Today is the day!! After six weeks of waiting, we finally have (drumroll, please...) Internets! And yes, I am going to pretend that a lack of Internets at home is the reason I have sucked at keeping up my blog, even though I have the Blogger app on my phone.

{Note: the photos are all from Port Melbourne. I work down there on the weekends and it's pretty fancy. Can't complain about taking my lunch break by the beach!}

Probably the real reason I haven't been updating is that I have been journalling and Instagramming  away and that has been meeting my need for expostulation and validation from the general public. Also, let's not forget that I was never very consistent about posting before the move.

But I've missed reading other people's blogs. I have a feed set up through Blogger that makes it easy to read all the many blogs I like, but you can't access the feed through the mobile app. So I'd have to go individually to everyone's blogs and it's making me tired just thinking about it.

So, what have I been up to?

• Working! I transferred with my retail job (I think I said that already), but I have to leave them in two weeks because I can't work for any one employer longer than six months. I'm a bit relieved, though, because they've been running me ragged! Ack! I need a break! But I'm glad to have been busy for the first couple months in a new town, because I think I might have felt a lot lonelier and more displaced if I hadn't been.
• Applying for a PhD! Er, what?? Yes, that's right. I've had no luck applying for jobs in Melbourne. No interviews whatsoever. I don't know if this is because my visa is expiring so soon, or because the competition is so much higher here, or both, or what. And then this PhD was being advertised, and I was like, "Nah, it's only for permanent residents and I can't afford to study anymore." Hugh told me to take a day to sit and write what I'm passionate about and what I really could envision myself doing, and I realised I'm really interested in health literacy and education. So I searched for a short course that would teach me a bit about health promotion, even though health promotion isn't quite what I'm interested in. Then this same PhD advertisement came up again, and I re-read it, and realised it was exactly what I'd written that I wanted to do. More or less. So Hugh told me to contact them and have a chat about it with someone, which I did. She said that it would be fully funded, even for an international student, if I can prove that I'm an exceptional candidate. I'm not sure if I am, but it's worth a shot, eh? I mean, it's free to apply!
• I did get a lovely email today from my concerned father, saying, essentially, "WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY YOU OWE THE U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR YOUR MASTER'S DEGREE?!" Thanks, Dad, I had forgotten about the $75,000 debt looming over my head. How should I fix this? Oh yes, dump my boyfriend and move back to Seattle, where I can live at home while I choose between all the thousands of juicy public health jobs that are currently on offer in this stronger-than-ever economy.
• One of these days, when both of us have a day off, we're going to "register our relationship" at city hall. It's like announcing that you're "In a relationship" on Facebook, but loads more official. It's something that's only offered in certain states, including Victoria but not including South Australia. And it may allow us to waive the "living together for 12 months" requirement for a de facto partner visa. So although my current visa expires at the end of June, at which point we will have been living together exactly 12 months, I may be able to file my application sooner. This would be good for my stress levels.

I think that's about it for the mo'. I should really get back to writing an exceptional proposal so I can get funding...

More drawrings

Ages ago, Jody sent me a postcard from Loosiana. It had an alligator on it and inspired me to draw the picture below.

I'm quite pleased with it, to be honest. Not too bad, even if I did need to google pictures of alligators. Also, I think it's clever of me, but SOMEbody who shall remain nameless but happens to be Australian didn't get it. He was like, "It seems like it's saying it wants to eat me." Yes, Einstein, that was the point!

Jody appreciated it. That's all that matters.

Then the other day, I wrote a letter to Jocky and decided to try decorating the envelope. There's an adorable photo on Pinterest of a kitten in a bow-tie, so I tried to copy it. The result is not displeasing, I think.

Easter fun times

When I lived on London, every once in a while I would stop and think, "Holy crap, I love in London! This is awesome! I'm awesome!"

I realised the other day that I haven't had a single moment like that in the nine months I've lived in Australia, despite Australia seeming to be so much more exotic and cool. I've had moments where I marvelled at the fact that I'm in a real relationship, with someone awesome, and I've marvelled at the soft sand beaches, but even in Melbourne, I don't feel like I've achieved something big by living here.

But it's early days. I'm still recovering from the move and settling into this vibrant new city, finding my place in it. I'll get there.

I've been working lots, but got a few days break at Easter. Easter is a big deal here. Not like, people talking about Jesus or rushing to church, but it's a four day weekend for lots of people. I was surprised to learn that pretty much everything was shut on Good Friday, including my store. The rest of the retail world and I had to work on New Year's Day, but Good Friday is off limits to retail. And it's a bigger deal here than Easter itself. Hugh pointed out that the important bit was that Jesus died. The rising again on the third day was a bonus. He has a point...

Anyway, I didn't have to work the Friday, Sunday, or Monday, so instead, I decided to get a urinary tract infection that traveled up to my right kidney! Woo hoo! I had no idea UTIs were so painful! Holy crap, I now feel suitably sorry for anyone who gets them frequently. Yeesh. Thank The Lord for antibiotics and painkillers.

Photos: I wasn't too sick to buy a new teapot. Ain't it perdy? And pretty fabric for new tea towels. Jody and Amy sent me birthday presents! Yay, Redneck Life!!

New Books!

Pops and Michele got me an Amazon gift card for Christmas, and I finally spent it. After extensive research, I got 1,2,3 Sew! Each pattern builds on techniques used in the previous ones, and the patterns look like things I might actually make for the house. I'll tackle clothing at a much later date, I think.

