Changes in November

Well, it´s now December and I wonder where did the time go ... one more month to go of 2010.

On the way to work one morning - clear blue sky and rowers along the Yarra

In the beginning of November I had the privilege to baby sit the Swedish kids in South Yarra again ... had so much fun. Reading bedtime stories can be challenging I promise :).

First weekend of November I had my last guest staying at my place by the Swedish Church, Lovisa came from NZ over the weekend, she left for Tassie on Sunday. We had a fun time, chilling, city window shopping, went to a birthday party in Brighton and had many good laughs and delicious food and drinks. On Sunday after Lovisa left I took off with the kids to Werribee and had a wonderful and playful day with them ... thank you Savanha and Oden!

Me and Lovisa on the train to Brighton

Second week meant that I had to move out from the church, Tuesday the 9th was the big moving day ... I moved in to the church with 3 bags and I left the place with 10 pieces of bags (I didn´t pack so good so maybe I could have less). Anyway, this made me realise that I have so much stuff and I don´t even have any furniture. Had help of Gunnar from the church to drive all my stuff to the new place in Windsor (between St Kilda and Prahran). Now I'm sharing a 4 room apartment with an Aussie girl (Sylvia) and a Greek guy (Chris) - they are a couple and an Irish girl (Ruth). I have my own room, small and enough for me with lots of sun light. It´s a quite place and I´ve been here now for 3 weeks. I must admit I miss the privacy I had in my own apartment before ... oh, well ...time to get used to this new life! Change is good ... and changes to take time to adapt to :)

Old room view


Old kitchen view

I´ve been running, on and off, had a running race Nov 20, Corporate Games where I participated and run for IBM. Run 10k in probably the slowest time ever, 54 minutes and I wasn´t happy about the time. No excuses but the course was so boring and no people were cheering ... I know by now that I´m only good when I´ve the people energy around me :)


Farewell dinner at the church for Martina


Me and Martina, the "husmor" at the Swedish Church untill Dec 15, then she leaves back to Sweden :(

Went to my first house-warming party in Melbourne where the theme was Toorak (it's a fancy suburb in Melbourne, I stayed there for 5 months haha) ... so everybody was dressed up in fancy and posh clothes. Had a good time and I even danced at the party hihi :)

The climbing is still on, at least once a week with the enthusiastic climbing group (Dev, Mick, Nadia, me, Adrian, Devo), been climbing with Nadia twice - she's such a good and inspiring climbing partner and she's tough, pushing herself up the 19 wall like it was an easy 16 :).

Last weekend of November, I went to MUMC's (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) Christmas party outside the city, to Kangaroo Ground, around 45 minutes drive. Had a wonderful time playing indoor games since the weather was rainy and stormy. Went kayaking on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon on the Yarra river, Ben and Helen were the leaders and they had a short intro to the basic things in kayaking for the 8 of us. Had to make a push-out from the kayak, Ben turned me upside down, I did get out ... hurt my knees in the quick push. During the Saturday kayaking I was the spinning queen on the Yarra, since I couldn't manage to paddle straight, was spinning all the time. On Sunday I did much better, practice is good ... had a turn in a steep water fall and I managed to come up quickly and was holding very strong to the paddle and the kayak. When Helen said to let go of the kayak I had to ask her twice that is was OK to let go :). I like kayaking, will definitely do it again. On Sunday morning we had to move the cows from one side of the farm to the other ... new and close encounter, fun thing to do.

View from the house


Me gambling, did win once in poker during the evening hihi


When the shower inside didn´t work this was handy after the kayaking:)


Cows and calves, 20 of each, we had to count them before the gate

Ah and yes, ... finally on the last day of November, I bought new running shoes since my old ones can't be used more (been in the dirty Yarra river when kayaking) and the big holes in the shoes didn't look pretty either. Hopefully the new runners will help to run in a good time on my last running race in 2010, on Dec 5 in St Kilda (Sussan Women's Fun Run = 10k).

My new Brook´s runners

At the moment I'm looking forward to know whether I'm staying in Australia on a business visa or not ... looks like yes for maybe 50%. The process of staying is long and there is a lot of paper work that awaits me ... but I think it'll be worth it :). I like Australia and I do want to stay here ... and like my mother tolled me when I left Sweden - 'you'll be stuck there Ingrid' - now I'll have to tell her that she was so right haha. So yep, looking forward to know, looking forward some love and things to do too ...

