Melting Melbourne

Wednesday 17th January 2007

I woke up today to temperatures over 30 degrees and it was only 7.30am. The state have banned fans/air con in homes. Its hot, very hot,hotter than in Northern Territory. It’s my last day in Melbourne today, I fly off to Cairns, Queensland tomorrow. I have had such a brilliant time in Melbourne – in particular staying at my friends place for a few weeks, sharing the experiences of normal mountain life – cooking some exquisite dishes; including salads and those naughty but nice deserts, learning from each other about how to cook different types of foods, watching all those DVD’s bought for 50p in Asia and watering the garden only on a Tuesday and Saturday between 8pm and 10pm and for me drinking tea. I have experienced everything in Melbourne – snow, hail, torrential rain, storms, total firebans, temperatures soaring over 40 degrees, drinking Melbourne out of tea and swimming Monbulk out of water. Aussie mummy and daddy (my friends parents) have been so exceptional to me; supplying me with tea, roast dinners and making me feel so welcome over Christmas. I became best friends with their dog ‘Molly’, that if she goes missing they know to find her in my backpack. Perhaps she could carry my backpack for me after all she is a greyhound. Its been a wonderful experience; I can’t thank them all enough for making me feel at home so far away from home. But all good things must come to an end – it’s time to wave goodbye and move on else I wouldn’t get to see the rest of the world, even though I could easily stay here longer. So I leave Monbulk with the following quote:

The Aboriginal name Monbulk translates as ‘hiding place of the ducklings.’

That’s why Fiona’s kitchen has so many ducks in it.

Typhoo Tea Blackouts

Tuesday 16th January 2007</strong

Today has been hot hot hot, hot hot hot hot hot. So hot that bush fires melted major fire cables which caused a blackout across Victoria. We were without power for a good 3 hours in the evening. Reminded me of China! Howver I had my first Typhoo cup of tea in 2 months today, it was so delicious. Because of the powercut I decided to pack my bags as I head off to Queensland in a few days. I found the 2 tea bags (don’t get too drunk) that my parents sent me for New Year so dug into them. It tasted so perfect. It’s the simple things in life…

Swim fan

Sunday 14th January 2007

So much for being a swim fan – I didn’t make it to the pool today, my day of rest – so they say. Instead we played tourist today in Melbourne, (not in the house by switching on my MP3 player and putting on Athlete) then watched the film “swimfan” on the TV.

It’s just another day

Saturday 13th January 2007

t’s just another day, an ordinary Saturday today in the Dandenong Ranges – an ordinary Saturday where it’s 30 degrees, all the shops shut at 12.00 noon, people now recognise me in the local cafes – “that’s an English Breakfast tea, yeah?” they say to me – “of course” (What else with this accent?) and then we go blueberry picking at the local farm. What are you up to on your ordinary Saturday? I like ordinary days in the Dandenong Ranges – its brilliant. I picked 2 1/2KG of blueberries and got 4 freshly picked vine tomatoes for $20 (about £8) bear in mind that 250g of blueberries in the shops is about $6 thats about £2.40, and the tomatoes are about 50p each in the shops or something silly like that. So I think I picked up a bargain or 1 million (blueberries) today. Most enjoyable. I do need to look into moving on soon. I worked hard last week 8 or 9 hours a day for 5 days solid (amongst the pool swims), but my brain is feeling fried with websites, too much greasy websites is not good for you. This sums up my day today:

“And why’d you say, It’s just another day, nothing in my way, I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna stay…”

(nothing in my way – Keane)

IE 7 Hell Hole

Friday 12th January 2007

Today I swam 90 lengths, and almost had the pool to myself for half an hour – not bad for just over £1. Bargain. However I do need to invest in a new swimming costume as mine is wearing a little thin. The website is coming along nicely, we have far too many ideas for our own good. IE 7 is playing up – dammit, why can’t people just use Firefox and have done with it? Sitting in IE7 hell hole is really quite painful, but I managed to climb out of it in order to make myself a cup of tea. It’s not as hot today, around 29 degrees. Still sat here with shorts and sleeveless t shirt on though.

When Smokey builds websites

Wednesday 10th January 2007

Monbulk was still covered in smoke today, so I decided to put my builders gear on, (hard hat, overalls, big steel toe capped boots) and head to the website building site to construct the website for my friends Travel Company. The boss and co were pleased with the progress I was making by midday, I may even get promoted to forgirl if I am lucky and work hard enough over the next week. A brainstorm “business lunch” generated even more ideas. It’s going to be great when everyone can move in. A swim in the local pool mid afternoon was very refreshing in the Monbulk heat, it’s about 35 degrees here. Although its school holidays and the “general swimming” section was full of little ozzy kids having lots of fun, the three “lap lanes” were almost empty. I wasn’t greedy though and only took up 1 lane rather than 3 admist my 80 lengths today. It’s refreshing being able to put my brain power to use by building websites, especially in such a relaxing environment.

