After getting in last night, I spent some time chatting to my current roommates before crashing out. Atm there is a guy from Edinburgh staying in my room who is working at the Australian Open. He is selling the radios that spectators can use to listen to commentary whilst watching the match. He has managed to watch a fair few games as a result, and even had casusal chats with some of the players.

I settled down and woke up today with a rather large task list to complete. Overnight I received an email to say my Australian debit card had arrived and was ready for collection. In addition, my water supplies were running low and my mother had been hastling me to get some sun cream.

So it was I set out on a quick mission around the Melbourne CBD once again. I really enjoy walking around the city (even though my feet are really paying the price now), as you can just see so much. I make quite an effort to walk up entirely new streets each time I do it, just so that I dont miss anything. Todays venture took me past Southern Cross station (pictured).

After picking up all my supplies I headed back to the hostel and made my first meal of the day - a simple pasta with tomato sauce. It was easy to cook, and due to slightly overfilling the pan very filling. I have since spent the rest of the day doing my first full days work out on the balcony of the hostel overlooking Melbourne city.

I had quite a chuckle today as the entire plumbing system in the hostel broke about half an hour after I finished my morning shower. No toilets, showers or laundry were available for almost all of the day whilst it was being fixed, and you could see the anger (and desperation) in some peoples eyes. I'm very lucky actually, given that I had half considered delaying doing my laundry from yesterday to today, but thankfully I had no issues.

Im really starting to get a feel for talking to random people in hostels. My confidence has already skyrocketed after staying here only one week, and talking to so many random people. Adele and Philip in perticular have been great to chat to. Adele is leaving for Adelaide on friday and I am moving to a new hostel, so we agreed to have a goodbye meal tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is another busy day. Im going to try and do a half day of work, before packing up ready for check out on friday and then heading out for my meal.

Ian.