Presents, jobs, and Jantz

Mothers Day.
Send mum the Marie Antoinette DVD and a card. Possibly another movie.

Dads' birthday.
Buy him some of the balsa wood bird broaches from Harem Fashion on Brunswick Street.

Mums' birthday.
I'm sure I'll find some lovely things on Brunswick Street.

James' birthday.
I saw this cute magnifine necklace in an op shop on Brunswick Street so I might get that for my brother. Something random for someone random :D He's turning 26 this year. I can't believe it! It seems oldish but then again he has a wife and daughter and that makes his seem young, which he is. I'm only 24 so for me to be 26 seems much older, which it is. Hmm.

I need to start using my to-do list pad that I bought. I really need to write Andi a letter, get my Working With Children certificate sorted [all I need to do is go and get the photo taken but I keep forgetting or putting it off], and get some of these presents sorted, James' especially as his birthday is on the 22nd and I'll need to send it in advanced. I need to get his new house address so I can send it there. Maybe I'll ask mum and dad so it can be a surprise.

Last night I saw Sucker Punch at the movies and it was fantastic! I want to get more out of life because of it and do everything I want to do in life, all the classed [dance, self-defence/combat/weapon fighting, photography, archaeology!!], the travelling, family, kids, living in the UK and NZ. So much to do.

On another note, I wrote this in a Twitter post not too long ago --

Had another YHF dream last night. I don't hate him, it's just I'd rather not think of him. We were together for 4+ years so I suppose it's expected. I did love him after all. It's not easy to remove a part of yourself and I'm not sure why you would want to. It was important but it didn't work out. He's still a nice guy underneath it all. I think we can be friends again. In a way we still are. Maybe I should text him. Maybe not. It's weird. Now I'm a bit sad. Life so different. I thought I was set. I'm glad I get to do what I really want to in life despite it all and there's plenty of that. More time needs to pass and I need to sort out my life before we revisit our friendship. One day it would be nice to really be friends but I'm not sure it's possible. I'm not good at that sort of thing. I'll always feel uneasy around him. It's just a fact. I've never had a male friend as I was always too shy and it has left me undeveloped in that area. When I'm in a relationship it's completely different and I'm at ease. Maybe we can be like that one day. Fingers crossed.

It's nice being so far away from him and not being able to access his Facebook account through my sister's. I asked her to delete him from hers as I did that a while ago, but I liked being able to see what he was up to. I don't actually like what he's up to, the partying, the sexual content of his posts, the tranny party photos. It's stupid and he should just grow up. He's being such an idiot and I think everyone agrees with me. Whatever. That's why I love using Twitter now for my status updates at least. Barely anyone reads them so it's more like blogging and I can saw what I want when I want and no one will know. Some people read it but it's nice that it's less read and only people who want to read it will. I like that he's not in my life anymore. I like that I'm here in Melbourne. It's better this way.

I'm booked in for the Greenhouse backpackers for Sunday for at least a week. Tomorrow I must call Centrelink and let them know where I'll be moving to and what amount of 'rent' I'll be paying so I can get the rent assistance. I almost forgot so I'll have to set a reminder on my phone. I'm so exited to get my independence back. It's going to be lovely, but also not lovely in a different way. I am too comfortable here at Kirsten's and I've been here too long. Must go shopping on Saturday afternoon for their presents.

That reminds me! I have a job trial at The Mess Hall on Saturday at 10am! I'm psyched. I hope it goes great and I get a job out of it. It'd be a lifesaver. Then I can buy myself a new laptop!! Officeworks have some great priced ones. I just need to look up RAM and CPU stuff so I know what I'm looking for as sometimes they are too small or something. It's like MG and GB. I am useless with those terms. I have no idea how much they mean. Ahh. Although I'm getting better with those I must say.

After working at the Mission today doing more cataloging, us girls went for a drink at Bertha Browns next to the YHA. We shared a bottle of Jantz and I'm still a little tipsy! It's lovely. I like the bubbly happiness. For me it's the best drunk/tipsy there is. I'm such a fan. I hate sickly/spinning drinks like vodka. I like happiness thanks! Daquiri! Yum. So now I'm back at Kirsten's and I might watch another movie. I watched Igor last night. I bought it from JBHifi along with two others. I might watch another tonight. I'm not in a very study mode, although tomorrow I have to go out to Uni and study and return one of the books I borrowed! Must get the Children's check photo taken at a post office. Must also write Andi the letter! Must get James his present too. I hope I remember all of this. I'll refer to this post if I need to.

