Unorthodox air conditioning

KOALA GLAMOUR SHOT!, originally uploaded by lynnith.

It’s getting warm here in Melbourne.  Today it hit 90, which was a bit high for my weak winter constitution.  Our little backpacker hovel doesn’t have air conditioning, so I’m doing the next best thing and moving to New Zealand tomorrow!

My work contract ended last Friday, and in the past week I’ve wasted no time getting into vacation mode.  I spent the weekend in Sydney, and was surprised to discover that I actually like it up there.  Melbourne & Sydney have a fierce rivalry and usually folks like one or the other, but despite my love for Melbs I think I could really enjoy living in Sydney.  I managed to pack quite a bit into the weekend – everything from a 10k coastal walk to some Prokofiev at the Opera House.  And I even got to ride a ferry!

Back in Melbs, I spent a couple free days doing classy things like watching ethnographic films at ACMI and eating delicious meals.  Then it was off to the Great Ocean Road for 2 days, where I took the above photo.  Also, in what is beginning to be a trend, I took to the skies over the 12 Apostles, in a helicopter this time.  Don’t worry, though – despite all this height-related tourism, I’m not jumping on (off?) the skydiving bandwagon just yet.

It’s kind of funny to be excited to leave a city I really like, but I think New Zealand is going to be great fun.  And it certainly helps that I’m planning to come back here in a couple years.  I’d write about my thoughts on moving around at more length, but I think the heat has completely fried my brain.  Time to pack the carryon, I think, and drink some wine!

The return of the ghost of mice on toast

Henry the cat has taken to sleeping on my bed at night – something I have been heartily encouraging ever since I noticed the mouse scurrying across my room the other night.  Given what we know about mice on toast and my lack of income, this probably isn’t such a bad thing, as it’s always good to have a backup source of protein.  And since I am renting the room from a local slumlord named Ernie, who looks like Ernie of Bert &, I think it’s a pretty standard thing.  But otherwise, I’m really enjoying the place; the housemates are nice, there’s a gas stove, and it’s close to absolutely everything.  Also, I finally have internet at home!  I’m actually splitting a mobile wireless usb thing with one of my housemates, which I wasn’t too keen on at first, but after a week sitting just outside Borders & leeching off their free wifi (too cheap to buy a coffee) I reconsidered.

Despite all that time on stolen internet, I’ve not yet managed to land a job.  Even registering with agencies seems to be insanely difficult here.  It doesn’t help that all the advertising work is in Sydney – which I knew, of course, and still decided to come here.  I’ve only been looking for a few days, however, and am not too worried.  There has to be a typist job with my name on it somewhere in this city!  And I am registered with one agency already so it’s certainly not hopeless.

Apart from looking for a job, I’ve mostly just been exploring the area and volunteering with the film fest.  There’s a bunch of cool graffiti up in Fitzroy, which is the neighborhood next door to me, so a friend and I headed over to have a look on Thursday.  I really like the area – reminds me a bit of Capitol Hill – and the graffiti gave me a great excuse for a facedown:

waspy facedown, originally uploaded by lynnith.

Thursday night I went to pub trivia downtown with some of the work visa folk, which was fairly unremarkable except that it was run by a guy who looked like David Bowie with a euro-mullet and who was much too amused by one team’s name of “Quiz On Your Face” and additionally I came in second place in a beer drinking competition, putting my country to shame.

Pictures, if you’re interested, are on my Flickr of my various wanderings and my moderately slummy homelife.