Footy Premiership Game

Not much happened this week beyond the usual boring work, laundry, shopping stuff, we all have to do to live. The exception being this last Saturday was the championship game of Footy. Think of it as the superbowl of Australian Rules Football. Something like 14 of the 16 teams are from Victoria. So it’s HUGE here in Melbourne. All week long it’s all people talked about. There was office gambling (you know I got in on that!), debates over who will win, and even the Crown Casino had set up a big enclosed outdoor stage and large screen TV for it’s elite club members to watch the game in style from. I had to walk past it every day, twice. Saturday morning before the big game people we’re milling about getting ready for the game to start at 2:30. Someone in my building was decorating the door to their apartment with the team colours. Blue and white for the Geelong Wildcats. Yellow and Green for the Hawthorne Hawks. Geelong being the highly favoured team winning 52 of their 57 matches this year. I went to the gym that morning, before the game. While getting my cardio in, I noticed everyone walking into the grocery store below my gym was coming out with either ice, beer or both! Parties were set up all over the city. Every pub in town, house parties, and public open spaces all had gotten ready for the throngs of people. Plus the more than 1000,000 people crammed into the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, where the game took place. I missed the first half of the game but did make it to Federation Square (Pioneer Square of Melbourne) for the second half (4-20 minutes quarters). The place was packed. Surprisingly this square was an alcohol free zone, unless you were in one of the restaurants around the edge. Which were all gated off and I was told at capacity even though there was open seating and more room than in the courtyard area. Coke Zero sponsored the event so there was free soda, meat pies and merchandise for those interested. I walked around a little to get some pictures from different angles. Then settled into a nice spot along the wall in the shade. They only have SPF 30 sunscreen here and my SPF 50 is running low. I’ve loaded some pictures and videos for you to get the feel of the event. The event even came complete with fire works at 9pm. Which I watched from the balcony of the place I'm staying now.

I’m sure you’re all dying to know who actually won the game. Well, it was the Hawthorne Hawks, of Tasmania, beating the local favourites. The winning team came down to Feds Square after the game. (I was long gone) Then they went to the casino for a banquet dinner. Drunken people were everywhere that evening. Out of 20,000 cars (according to the news the next day) stopped and tested for DUI only 2 people where arrested. Melbourne and all of Australia are very conscientious about responsible drinking. So all the drunken people were walking about, riding the trains or trams, and using the thousands of cabbie here. So just strolling around that evening was very entertaining, from my sober perspective.
Well then next blog update I hope to do will be after I move into my new flat with Michael on the 8th of October.

I need to say HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY to Ed Sharick. His big day is October 7th.

PS please go to my websites if you can, I need some hits from within the states PLEASE.

http://www.shopcheaperhere.com/ , and http://www.koistores.com/

The final seconds of the footy match, I'm way up to the left in the photo above when I took this video, in the shade.

I have found a place to live

Friends,
Another week has passed in the land down under. The most exciting thing to happen to me was I have found a place to live!!! Michael and I move in to our new apartment on Wednesday October 8th.

The formal address is 7/109 Westbury St, St Kilda East, Victoria 3183.

7 is the apartment number, 109 is the street number, St Kilda East is the suburb and 3183 is the postal code. It’s located about 10 minutes by train to my office and the central business district. It is close to the beach. I spent most of Saturday wandering around the area just to get familiar with the shops and people. There are 4 $1 style stores, several pharmacies (Chemists), a Safeway and a Coles for groceries, several fresh butchers, fresh seafood shops, plenty of restaurants and bars for entertainment. Of course I found the liquor store too. One of the shops I found is this one pictured. Chickbits! they sell only chicken. Whole, raw, cooked or in bits what ever you want. Top quality stuff too! I assume. The sign made me laugh and I saw a big pile in parts of a chicken I haven't seen in a long time. So I was a little scared to go in the shop just yet.

Most districts here have a vibrant sidewalk seating area. Great for people watching and enjoying the fresh air. It’s about a 10 minute walk down to Luna Park and the beach. Luna Park is a small amusement park with an old wooden roller coaster and other kiddie style rides. It’s located right on the beach and in the more affluent district of St Kilda. I had dinner last night, in this area, with a new friend, Tony Wilson. We met on a gay apartment sharing website. It didn’t work that we should live together but he’s a nice guy and we’ve become friends. There was lots of stuff going on all around us. People, trains, cars, and a deafening sound of lorikeets in the palm trees. Not to mention the men strutting thier stuff. I'm sure there were girls too. But I didn't notice them.....People are very fashion and health conscious. So you can imagine everyone looks oh so pretty.