Richmond!!!

I feel like a bit of an idiot! I was just doing some searching on Gumtree for rooms and found I was looking in the wrong area for Richmond/Hawthorn! So I changed the settings and I have contacted two people about rooms. I really hope I hear back soon.

Tonight was lovely. After a day at the Mission helping Monica put things onto the new shelves we got for our new archive room we went out for drinks with Andrea, maybe the CEO of the Mission or something important like that, and Kate Spinks who I met up with the day after I first arrived here and set me up with Monica and the Mission. I felt like a grown up. I've never really gone out for those kind of drinks with a few girlfriends and now I have! Andi and I did a few times but it's not quite the same. Just different. We went to the bar around the corner from the World Trade Centre where we go to the coffee shop a lot and it's also where Kate works at the Police Museum. Very central to all of us. Then Monica dropped me home. Yay!

I dropped off my first assignment this afternoon. I took the train out to Burwood, which took about 33 minutes, 5 minutes to walk to the tram stop to get to Uni, then 10 minutes on the tram, so it doesn't actually save me much time in the end. It was a much nicer trip out though. I do like trains. If it stopped closer to the Uni it would be perfect but alas it doesn't quite work that well. If I get a room in Richmond I won't need to bother switching from train to tram. I'll already be saving time by living closer. I really hope I get one of the ones I contacted tonight. They seem really great. Although the second one asked for a professional [worker] and I'm not so I might not get a look in. Andrea said she's going to talk to some people at the Mission to see if I can have one of the rooms in the Mans they call it, which is where the live-in Chaplain used to live, but it has now been furnished and students are moving in. It's out of my price range but Andrea might get me a good deal at least for a bit while I'm looking for somewhere else. Then again that might be a waste of time and effort to lug all of my extra things around with me. I'll just have to get a place in Richmond, which is what I wanted all along!!

Tomorrow I might go to Lygon St and to Savers and do some grocery shopping. I also need to get some more homework done, preferably relating to the second and third assignments for the first unit so I can get those underway before starting anything related to the second unit. That's the only thing I hate about the way the course is structured. Never mind. It'll all work out just fine. It's a bit stressful but I'm not actually doing much work. Haha. Doing something might fix that.

Family chats and no room

I just had a lovely chat to my family. Once again they were all at Margate having dinner sadly without me. I'd love to be there right now just for the evening. Once again I wish I could disaparate there and back [Harry Potter] but alas I cannot.

Today I was at the Mission moving all the boxes from the Archive room upstairs to what I believe will be our new room. It's much bigger and we're getting filing cabinets tomorrow so I'll head there between 10 an 11 to help out. After that I'll head to Uni and hand in my first assignment! I can't wait for that. One down, plenty more to go.

I went and saw a room this afternoon, very spur of the moment, but it had been taken just before I got there. It wasn't what I was looking for anyway but the woman drove me back to Kirsten's which was nice. The place had 9 rooms. Enough said. It was like one of those Girl Guide camps, very dormitory. Not my scene. Anyway, tomorrow after I get back from Uni I'll head to Lygon Street and check out the noticeboard I've heard about for room ads. Hopefully there will be a winner for me amongst them. Time will tell.

I'm consumed by house and money issues at the moment so I'm a bit boring. I can't wait to get settled and start unpacking and decorating. I hope I get something by next week. I really hope the one on Monday night is the one. Who knows. I'll apply for a few more places and see what happens. I do also need to go on a job hunt. Arrg.

I have just had a look at more houses. I might see if I can get appointments set up. I need my own room!!

Internetting in bed

So here I am, lying in Kirsten's bed while she's at Tom's, and I'm surfing the internet. Internetting doesn't get much better than this. It's so comfy! I'm glad to be relaxing as I went on a rather long and kinda pointless walk today. I went to check out a house in Coburg but I knew it wasn't going to be worth the effort and it was a much longer journey than I had anticipated. I bought the movie Nine from a convenience store on the way but that wasn't even worth it. Ahh well. I got to see more of Melbourne and I had a glimpse at Savers! One day I'll go back there.

