My Australian Life

So I hope this post makes up for the lack of substance of my last few posts. Today I took an adventure into the downtown core of Melbourne and took lots of pictures to share with you all to give you a sense of my life here so far and why I love it so much!

Running through the middle of the downtown core is the Yarra River. Here are some pictures of the city scape.


The building with gold ontop is the Eureka tower the tallest in Melbourne.

Public transit is so amazing in Melbourne. Within a maximum 10 minute walk from my house I can catch a bus, train or tram all which will take me to any part of the city. On Friday night we took the train into the city and today I took the tram.


The main station, which I would compare to Union back home, is Flinders Station. A lot more beautiful then Union though don`t you think...

There are a ton of places to shop within downtown Melbourne (as like Toronto)! There are 2 main department stores: Myers and David Jones.

7 Floors of shopping bliss.

There are a lot of cool little alleyway shopping areas like the one below.

The other shopping sight that I was told I had to check out was the Queen Victoria Market. I got a little confused when trying to find it today, but it was cool to see once I got there. The market has everything from souvenirs to souvlaki. There is a whole section with fresh produce that farmers bring in to sell. I went near closing time today and managed to get a lot of good sell off deals, which reminded me a lot like Nice last year. I managed to get a bag of peaches and a bag of apples all for .50 a piece.

Another reason I went to the city today was to see the giant F1 helmet that was set up in the Melbourne city centre to advertise for the Australian Grand Prix. Within the helmet was some F1 memorabilia and some cool history and facts. I have bought my tickets for the race which will be here in just under a month! I am extremely looking forward to the grand prix season starting.




Today I had my first Starbucks drinks! You know your an addict when this is big news... I also found my 3rd Starbucks in the Melbourne city!

Aside from the city life, the other amazing part of Melbourne (well Australia in general) is the beach! Yesterday we had such a gorgeous day that we hit up the beach! There are so many beaches to choose from in Melbourne, but this week we went to the Sandringham beach.


Well I hope that gives you a taste of my Australian life. I will try and be more diligent about taking pictures and keeping you all in the loop. Check back soon!

City Life

Last night I took my first trip into the downtown core of Melbourne. Just walking a few blocks made me fall in love with the city. I saw 2 starbucks, which are my first since I have been here and remind me a lot of home and all the time I spend with my dear friends there!

The city is very lively and full of lights and spunk. We settled in at a rooftop bar with great views of the city, which was wonderful as a first view.

I saw some shopping areas that I plan on going back to check out. So there will be an update once I do!

Working Update

Well my weekdays are so busy that by the time I get off of work, I don`t have much energy to do any blog updating, so that`s why there has been a delay in posting.

The routine of the weeks has started to become easier. I have started to develop some of my own tricks and they are working! Oscar has become slightly better behaved, but just this slight change has made my life a lot easier! Every few days he has a new phrase that he uses repeatedly. This week it was "I told you so". Everything I would say to him he would follow up with "I told you so".

On Tuesday we went out for a Lebanese dinner with Sara`s entire family. Wednesday we went out for dinner again and I had my first taste of Japanese food.

Other then that the working week has been pretty uneventful.

My Shopping Obsession

So for those of you who know me know I have a shopping obsession. Everywhere I go I can sniff out a mall like a dog can sniff out food. Last year in France I managed to find 3 in a 2 week period. So today I took my first trip out alone and took the bus up to a local mall called Chadstone shopping centre. I thought the malls at home were great, but this mall was just superb!

The only way I can think to describe it is as the size of the Eaton Centre (minus maybe 1 floor), but with the class of Yorkdale. The mall was divided into sections based on the genre of the stores. At one end you had your Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, Tiffanys, Coach, etc. and at the other end you had everything from Target to great Australian shoe & clothing stores. I spent 5 hours there, but if my bank account was a little more plush I probably could have spent 5 more! I didn`t go to overboard on the shopping today as I know I have many more days left to pick up some stuff, but I did manage to find myself a few pairs of shoes...


The mall reminded me a lot of home and made me think about a lot of the similarities Australia has to Canada. Being here just 9 days, I have already fell in love with this wonderful country! And I`m saying that without having even seen much!

The Children

Half way through my first week and I figure it is time for an update. It has been a lot more work then I think I expected, and can now understand why people laughed when I told them I was looking after a 3, 6 and 10 year old. For those of you who don`t understand, I am literally on my feet from 7:30am until 7:30pm. When the kids are behaving it`s a lot of fun, but god help me when they`re not, lol.

Here is a little breakdown of the kids.
Oscar is a boisterous young 3 year old, who is the majority of my duties. When he is well behaved he is a great kid to look after, but once a day at around 2 o`clock (so I have learned) he has a meltdown of some sort and when this happens watch out! There is no reasoning or bribing with him, you basically just have to let him shreak (and oh boy do I mean shreak) and cry until he gets over whatever it is.

