Melbourne and Me

As I disembark from what is going to be my last flight for a while I feel funny. I am happy to be here and excited to start this next chapter, who knows maybe Melbourne will be the place I settle down, but I gotta be honest I’ve still got that wanderlust. According to my BEEN app I’ve only seen like 12% of the world which means I’ve got a whole 88% left to see. However, my sadness for my travels being over, quickly gets replaced by excitement as Rachel, who is awesome enough to be picking me up from the airport, shares her location with me so I can find where she has parked. So, having said goodbye to the few remaining fellow travellers I shared the flight with, I find Rachel and we are on our way into the city that is to become my new home. The drive takes us over the Bolte Bridge spanning the Yarra river from which you get an amazing view of the city and I am thinking, okay I can call this place home – I do like a city. It is also great to have a catch up with Rachel. We both feel like it has been a lifetime since we have seen each other back in India. It is a great first day, with Rachel showing me around town and their flat in South Melbourne where I get to meet Hank their little doggie, who is a lovely, happy gentleman.

The only real breaks to this routine over the month come usually in the form of seeing some friends from my east coast tour or a flat viewing. My favourite break comes in the form of an outing that Rachel and Will plan which involves a meal at GYG (Guzman y Gomez Mexican Kitchen) and then an event premiering a collection of short videos all based around marine life and or conservation. It is really awesome and interesting to me, not surprising really considering my new found passion for marine life though. I also spend an enjoyable day out with Rachel and Will watching St Kilda FC play at the Melbourne Cricket ground in Yarra Park. Within a couple of weeks I find myself signed up to an agency working as a street cleaner. I am not picking up rubbish mind you, I spend my days walking in front of one of those big street cleaner trucks, with the rotating brushes in front of it, with a rake loosening up piles of leaves. My colleague behind me, with a blower on his back, blows the leaves into the path of the truck to pick them up. It isn’t the most exciting of jobs but it fills my requirements – I spend my days outside, being fairly active. Whilst working this job I average around 25 to 30 thousand steps a day.

The next month is one of routine which I quite enjoy, as I get myself into the habit of swimming, gym, flat and job hunting. My mornings consist of a slow wake up that leads me to the pool or gym. After my exercise I shower, plonk myself down on the sofa, usually accompanied by Hank my cute furry compatriot during this job search. I start the day applying for jobs. At this time I want to break into construction if I can, mainly driven by my desire to work outside in an active job. Even though I am excited to start a new type of job here, I think that anyone who has been on a job hunt in recent years knows that after a few hours of applications, you start to loose your mind a bit. So as per my routine, when the crazy feels like it is starting to settle in, I stop and make myself a little lunch. Having eaten something, my brain chemistry starts to rebalance to normal, or as normal as mine has ever been, and I get onto the flat hunt. I find this a lot more fun than job hunting because I have that part of me, that I think many of us do, that is incredibly nosey and loves to just see what is out there property wise. My days end usually sharing a meal with either Will (when Rachel is working nights) or both of them, which is really nice.

City view of Melbourne crossing the Bolte Bridge

My new Melbourne home on Londsdale Street

I have also found some luck on the flat search. Having decided I would quite like a 2 bedroom flat so as to only have to share with two others max and a desire to be in a building with amenities such as a gym and pool, I finally find a place in the Central Business District (CBD) basically bang in the middle of central Melbourne. However, there is one little hick up, I feel I am overstaying the amazing hospitality that Rachel and Will have been showing me and the flat I have found isn’t available for another two whole weeks. Later that day when I break the news to Will and Rachel with an offer to move into a Airbnb in the meantime they, in their amazing nature, tell me not to be silly and I am welcome to stay with them until the flat is free. In exchange I obviously cook a few of the dinners going forward – food is, after, all my favourite love language!

Settling in with my new room mate, Hank

Cooking a meal for Rachel and Will

My new found passion

Watching St Kilda FC play at Melbourne Cricket Ground

Meeting up with old East Coast Tour friends for St Patrick's Day celebrations

Soon enough the time comes and I move into my new place. It is a nice, pretty simple flat, one that has clearly been built to spec and filled with furniture for renters. But it is more than enough for me, especially considering the building complex has two gyms, two pools, a sauna, a movie theatre and more. My first night is a bit of a mess as I move in after work and once in realise I have no bedding and there are less and less shops selling this stuff as the minutes tick by. After a quick rush across the city I manage to stock up on most of what I need and head back to the flat shattered.

After a while I am settled into what can only really be described as a pretty standard life. I make use of the gym, pool and sauna regularly whilst working full time. As much as I feel the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle I still regularly find myself way too tired to even consider socialising. I do manage to drag myself out now and then for drinks with some of the work lads on a Friday. All in all I am pretty happy to be settling into a nice normal rhythm in a country that, even when I am in the cold part, Melbourne, the temperature rarely dips below 15 degrees.