Tomorrow I'll be at the Mission. I'm glad I'll be doing something useful. I am also glad I can use it for the basis of one of my assignments. I really need to get myself sorted Uni wise. I need to get all my research done for the second and third assignments for the first unit. Otherwise I'll stress myself out too much, which I am beginning to do. On Tuesday after class I might stay later and do some research on the Uni computers. It's all so fast there and I won't have to pay. That's the way to do it.

Once again, everything is on hold until I find a room. I hope the one in the Docklands writes back. It's in Siddeley St., which is really close to the Mission. The apartments, I presume, have access to a pool and a gym and stuff like that. Please contact me! It's so close to the city and it'd be awesome. It's just what I want!

Anyway, enough of that. I am consumed by finding a place, by finding a job, and everything else is on hold as I don't want to spend too much money. It's bugging me. I'll find a room by next week. The Monday one sounds good. We'll see.

I had better get some sleep.

Interesting developments

So, things are changing all the time. Yesterday Marie and I went and saw this awesome house but there were so many other people there and it made us depressed. Since then, I've been down and frustrated about the whole house issue. Nothing is coming of our work. To make things more interesting and complicated, Marie has been offered a room by a friend. She's going to look into it more but she might take that and I might find something else on my own. I'll at least look into it. I just like that we're friends, that I am comfortable around her and that I have someone to fall back on. Finding a new room might be tricky because I have high standards when it comes to room mates and the house so I'm getting a bit worried and anxious. So many feelings.

I need to look for jobs. I also need to look for rooms in already established houses but it's going to be hard. Things with Marie aren't exactly happening, just because we haven't found a third person who is 100% committed to us and that because there is just too much competition out there. It might be easier to find a room elsewhere but then again finding the right one will be hard. Kirsten found a few rooms for me on her Uni site so I'll have to ask her to check that out for me again. Ahh this is annoying. I would rather go into a new house with a friend but it might not work out that way. Hmm.

Yesterday I had the volunteering at the Mission. It was so good to be back. I did more scanning and we did a search for a pretty important artefact with no luck. Apparently it was borrowed then returned but it's not around. Hmm. It's a bit suss.

Monika is coming up from Hobart on Sunday to Tuesday! We're going to hang out on Monday night and have dinner and maybe see a movie or something. Very exciting! I can't wait to have a friend here, another one that is. I've seen Amy twice this week so that's been lovely. We went to Bimbo's and I went again this afternoon for lunch. I can't wait to get back 'home' and have something to eat. I'm starving!! Better have a quick look at houses then get out of here.

Elizabeth and drinks on the Rooftop

I had a great night last night. I met up with Elizabeth and she is a beautiful, crazy ball of energy. She's so confident and I love that. We had drinks at the Rooftop bar on Swanston St. and it was amazing up there. We chatted to a family of Americans last night [Fred the dad, and two of his kids Alexis and Michael]. They bought us lots of drinks. Sangria! I'd never had it before and had avoided it because of the red wine factor but it was actually nice! Cold red wine is the best way to have it in my opinion. So we stayed there for ages, talked about Australian vs New Zealand vs USA vs UK stereotypes and ways of saying things. Then one of the girls Elizabeth is staying with came by and then we went to a party in Prahran then to their place not far from there. Elizabeth and I went to a few places along the way before bed. This morning we went and had breakfast a few blocks away then she went to check out some houses. She's really desperate for a place as she's a flight attendant and isn't here much so it's stressing her out after having been looking for the last month. I understand but I'm not that that stage yet. I would love a place because I'm starting to feel I shouldn't be at Kirsten's for too much longer. Arr it's so hard. So I was feeling sick all Thursday and Friday but now I'm feeling better, just a little hung over. I missed the Mission volunteering on Thursday but on Friday me and Monica and Beth went to the Victorian Collections training session for the cataloging system they use and it was lots of fun. Now I'm heading into town to meet Jess and tonight we're going to watch a Roller Derby game! Super exciting. It'll be my first real one. Eep! I might get some McDonalds on the way. Naughty but it's one of those days. Soon I have to get running shoes and start training! Got to get fit and lose my excess weight and fat. Arr it's annoying me. Right, better go actually.