Long and quick October

Hey ... another month is gone ...

First weekend I took off to the Arapiles with MUMC (Melbourne Uni Mountaineering Club) and learned the skills of trad climbing, which means climbing and putting in gear for your own safety. We were a group of 10 people, different ages and nationalities with 3 skilled climbing instructors. Had a fun and challenging weekend, even if the climbing was easy, the trad climbing takes so much more time compared to indoors lead climbing and sports climbing. Here is me putting in a nut, a very focused Ingrid on a grade 10 wall :) ... which is a new beginner wall.



Now you see me better, my belayer Daniel below me.



Second weekend in Melbourne I had only one thing in my head ... the Melbourne Half Marathon on 10/10/10 :). The race was on Sunday morning, starting at 8am, so yep I had to get up early, by 5.45 for a quick and easy breakfast. The running went all good, the race was boring with almost no people cheering along the streets, I was bored and so I ran quickly, the quickest half marathon this far. Run into the MCG and passed the finish line in 1 hour 55 minutes and 6 seconds (compared to the Stockholm Half Marathon last year, 1:58:34).






A happy and very proud me inside the MCG with the medal :)

Third weekend was meant to be a Grampians hiking/climbing weekend but because the weather was bad the trip was canceled. Melbourne is a good city for rainy free days. Went to the Melbourne Museum, saw the "Hubble 3D" movie at the IMAX theater, had a nice tea pot on Lygon Street (which is the café and restaurant place close to the city, where almost everybody speaks Greek or Italian).
On Sunday the 17th of October I went to see and hear a spring concert at the Swedish Church ... the theme was "Home longing" or just simply "Home sickness" ... and yep, I got really home sick, longed home for probably the first time in 9 months. The music was beautiful and I had goose bums many times :)

Fourth weekend I took off from the city - this time to the Grampians for hiking and climbing. Stayed 2 nights at Troopers Creek, climbing and hiking the first day and the last day just climbing. The funniest thing during Saturday was that the climbing up the 3 pitches wall took less time than the hiking dowm to the camp sites :). Got lost on the way down and we had to go up again and find the walking track.


Just a tent view in the morning :), Joey with its kangaroo mum




Battle ships in the Grampians?


After the second pitch, up on grade 10, just climb following

Last and fifth weekend in October was meant to be the most challenging hike in my life with MUMC, but the weather was not on our side again. The plan was to do the Cross Cut Saw in the Victorian Alps, a circuit hike for 4 days in steep and challenging cliff scrambling. The rain didn´t stop us ... we took off for hiking on the Great Ocean Walk, 2 days of hiking was the plan. First night the rain was poring down and the wind was strong, had an easy walking from Aire River Camp site to Johanna Beach, 13km with some amazing views. The challenge came when we had to cross Johanna River, just close to the camp site. We crossed the river in groups of 3, holding hands with ocean waves coming from the left and the river speeding into the ocean from the right. All 6 of us made it safe over the river! We were very happy later :)
This was the angry river and ocean crossing ... doesn´t look so scary from above, but trust me it was a quick and deep river... see pic below!




We did have a vampire with us ... not me, even if I´m borne in Transylvania, wasn´t me, Helen dressed up since it was Halloween haha :)

We did see the most touristic place along Great Ocean Road - The 12 Apostles, well there are only 6 remaining now

4 of us, me, Sean, Helen and Vincent by the apostles on the last hike day

Work is still on, have another 3 months to go to the end of January, all good at work! I´m a SPOC now (single point of contact) for all contractor and fix term hire conversions, nice! More things to do and I enjoy being busy at work. Had a girls night out with the girls from work one evening after work, went for a pizza dinner + movie, saw "Eat Pray Love" with Julia Roberts, a girl chic film, very beautiful sceneries ... I'm already longing for Asia next year!
We had so say goodbye to Janet, a contractor who started in July together with me ... sad to say goodbye to her. Hope she´s enjoying fruit picking up in Queensland or NT!