On another note I bought a bed this weekend. I found a wholesale furniture shop and found a nice mission style double bed with a pillow top mattress for a mere $620 AU ($515 US). I’ll be picking it up on the 8th when we have a rental van to move our stuff. Currently I’ve been sleeping on a futon in the shared place I have now. By the kindness of my new room mates, but it’s not very comfortable and I’m looking forward to something to call my own again.

Band practice went well they have a concert coming up on November 1st. There are 10 pieces the group is playing. I have hopes of learning 3. A piano Concerto by Stratochofsky. (or something like that) A piece I’ve heard many times called Typewriter, but I can’t place it. I think it’s from a musical? Then another piece called Misty that is very slow only 70 beats a minute. Some of the other selections are Peter and the Wolf, a swing song form the 1940’s called American Patrol, A Ray Charles piece and some others I can’t recall at the moment. Many of these other musical scores have several speed changes and intricate timing. So I’ll be happy if I can play the 3 easier ones I mentioned and pipe up for a few notes here and there. The MRB (Melbourne Rainbow Band) is planning a road trip to a town about 2.5 hours north of here to participate in a rural gay group event day in a few weeks. It’s a bus trip full of queens with a few wine shops on the way back. So it sounds like a fun day.

I have started back at the gym. 3 nights a week with weights and 30 minutes of cardio on a seated bike (so not to hurt my back too much). Then a long 8km walk on one weekend day is helping. I've lost the 4+ lbs (2 kilos) I gained since my back went out in March. On one of my walks I watch this tourist helicopter take off from it's perch on the Yarra river. It was neat to see it right in the middle of town. Leaving from a grassy area and going straight up with trains, buildings and people all around.

As part of my errands on the weekends, I noticed something several weeks ago I've been wanting to share with you. When you go into a store that has shopping carts they are all chained together. Which at first I just thought was a way to transport a group of them easily and some employee forgot to remove the chain. but when I tried to take a cart I couldn't disconnect the chain. Luckily some Australia noticed the dumb American was having trouble and filled me in on the proper way to dislodge a single cart from this long line of chained carts. You have to put a $1 coin into the slot and then you are able to removed the red keyed chained on the other side. You do get your dollar back when you return the cart to the line and place the key back in. It pushes your dollar back out and you take it and go home. Now it makes me wonder if I was homeless and really wanted a shopping cart to store my life's belongings in, a $1 is a deal! For some reason you don't see homeless people pushing around shopping carts.

I have started to plan a couple little excursions to national parks. Something I’ve wanted to do since arriving, but let’s face it finding a place to live was more important. So the first weekend in November! ( I know, November already! Yeah it’ll be warm here) is Melbourne Cup weekend. It’s a 4 day weekend for a big horse race where the locals dress up in their Sunday best and get drunk at the track. I plan to leave the city and take a loop trip in south western Victoria going to the famed PORTLAND Victoria at the end of the Great Ocean Drive and then heading north to the Grampians Nation Park. This is only a 3 hour drive from the city. So in 4 days I should have plenty of time to see the country side. I’ll pack my camping gear and my sax and hit the road. I have another more exciting trip planned for the 2 week Christmas break, it requires a 4x4 and a ferry trip, but you’ll have to read future blogs to see what that’s all about.

Until next time friends.....

PS: Happy 40th!!!! Birthday on the 23rd for Melissa Adams and Happy 15th Birthday for my niece Erica on the 22rd.

The apartment search goes on.....and on and on.....

Friends,

It's been a week or so since I updated the blog. Life has been full of little episodes. for example, Sprint billing me for another month's phone charge of $80, back in Portland. When I put the account on hold and should have only been billed $12. Or URS saying they wouldn't extend my stay at the hotel and having 4 days to find some other living arrangements, unless I want to pay the $160 (AU dollars) a night. Little things that suck at first, then a few hours later they're solved. But some episodes don't solve so easily. Try paying a US credit card with Australian money. Now that's a true pain in the ass! (It can't be done on line) This obstacle has taken many many phone calls to Bank of America, Chase Platinum and ANZ (my bank here) with the best solution, so far, being to mail a check to Phyllis and having her deposit it in my checking account in Portland. Paying a 3% international exchange fee and losing 20% since the Australian dollar is now only at 80 cents to the American dollar. Which reminds me I need to give Phyllis HUGE HUGE THANKS! with out her helping me from Portland all of these trials would have been astronomically huge pain in the ass! So THANK YOU Phyllis! You are a life saver and I owe you big time for all your help!

