Well howdy mate, how's it going? Warning this blog might be extremely long.

I'm so Australian these days... well I got the beach bum look going on that's for sure! Today my blog starts off cleverly where I left off... on Austraya Day or Australia Day for those who 'don't speak Aussie'. I had to get up very early on this day which for those who like to date these occasions was 26th Jan; this was because I had a flat viewing in Southbank woohoo. So I got up well early and then headed off for the tram to get me there, I was pretty hopeful this flat was destined to be mine as I didn't think anyone was getting a viewing at this point. So I was early of course as I like to make a good impression and I smiled my teeth off practically the whole time I was in there. Firstly I had to buzz so I could get in the building, it was flat 33 so I figured floor 3 yeah? Nope floor 3 had like 13 or something low, so I trooped up to floor 4 and... Nope, still not right. On to floor 5 and... Nope still can't find it so eventually by the time I got to floor 6 I was shattered but I had at least made it YEY. So Miki opens the door, she a 26 year old from Shanghai and is absolutely lovely. She shows me the HUGE living room area and kitchen, then my bedroom which is huge and has a double bed (brand new too) and a nice sized wardrobe for all my clothes and shoes (I have possibly bought 3 pairs of trainers/pumps and 2 pairs of shoes since leaving the UK... oopsies) I also have an amazing view from my window which show me the sunset every night. The toilet and bathroom are both canny nice so I am a happy girl and telling her how I LOVE this place and I want to move in tomorrow so she says OK and then I have to backtrack as its Austraya day and that means getting as drunk as kangaroo I think so I change it to the bank holiday Monday so yey I have a proper home for the first time in 2 months.

So anyways back to the PARTY, all over the whole of Melbourne on this day is like a million people, some dressed up, some not and there is so much going on everywhere like literally everywhere all over the City it would be impossible to go anywhere and not realise what day it was - it was pretty impressive they really are proud to be Australians which is quite nice I think as I don't think many countries can say that these days?

Anyways from my flat viewing I ring Kieran and tell him to meet me at Southbank on the river as there is some funky town swing band sessions kicking off nearby so I meet him there and off we go, it's in this huge park thing and we are heading to some big outdoor music venue called the Sidney Myer Music Bowl it is truly a brilliant venue its awesome massively!! To get there though we have to trek through all the people in the park where there is also more festivities kicking off, there is a huge selection of vintage cars on show proper cool ones from Grease the movie n Elvis's pink Cadillac is there I have no idea why I didn't take any pics as these were amazingly cool vintage cars for sure. There was also loadsa food stands and stands for kids to do climbing n stuff and people handing out free samples of ginger beer which of course we insisted on queuing up for despite the fact that neither of us likes the stuff, free stuff don't happen often here (although since arrival I have also got postcards, nandos crisps and shopper bags for free but whatever…) so we eventually make it to the swing band at the Sidney bowl thingy bobby and its mint, proper swinging 60s swing on full swing (sorry) and its awesome, they are all full on dressed to the nines and going for it and there is a million couples at the front proper dancing away properly it was totally brill I've never seen anything quite like it at 12lunch time on a Saturday at a FREE event. What an atmosphere. I then managed to sneak a spinach and cheese homemade pancake type thing which was amazing from this lovely Turkish stand it was lush and they made it in front of me I was so happy!! This was a no drink event so no beers here. We watched the band until they finished then we decided to go on to Fed Square to meet Tommo as some live music was happening there for free festival fun continuation so we went there and saw Chance Waters who I have no idea who they were but everyone loved them apparently and the man was a little weed and when he started rapping I almost collapsed it was hilarious haha. Although the audience weren't really laughing with me on that one it was ridiculously so wrong. But actually they were that terrible, I've def seen worse bands than them before!! They got a woman up to sing on a song and she was fab. They were a bit weird anyways I wish they'd had someone proper like One Direction. I bloody love them and so do the Australians - you can even buy their album in the post office (which by the way is so expensive to use I will never be stepping foot in there again in my life so please nobody ever expect a postcard from me unless you put a cheque in my bank for $20 haha… Seriously though) so yeah no 1D but never mind I'm sure I'm going to meet Harry Styles here one day!! So after an hour or so of free music festival live in the square we decided it was time for a beer or two so off we popped to the Asian Beer Café which is opposite my favourite place the library. It has lovely views and $5 dollar beer and wine and $4 pizza so of course I love it there as it has all you can ever need. Lauren turned up after she'd finished work and then some of the other boys turned up and everyone was so excited to be celebrating Australia day - either that or everyone was smashed and happy? Either way good crack all night long until kick out time when we were kicked out without the kicking so off we went back to our homes to bed and even though it was kick out time the trams were still running. I swear this country could teach the UK sooooo much about how to make public transport work it's amazing over here, tram stops everywhere and trains everywhere I think I've seen 2 buses the whole time I've been here. Mental and no matter what time it is there always seems to be one due… which makes me think oh my Buddha it's a miracle… but it's not it's just normal here!!

