Happily Paul had a whole weekend off after
his second week and by the end of the weekend we had a new (second hand) coffee
table and a brand new vacuum cleaner. I
was so pleased with my Red Devil upright vacuum cleaner I almost had to check
myself and look in the mirror to see whether I had turned into someone else.
We returned from Bunnings (the 2 storey
affair in a suburb north of Melbourne which Paul found rather disappointing,
despite the hype) and while Paul unpacked various of his new toys, I set about
assembling mine.
The new rug was looking in need a good
clean with bits of fluff all over it and that was soon rectified with a 10
minute going over with my new Red Devil.
I also wanted to hoover the wooden floors but after 10 minutes sorting
out the rug I was bored and decided I would leave the delight of doing the rest
of the apartment for another day. I had
a feeling the novelty of housework, even with the help of my shiny new Red
Devil, was going to wear off fairly soon.
It rained most of the second weekend so
while we had both considered going out on Saturday night, the awful weather
persuaded us it was a good idea to stay in and just wait until spring.
Paul made some soup from a couple of ham
bones and lots of split peas while I tidied up around him.
As we were returning from our shopping
expedition on Saturday Paul asked me whether Melbourne was starting to feel
like home. I wasn’t really sure how to
answer that. I was born and brought up
in one place, left to live in Hampshire when I was still a teenager, left to
live in London for 10 years, returned to Hampshire and then moved back up to
London to set up home with Paul when we met.
I also had a brief spell in Wales which is something I try to forget but
the conclusion I have come to is that I can make anywhere home so long as it
satisfied certain criteria. I couldn’t
yet be quite sure what criteria were important to me at this stage and whether
I would ever feel like I belonged here.
So in answer to his question I replied that
I was indeed starting to feel that I actually lived in Melbourne and not that I
was simply passing through. I can’t deny
I love the city – it has character and history, and where we live in St Kilda,
2 minutes from the beach, cannot be faulted.
Melbourne has the feeling of a “real” city about it. It is somewhere that has humble beginnings
but that has grown over its relatively short history (relative to Europe that
is) to accommodate its migrants and its industry and, of course, its government.
The impressive modern skyscrapers in the
small central business district make that part of it appear very twenty first
century. As I pass through the city
every day to and from work in Richmond just a couple of kilometres to the west,
I love the way the ever-changing sky reflects against the glass exterior of the
tall buildings, and in the evening as the sun starts to set for the evening,
its rays find and spotlight the older brick buildings and seem to individually
illuminate parts of them contrasting them against the newer state of the art
architecture.
One of my favourite views is that from St
Kilda Pier across the marina to the city skyline which is very beautiful.
My growing feeling of being a part of
Melbourne was all of course helped by the fact that I had applied for, and been
offered, a permanent role at the law firm as a legal assistant at the place
where I was currently temping. I felt a
mixture of elation, relief and excitement when this was confirmed. The money was good so I would be able to pay
my parents back quite quickly and also set out about paying off my debts at
home. We would also be able to start
enjoying living in this beautiful city although, as we both agreed at the
weekend, we would wait until the warmth of spring was upon us.
I should point out that it isn’t that cold
in Melbourne, certainly not compared to a British winter, but you generally don’t
get central heating here so it feels cold.
I suppose the reason for the lack of heating is that you generally won’t
need heating for 9 months of the year whereas back home you can only turn the
heating off for 3 months (if you’re lucky) so economical and effective central
heating is a necessity in the UK. In
Melbourne it would be considered an expensive luxury so we are getting by our
single electrically run oil radiator. It
is expensive but the alternative is too chilly to contemplate.
We have nothing more to report for
now. We just seem to be spending our
time working, thankful we are working, settling into new life in
Australia. Once we have sampled the
delights of a social life we shall report further.
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