An Eedjit Abroad..

Oh
Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!!!

It's been a while since we last spoke. Times are changin,' things are different, lifestyles are unrecognisable but I'm still blogging!

So when I last left you I was making the trip from Singapore to start some sort of new life in Melbourne for an undetermined amount of time, with no contacts, just enough money and no idea what the hell was gonna happen next. Well I landed in Melbourne on the first day and the first thing that hit me: frickin freezin!! My balls, that had been hanging loose and sweating uncontrollably for the last 6 months shot up inside me like a started hamster into it's tube (might as well start the blog as we mean to go on)..

I got settled into a Hostel on Fitzroy street in St Kilda and immediately couldn't wait to get out. Not because the people weren't nice or that it wasn't a nice hostel but cos I wanted to relax. I can't describe how drained I was from the trip I had no adrenaline whatsoever and would sleep for 14 hours at a time for nearly a whole week. Having said that, I got drunk on my first night there, losing a drinking game to a Frenchman and drinking nearly a whole box of Goon (Shit wine).

However, within the first two weeks I had managed to find a house to live for a few weeks, a temporary job and had done a successful gig. The land of opportunity was delivering on its promise..

So I moved in with two lovely English girls in St Kilda (aka little Ireland which I'll get to later) and began my job. My job was an Outbound Call Centre, the only consolable thing about it was that it was a regular wage and not commission based sales which I had heard so many horror stories about. It was ringing Shareholders in companies and giving them information on new board proposals and then taking a survey. Not so bad? Do it 200 times a day reading from the same script.. your brain will go numb! But hey it was good money and was paying the bills (and for the alcohol)

I made friends relatively quickly with people. I made friends with Dan on the bus from the airport! The majority of people I know are English and Irish. It's quite hard to not hang out in groups of English & Irish people for a number of reasons, mainly because you make friends through who you work and live with. But one thing that really struck me about St Kilda was the amount of Irish people around. Holy Crap!!  Is there anyone left at home seriously it's like every second accent is a backpacker: weird! I reckon there's Irish people in St Kilda who don't even know they're in a different country. They just got fucked one night and woke up here and just carried on.. Anyway, I made good mates in the block I was living and then through my job I met my friend Aisling who introduced me to and brought together the lads I hang out with now. Aisling (Dublin), Tracy (Dublin), Andy (Dublin), Pete, Jack and Jenna (Harrogate, Yorkshire) and Tom and Roisin (Cambridge) make up the Motley Crue! Good times are had by all!

So from St Kilda I moved to a different suburb called Brighton for a month or so living in a sweet apartment with Kim and Ishmael. Ishmael is the best Bridge player in the world no joke and him and Kim ran a Bridge club. Kim had lots of cool/weird stories about Bridge players!

From Brighton I moved to where I am now in Windsor. I now have a really sweet apartment just off Chapel Street which is a really great street filled with bars, restaurants and shops. I'm only 3 minutes away from the train station to get the 10 minute journey into the city and 5 minutes to our local that does happy hour drinks at $3 a schooner..happy days! Also living with an Ozzie bloke who's sound..

I've been out of work for a while now. The calling job lasted about 4 weeks. But at the beginning of December I secured a job working in Customer Service for an energy company.. Starting January 3rd it's much longer term than the last job and I can't wait to get back to work, earn some money and have a routine again. Weird how you crave those things after being living in la la land for so long..

So, that's all the boring stuff outta the way. So what you really wanna know is; what's it like?

Well I have to say Melbourne is an awesome city. There's loads to do, great nightlife, good comedy scene, beaches, awesome public transport and all in a culturally diverse, liberal place to live. Melbourne was voted the most liveable city in the world recently and I can see why.

What fun things have I done since I've been here? Well a lot of them can't be repeated on this Blog but a few activities have been:

1. The Aquarium
Melbourne aquarium was actually quite cool. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Afterwards we went for a drink in Bony Fish Island which is a cool bar that's literally on the river- it's attached to the support leg of a bridge.. followed by McDonald's..

Penguins!!

There was a queue of kids waiting to get their photo taken in this

Watch out Steve Irwin :)

Me, Tom & Roisin at Bony Fish Island

2. The Zoo
We had a great day at the Zoo. Loads of Animals. Followed by drinks in the Belgian Beer Gardens.

Grrr...

Me and Tracy riding...

She'll get up on anything

Petting a Kangaroo

Belgian Beer Gardens

3. The Beach
About once a week we'll have an impromptu beach day. Just chiilin and nillin on the beach with a Guitar and wine. Very civilised

Pizza on the Beach

Suncream anyone?

No idea either...

BOOM

Sunset good Times

Sunset at the Beach

Oh yeah....

Sweeet..

4. Spanish Festival
The Spanish festival in Richmond was awesome. There was a street of stalls serving Spanish food and Drink. There was a stage with dancing and music and then we went for a drink in a bar there and there was a Spanish band with Spanish guitar players. Man they know how to play music..

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Comedy is going well. I've done quite a few sweet gigs. The clubs though are in high demand so spots are limited and you have to fight for them. A lot of the clubs weren't booking this side of Christmas but I was lucky to get a number of cancellation spots. I will be doing a joint show with my mate Johnny P at the festival this year. That will be a gig every day for 4 weeks at the end of March through April. Venue and all is set. Just have to get people through the door now... Can't wait!

Live at the Exford Hotel

Plans for the new year:
1. Comedy Festival
2. Australian Open Tennis
3. Australian Grand Prix
4. I will have money again so expect to hit more of Melbourne's live music venues
5 Couple of music fests

So all in all life is sweet. Starting good work, got a gaff, got great mates, getting gigs and living the life. It took a bit of work to get set up but there wasn't any points where I thought I couldn't do it...

A Merry Christmas to all my blog readers and a Happy New Year. Thanks for being with me every step of the way for the best year of my life so far..

Here's to a happy and prosperous 2012