So the next day I wake up feeling mighty fine amazingly and me n Kieran head in to chapel st which I would say is like chilli road on heat, it's got tons of random shops n takeaways but then it also has really good shops and restaurants, cafes and bars and a club that opens on a Thursday and doesn't shut until Monday morning I think?! Seriously it's open ALL weekend so if you fancy a dance at 11am sat that's the place to be. I aim to go there one night/morning time just to see what the crack is, it's mad as we walked past at 11am on a Sunday and it's up some stairs and the door men were obviously outside on the street in all their bouncer gear sweating their t*** off cos it's so hot here during the day. Crazy days indeed. So in Chapel St I'm on the hunt for cheap as chips bedding of course… dammit the bad thing about having a home is realising you have nowt but a backpack n nothing useful anymore! So I buy some lovely sheets, bed covers and pillows I of course can't afford a duvet as I'm just a poor unemployed backpacker so I figure it can't be as cold as the toon n I can brave it out!! Genius!! The bad thing about having a double bed is that it means I can't buy kids bedding for half the price and they have better designs… Barbie bedcovers anyone? After I'm all sorted we go for some food in an amazing pie shop which I thought could be my new replacement Greggs but it was nowhere near that standard and the woman in the shop had serious bong eye issues which freaked me out and then she was moaning to anyone who'd listen that she had tons of catering jobs etc. to do but no time as she was at work. Shameful! She was a proper mess and it was putting me off my pie! I'm still praying she never made it cost how would she ever put the right filling in the right pie with an eye that faces the wrong way ALL of the time? Mental indeed.

So Monday I get up I can't move in until 2pm so we head to Chapel Street for a bit wander and go down the end that we usually had avoided and find it's like the fancy end with all the post apartments n shops and cafes. So we go to a Greek café for some brunch I get a cheese n ham toastie which was lush - simple things! But all the Greek food looks amazing and I wish I'd got some of that now as they were genuine Greeks! It was a couple who ran the place and they were proper having full on domestics it was hilarious, no one knew where to look as they made no attempt to do it in private haha. I love s*** like that, so easily amused. They were also arguing half in Greek and half in English which made it funnier and more awkward for the customers. SO anyways I move in to my new city pad, Miki is amazed by how little I own even though I come with 1 huge backpack, my normal size backpack, my box of clothes and my bags full of bedding. This is the point I realise I am the world's worst backpacker… I can't even carry everything I own now (and I have of course bought more stuff since this point - all needed though I swear…) ah well I'll worry about this when I move to Brisbane haha. Miki lets me get my stuff all unpacked n sorted out then she takes me out on a tour of the area which is lovely of her. She shows me our cool street nearby full of shops, bars, cafes, even pubs, restaurants and of course COLES woohoo. This is where my food shopping comes from, or it was until I realised Aldi was just down the road a little bit more and in Aldi you can get cheap wine. $2.50 a bottle so 2 bottles for $5 this is like 3.50quid for 2 bottles in England how amazing Is that?! Pretty impressive I think and the fruit n veg is way cheaper so I love aldi even more here than I did in Newcastle now!! So after me and Miki have been on our wander, I go and meet Janine after work for some wine of course!! I come home at around midnight and disaster strikes, I can only get in the first door… it's a two door system, first door opens automatically 2nd door you gotta buzz someone to be let in or you use your key fob! My key fob is busted uh oh. So I try like10 times just to make sure its not just me having one of my blonde days. This happens a lot but it's not that this time. So I try to ring Miki n no answer and then eventually just as I'm about to start trying to buzz she answers her phone n she lets me in! I feel so bad though as she's been working all weekend bless her and she is at work at 8am in the morning and she works very long days. So I feel like terrible roommate on day one oh dear. Anyways I explain my fob wouldn't work so she swaps keys with mine as I will be in and out more than her!

