Bottom Right Corner

I should be sleeping right now, though I can't. Maybe it's because I was just browsing good old Google maps and it oh so suddenly occurred to me how far away I am from home. What distance lies between me and my comfort zone. Maybe it's because at this particular moment I'm realizing that I am at the end of the world.


After 22 days of official unemployment (yes I've been down here way longer, but that bit in December was just my residual leave), I've started a job on Monday. It's a part time role, 20 hours a week, just what I was looking for. The work itself is the most classy, cliche and actually one of the most disliked on this planet, and the majority of people I am going to deal with will either swear at me, laugh at me or be terribly annoyed with me. You may now take an educated guess as to who I am and what I am doing. I must admit, after a couple of awesome weeks of travelling and doing nothing much, having to work again came a bit as a shock to my system, and the more so I am happy to have rested a bit from my strenuous life today... Today's Australia Day. Vast accumulations of bogans in the city, wearing singlets and having their bodies proudly covered with temporary Australian flag tattoos. Australia is a great country, yes I agree. But what I could observe today was just overdone. Way off. Maybe this is done, because usually very few people outside of Australia take notice of this country. Although it's a mega huge continent that actually can't be overlooked. But then yet again, it's on the bottom right corner of every single (normal) world map, it's never on the news, and nothing that would be considered as being of global importance seems to happen here. Who wouldn't be distracted by Europe and the Americas? Maybe it's this bottom-right-corner complex (can I trademark this?!) that makes Aussies go off like this on a day like this. If there's just enough people out saying how great Australia is, it has to be great after all. You wouldn't believe what was going on in Melbourne today.


Speaking of Melbourne. I got here three weeks ago. The way I traveled down here was a wee bit exhausting, it was a 24 hour road trip from Brisbane. Shared driving, but we drove straight through. I now know why there's heaps of signs along the outback route warning of driving whilst being brutally deprived of sleep. And in this context, may I remark that I actually ran over a kangaroo on the freeway at 2am. Trust me, the car needed a really good wash afterwards. (Here's to all you animal lovers: I didn't actually kill it, it was already dead) Yum!


I'm in the middle of finally getting a bit settled right now, I've found a wonderful congregation, I'm slowly but surely getting familiar with the city, still struggling with public transportation though (It's so confusing!) I haven't really found the time yet to take some decent pictures, but will do... This city is amazing, and I can fully understand why it was rated #1 of the world's most livable cities in 2011. I will definitely have to write more about its artsy, alternative flair at a later stage. 


Still loving it!