Hope, courage, and bravery.

So, what's new? No house news but I am secretly waiting for Sarah's ex housemate Nicole to get a job here and say she'll live with me. Until then I might wait. I had a bit of an almost breakdown on Wednesday going out to Uni and back for the text book. I had had a little look at some photos I've seen of James, George and Etta and it made me almost cry seeing them. On the tram I was sad. Damn hormones. My Pills ran out and I missed one and the hormones swept in. I've been feeling emotional since then. Drat. I can't remember my train of thought as I started this rant but I know it had a purpose. I wanted to say something else. I hate forgetting that kind of thing.

I have been getting into studying as of yesterday and am quite enjoying it. I have taken a little break now as dad got me thinking about external hard drives and he'll buy one for me there and put all the TV episodes from the Margate computer onto it then send it over. Mum will be getting some money from the Uni books I put up to be sold so they'll take the money out of that. I need to get a new laptop. Monica at the Mission got her mini laptop for $300 at Dick Smith but I might get a mid-sized one. Not too big, not too small. I can't choose between the two sizes. Small is great for lectures, train rides, and holidays, but bigger is better for writing assignments, watching TV shows and altering photographs etc.. You can always get a monitor for the smaller one but I may as well go for the medium sized type. I'm a bit worried about money at the moment so I'll wait until I'm settled in a house and have a job. I want one for under $500 if that's possible, which is should be.

The Mission was good yesterday. I did a lot of scanning until Monica's laptop had a nap as she forgot the power chord. Oops. Then we went on the computer there, had some lunch near the Police Museum, and went home by 3ish. I went to Centrelink after that and got all my business sorted. My address has been changed to here, at Kirsten's, and I have my temporary Health Care Card which gives me comfort on public transport when the ticket inspectors come and ask you for your tickets. Apparently you have to have the Health Care Card to qualify for a concession ticket. I was astonished when Kirsten told me. There are signs on the trams that I didn't see. Ha ha ha. Now I know and now I am safe. They've been on the trams twice, once the looked at the date, which I strategically only showed them, and the second time they didn't bother. Strange but a relief. I do like traveling on trams.

I do miss home a bit but I haven't cried about it. I miss the ease of the life there, knowing where everything is, and having family to be around all the time, but here I love the new adventure, Uni, being in Kirsten's house, and how everything is new and exciting. I love the lifestyle and yet I miss my old one. I almost cried on Wednesday because I was going to look at a bedsit in Richmond, which was already taken despite still being on the internet, and realise that I didn't want to live alone in this city because I would be so isolated. I wouldn't see my friends enough to get me by and would too often be alone. I came to the decision that I must live with someone. I'm not as brave as some people to live alone, even though in many ways I would prefer it, but at this stage I'm a coward. And that's okay. I am building up my bravery. One step at a time. I couldn't imagine living by myself for a year and not having family around to make it okay. In Tasmania it would be more than fine as the whole place is a comfort to me but here it would be too different and hard to deal with. I just hope it all works out with Nicole and that she would want to live with me. Eek. Otherwise I'm sure I'll be able to find someone like me and Nicole to live with. I won't limit myself to Richmond or Hawthorn, even though I'd love to live in either of those suburbs, because it's not too hard to get out to Uni from Kirsten's and it might make finding a place easier. I'll just have to wait and see.

Change doesn't always come easy, Scorpio -- even when it's a good change. You may be enduring some tempestuous circumstances now. There is a sense of upheaval, of confusion. But this is all clearing the way for a change in your life that will be a relief once is arrives and you recognize the difference in yourself and in those around you. Put a smile on your face, and know that whatever happens today and over the next few days will be for the greater good. Evolution is in progress.

