Day 22, (past tense)

So Chloe had been doing some searching on Gumtree for a place in St Kildas the day before and managed to arrange a few viewing for the next day, this day. The first I wasn't very kean on to begin with. It was a female backpackers hostel, sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities with many, mostly coming and going all iof the time, hence backpackers hostel. Given that we are staying for about a period of 6 months I'd rather be living with the same people for a longer period of time, or just have less people moving in and out constantly. Anyway, we got the tram into St Kildas and totally underestimated the size of the town; because we were walking for an hour even before we got close to the place. On our ramblings to find the hostel, it occurred to us that its location was not what we were really looking for, it was too far from the beach and the centre of the hip and happening town, plus there was no form of entertainment close by. Before we found the place we called and cancelled the viewing, with many apologies. The next viewing wasn't til a few hours so we decided to grab lunch in St Kildas, turning out to be unsuccessful also, since we got on the wrong tram (thought it would take us back to St Kildas centre) and ended up back in the city instead! Great day so far. After an exhausting morning involving walking round lost for ages, getting caught in the rain and getting on the wrong tram, we decided we didn't fancy heading back into St Kildas, so also cancelled our second viewing. We thought we should really do some more research into the actual area before moving there, so gave up for this particular day.. and went to the cinemas! I wanted to see Wall Street but it wasn't on at a convenient time for us so saw The Other Guys. It wasn't your average Will Ferrell film, in so much as, althought he conveyed some of his well known humerous mannerisms, the style of comedy was different.. I liked it, it wasn't predicatable. However, I imagine there will be a few angry Will Ferrell fans out there after seeing it.

Day 23,

The viewings we arranged for today we actually went to yay! A good start. The first guy picked us up in St Kildas and drove us round to see the properties, and we were very grateful for his mini guided tour on the way. The first two places had no appeal for me whatsoever, I was actually getting quite worried that the apartments we were seeing to begin with, were the standard we were to expect elsewhere. The best way I can describe the first two places is like, run down, neglected B&B's. They had been cleaned but felt dreary and inhospitable. A very apprehensive Caroline at this stage, was relieved to see some improvements in the next two places the same guy showed us. They were more homely, had bigger rooms, nicer furniture and generally more light from outdoors. The only negetive encountered for these places was the leaking pipes in the wall of the bathroom making that whole room damp, and thus, ridden with mold euh. And because the leaking pipe was from the floor above, where the other apartment was, that bathroom too was effected, sigh. The first of the last two also had a terrible draft and the other me and Chloe would need to share our room with a steady flow of randomers (depending on how long our potential roomies would stay). We didn't weigh up the pros and cons too soon though, we still had two other places to view with another guy. On first impressions i.e. slightly arrogant tone to his voice ocver the phone and lateness in picking us up when it was chilly, we didn't have high hopes for the apartments this guy was going to show us. However, it just goes to show that you shouldn't rely on first impressions; as his places were cheaper AND nicer! Out of the two we preferred the second. They were more homely, felt and looked cleaner and we just got a better vibe really. The lower cost played a big part in our decision to take an apartment with the second lanlord over the first, although, I feel bad because the first guy seemed really nice and he drove us round for ages showing us everything.. ah well we made no promises. We now have a place in Windsor, not St Kildas but its about a ten min walk from there and its still really close to the city, which was primarily what we were aiming for.

Day 24,

Chloe had a job interview in the morning, so we headed into the city for that and also to meet with Nat, promising to show us some more sights of sunny Melbourne! I was actually supposed to meet with Nat whilst Chloe was at her interview but got delayed at the tourist information centre and as it happens, Chloe didn't take very long so got to Nat before me! Fascinating stuff. We all went for a coffee because it was that time of the morning and discussed what we were going to do for our fun filled day. Nat suggested going to the botanical gardens close to the city centre, a short trams ride away. The gardens were lovely to walk through, with lots of different plants, flowers, trees and features like the volcano which looked pretty dormant to me and more pond-like. We spent a good hour or so happily wandering through the huge park building up a good appetite for lunch. A short tram ride back into the city then hop onto another tram took us to Brunswick Street, another one of those places where you can find lots of cool people. Nat wanted to take us to one of her favourite veggie places for lunch, so we went there. It was really good, i had a yummy stir fry special and Chloe and Nat had burritos', also looked very scrummy. It was one of those veggie restaurant's where its such a good standard in quality that you don't miss lack of meat, not that I eat that much anyway, being a bit of a fish fanatic myself. After lunch we mosied for a while and browsed the factory outlet shops, packed full of stuff. My exciting buy was a long-sleeved t-shirt to keep me warm at night; yes its still chilly in Melbourne. In the evening Nat popped round for some dinner/tea and because we were all pretty full from lunch I made a big starter comprised of toasted turkish bread with some feta, sundried tomatoes, basil and a few other things i found in jars in the fridge, in a failed attempt to re-create something I'd eaten in a cafe. Chloe made some lemony muffins that were still a bit warm when we ate them - yay best way to eat a muffin!