When Smokey Swims

Tuesday 9th January 2007

I woke up today to find Monbulk and the rest of Melbourne covered in a blanket of smoke. I nearly thought we were going to be evacuated, but I was informed by the locals that the bush fires are miles and miles away, so I was safe to go for my daily swim at 8am. The swim was much more plesent today due to going earlier, thus I managed 70 lengths – wow! I am not sat on my backside doing nothing you see, I also ran down the hill to the swimming pool (1km) and ran back up the hill from the swimming pool (1km) as well as running through lots of websites.

Working Hard

Monday 8th January 2007

At 9am this morning I was in the pool with 101 kids learning front crawl and 1001 golden oldies doing Aqua aerobics. It felt like there was a gale force wind in the pool, either that or the strongest wave machine I have ever witnessed. It however did not stop me from achieving 64 lenghts. I believe that is about 1 mile. Not bad considering there were 6 of us in the “lap lane”. Remind me to go earlier tomorrow. It’s still a great pool though and a bargain swim at not much more than £1. The staff even refunded one lady as she arrived just as the lap lanes were merging. The Australians have yet to invent a yellow road sign representing “lap lane merging”. Feeling fit I then jogged back to my friends’ office via a trip to the supermarket to get a punnet of their lovely strawberries. Back in the office I have begun my weeks’ work geeking. I am user testing my friends’ travel agency website. I am allowed to slate it as I built it some 2 or so years ago. I am also introducing the concepts of mood boards, paper protoyping and user testing – including developing personas and scenarios. The mood boards are being a bit mardy* I must admit. It makes me realise how much I learned working for the BBC.

* dialect slang in South Yorkshire for the word moody

or (and)

Mardy bum is a song by UK (Sheffield) indie band The Arctic Monkeys, from their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

So if anyone wants a website, now is the time to get your order in as I am spending this week swimming, geeking, drinking tea and eating strawberries. I was also told not to say “I am gonna get off now” (as in going to set off to the swimming pool, supermarket etc) as the word “get” means something completely different in this context. What with thongs, get and monging, there’s definately even a language barrier in Australia!

Meeting up in Melbourne

Sunday 7th January 2007

Bargain!! $2.50 to travel anywhere in Melbourne on a sunday, thats about £1. I met an old friend who I used to work with at the BBC some 3 or so years ago, she showed me around Melbourne city centre which was lovely, admist a very tasty italian meal. Melbourne is very cosmopolitan, we walked through every quarter you can imagine, chinese, italian, french, english, outer mongolian…it has such a lovely feel to it. They even have a “free” tram that circles the city – what a wonderful idea. So to travel one and a half hours by train cost me £1. Now that makes up for the very expensive fruit and vegetables. Transport is also very efficent here. I experienced the Australian “bus replacement service”. Now if you have ever been on a UK “bus replacement service” they’re about as efficient as a rusted bicycle from the 1920s with the chain broken. The Australian bus replacement service is more efficient than “ctrl x, ctrl c and ctrl v”, all the staff go out of their way to help you, and even pull funny faces at the Children which I too found really amusing.

Lunch, tea and even more tea

Saturday 6th January 2007

As a birthday treat for my friends’ mum I took her out for lunch at a nice Greek cafe, a combernation of dips, bread and salad when down very well along with very yummy Moktails. I am looking for some new “thongs” (a.k.a flip flops). I’ve had my friend in stitches when I told her the image I had in my head after being told the story of the man who climbed Uluru in his “thongs” and the “thongs” melted so they had to get the Flying Doctor out to rescue him, which cost over $5000. If you had the same image as what I did in my head then you are either English or American. I say no more. I am therefore looking for flip flops rather than “thongs” as my blue ones (£2 from Primark about 4 years ago) have gone a rather reddy outback colour, interesting! As a non birthday treat for my friends’ dad I helped him enable the “send to” function in Office XP (2002) through updating his programs and a simple tweak to the ini file. He was a happy daddy after that. I know more than I think I know sometimes. Well its the least I can do as they are supplying me with cups of tea, gogeous cake (macademia nuts with apricot conserve today) and even putting my own mum out of business by doing my sewing jobs for me. I even got a big bag of tea bags for free as they’re not keen on the taste. What more can an English girl as for?