Hi this is, …, well never mind.

How I wish life would always be that simple. In fact, this whole adventure being officially entitled 'working holiday', I felt like the holiday part was lacking a bit. So I quit my job. Very simple indeed. It was more on a whim that I did this, but I must say I am incredibly relieved I've only got one final week left at my job.

Working in a call centre is a good lesson on how to completely hate your life within two weeks. Overall I will have done this jobs for six weeks in the end, which I reckon is an achievement already. A necessary achievement, just to get the cash flowing a bit. Just to release me from my current exchange rate trauma. It's not just the sitting in a noisy, terribly crowded call centre, it's more the nature of cold calling itself. Why on earth would I want to call people that I don't even know and that are likely to either hang up on or yell at me, and endeavour to sell them electricity? Well, I eventually found out that I really don't want to. Simple as that. But trust me, by know I know all about the Australian electricity market. Well, everything about the Victorian market. There's differences to the New South Wales market, because the deregulation is a lot more recent there up north. I could ramble on for hours. How sad is that. I can name meter types, I can explain the difference between a single, a two, and a type of use rate plan, I can name all competitors in the market, I can explain customers the difference between a network and a retailer, I can talk about hydro electric power plants, I can have a decent chat about how great my company is, and why patriotic people should support Aussie owned retailers. Yet again, how incredibly sad it is to have all that valuable brain capacity wasted on retaining these useless facts. And I know it will stick with me forever. In all eternity. I will never forget it, and from now on each time I will walk past an electricity meter I will be able to identify it as a dial, a digital or a smart one.

Sometimes funny things happen though. People tend to be subject to a complete lack of inhibitions when they talk to sales people on the phone. One lady tried to convert me to Mormonism the other day, and recommended me that in case I should ever happen to be looking for the right way in life I should give it a try. Another customer seemed pretty happy about my call and let me know how glad he was that finally a real Aussie was ringing him up. When I told him that I was in fact German, he told me that Germans are still better than bloody Indians, which resulted in subsequent bashing of the latter. Somehow you could tell he didn't really appreciate Indians. I think people who work there long enough could actually write books about it, sell them and become incredibly rich. It's sheer madness. But madness that will make one appreciate any other job opportunity there might be in future. For now I'm unemployed again. Who cares. I for one don't. I've just decided to temporarily exclude the working, and focus more on the holiday part. Easy.

Apart from that nothing much has been going on over here. I'm impressed with how fast one can actually be tangled up in an ordinary everyday life again. Although I'm still exploring the city. I still love it here, this city is the coolest ever. Take for example all the free stuff that's on. Just a couple of nights ago I went to a free concert given by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Picknicking in the middle of the city, listening to excellent music, enjoying life. What better thing could there be. Or the other day there was free music and dancing in Fitzroy Gardens. There's always heaps of festivals and fairs you can go to, one can enjoy a very artsy and alternative life style here.

Oh! And may I proudly share this with you: I was recently told by a bunch of locals that I've got an Aussie accent. It's incredibly far from being perfect, but I'm getting there. Goodbye US, welcome OZ!

I know heaps of you guys would rather like to see some pictures at this stage, but I have to disappoint you for now. I simply haven't had the time yet to take some decent ones of Melbourne. The only day I would have actually had the chance I realized that I had forgotten my memory card. I hope to post some pictures soon. I might get some good material tomorrow, will be going on the Great Ocean Road. (And here's another reason as to why I haven't updated this blog lately. Internet costs money. Money requires employment. Quitting usually excludes employment by default.)

And thanks to all of you for reading my blog. This site has been getting a humongous lot of hits recently...

Cheers for now!