Settling In

Flinders Street Railway Station

Hello! So apologies to any of you who've been checking the site regularly for the length of time between blog posts, we've just been caught up in the boring everyday stuff that moving half way around the world entails. We've been in Melbourne almost a month now though and we're starting to feel a bit more settled in so we thought we'd share with you a bit about life in the world's most liveable city (according to the economist anyway).

The most noticeable difference to home is of course the climate. The weather has actually been varied, we've had plenty of cloud and the odd heavy downpour and impressive lightening storm amongst the sunshine but it's definitely hotter than England! Weather is prone to fluctuation on a daily basis so we don't feel too far from home even if hayfever in November was a new phenomenon for Mat. Average temperatures range from the high teens to low thirties meaning that during sunny spells (like the last week) it's common to be wearing jeans in the morning but avoiding going outside by midday!

The city itself is indeed very liveable, it's busy, but in a friendlier and less frantic way than the likes of London. It's clean, the streets are lined with trees and the tram system adds a fun element to the public transport system. The demographic is extremely multicultural, walking down the street you see just as many Asian faces as white ones and there are  substantial Greek and Italian districts too offering a vast array of nice looking places to eat out. Many of the side streets of the city centre also brim with fun little coffee shops and cafés which we're hoping to check out once our funds allow.

A café filled side street

Coffee is a very big thing in Melbourne and standards are very high for prospective baristas which has made job hunting in the café sector much more challenging than in the UK! As far as jobs go; after an unsuccessful trial at a local café to which I never got called back, I managed to get a job working in a new store in the central shopping complex. It sells quirky, novelty gifts and is quite cool but unfortunately isn't providing enough hours so I'll be looking for something to supplement/ replace it after the Christmas rush is over. Mat's still looking, after initially trying to avoid too long a commute or late finishes anything is now under consideration (though with an official barista course on how to prepare fancy coffees now under his belt hopefully his chances are improved)!

Melbourne central shopping centre,
built around an old (gun) shot factory

Life here seems much more expensive than it is at home as the average wage is much higher so our savings won't stretch quite as far as we'd first hoped and we're on a tight budget at the moment. That's nothing that 50 hours or so a week between us won't fix but it's limiting what we can buy and do at the moment so we're holding out hope of better times to come!

Still, we've found a nice place to live in a house-share about 10 minutes walk from the central business district which is far nicer (and a bit cheaper) than being in a hostel but I believe Mat's going to post on that in a bit more detail soon so I won't go giving it all away now!

Okay, enough chat for now!

Keep us up to date with how things are there,

Leah x