Its been nearly 9 months since I left Perth for Melbourne. I keep thinking I've only been here for 6 or 7 months but damn time is moving fast and soon it be my one year anniversary.

I told myself and everyone that I would stick it out a year and most likely come back.

Though the longer I am here, I am thinking I will stay past the year and it be a couple more years. It just makes sense to stay here a bit longer. There still so much of Melbourne for me to explore and I'm ashamed to say with my laziness and procrastination I haven't done a lot of things I would like to do. For example I have not yet been to the museums and art galleries in the city nor have I visited Melbourne Zoo yet. I need to give myself a kick in the pants and stop being so lazy and thinking I've always got time.

I am 25 now and I can remember myself ten years ago thinking time was moving way too slow and it felt like I was in high school forever. These days it seems like time is moving way too damn fast for my liking and I am scared that I will not live life to the fullest potential. I am no longer a child and my body definitely does not recover like it use to. Its time for action, surely I should of left procrastination and the should-of-could-of-would-of behind.

So its a Friday night in Melbourne.

You think I would be taking advantage of the nightlife that Melbourne has to offer but yet I am at home.

why?

Well since moving out of home, I realise how expensive it is to actually have to pay for everything.

How tired you get when there isn't that magical wonderful person (meaning mother dearest) taking care of things I have taken for granted - clean, ironed clothes, cooked meals, washed dishes, grocery shopping, house cleaning and so much more

Circle of friends in Melbourne is much much smaller than that of Perth.

When I first got here, I got terribly homesick but now I think I could actually live here.

Though there are gripes like ridiculously expensive parking (I did pay $35 for 1.5 hours parking), traffic, everything is far away, seriously shitty ass drivers, tolls, shitty cold weather and terrible roads with lack of markings and warning of changes to road rules. Oh wait also speeding fines are more expensive and so are car rego and insurance.

The great thing about Melbourne there is always something new to explore, something always open and the possibilities in this city are limitless. I also love how its cheaper to get to places. $100 can get me to Sydney and back. Or Tasmania, Adelaide or Brisbane or Gold Coast for less than $200. And its only a couple hours flight. Perth and its isolation from the rest of the world really does suck especially when i really despise plane trips.

I don't know whether I will come back to Perth for good. After being in Melbourne for couple of months and then returning back home for a few days I realised how small and quiet Perth is and I'm not sure if I want that anymore... Yet...

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

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.

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.

You see, we were going to have this wonderful 2 week whirlwind romance. You would come up to me and say hello and from then on it be bliss for 2 perfect whole weeks. And only 2 weeks because we know it's all the time we have for but for two weeks it would of been magical. It would be fill with holding hands, kisses, phone calls until dawn, laughter and everything else that love songs are about. We would of made the world jealous together.

But no, it's not going to happen. We won't be that couple of crazy kids in love. We won't have our final kiss goodbye as we part with beautiful memories of us. Not its not going to happen.

Instead I'll go my way and you, yours.

It could of be some kind of wonderful romance. If only.....

Just like every other girl...

I indulge in a bit of camwhoring...