Monday 13th December 2010 2 weeks till xmas

Today I moved to Alphington near fairfield, a lovely suburban house with a garden and aussie housemates. I love it and theres plenty of places to walk to including a river and a talking statue of a large dog. (Not sure of the reason behind this thing). I've joined the local library and have my first aussie library card woo, i actually am looking forward to taking books out. Found a grocery store with some big and strange veggies and fruit, seriously odd. Only 5 mins down the road is a walk in Liquor store woo, so random. Spent my eve In the city with my housemate and her 13 friends from church. It is a strange day when you get a methodist surrounded by 14 anglicans, i was just a little bit out numbered. I enjoyed it though, but left early as i was so tired, i turned down the opportunity to go to a roof top bar (i was that tired). Tonight im sleeping in a nice cool house with no-one else in my room, it truly is only the small things in life that really matter.

Tuesday 14th December 2010

The best nights sleep in absolutely ages and i woke up to the sound of guess what - nothing well except leona moving around, but that's ok. Spent my day chilling, walked to fairfield and bought a few things, realised some places are expensive to buy stuff. Did my washing, washing machine had bubbles coming out of it. whoops, fixed that little issue and my clothes came out clean. yay the joys of normality. My washing dried in an hour, quicker than a dryer. lol Unpacked a bit more and made my room homely.

Wednesday 15th December 2010

Met up with Clem in the city as itwas too wet to go the outdoor pool we had planned to visit. :( It really should stop raining, it's not right. I booked a bus pass for new zealand and fiji and then laster realised it was going to leave me with very little money oops. Rang home to be bailed out a bit. Decided i'll cancel fji (would have been beautiful) and just to new zealand. Booked neighbours quiz night as a xmas treat to myself and it's the perfect thing to do for xmas surely. Paid my WWOOF membership (organic farming), have got more of an idea of how to use that to see some of either new south wales or queensland. Sarah and I went to k-mark and bought xmas decorations for the house to make it more xmassy.

Thursday 16th December 2010

Met up with Steph and made her lunch sort of, i forgot to check she liked cheese so unfortunately her sandwich was tomato and marg instead. oops. Had a lovely chilled few hours with her and then went to St.Judes Anglican church in Carlton in the eve myself. I had been invited to a cross culture meal and bible study, meal was yum and only $4 and i met lot's of like minded christians (students) from all over the world. I had to leave early, so only heard the talk and didn't get to join the bible study but it was ok. Had my first Oprah experience watching Oprah mania on tv of her tour of Australia. After 2 hours I still could not comprehend why the australians love her.

Friday 17th December 2010 2 months since I left England.

Today I went the city and met up with a friend for lunch at queen vic markets, I had my first aussie fish and chips and it was ok actually. I paid for my new zealand package and worked out money wise i'm ok I need not of panicked my parents too much. hehe The problem is the tax people, they owe me money which I should have had by now. Got a full time job to start in January in public outreach, the people who were mean't to call last thursday. I'm looking forward to this job, it sounds a worthy cause. I just need to sort my flights and accomodation and contacts for nz now. yay. Visited the pharmacy as I've been unwell on and off for a while now with different bugs i'm guessing due to the dirty places i've stayed in, so figured it's time to get professional help. Alls is ok, got some nice sachet stuff to take 4 times a day, nicest remedy i've ever had. Sure i'll be back to normal in a few days. Spent my eve at the hostel with the girls and usual lot drinking goon, I got very very drunk and left early for my bed.

Saturday 18th December 2010

Researched hostels in NZ for my trip, took forever and some are in really middle of nowhere type places. Reseached organic farming a bit and reasons for/against it, was quite interesting. Watched the news about Christmas Island and the recent refugee disaster, not sure if the survivors will end up in dention/deported or able to live safely in Oz. It's pretty sad really and just highlights how they are so badly treated by more fortunate others. Had a lazy day, bought cranberry juice for $5.80 surprisingly this is not a juice that's easy to get hold of in fairfield. Maybe people just don't dig cranberries, other juices were half the price and came in many varieties. Had a lazy eve not really doing much but reading.

tatty bye x

Sunday 19th December 2010

Dot Dot came to stay and forced me to go the city far too early to help with the move. Bought seafood and pasta for tea, massive king prawms so yummy not bad for a reduced price of $2.50 (this is what i've become, someone who buys nearly gone off food). I didn't even do this at university!

Dragged dot dot to (wasn't hard to do) St. Pauls Anglican Church in Fairfield for a xmas carol/Christingle/Communion service. Congregation size - 8 plus 3 if you count the kids someone left on the doorstep half way through. hehe yes this does happen in Australia, free 1 hr entertainment - the mother returned 10mins before the end with her shopping - wise woman.

