Melbourne life

The lonely lunch break cut short to write a little more about my life in Australia.

After spending an awkward 2 weeks with my sister's friend and her horrible husband from South Africa, I moved into a hostel in Saint Kilda. I moved to the most popular looking hostel in a desperate bid to improve my social life. I spent my nights either watching TV or sitting in the common room hearing people say heart wrenching comments like "I am glad I am leaving, it is so dead right now".

I had a profile on a Melbourne "flat mate finders" and viewed a few places. I liked almost all the places I visited. Unfortunately they didn't like me as they never returned my emails. Oh well.

So I was preparing myself to live in a hostel for the next couple of months which wouldn't have been so bad, except I was dearly missing a Internet connection. Internet is my life, it is my entertainment too.

Out of the blue an Indian guy named Shum offered me a room as he was going back packing via China, Russia and Finland. It was quite expensive, but it had all the mod-cons including Internet. I accepted, though things didn't go so smooth. For example I couldn't pay the bond (via a pre-auth on my CC) as I didn't have enough to pay off a month worth of rent. So he threatened to evict me via email. I resolved that little matter today, but I am living on like 50UKP a week for the next two weeks. Also Internet does not work. I won't go into this painful matter.

The place is central so I just walk for 10 minutes to middle of the Central Business District to my work at Soltec Software. Work is going ok. 5 developers and I are in a small open office on the 2nd floor of a skyscraper overlooking Bourke Street. I see from my desk trams roll by and large autumn leaves falling. Work is OK, except it is a Java shop and I HATE JAVA. My boss commented today that since I have become part of the company we've seen a lot of positive changes. I am responsible for pretty much everything. But it gives me quite a bit of stress as I feel the software needs a lot more testing before it can be deployed in an Airline. It basically SUCKS and it is going to be delivered on the 17th of June.

My lunch time generally involves me milling around with the other rats in the CBD and looking for a place to sit and eat alone. For some strange reason that is the culture here at least at my workplace and I am not impressed. I usually frequent a Japanese place and have a bento. Else a sandwich running upto pay day or perhaps if I feel flashy a restaurant with a Fish of the Day special. At least there they call me Sir and hand me the broadsheets to read.

I wish I could say I am paid well, but FFS. I get taxed more than 30%. Well, I think I am probably the highest earner back packer in Australia.

Social life is pretty dire. Though my new flatmates are the best things about the flat. Sean is a chef. Completely gay and absolutely wonderful. We share meals at night. I am learning a lot of cooking from him and I am eating 5 star every night. Conveniently I live just a block away from the Victoria food market which is really the best market I have ever been to. Sean said I was "lovely" last Friday whilst we were pretty drunk at one of those commercial discos called Heat. It was quite another odd milestone for me. Unfortunately I feel no attraction to men, so I didn't flirt back.

Christine is my other flat mate. She is 21 but acts 18. I initially thought she was a complete imbecile, but I sense some masked intelligence of late. She works at Paris Hilton's GUESS and helped out my pathetic wardrobe with a "going out" shirt and a jersey jumper thing. I am feeling a little under-confidant so the buying new clothes thing was hugely stressful. She works some amazing women, I almost collapsed. Though for some reason I have consider Christin more of a sister than a potential victim.

Tomorrow is my birthday and it was easy to choose who to invite. Too easy, my two flat mates. My forced friends. I plan to buy an overpriced bottle of 1L of Russian Vodka and throw up somewhere in my flat. Probably on the pool table.

Weather is chilly which doesn't help warm moods. My contract is until the end of July, so is my accommodation. By then I would have saved enough money to go to England. My parents should have broadband by mid-july. I want to start work on a distribution I have roughly designed. But it would be lonely work...

Else I am thinking of going to warmer Sydney or perhaps continuing my travels in the Americas. I have decided not to apply for a Phd in Australia as it is too expensive. I might be academically enthused attending a conference, though I need to decide if it is worth it as the participation fees are quite high. I should apply for Australian residence too... hmmm...

Back to work, :)

My contact details until the end of July are here: http://hendry.iki.fi/