Yes. Kangaroo? Check. Turkey? No worries. Pork? Nah.
Car shopping was a bit weird... looking for an oldish Japanese car (which have reached plague proportions) involves viewing a car (if the seller bothers to answer the phone or email) then some discussion of price, how long it will take to obtain the roadworthy cert, then discussion of a scheduled handover date. Some people have custom made 'for sale' graphics on their car. I just thought I could turn up with the money and drive home, but it's rarely that simple. Got a bargain though so maybe worth the hassle.
Work is good if a little tricky. Nice to be using the grey matter. Good people too.
Overall, so far, still going great - slightly homesick but a few phone calls and lack of any reports of interesting events back home take the edge off.
New year in Sydney and then a road trip along the coast means that work is now a distant 3 weeks away.
Our new air con unit has a remote. I set it up next to the new games console in preparation for a few days of relaxation. Ice cold beer seems to cool things down too!
Getting fat on the fine food and abundant beers and wines. The hot weather is here, and it's 2 days before christmas. Driving down Sydney Road on Sunday and very surprised to see a group of carol singers on the steps of a church. Don't they realise it's summer? They looked a bit odd to me in the blazing sun and wearing shades.
In the city at the weekend there were crowded pavements full of festive shoppers, but a closer examination revealed that most were empty handed at 5pm... maybe the economy is in trouble, or maybe they were tourists. Or simply waiting until the last possible moment before deciding on which packet of soon-to-be-forgotten plastic gadgets would represent their kindness to others.
Everything (well almost) is made in China. Apart from HP sauce which hails from Holland. The orient is also providing the average Melburnian with some great food. I'm on a diet of Japanese cuisine about 4 times a week... fresh, healthy, cheap, long queue.
Pork sausages, which are necessary as a base for HP, are hard to find. Beef? Yes. Kangaroo? Check. Turkey? No worries. Pork? Nah.
Car shopping was a bit weird... looking for an oldish Japanese car (which have reached plague proportions) involves viewing a car (if the seller bothers to answer the phone or email) then some discussion of price, how long it will take to obtain the roadworthy cert, then discussion of a scheduled handover date. Some people have custom made 'for sale' graphics on their car. I just thought I could turn up with the money and drive home, but it's rarely that simple. Got a bargain though so maybe worth the hassle.
Work is good if a little tricky. Nice to be using the grey matter. Good people too.
Overall, so far, still going great - slightly homesick but a few phone calls and lack of any reports of interesting events back home take the edge off.
New year in Sydney and then a road trip along the coast means that work is now a distant 3 weeks away.
Our new air con unit has a remote. I set it up next to the new games console in preparation for a few days of relaxation. Ice cold beer seems to cool things down too!
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Six weeks in Melbourne...
Time flies. All is good apart from Optus, and not having the time to do everything! For the last few weeks the Melbourne Fringe Festival has been happening where we live - and we have been to busy to see a single performance.
We have eaten out in 30+ different places in forty nights. From horse racing, to casino, to aquarium, to nature reserve, to the coolest pubs, to cafe culture, to bakery, to art, to the city... there is much to do. Let alone finding and furnishing our new home. And working.
What a great city, with (mostly) great people.
We have eaten out in 30+ different places in forty nights. From horse racing, to casino, to aquarium, to nature reserve, to the coolest pubs, to cafe culture, to bakery, to art, to the city... there is much to do. Let alone finding and furnishing our new home. And working.
What a great city, with (mostly) great people.
Monday, 18 August 2008
Fill your boots..
With 2 weeks to go, our efforts could only be described as 'fill your boots'. And in so many ways.