Kirsten's birthday

Today is Kirsten's birthday! We had cake for breakfast. I had cereal either side of that so I don't feel so bad. The cake was alright. I don't have anywhere in particular to be today so I'm struggling a bit with what to do. I need to go to Centrelink and I need to call the Deakin bookshop because I'm missing one set of readers, which I didn't realise. I had listed all my units as online so they sent me the books, but I changed them to on campus study. I changed one back when I saw that there were the readers but not the other as the bookshop didn't mention anything about readers. I looked online last night and they don't have the ones I need in stock so I'll call them soon and ask if there are any anywhere. There is an online copy but I prefer having the physical book. So there's that! I will also vacuum this place for Kirsten before the birthday party tonight [combined] and I need to get in contact with George's cousin about having a meet up just for fun. There are some other little things I can't think of.

Yesterday I had my first day of volunteering at the Mission to Seafarers. It's so cruisy there. Monica taught me how to catalogue photographs so I did that for most of the day. The photographs were of the stained-glass windows in the Saint Peter the Mariner's Chapel and I found it hard to describe the and use religious or olden-day terms. I'm not so good at that. She got me to bring my laptop to do some scanning on but I didn't bring the CD drive thinking I wouldn't need it so I didn't actually use it. It was a bit of a waste to lug it around there and back. We finished at around 3pm and I went and met Nicole, Sarah's now ex flatmate from Tassie. We had a drink [hot chocolate for me, iced mocha for her] and a chat. Then I did some shopping and came back here. I did some more study, found lots of useful things on the Deakin website about unit resources and unit guides. Now I just have to find out about that last reader. It's for Monday so that's a bit annoying. Arrg.

Tomorrow I have that trial at Kamel. I'm not looking forward to it only because I'm used to not working anymore and I love it! I want to keep not working and just get Centrelink. I wonder if with all the study I'm sure I'll be doing if I'll have time for a job. I'll have one, hopefully two days of volunteering work, and that leaves three days. I might have to work on a few of them but I'll need one day free for sanity and for studying but I'm sure I'll always have to study. I take a long time to read one chapter so having lots of breaks in between works the best for me. Drat it.

I had a lovely chat to mum, Sarah, James, dad and George last night in that order. It was strange being on the other side as we usually call people who are far away and now that's me. It's strange not being there for the dinner I miss that. I didn't even know about it and that makes me a little sad. Now I get what Sarah meant about being out of the loop. It was so easy living there knowing everything that was going on. Thinking about it makes me a little sad now! And feeling crap about this trial is getting me down more. It would be nice to disapparate there Harry Potter style for lunch or something lovely. If only. I was thinking of going back for Easter but I had a look at flights for the 21st to the 25th or something and it'll be $300! That's not cool. I'll check for cheaper ones. I might have a week off Uni at some stage but I'm not quite sure yet. I might go then. Who knows.

It feels so natural and relaxed being in Melbourne and yet so much, or not so much, is still happening back home. It's strange to be missing out on that. It makes me sad that I'm missing out on seeing Etta grow up more and more. I'll be back to visit eventually and not let her go. Hehe.

I really want to get started on my running training. Once I'm settled in a house I'll have to start my 6-12 week program. Kirsten mentioned the half-marathon. She's going to enter and Sandi, one of her housemates, is also going to enter and yet she hasn't trained much. It's not until October so hopefully Sandi and I will be ready by then. Plenty of time. I really hope I get the Hawthorn house. Please! I doubt it but please!

What else is news? Not much. I can't wait to start Uni on Monday but first I have to get over the hurdle of this darn trial at Kamel. I might really like it and might even get a bit of cash for it which would be awesome. I'll just have to endure it. It won't last forever. It's a shame it's so far away though. I could do Friday and Saturday day shifts there for a while. I want to keep Sundays free. I hate working on Sundays.

I went into the Telstra shop yesterday and upgraded my internet from 500mb to 1g. I can't wait for it to kick in. I didn't even have to pay! I'm so excited about that. All I need now is a new computer with internet that works. Something lighter and smaller maybe. I'm not sure if I should get one of the mini laptops or just a normal sized one. Depends if it's really light or not. I like the idea of taking a small one traveling for the internet and storing photos. One day I might have both.

I will call the Uni bookshop and see what they say about the books.

