The non-teaching period
The holidays (if you can call them that) couldn’t have come at a better time. It felt really good to drive away from college at 130km/h, whilst singing “Prince Ali fabulous he ali ababwa…” at the top of my voice. I imagined all my frustrations being left behind in the endless desolate undulating hills along the way, just try and keep up with me now I was thinking. Ideally I would have loved to have been the only car on a winding road with the crystal blue sea crashing to the left and a lush rainforest to my right, but the Hume Highway was just as nice. Truly it was great just to get on the road and drive, drive away from everything. For eight hours the only worries I had were: my… that truck is awfully slow, is that a speed camera behind that bush up ahead, where is that darn petrol station… I really need to go to the bathroom. After about seven hours driving I caught a glimpse of the Melbourne city skyline and oh it was so beautiful. I was home again.

I honestly don’t think I will find a city I love as much as Melbourne. It is a city that you can probably get to know within a day, but to truly understand all its mysteries and secrets would take a lifetime. I love its winding hidden alleys, the little shops with crazy owners, the sandstone buildings, the bustling trams, the plethora of culinary delights, the dirty brown Yarra and the crazy weather. Enough rambling, in short it felt darn good to be back in Melbourne, back home.

Despite being exhausted from the drive, that night I decided to get back on the road and head to Kew to attend a college friend’s 21st birthday party. I walked in the room whilst the speeches were on and slinked into the crowd. I looked around at the room and was quite shocked to see several people from college. I should have expected it, but it still felt strange, like my two worlds were combining. It was surreal to see the people I see everyday in Canberra, in Melbourne, it just didn’t feel right. Nevertheless it was still really good seeing them and we all had quite a bit of fun dancing. Afterwards I had to drive a bunch of drunken people to the city, but their amusing drunken ramblings made it well worth the effort. The girl sitting in the front kept rambling about eggs Benedict and at one point tried to turn my indicator on. She leant over pushed the lever on the left hand side of the steering wheel and of course the windscreen wipers came on, to which she cried “Whooooaaaahhh.” I stared at her blankly as she flung herself back in her seat in shock. “Wow everything is so different in Melbourne,” she declared. Her boyfriend (who was possibly slightly less drunk) piped up from the back, “It is European style cars who have their blinkers on the left of the steering wheel, it is not just a Sydney thing.” To which she replied “Ohhh… I really feel like some eggs Benedict. Mmmm hollandaise sauce.”

We got to the city to find that the bar we had planned to meet at had a restricted entry policy that night, so the drunkards piled back in my car and we headed to Crown. Not much happened there really; we just waited around for everyone to reunite again. I was about to fall asleep so I excused myself and went back home and had a solid sleep. I woke up and made myself some eggs Benedict and spent a lazy lazy day.

Unfortunately my holiday turned out to be anything but. I had to frantically finish off all the graduate applications, which I finally did on Wednesday night. Once I had them finished it was time to do the many assignments that would be due in the first week back.

During Wednesday I caught up with an old uni friend, Jessie. It was really nice seeing her again and we had lunch at a little café down one of Melbourne’s many trendy alleys. The food was so nice and it was so good to catch up on all that had been happening in each others’ lives.

Thursday I had to make a fly by visit to Australia’s ‘bling’ city, Sydney. I woke at 4:45am, went to the airport, arrived in Sydney, took a taxi and wandered the streets until I found the building I was looking for. The building I was looking for contained the room where the PwC information session was to be held. I was invited to the information session so that I could learn about the company before the first interview. I got to the PwC concierge area at the exact stated time, got my name badge and waited around. As I looked around at the small group of other hopefuls I imagined I was in the movie ‘topgun’, except a geekier version where we battle with our knowledge of stochastic differential equations rather than with jet fighters, I wonder who is the best, I thought.

Unfortunately my fantasy was ended when a mass of people in suits flooded into the room. There must have been at least 200 of them and the information session was only for two departments of the company. We hoarded into the lifts and went up to a crowded function room where people in blue badges looked excited and hung on every word of the people in orange badges who looked bored. Blue badges were the hopeful applicants and orange badges were the workers. The girls wore lots of make up and short skirts and they batted their eyelids at the guys with orange badges. I spoke to a few workers from the actuarial department who, surprise surprise, were hanging together right at the back of the room. I was so exhausted and my eye was twitching because of this, so I am sure I wouldn’t have made a terrific impression, but not to worry.

After the session I walked up Market Street to St. James station and hopped on a train that took me to the airport. The one thing that Sydney has over Melbourne is that it has a quick, cheap and simple way of getting from the airport to the city. I must have looked like I knew what I was doing at the station, for a lady came up to me and asked me which train went to the airport. “Why I believe it is the next train,” I offered politely. To this she cracked a thankful smile, but before she opened her mouth to thank me, I added “But I am from out of town so I’m not certain.” Her smile turned into a frown and she walked away without another word.

I certainly slept well that night and woke up a bit before the brunch that my sister and I organised at our house. My parents went all out and covered our kitchen bench and dining table with platters and platters of tasty morsels. I picked one of my best mates up from the station, a man who we all call Harry, whose actual name is Chris. Chris and Irz would have to be my two closest mates, many call us the three stooges, but whatever we are named we have been the closest of friends since high school. Our friendship was formed by having to wait around for long periods of time after school each day and was maintained by our love of walking aimlessly whilst talking about the stupidest of topics. Unfortunately these days we all live in three different cities, but nevertheless if we happen to meet up, instead of being excited to see each other, we just walk and talk crap like we always do. Still, we all actually have a lot in common: We have terrible luck with women (well maybe not Chris, although I’m sure he’d say he does), we all think quite unconventionally, we love talking in stupid accents and hmmm… Actually maybe we don’t have that much in common, still though, we have a friendship that seems to be evergreen (*touch wood*).

I drove Harry back to our house and slowly the other guests started arriving. For most it was the first time that that had seen my house. While we stuffed our faces with the delicious food we all caught up, which was very nice. All in all the brunch went quite well despite the abundance of food that was left over. It really was a lovely way to spend a Friday morning and I was so glad that I could see so many of my old friends before going back to Canberra.

Unfortunately my time in Melbourne has to be cut short. I have to be in Sydney again on Wednesday, so I’ve got to leave Melbourne on Tuesday and drive back to Canberra. Oh well.

Until next time, Take care.