Back to Melbourne then! I had toyed with giving Adelaide a go for a few months but decided that I loved Melbourne so much that it had to be my first choice. I had had so much fun there the previous two times I had been there in January and May and now I was on my second year visa it was time to try and ‘settle’ somewhere for a while. Perhaps until Christmas. Of-course this was reliant on getting work in Melbourne and I was hoping the situation had improved since I was last here a few months ago. Certainly the recession was abating and companies seemed to be employing more staff as a result of a bit more confidence in the marketplace and the signs were promising when I got back to Urban Central and found many more people working in the hostel than last time I was here.

The first month was spent looking for work and of-course enjoying being back in City life. After two months of being stuck in Renmark it was great to be able to go clubbing again and meet lots of new people. This was also the time of the Ashes and of-course yours truly being a massive cricket fan was glued to it, much to the consternation of many mainland European backpackers who just cant understand the fascination with the game. I wasn’t the only one watching though and during the two months there were a hardy few of us Englishmen up until the all hours enjoying the action. Obviously it culminated in an inspirational final test where my abiding memory will always be Freddie Flintoff running Ricky Ponting out. Legend. Winning the Ashes whilst being out in Australia was fantastic and can only be bettered if we come over and win it in a year and a half in Australia. It has certainly shut up a few Aussies over here that’s for sure.

After a month of searching for work I finally landed a one month assignment working at a company which supplied linen to a number of big organisations in the Melbourne area including the MCG. I worked in their admin/customer service department and dealt with delivery documents and customer queries. It was a pretty easy job which was nice and was based just north of Melbourne near Richmond. Unfortunately it only lasted for a month with no possibility of an extension as I was only covering holiday leave. So that left me unemployed afterwards and on the hunt for another job. Travelling is great but finding work all the time is definitely a challenge. So far I have worked in HR, stuffed envelopes, worked in a fast food van, picked fruit, processed tomatoes, lifted boxes of oranges, done general labouring for a sports clothing store and worked in the linen business. What next I wonder?

During my time doing the one month assignment I did a number of activities including Neighbours Night, Skiing, AFL & went ‘Gold class’ to the cinema. Neighbours night wasn’t new to me as I have done it before as mentioned in a previous blog. A few friends had decided to go and I thought it would be a good idea to go along again as I had so much fun last time. This time it was a bit more disappointing as a couple of Neighbours characters on the list didn’t show up but we still had a great time and Karl Kennedy and his band, along with Paul Robinson were just as good as last time, although a lot of the jokes were familiar. I got to meet Malcolm Kennedy this time and Dylan Timons was there as well.

One of the things I really wanted to do in Australia was to go skiing. I knew that Australia didn’t have the reputation of the Alps, Canada or New Zealand but it would still be a great experience to have skied Oz. The opportunity arose to go on a day trip to Mount Buller towards the end of the ski season and I jumped at the chance. I hadn’t been skiing for a long time. It was a day tour leaving early in the morning and giving us the chance of 4 or 5 hours skiing at Mount Buller. The conditions turned out to be atrocious with visibility of about 5 feet going down the mountain and hail lashing in my face going up the chairlift. Still I really enjoyed myself despite the conditions and can now say I have skied Australia. Mount Buller itself was a small resort, nothing on the scale of a Kitzbuhel or Zell am See. It was a shame that the weather wasn’t so good as we definitely didn’t see the best of it but still it was well worth it and a great day!

A few of us from the hostel went along to watch an AFL game at the MCG - Western Bulldogs Vs Geelong Cats. The Cats won the quarter final in front of a pretty sizeable crowd and it turned out that Geelong would win the Grand final a few weeks later against St Kilda. AFL has grown on me since I have been here but is no subsitute for proper football. Still it’s fun to watch and there is some good banter especially in Victoria, the home of Aussie Rules football.

Over the last few weeks I have had some really good nights in Melbourne including nights out in Fusion, a nightclub in the Crown casino complex and a great day/night at a Ministry of Sound event in the Docklands which was part of the clubbers guide spring tour. It’s nice to get out of the hostel once in a while as it becomes a bit of a trap with its own bar and cheap alcohol. A large group from the hostel went along to a festival up near Brunswick which was fun and culminated in a great evening coming back to see Man Utd beat City 4-3 in thee evening. Couldn’t let that pass without a mention. Won’t mention the Liverpool game though……..

On the subject of football, I have started playing for Urban Central in a five-a-side competition between twelve different hostels in the Melbourne area. It’s been a lot of fun and hopefully we can make it into the top four and into finals week in December. The fitness is starting to improve anyhow, backpacking is not conducive for living an active and healthy lifestyle so any exercise is good exercise!

That brings me pretty much up-to-date with the goings-on over here at the moment. Work has been difficult to come-by, although I had a job lined up and trained up for, only for it to fall through due to lack of applications for a share scheme. That was a shame. I have now just started work at a Nursing service doing admin which will last for a week or so and hopefully something will happen off the back of that. We’ll see! Summer is coming to Melbourne and it’s an exciting time to be here with lots of events coming up so hopefully I can stick around and enjoy the summer here before heading to Sydney for New Year! I've met some fantastic people here and even though some have gone, others are still here so it would be great to be here for a while longer....