A small example from today... it was another gorgeous day in Melbourne and all Oscar seemed to want to do was sit inside and play games on the iPad. So after about an hour of the games I told him that was enough and we had to do something else. After discussing this for 5 minutes there was no giving the iPad up so I took it and here started the meltdown. Running around the house shreaking and crying for a good 10 minutes. When Oscar gets mad he proceeds to destruct things, so today he decided he was going to throw toys at me (a little bit better than the $1000 laptop computer he broke the week before I came). So after this tamtrum and locking himself in his room he comes out with a boy in hand and invites me to come play with the biggest smile on his face. I started to laugh thinking that less than 5 minutes ago he was throwing stuff at me, funny how kids are resilient like that. Then about an hour later after we are done playing he points at the toy he threw and says "I sorry for throwing"; sometimes they do just melt your heart... Oscar.


Charlotte is the girly girly which we all know I would love. She is at school full time so I only have a couple hours with her each day. Today we did crafts, played board games and did a puzzle. She has just started ballet so my dancing skills are coming in handy.... Charlotte.


Max is the 10 year old and is very self sufficient. I don`t get to spend much time with him, as he is always running off to one of his many sporting events. As Oscar likes to say "he pesters me" and I think that just about says it all. He`s the older brother.

It has only taken me three days to learn the tricks of bribery, to learn every BenTen character by name and to learn that kids shows are very entrancing.

So that`s about all for now. There was about an hour of downpour that has just finished, but other then that the weather has been pretty lovely. I think I have gained about 5 pounds in the last week, as I constantly find myself eating the junk that the kids do, because there isn`t time to do much else. I am hoping this weekend I will get a chance to get out and pick up some healthier food for myself so that this doesn`t become a habit and stock up on some candy (what they call 'lollis') for my bribery.

Gone are the days of straight & flattering hair, nice clothing that can stay clean and getting by on 5 hours of sleep. Overall, I am enjoying it so things can only go up from here.

Valentine`s Day

The last 2 years my Valentine`s Days have possessed especially wonderful memories and I just wanted to take a moment to reminisce about them.

Valentine`s Day 2009

Steph & Beck`s wedding in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.




Valentine`s Day 2010

Valentine`s Day 2010 was the start of the Tremblant 2010 roady filled with Club Epoque, Les Failles, Dave dance offs, Tiny Dancer, Scandinavian Spas, Canadian Olympic hosts and all these wonderful people.



Valentine`s Day 2011, began with receiving some flowers from the people who mean the most to me; my family <3. Then I began learning what my days are going to be like for the next several months. Although exhausting it was fun. More details to follow, but I have to hit the hay right now as I have another long day tomorrow!

Au Days 1 & 2

I figured it was time for a more detailed update.

Yesterday was my first day in Australia and the majority was spent in the hospital... Due to my previous medical history I thought I had another blood clot in my leg after the long travel and flight. After 4 hours in the hospital I was relieved to find out I did not and it was just some pooling of fluid in my leg after the flight.

The little girl I was looking after has just started ballet, so yesterday we went to buy her all her ballet gear. Later on in the evening I taught her some of the different positions. Looks like my dance training is coming in handy!

This morning my family had some friends over, so we enjoyed some pancakes for breakfast with Canadian maple syrup! The rest of the day I spent setting up my room and trying to get over jet lag. I even managed to catch the Leafs vs. Canadians game online.

Tonight I played the Canadian Monopoly game that I brought with the kids.

Overall haven`t seen to much of the city, but will def. be getting out more over the next few days.

Photos

There arn`t many photos to share at the moment, but here are a few of my room and the view.


View from large windom:


View from small window in which you can see the tennis courts:

Arrived!

I will keep this brief as I have a lot of unpacking to do!

I have arrived in Melbourne and just woke up from my first sleep. The kids met me at the airport and they are extremely cute! My first impressions of Melbourne is that it has a lot of similarities to Toronto. The house I am staying at is very nice and big. I am still in the process of setting up my room, but I will send pictures shortly!

New Zealand Drama

Still at the New Zealand airport with 2 hours remaining in my layover. The airport has picked up and gotten a lot busier. Had a little nap in one of the pod chairs they have. Went shopping at duty free and had my name called over the loudspeaker. They had to take me back to security due to something suspicous in my checked luggage. For those of you who have ever seen the show Locked Up Abroad, it kind of reminded me of a situation like that. One of the airline attendants walked me through the sketchy back of the airport where you have to swipe in everywhere and then we go into this room with security where they had pulled my luggage aside. Turns out maple syrup resembles lighter fluid and they just needed me to prove that it wasn`t, lol. So a few heart pallpitations for nothing! So a note to everyone travelling, don`t pack maple syrup in your suitcase they may deem it suspicous.