First up, and least important, has to be the good old English car boot sale. I went to one yesterday. Aside from a few friendly well-wishers it was truly depressing. I don't mind selling things that are new (or nearly) for less than 10% of their high street cost. I do mind being told that 5% is a more reasonable price. An antique cupboard for £1.50 did not sell. High quality literature at 25p each, and I came home with a full box. Good films were hard to sell at 50p. A choice of nice suits at £3 each and only one person enquired. Hindley (near Wigan) is an unforgettable experience. I'm usually attracted by the idea of a cultural melting pot, but in this case the mix was deeply unattractive. Eastern European wide-boys with trench coats and heavy gold chains beneath their flattened noses and above their bruised knuckles. Huddles of Asian women with distrusting glances, complaining at even the most friendly offer of a ridiculously low price. Ignorant, racist, local, moustachioed women with no obvious understanding of anything other than how to blame the new arrivals for their woes (yet I get the feeling that the new arrivals had not forced them to leave the house without themselves or their clothes meeting soap). The burger van selling crusty, barely cooked 'sausages' with a neon pink sludgy interior (long queue). South Asian families who communicate via their infant children (a smile crosses the language barrier but was rarely returned). Even the local chap who drove the council van which collected the rubbish at the end of the sale had two black eyes. Security staff at the Tesco opposite stood outside the store entrance like some dodgy nightclub. Most shocking of all (for me) was the 20ish year old local girl, who on a rainy day and accompanied by her mother of around 35, had decided to flaunt her scabby diseased legs in a mini skirt which offered zero dignity, topped off with a neon pink wig and the kind of vocabulary that makes ears bleed. The junky who hung around the stall for half the morning asking the most stupid questions, with his standard issue tattooed illegible writing down the inside of his forearms. The fat guy in the wheelchair, covered in dirt, his whole hands yellow from smoking roll-ups, with a blend of tobacco and dandruff all down his front, who confided that he was able to travel around all the car boot sales rapidly each Sunday (in his state-funded car), able to afford a pile of tat but unable to buy a less filthy coat for 20p. I could go on.
All this is nothing to do with poverty. I was in Central America on a road trip just after the disastrous Hurricane Mitch which laid waste to parts of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. In those countries I witnessed deep poverty, compounded by crime, drugs and corruption, and then slammed by a massive natural disaster. Throughout, even despite having to wash and clean clothes and cook on the muddy river banks, and finding shelter in shanty towns, I found the people there to be impeccably well presented, mostly amiable given the circumstances, and certainly having bucket loads of self respect. My grimy backpacker clothes and dusty 4x4 left me feeling ashamed. I have walked through the 'City of the Dead' in Cairo, where poverty is so severe that families are forced to inhabit the mausoleums of their ancestors - yet even in this no-go-zone for tourists did I ever fell ill at ease (just a bit embarrassed about the cost of my shoes). I've read my Orwell, come from a mining heritage, and even live in an ex-miners house in the shadow of a pit-head relic from the days of 'The Road To Wigan Pier' yet I can't imagine any correlation between the industrious (bit rough maybe) population of days gone by and the current state of affairs just 5 miles from where I live. I've got absolutely no idea what causes a place to decline so rapidly and completely.
Anyhow, back to 'Fill your boots'. Second on the list are possessions. I'm encouraging those people I know to stock up on my stuff. No visitor is safe from being encouraged to take away a memento of their visit to my house. Whether its a TV, a book, a pint pot, a sofa... no-one is safe! It's all part of the mix when it comes to finding new homes for soon to be surplus items. Plus, it's occasionally appreciated! I've got a big box of proper Cuban cigars and they are proving difficult to rehome. I can't put them on eBay, Freecycle, or car boot sale - so it looks like they might get burned (as in smoked at the leaving party).
Third is culture. For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to do and see as much of the things that I love than I would ever consider. I even broke my own rule of paying a ticket tout but I did not want to arrive in Oz having missed an Ian Brown gig. And it was worth it. I've been to many hundreds of gigs all across the musical spectrum, from Don Giovanni to Prodigy, from punk to pop, from Rockworld to the Hacienda. This recent gig in Preston was up there with the best of them, alongside Spear of Destiny in Salford 1988, Orbital at Glastonbury 1994, Radiohead at Glasto 1997, and erm Ian Brown in Llandudno recently. I might go to Creamfields later this week, having been too busy in Hindley to make it to V. Oh well!