The next day I end up going for some amazing Lebanese food with Janine, Joanne, Zoe and Leslie we end up getting champagne because I'm there… no really. We get some as it's cheaper than actual normal wine as its old wine list stock woohoo. We get some much amazing lush food I was so impressed I want to go back asap it was soo nice and they did falafel which I bloody love! After that Janine and Joanne wanna go to pics but I refuse as I hate the cinema and head home when I bump into Miki stuck in the doors in our building, luckily she had just got there she was just texting me when I arrived!

Anyhoo the next day is a scorcher day so me, J9, Joanne, Zoe n Leslie head off for a nice Beach Day yey! We decide to go to Brighton Beach as its lovely down there, it's around 20 min train ride from the city which is canny good like although def not the closest beach to me! I love beaches. Brighton beach has them lovely beach hut things that our real UK Brighton has so it's pretty place to be! And HOT! We actually go to Middle Brighton which is a lovely town, I wanna go spend the day there looking round at the nice shops n things as its seems quite fancy to be honest. After a lovely day chilling by the beach and sleeping of course - it's too easy to sleep on the beach here. I lie down and I'm gone! I love it. So we chill and then head for some tasty lunch where I get an amazing strawberry tart I love me food me like! That night me n J9 meet Kieran in the old man pub at flinders then we head over to Richmond to meet his crew as its karaoke night at their local gay bar which is next door to where 5 of them live!! So we've been there like 15 mins when Miki is ringing me cos she is stuck outside the flat again - nightmare! So basically I have to leave to let her in bad times so me n J9 head offski. We just make it to the city when she rings n says she is in panic over haha. So me n J9 just head to turf bar so we can drink cheaply and dance all night long!! They do loadsa competitions in there I entered myself in one somehow by jumping up and down until they picked me, there was like 8 0f us on stage and we all get told to put our hands behind our back and we cannot use them at all, so we do that and they go round putting string in our mouths with dummies at the bottom of them. So we have to eat the string as quick as possible to see who gets the dummy in their mouth first and they win. I of course don't wine as I'm grossed out by how many other people have had my string in their mouths… urgh. So I clean my mouth out with a bit more beer for hygiene reasons of course and carry on dancing! Then one of Janine's work mates comes to see us Sarah so we dance on and then I'm totally fooked n can't go on anymore so off I go home via McDonalds of course… Janine the hardcore stays out I feel quite proud as I think I've created an animal woohoo!! In my notes for this I actually wrote 'I go home fooked, J9 stays out. Animal.' True story mate.

