After weeks of doing nothing but work, work, work, John and I have finally developed enough friendships to have a semblance of a social life! This makes living a city life much more bearable. I met friends through my work, one of the supervisors of the restaurant I worked at but no longer do (more on that in a minute), named Vince--know is actually Kiwi though, another girl named Kate--who is also Kiwi (notice a trend?), and John's colleagues as well. Turns out Vince used to work at John's current establishment and still knows lots of staff so we've all found our selves having a cheap drink on their patio on a few occasions. We've also re-connected with our American friend Mark, who we met in NZ and who now lives in Melbourne. Went out to have a drink and watch the tennis finals.
So yeah, it's been good striking a balance between work and having an actual life. John and I have managed to get out and about on our days off. About a month ago we took a nice day trip to one of the beaches right outside the city called Williamstown Beach. We made a homemade french-toast casserole that morning, thanks to Paula Dean. Then it was off for the day! It was a nice, small beach and we went on a day that wasn't too hot or cold. We brought our own picnic lunch--homemade chicken salad sandwiches, a towel, and a crossword puzzle book! The water was a bit too cold to swim in, but it was a nice relaxing day--just what we needed!
We ended the day going to see a movie in the evening--the new Sherlock Holmes. Though, if you don't go on a Tuesday here when movie tickets are half the price then you end up paying an arm and a leg! $44 for two movie tickets! Insane! Luckily the movie was really good but we vowed to never pay that much for a movie ticket again.
Then the other day we were fortunate to spend a nice relaxing day walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens here in Melbourne. It was a lovely, (FREE), way to spend the day and the garden are actually quite nice. It was also nice to take a break from my usual day wear of black business pants and a business shirt that I have to wear to work all the time. But yes, we enjoyed seeing that side of Melbourne and it made me enjoy the city much more.
We've also discovered the touristy fun that is night feeding the possums that live in Flagstaff Park right down the road from us. We went with two bananas and at one point were surrounded by at least 5 possums! They were hoping up on our legs like dogs! It was super touristy, but also really fun. We got some video on John's phone--I'll try to post it later.
We also managed on Valentine's Day (besides being underwhelmed, once again, by the supposed amazing hospitality culture of Melbourne for our V-Day dinner), we took a trip to the zoo! My zoo! Where we get in fo' free!
It was actually a really nice day, warm and sunny, but not too crowded as all the kids are back in school, so we got to enjoy the animals without all the big crowds. I actually hadn't been through the Zoo yet, even though I've worked there for three months, so it was nice to finally explore it! I really enjoyed the butterfly house where you get to walk through a greenhouse full of butterflies--one even landed on John's head!
My other favorite was the gorillas and orangoutangs. We got to see the feeding time for the Silverback Gorillas, and at one point the big dude, and I mean BIG, came right up to the window and sat and struck pose for us. I don't know if the picture does it justice, but the guy is massive!
The other really neat part was when we went to see the orangoutangs. There was a baby one who was really cute and swinging around everywhere, but there was also another one hanging out on an indoor jungle gym thing and one of he nearby Zoo keepers told me to put my purse on this stool and start to rifle through it. So i did just that, which piqued the attention of the orangutan, who came right over and pressed her face to the glass and watched as I put on lipstick, chopstick, brushed my hair, drew a picture. All the while the sides of it's mouth turned upwards in to a smile! The keeper said it was learned to smile from mimicking humans and enjoys looking through purses. It was so cool!
All in all, a good day at the Zoo!
But yes, the other big change is that I left one of my two jobs. I still work at the Zoo part time, which I really enjoy, and John is still working full time at his restaurant where, naturally, he has become a valued employee. But there is only so much stupidity and bad management one person can take before they decide it's no longer worth it. So my friend Vince and I both left that job and I am now employed under the same company as John working on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant! Yes, you heard me, a traveling restaurant on a tramcar! It's actually really neat and a nice change to what I was doing before. Plus, it's managed WAY better.
So yes, things are looking up for us! We recently purchased our tickets to New Zealand for our 10-day holiday to attend our friend's wedding and we are super excited to go back!
Hopefully soon we will be enjoying a bit more of Australia and hope to do a wine tour in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