Mary St and Uni

Yesterday was pretty much exhausting. I had a really good sleep last night though, expect or the fact that my body was a bit sick. It was nice to sleep in although still being up reasonably early, with no pressure to get up at insane times or do be somewhere at a particular time. Today I have plenty to do in the city and Hawthorn/Camberwell but it's nice it's not rushed.

I went and saw the Mary St unit in Hawthorn and I loved it. It has a nicely sized bedroom, enough for a double bed and more space, there is a nice kitchen area at the back of the room you walk into as well as a combined lounge/dining area once you walk in. There is a door on the left but that's to another unit so I think it was glued shut. On the other side there is a storage space, not huge, but it might lead out the back. I was there just as she had locked the door and asked if I was too late but she let me in for a quick look. The only thing I didn't have a look at was the bathroom, which is actually down the hall but for exclusive use of this unit. I was so rushed that I forgot. I had left Uni at 5 and though half an hour would be enough time, and it would have been if I had caught the tram up the long street I had to walk/run up to get to Mary St. I was so puffed and sweaty by the time I got there. The street Mary St runs off, Glenferrie Road maybe, is so great. There is a train station and so many shops and cafes and restaurants and it's just a lovely area. Seeing the other streets from the tram didn't inspire me but the one I saw yesterday did. I want that unit! Super bad. The street it's on is so lovely. Great houses and lots of trees. It's probably the worst house on the street but that's okay with me! There were a few other applicants there when I arrived, although I wasn't there at the start so there could have been more. I don't think my chances are very high but I have to try. Please pick me!

Today I need to go to Harvey Norman and get a $99 1 Terabite external hard drive. I also need to go to a Telstra shop and upgrade my phones internet. I keep going over it because I don't really have regular access to the internet like home. I will also go to Camberwell and visit this other house and a lady called Anne who lives there. I would 100 times rather the Mary St house as it's closer and perfect for me but I may as well see Anne's place just in case. I really want this house. Nicole, Sarah's almost ex-flatmate will be here in the city today too so we'll have some lunch. For now I guess I'll keep surfing the internet then shower and get ready for my outing.

I had a look at all my Uni books yesterday and the pile is huge! There will be so much reading to do. Oh, I got a job trial at Jess's work but it's in the opposite direction. It's for this Saturday at 1130am. I was just thinking how with all my Uni work I might only be able to do 2 days work and 2 days volunteering [I need another museum volunteer position] leaving one day to study non-stop. I can't afford to be travelling all the way across the city just for work when I hopefully live at Mary St and can walk to work. It's more convenient and would be a better use of my time.

Right, better get moving!

Also, I am loving my Deakin zip-up hoody. It's great! In Tasmania, there was only 1 Uni so no need to wear Uni clothing. Here because there are maybe 7 Uni's it's nice to state which one I'm from. Hehe.

Moved to Melbourne update

Success! I have finally gotten onto the internet here in the YHA Melbourne Central back packer's and there is no one else around to spy on what I'm writing. That's the worse. I'm in a small lounge room with two computers and a couch facing the TV and it's not private at all. I wanted to write in here but I hate the fact that people can be watching me doing this, which I am slightly embarrassed about when other people are watching, so I am really glad I'm alone!

So, it's Saturday and I arrived in Melbourne on Thursday. Holly and I were on the same flight, me in the middle and she was up the back, but we caught the Sky Bus together, had chats, then went to the back packers and dropped my bags off. They weren't ready with my room quite yet so I went back that afternoon and checked in properly. The place is great! It's the best one I've been in. The rooms are nice and have personal bed side lamps attached to the walls. The bathrooms are amazing, although there are only 3 showers on the floor, one of which isn't working as it has no tap handle. There is a toiled right next to my room though so it's very convenient. I met a lovely Canadian lass who is leaving today. She's heading back to New Zealand to study until June/July then back to Canada. We were going to hang out today but she had to check out and I suppose she had to give her key back so she might not be able to get back up to our floor. Might not see her. The other two in the room, one of which left last night I think, are weird and annoying. The traffic is pretty loud, which is a bit hard to deal with, so I didn't get much sleep on Thursday night. I caught up last night though. Very pleased about that.