First up, and least important, has to be the good old English car boot sale. I went to one yesterday. Aside from a few friendly well-wishers it was truly depressing. I don't mind selling things that are new (or nearly) for less than 10% of their high street cost. I do mind being told that 5% is a more reasonable price. An antique cupboard for £1.50 did not sell. High quality literature at 25p each, and I came home with a full box. Good films were hard to sell at 50p. A choice of nice suits at £3 each and only one person enquired. Hindley (near Wigan) is an unforgettable experience. I'm usually attracted by the idea of a cultural melting pot, but in this case the mix was deeply unattractive. Eastern European wide-boys with trench coats and heavy gold chains beneath their flattened noses and above their bruised knuckles. Huddles of Asian women with distrusting glances, complaining at even the most friendly offer of a ridiculously low price. Ignorant, racist, local, moustachioed women with no obvious understanding of anything other than how to blame the new arrivals for their woes (yet I get the feeling that the new arrivals had not forced them to leave the house without themselves or their clothes meeting soap). The burger van selling crusty, barely cooked 'sausages' with a neon pink sludgy interior (long queue). South Asian families who communicate via their infant children (a smile crosses the language barrier but was rarely returned). Even the local chap who drove the council van which collected the rubbish at the end of the sale had two black eyes. Security staff at the Tesco opposite stood outside the store entrance like some dodgy nightclub. Most shocking of all (for me) was the 20ish year old local girl, who on a rainy day and accompanied by her mother of around 35, had decided to flaunt her scabby diseased legs in a mini skirt which offered zero dignity, topped off with a neon pink wig and the kind of vocabulary that makes ears bleed. The junky who hung around the stall for half the morning asking the most stupid questions, with his standard issue tattooed illegible writing down the inside of his forearms. The fat guy in the wheelchair, covered in dirt, his whole hands yellow from smoking roll-ups, with a blend of tobacco and dandruff all down his front, who confided that he was able to travel around all the car boot sales rapidly each Sunday (in his state-funded car), able to afford a pile of tat but unable to buy a less filthy coat for 20p. I could go on.
All this is nothing to do with poverty. I was in Central America on a road trip just after the disastrous Hurricane Mitch which laid waste to parts of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. In those countries I witnessed deep poverty, compounded by crime, drugs and corruption, and then slammed by a massive natural disaster. Throughout, even despite having to wash and clean clothes and cook on the muddy river banks, and finding shelter in shanty towns, I found the people there to be impeccably well presented, mostly amiable given the circumstances, and certainly having bucket loads of self respect. My grimy backpacker clothes and dusty 4x4 left me feeling ashamed. I have walked through the 'City of the Dead' in Cairo, where poverty is so severe that families are forced to inhabit the mausoleums of their ancestors - yet even in this no-go-zone for tourists did I ever fell ill at ease (just a bit embarrassed about the cost of my shoes). I've read my Orwell, come from a mining heritage, and even live in an ex-miners house in the shadow of a pit-head relic from the days of 'The Road To Wigan Pier' yet I can't imagine any correlation between the industrious (bit rough maybe) population of days gone by and the current state of affairs just 5 miles from where I live. I've got absolutely no idea what causes a place to decline so rapidly and completely.
Anyhow, back to 'Fill your boots'. Second on the list are possessions. I'm encouraging those people I know to stock up on my stuff. No visitor is safe from being encouraged to take away a memento of their visit to my house. Whether its a TV, a book, a pint pot, a sofa... no-one is safe! It's all part of the mix when it comes to finding new homes for soon to be surplus items. Plus, it's occasionally appreciated! I've got a big box of proper Cuban cigars and they are proving difficult to rehome. I can't put them on eBay, Freecycle, or car boot sale - so it looks like they might get burned (as in smoked at the leaving party).