Otherwise life has been good. I spend my days doing the same things you do. Going to work, running errands, hitting the gym, taking long walks around huge parks in the city and playing my sax with the Melbourne Rainbow Band (which I'm really enjoying. We have a band camping coming up and a recital on November 1st) OK maybe a few of them you don't get to do. But that's what make each of our lives unique.

Now back to the topic that titles this blog...... Apartment Hunting!

Micheal (my hopefully, new room mate at some point) and I have spent the last several Saturdays and one evening a week going to viewings, inspections as they're called here, of apartments. It's kind of like Russian roulette. Some times you hope the gun doesn't have a bullet, some times you just pray it does so it'll all be over! There are typically 10 to 20 and once for a not so stunning apartment there must have been 40 people waiting for the rental agent to arrive for an apartment that's only open for 15 minutes. A 2 bedroom, 1 bath, where the kitchen and living room are in the same room goes for about $1400 to $1600 a month. Now there are cheaper ones, but it's a building that's 50 to 70 years old and the fixtures are too, or so tiny it's more like a dog house, or on a street so busy you can't hear yourself think, or in an area that has no public transit.

In defense of Melbourne's rental scene. Michael and I have been fairly selective. We don't want an apartment on the 3rd floor. They don't have lifts (elevators) and I'm not hoofing my crap up several flights of stairs every time I come home. Most places don't have air conditioning either and since it's already 70 degrees during the day. We are still technically in winter. I don't want to think of living on the 3rd floor or higher. We want a place with a balcony so we can go outside for fresh air. We want a place with a dishwasher and a washing machine. (dryers are uncommon, because let's face it Australia is a big desert), a place that has some class (because let's face it we're not 21 and we are gay!). 3 weeks ago we found a place put in an application on Monday morning. Tuesday we were told we had the place. Wednesday we were told someone else had the place and on Saturday we looked at the same apartment again. Only for it to be given to someone else. The next week we applied for a place that was over $1600 a month, were told we had it on Tuesday. I liked it more than Michael, but we decided we both had to want it. Besides it was too far from public transit and too expensive so we turned it down. Now in hind sight that place is looking good. Which brings us to this last weekend. We found the perfect apartment. The right location, a classy place, a great balcony overlooking a decent street, for $1550 a month. So on Monday we put in our application. Tuesday we were told another person was willing to pay $1575 a month. We said we'd pay $1580 a month. Only for us to be told we weren't selected.

That's the point at which URS said, oh no buddy, we're not paying the bill after your 1 month is up. Which started this weeks frantic search for some place to live. What I have come up with is a place for $220 a week. Where I can stay until October 6th, maybe the 7th, without signing a lease. Not a bad place. it's on the 20th floor of a 21 story high rise about 4 blocks from were I am now and at the west end of the casino. (I live and work at the east end of the casino) Now here's the catch. It's a 3 bedroom place with a Indian couple and a Canadian couple, that's maybe 800 square feet total. I get to share a bathroom with the Canadians and a used futon to sleep on. While it's not my ideal arrangement it is better than the back packer hostels, the office or paying the bill at my current location. So I'm going to make lemonade out of my lemons and play my sax in forte. Forte is either Italian or French, sorry Meg (my Portland instructor) I don't remember, for really loud! Michael and I are heading out again tomorrow to look at more places and hopefully find the one. I don't want to do this temporary thing again so we might have to settle a little more than we'd hoped.

At my new temporary place I'm not sure if I'll have an Internet connection and for now I'd rather not be updating my blog at the office. I'm fairly busy at work and by the time 5pm comes along, I'm ready to go. My friends back at URS Portland know me well and my true nature is starting to come out (that's a joke, I'm coming out! I want the world to know! You've got to let it show!) a little more. I'm starting to lose my political correctness. It might have come when my boss told me I was doing a great job and I was exceeding his expectations. So I think that allowed me to let guard down a little bit more. I hope to keep updating this once a week and will do my best. For now take care my friends, know that I am well and want you all to come visit!

Brian