Fairytale turns into a reality show… poor Socceroos

I’m back in Melbourne and can’t believe how much has changed while I’ve been gone. It wouldn’t have been more than a month since I was away, but it is remarkable what has occurred during that short period. Apartment towers have been completed, shops have changed and they did something with the Sandridge Bridge over the Yarra. Incidentally the bridge looks absolutely horrible; a scar on the face of Southbank. I’m sure the government said that it was going to be a grand reconstruction: a giant Ferris wheel, a shopping strip, truly a world case development. What have they done though? They’ve stuck two bright yellow construction beams and laid some concrete and called it complete. The whole thing seems to have been completed in a hurry on a shoestring budget. I’m only hoping it is temporary. But all that aside, it is very nice to be back, albeit a little strange.

Melbourne, it seems, has totally succumbed to world cup fever. I’ve never seen so much excitement in the city before over a single sporting match, let alone one of soccer. Cars fly Socceroos banners, youths kick soccer balls in the street and little kids run around kicking coke bottles impersonating their Socceroo heroes, whose names they actually all know. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn I was in a city in Europe.

On that note, I did watch the match last night and although it was possibly one of the cruellest ways to exit the world cup, I was nevertheless proud of the team and proud to be Australian.

I had my final exam on the Friday morning and within 8 hours, I was out drinking and celebrating the end of exams. With a reasonable sized group of my friends, I headed out to dinner and then after pottering around Canberra for a little bit, we headed to our final destination: Academy nightclub. One of the Ministry of Sound DJ’s was mixing there that night, so it was a natural choice given that the end of exams and that event coincided.

I was feeling a little ill from the heavy meal, but after many drinks (too many) I felt far better and far looser. Soon enough, I joined the others on the dancefloor and jumped and bopped my pent up stress and frustration away to the techno beats of John Course. I had quite a night actually despite waking up the next day with ringing blocked ears, smelling of cigarette smoke and wondering how to apologise for some of the more questionable dancing I did with a friend in the heat of the moment. Still it is all part of the big night clubbing experience I guess.

By Sunday I was fully recovered and ready to drive down to Melbourne. Unlike normal, I thought I’d be a little more sociable this time and invite some people to take a lift down to Melbourne with me. I tried to pack lightly, but still ended up filling about three quarters of the boot. I just hoped that the girls would be far better at packing light than I was. They were… How embarrassing. Still, I was spending three weeks in Melbourne and they were only spending three days.

I really enjoyed the company even though it meant I couldn’t do my usual pretending to be a racing driver whilst singing along to Aladdin at the top of my voice. Dana and Teresa sat in the back and slept the whole way, but Mi’er stayed awake and we had an interesting chat on the way down. One good thing about the trip, was that I had the chance to visit Violet Town, since we were about to run out of petrol. I’d always wanted to pay that town a visit, since it shares the same name as the town where you start in Pokemon. As I’ve pointed out to many people before, I was into Pokemon before it was cool and was one of the first in Australia to play and get into the game on the ‘Gameboy’. The town although nothing like the pixilated version on the Gameboy, had a certain simple charm about it. There was a main street, along which, two pubs, a post office and a few other various stores were dotted either side. Unfortunately there was no petrol station and I was getting a little creeped out by the eerie nature of the town and Mi’er’s colourful ghost stories, so I did a U turn post haste got the heck out of there.

I was quite amazed that Mi’er was still awake after more than six hours in to the journey, but after finding petrol at Euroa, I cranked up the heat, which along with the dark starry sky created the perfect environment for sleep and she was soon out like a light. Heck, even I felt like sleeping… well not really, I feel a strong sense of responsibility when other people are in the car.

We eventually got to Melbourne and I dropped Dana and Teresa off at their hostel. I parked near crown and tried to find a good restaurant for Mi’er, but they all seemed to be closed, given that it was late on a Sunday night, so I just took her to a place in the casino. I reached home after midnight and didn’t get a chance to say hello to any of my family.

In the afternoon the next day, I met up with Mi’er and showed her around Carlton before heading back to the city for dinner. I got a call from Chris inviting us to watch the big match at a live site at Telstra Dome and so to fill in the time before the match, after dinner I took Mi’er to the Croft Institute. By the little twinkle in her eyes as we walked through the seedy ally, I could tell she would like it.

