Monday
It was cold outside, so we decided to have a day of series & laziness. The oven broke, apparently been on its way out for some time - there was only 1 setting we could put it on for our Sunday roast. Our housemate had given it a bit of a scrub, irritated that it got smokey every time someone used it, due to fat and grease spatters. It stopped working after he'd cleaned it, so he will be forever teased for breaking the oven, because he cleaned it.
 
Tuesday
Edd had an interview at 11am with another recruitment agent; he liked this guy on the phone, so was positive about the meeting. I went with him and minced around the shops and streets, eventually settling in a food hall with a prawn sushi hand roll and my book (on the iPad).

Edd called me after 12pm and we met back up at Flinders station, walking over to Southbank for a wander round. We found a cute little pub type vibe on the river and had a glass of wine, while we soaked up the sunshine. (The weather in Melbourne is exactly like my hometown in SA, Port Elizabeth is renowned for 4 seasons in one day, as well as having a cold and rainy day one day and then gorgeous sunshine the next). The wind was a bit chilly, but as long as you sat directly under the heaters and faced the sunshine, when it reappeared from behind a cloud - you were cooking on gas.

 Wednesday
We both had ants in our pants and didn't want to sit at home all day again, so went for a drive down the coast to Moorabbin, Black Rock and Chelsea, to check the houses out and see what the areas were like. Wanting to buy a house when we get our working visas, we were doing some leg work figuring out where we wanted to potentially live.

We shared a fish and chips, as the portions were more than I'd eat in 2 days and ended the day with a glass of wine in bed, watching series (we got 6 months free Netflix with our sim cards. As much as I'd changed our service providers name to Floptus, we at least had this added benefit). 

 We have discovered the go-to answer for anything in Aus was 5-10 or 5-15 working days. For anything. We were still waiting for bank cards, but were only on day 7 of the 5-15 working days.

Thursday
It was another day of series and laziness. My data sim finally arrived, we'd received an email saying that it had been delivered, but 2 minutes later a text message saying it couldn't be delivered. It is now in my iPad and working perfectly, so we're not sure what they're on about, but after being on the phone to them for over an hour twice, into the store 3 times and having had an online chat with them: where the woman shamelessly flirted with Edd and had her lifetime expectancy dramatically decrease, we were not interested in figuring out what their issue was. We'd waited 3 separate amounts of 5-10 working days as they kept getting our order wrong.

*Side note: great joke, Edd cracked me up: He had noticed an ambulance with its lights on as we were driving home, so pulled over as soon as it was safe to; the other cars in front of us stayed stationary at the traffic light, ignorning the ambulance. They all abided by the 60km/h speed limit, not moving out of the way, even though the ambulance now had it's sirens on as well; said ambulance also abided by the 60km/h speed limit. Edd and I were not inspired with the greatest confidnce that the ambulance would get the injured parties to the hospital in time to be saved. Edd's running commentary: 'they'll probably get to the hospital in 5-10 working days.' 

Friday
We were antsy again, so went back down the south coast to Mount Eliza area, ending up in Sorento. We looked around the high street there and went into little art galleries that dotted the area; we kept being asked if we were there for the day, weekend or on holiday. We realised that the locals were used to people popping in and out and it was probably a seaside getaway from Melbourne. Edd and I had also decided that Australians had a different idea when it came to distances travelled to get anywhere; for them, driving an hour to get to work was far to much. Driving an hour down the coast to a seaside town for a holiday for us, wasn't far enough.

*sidenote - I've come to the conclusion that you can judge a country by the state of its randomly placed public toilets. We both needed to use the loo when we were at the sea and skeptically went into the public ablutions that were nearby. I was half expecting to need a shield to protect my self from germs catapulting themselves onto me, from the walls and ceiling. I had my trusty pack of pocket tissues ready and was half expecting to walk into a squat and wash (far too long in Asia). We were both incredibly surprised to find that the toilets were clean, the floor around them was clean and there was in fact, toilet paper (hallelujah). Never in all my life have I ever walked into a public toilet block like it; there wasn't even any graffiti.