Firstly I have to describe the fantastic effort they had made in aid of it being xmas, a dead tree shoved in a corner so nobody would notice it's dead with some decorations. A massive christingle and i mean massive and the rest of the church was beautifully decorated with invisable decorations. Now for the service, lol hmm..seriously odd, we sang o come all ye faithful and had a procession around the tiny church. This may sound nice which is what it seemed on paper, in reality when you add in shakers that didn't mix with the hymm it wasn't so great, just weird. The christmas story, wonderfully read from a picture book. Mary and Joseph were refugees...hmm a tad inappropriate way of explaining things given the situation here at present. A few more hymms with only the pastor singing by the last one...badly! The christingle part, nice i liked it. A few more shakers used, still didn't go with the songs. Then Finally Communion, this is a very elite part of the service, i wasn't invited to this. However it seemed rather intense, so i decided watching was proably the best way of experiencing this communion.

All in all a very odd place, not sure how churches survive here with the distinct lack of people and their strange ways. We had food and juice after the service, they had tim tams, i love these. Tim tams are the same as penguin biscuits in the Uk. Tried to enagage in conversation with a lady, but didn't get far, recieved a card telling me when the services were, useful indeed. Not helpful if you don't know the area. She seemed more interested in staring at me, not sure why that would be more fun than talking. I was hoping to find out where everyone goes for christmas! Starting to think there is no church like Altrincham Methodist out here, although the baptist comes close with it's traditional service and decor.

Monday 20th Decemeber 2010

The day i fulfilled my lifelong ambition, the only reason i came to australia, the only reason anyone goes to australia. There is only one night in melbourne that you have to go to and that's NEIGHBOURS NIGHT!! Clem, Rani, Sobia, dot dot and I had the most amazing night ever. It was crazy, I met steph scully, irish connor and sky mangel. Dylan made an appearance and left before he could be stalked and Paul robinson played in his band. (much more wrinkly in real life). Randon trivia, dancing and australias most famous bloke - Safari Pete, tacky competitions and desperate backpackers willing to do anything for freebies. The whole place was full of mainly English people, were a crazy nation. I would happily do this night all over again, which is why I am going to go to it in Sydney next year. hehe If you don't understand this then you have to watch neighbours!

Tuesday 21st December 2010

A more chilled out day, doing very little except washing, watching tv, enjoying the sunshine.

Wednesday 22nd December 2010

Visited fairfield boathouse, i really like the old fashioned idea of this. In the height of summer a day on a boat and a picnic would be rather lovely here. At the moment it is a little bit overflowing with water to the point many of the walkways are no longer visable.

Enjoyed a 4hr walk of getting lost and snake hunting. Didn't see snakes or any animal of particluar interest.

Thursday 23rd December 2010

The day before xmas eve, you can't tell. Went the city to watch Inception at a rooftop cinema, climbed 6 flights of stairs to find out it was fully booked - not impressed. Instead wandered through the city in search of something resembling xmas.

Weather in oz - some parts have snow, others have floods, some have sunshine, some have hailstone and some have cyclones. It's not as hot as it should be, infact some days i'm cold. Not as cold as i would be in England though thank goodness.

Friday 24th December 2010 Xmas eve

Joined santa at the supermarket in buying food, he gave me sweeties. A few people said merry xmas and xmas decs appeared in some places a little late. Didn't go to church as I couldn't cope with more weirdness, instead got rid of dot dot for the night and got out some wine, ironed my clothes, skyped my siblings and watched tv. Yes, i did say ironing..first time for everything. Tonight is the first time i missed home and thought about what i'm missing tomorrow - mums triffle :(

Saturday 25th December 2010 xmas day woo

NO PRESENTS TO OPEN, NO BUCKS FIZZ, NO CHOCOLATE, NO-ONE TO WAKE UP, NO SERVICE TO GO. (Xmas day services start at 9am here - not my kind of hour) feel sorry for me yet? you should do!

Went to clems for a seafood barby/english roast and xmas pud homemade by the aussies. Good company to make the day feel less crap. Bowls in the park in the sunshine. Watched xmas films and got pressies, yay

Evening - by the power of modern technology and the internet i skyped altrincham methodist church (my church in England). Amazing and great to have a brief chat and watch the service. So surreal. Struggled to hear a little at times, but hopefully i didn't embaress myself. Made my day and mums too.

Rang home, good to know everyones ill, makes me feel better knowing their christmas is crap without me. haha

Went the pub and was unable to get drunk. Doh

Sunday 26th December 2010 boxing day

Ate pizza, watched t.v., briefly saw the sales, experienced poor transport and didn't do alot. Awesome

Au revoir

Monday 27th December 2010

A lazy day of doing nothing because it's a public holiday.

Tuesday 28th December 2010

Dot dot went back to the hostel, haha I had another day of aimless walking around fairfield people watching.

Wednesday 29th December 2010

don't know what i did....hmmm...probably not a lot apart from prepare for sydney. woo

au revoir

xx