Me and Janet on her last day @ IBM

I did something that I´m really proud of this month ... I donated blood for the very first time and not the last one I think. Since I had bad experience from my last time in Sweden I wanted to re-try. The nurse was kind and she understood me and put a cover over the blood bag and I didn´t have to see my own blood. Lost 0.5 litres in 10 minutes and I was happy and dizy at the same time. Will have to wait 4 weeks for the results and to know which blood type I´m. Exiting!

At the moment I´m looking for a new place to stay in, have to move out from the church apartment on the 9th of November :(

... thoughts after 8 months in Australia

The cat (as I call it, but not everyone thinks this resembles a cat) - by Yarra River in Melbourne

Hey all,

I thought that I would share some things after my now 8 month long stay in Aussie, mostly in Melbourne ...

- Aussie as a country is easy to live in, people are nice and especially
the ones in Melbourne are much nicer than the Sydney people :), the laid back style is something I like and getting used to now.

- Weather and the changing seasons is obvious, can't even compare to the cold and dark winters in Sweden to the winter down in Melbourne, with 10 degrees in July it's winter time here and people are putting on clothes as if it were -20, looks funny to me. The Melbourne weather can be summed-up by this quote by Kerry Greenwood - who´s an Australian author " ... if you don´t like it, just wait half an hour and it changes" :)

- Riding a bike (push bike) to work isn't so common here, my colleagues are still saying that I'm brave and such a good sport girl who takes the bike to work every day, even in rain! To me it's just normal, nothing out of the ordinary since I'm always on the bike home in Lund as well :).

- The working hours here in Australia are between 9 to 5 and not 8 to 5 as in Sweden, almost everybody finishes after 5pm and most of my managers are working from home in the evenings and weekends. Working part time is quite common as well, especially if you have a family since the child care in Australia is expensive and bad.

- Saying good bye to someone - "see you later" - I'm still getting comfortable with saying this, when I reply back "maybe I'll see you" I can get a strange look :), why can't people just say 'see you' or just 'good bye'?

- All the signs in traffic and in the streets or along a path are so ridiculously funny - for instance if there are 3 men working on a bridge repair the sign below them will say "Caution, Working men above" . I'm collecting funny signs from Australia since I came in February, have some good ones .. how about this one?



This a common sign along Great Ocean Road, there are many tourists driving here and accidents do happen.

- Bike trails are not so common, the one I use every day along the river Yarra is a good one since it's separated from the cars. The common sense in traffic when there is a bike among the cars is non-existent, the cars don't even bother to slow down and let you pass or if you're in the way trying to cross over, they just horn on you and scare the shit of you. I think I'm going to be an aggressive biker when I go back to Sweden after my Melbournian bike-experience. Oh, one more thing about bikes ... when you´re passing somebody on the bike track you´re supposed to say "passing" or "on your right". I´m still getting annoyed when somebody is passing me, I don´t like to be a slow bike rider and still don´t like the "passing" word. Will have to accept this I think!

- The Aussie slang isn't so difficult, I'm used to the most common words by now, "barbie, brekkie, fair dinkum, no worries, see you later, hey mate, see you in a soup, she'll be apples" and many more. I'm learning new words every day and I've put up a long list on my wall at home so I can practise them. My favourite word at work is 'due diligence' (meaning: investigation of business/person before signing a contract) - it's a such a beautiful word I think.

- The food shopping is something I really enjoy here, there is so much to choose from, too many options of food, so many brands and the quality differs from product to product. I think the food prices are quite high, well ... when I payed 5 dollars for a kilo of apples I thought that this would probably cost me 2 dollars in Sweden. It´s strange, I still think of the Swedish prices here, 5 AUD is nearly 35 SEK. The bananas are very expensive at the moment, 3 dollars, that´s just ridicolous ... but I still buy them because I love bananas!

Will come back with some more reflexions after my year in Australia when I´ve seen and experienced more!
Spring is here now, spring is from September to November ... a bit strange but very okey for me :)

Adventurous September

The Staircase down from Mt Bogong in the Victorian Alps, where are the stairs?


Hey ...

Yep, this month have been a bit adventurous in Melbourne and the
surroundings of the big city...