That`s all for now. Off to kill 2 more hours!

New Zealand Stopover

I am currently sitting in the New Zealand airport eating Burger King at 8:30am on Friday New Zealand time. Keeping track of all these different time zones is getting a little tricky, luckily I have my Iphone world clock app to help with that!

Made it through the long haul flight! It wasn`t as bad as many would expect, but it was definitely nice to get off. The plane was absolutely wonderful so that probably helped a lot. I have a couple more hours to kill in New Zealand before boarding my final flight to Melbourne! You can`t really see much of New Zealand from the airport, but this is definitely another place I would like to stop on the second travelling leg of my trip.

Missing you all, but am having a good time (well as good as you can when in transit).

More updates to come once I have reached my final destination!

The Travel

Throughout my travel I wasn`t able to get internet access, so here is the play by play:

Feb/9th/11
7:00 PM (TO Time)
Well, the countdown is over and the journey has begun. Here I am sitting on my first plane ride from Toronto to LA, which will be a duration of just over 5 hours.

The goodbyes and tears are now over and the excitement has begun. It seems a lot more real now, seeing as I will be in Melbourne in just under 24 hours. Everyone keeps asking me if I`m nervous and nervous isn`t really the word. I`m excited and ready to face the unknown that lies ahead, no nerves attached.

Before I get to caught up in the excitement I thought I would recap some of things I am going to miss (and definitely in no particular order):
1) The city of Toronto – some people don`t think it`s all that great, but it`s home. I will miss the familiarity of the city and all the memories that go with that.
2) My family & puppy - enough said
3) My friends – you know who you are
4) Hockey – we should all know how much of a die hard I am, so it`s going to be difficult not to be able to spend my Saturday nights getting ready for the bar watching Hockey Night in Canada. Real Sports Bar ties into this as well. Hopefully I will be able to find a sports bar in Australia that matches up to this one and will play me some hockey!
5) My wardrobe - vein I know, but there was only so much that could fit into 2 suitcases, but there is so many cute clothes left behind in my overstocked closet.

As much as I will miss these things there are a lot of things i`m looking forward to, so stay tuned for the next blog post.

Feb/10th/11
12:09 AM (TO Time)
I am currently just chilling at LAX during my 1 hour layover before heading on the long haul 13 hour trip to New Zealand. Unfortunately you have to pay for internet here so this update will have to wait. I am trying to stay awake in order to better coordinate with Melbourne time. We`ll see how long this lasts. LAX is definitely not as nice as I expected it to be. The lights of the city coming in though was very cool. Maybe a stopover here on my way home? Still have 364 more days to decide that…

Feb/10th/11
1:50 AM (TO Time)
Just took off from LA heading for Auckland, flying Air New Zealand. The plane I am on is only 10 days old and has every feature you could want on a plane! I am currently watching Glee and am looking forward to working my way through the Glee archives. There are also a ton of new release movies that I am looking forward to watching, looks like I won`t be getting much sleep on the plane!

Some other examples of the amenities that this awesome flight has is ordering snacks and drinks from the tv at your seat. Your own ipod hookup to your television. The plane has its own concierge, led color changing lighting and many other cool things! Hopefully this will make the 13 hours fly by.

I also received several jolts of excitement when boarding the plane, due to the number of Australian/ New Zealand accents heard. Sorry Mom & Dad, but I think any man with an accent has me at hello (she says batting her eyelashes...). Only 12 more hours on board, time for me to enjoy Glee and all the snacks I can order!

Feb/10th/11
10:24 AM (TO Time)
My in flight map shows me that we are currently crossing the international date line and only have 3 more hours to go. It actually hasn`t been as bad as I had expected. After settling in to the flight I watched 5 episodes of Glee. Then it was ‘dinner’ time (or 3 am my body clock time). There are so many in flight entertainment options that I only got 2.5 hours of sleep. So much for trying to beat the jetlag! Currently watching some more Glee episodes, after finishing up the movie 127 hours.

To continue my movie review tradition I will now review the movie 127 hours. One word, weird. Based on a true story, it focuses solely on a Aron a climber who gets his arm stuck when climbing. The movie then focuses on his delusions of grandeur and attempts to get out of the situation. A very graphic movie, not for the weak of stomach! I`m going to get back to all you can watch Glee and ordering on demand snacks.

A 59 day journey?

Today was my last day of work... Many of you would think that I would be jumping for joy, but I truly do love where I work and am very sad to leave.

We had a great lunch and I learned some key things not to say in Australia!

I also learned that if you map quest getting from Hamilton to Melbourne they tell you to kayak. So if any of you are interested in a cheap 59 day adventure to come see me make sure to bring your kayak!