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 ...