Melbboouurrnneeee

Ah man I have been shite at updating you lot!! To be honest though there hasn't been much to tell you.

I was stopped by customs actually! And they conviscated my bag which was a tad embarrasing as the whole scene was witnessed by 200 ish other people. I found out that Australian border control is REALLY UNFORGIVABLY STRICT!!! I had forgotten I had my trekkin shoes in the bottom of my RAF bag which were full on covered in soil. It's illegal to bring soil from t'other countries into Aus apparently.. or something like that.. so yeah, had to give them the bag to go and clean. Which you know is sort of a bonus because they did give it back to me and it and my shoes were nice and clean so, can't complain really! it was just a ball ache having to wait around 20 minutes for the cleaning to be done when I was shattered and I was starting to get a hangover from too many free gin and tonics. Thank you Emirates - sincerly. That was a class flight.

I arrived at the Coffee Palace (CP) hostel in Melbourne, escorted by an amazing guy from Cyprus who took us on a sort of unofficial midnight tour. He attempted to point out the NAB office by saying it was a giant rubix cube but I just couldn't see it. Later on in the week when I did a tour of the city I immediately saw what he meant and he is correct, the NAB head office in Melbourne is indeed a giant rubix cube!

The folk at the CP were really nice and I met Marielle, Kev, Paul, Lisa and D'Lara - all German and all in the same room. The word Palace in the title though is ever so slightly misleading... there were mice and bed bugs everywhere. Marielle found one in her bag eating her crackers!! So I moved out after 4 nights into a place called the Ritz for Backpackers. Apparently I have secured the best bed in the best room of the hostel which is groovy - our room is sort of unique in that we have a kitchen area, a fridge and a toilet - the others don't and I've seen the others too.. pretty cramped with limited storage where as ours is huuuuuge with tons of storage!!

I today decided I would like some stability so have booked in here till at least the start of January and depending on how things go, will keep with it till end of March when I look to move on to Adelaide. I've met some really good people here like Angie, Ronan, Becca, Claire and Louis but R, B and L have gone to Brisbane and A is leaving in 3 weeks. C moves out this weekend :( Ronan used to wake me up at 2-3am pissed for a hug and to tell me about his day, and then randomly tuck me in at 5am so I will miss him loads lol. And Becca and Louis are sooooo funny!! One day I will have to meet back up with them because they proper rule!!

I sort of have a job. It was confirmed yesterday I had a job doing inbound collections and this morning had a phone call to say everything was sorted and pay rates were confirmed and was just waiting for paperwork and start date. 5 hours later I get another phone call saying that offer to me has actually been withdrawn because they think I can do so much better in their company so they are apparently trying to get HR to sign off on an outbound role for me with more money.. but its not a formal offer and is going to take longer to come through so I am faced with the prospect of waiting for this job to happen and at the end of next week, have nothing.

And it is STUPID expensive to live here. There is no Primark or equivilant for clothes so today I spent $100 on 2 pairs of trousers, 2 vest tops, a bra and a pair of shoes. All were in the sale as well!! However I have found out that Topshop deliver to Australia for free so LOOK OUT TOPSHOP ONLINE!! Rowlands is coming...

Capstone/Acenden crew.. I have sent you a postcard :D And thankfully I bought two of the same card because I wrote the address completely wrong. Talk about repression haha already forgotten where you are!!

Ooooh I went on a Great Ocean Road tour for the day on Tuesday and it was fantastic. The weather was beyond perfect, I met a lovely couple called Roy and Joanna, the tour guide Anthony was HILARIOUS!! and of course married.. aren't they all. The views were amazing and I went in a helicopter!!! it probably wasn't worth the $75 I paid for it because it was only 6 minutes but at least I can say I have been in a helicopter now :D

I've had a realllllly bad hair cut. It was already fudgingly short because the stupid Thai woman cut it so short but it was straggly at the back so I asked this hairdresser here in Melbourne to just tidy it up for me and she has basically made it so short it looks like I've shaved it on grade 2. I look like an ugly Russian shotputter on a bad 70's throw back day because she left my fringe as it was. Such bad times.

They are doing school disco night tomorrow night so I guess I will go to that. I need to get my sleeping pattern back in order ready to start working 9-5 shifts so I'm going to try proper hard to get up at 9am tomorrow and go explore the city a bit more tomorrow. I want to go see the cathedrals.. or I may wake up, look at the weather and go read on the beach. I am reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown at the moment and my heart actually races with fear for the characters!!! Going to go read some now actually... have a super fun day you lot - its 10pm here :D