Good Morning / Evening / Night Blog Readers

It is that time again where I will update you on my shenanigans whilst travelling. Once again I've been very lazy and let things slide on the blog front and have much to tell you, so I will get cracking.

The last six weeks have been very much filled with fun, laughter, adventures and drunken antics. First up there was Future Music festival. I'd been the previous year in Sydney and saw the likes of Bloc Party, Dizzee Rascal and Stone Roses. But this year my future experience was topped massively. This was mainly because the group I was with and the laughs we had. My personal highlight of the day was giving Natalie Horak her first experience of being on somebodies shoulders. I will never ever forget her smile as she got down. In terms of music Rudimental were second to none, chase and status were class, as was Pharrell. All in all it was a great day with great people.

The next week, was Formula One. Unfortunately my mood for the Formula One wasn't great due to one reason or another and I might have slightly ruined the day for some of the group and for that I apologise. To experience a Formula One event was good, but with the speed of the cas you don't really get too see much at all and to be honest you spend most of the time watching the screens, so for viewing quality I'd say that watching the F1 on the tv is much better, however you will never be able to recreate the atmosphere of a live event.

The Next weekend a group of us decided to hire some campervans and do a bit of a tour of the Great Ocean Road and Grampians. This was a cracking weekend. On the Friday night we made our way to Torquay, where we camped for the night and had drinks. The next day we visited several places along the Great Ocean Road, including the lighthouse from the TV programme around the twist, Apollo Bay where we ate awesome fish and chips, saw wild koalas and visited 12 apostles. However the trip will mostly be remembered for the ruckus on Saturday night. We checked in to a campsite and preceded to play have a few drinks. The campsite had told us it was quite time after 10pm, however at 10.10 we had lost track of time and was still enjoying many sociable beverages, this brought out there night manager who was very rude, it was an honest mistake as we lost track of time and were about to head to the pub anyway. However the narky manager saw different and decided to call the police. After a lengthy spell of discussions the police advised us to calm down and chill out which pretty much ended our night. We had our revenge on the overly strict camp park though when we returned home and placed an advert on gumtree saying the park had plenty of jobs, meaning the park would be inundated with calls. The next day we laughed about what had happened the night before and what a dickhead the night manager was and made our way up to the Grampians after breakfast. The Grampians offered us some sensational views and up close encounters with Australian wild life and then it was time to head back to the city.

During the past few weeks it's been pretty much everyone's birthday too which hasn't helped on trying to save money. There has been some class nights out, maybe most notably the house party for Emma and Lynsey's birthday followed by Trak. There has been that many other nights out they have kinda all blurred into one. This is what you get for writing for six weeks you tend to forget things that happen! What is almost impossible to forget though is our ability at the Barkly Pub Quiz which we won twice and come third once in the three times we entered. Each win getting us a nice healthy $100 bar tab. During the quiz they also did bonus rounds, and there was one bonus ound I became invincible at. This was flying paper aeroplanes, my first attempt the first week was sailing out of the door until a woman got in the way and cost me victory despite my protests; however the next two weeks I made amends costing to victory and earning free jugs for my team! Another classic night out and probably my favourite night out is the Mo town and soul night which is on a Thursday nights at Cherry Bar, I highly recommend this night out to anyone in staying in Melbourne!

As well as the formula one, we also attended two more sporting events. We wen o another A-League soccer game in which we witnessed Melbourne Victory play Sydney FC. And then we also went to see some Australian Rules Footy at the Etihad which saw Essendon take on St Kilda. His was probably my least favourite sporting even I have ever seen live, I think his was because I didn't really understand the rules too much and didn't really appreciate the skill involved, however, it was good to say I gave it a go and experienced a live game, even though it wasn't really my cup of tea.

As you may or may not remember I had a list of things to do in Melbourne. Unfortunately no everything was managed to be completed. I failed to go on a tour of the MCG cricket ground, however after visiting this twice to watch he cricket I didn't think his was too necessary, I missed out on Grease the musical as I left it too late and all the tickets had sold out. And perhaps the most disappointing thing I missed out on was the Melbourne Comedy Festival after getting my dates horribly confused. However, I did manage to get to Melbourne Zoo and why this might not be the greatest zoo I have ever visited in Australia it was still a great day out, the highlight being the monkeys, especially the baby monkey who looked particularly drunk and playful.

I suppose on of my favourite things I have done in the last few weeks was the Come Dine With Me competition Jack, Jess, Nat and myself did. Jack started things off with his night where he provided crisps and dips to start, then for his main produced a chicken stuffed with cheese and wrapped in fancy bacon with dauphinoise potatoes and asparagus and ended with bananas and custard. It was a top night and a good start but up next was me and I was very confident. I lined up potato skins with cheese to start with a variety of dips, then for main I had homemade lasagne, homemade wedges and homemade garlic bread, with a side salad. Then for dessert I did my speciality dish a strawberry cheesecake. Then I lined up some after dinner entertainment with a semi made up quiz show bamboozled! I felt sure of the victory. Jess was up next and struggled with time because we had been to the zoo first she was only able to knock out a starter of bruschetta and then a solid main of Mousakka. I also wasn't in the best condition for this night feeling pretty ill. Then last but by now means least was Nat who produced a Prawn and avocado starter, Thai green curry for main and rice pudding surprise for dessert. She then nailed he entertainment with a slideshow of pictures and a speech about the summer. It was clear Nat was my biggest competition. I was torn tactical vote and take the spoils or be honest. We saved all our videos until the end and played them on the big screen. All having a good laugh at how cringe our videos were. The results were in, Jess cam fourth with 25, then Jack with 26. As I thought it was between me and Nat for the top spot, and quite rightly Nat took home the victory with 28 points to my 26.5. Nat produced a near flawless night, she is an awesome cook, and has produced some awesome dishes that our right up there with papa and mama Murphys! Her entertainment pulled at the heart strings and she was crowned come dne with me champion Melbourne 2014!

I suppose I should save a little bit to talk about work. Work was work. I began getting more slack as the weeks went on and I knew I'd be leaving. I'd often sneak friends into the hotel for free, have cheeky naps and all sorts. I trained up my replacements, which was hard work as I discovered I had a lack of patience. But all in all it was a great job for me over my time in Melbourne, they provided me with a quality unit to live in mainly by myself and the work was pretty straight forward.

So to conclude, after just over six months, my time in Melbourne has eventually come to an end. I can honestly say that Melbourne has been up there with some of the best experiences of my travelling experience. Not only have I got to explore Melbourne, take in there delights and to many of the activities they have to offer. I have done so with some fantastic people I met along the way and met the most incredible girl I maybe have ever met. It was difficult, very difficult to say goodbye to these people, but I know the people who matter the most I will definitely see again. I'm like a bad smell people can't shake me! I would almost be willing to live in Melbourne permanently if the weather was good 24/7. But good things always come to an end and it's time to move on now and head up to Brisbane to say another emotional goodbye to my good friend Jack Turner.

So until next time stay safe and take care

Adi

xx