We received our Australian drivers licences in the post, having waited 5 of the 5-10 working days for them. I much prefer this one to my UK license: you're not allowed to smile in the UK picture and my face looks lopsided if I don't smile. Australia allows to to show off pearly whites, so I indulged; the license looks like me, instead of some miserable, melting version of me.

We are still waiting for our container to clear customs and quarantine, officially having already waited 10 of the 5-15 working days. I am hoping to start supply teaching next week, but have limited clothes - lets hope I don't go to the same school more than twice! I applied for a fabulous job that closed on Wednesday, was told by Aussie friends to expect to hear back anything between 1 day and 4 weeks; gone are the days of London where everything happens yesterday. This is why we are here though, it is just a matter of switching gears to slow down - 4 months in the madness that is Asia definitely hasn't helped the situation. There, if you don't just cross the road, cars and motorbikes coming from all directions all the time, you will never go anywhere; here, if you cross and it's not the green man flashing, you could get wholloped with a $240 jaywalking fine (yes, that's an actual thing here).

The day ended with a BBQ in the garden, with our housemates friends. It was freezing cold and we battled to sit close enough to the fire to stay warm, but at the same time, far away enough to not catch a light. It was a difficult tango, one that was given up on by all parties when food was ready and the football on. Edd and I went to bed early, he had another IELTS test early the next morning and wanted to get a good night sleep in preparation for it.

 Saturday
We were informed by the Australian government division that assess our visa application, that we were 5 points short on our visa. Although Edd has been in the construction industry for 7.5 years, they do not count any experience pre qualification; they have also instituted a new policy this year that states the first year post qualification doesn't count either, thus reducing his 7.5 years (paid) experience to a mere 2.5. We need 3 years to get the points, .5 years or just 6 months of experience stands between us and a full working visa. The options: get a job for another 6 months (in Aus) and submit that, or resit another IELTS test and score straight 8's (90%). The last time he did the test, he scored 8's for everything except writing, where he got a 7.5; we seem to be cursed by .5 of everything. He sat the blasted test for the 3rd time and said he felt like he'd done the best he's ever done; cautiously optimistic, he remains silent until the results come out in 2 weeks (10 working days).

On a positive note, we've been told our application has been approved, pending .5 years experience or straight 8's on an IELTS test (because at the end of the day, disqualifying something that exists, to replace it with a random test with an insane score, makes perfectly logical sense). I have come to the conclusion that no matter which government you refer to, or which country they run, no decisions ever arise from a place of logic.

We went to St Kilda and had dinner at a Korean place with the Melbourne couple we'd met in Bangkok on our 3rd night. The food was surprisingly delicious, even though I remained skeptical about whether my chicken was actually cat. We'd taken the metro there (well it was a train, then a tram, then a walk) and caught the second last one back at 12am. We'd had a fantastic night catching up and were looking forward to seeing them again.

Sunday
We went to a Bridal fair, which was quite a drive away, but we wanted to go and check the area out, making a pit stop at a racecourse for the bridal fair.

Edd spent most of his time bored, politely letting exhibitors know that unless they could ship their flowers to South Africa, we weren't going to be using their services. We walked out an hour later with a bag full of brochures and a couple of heart shaped chocolates; I'd only gone in wanting dress and invitation printing information and walked out with ideas for things I hadn't even thought of.

I then downloaded an app called Urban Spoon (name changed to Zomato), which tells you all about restaurants in certain areas, what they're like, how much you can expect to pay and a rating from other customers. Edd had decided he felt like a burger, so I found a place called Fat Bobs, which I typed into his Tom Tom.

It turned out to be an American burger bar, with the advertising and decor to match; we were quite surprised to have found such a gem, as it was situated in an industrial estate and looked like warehouse from the outside. We had delicious burgers (I took half of mine to-go) and then went home; it had been pouring with rain all day and we both just felt like climbing into bed and watching series. School was going back the next day and there was a possibility that I could get called to work; I therefore needed a bit of a child and my beauty sleep.