On a whim, I also purchased the Meet Me At Mikes craft journal. I wasn't sure what the inside would be like, but I was really pleasantly surprised. I love it! I've really enjoyed using it so far, though I have have a few things in there at the mo'. I was thinking the week before it arrived that I need a vision board with organisational bits where I can write down what I want to make and when I need to do it by, and the craft journal comes with a huge poster with prompts for all that! It's grrrreat!

Part 2 of our Big Journey

When we got back to Adelaide after dropping our stuff in Melbourne, we spent the night at Hugh's parents' and returned the moving truck the next morning. Rather than relax at that point, we bundled back into Hugh's car and drove nearly two hours to his parents' holiday home in Port Vincent. The house is really sweet and we finally took some time to lounge around and be lazy. The town is tiny! It's not particularly charming, but makes a good holiday town (the only real requirements for that being beach and accommodation). We had schnitzel dinner at the local pub then walked along the beach as the sun set.

The next morning, Hugh's dad took us for breakfast in a neighbouring town, then took us to see some emus that live nearby. Emus have such intense stares, but they're still totally comical. I quite like looking at them and chuckling to myself.

I decided to explore the shopping opportunities when we got back. Hugh's dad mentioned the church op shop (that's short for "opportunity shop", which for some reason is what they call second-hand shops). I checked it out and found a bundle of goodies for just $3! Then I wandered to the beach, assuming there'd be some beachy, surfy shops. There weren't. On my way back to the main drag, though, I stumbled upon a fabric store with yarn at half price! I bought two pretty skeins of strawberries and cream-coloured wool for $5.

I couldn't wait to get started knitting the new stuff, but my needles were in Melbourne, so I improvised with coloured pencils. It mostly worked!

We rested for that one day, then we got back on the road on Sunday to return to Adelaide. On Monday, we were off to Melbourne via the coastal route and the Great Ocean Road.

Adelaide Festival

My friend, Kimberly, invited us to the opening night free concert for the Adelaide Festival (not to be confused with the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which started a couple weeks earlier). It was held in Elder Park, next to the Festival Theatre. Two artists, Adelaide-born Paul Kelly and Kiwi Neil Finn of Crowded House fame, joined up to play each other's songs. They had done a similar concert in Sydney that cost $125 and completely sold out. Apparently, they're both kind of a big deal, but I'd never heard of 'em. The music was great, though, so I kind of wish I had. They were kind of like Paul Simon, sort of folky and rocky. Hugh even sang along to some of the songs (I love it when he sings, even though he is tragically tone deaf).

Someone's trying to send us a message

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago, but I found it pretty humorous. I got home from work one day to find this poor guy. My first thought was that, obviously, one of the neighbours is angry with us for some reason. I was imagining Godfather scenarios. Hugh thinks the poor thing probably flew into our screen door by accident. Hard to say.

Are dead birds on your doorstep good luck or bad luck?

UK tax return

The day before we left Adelaide, I FINALLY received my UK tax return! I had told Hugh I would never get anything back from them, but he assured me I was just being a negative nancy. We submitted our paperwork in August and Hugh received a check in September, but I still hadn't heard a peep in January. I took it as a sign that I was right, but Hugh talked me into calling them to chase it up. They told me they'd sent a check last June, three months after my UK visa expired, to my UK address. Dummies. Anyway, she told me she'd cancel that check and have a new one sent to Australia.

I still harboured doubts that it would ever show up, and if it did show up, it would surely only be a couple hundred pounds. But as usual, Hugh was right. It did come, and is for £1180. Not too shabby! I'm going to have to set it aside so I don't spend it. It can go towards our US trip in October!

On the move

We have been on the move for almost a week now. We left Adelaide late Tuesday afternoon, drive until about midnight, and spent the night in Ararat (no sign of Noah's ark). We arrived in Melbourne the next day just before noon, travelled across town by tram to pick up the keys from the real estate agent, then spent about 4 hours unloading the truck and taking everything up to our second floor apartment in small elevator-sized loads.

I'll post about the new place when we've settled in a bit. We've hardly spent any time there! We discovered that we were supposed to contact the energy company ourselves to set up electricity, which we hadn't done, so we had no power. Oops. When it got dark, we headed into town to meet up with a couple Edinburgh friends who moved to Melbourne three weeks ago. Hugh used to work with both of them, and they started dating right at the same time we did, so it was really nice to catch up over drinks.

We returned to our power-less flat well after midnight, crashed out, and got straight back on the road to return to Adelaide. This time, we made the journey in one day and arrived back in town a bit after sunset. We spent the night at Hugh's parents', and on Friday, instead of relaxing and catching our breath, we got back on the road to head to the holiday home in Port Vincent!

Hugh gets a driving break today, but then it's back to Adelaide tomoz, then back to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road on Monday. We'll probably take three days to get back, and then Hugh has two days of first aid training! Busy busy busy, he is. But we'll have the weekend to "relax" (I.e. arrange furniture, unpack boxes, etc) before he starts the new job.

Moving in progress

Sorry I have not posted. I have no excuse whatsoever.

But look! We are moving! How exciting! We pick up the rental truck tomorrow and will drive part of the way in the evening. It's about 8 hours to Melbourne normally. The plan is to get there Wednesday noonish, pick up keys, unload the truck in a hurried manner, spend the night in the new place, then drive back slowly to Adelaide. Why drive back? Because it costs $560 to rent a truck from Adelaide for four days and return it to Adelaide, but $1600 to rent it for two days and leave it in Melbourne. They even had a Melbourne truck that needed to be returned to Melbourne, but that was still gonna cost us $1100. How does that make any sense?

So yeah, we'll be back in Radelaide next weekend. Which is actually handy, because then we can drive Hugh's car over to Melbs and I don't have to drive! Result!

Now, back to work, lazy bones.