... 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!