Howdy again,

Just a quick one to let you know Pat and I have found our first almost-week in Melbourne:

Weather

• A mixture of massively hot and sunny (i.e. over 35 Celcius during the day, too hot to sleep during the night), quite warm and cloudy and anything inbetween those two.
• Pat’s found it a bit of a shell shock given New Zealand’s rather British climate (particuarly in the colder South Island), but certainly enjoys the sun so isn’t complaining (although he’s constantly a bit tired and does keep mentioning a lady called Betty).
• It’s a bit smoggy on some days due to smoke from the raging bush fires elsewhere in Victoria…

People

• A very diverse populus – although mainly Aussie, British, Japanese and Chinese it appears – most of whom seem pretty friendly.
• Pat’s found people to be a bit less easy going than in New Zealand, but I think that’s a Melbourne thing rather than an Australian thing.
• Also, shop assistant folk tend to be a lot more like in the UK – i.e. they really wish they were somewhere else. It’s nice to feel like a bit of home has travelled with you, you know?
• Finally, you can really tell that the locals go to the gym. And eat heathily. And spend time enjoying the sun. And have lots of, er, hot weather clothing. In other words? There are a lot of hotties. :-)

City

• It’s a nice city, not too big but with loads of shops and eateries crammed in, with a fair few awesome looking buildings and museums etc (although Pat’s not actually made it to any of them yet).
• There are lots of well-kept, very pretty parks, which Pat’s made good use of during the particularly hot days – wandering around and reading books whilst admiring the scenery (and its hot weather clothing) (Shhh, you’re making me look like a dirty old man – Pat) Hey, I work with what you give me.
• There are lots of pubs and bars, most of which charge tourist prices, which is a shame but that’s not stopped Pat from going out and getting tipsy two nights this week.

Public Transport

• There are trains and trams to choose from, the latter of which are situated down the middle of all the major roads in the central city grid, and both reach out into the suburbs (such as Richmond to the east, where we’re staying).
• It’s pretty reliable and even better: it’s air conditioned.
• Ticket wise, there’s a zone-system akin to London’s tubes, and you can buy tickets that give you unlimited journeys in your purchased zone(s) for either 2 hours, 1 day, 1 week or 1 month.
• The ticket machines are shite, not accepting credit cards, UK debit cards… and not providing more than $10 change.

Activities

• Well… sadly Pat and Chris haven’t really done a great deal other than look for jobs (Chris), sit on the net (Chris and Pat), blog for 8 hours (Pa-er, me), drink (Chris and Pat), never leave the hostel before 12pm (Chris and Pat) and read a book for every spare moment (Pat)… so to be honest we’re not sure quite what stuff rates above others.
• I’ll get back to you in a few days time, now that a) Pat’s finished his book and b) I’ve finished my blogging…

Christmas and New Year

• After Pat and Chris met up with Matt – he of “smashing face in doing sandboarding in New Zealand” fame – and his girlfriend Katie yesterday and it was suggested Christmas on the beach at St Kilda should be done, that’s what the plan is looking like. Hopefully the weather won’t be raining, as the forecasts seem to be suggesting.
• Christmas Eve is likely to be spent in an Irish Bar that we went to yesterday (which has been converted to the Barmy Army HQ for the Ashes period).
• New Year’s Eve may also be there… but that’s not been decided yet. Neil from Pat’s ex-work is arriving in Melbourne today so he may have some funky plans!

Radio

• Pat’s not listened to much (he’s been listening to MP3s on his iRiver) but found that it’s not massively different to UK Commercial Radio. Just without Dave Kelly jingles.
• I’m sure he’ll have found lots of nerdy things to tell you about soon enough, though…

Rightly, that’ll do for now… my fingers are still bleeding from that last mammoth entry so I’d best stop for all our sakes.

Toodles!

Squage