Saturday, October 31, 2009

I use PhotoBooth as a mirror when I'm too lazy to go to the bathroom and I'll use it to test out how I'll look in photos.. So here's a select few from this week....

Face for Interviews




Face for chillaxing at home




Face for wandering around the city



Thursday, October 29, 2009

My car arrived in Melbourne last Thursday. Within an hour I had an accident. Some p plater girl drove into the back of me. I now fear whenever I see cars with P plates and they are like EVERYWHERE! I live in constant fear.

Now while I can't say I have driving skillls like The Stig, I'm not a stereotypical awful Asian driver either. I do know how to reverse parallel park, merge and signal correctly in a roundabout. I thought WA drivers were terrible but Victorian drivers take the cake. They tail gate, chop and change lanes without looking and expecting you to stomp on the breaks otherwise they will take out the front of your car. It is a nightmare. I fear driving in peak periods.

I have yet to do a hellish hook turn. I think I will avoid that as long as I can. I don't like driving over tram tracks and it seems like these Victorian drivers do not see lane markers; they seems to like to make a two lane road into one and then back into two when they feel like it. They treat road markings not as guides as they should be but more like grafitti on the street to be followed and looked at their whim. My blood pressure must be ridiculously high when I drive. My road rage comes out much much more often than back in Perth.

Apparently I being bullied by Victorian drivers because of my WA license plates. Call me silly but I think the Victorian license plate is ugly looking and I want to keep my prettier WA plate as long as possible.


I also dislike the fact that pedestrians are king here. Cars must give way to crossing paedestrian who don't seem to have a care in the world and walk across streets without looking. Drivers here don't seem to mind and will patiently wait for them. I've nearly ran over a few people. If these paedestrians roamed Perth streets there would be a lot of carnage for sure.

Something else new is tolls. Its a ridiculous concept. The only positive from the tolls is apparently fewer speed camera hence why everyone seems to be driving a minimum 15km over the speed limit.

A GPS is a must. Its not like Perth where I can easily navigate around by memory. The roads here seems to be always changing. There are road works, detours, new roads, roads changing flow.. its challenging drivers to lose their way.

I don't want to become one of these maniac drivers over here in the east but I must do to survive says a friend. I fear for my life.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I have officially been in Melbourne for a week and 50 minutes (and counting).

What is there to say?

Well I'm homesick, despite the meager possessions I have managed to bring along to make my new home feel like home, my heart is still 3000 km back in its real home, Perth. The excitement of being in Melbourne has definitely been replaced in feeling alone, cold and scared.

Even my body is missing Perth. I've caught a cold but that's normal according to Marcus who said everyone he knew including himself who moved from Perth to Melbourne got sick. He said consider it as part of the ritual of becoming a Melbournian or Melbournese as my friend Grace prefers.

My skin is hating Melbourne too. I haven't had a zit yet but my skin has exploded with a bajillion blackheads, it quite disgusting. I think I may need to buy biore shares or something. I'm masking like crazy in hopes that I don't actually break out looking like some high school pizza faced kid. For the record I was never that pizza faced kid in high school.

There have been times I've burst into tears missing home badly but a thoughtful word here and there from friends in Perth especially Grace have given me resolve to try to make it in Melbourne. My dad has gruffly told me I can always go back home. And no matter how desperately I want to go back home back to where I know more than 5 people and know the streets, the smells, the beautiful weather.. I have to try to give Melbourne a go. I need to try and find that thing that made me fall in love with this city the first time I visited it oh so many years ago.

I told myself I needed change. Well here it is in Melbourne. I really need to give this a real go.