After an enjoyable drink, the time came to go to Telstra dome, so we hopped on a tram and walked over the bridge once we got to Spencer Street. The city had gone soccer mad, cars honked and yelled ‘Go Aussie’ as they passed, face painted youths draped in Australian flags walked and joked in upbeat fashion, groups of hardcore fans blew whistles and sung and guys kicked soccer balls to each other.

We dragged a few chairs in front of the big TV in the cozy Medallion club at Telstra dome and camped there until the game began. All was going quite well for the Socceroos and I was having quite an enjoyable time apart from having to listen to the insipid commentary of the ‘know it all’ guys behind me that felt compelled to share their opinions on ever aspect of the match. Perhaps even more interesting than watching the match, was observing Mi’er getting excited and nervous throughout. This is the English literature girl I mentioned last time who normally deplores sport of any kind. At times she was perched on the edge of her seat and flinched with every close shot on goal. She even declared that she would buy and wear a Socceroos jersey if Australia won, which was something I just had to see.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Despite growing hope and expectation throughout the match that it would go to extra time and Australia would have a fairly decent chance of winning, a dubious penalty call ultimately ended Australia’s world cup run in the last 10 seconds of play in heartbreaking fashion. The crowd dispersed quickly and quietly in a state of disbelief.

As I was walking Mi’er back to her hostel I came to realise two harsh things. Both the plucky Socceroos’ valiant quest and Mi’er’s brief foray into sport fanaticism were over. Darn, I so would have enjoyed seeing her in a Socceroos jersey.

After dropping her off, I realised it was about two and a half hours until the trains would run again. I decided to pointlessly walk back to Chris’ place, stay there for half an hour or so and then walk back to the station. It certainly was a long, cold lonely walk, but it gave me a lot of time to contemplate the semester just passed and everything that I had put off thinking about. Along the way I passed many glum faced football fans, who walked silently with their heads down in stark contrast to how they were behaving just three hours earlier. I noticed some had taken their anger out by knocking over wheelie bins. But for every 20 glum Aussie fans, there was a car full of screaming Italian fans. One car full of Italian girls yelled out to me as I crossed in front of them at the lights. Also, a drunken Italian guy rapped insulting lyrics at me as I walked past him with my head down. The rest of the walk was mostly uninteresting, except for a break dancing and rap contest I came across while cutting underneath Flinders St. station.

Chris said he would leave the door open for me, but when I got there it was locked. I reluctantly gave him a call and he came down bleary eyed, having just gotten out of bed. I felt so bad for waking him, I really should have just waited in a Maccas or something. Oh well. I had a brief nap on the sofa until 6am and then braved the cold once more to wait for a tram. By 8am I was home and fell asleep soon after my head hit the pillow.

I am so looking forward to spending three weeks resting and relaxing, doing whatever I feel like doing.

Until next time,

Take care.

Exams and World Cup amidst the Cold Canberra Winter

I have been sitting in my room at my desk for uncomfortably long periods since the start of the exam period. My world at the moment consists of my cramped little desk, books and notes, and the occasional trip down to the dining room hall to eat. This (and possibly tiredness and stress) has caused me to notice and be critical of things that I never would have before.

Right now I’m having a power struggle with the dust on my desk. It accumulates gradually in the background whilst you are going about your life until one day you are sitting at your cramped little desk and you notice that there is dust everywhere, centimetres thick. I haven’t succumbed to cleaning it away just yet, but I am observing it carefully. It seems to scrape away at my existence, seemingly declaring that no one is living here. But I am here, I am living and breathing every day at my cramped little desk, even if there is no proof.

As if to exert my existence upon my room, I now leave proof that I am alive: muddy shoes strewn haphazardly on the floor, scrunched up paper in my bin, empty cups of tea, anything that will prove to the room and me that I am here day after day at my cramped desk.

Phew… exams sure do make people act strangely. Why just the other day, I noticed that one of the most unlikely characters has been clenched by the iron grip of world cup fever, which is undoubtedly due to exams. She is a deep, complex, philosophical, introverted arts student with a real talent for understanding the significance of literature, who normally deplores sport and exercise, and yet just the other day I was amused to find that she has been watching the world cup.

