Friday 24 October 2008

Time in Melbourne

We have been in Melbourne for nearly 4 months now and what a complete lifestyle change it has been compared to the previous 6 months of our travels. It's been quite an adjustment but the adventures have continued nevertheless. We are currently living at Bi's parents house. It's like Grand Central Station with 6 of us living there but it has been nice to spend real quality time with everyone. Thankfully it's a big house!

When we arrived into Australia we had almost depleted our career break bank accounts after 6 months of not working (mainly thanks to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands but it was well worth it!!) so after a few weeks of relaxing we bought ourselves some interview clothes and started on our quest to find some temporary/contract work. It was a bit depressing having to go out and find work but thankfully we both found work very quickly and it is putting well needed money back into our pockets once again! Bi has a contract audit role in the city while Ash has a complete change of lifestyle and has taken a job at the local garden centre doing all sorts of jobs including help look after the resident Gallahs. He is loving the great outdoors and Bi is very very jealous especially since the nursery has a teahouse attached to it. Bi would love nothing more than to run a little teahouse!

Our time so far has been all go go go! We have been spending lots of time with family and friends, doing some sight seeing and the biggest thing of all..... we have decided make 2008 an even more special and memorable year by getting married at Christmas here in Australia. It is so typically us to fly by the seat of our pants and do something like this off the cuff so it fits perfectly! We never imagined we would set off on a year of adventure and finish it married! Ash's family had already decided they would come out to Melbourne over Christmas so given we will rarely ever have both our families on the same side of the world it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It has also given Bi the chance to plan a wedding on 'home turf' with all her family and closest friends involved and that's not something she could have ever done from the UK. We think it was definitely meant to be!
So far we have spent most of our evenings and weekends sorting out the wedding, visiting Bi’s friends and doing the odd bit of sightseeing and eating out. The lifestyle here is quite a relaxed one…. lots of socialising and eating out and the weather is becoming very nice as we approach summer. A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip out to The Lakehouse, a very nice restaurant in the spa town of Daylesford about 1.5 hours outside of Melbourne. We managed to incur our first speeding ticket. We both stared in disbelief at a letter that stated we were snapped doing 108km in a 100km zone on a motorway. We were fined $140 and 1 demerit point! We could not believe it!