Third is culture. For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to do and see as much of the things that I love than I would ever consider. I even broke my own rule of paying a ticket tout but I did not want to arrive in Oz having missed an Ian Brown gig. And it was worth it. I've been to many hundreds of gigs all across the musical spectrum, from Don Giovanni to Prodigy, from punk to pop, from Rockworld to the Hacienda. This recent gig in Preston was up there with the best of them, alongside Spear of Destiny in Salford 1988, Orbital at Glastonbury 1994, Radiohead at Glasto 1997, and erm Ian Brown in Llandudno recently. I might go to Creamfields later this week, having been too busy in Hindley to make it to V. Oh well!
Monday, 11 August 2008
Countdown... 3 Weeks to go.
Our Visa has now been granted.
What to do with a house full of stuff?
We will be taking only a very small amount of stuff with us - some 30kg each. Thats laptops, clothes, couple of books and CDs, and small electronic items.
Which leaves about 2 tonnes of furniture, books, and household appliances. And a van.
Some of our older, better furniture is likely to be living with friends and family. Furnishings and houseplants are being freecycled. Books, small appliances and music will be going first to a car boot sale then the remainder to charity. Large appliances will be staying with the house. Everything else is going on eBay.
We're hoping that funds from selling our stuff can be used in Oz to stock our home. It's become obvious that it takes more than a couple of weeks to dismantle decades of accumulation. It is however a cathartic and sometimes rewarding experience which involves looking at old photos, birthday cards, gig tickets etc. Many times I have found a shoe box at the back of a cupboard, long forgotten, and it's easy to spend a couple of hours rummaging through the contents.
Arrangements for a send-off party are in hand, and now is the time to visit friends, settle any old debts, and cancel any subscriptions and services. While this might sound terminal, it's worth remembering that the return journey can be made in 20 hours (roughly the same timescale for crossing Manchester using only public transport!).
One good thing about being so busy is that it provides a useful distraction from the stress of going to live on the other side of the world, in a country which neither of us has visited.
All said and done, we are feeling excited about our move. The British summer is the perfect way to acclimatise for the Aussie winter!
What to do with a house full of stuff?
We will be taking only a very small amount of stuff with us - some 30kg each. Thats laptops, clothes, couple of books and CDs, and small electronic items.
Which leaves about 2 tonnes of furniture, books, and household appliances. And a van.
Some of our older, better furniture is likely to be living with friends and family. Furnishings and houseplants are being freecycled. Books, small appliances and music will be going first to a car boot sale then the remainder to charity. Large appliances will be staying with the house. Everything else is going on eBay.
We're hoping that funds from selling our stuff can be used in Oz to stock our home. It's become obvious that it takes more than a couple of weeks to dismantle decades of accumulation. It is however a cathartic and sometimes rewarding experience which involves looking at old photos, birthday cards, gig tickets etc. Many times I have found a shoe box at the back of a cupboard, long forgotten, and it's easy to spend a couple of hours rummaging through the contents.
Arrangements for a send-off party are in hand, and now is the time to visit friends, settle any old debts, and cancel any subscriptions and services. While this might sound terminal, it's worth remembering that the return journey can be made in 20 hours (roughly the same timescale for crossing Manchester using only public transport!).
One good thing about being so busy is that it provides a useful distraction from the stress of going to live on the other side of the world, in a country which neither of us has visited.
All said and done, we are feeling excited about our move. The British summer is the perfect way to acclimatise for the Aussie winter!
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Flights
Visa is underway, medicals done, police checks applied for.
We decided to fly late August... while hunting for low fares the fares started to rise due to fuel prices... oops! Our £800 ish return with Emirates became £1000. For not much more we could fly with Singapore. So for about £1100 each (economy) we will fly the shortest mainstream route, in the air for around 20 hours each way.
SingaporeAir have an offer to entice transit passengers into the city, included in the price above is a stopover in Singapore with transfers to a central hotel for one night - which means that we will have a base for our 2 days, arriving early day 1 and leaving at midnight day 2. The hotel will look after our bags and the airport offers a simple visitor visa on demand.