While I’m on the world cup, I must talk about Australia’s exciting win over Japan. I’d spent the whole day at my cramped little desk and was studying up until a few minutes before the start of the match. Actually, I did manage to get away from my desk and play soccer for a little bit, which was much needed rest and exercise if such a combination exists. Anyway, I headed to the junior common room (JCR) where the match was being screened. Around 50 fellow residents were crammed around the big TV, with more streaming in by the minute. The match kicked off and the lights were turned off. It was quite amazing, the large group acted almost in unison; grunting, yelling and ‘ohhhh-ing’ simultaneously. Australia was doing quite well until a dreadful decision was made by the referee (who the commentators constantly referred to as the ‘Egyptian referee’ for some reason). Schwarzer, the Australian goal keeper went to catch a routine cross from a Japanese player, but as he did he was knocked off balance by a disgraceful tackle, which would have been better suited to a rugby field. The ball sailed into the open net and the goal was allowed. “That’s a foul!” The large mass of people screamed in unison. The Japanese fans and players on the TV didn’t care, they celebrated the disgraceful goal in an intolerable fashion.

In response Harry Kewell made an amazing run down the right wing and slammed the ball just over the crossbar. After that the Japanese seemed to get worse. Every time an Australian got close to a Japanese player, they would dive melodramatically like a puppet on a string. I know diving is somewhat embedded in modern soccer, but this was beyond ridiculous. Perhaps these were the teachings from their South American coach, for it certainly didn’t come from Japan; honour is so entwined with Japanese culture.

The Australian culture seemed reflected in the crowd in the JCR. Australians don’t like dishonesty and even more they hate whinging, overacting and faking, so understandably the crowd was getting very agitated when the Japanese players dived. But the players showed the Australian fighting spirit and never gave up, relentlessly attacking until finally Cahill scored after a nicely placed throw in. Oh gosh it was amazing. Every one of the 50 or so people jumped high in the air and screamed at the top of their lungs. We bounced, jumped and hugged each other. Apparently the joyous screams could be heard reverberating around the college.

When we all calmed down someone asked me what would happen if we drew, to which I replied, “Historically teams can go through on 4 points. So as long as we beat Croatia we should be fine.” But that was an unnecessary observation, for minutes later Australia struck another fine goal. Then minutes later they put another one in. By this stage we were all beyond ecstatic. Australia had won its first ever world cup match! I found it amazing that a single game of a sport which has largely been out of favour in this country could incite so much passion and joy. Long live the world cup!

I had two exams today, and gee it was cold this morning. Apparently it was negative 5 degrees and it certainly felt like it. The ground and cars were covered by thick white frost. I had to warm my hands up in reading time so that I could write properly when writing time came around. I looked at the forecast, and it seems negative temperatures during the night are here to stay. Brrr…

Oh, before I forget, I discovered the most amazing thing in an ‘Actuary’ magazine (yes they publish an actuarial magazine, pathetic I know…). There is a picture of an actuary in there who looks remarkably like Mr. Bean. People may think I look like Mr. Bean (I don’t see it personally), but this guy is a dead ringer! I aim to meet this guy and take a photo with him, just so I can show it to people who say I look like Mr. Bean. “Look, this guy looks like Mr. Bean, not me!” I’ll say after pulling out the photo and pointing persistently. It will be ever so grand.

I have one more exam to go and then freedom for a few weeks. I can’t wait!

Until next time,

Take care.

Exams looming
Understandably, since receiving the good news on Tuesday, I’ve been in a kind of daze, a sort of state of constant euphoria. Somehow though, I still can’t come to terms with the implications of the news; everything seems surreal. I get the feeling that everything good that has happened will fade away into nothingness as I regain consciousness as though from a pleasant dream. But it is real. Finally, the arduous, trialling graduate work application process is over and now I can return to Melbourne at the end of the year and do what I enjoy doing. I could almost weep with joy at how the whole thing has turned out.