So, Holly and I hung out for a few hours, did some window shopping, had a tea [Holly] and a milkshake [me] then went to where her job interview was. It was next to the ANZ Bank Museum so we had a quick look in there before she went in. After that Amy called me and we met up 15 minutes later at Riverland, a cute place next to / under the bridge next to Federation Square alongside the Yarra River and I met her boyfriend Cal. We had a pint of Bulmers each and had some lovely chats. I'm going to a hula hoop class with Amy sometime! I can't wait for that. Then they both went to work and I went to the back packers to check in. After that I went to my room, then got some dinner at Thai Culinary. I had a lovely Pad See Ew noodle dish, similar to what I have at Cool Thai, but not the same unfortunately. I doubt I'll find something as good as I have at Cool Thai. Sad. I got invited to the Thursday night free pub crawl by one of the roommates and I went for a little bit but I'm not a drinking fan so I left and watched some of a DVD. I met the Canadian roommate and we had some nice chats.

Friday was a sleep in day. I got some breakfast in the city, then went to Big W and got some shampoo as I had forgotten that I deliberately didn't bring my bottle as it was almost empty and that means when I go back to Hobart to visit I won't need to take any with me. After that I came back here and had a nap, then got up for my appointment to see Kate, a friend of George and Katie's who works at the Police Museum. We had a coffee/hot chocolate and a crumble lemon yoyo and talked about Uni and volunteering and houses. She's so nice and said if I ever need help seeing places that she can drive me and not to worry about asking her. There's nothing to go and see though so that's a shame. Then her colleague Monica came down and we had a nice chat. She's also doing the Diploma of Museum Studies via Deakin but is finishing it off this year and she does one day of volunteering at the Police Museum and one day, Thursdays, at Mission to Seafarers. She took me on a tour of the Mission and I'll be doing some volunteering there with her next Thursday! It's such an amazing place. It has a beautiful chapel and is still used for seamen/seafarers to relax and have a drink, play some pool, and use the internet. There are also functions done there [they were setting up for a wedding whilst I was visiting] and is an amazing apartment for a Chaplain to stay in as well as one for the caretaker[s]. I met Cally[?] and I'll be doing some hospitality functions work with her, paid work. I'm not sure how much work and how often but it's a start. She asked off hand if I had my RSA and I said yes and she asked if I'd be interested in work and I said yes and that was that! They said I was sent from Heaven or something like that. The previous volunteer had to leave or something so the timing is perfect. It's such a cute place and I'll get to do similar work to what I did at the Maritime in Hobart. Some of the main museums here get you started out the front, then you work your way out towards the back and the kind of work I'm interested in. Apparently the Mission will be useful for class assignments, Monica told me. I can't wait! That night I went back to Thai Culinary then watched another movie and chatted with the Canadian girl. Not sure we actually introduced ourselves. Haha.

Today I got up fairly early feeling pretty refreshed, although last night the girl who moved out was so annoying. She may have moved into another room but she was doing this at 11pm back and fourth out the door which has a loud slam and she kept her bed side lamp on and it was shining in my face and lighting up the whole room. How rude. She came back an hour or so later and turned it off. She did it again in the morning. Poo poo. Glad she's gone. So this morning I had a nice shower with my new shampoo, which didn't smell as it usually does [contemplated taking it back]. I read some catalogues that the Canadian girl left for us to check out letting visitors know what's on and where it's happening. Then I went to get The Age newspaper to look for jobs and houses but nothing took my fancy. First I need a place, then I will look for a job near by. I don't want to do hospitality but I'd rather go in and see the place before applying, and know how to get there and whatnot. So that's step two. Now I'm here and not sure what to do. I think I'm seeing Jess this afternoon but I'd like to go to some gardens and other museums at some stage. Tomorrow I'll go to the Campberwell markets with Amy and Cal then on Monday it's out to Deakin! I can't wait to get there and check it all out. I might only be going on Monday and Tuesday depending on the activities on the other days. I need to get my ID card and go on a tour, or take myself on a tour. There are some library tours available so that'll be fun. I can't wait!

I actually love being here. I love that there is so much to do, that I'm in a fantastic city, that I have many friends here that want to hang out with me, that there are trams, the weather, and so many other little things. I am surprised at how much I like it. It's nice that I do. Now I just have to find a house! Eek.