Most efforts are now going into preparation... apart from dealing with the house it's all about loose ends and posessions. Time for a party later. With 5 weeks to go it's time to cancel stuff like subscriptions and policies. It has just taken me 18 months to close a dormant account with a high street bank so I'm expecting a few service providers to be a bit erm reluctant to part.
OH has started to look for music and comedy gigs in Melbourne, hopefully it's easier to get a ticket for gigs in Oz than it is here. But I doubt it.
We decided to fly late August... while hunting for low fares the fares started to rise due to fuel prices... oops! Our £800 ish return with Emirates became £1000. For not much more we could fly with Singapore. So for about £1100 each (economy) we will fly the shortest mainstream route, in the air for around 20 hours each way.
SingaporeAir have an offer to entice transit passengers into the city, included in the price above is a stopover in Singapore with transfers to a central hotel for one night - which means that we will have a base for our 2 days, arriving early day 1 and leaving at midnight day 2. The hotel will look after our bags and the airport offers a simple visitor visa on demand.
Most efforts are now going into preparation... apart from dealing with the house it's all about loose ends and posessions. Time for a party later. With 5 weeks to go it's time to cancel stuff like subscriptions and policies. It has just taken me 18 months to close a dormant account with a high street bank so I'm expecting a few service providers to be a bit erm reluctant to part.
OH has started to look for music and comedy gigs in Melbourne, hopefully it's easier to get a ticket for gigs in Oz than it is here. But I doubt it.
Friday, 25 April 2008
Rapid Rego!
Wifey is now a registered nurse in Victoria.
For some reason this has happened in some 6 or 7 weeks from the paperwork leaving the UK. We were expecting 4 to 5 months. So what next?
Well, time to get a visa sorted. Employer is arranging sponsorship and has put the wheels in motion. Aside from a bit of form filling, we also need to get medicals done. Before we can do this we need to be informed which approved 'panel' doctors we can choose from.
Also on the to-do list at the moment: start looking at flight prices and routes. We're toying with the idea of a round-the-world ticket, it seems to be around £250 more than a return flight to Oz. Aside from the obvious benefits, there is also the opportunity to (if we fly via USA) enjoy extra baggage allowances totalling 40ish kg each. Plus it might be useful to overcome jetlag in stages rather than in one big shock!
We are now hoping to leave in July. In preparation we will use eBay and Freecycle to offload posessions to raise a bit of extra cash and open up some space in the house for our future tenant. Nearer the time I will sell my VW T4 and use eBay to buy a car in Oz ready for our arrival. Hopefully the seller will meet us at the airport, a move that will not only save the hassle and cost of car hire but also allow us to hit the ground rolling and start looking for somewhere to rent.
We're both working hard and saving up, and looking forward to a period of chaos at home followed by a challenging move to Melbourne. Happy days.
For some reason this has happened in some 6 or 7 weeks from the paperwork leaving the UK. We were expecting 4 to 5 months. So what next?
Well, time to get a visa sorted. Employer is arranging sponsorship and has put the wheels in motion. Aside from a bit of form filling, we also need to get medicals done. Before we can do this we need to be informed which approved 'panel' doctors we can choose from.
Also on the to-do list at the moment: start looking at flight prices and routes. We're toying with the idea of a round-the-world ticket, it seems to be around £250 more than a return flight to Oz. Aside from the obvious benefits, there is also the opportunity to (if we fly via USA) enjoy extra baggage allowances totalling 40ish kg each. Plus it might be useful to overcome jetlag in stages rather than in one big shock!
We are now hoping to leave in July. In preparation we will use eBay and Freecycle to offload posessions to raise a bit of extra cash and open up some space in the house for our future tenant. Nearer the time I will sell my VW T4 and use eBay to buy a car in Oz ready for our arrival. Hopefully the seller will meet us at the airport, a move that will not only save the hassle and cost of car hire but also allow us to hit the ground rolling and start looking for somewhere to rent.
We're both working hard and saving up, and looking forward to a period of chaos at home followed by a challenging move to Melbourne. Happy days.
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