I guess I put a bit too much pressure on myself, which I always tend to do, so at times I felt absolutely worthless and rejected and thought I’d never be able to get a job, I questioned what I was doing in Canberra, I questioned everything. Finally though, on my last chance, the final play, my fortunes turned around and I secured a job in the company that I most wanted to work for, located in the city I love. What an ending. And now that it’s over, my nerves are frayed, my heart is still racing and it doesn’t seem real.

I left off last time by mentioning that I was late to the final interview because of the fog in Melbourne. Although I was late, I had phoned a few hours earlier to explain my predicament and the people at AXA were very understanding. The interview seemed to go quite well. I had to present a 15 minute case study to a panel of four interviewers and then be questioned about it and then about myself in general, for the remainder of the hour. When it was over, I stepped out of the building and walked up Collins Street to Spencer St. station (I refuse to call it Southern Cross) and caught the train home.

I was so exhausted from the early wake up and all the dramas that occurred, so I just relaxed for the rest of the day. I strummed on my guitar, I watched ‘Frasier’ DVD’s and I wrote and it was all much needed relaxation. The next day I spent mostly with my family. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the Dandenongs and had a fun time bowling.

That night I met up with Sherly. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and Sherly was so worried or maybe just curious as to whether the food would be too spicy for me. I think she envisioned me having to go to hospital after the dinner because I couldn’t handle the spice. Truthfully though, I had such a lovely time at the dinner and found the food to be quite superb and not even that spicy. It was great catching up with Sherly again even though fortunately it hadn’t been that long since we had met up. She is certainly a girl that can always make me laugh and feel good about myself. She found it hilarious the large volume of water that I had consumed during the dinner despite insisting that I didn’t find it spicy. After the dinner we went for a walk and ended up sitting down in a quiet park off Lygon Street.

It was a beautiful night. The clouds rolled in through the cold night air, engulfing the city skyline in fog. Patches in the clouds above revealed a starry sky; sparkling diamonds on black velvet. We both just stared at the sky above becoming lost in our own thoughts. I silently hoped and prayed that I would get the job so that I could be back in Melbourne permanently.

Soon the time came for Sherly to meet up with Alfred to see X-men, so we left the park and walked to Melbourne Central. We met up with Alfred, who like Sherly and I, had a vaguely distracted look in his eyes caused by the knowledge of looming exams. Their movie was about to start so I said good bye and caught the train home.

On Monday I was supposed to hear of the decision made by AXA in regards to employing me, but when I finally received the phone call, I was told that a decision hadn’t been made, as neither of my referees had been contactable during the day. So, early on Tuesday morning I went and chased up and prodded my referees and soon after I received the phone call informing me that I had been offered a position.

I could barely concentrate for the rest of the day. After calming down, I went to buy champagne to celebrate. That evening I took Caz to a nice restaurant in Manuka (Canberra’s most sophisticated and trendy suburb) to celebrate. The dinner was very enjoyable, but bitter-sweet when I realised that I would rarely see her again once I moved to Melbourne. When we got back I thought I’d invite my friends over to share the news and the champagne. Caz told me that she had to get ready and that she’d meet me in 10 minutes in my room and then we’d go around and tell people.

Stupidly it didn’t click why she had said this, until I heard whispering outside my door. Oh that’s what she was doing, I instantly thought to myself, she has organised a surprise congratulations gathering. In that moment I was surprised though and thought that would be the best time to open the door and act surprised. “Congratulations!” The sizeable group yelled out, and perhaps I did actually look surprised.

The cork popped open and effervescent liquid flowed joyously into glasses. Our glasses clinked and we all took a sip of the champagne. In that moment though, it wasn’t just my Canberra friends that were in the room, it was all of my friends all sharing the happy moment.

Sadly, I think it is inevitable that friends at times have to say goodbye to each other and live great distances apart. However, I think if the memories and bonds of friendships are strong enough, it is possible to always feel that your friends are close by. And that is exactly how I felt that night. I know next year I am going to miss my Canberra friends immensely, but the good times we have shared will remain in my heart always and will mean that they are never far away. Besides, I intend to visit Canberra every so often.

That is a long way away yet, I still have a long way to go and still have a large amount of time to share with my friends in Canberra, so there is no point thinking about it yet. Right now, I no longer have time to contemplate all of the implications of my new job, I have to get into exam mode and study study study.

Until next time,

Take care.