I've been baby sitting the 3 Swedish/Aussie kids in South Yarra, Phillip 2, Joanna 5 and Freya 7 years old. I'm always having such a good time while I'm playing and reading them bedtime stories. Last time I even had the privilege to bath them all, 2 in the bathtub and one in the shower ... funny kids. When I had all 3 kids packed like small sardines in Joanna's bed I had a very content smile on my face and read them all a beautiful story in Swedish/English.

Climbing skills are now improving, after an indoor lead course I took one weekend where I had to fall, I learned that it's good to fall as you climb. Now I'm less scared to fall, which is good. Met some new climbing people who I now go climbing with on Thursday evenings @ the HardRock in the city.

Running 2-3 times a week is something I've been doing now for a while ... so I decided to sign up for the Melbourne Half Marathon in October, which will go on the 10-10-10 :). Exiting to run my 3rd half marathon, will see if I can beat my time from Stockholm last year.

Salsa dancing has been off my list in September, don't know why, just don't have time to go out dancing like I used to before. Went dancing with Sara to Ormond Hall on the 11th of September, which goes once a month. Had a good time and was dancing non-stop for almost 3 hours ... so I still have the rhythm in me and I still prefer Cuban salsa, yep :)



After being in Australia for 7 months I just had to go and see a footy
game, Australian Football League, AFL, so I went and saw St Kilda playing against Western Bulldogs on the big MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) during the final series of AFL. I did my home work so I knew the rules, enjoyed the game and I was cheering for the Saints = St Kilda. They wan after a psychological tough 2 bad quarters and the bulldogs were defeated. The Saints will be meeting the Magpies (Collingwood) in the Grand Final. Go Saints ...!


At the big MCG - Melbourne Cricket Ground

The Saints won!

On the early Sunday morning of the 19th of September I went with MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) to Mount Alexander (should be named Hill Alexander since it's only 750m over sea level) and climbed there during the day. Found it difficult, hard climbing but fun at the same time. Didn't do any leading, just top rope climbing.


Sean on the way down!

Adventure came on the last weekend in September when I went with MUMC, a group of 10, to Mount Bogong for a leadership skills weekend. The supposed leader turned up sick by the club rooms on Friday when we took off from Melbourne so there was no leadership training involved ... had a very good time anyway with the devoted hikers on the way up and down the mountain in the Victorian Alps. On Saturday we took the 4km straight up spur track to Mt Bogong via Mitchell's hut where we stopped for a lunch break and than after some discussions left 2 members of the group behind us, since they were too slow and would not make it to the next hut in time. The 8 of us
took off, 4 with snow shoes and 4 without, in the hard wind and 5 meters visibility to go up to Cleve Cole hut. Took us 3 hours to get there and I've never been happier in my life when I did see the hut clearing up in front of me. The hut was worth the hard hike in the wind, it was warm inside with an open fire and nice people greeted
us there. Slept like a princess after dinner on a comfy mattress in my warm
sleeping bag! On the clear blue sky of Sunday morning began the hike down the mountain, with a short adventure to a water fall in the area ... went up to the summit of Mt Bogong where I climbed up to the top top, 1986 meters over sea level - was on the same level as the clouds :). Took the Staircase down, slided in the snow on the way down, had lunch by Biviac hut, dinner with the whole troop at Ovens pub in Oven and was home in Melbourne by midnight! What a weekend!


Waterfall-Ingrid, easy climb down and hard one up to the top.


The whole troup by Cleve Cole hut on Mt Bogong :) From the left: Mitchell, Emma, Yassi, Alistair, Heather, me, Tanya and Jess, two missing on pic, Ellen and Steve who we left behind at Mitchells hut


Me on top of the top of Mount Bogong, 1986m!

Last day in September I attended a traditional Swedish pea soup dinner with pancakes and punsch at the Swedish Church, felt like being home in Lund again :). Was happy to walk home the barely 100 meters to my bed :)

Well, and on top of all the things I've been doing this month - I've been working too, all good at work, enjoying the speed and learning, will be a SPOC from next week, single point of contact, for all the contractors conversions, nice :).

At the moment I'm without a flight ticket in Australia since I've cancelled and sold my flight ticket to Singapore... the plan was to stay in Aussie for 7 months, changed my mind since I'm the manager of this trip and now I'm staying for one year to the end of my visa :).