So it's Friday I wake up feeling pretty sleepy buts its ok as I have a job interview but not until the afternoon! It's in Richmond and it's for door to door work woohoo, helping to reduce energy bills exciting times indeed. Anyways the base pay is s*** and the commission is s*** but hey it's a job so I'm fairly sure I pass the group interview as I not a shy girl and also the woman running the interviews is a bloody Geordie, not a proper one like her mam was from whitely bay I tell her my family are from the rival side of south shields! It's funny cos her Geordies comes out the minute she hears me it's quite weird how that happens it also makes my accent go proper mental like and I think she Is probably the only one in the room who understands me haha anyways she is a bit of a radgeee and kicks a, few people out mid interview for being rude, noise rude not rude rude! And also a child out for not being old enough to have a job…? Random! Then other people quit half way so in the end there is like 5 of us and we all go round the room doing a stand up pitch for why they should hire us and as I'm sitting right in front of Geordie I see all the people who can speak English get a tick and the one lad who can barely say the word hello in English gets a cross. So anyways I'm pretty sure I'm in there, me n this Danish girl get the train back to the city and we both agree the wages are s***e but any money is better than no money. We are told if we don't get a phone call by close of play tonight then no job as they don't do rejections just happy phone calls. So of course I have my phone attached to me all day and night and no flaming phone call. How very annoying I swear I was in there and so does Danish girl. Hmmm. Anyways its Friday night and its Laurens leaving bash as she is going back home to England and hasn't told anyone about it at home as she's going for the surprise tactics bless her! So where do we go? Asian beer café of course from 5 pm let the beers roll. There is tons of us there mainly I have no idea who anyone is, I meet a fellow soul mate called Sarah she's a scouser and we know hardly anyone so bond over this and also over the fact we are both normal and apparently a lot of people here aren't haha. So everyone gets a bit drunken and of course has a $4 pizza and then we head to some place that has a greenhouse in it? But it's a club I think? I don't know what it was but I know that I had to walk in with Foundsy as if he didn't walk in with me he never would have got in, also a scouser and no one trusts his look here bless him and you know me I look super Australian these days so they let us in not a questionable look or anything haha. So anyway after we've been there we head home as it's all going a bit mental I think with people I don't even know haha.

On the Sunday I get up really early and I Skype my darling sister, she tells me to wash my hair. How nice haha. I then go for a nice walk around the river as it's another lovely day in Melbourne what a shocker… its always buzzing and full of energy round here though it's a happy place to live, I don't think I could ever be bored here there is literally always something happening and there's tons of parks for picnics etc. its lush! So I'm having a lovely walk around the river there's a spot of live music on and also some DJ set is happening outside some of the bars on the opposite side of the water to my flat. I then go to the St Kilda festival which is a week long event with live music and allsorts on its obviously free so I'm there with bells on. So I go with Kieran and as we arrive we get kicked off the tram early as it's the Pride March so it's mental. A lot of glitter and sequins and men in drag. The march isn't huge but it's pretty bit crowds it was well exciting there were so many people in one area it was visually mental as I wasn't expecting it haha. So we eventually get past the pride march go for a walk round to the shops to get us some goon then we head back to the grass park area in front of the beach and get cracking on that, then Tommos comes to meet us but he aint drinking as he has aids tests in the morning… for his residency bid not cos hes suspicious! We then realise Foundsy n crew are all near Lunar Park so off we go to meet them lot and it's a massive park party for us!! We end up sitting there all night watching and listening to a busker play cool British indie songs from god knows when before we all head home. I have another door to door sales job interview tomorrow.

So I go to my door to door interview on route the one from Friday finally rings. I do have the job -I bloody knew it she says I can start tomorrow for unpaid training, great. So when I get to this interview I'm not that arsed any more haha but anyways its way more professional than Fridays and it's for the same energy company doing the same but way better wages, how mental is that and you get a laundered uniform which is canny good lets be fair. The base pay is better and you only have to work 5 days not 6 etc. and commission is really good. It sounds sweet and the people there in the group interview are a lot more switched on to be honest anyways of course I charm them all with my northern banter and 30 mins after leaving the job interview I get the job. Training starts tomorrow unpaid of course - dammit. So I figure I have 2 jobs so I go for the one that pays the best of course. Makes sense yeah? I will explain all in my next entry!! Big loves xxxx