Over and out for September!

Busy August

Another month is gone and time is really going so fast down here in Melbourne, don't know why the time is just flying away ... been away from Sweden for more than 7 months now.

Sydney - Harbour Bridge from Neutral Bay

First week of August was exiting, not so much because of work, all good there, but because I flew up to Sydney on Friday the 6th of August, took a day off from work and had a long weekend up in the big city. The most exiting part was the running race "City2Surf" which is the biggest race in the world, counted by the amount of participants - over 80 000 people completed the race on Sunday the 8th of August and I was one of them too :). The run was 14km, not too bad (the most common comment in Australia haha) and I had a fun time running with the big crowd. The famous Heartbreak Hill wasn't that terrible, just a bit, my legs were fine - specially after the free 15 min leg massage on Bondi Beach.

Yep - happy me after the race (girl from Melbourne took the photo, small world :)

In Sydney I stayed at a Russian guy's place, in Neutral Bay, 2 nights of couch surfing (actually sleeping on his spare big mattress on the floor). Alexander was a nice guy, who also did the run on Sunday morning, and his apartment had the most amazing bay view ... look at this view :)

If I could pick and choose a spot like this in world, so close to the water, no cars and no other noises ... I could definitely live here!

On Saturday I did a long walking hike from Neutral Bay to Manly, don't know how long it was, but the weather was gorgeous with clear blue sky and quite warm as well and I couldn't resist the long walk :). Good to see Manly again, got all nostalgic and I went up/climbed up to North Head to my favourite spot by the rocks looking down on Manly and the ocean ... left my heart in Manly ...


Met up with Grant in the evening and we had a delicious dinner in the city, close to the Circular Quay. Good time and good company :-)

On Sunday after the run the most weirdest thing happened to me, a really catch 22 in Sydney :) - the short version; my phone died after the race, the flight was delayed by 2 hours and I had to wait at the airport for almost 4 hours, my iPod died at the airport, had no book to read and on top of all this I lost my ear plugs so I couldn't manage to sleep on the flight back to Melbourne ... what a day ... will never forget this day for sure! Funny story for the future!

The following 3 weeks in Melbourne were full of job, running, baby sitting 3 kids (Freya 7 years, Joanna 5 years and Phillip 2 years) to a Swedish/Aussie married couple in South Yarra, went to see Los Van Van (the famous Cuban salsa band), met some new friends through CouchSurfing at a cool music party in Malvern, saw the penguins on the St Kilda pier, biked home from work one Friday and the police was looking for somebody along the river (felt like being in a movie with a chopper hovering over my head), attended a dance workshop in the city and learned new moves (Zouk, Broadway Jazz and Bollywood Dance) .... will soon sign up for a Zouk class :) and maybe even perform with the class in November.

On the weekend of 20 to 22 August I went up with MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) to Mount Feathertop, which is Victoria's second-highest mountain. The hut was up on 1625m, and we (37 of us) did the annual Midnight Ascent which practically meant walking in the dark up to the top of the hut. My walking group did the steep 6.5km to the hut in 4 hours and 20 minutes :), good time considering the other groups of 5 and 6 hours each. It was a cold weekend and wet one too, lots of snow and phenomenal good food on Saturday evening. My most memorable thing from the mountain was the leech (blodigel) I had on my cheek ... take a look at this ... no worries, I did survive but I was a bit scared I must admit :).

Leech was killed with lots of salt and buried in the cold snow!











On the last Sunday of the month I went out to Werribee to see my "Swedish family" and to say hi to them all. I was happy to see them and the kids, Savanha and Oden, 6 and 4 years old. We went for a bike tour down the Werribee river and the kids got tired of biking after 2 hours and I ended up caring two bikes and walking with two tired kids along the bike track :), that was tough, fun and I must have look quite funny too :) On the way home I got the best comment in my life, from Oden: "You're pretty Ingrid" ... I smiled and asked what he had said but he got all embarrassed about it and didn't want to say it again, boys haha :) ... kids are the honest small persons in the world and it feels so good to have the privilege to be around them and be in the present time with them and not analyse life to much. Thank you S, O, Sue, Rudolf and Ida for a lovely Sunday!

Oden with his bike

Savanha with her flowers on top of her head